Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium

The Museum of Science & History - Pink Palace in Memphis, Tennessee, serves as the Mid-South's major science and historical museum and features exhibits ranging from archeology to chemistry. Over 240,000 people visit the museum each year.
The museum is part of the Museum of Science & History - Memphis, a collection of historic, educational, and technological attractions maintained by the City of Memphis and Memphis Museums, Inc. The Lichterman Nature Center, the first accredited nature center in the United States, is part of the Museum, as well as the Coon Creek Science Center, an education center which is open to organized groups and features a fossil site.
The Mallory-Neely House and Magevney House are also part of the Museum. The Mallory-Neely House is a three-story Italianate Victorian mansion built in 1852, and features 25 rooms and most of its original furnishings. The Magevney House, an 1830s cottage furnished as it might have been in 1850, is one of the city's oldest remaining residences.
The AutoZone Dome at the Sharpe Planetarium, housed at the Museum, features an 165-seat theater-in-the-round auditorium and offers public shows that project star fields, visual images, and laser lights on a domed ceiling. The Crew Training International 3D Giant Theater opened on January 21, 1995 and features a four-story high movable screen. The Museum of Science & History - Pink Palace, the Sharpe Planetarium, and the Crew Training International 3D Giant Theater are accredited members of the American Alliance of Museums.
Pink Palace Mansion.
The headquarters for the Museum is covered in pink Georgian marble. The city of Memphis acquired the mansion when Clarence Saunders, the founder of Piggly Wiggly, became bankrupt. He had been building the residence in 1923, but lost a fortune, and the home, due to financial reversals on Wall Street.
In March 1930, after the Stock Market Crash, the Memphis Museum of Natural History and Industrial Arts opened in the mansion. The original exhibits featured stuffed animals and birds, dolls, anthropological items from local wealthy collectors, as well as items related to Memphis' history, particularly Confederate military uniforms and memorabilia.
Exhibits.
The Museum contains a variety of exhibits relating to Memphis history. One exhibit features a replica of the original Piggly Wiggly store, the first self-service grocery store, commemorating the invention of the supermarket by Memphian Clarence Saunders in 1916. Other permanent exhibits include 15th century Native American pottery, pre-Columbian artifacts, Clyde Parke's Miniature Circus, fossils and dinosaurs, and mounted animals. History exhibits focus on the roles of music and cotton on Memphis, the Civil War , the changing roles of women, and historic Black Memphians. The museum features several special exhibits each year.
Murals.
The original main entrance lobby of the Museum Mansion features a three-panel mural by Memphis artist Burton Callicott. The murals commemorate the discovery of the Mississippi River near the site of Memphis by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his men, and their encounters with Native Americans. The three murals were commissioned in 1934 by the Public Works of Art Project of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's government, as part of a series of numerous art and public works projects to employ artists and others during the Great Depression. Callicott, who died in 2004, taught at the Memphis College of Art.


Gravity darkening

Gravity darkening, also referred to as gravity brightening, is an astronomical phenomenon where the poles of a star are brighter than the equator, due to rapid rotation and oblate shape. When a star is oblate, it has a larger radius at its equator than it does at its poles. As a result, the poles have a higher surface gravity, and thus higher temperature and pressure is needed to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium. Thus, the poles are "gravity brightened", and the equator "gravity darkened".
The star becomes oblate (and hence gravity darkening occurs) because the centrifugal force resulting from rotation creates additional outward pressure on the star. The centrifugal force is expressed mathematically as
where formula_2 is mass (in this case of a small volume element of the star), formula_3 is the angular velocity, and formula_4 is the radial distance from the axis of rotation. In the case of a star, the value of formula_4 is largest at the equator and smallest at the poles. This means that equatorial regions of a star will have a greater centrifugal force when compared to the pole. The centrifugal force pushes mass away from the axis of rotation, and results in less overall pressure on the gas in the equatorial regions of the star. This will cause the gas in this region to become less dense, and cooler.
Von Zeipel's theorem states that the radiation from a star is proportional to the local effective gravity, that is to the gravity reduced by any centrifugal force at that location on the star's surface. Then the effective temperature is proportional to the fourth root of the effective gravity.


