Magellan

Ma·gel·lan

M0024800 (mə-jĕl′ən), Ferdinand 1480?-1521. Portuguese navigator. Seeking a western route to Asia (1519), Magellan and his Spanish expedition sailed through the strait that now bears his name (1520). He named and crossed the Pacific Ocean, reaching the Philippines (1521), where he died fighting for a local king. One of his ships returned to Spain (1522), completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Magellan

, Strait of A channel separating South America from Tierra del Fuego and other islands south of the continent and connecting the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the strait in October and November 1520.

Magellan

(məˈɡɛlən) n (Placename) Strait of Magellan a strait between the mainland of S South America and Tierra del Fuego, linking the S Pacific with the S Atlantic. Length: 600 km (370 miles). Width: up to 32 km (20 miles)

Magellan

(məˈɡɛlən) n (Biography) Ferdinand. Portuguese name Fernão de Magalhães. ?1480–1521, Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain. He commanded an expedition of five ships that set out to sail to the East Indies via the West. He discovered the Strait of Magellan (1520), crossed the Pacific, and reached the Philippines (1521), where he was killed by natives. One of his ships reached Spain (1522) and was therefore the first to circumnavigate the world

Ma•gel•lan

(məˈdʒɛl ən)

n. 1. Ferdinand, c1480–1521, Portuguese navigator. 2. Strait of, a strait near the S tip of South America between the mainland of Chile and Tierra del Fuego, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific. 360 mi. (580 km) long.

Thesaurus

Noun

Magellan - Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain; he commanded an expedition that was the first to circumnavigate the world (1480-1521)Ferdinand Magellan, Fernao Magalhaes

Translations

Magellan

¹ Ferdinand. Portuguese name Fern?o de Magalh?es. ?1480-- 1521, Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain. He commanded an expedition of five ships that set out to sail to the East Indies via the West. He discovered the Strait of Magellan (1520), crossed the Pacific, and reached the Philippines (1521), where he was killed by natives. One of his ships reached Spain (1522) and was therefore the first to circumnavigate the world

Magellan

² Strait of. a strait between the mainland of S South America and Tierra del Fuego, linking the S Pacific with the S Atlantic. Length: 600 km (370 miles). Width: up to 32 km (20 miles)

Magellan

(mă-jell -ăn, -gel -) NASA's planetary probe to Venus that was launched from the space shuttle Atlantis May 4 1989 and reached the planet Aug. 10 1989. From three 8-month cycles of radar mapping (Sept. 1990–Sept. 1992), it produced a detailed radar map of almost 99% of the surface of Venus, revealing details as small as 100 meters across. It also provided a gravity map showing density variations in the surface features, and obtained an immense amount of data.

Magellan's mapping orbit carried it over the N pole and down the length of the planet almost to the S pole; it was close enough, during about 37 minutes of each orbit, for a 20–25-km swathe to be highlighted by the radar beam. In the remainder of the elliptical orbit Magellan transmitted data to Earth and fixed its position, before it resumed mapping over a new swathe of the slowly rotating planet. A topographical map was built up by radar altimetry, using signals from a small antenna pointing straight down. The larger antenna, pointing off to one side of the spacecraft, developed a detailed two-dimensional picture from the signals reflected off each object encountered; it also detected thermal emissions.

Impact craters, canyons, and other features were revealed on the planet's surface. Lava flows, fault zones, and volcanoes indicate volcanic activity and occur over about 85% of the surface of Venus, but no evidence was found for the type of plate tectonics found on Earth. There are relatively few impact craters, suggesting that Venus' surface is ‘geologically’ young. Craters are distributed randomly over the Venusian landscape, with roughly two-thirds showing no modification by volcanic activity. However, surface features include very long lava channels, vast lava plains, fields of small lava domes, shield volcanoes, and large ‘pancake’ domes that may have been formed from a type of lava produced by large-scale evolution of crustal rocks. Interpretation of these results in terms of past ‘geological’ activity is still under debate.

Gravity mapping of the surface commenced in Magellan's elliptical orbit. A successful aerobraking maneuver brought the craft into a low-altitude near-circular orbit in Aug. 1993, from which a detailed pole-to-pole gravity survey could be made. The Magellan mission ended Oct 11 1994 when the craft was sent plunging into Venus' dense atmosphere, sending back valuable data on its composition as it hurtled to its destruction.

Magellan

A disk management utility for PCs from Lotus that had its heyday in the late 1980s. Believed by many to be one of the top 10 utility programs of all time, Magellan searched for file names and indexed the text content of the PC's hard drive at lightning speed. Written in assembler, it popularized the file viewer concept. See file viewer.

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Synonyms for Magellan

noun Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain

Synonyms