Word.ws English Dictionary

gravity darkening

gravity darkening noun: the phenomenon of a star rotating so rapidly that it is oblate, with a larger radius and thus lower surface gravity at the equator (which is thus cooler and darker: gravity-darkened), and higher surface gravity at the poles (which are hotter and brighter: gravity brightened).

Noun

gravity darkening (uncountable)

  1. The phenomenon of a star rotating so rapidly that it is oblate, with a larger radius and thus lower surface gravity at the equator (which is thus cooler and darker: gravity-darkened), and higher surface gravity at the poles (which are hotter and brighter: gravity brightened).

Synonyms of gravity darkening

Questions about gravity darkening

What does gravity darkening mean?
Gravity darkening means the phenomenon of a star rotating so rapidly that it is oblate, with a larger radius and thus lower surface gravity at the equator (which is thus cooler and darker: gravity-darkened), and higher surface gravity at the poles (which are hotter and brighter: gravity brightened).
What part of speech is gravity darkening?
Gravity darkening is a noun.

Words near gravity darkening in the dictionary

  1. gravity brightening
  2. gravity cell
  3. gravity cells
  4. gravity dam
  5. gravity dams
  6. gravity darkening
  7. gravity drag
  8. gravity drop
  9. gravity drops
  10. gravity gun
  11. gravity guns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gravity darkening (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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