Scott Tremaine

Scott Duncan Tremaine (born 1950) is a Canadian-born astrophysicist. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Sciences. Tremaine is widely regarded as one of the world's leading astrophysicists for his contributions to the theory of solar system and galactic dynamics. Tremaine is the namesake of asteroid 3806 Tremaine. He is credited with coining the name "Kuiper belt".
Career.
He obtained a bachelor's degree at McMaster University in 1971, and a PhD from Princeton University in 1975. He further received an honorary PhD from McMaster University in 1996. He was an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1981 to 1985. He became the first director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto in 1986, a position he held until 1996. He gained the rare distinction of "University Professor" at the University of Toronto in 1995. In 1997, he left CITA and took up a position as a professor at Princeton University, becoming chair of the Astrophysical Sciences department from 1998 to 2006.
Scott Tremaine is currently a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, for which he left Princeton University in 2007, being replaced as department chair by David Spergel. He has been married to Prof. Marilyn Mantei Tremaine for more than two decades, an expert in human-computer interaction who is the past chair of the SIGCHI section of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Scientific accomplishments.
Tremaine, along with Peter Goldreich, correctly predicted that shepherd moons created Saturn's thin F ring, as well as the thin rings of Uranus in 1979. The Saturnian moons Prometheus and Pandora were first observed in 1981 and shepherding moons were found around Uranus' rings in 1986. Tremaine cowrote the book "Galactic Dynamics" with James Binney, which is often regarded as the standard reference in the field and has been cited more than three thousand times in scholarly publications. Tremaine, along with collaborators at the University of Toronto, showed that short period comets originate in the Kuiper belt. Tremaine is credited with suggesting that the apparent "double nucleus" of the Andromeda Galaxy was in fact a single ring of old red stars.
Awards and honours.
In 2020, he was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.
In 2013, he won the Tomalla Foundation Prize for his work on gravitational dynamics.
In 2010, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto "in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the field of astrophysics, and his administrative leadership in support of Canadian and international science".
In 2005, he won the Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
In 2002, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1999, Tremaine also received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from St. Mary's University.
In 1998, he won the Dirk Brouwer Award which is awarded by the Division of Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society "in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to a wide range of dynamical problems in both solar-system and galactic dynamics."
In 1997, he was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics for "diverse and insightful applications of dynamics to planets, rings, comets, galaxies and the universe."
In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science award by McMaster University.
In 1994, Tremaine became a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and also of the Royal Society of Canada.
In 1990, he was awarded the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics by the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada for "his outstanding contributions to the field to astrophysics, particularly his spectacular success in predicting the properties of planetary ring dynamics and the extraplanetary objects that control them".
In 1990, he won the C.S. Beals Award from the Canadian Astronomical Society which is awarded for outstanding research to a Canadian astronomer or an astronomer working in Canada.
In 1983, he won the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy given by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of "his many outstanding contributions to a wide range of dynamical problems in both solar-system and galactic dynamics".


Albert Thomas Price

Albert Thomas Price (30 January 1903 – 13 December 1978) was a British geophysicist.
He was born in Nantwich, Cheshire, and educated at Monmouth School, where he was head boy, and at Manchester University, where he graduated B.Sc. (Mathematics) in 1924.
In 1925 he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics at Queen's University, Belfast, moving in 1926 to Imperial College, London, where he was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1946. He remained at Imperial until 1951, when he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow. In 1952 he became Visiting Investigator at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and at the Institute of Geophysics, University of California. He was finally Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Exeter from 1952 to 1968 and Professor Emeritus thereafter.
In the 1930s his work was primarily on the subject of geomagnetism, developing mathematical models which proved the validity of global electromagnetic induction. During the Second World War Price acted as a scientific consultant to the Admiralty and various government departments, working on such problems as underwater explosions and rocket-assisted parachute deceleration. Towards the end of the war he collaborated on the work on floating breakwaters which were used in the Normandy landing. After the war he resumed his work on geomagnetism, developing the theory of induction in thin sheets.
In 1969 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his work on geomagnetism, especially for his study of the electrical conductivity of the earth's core.
The Price Medal, awarded annually by the Royal Astronomical Society for outstanding work in geophysics, is named in his honour.
He was married to Ann. He died in 1978 at the age of 75.


William M. Jackson (chemist)

