Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Nome nōm [key], city (1990 pop. 3,500), W Alaska, on the southern side of Seward Peninsula, on Norton Sound; founded c.1898, when gold was discovered on the beach there. It is the commercial, governm...

(Encyclopedia) O'Faoláin, Seán shôn ōfălˈən [key], 1900–1991, Irish writer. The relation of the individual to society was often the theme of his novels and stories. He frequently wrote about Ireland, analyz...

(Encyclopedia) Mauldin, Bill (William Henry Mauldin), 1921–2003, American cartoonist, b. Mountain Park, N.Mex. During World War II, in which he served as an infantryman-cartoonist in Italy, France, and Germany, Ma...

(Encyclopedia) Bode, Johann Elert yōˈhän āˈlĕrt bōˈdə [key], 1747–1826, German astronomer. From 1772 to 1825 he was astronomer of the Academy of Science, Berlin, and from 1786, director of the Berlin Obse...

(Encyclopedia) airglow, faint diffuse illumination of the sky originating in the upper atmosphere. Although it occurs at all times of day throughout the upper atmosphere, it is most typically visible to an observer ...

(Encyclopedia) anomalistic year ənŏmˌəlĭsˈtĭk [key], time required for the earth to go from the perihelion point once around the sun and back to the perihelion point. It is 365 days, 6 hr, 13 min, 53.0 sec of...

(Encyclopedia) sky, apparent dome over the earth, background of the clouds, sun, moon, and stars. The blue color of the clear daytime sky results from the selective scattering of light rays by the minute particles o...

(Encyclopedia) Sorabji, Cornelia sōräbˈjē [key], c.1870–1954, Indian lawyer and author. She took a law degree at Oxford in 1893. She served (1904–23) as a special legal adviser to the Court of Wards of Benga...

(Encyclopedia) Ra rā [key], in Egyptian religion, sun god, one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. Ra was chief of the cosmic deities and was sometimes called the creator and father of all things. Early Eg...

(Encyclopedia) trickster, a mythic figure common among Native North Americans, South Americans, and Africans. Usually male but occasionally female or disguised in female form, he is notorious for exaggerated biologi...