UNIVERSEH: The European Space University

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus#/media/File:Nikolaus_Kopernikus.jpg Author : Unknown Year: (n.d.) Title: Nicolaus Copernicus Description: Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus Retrieved Date: May 29, 2023, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikolaus_Kopernikus.jpg

Definitions

Short Definition
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer and mathematician of the Renaissance era. Copernicus proposed the theory of heliocentrism, which stated that the Sun was at the centre of the solar system. 

Detailed Definition
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) was a renowned astronomer, economist, physician and mathematician of the Renaissance era. 
Copernicus is most famous for his theory of heliocentrism, which challenged the prevailing belief at the time that the Earth was the centre of the universe. Copernicus contradicted the idea that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the centre of the solar system, and that the planets orbited the Sun in circular orbits. Copernicus' revolutionary idea was expressed in his book, which laid the foundation for the scientific revolution that further development into modern astronomy.

Etymology
The name "Kopernik" is thought to be derived from the Old Slavic word "kopr," which means "dill." 

Sample Sentence(s) 

1. Before Nicolaus Copernicus published his heliocentric theory, people generally agreed that the Moon and the Sun orbited the motionless Earth and that Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were beyond the Sun in that order.

Author : Britannica Year: (n.d.) Title: Nicolaus Copernicus Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved Date: May 29, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus

2. As I gazed up at the glittering constellations of stars, I couldn't help but think of the groundbreaking astronomer, Copernicus, who revolutionised our understanding of the universe with his heliocentric theory.

Translations of Terms/Concepts into Partner Languages

French
Nicolas Copernic

German
Nikolaus Kopernikus

Italian
Niccolò Copernico

Polish
Mikołaj Kopernik

Swedish
Nicolaus Copernicus

Additional Translations of Terms/Concepts into Other Lang...

Russian : Николай Коперник

Links to Videos/Articles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7740908.stm

Author : BBC News Year: 2008 Title: Poland honours Copernicus Source: BBC News Retrieved Date: May 29, 2023, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7740908.stm 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus

Image Source: MS Paint (2023, May 25). MS Paint Illustration of orbits. ms paint. ms paint

Short Definition:
An orbit is a periodical, elliptical trajectory that all objects floating in space follow.

Detailed Definition:
An orbit is the path that objects in space follow in a two-or-more-body system. Everybody in such system revolves around a common center of mass.  Usually, when talking about orbits, we think of two-body systems with one body much bigger than another. It appears like the smaller body is revolving around the larger one, but in fact both are revolving around a common center of mass.

Etymology: from Latin “orbita” meaning path.

Sample Sentence(s):
A new satellite was put in orbit.

Translations:

French:
Orbite

German:
Umlaufbahn

Polish:
Orbita

Swedish:
Bana

Links to Videos/Articles:
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-orbit-58.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cUe4oMk69E&list=TLGG8tIphgpDAHkxMzA0MjAyMw&t=1s

Image source: 

Short Definition:
An orbit is a periodical, elliptical trajectory that all objects floating in space follow.

Detailed Definition:
An orbit is the path that objects in space follow in a two-or-more-body system. Everybody in such system revolves around a common center of mass.  Usually, when talking about orbits, we think of two-body systems with one body much bigger than another. It appears like the smaller body is revolving around the larger one, but in fact both are revolving around a common center of mass.

Etymology: from Latin “orbita” meaning path.

Sample Sentence(s):
A new satellite was put in orbit.

Translations:

French:
Orbite

German:
Umlaufbahn

Polish:
Orbita

Swedish:
Bana

Links to Videos/Articles:
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-orbit-58.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cUe4oMk69E&list=TLGG8tIphgpDAHkxMzA0MjAyMw&t=1s

The concept of orbital manufacturing visualized by a primate building space mission components with blocks.

Source:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Common_Chimpanzee_uses_cuboid_tool_in_the_lab.png

https://cdn2.picryl.com/photo/2010/08/17/overall-exterior-views-of-the-iss-during-undocking-and-flyaround-operations-1bdbdf-1600.jpg

Short Definition:

Orbital manufacturing refers to the production of various components required for space missions in orbit.