William Morgan Jackson (born September 24, 1936) is a Distinguished Research and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Davis and pioneer in the field of astrochemistry. His work considers cometary astrochemistry and the development of laser photochemistry to understand planetary atmospheres. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society. In 2019 he was awarded the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Arthur B.C. Walker II Award for his research and commitment to promoting diversity. In 2021 he was awarded the American Physical Society Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize for outstanding contributions to fundamental chemical physics and spectroscopy associated with asteroids and comets, and for exemplary teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as lifelong service and inspiration to a diverse community.
Early life and education.
Jackson was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in a segregated society and spent part of his childhood in Dynamite Hill, an area in Birmingham that the Ku Klux Klan frequently bombed during the Civil rights movement. His father, a Tuskegee University graduate, owned the Apex Cab Company and also taught auto mechanics at Parker High School, whilst his mother, a Santa Barbara Junior High School graduate, worked for the US Government. At the age of nine Jackson contracted polio and he had to spend a year out of school. After completing tenth grade, Jackson joined Morehouse College as an early entrance student. He was awarded a full scholarship. At first Jackson considered majoring in mathematics, but decided to study chemistry after meeting Henry Cecil McBay. He graduated in 1956 and applied to several graduate schools, including Northwestern University and Purdue University. He received a response from Northwestern, who said that they had already fulfilled their three fellowships for African American students. Eventually he moved Washington, D.C., where he got a job and lived with his cousin. He studied at the Catholic University of America where he was awarded a postgraduate research fellowship. During his doctoral studies he worked in the Harry Diamond Laboratories, where he studied molten salt compounds. During the final year of his PhD, Jackson's wife became pregnant, and Jackson took time out of graduate school to earn money. During this time he worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He returned to the Catholic University of America where he studied gasoline additives. After earning his PhD in 1961 he joined the Lockheed Martin, where he worked on formaldehyde resins and ways to protect missiles as they reenter the Atmosphere of Earth. He returned to the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher, studying how radiant energy impacted chemical structures. He investigated how radiation impacted the coating applied to space vehicles.
Research and careers.
In 1964 Jackson joined the Goddard Space Flight Center. It was here that he became interested in the origins of free radicals in comets. While at the Goddard Space Flight Center he proposed to use the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite to look for comets. Using the Haystack Observatory, Jackson made measurements of water emission in comets. He joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1969, where he spent a year researching and teaching. At the University of Pittsburgh he worked with Wade Fite and Ted Brackman on the detection of electron impact on molecules using mass spectrometry. A year later he returned to Goddard, where he developed a system to detect free radicals using laser beams.
In 1974 one of Jackson's colleagues, a Professor of Chemistry at Howard University, died suddenly. Jackson agreed to teach his course for the rest of the term and was subsequently appointed to a joint position in chemistry and physics. Here he began working on laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) to study the rovibronic coupling in cyano radicals. He was the first person to demonstrate LIF could be used to study molecular photodissociation. He primarily studied comets using satellites ground-based telescopes, using experimental data and theoretical predictions to establish how the free radicals inside comets form. Despite having left Goddard Space Flight Center, Jackson served as team leader for the International Ultraviolet Explorer telescope, which observed Halley's Comet. He joined University of California, Davis in 1985 and was promoted to Distinguished Professor in 1998. The Jackson laboratory ("Jackson’s Photon Crusaders") developed tunable lasers which could be used to detect and characterise free radicals. These included excimer lasers, nitrogen-pumped lasers and an Alexandrite laser. By building laser systems in the laboratory, Jackson helped to establish the excited states of molecules that are present in planetary atmospheres. The experiments consisted of one laser for the photodissociation of the parent molecule, and another laser to excite the free radical into an excited state. When the excited molecule fluoresced back to the ground state, the fluorescence was captured in a photomultiplier tube. He has investigated the photochemistry of carbon monoxide, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. His laser systems exploit resonant four-wave mixing, which allows them to photodissociate gases observed in planetary atmospheres. He also showed that it is possible to ionise the resulting atomic fragments using a velocity imaging time-of-flight mass spectrometer.
In 1996 The Planetary Society named asteroid 1081 EE37 as (4322) "Billjackson" in his honour. He served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at University of California, Davis in 2000. He retired in 2006, but has continued to research and recruit students. In 2013 he was made the Emile A. Dickenson Professor at University of California, Davis. In 2019 the Journal of Physical Chemistry dedicated a special issue to Jackson.
Academic service and advocacy.
Jackson has campaigned for equity, diversity and inclusion in science since he started his career. He was one of the founders of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). The organization began to promote and award minority scientists and engineers, as well as encouraging high school students to consider studying science or engineering. It was supported by Ted Kennedy and the National Science Foundation. Jackson served as NOBCChE's first treasurer from 1973. He stated that he was inspired to start the NOBCChE after attending a meeting of the American Chemical Society, and seeing no African Americans there. He has served in various capacities for the NOBCChE, attending every annual meeting other than one (San Diego, 1999) in protest of the 1996 California Proposition 209. He provided evidence to congress in an effort to increase research funding to historically black colleges and universities. When he arrived at U.C. Davis, only two students from underrepresented minorities had ever earned chemistry PhDs there. While at UC Davis, he secured funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and increased the department's minority student population to about 15% of the academic cohort. Jackson was known for bringing students and researchers to his laboratory “who were the stones the builders rejected, and he made them the cornerstones for future scientific research”.
Awards and honors.
His awards and honours include;
Selected publications.
His publications include;


Visioncall

Visioncall was established in 1994 and is a home visiting optician that provides free home eye tests for the elderly and housebound in the United Kingdom. Visioncall also specialise in domiciliary eye care for care homes, hearing screening, and dental care.
Branches.
The Visioncall head office is based in Cambuslang, Scotland. They also have branches in Doncaster, Manchester, Newcastle, Surrey, Bristol, Essex, Birmingham, Wales and Ireland.
Awards.
Visioncall has twice been ranked in the Sunday Times Top 100 Fast Track Companies. They ranked number 38 in 2006 and number 71 in 2007
The owners of Visioncall were named as finalists for the Ernst & Young Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year Awards


