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Mars Base

Data support theory on location of lost Leonardo da Vinci painting - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ry-lost-leonardo-da-vinci.html

scibyte38 art daVinci

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Evidence uncovered during research conducted in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio late last year appears to support the theory that a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting existed on the east wall of the Hall of the 500, behind Giorgio Vasari's mural "The Battle of Marciano."
  • data supporting the theoretical location of the da Vinci painting "The Battle of Anghiari" was obtained through the use of an endoscopic probe that was inserted through the wall on which the Vasari fresco was painted
  • Using endoscopic technology
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • researchers were able to view the wall behind the Vasari mural and obtain samples for analysis
  • data from chemical analysis, while not conclusive, suggest the possibility that the da Vinci painting, long assumed to have been destroyed in the mid-16th century when the Hall of the 500 was completely remodeled, might exist behind the Vasari.
  • Although we are still in the preliminary stages
  • data are very encouraging
  • still a lot of work to be done to solve this mystery
  • evidence does suggest that we are searching in the right place."
  • team report four lines of evidence supporting the hypothesis that the lost Leonardo painting is located behind the Vasari mural
  • sample containing a black material was analyzed with SEM-EDX
  • scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy), which identifies the chemical elements present in a sample
  • material found behind the Vasari wall shows a chemical composition similar to black pigment found in brown glazes on Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" and "St. John the Baptist," identified in a recently published scientific paper by the Louvre, which analyzed all the da Vinci paintings in its collection.
  • Flakes of red material were found
  • these samples seems to identify them as organic material, which could be associated with red lake (lacquer). This type of material is unlikely to be present in an ordinary plastered wall.
  • research team confirmed the existence of an air gap, originally identified through radar scans conducted of the Hall, between the brick wall on which Vasari painted his mural and the wall located behind
  • finding suggests that Vasari may have preserved da Vinci's masterpiece by building a wall in front of it at this location. No other location in the Hall presented this type of air gap.
  • opportunity to conduct an endoscopic investigation through the Vasari wall
  • identified 14 areas to be explored
  • six points of entry were ultimately implemented
  • chosen by the restorers of the Opificio delle Peitre Dure in areas free of original Vasari paint
  • including cracked or previously restored areas, to ensure that drilling would not cause any damage to the original Vasari mural
  • Testing on those samples was conducted with portable instruments on the scaffolding itself
  • The painting commemorated the 1440 victory of the battle on the plain of Anghiari between Milan and the Italian League led by the Republic of Florence
  • 1503, da Vinci was commissioned
  • to paint the "The Battle of Anghiari"
Mars Base

S.Korean, Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-scientists-clone-mammoth.html

scibyte38 mammoth

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Russian and South Korean scientists have signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
  • The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic
  • controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, on Tuesday.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked
  • Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts
  • Sooam said it would launch research this year if the Russian university can ship the remains. The Beijing Genomics Institute will also take part in the project
  • South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university
  • first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells
  • scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene
  • replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells,
  • embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery
  • Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer
  • South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf
Mars Base

Laser lightning rod: Guiding bursts of electricity with a flash of light - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...lightning-rod-electricity.html

scibyte38 lightning

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • New research reveals that brief bursts of intense laser light can redirect these high-power electrical discharges.
  • French researchers have coaxed laboratory-generated lightning into striking the same place, not just twice, but over and over
  • used femtosecond (one quadrillionth of a second) pulses of laser light to create a virtual lightning rod out of a column of ionized gas
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Previous experiments confirmed that femtosecond laser could produce ultrashort filaments of ionized gas that act like electrical guide
  • Further studies revealed that these filaments could function over long distances, potentially greater than 50 meters.
  • of new experiments
  • research team sent a laser beam skimming past a spherical electrode to an oppositely charged planar electrode
  • laser stripped away the outer electrons from the atoms along its path
  • a plasma filament that channeled an electrical discharge from the planar electrode to the spherical one
  • researchers added a longer, pointed electrode to their experiment
  • Without the laser, the discharge obeyed this rule and always struck the taller, pointed electrode
  • With the laser, however, the discharge was redirected, following the filaments and striking the spherical electrode instead
  • even after the initial path of the discharge began to form
Mars Base