Detailed Definition:

In orbital manufacturing, parts, materials, and tools needed for space missions are manufactured in orbit around planets. This manufacturing capability provides a solution for sustainable, flexible missions and enables on-demand repair, fabrication, and recycling on critical systems. These capabilities provide tangible cost savings by reducing launch mass, as well as significant risk mitigation by reducing dependence on spare parts and/or oversizing systems for reliability. 

There are several advantages of manufacturing in space:

The effects of microgravity and vacuum in space enable the study and manufacturing of products that would otherwise be impossible to make on Earth.

When compared to launching all essential resources from Earth, the harvest and processing of raw materials from other astronomical bodies, commonly known as In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU), could enable more sustainable space research missions at a lower cost.

Raw materials might be transferred to low Earth orbit and processed into products before being delivered back to Earth. This aims to preserve the Earth by replacing terrestrial production on the planet.

Etymology:

Orbit - Latin - orbita “course, track, impression, mark”

Manu - Latin - manus “Hand”

Facture – Latin - factura  “Making”

Sample Sentence(s):

“Was this arm made using orbital manufacturing?” 

“Orbital manufacturing is particularly suitable for long space missions.”

Translations:

• French: Fabrication Orbitale
  
• German: Orbitale Produktion
  
• Polish: Produkcja na orbicie
  
• Swedish: Orbital Tillverkning
  

Links to Videos/Articles:

https://www.nasa.gov/oem/inspacemanufacturing

Source: https://www.esa.int/Education/Fly_Your_Thesis/Parabolic_manoeuvres

Definition:

Flight manoeuvre in which the aircraft alternatingly ascends and descends to achieve weightlessness or to simulate reduced gravity.

Parabolic flights are performed to train astronauts in zero-g manoeuvres, giving them about 25 seconds of weightlessness out of 65 seconds of flight in each parabola. During such training, the airplane typically flies about 40–60 parabolic manoeuvres. 

Initially, the aircraft climbs with a pitch angle of around 45 degrees, the sensation of weightlessness is achieved by reducing thrust and lowering the nose such that the aircraft follows a ballistic trajectory. Weightlessness begins while ascending and lasts all the way "up-and-over the hump", until the craft reaches a downward pitch angle of around 40 degrees.

Etymology:

from Ancient Greek παραβολικός /parabolikós/ “of or pertaining to a parable”

Translations:

• English: parabolic flight (neutr.) – [ˌpær əˈbɒl ɪk flaɪt]
  
• French: vol parabolique (m) - [vɔl  paʁabɔˈliːk]
  
• German: Parabelflug () - [paˈʁaːbl̩ˌfluːk]
  
• Polish: Lot paraboliczny () – []
  
• Portuguese: voo parabólico (m) - []
  
• Russian: параболический полёт (m) - [pɐrɐbəˈlit͡ɕɪskʲɪj pɐˈlʲɵt]
  
• Swedish: Parabolisk flygning () - []
  

Media

Insight Observatory (n.d.). Star Parallax.

Definitions

Short Definition
Parallax is an angular apparent shift in an object’s position when it is observed from two separate viewpoints. Half the angle between two lines of sight is the magnitude of parallax.

Detailed Definition
The principle of parallax is widely used to measure large distances, i.e. to far away stars and planets. The Stellar parallax method allows one to obtain measurements from trigonometric parallax. Observations of the celestial body are taken from two opposite points of the Earth’s orbit (with a 6-month gap), the apparent movement of the object is considered with respect to its distant background. An isosceles triangle with the base of 2 astronomical units is then formed by the lines of sight. The distance to the object is equal to 1 AU over the parallax angle measured.

Etymology
From Ancient Greek παράλλαξις (parállaxis)“alteration”

Sample Sentences

Eyes of live creatures with binocular sight, humans included, exploit parallax to perceive depth and measure distances.

Translations of Terms/Concepts into Partner Languages

Additional Translations of Terms/Concepts into Other Languages

Russian
параллакс

Ukrainian
паралакс

Links to Videos/Articles:

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parsek_pl.png

Short Definition:

The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System. Parsec is approximately equal to 3.26 light-years or 206,000 astronomical units (symbol: AU), or 30.9 trillion kilometers. As an example, the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 1.3 parsecs from the Sun. Most stars visible to the naked eye are within a few hundred parsecs of the Sun, with the most distant at a few thousand.