Julena Steinheider Duncombe

Julena Steinheider Duncombe (1911–2003) was an American mathematician and astronomer. She was known for her work as a teacher at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and as an astronomer at the United States Naval Observatory, where she made pioneering observations with the 6-inch transit circle, introduced the use of punched cards in cataloging stars and constructing tables of positions of celestial bodies, and led the production of eclipse predictions for almanacs.
Life.
Julena Steinheider was born in Dorchester, Nebraska on September 21, 1911, the only daughter among five children of a farming family. She graduated in 1932 from Doane College with a degree in mathematics and a minor in astronomy. She became a teacher, first in a one-room schoolhouse and later as a geometry teacher at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, one of the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II.
She began working for the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC in 1944, and met her husband, astronomer Raynor L. Duncombe, there. They married in 1948, and she took her husband's name. They moved to Yale University, but returned to the Naval Observatory in 1950.
Duncombe retired in 1973, and moved with her husband in 1975 to Austin, Texas, maintaining a second home in Highlands, North Carolina. In her retirement, she assisted her husband with the production of the journal "Celestial Mechanics".
She died on September 13, 2003.
Recognition.
Duncombe was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


Battle of Mount Tumbledown

The Battle of Mount Tumbledown was an engagement during the Falklands War. Mount Tumbledown, Mount William and Sapper Hill lie west of the Falkland Islands capital Stanley and due to their proximity to the capital, were of strategic importance during the 1982 War. They were held by the Argentine 5th Naval Infantry Battalion (BIM 5), a reinforced, cold weather trained and equipped, Marine battalion.
The assaulting British forces were the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, 42 Commando, Royal Marines Mortar platoon and four light tanks of the Blues and Royals. The 1st Battalion, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles were held in reserve.
One of a number of night battles that took place during the British advance towards Stanley, the battle led to British troops capturing all the heights above the town, allowing its capture and the surrender of the Argentine forces on the islands.
Overview.
On the night of 13–14 June 1982 the British launched an assault on Mount Tumbledown, one of the highest points near the town of Stanley, the capital, and succeeded in driving Argentinian forces from the mountain. This close-quarters night battle was later dramatized in the BBC drama "Tumbledown".
The attacking British forces consisted of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards (2SG), mortar detachments from 42 Commando, Royal Marines and the 1st Battalion, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles (1/7 GR), as well as support from a troop of the Blues and Royals equipped with two Scorpion and two Scimitar armoured vehicles.
The Argentinian forces defending the mountains were Commander Carlos Robacio's 5th Marine Infantry Battalion (BIM 5). In Argentine shelling directed by Marine Second Lieutenant Marcelo De Marco of the 5th Marines from his observation post on Tumbledown Mountain, four members of the Third Battalion, the Parachute Regiment and one REME craftsman had been killed on Mount Longdon and another seven paratroopers wounded.
Prior to the British landings, the Argentinian marine battalion had been brought up to brigade strength by a company of the Amphibious Engineers Company (CKIA), a heavy machine-gun company of the Headquarters Battalion (BICO), a battery of the 1st Marine Field Artillery Battalion (BIAC), and three Tigercat SAM/Hispano-Suiza 30mm anti-aircraft gun batteries of the 1st Marine Anti-Aircraft Regiment, as well as a 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion platoon, a 3rd Marine Infantry Battalion platoon, a military police platoon and a canine platoon.
As part of the British plan, 1/7 GR was given the task of capturing the sub-hill of Mount William held by O Company, the 5th Marine Battalion's reserve, and then allowing the Welsh Guards through to seize Sapper Hill, the final obstacle before Stanley. The attack was supported by naval gunfire from HMS "Active"'s 4.5 inch gun.
At the time of the battle, Marine Teniente de Navio (Ship-of-the-Line Lieutenant) Eduardo Villarraza's N Company held Mount Tumbledown. Mount William was just south of Tumbledown and the Marine battalion's O Company under Marine Captain Ricardo Quiroga was on its lower slopes. Major Oscar Ramon Jaimet's B (Bravo) Company, 6th Army Regiment was in reserve behind N Company. Marine Captain Rodolfo Oscar Cionchi's M Company occupied Sapper Hill. The Argentinian defenders held firm under the British 'softening up' bombardment, which began at 7:30 local time. Major Jaimet later recalled:
I heard the cries of the wounded calling for their comrades, twelve men wounded before nightfall. We thought we had suffered before, but what luxury and comfort compared to this.
During the battle, the 5th Marines Command Post took five direct hits, but Commander Robacio emerged unscathed.
Tumbledown defenders.
Captain Eduardo Villarraza's N Company from the 5th Marine Battalion, would defend Mounts Tumbledown and William.