Polymer Power Drives Tiny Reactions - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...er_power_drives_tiny_reactions

scibyte38

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Applying force to polymers in water generates enough energy to drive chemical reactions
  • won’t replace large-scale energy operations
  • offers a way to harness the wisps of unused energy generated by everyday endeavors, like walking or compacting plastic bags at a recycling center
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • capturing such energy could lead to cheap, clean ways to sanitize a small container of water, for example, or to run a simple lab bench reaction
  • Scientists knew that bonds can break when mechanical force is applied to a polymer
  • breakage can generate free radicals, atoms with unpaired electrons that are eager to engage in further reactions
  • new work shows that when a polymer is squeezed in water, the free radicals migrate and react with the water, generating enough hydrogen peroxide to spur other reactions.
  • When the scientists added gold and silver metal salts to a PDMS tube filled with water, squeezing the tube powered reactions that generated gold and silver nanoparticles
  • also injected the sole of a Nike LeBron sneaker with water and a compound that fluoresces when it is cleaved
  • Half an hour of walking applied force to the polymers in the sneaker’s sole, and the resulting free radicals made enough hydrogen peroxide to cleave the fluorescing compound and make the sole glow. 
  • capturing and converting the mechanical energy of polymer squeezing into energy for driving reactions can be as efficient as 30 percent
  • comparable to some power plants that use coal.
  • PDMS is used in some medical devices such as catheters, and in some breast implants, raising the issue that normal wear in the body might generate free radicals that could cause inflammation and other problems
  • adding an antioxidant such as vitamin E, which latches onto free radicals, to the implant ingredients might be a quick and easy way to
  • Some of the body’s immune cells, though, generate well more hydrogen peroxide than that generated by the polymers
  • the fact that enough free radicals are generated to drive reactions — which might even contribute to the breakdown of medical devices — is interesting, Tang says. “I don’t know how unique it is or material-specific, but it could have potential importance.”
Mars Base

NASA's Robot Glove Lends a Cyborg Hand to Astronauts | NASA Robo-Glove | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/t-glove-astronaut-cyborgs.html

scibyte38 nasa robot cyborg

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • NASA and General Motors have come up with a robotic glove capable of giving today's astronauts and factory workers an extra-strong cyborg grip
  • Robo-Glove" technology emerged when NASA and General Motors (GM) built "Robonaut 2" as a robot assistant for astronauts living aboard the space station
  • glove's mechanical strength allows human wearers to grip tools longer and more comfortably
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • astronaut working in a bulky, pressurized spacesuit might only need to use 10 pounds of force rather than 20 pounds to hold a tool in his or her hand.
  • e robot gloves could also help factory workers on Earth do their job for longer periods with less risk of repetitive stress injury,
  • Such gloves rely upon a robotic sense of touch — pressure sensors in the fingertips — to detect when a human user is grabbing an object
  • wearer grasps a tool, synthetic tendons automatically retract for a firm, mechanical grip until the sensor is released
  • most recent prototypes weigh just two pounds and use an off-the-shelf lithium-ion power tool battery attached to the human user's belt
  • e K-Glove (Robo-Glove) is the first of what we expect to be many spinoffs derived from Robonaut 2
Mars Base

