ASTROPHYSICS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does astrophysics mean? 

• ASTROPHYSICS (noun)
  The noun ASTROPHYSICS has 1 sense:

1. the branch of astronomy concerned with the physical and chemical properties of celestial bodies

  Familiarity information: ASTROPHYSICS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASTROPHYSICS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The branch of astronomy concerned with the physical and chemical properties of celestial bodies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("astrophysics" is a kind of...):

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "astrophysics"):

cosmogeny; cosmogony; cosmology (the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe)

Derivation:

astrophysical (of or concerned with astrophysics)

astrophysicist (an astronomer who studies the physical properties of celestial bodies)

 Context examples 

"TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars," said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

(NASA Planet Hunter Finds Earth-Size Habitable-Zone World, NASA)

The discovery of LB-1 fits nicely with another breakthrough in astrophysics.

(Unpredicted stellar black hole discovered by astronomers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Christopher Mankovich, a graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, used the data to study wave patterns within the rings.

(Scientists Finally Know What Time It Is on Saturn, NASA)

The study proves a new and transformative technique for exploring the nature of galaxy halos, said J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz.

(Enigmatic radio burst illuminates a galaxy’s tranquil ​halo, ESO)

This particular neutron star belongs to a group of seven nearby X-ray pulsars — nicknamed ‘the Magnificent Seven’ — that are hotter than they ought to be considering their ages and available energy reservoir provided by the loss of rotation energy, said Bettina Posselt, associate research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State.

(Hubble Uncovers Never-Before-Seen Features Around a Neutron Star, NASA)

Via a NASA-led citizen science project, eight people with no formal training in astrophysics helped discover what could be a fruitful new place to search for planets outside our solar system – a large disk of gas and dust encircling a star known as a circumstellar disk.

(A Potential New Hunting Ground for Exoplanets, NASA)