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- Far Side
- the side of the Moon that always faces away from the earth. Features on this side are named mainly after Russian scientists since they were first explored by Russian probes.
- Flare
- a sudden, dramatic increase in brightness of an object.
- Fluence
- the integrated luminosity over some specified time duration, i.e., the total energy emitted over that time. The SI unit for fluence is joules.
- Flux
- the amount of energy passing through an area of one square meter every second.
- Frequency
- a property of a wave that describes how many wave patterns or cycles pass by in a period of time.
- (computer) Function
- small sections of computer instructions that perform a particular task. Source code is broken up into functions so that programs can easily use the same code over and over without having to enter that code into the program many times.
- Fuse
- a verb which means to merge two things into one. In the process called nuclear fusion, light atoms, for example hydrogen, are forced together to form slightly heavier atoms, like helium. Helium in turn can be fused into the heavier atom carbon, and so on. This process releases large amounts of energy and is what actually powers stars. However, fusion requires very high temperatures. That is why a tube of hydrogen or helium gas in a laboratory will not spontaneously undergo nuclear fusion.