Early moves.
On the morning of 13 June, the Scots Guards were moved by helicopter from their position at Bluff Cove to an assembly area near Goat Ridge, west of Mount Tumbledown. The British plan called for a diversionary attack south of Mount Tumbledown by a small number of the Scots Guards, assisted by the four light tanks of the Blues and Royals, whilst the main attack came as a three-phase silent advance from the west of Mount Tumbledown.
In the first phase, G company would take the western end of the mountain. In the second phase, Left Flank (company) would pass through the area taken by G company to capture the centre of the summit. In the third phase, Right Flank would pass through Left Flank to secure the eastern end of Tumbledown.
A daytime assault was initially planned, but was postponed at the British battalion commander's request. In a meeting with his company commanders the consensus was that the long uphill assault across the harsh ground of Tumbledown would be suicidal in daylight.
Diversion.
At 8:30 p.m. on 13 June the diversionary attack began. The 2nd Bn Scots Guards' Reconnaissance Platoon, commanded by Major Richard Bethell (a former SAS officer), and supported by four light tanks of the 'Blues & Royals', clashed with the Argentine O Marine Company under Marine Captain Quiroga in a blocking position on the lower slopes of Mount William. On William's southern slopes, one of the tanks was taken out of action by a booby trap.
The initial advance was unopposed, but a heavy firefight broke out when British troops made contact with Argentinian defences. The Argentinians opened fire, killing two British soldiers and wounding four others. After two hours of hard fighting, the company withdrew to its main defences on William and the British secured the position. Marine First Class Private José Luis Fazio fought against Bethell's force:
At about 2230 hours our battalion had its first intensive gun battle with British companies which appeared out of nowhere. I heard Private Roberto Barboza yell "The English are here!" ... I remember our Operations Officer requested the artillery to assist at 23.00 with star shells. The close quarter battle was such that the Argentine artillery was unable to drop shells on to the British attackers. I was shooting, doing my work. I don't know if I killed anyone. We just fired our rifles, that's all. Contact was maintained for over an hour before battalion headquarters ordered Obra Company to fall back ... What we did not realise at the time was that at least a wounded Marine made his way to the amphibious engineer platoon position and hurled a grenade wounding a Major. Simultaneously the Major opened fire, killing him.
Fearing a counter-attack, the British platoon withdrew into an undetected minefield, and were forced to abandon their dead. Two men were wounded covering the withdrawal and four more were wounded by mines. The explosions prompted the Argentine Marine Major Antonio Pernías to order the 81 mm mortar platoon on Mount William and the longer-ranged 120 mm mortars attached to 'C' Company, 3rd Infantry Regiment on Sapper Hill to open fire on the minefield and the likely withdrawal route of anyone attacking Mount William. The barrage lasted for about forty minutes and more British casualties would have been inflicted if the mortar bombs had not landed on soft peat, which absorbed most of the power of the explosions.
In 2007, Guardsmen Steven William Duffy and Peter Alexander MacInnes from the Pipes & Drums Platoon recounted their experiences, claiming that some Argentinian Marines were in hot pursuit during the British withdrawal, with Bethell's force suffering a total of 2 killed and 16 wounded.
Night attack.
At 9 p.m., half an hour after the start of the diversionary attack, Major Iain Dalzel-Job's G Company started its advance of nearly two miles. Reaching its objective undetected, the company found the western end of the mountain undefended and occupied it easily, but later came under heavy shellfire that wounded Major Dalzel-Job in the head. Major John Kiszely's Left Flank passed through them and reached the central region of the peak unopposed, but then came under heavy fire.
The Argentinians, later learned to be of company strength, directed mortar, grenade, machine gun and small arms fire from very close range at the British company, killing three British soldiers. Marine Sub-Lieutenant Héctor Mino's 5th Platoon (1st Amphibious Engineer Company), held the rocks behind Sub-Lieutenant Carlos Vázquez's 4th Platoon, N Company. In the centre of the 4th Marine Platoon position were the remnants of Second Lieutenants Óscar Silva's and Marcelo Llambías-Pravaz's RI 4 platoons as well as the remnants of Second Lieutenants Celestino Mosteirín's and Marcelo Dorigón's RI 12 platoons, which had recently fought on Two Sisters, Goat Ridge and Mount Harriet.
For four or five hours, a mixed bag of Marine/Army defenders representing six platoons of Argentinian infantry, engineers and one platoon of mortar men on Tumbledown pinned the British down. To help identify the bunkers, the Guardsmen fired flares at the summit. The Guardsmen traded 66 mm rockets and 84 mm anti-tank rounds with the Argentinians, who were armed with anti-tank rifle grenades and protected in their rock bunkers. The Argentinians refused to budge; the Guardsmen could hear some of them shouting obscene phrases in English and even singing the March of the Malvinas as they fought.
