OCCULTATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does occultation mean? 

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

1. one celestial body obscures another

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• OCCULTATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

One celestial body obscures another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

eclipse; occultation

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

break; interruption (some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity)

Meronyms (parts of "occultation"):

egress; emersion ((astronomy) the reappearance of a celestial body after an eclipse)

immersion; ingress ((astronomy) the disappearance of a celestial body prior to an eclipse)

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

solar eclipse (the moon interrupts light from the sun)

lunar eclipse (the earth interrupts light shining on the moon)

total eclipse (an eclipse as seen from a place where the eclipsed body is completely obscured)

partial eclipse (an eclipse in which the eclipsed body is only partially obscured)

 Context examples 

These observations, called solar occultations, effectively allowed the scientists to observe Titan as a transiting exoplanet without having to leave the solar system.

(Sunsets on Titan reveal the complexity of hazy exoplanets, NASA)

The method used by the scientists consists of stellar occultation, which is when these objects move in front of a star, like a small eclipse.

(Brazil astronomers discover ring around dwarf planet near Pluto, Agência Brasil)

The researchers analyzed radio occultations — made when Voyager 2 sent radio waves through the rings to be detected back on Earth — and stellar occultations, made when the spacecraft measured the light of background stars shining through the rings, which helps reveal how much material they contain.

(Uranus May Have Two Undiscovered Moons, NASA)

Based on these new occultation observations, team members say MU69 may not be not a lone spherical object, but suspect it could be an extreme prolate spheroid – think of a skinny football – or even a binary pair.

(New Horizons' Next Target Just Got a Lot More Interesting, NASA)

A handful of telescopes deployed by the New Horizons team in a remote part of Patagonia, Argentina were in the right place at the right time to catch its fleeting shadow — an event known as an occultation – and were able to capture important data to help mission flyby planners better determine the spacecraft trajectory and understand the size, shape, orbit and environment around MU69.

(New Horizons' Next Target Just Got a Lot More Interesting, NASA)