English

Noun

spheres

1. Plural of sphere

A sphere is an object shaped like the surface of a ball, but can be used to refer to a ball-shaped object, as well as a sphere-like or annular region or shell. Additionally, it has several metaphorical uses.

In mathematics:

• Sphere, the set of points which are a fixed distance from a central point in space
• Hypersphere or n-sphere, the set of points which are a fixed distance from a central point in a space of n+1 dimensions

In astronomy:

• Celestial sphere, the astronomical description of the sky
• Armillary sphere, a physical model of the celestial sphere
• Celestial or planetary spheres, referring to a geocentric model of the universe and the associated postulate of a "music of the spheres"
• Sphere of influence (astrodynamics)

In Earth and planetary science, various systems with a planetary scale extension:

• Atmosphere, including the Earth's atmosphere and Celestial body atmospheres
  • Troposphere
  • Stratosphere
  • Mesosphere
  • Thermosphere
  • Exosphere
  • Magnetosphere
• Biosphere
  • Anthroposphere
• Hydrosphere
  • Cryosphere (sometimes included in the hydrosphere)
• Geosphere
  • Lithosphere
    • Pedosphere (Soil)
    • Crust
  • Mantle
    • Asthenosphere
    • Mesosphere (mantle)
  • Core
    • Inner core
    • Outer core

In stellar physics, the layers of a star, in particular of the Sun:

• Solar core
• Radiation zone
• Convection zone
• Photosphere
• Chromosphere
• Corona

A type of spherical stone (stone balls):

• Artificial stone spheres (Petrospheres)
  • Lapidary spheres
  • Stone round shot (cannonballs)
  • Spherical stone shot for trebuchets
  • Stone spheres of Costa Rica
  • Carved Stone Balls of Scotland
• Natural stone spheres
  • Megaspherulites
  • Cannonball concretions
  • Spherical corestones created by spheroidal weathering

Figurative or metaphorical uses:

• Noosphere, the sphere of human thought and/or creativity
• Sphere of knowledge, a unified body or collection of knowledge
• Sphere of influence, a metaphorical region of influence surrounding a person, concept, country etc.
• Cultural region, such as:
  • Anglosphere
  • Indosphere
  • Sinosphere

As a proper name, or in popular culture:

• De sphaera mundi (The Sphere), a medieval astronomy book by Johannes de Sacrobosco
• The Sphere, a large metallic sculpture located between the twin towers of the former World Trade Center
• The Sphere (newspaper), a British weekly newspaper which ran between 1900 and 1964
• Sphere Books, a British paperback-publisher from the 1960s to the 1980s
• Sphere (novel), a 1987 book written by Michael Crichton
• Sphere (film), a 1998 film based on the 1987 novel, starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson
• Sphere (album), a 2005 album by noise music artist Merzbow.
• "Spheres (song)", a 2007 single by Mike Oldfield
• Spheres (album), 1993 album by death metal band Pestilence
• Spheres (Delerium album) and Spheres 2, 1994 albums by electronic music group Delerium
• Spheres (anime), a Korean anime
• Sphere (program), a cross-platform open-source computer program for making role-playing games
• SPHERE, Spectroscopic and Polarimetric High-contrast Exo-planet REsearch, an instrumentation project at the VLT to directly image extrasolar planets
• SPHERES, Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites formation flight testbed developed by MIT's Space Systems Laboratory
• Sphere, the blog search engine
• Dresspheres in the game Final Fantasy X-2 are used to change character classes
• "Sphere", a song by John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer from their 2004 album A Sphere in the Heart of Silence