Meanwhile, two Royal Navy frigates, HMS "Yarmouth" and "Active", were pounding Tumbledown with their 4.5 inch guns. At one stage Lieutenant Colonel Michael Scott, (Commanding Officer of 2 SG), thought the battalion might have to withdraw and attack again the next night, "The old nails were being bitten a bit, if we had been held on Tumbledown it might have encouraged them to keep on fighting".
Left flank.
The fighting was hard going for Left Flank. The Argentinians had well dug-in machine guns and snipers. At 2:30 a.m., however, a second British assault overwhelmed the men of the 4th and 12th Regiments but the survivors of Vazquez's 4th Platoon would continue fighting till about 7:00 am. The British troops swarmed over the mountaintop and killed, wounded or captured several of the RI 4 and RI 12 defenders, at times fighting with fixed bayonets. Marine Private Jorge Sanchez recalled:
The fighting was sporadic, but at times fierce, as we tried to maintain our position. By this time we had ten or twelve dead including one officer [Second Lieutenant Oscar Silva, Argentine Army]. I hadn't fired directly at a British soldier, as they had been too hard to get a clear shot at. I can remember lying there with all this firing going over my head. They were everywhere. The platoon commander [Marine Sub-Lieutenant Carlos Daniel Vazquez] then called Private Ramon Rotela manning the 60 millimetre mortar and Rotela fired it straight up into the air so that the bombs landed on ourselves. At this point I had been up and in actual combat for over six hours. It was snowing and we were tired. Some of the guys had surrendered, but I didn't want to do this. I had only twenty rounds left and I decided to continue the fight from Mount William. I popped up, fired a rifle grenade in the direction of 8 to 10 British soldiers to keep their heads down, and then ran for the 2nd Platoon. I can remember saying some type of prayer hoping the British wouldn't shoot me in the back.
Major Kiszely, who was to become a senior general after the war, was the first man into the 4th Platoon position, personally shooting two Argentinian conscripts and bayoneting a third, his bayonet breaking in two. Seeing their company commander among the Argentinians inspired 14 and 15 Platoons to make the final dash across open ground to get within bayoneting distance of the remaining 4th Platoon Marines. Kiszely and six other Guardsmen suddenly found themselves standing on top of the mountain, looking down on Stanley which was under street lighting and vehicles could be seen moving along the roads. The Argentinians, in the form of Second Lieutenant Augusto La Madrid's platoon from Major Jaimet's B Company and Marine Lieutenant Hector Miño's amphibious engineer platoon (rallied by Marine Lieutenant Waldemar Aquino and Marine Second Lieutenant De Marco), now counter-attacked and a burst of machine gun fire from La Madrid's men wounded three Guardsmen, including Lieutenant Alasdair Mitchell (commander of 15 Platoon). A bullet also passed through the compass secured on the belt of the Left Flank Company commander, injuring Major Kiszely. For his bayonet charge Kiszely was awarded the Military Cross. According to Guardsman Mark Cape, another three Guardsmen defending the summit were also wounded in this action, when Miño, De Marco and Privates Oscar Poltronieri and Carlos Muela attacked their position with hand grenades.
Counterattack.
By 6 a.m., Left Flank's attack had clearly stalled and had cost the British company seven men killed and 18 wounded. On the eastern half of the mountain the platoons of conscripts of La Madrid and Miño platoon, were attempting to renew their advance, having already wounded six Guardsmen, so Colonel Scott ordered Right Flank to push on to clear the final positions. Second Lieutenant La Madrid later described the fighting:
I went forward to make a reconnaissance and could see that the British had two machineguns and a missile launcher in action. I went through another gap in the rocks and was surprised by three men speaking in English behind and above me and firing over the top of me. I could see them with my night binoculars ... I took a rifle grenade and fired at where I had seen the first three men. I heard it explode and some shouts and cries of pain ... I ran back to my position and ordered my men to open fire. We stopped them, but they thinned out and came round our flanks ... They also engaged us with light mortars and missile launchers. This went on for a long time, and we suffered heavy casualties ... We started to run short of ammunition ... Also, I could see that we were outflanked, with the British behind us, so we were cut off from my company ... I reorganized and found that I was down to sixteen men. I started to retire ... I left six men in a line with one machinegun to cover our retreat, but really we were fighting all the time; we could not break contact. They came on us fast, and we fell back ... We eventually got through to Stanley, through what I would like to say was a perfect barrage fired by the Royal Artillery. We had to wait for breaks in the firing, but I still lost a man killed there.
Major Simon Price sent 2 and 3 Platoons forward, preceded by a barrage of 66 mm rockets to clear the Argentine reinforcements. Major Price placed 1 Platoon high up in the rocks to provide fire support for the assault troops.
