Glossary of Radio Astronomy Terms

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Glossary of Radio Astronomy Terms

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Pulsar:

A neutron star that emits regular pulses of light towards Earth.

Protoplanetary Disk:

The swirling disk of dust and gas that collapsed from a much larger cloud of material that will eventually evolve into a fully fledged planetary system. Features in the disk may already herald the presence of young planets.

Parallax:

The apparent change in an object’s location due to the change in position of the observer. Astronomical parallax is measured in seconds of arc.

Parsec:

A unit of length that looks at the distance between earth and objects outside of our solar system. One parsec is equivalent to 3.26 light-years, or nineteen trillion miles.

Peculiar Galaxy:

A galaxy that has distorted features and does not fit completely into a normal galaxy category.

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