photospheren.
/ˈfəʊtəsfɪə/, U.S. /ˈfoʊdəˌsfɪ(ə)r/ 1. An orb or sphere of light, radiance, etc. In later use chiefly as an extended or figurative use of sense 2.In quot. 1810: (perhaps) the nebulous part of a comet surrounding the nucleus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > [noun] > ring or sphere of
ringeOE
photosphere1664
armilla1675
halo1813
1664 H. More Apol. in Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity 503 Though..Christ be surrounded with Gleams and Raies of inaccessible Light and Glory, which envelop his Body,..yet if any mortal could get within this so refulgent Photosphere (as I may so call it) or Orb of glory and brightness [etc.].
1810 S. T. Coleridge Notebks. (1973) May III. 3798 Changes, rapid, of increase and decrease in the photosphere, attributed to the attraction of the Kernel [of a comet].
1878 J. A. Symonds Shelley v. 97 The central motive of Laon and Cythna is surrounded by so radiant a photosphere of imagery and eloquence that it is difficult to fix our gaze upon it.
1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles II. xxxi. 132 Her affection for him was now the breath and light of Tess's being; it enveloped her as a photosphere.
a1894 O. W. Holmes Poet. Wks. (1912) 285 Thy flame-defying creatures hear The maelstroms of the photosphere!
1989 M. Amis London Fields vii. 114 Then he..saw the stepladder, the tipped skylight. He ascended slowly into the brilliant photosphere.
2. Astronomy. Originally: †a self-luminous outer gaseous layer of a star (obsolete). Later: the layer of the sun from where most of its light comes and in which sunspots occur, lying below the chromosphere; an analogous layer of another star, producing the continuous emission and absorption features of the star's spectrum.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > sun > [noun] > photosphere
photosphere1833
1833 J. F. W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 123 499 With regard to nebulous stars generally, I ought to mention that it has frequently occurred to me to notice a peculiar state of the atmosphere in which all large stars (above the 7th magnitude) have appeared surrounded with photospheres of 2′ or 3′ or more in diameter.
1848 J. F. W. Herschel Ess. (1857) 287 A self-luminous nebulous matter, of a vaporous or gaseous nature, of which these photospheres, and, perhaps, some entire nebulæ, may consist.
1850 Harper's Mag. Oct. 692/1 It seems..that these projections or red clouds, as well as the halo..,are something without the proper solar photosphere.
1856 T. B. Butler Philos. Weather 217 These spots are supposed to be breaks or openings in the luminous atmosphere or photosphere of the sun.
1919 E. Tregear in V. O'Sullivan Anthol. 20th Cent. N.Z. Poetry (1987) 1 Waves of flames like those we see (Distinctly though afar) evolved and whirled A photosphere of fire around the Solar World.
1974 L. Niven & J. Pournelle Mote in God's Eye (1975) i. xii. 99 The thin photosphere was presenting more resistance than expected.
1990 D. H. Menzel & J. M. Pasachoff Field Guide Stars & Planets vii. 200 R Cr B is a carbon-rich star, and apparently it sometimes throws off clouds of carbon shoot that obscure its photosphere.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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