Lieutenant Robert Lawrence led 3 Platoon around to the right of the Argentinian platoons, hoping to take the Argentinians by surprise. They were detected, however, and the British were briefly pinned down by gunfire before a bayonet charge overwhelmed the Argentinian defenders. Lance-Corporal Graham Rennie of 3 Platoon later described the British attack:
Our assault was initiated by a Guardsman killing a sniper, which was followed by a volley of 66 mm anti-tank rounds. We ran forward in extended line, machine-gunners and riflemen firing from the hip to keep the enemy heads down, enabling us to cover the open ground in the shortest possible time. Halfway across the open ground 2 Platoon went to ground to give covering fire support, enabling us to gain a foothold on the enemy position. From then on we fought from crag to crag, rock to rock, taking out pockets of enemy and lone riflemen, all of whom resisted fiercely.
As La Madrid and Miño withdrew after suffering reportedly five killed in the Argentine counterattack, the platoons under Second Lieutenant Aldo Franco and Guillermo Robredo moved in from the eastern edge of the mountain to try to help La Madrid and Miño. Advancing out of the central region of Tumbledown Mountain, the British again came under heavy fire from the Argentinians, but by advancing in pairs under covering fire, they succeeded in clearing those Bravo Company platoons as well, gaining firm control of the mountain's eastern side.
Right Flank had achieved this at the cost of five wounded, including Lieutenant Lawrence. However, Left Flank had lost two men killed and several wounded during the Argentine counterattack, when mortar fire controllers on Mount William targeted British wounded and stretcher bearers in error. In his moment of victory on the eastern slopes, Lawrence was almost killed when a bullet fired by an Argentine stay-behind sniper tore off the side of his head. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery, but he spent a year in a wheelchair and was almost totally paralyzed. The Argentinian sniper (in fact Private Luis Jorge Bordón or Walter Ignacio Becerra, according to La Madrid), armed with a FAL rifle, had helped cover the Argentinean retreat, firing shots at a Scout helicopter evacuating wounded off Tumbledown and wounding two men (including Guardsman Kenny Mains). The Scots Guards eventually mortally wounded him in a hail of gunfire, but not before the Argentine soldier generated more confusion, resulting in the wounding of the Forward Observation Officer (FOO, Captain Swinton) attached to the Gurkhas, while clearing the positions of Marine Sergeant Jorge Lucero's 3rd Platoon before advancing on to take Mount William.
Fall of Tumbledown.
By 9:00 a.m., the Scots Guards had gained the high ground east of Tumbledown Mountain and the Gurkhas commenced deploying across the heavily shelled saddle from Tumbledown south to Mount William, which they took with the loss of 8 wounded. The 2nd Battalion Scots Guards had lost eight dead and 43 wounded. The Welsh Guards had lost one dead, the Royal Engineers had also lost one dead, and the Gurkhas had sustained altogether 13 wounded, including the artillery observation officer, Captain Keith Swinton. According to Dhanbahadur Rai, a Gurkha:
The Scots Guards were to attack Tumbledown, with the Gurkhas following behind. We were supposed to finish the attack and they would give us covering fire from Tumbledown ... During the night we followed the Scots Guards and then our CO told us to stop. The ground was like a valley when we stopped and afterwards the shelling started ... The headquarters and A Company had twelve wounded ... The next morning we started to move. The CO sahib and the anti-tank Milan Platoon commander and the FOO were just going up and they got a rifle shot. Our commanding sahib was shouting. He said, "Look, Goli Ayo!" "Get down! Someone fired!" Then the FOO was standing and looking and the second shot hit him in the chest.
The Guards took 30 prisoners, several of them RI 6 soldiers from Bravo Company. The bodies of 30 Argentine Army and Marine soldiers were found in and around the 5th Marine Battalion perimeter. Reaching the rear positions of N Marine Company, Second Lieutenant Franco took the time to set free several German Shepherds left behind in the Argentine retreat from Tumbledown.
During the battle, Guardsman Philip Williams was knocked unconscious by an explosion, and left for dead. When he came to, the rest of the British soldiers had gone. Williams' parents were informed that he had died and a memorial service was held for him. When he returned to civilization after seven weeks, he was accused of desertion by the media and fellow soldiers.
Last stand on Sapper Hill.
Relevant deployments.
While the bulk of the 5th Marine Battalion was deployed on Mounts Tumbledown and William, M Company were stationed along the Sapper Hill slopes, along with supporting Tigercat SAM launchers and Hispano Suiza 30 mm guns from the 1st Marine Anti-Aircraft Battalion, plus extra security in the form of 5 canines ("Ñaro", "Nego", "Vogel", "Warner" and "Xuavia", their handlers, and accompanying riflemen) of the Marine Dog Platoon (Puerto Belgrano-based, under Sub-Lieutenant Miguel Paz). (In all, 18 German Shepherds under Sub-Lieutenant Paz were deployed in and around Stanley.)
Also present on Sapper Hill were 155mm guns from the 101st Artillery Group, the 120mm Heavy Mortar Platoon from Captain Ramón Alberto Varela's C Company, and the Reconnaissance Platoon (under Lieutenant Norman Osvaldo Reynoso) from the 3rd "General Manuel Belgrano" Mechanized Infantry Regiment. An Air Force mobile Westinghouse AN/TPS-43 long-range radar was positioned on Sapper Hill, in April.
