Crossword clues for photosphere
photosphere
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Photosphere \Pho"to*sphere\, n. [Photo- + sphere.] A sphere of light; esp., the luminous envelope of the sun.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1660s, "orb of light," from photo- + -sphere. Astronomical sense is from 1848.
Wiktionary
n. (context astronomy English) A visible surface layer of a star, and especially that of a sun.
WordNet
n. the intensely luminous surface of a star (especially the sun)
Wikipedia
[[ diagram.svg|thumb|250px| The structure of the Sun, a G-type star:
valign=top | 1. Core
2. Radiation zone
3. Convection zone
4. Photosphere
5. Chromosphere
valign=top | 6. Corona
7. Sunspot
8. Granules
9. Prominence
X. Solar wind
]]
The photosphere is a star's outer shell from which light is radiated. The term itself is derived from Ancient Greek roots, φῶς, φωτός/phos, photos meaning "light" and σφαῖρα/sphaira meaning "sphere", in reference to the fact that it is a spherical surface that is perceived to emit light. It extends into a star's surface until the plasma becomes opaque, equivalent to an optical depth of approximately 2/3. In other words, a photosphere is the deepest region of a luminous object, usually a star, that is transparent to photons of certain wavelengths.
Usage examples of "photosphere".
Had the ship been other than an engineless wreck, falling through a hundred and fifty million miles of emptiness into the flaming photosphere of a sun, everything would have seemed quite normal, including the errand Baird and Diane were upon, and the fact that they held hands self-consciously as they went about it.
The photosphere was the outermost layer of the sun except for the chromosphere, and was dominated by granular cells.
She was deep within the Sun's convective zone, the broad mantle of turbulent material beneath the glowing photosphere.
The radiative zone was a ball of plasma which occupied eighty percent of the Sun's diameter—with the fusing core itself buried deep within—and the convective zone was a comparatively thin layer above the plasma, with the photosphere a crust at the boundary of space.
The waves were trapped in the convective layer, reflected from the vacuum beyond the photosphere and bent away from the core by the increasing sound speed in the interior.
Above the convective zone lies the visible surface of the sun, the photosphere, the source of sunlight and sunspots.
Worse, the heat radiated from a sun's photosphere varies not as the square or cube, but as the fourth power of its absolute temperature.
Worse, the heat radiated from a sun's photosphere varies not as the square or cube, but as the fourth power of its absolute temperaturë.
On her view-screens Helene could see the pulsing granulation cells of the photosphere, and the Big Spot, now bigger than ever.
Researchers in the photosphere of the sun disappeared before they knew anything had failed, as did others working in magma chambers.
To be entirely accurate, my orbit will swing me past Delas first, and will only take me into the photosphere of the local star, but I fully expect that the temperatures there will exceed even the melting point of my endurachrome hull, and that my internals will be melted into scrap long before that.
No unexplained patterns in the photospheres of any of the several billion stars he was able to examine in detail, no radiation coming in to any of his sensors that wasn’t explained by the brute force of natural processes.
Chondrites are similar in composition to the photospheres of their parent stars, except in iron content.
The blaster is a simple weapon, just a small T-gate linked (via another pair of T-gates acting as a valve) to an endpoint orbiting in the photosphere of a supergiant star.
Overhead the herd of toruses stretched toward the ominous wall of the photosphere.