Radio Glitch Delays 5-Rocket Launch to Edge of Space | Skywatching Tips | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/rocket-launch-atrex-delay.html

scibyte38 launch

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A radio system glitch on one of five small rockets aimed at the edge of space has forced NASA to cancel a barrage of overnight launches tonight that promised to dazzle East Coast skywatchers with glowing midnight clouds
  • e late-night launch rocket launches, which were scheduled to blast off within about five minutes of one anothe
  • scrubbed for tonight and our next attempt will be no earlier than Friday night, March 16
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • internal radio frequency interference problem with one of the payloads on the rockets caused the launch delay
  • five rockets form the core of NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX
  • program to study the high-altitude jet stream of wind that blows at speeds of 300 mph (483 kph) at heights of between  60 and 65 miles (97 to 105 kilometers) above Earth.
  • Theories have suggested that these high-altitude winds should only reach speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph). The edge of space is commonly set at 62 miles (100 km) above Earth.
  • study the jet stream mystery, NASA scientists have loaded each ATREX rocket with a chemical tracer known as trimethyl aluminum. The experiment is designed to spray the material into the jet stream so observers on Earth can map the winds
  • chemical tracer is expected to be seen as glowing, milky white clouds visible to skywatchers along major stretches of the U.S. East Coast, running from southern Vermont and New Hampshire to the border of North and South Carolina.
  • next window to launch the ATREX rockets stretches from March 16 to April 3.
Mars Base

Busy Sunspot Unleashes New M-Class Solar Flare | Space Weather & Solar Storms | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/spot-eruption-solar-flare.html

scibyte38 solar flare sun

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • sun unleashed a new solar flare Tuesday (March 13) from the same region that has been actively brewing for the past week.
  • M7.9-class eruption
  • hurled a wave of plasma and energetic particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), into space
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • not heading in Earth's direction
  • The Solar Radiation Storm promptly reached S2 (Moderate) levels, but now should slowly decline
  • sunspot region called AR 1429,
  • already unleashed three strong X-class solar flares and several weaker M-class eruptions
  • , X-class flares from region 1429 triggered the strongest solar storm in eight years.
  • Region 1429 has been rotating across the solar disk and is no longer facing Earth
  • solar physicists will continue to monitor it and other developing sunspot regions for new outbursts.
Mars Base

Lego Space Shuttle Takes Flight, Returns to Earth Undamaged | PCWorld - 0 views

www.pcworld.com/...eturns_to_earth_undamaged.html

scibyte38 lego space

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • : Raul Oaidia from Romania launched a Lego space shuttle into the stratosphere on the back of a weather balloon.
  • help from Steve Sammartino, a businessman who funded this Lego spaceflight
  • Lego space shuttle model (set number 3367!) and a video camera to capture the voyage.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • According to Raul, he and his father traveled to Germany to launch the balloon, since that country's regulations on this sort of project are more relaxed than those in Romania
  • launch took place on December 31, and the balloon with its Lego cargo flew to an altitude of about 35,000 meters (that's roughly 114,800 feet for those of us in the US).
  • Check out Raul's blog for the full story, and a list of the equipment he used to carry out the launch
  • Mars Base on 14 Mar 12
     
    Lego Space Shuttle Takes Flight, Returns to Earth Undamaged
Mars Base

Meteorite smashed through Oslo roof : Views and News from Norway - 0 views

www.newsinenglish.no/...rite-smashed-through-oslo-roof

scibyte38 meteor meteorite

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • sure when the meteorite actually crashed through the cabin’s roof, because the cabin had been closed during the winter.
  • cross-section that it contains bits of many different particles that are compressed together
  • indicates that another, larger meteorite smashed rock on another planet before the meteorite found in Oslo was propelled into outer space
Mars Base

Fikk meteorittstein gjennom taket i kolonihagen - VG Nett om Utrolige historier - 0 views

www.vg.no/...artikkel.php

scibyte38 meteor meteorite media

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
Mars Base

Software automatically transforms movie clips into comic strips - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...automatically-movie-comic.html

scibyte38 media comic

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • a team of researchers has designed a program that can automatically transform movie scenes into comic strips, without the need for any human intervention.
  • previous programs have been developed to assist cartoonists in converting movies into comics
  • new method is the first fully automated approach
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • automatic script-face mapping algorithm that identifies the speaking character in scenes with multiple characters, automatic generation of comic panels of different sizes, positioning word balloons, and rendering movie frames in a cartoon style.
  • used the new method to transform 15 movie clips into comic strips
  • varied in length from 2 to 7 minutes
  • Titanic,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “The Message
  • sometimes put word bubbles next to the faces of incorrect characters
  • script-face mapping algorithm had an accuracy of 85%, which the researchers hope to improve.
  • technique is capable of performing all steps automatically
  • researchers noted that involving some human effort could lead to even better results
  • software would provide recommendations for each step of the transformation process, and humans could manually adjust the results much more quickly and efficiently than in pure manual methods
  • two future plans
  • improve the performance of each component, such as script-face mapping, and hope we can generate perfect clips without user interaction
  • integrate speech recognition technology to generalize the software, such that we can generate comics without movie scripts
Mars Base

Norwegian Family Finds Meteorite Crashed Through Their Roof | Fallen Meteorites | Space... - 0 views

www.space.com/teorite-crash-oslo-norway.html

scibyte38 meteor meteorite

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Norwegian family arrived at their cabin in Oslo recently to discover that a meteorite had apparently fallen through their roof
  • after visiting the holiday cabin for the first time all winter,
  • rock may have fallen during a wave of meteor sightings over Norway on March 1
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • hundreds of tips and have been searching for bits of meteorites
  • identified the rock as a rare type of breccia meteorite, which is a conglomerate of smaller fragments of minerals
  • 1.3 pound (585 gram) stone was found split in two
  • Space rocks rarely fall in populated areas, and such a find in Norway is exceedingly special
  • According to Views and News from Norway, only 14 meteorites have been found in the Scandinavian country since 1848.
Mars Base

Astronaut Builds LEGO Space Station While Inside Real Space Station | LEGO in Space & L... - 0 views

www.space.com/ce-station-astronaut-toys.html

scibyte38 lego SpaceStation

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build the International Space Station (ISS).
  • , an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours
  • his space station was made out of LEGO.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • approximately two-foot (0.6-meter) long model, which replicated the nearly 360-foot (110-meter) space station was more than just a toy
  • other building brick sets that were launched last year, the LEGO space station was part of an educational collaboration between the Danish toy company and NASA.
  • used it as a demonstration for a series of recorded videos aimed at engaging and educating children about living and working in space
  • LEGO's version of the International Space Station built by astronauts living aboard the real orbiting complex
  • Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa poses with the LEGO model of the International Space Station that he built on board the real space station.
  • Although building the LEGO space station was an activity aimed at students, it was not all child's play.
  • LEGOs are an example of something that is a lot of fun on the ground but it can be very frustrating when you have a lot of loose floating pieces
  • To keep the bricks contained and to protect against some potentially serious dangers
  • pieced together the model inside a glovebox — a sealed container with gloves built into its sides to allow the contents to be manipulated
  • crew members use a more complex glovebox to conduct science experiments with hazardous materials
  • don't have all of these little pieces getting loose and becoming either lost or potentially getting jammed in equipment or even becoming a flammability hazard."
  • Fire is usually not one of the warnings that people find on the side of LEGO boxes.
  • there are flammability concerns about the LEGOs
  • challenging part was using the thick rubber gloves in the containment system because it made me clumsy in building the LEGO space station
  • real space station was declared "assembly complete" on May 29, 2011
  • the model was launched in partially-preassembled "chunks" to help make up for the difficulties working with very small pieces in microgravity
  • The space station could not be launched fully-assembled, because like the real orbiting outpost, it could only be built in space
  • It's a solid model but I believe it can't bear its own weight under gravity
  • LEGO station's time fully assembled was short lived however
  • Due to the flammability hazards, the toy bricks could only be exposed to the open cabin air for two hours.
Mars Base

LEGO Figures Flying On NASA Jupiter Probe | NASA Juno Spacecraft & LEGOs In Space | Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-jupiter-juno-spacecraft.html

scibyte38 lego Jupiter

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft
  • specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and "father of science" Galileo Galilei.
  • part of the Bricks in Space project
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the collaboration between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • NASA has a long-standing partnership with the LEGO company
  • Juno and the minifigures are scheduled to arrive in July 2016 and orbit Jupiter for a year (33 revolutions) before intentionally crashing into the giant gas planet
  • 04 August 2011
  • The trio resemble the typical small toys that LEGO sells, but are made out of metal.
  • Jupiter (who was the equivalent of "Zeus" to the Greeks) drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief
  • Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature
  • Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to help NASA understand the planet's structure and history.
  • Juno holds a magnifying glass "to signify her search for the truth,"
  • husband holds a lightning bolt
  • third LEGO crew member, Galileo Galilei, made several important discoveries about Jupiter
  • first to point a telescope at the sky to make astronomical observations and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter — named the Galilean moons in his honor.
  • minifigure Galileo has his telescope with him for the journey to Jupiter.
  • basically the size of the normal LEGO figures
  • made out of aluminum, very special aluminum and they have been prepared in a very special way
  • space-grade aluminum
  • testing to make sure that they fit on our spacecraft in a way that is like our other science instruments."
  • mini-metal statues are joined on the spacecraft by another "special passenger," one
  • 2.8-inch by 2-inch (71 mm by 51 mm) plaque also made of flight-grade aluminum is bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque shows a self-portrait of Galileo. The plaque also includes — in Galileo's own hand — a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupite
  • Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: "On the 11th it was in this formation -- and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone."
Mars Base

The feeding habits of teenage galaxies - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...3-habits-teenage-galaxies.html

scibyte38 galaxies

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • New observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope are making a major contribution to understanding the growth of adolescent galaxies
  • biggest survey of its kind astronomers have found that galaxies changed their eating habits during their teenage years - the period from about 3 to 5 billion years after the Big Bang
  • start of this phase smooth gas flow was the preferred snack, but later, galaxies mostly grew by cannibalising other smaller galaxies.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Astronomers have known for some time that the earliest galaxies were much smaller than the impressive spiral and elliptical galaxies that now fill the Universe
  • employing the state-of-the-art instruments on ESO's Very Large Telescope an international team is unravelling what really happened
  • more than one hundred hours of observations the team has collected the biggest ever set of detailed observations of gas-rich galaxies at this early stage of their development.
  • Two different ways of growing galaxies are competing
  • violent merging events when larger galaxies eat smaller ones
  • smoother and continuous flow of gas onto galaxies
  • zoom sequence starts
  • Smooth gas flow (eso1040) seems to have been a big factor in the building of galaxies in the very young Universe, whereas mergers became more important later.
Mars Base

Listen to solar storm activity in new sonification video - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-storm-sonification-video.html

scibyte38 solar flare

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • What does a solar storm sound like
  • Take a listen
  • sonification of the recent solar storm activity turns data from two spacecraft into sound
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • measurements from the NASA SOHO spacecraft and the University of Michigan's Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury
  • creator is Robert Alexander, a design science doctoral student at the University of Michigan and NASA fellow.
  • a composer with a NASA fellowship to study how representing information as sound could aid in data mining.
  • raw information to an audio waveform
  • To sonify the data
  • in its original sampling rate of 44,100 hertz, it played back in less than a quarter of a second
  • benefits of sonifying data. You can zip through days' worth of information in an instant
  • Sonification is the process of translating information into sound
  • used in Geiger counter radiation detectors, which emit clicks in the presence of high-energy particles
  • not typically used to pick out patterns in information, but scientists on the U-M Solar and Heliospheric Research Group are exploring its potential in that realm. They're looking to Alexander to make it possible.
  • used to looking at wiggly-line plots and graphs, but humans are very good at hearing things. We wonder if there's a way to find things in the data that are difficult to see."
  • his approach led to a new discovery
  • a particular ratio of carbon atoms that scientists had not previously keyed in to can reveal more about the source of the solar wind than the ratios of elements they currently rely on. The solar wind is a squall of hot plasma, or charged particles, continuously emanating from the sun.
  • hopes to build a bridge between science and art.
  • movies were silent and people just accepted that that's the way it
  • this high res footage of what's happening on the surface of the sun, and it's silent. I'm creating a soundtrack
Mars Base

How Did Comet Lovejoy Survive Its Trip Around The Sun? - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...urvive-its-trip-around-the-sun

scibyte38 comet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • just about three months ago that the astronomy world watched in awe as the recently-discovered comet Lovejoy plummeted toward the Sun on what was expected to be its final voyage, only to reappear on the other side seemingly unscathed
  • headed back out into the solar system, displaying a brand-new tail for skywatchers in southern parts of the world
  • How did a loosely-packed ball of ice and rock manage to withstand such a close pass through the Sun’s blazing corona
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • few researchers from Germany have an idea
  • hypothesized that Comet Lovejoy managed to hold itself together through the very process that, to most
  • increased heating from solar radiation causes the frozen materials within the nucleus to sublimate
  • — go directly and suddenly from solid to gas
  • burst through the surface of the comet and create the long, hazy reflective tail that is so often associated with them.
  • sublimation itself may have provided enough outward force across its surface to literally keep it together
  • reaction force caused by the strong outgassing (sublimation) of the nucleus near the Sun acts to keep the nucleus together and to overcome the tidal disruption
  • the team concluded that the diameter of Comet Lovejoy’s nucleus is anywhere between 0.2 km and 11 km (.125 miles and 6.8 miles
  • Any smaller and it would have lost too much material during its pass (and had too little gravity); any larger and it would have been too thick for outgassing to provide enough counterbalancing force.
  • taking a trip around the Sun may not mean the end for all comets… at least not those of a certain size
  • Watch the video of Lovejoy’s Dec. 15 solar swing below
Mars Base

NASA - 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus - 0 views

eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/...venus0412.html

scibyte38 Venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments
  • only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882
  • event begins with contact I which is the instant when the planet's disk is externally tangent with the Sun. The entire disk of the Venus is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. During the next several hours, Venus gradually traverses the solar disk at a relative angular rate of approximately 4 arc-min/hr. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and is once again internally tangent with the Sun. The transit ends at contact IV when the planet's limb is externally tangent to the Sun
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Geographic Visibility of 2012 June 06
  • The entire transit (all four contacts) is visible from northwestern North America, Hawaii, the western Pacific, northern Asia, Japan, Korea, eastern China, Philippines, eastern Australia, and New Zealand.
  • Sun sets while the transit is still in progress from most of North America, the Caribbean, and northwest South America
  • transit is already in progress at sunrise for observers in central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and eastern Africa
  • No portion of the transit will be visible from Portugal or southern Spain, western Africa, and the southeastern 2/3 of South America.
  • due to the International Date Line the Western Hemisphere will see the transit on June 5.
  • Transits of Venus are only possible during early December and early June when Venus's orbital nodes pass across the Sun
  • Transits show a clear pattern of recurrence at intervals of 8, 121.5, 8 and 105.5 years
  • next pair of Venus transits occur over a century from now on 2117 Dec 11 and 2125 Dec 08.
  • Edmund Halley first realized that transits of Venus could be used to measure the Sun's distance
  • establishing the absolute scale of the solar system from Kepler's third law
  • his method proved impractical since contact timings of the desired accuracy are impossible due to the effects of atmospheric seeing and diffraction
  • the 1761 and 1769 expeditions to observe the transits of Venus gave astronomers their first good value for the Sun's distance.
  • Mercury can also transit the Sun
  • undergoes transits much more frequently. There are about 13 or 14 transits of Mercury each century
  • Mercury transits fall within several days of 8 May and 10 November
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