Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Small Magellanic Cloud: see Magellanic Clouds. ...

(Encyclopedia) red lead, bright red to orange-red powder, also called minium, that is used in the manufacture of storage batteries, lead glass, and red pigments; a paint made with red lead is commonly used to protec...

(Encyclopedia) Red Cross, international organization concerned with the alleviation of human suffering and the promotion of public health; the world-recognized symbols of mercy and absolute neutrality are the Red Cr...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Red (Walter Wellesley Smith), 1905–82, American sportswriter, b. Green Bay, Wis., grad. Notre Dame, 1927. After working on newspapers in St. Louis and Philadelphia, he began a syndicated colu...

(Encyclopedia) red bug, name for various red insects or arachnids. Chief among them are the cotton stainer of the S United States, which pierces the seeds of the cotton plant and discolors the fibers, and the larva ...

(Encyclopedia) red shift or redshift, in astronomy, the systematic displacement of individual lines in the spectrum of a celestial object toward the red, or longer wavelength, end of the visible spectrum. The effect...

(Encyclopedia) red giant, star that is relatively cool but very luminous because of its great size. All normal stars are expected to pass eventually through a red-giant phase as a consequence of stellar evolution. A...

(Encyclopedia) Red Sea, ancient Sinus Arabicus or Erythraean Sea, narrow sea, c.170,000 sq mi (440,300 sq km), c.1,450 mi (2,330 km) long and up to 225 mi ...

(Encyclopedia) Red Wing, city (1990 pop. 15,134), seat of Goodhue co., SE Minn., on the Mississippi River at the head of Lake Pepin; inc. 1857. It is a commercial and manufacturing center in the Hiawatha valley farm...

(Encyclopedia) New Red Sandstone, name for the thick red layer of the Triassic formation in Great Britain (see Triassic period). It is many thousands of feet thick and is composed chiefly of red sandstones, clays, a...