Detailed Definition:

A Parsec is the distance for which the annual parallax of the position of the Earth, viewed perpendicular to the plane of the orbit, is 1 arc second (arcsec). A parsec can equally be described as the distance from which half of the Earth's orbital major axis (equal to 1 AU) is visible as an arc of 1 arcsecond. Although distance equal to one parsec is tremendous still, multiples of parsecs are required for the larger scales in the universe, including kiloparsecs (kpc) for the more distant objects within and around the Milky Way, megaparsecs (Mpc) for mid-distance galaxies, and gigaparsecs (Gpc) for many quasars and the most distant galaxies. The term parsec is a combination of "parallax" and "arcsecond," which derives from the use of triangulation when measuring the distance between two stars. 

Etymology:

Combination of words parallax and arcsecond
Paralax - from Ancient Greek parállaxis, (“alteration”)
Second -  from Latin secundus (“following, next in order”)

Sample Sentence(s):

"Distance to the nearest star is about 1.3 parsecs."
"Sci-fi franchises have been known to misuse the word parsec, mistakenly describing it as a measurement of time or speed."

Translations:

French: 

Parsec

German:

Parsec

Polish:

Parsek

Swedish:

Parsec

Links to Videos/Articles:

https://earthsky.org/space/what-is-a-parsec/

Diagram of a body's direct orbit around the Sun, with its nearest (perihelion) and farthest (aphelion) points. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsis#/media/File:Perihelion-Aphelion.svg

Short Definition:

Perihelion is the farthest point in the orbit of a planetary body about the Sun. This point is present in every Solar System orbiting body orbit due to the fact all orbits are elliptical. 

Detailed Definition:

Perihelion is the farthest point in the orbit of a planetary body about the Sun in the Solar System. In case of describing generic star orbiting system, such point is called an apsis as the farthest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For bodies moving around the Sun in a stable elliptical orbit, the perihelion is crossed at regular intervals, every orbital period. At perihelion, the Earth is 147.1 million km (0.9833 au) from the Sun. This usually takes place between 2nd and 4th January and occurs at a slightly different time each year due to interference from other celestial bodies.

Etymology:

From Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, in front; first”) + ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”) +‎ -on (suffix forming nouns) (from Ancient Greek -ον (-on))

Sample Sentence(s):

"If the comet's perihelion (its closest point to the sun) coincides with the shower's peak, a rare meteor storm can occur, creating thousands of meteor showers per hour."

- Skyler Caruso, Peoplemag, 4 Oct. 2022

"Earth makes its closest past on Jan. 4, which is called perihelion."

- Dave Epstein, BostonGlobe.com, 4 July 2022

Translations:

French: 

Périhélie

German:

Perihel 

Polish:

Peryhelium

Swedish:

Perihelium

Links to Videos/Articles:

Source: Sutton, B. (2015, August 19). Perseid Meteor Shower over the Ocotillo Patch; 8/12/15. flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/115357548@N08/20713070995

Definition:

A meteor shower that recurs annually between the July 17th, and August 24th, with a peak of shooting stars in the days around August 12th.

They have a high velocity (60 km/s) and, as so-called fireballs, can even reach the brightness of Venus. The radiant, apparent origin of this shower, lies in the eponymous constellation Perseus, near its border with Cassiopeia.

Etymology:

from Greek Περσείδαι “Perseidai”, the sons of Perseus in Greek mythology

Translations:

• English: Perseids – [ˈpɝ.si.ɪds]
  
• French: Perséides – []
  
• German: Perseiden – []
  
• Polish: Deszcz Perseidów – []
  
• Russian: Персеиды – []
  
• Swedish: Perseiderna – []

Links to Videos/Articles:

Perseid meteor shower on NASA TV 2015 (4 hours)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIvVLyltJe8

Definition:

Etymology:

Named after Phobos, the ancient Greek god of fear, twin brother of Deimos, son of Ares (the equivalent of the Ancient Roman god of war Mars).

Translations:

• English: Phobos    [ˈfoʊbɒs]
  
• French: Phobos    []
  
• German: Phobos (m)    []
  
• Polish: Fobos
  
• Russian: Фобос (m)    [ˈfobəs]
  
• Swedish: