aurora (redirected from auroras)

Aurora, cities, United States

Aurora (ərôr`ə, ô–).

1 City (1990 pop. 222,103), Adams and Arapahoe counties, N central Colo., a growing suburb on the east side of Denver; inc. 1903. Founded during the silver boom of the 1890s, it is now a business and technical center and Colorado's third largest city. Manufactures includes furniture, aircraft fittings, electrical equipment, precision measurement instruments, magnesium products, computer software, and paper. Tourism and construction are also important. The former Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center is being converted to business and research use.

2 City (1990 pop. 99,581), Kane co., NE Ill., on the Fox River; inc. 1837. It has large railroad yards and a variety of manufactures, including paper and plastic products, rods and bearings, controls (thermostats), foods, and consumer goods. It was one of the first cities to use electricity for street lighting (1881). It is the seat of Aurora Univ. and of a notable historical museum. A riverboat casino opened in the city in 1993.

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Aurora, in Roman religion and mythology

Aurora, in Roman religion and mythology: see Eos.

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aurora

Luminous phenomenon of the upper atmosphere that occurs primarily at high latitudes. Auroras in the Northern Hemisphere are called aurora borealis, or northern lights; in the Southern Hemisphere they are called aurora australis, or southern lights. Auroras are caused by the interaction of energetic particles (electrons and protons) from outside the atmosphere with atoms of the upper atmosphere. Such interaction occurs in zones surrounding the Earth's magnetic poles. During periods of intense solar activity, auroras occasionally extend to the middle latitudes.

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Aurora

City (pop., 2000: 276,393), north-central Colorado, U.S. It was founded near Denver as Fletcher during the silver boom of 1891 and renamed in 1907. Though mainly residential, it is also the site of Buckley Air National Guard Base.

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Aurora

Roman goddess of dawn. Her Greek counterpart was Eos. Hesiod described her as the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. She was the sister of Helios, the sun, and Selene, the moon. By the Titan Astraeus, she became the mother of the winds and of the evening star. In Greek mythology she was also represented as the lover of the hunters Cephalus and Orion.

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aurora

an atmospheric phenomenon consisting of bands, curtains, or streamers of light, usually green, red, or yellow, that move across the sky in polar regions. It is caused by collisions between air molecules and charged particles from the sun that are trapped in the earth's magnetic field

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aurora [ə′rȯr·ə]

(electricity)

corona discharge

(geophysics)

The most intense of the several lights emitted by the earth's upper atmosphere, seen most often along the outer realms of the Arctic and Antarctic, where it is called the aurora borealis and aurora australis, respectively; excited by charged particles from space.

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Aurora [ə′rȯr·ə]

(astronomy)

An asteroid with a diameter of about 132 miles (220 kilometers), mean distance from the sun of 3.153 astronomical units, and C-type surface composition.

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Aurora

goddess of dawn whose tears provide dew. [Rom. Myth.: Kravitz, 42]

See : Dawn

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Aurora - ["The Aurora Or-Parallel Prolog System", E. Lusk et al, Proc 3rd Intl Conf on Fifth Generation Comp Systems, pp. 819-830, ICOT, A-W 1988].