On 1 May, a Royal Navy bombardment of Sapper Hill killed Private Daniel Cabiglioli (from M Company). The Westinghouse radar was also damaged, and would remain out of service for several days. That night, patrolling near Sapper Hill, a five-man squad (under Sergeant Miguel Angel Martinez) from the 3rd Regiment Recce Platoon discovered an abandoned rubber boat. The next day, the 1st Assault Section (under First Lieutenant José Martiniano Duarte) from the 601st Commando Company checked the boat for hidden explosives, then brought it back to Port Stanley for closer examination.
In June, Lieutenant Reynoso's Recce Platoon reportedly exchanged small arms fire with a British patrol (possibly G Squadron from the SAS, who had commandeered a yacht at Bluff Cove Settlement to operate behind Tumbledown and had also sent men forward in a helicopter) infiltrated near Sapper Hill, prior to the final land battles.
On 7 June, the Westinghouse radar reportedly detected the British landings at Fitzroy; the next day, Skyhawk fighter-bombers attacked the British troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram with bombs.
A British Harrier was claimed to be hit by concentrated fire from M Company, on 7 June. According to Private José Luis Fazio:
No Harriers were shot down on 7 June.
On 12 June, Harrier XW919 was hit by shrapnel, possibly from a Tigercat missile, and seriously damaged while dropping CBUs on an artillery position near Sapper Hill. During the recovery, the aircraft caught fire on "Hermes" flight deck, owing to a fractured reaction pipe. Argentine sources claim that the aircraft was hit by AAA immediately after the attack. A 155 mm howitzer was lightly damaged and six soldiers injured. (The Harrier had extensive repairs and, though still operational, it was ultimately transferred to the School of Flight Deck Operations at Culdrose, and was eventually donated to the Polish Aviation Museum of Kraków.)
On 13 June, a Welsh Guards messenger, bringing forward food supplies to Major Christopher Drewrywe's Number 2 Company (1WG), was killed when his motorbike ran over a mine.
Last Stand.
After first light on 14 June, Major Phillip Neame's D Company of 2 PARA in the final stages of the Battle of Wireless Ridge reported seeing hundreds of Argentinians regrouping on Sapper Hill. Argentine artillery and Second Lieutenant La Madrid 6th Regiment platoon was still in action, firing on Neame's company and losing another two killed (Privates Horacio Echave and Horacio Balvidares) on Sapper Hill. While taking up new positions on Sapper Hill, Sergeant Víctor Hugo Juárez from 5th Marine Battalion HQs, Private Vicente Antonio Díaz from the 1st Amphibious Engineers Company and Private Ricardo Ramírez from the 81mm Mortar Platoon on Mount William are also killed in the fierce British bombardment and long-range retaliatory machinegun and small-arms fire from Neame's company on Wireless Ridge.
On the night of the 13/14 June, the Welsh Guards/Royal Marine Battalion were on standby to help in the British attacks on Mounts Tumbledown and William. Their orders were to move towards Sapper Hill only after these objectives were taken. During the advance, they became bogged down in a minefield, which took them a very long and frustrating time to extract themselves from, after coming under fire from heavy mortars on Sapper Hill. Meanwhile, the men of the 1st Battalion 7th Gurkha Rifles had been spotted and shelled from Argentine mortar fire controllers and artillery officers on Sapper Hill, suffering eight wounded. Earlier on, a Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre patrol under Sergeant David Lazenby had penetrated the frozen minefield to secure a landing zone for the British helicopters. Major Drewrywe's Welsh Guards eventually reached the base of Sapper Hill, only to discover that the Argentine M Company was still in position. The Guardsmen were forced to withdraw, protected by the early morning fog, this time avoiding the minefield. Due to this delay, it was decided that 45 Commando should move forward from Two Sisters to occupy Sapper Hill. While 45 Commando were marching towards Sapper Hill, Alpha and Charlie Companies from 40 Commando had escaped from the attention of the Argentine defenders on Sapper Hill and they were picked up by helicopters. They were eventually landed on the slopes of Sapper Hill just as 45 Commando were approaching, so both units attacked and captured the hill.
Argentine Retreat.
Unwilling to abandon Tumbledown, Commander Carlos Robacio on Sapper Hill was planning to counter-attack and drive back the Guardsmen. Only the personal intervention of Colonel Félix Aguiar, the 10th Brigade Chief of Staff, brought the fighting to an end. The 5th Marines worked their way back into Stanley, leaving the 2nd Platoon of Marine Second Lieutenant Marcelo Davis and 3rd Platoon of Marine Second Lieutenant Alejandro Koch of M Company to cover the retreat. The Argentine Marine companies withdrew safely, although pursued by artillery fire and hit by a laser-guided bomb dropped by Flight Lieutenant Mark Hare in XZ133 killing two of the Marine canines, "Negro" and "Ñaro". Argentine Panhard armoured cars were moved forward to the edge of Stanley to cover the retreating troops.
Marine Privates Roberto Leyes, Eleodoro Monzón and Sergio Ariel from M Company were killed protecting the Argentine retreat. Six Royal Marines were wounded by mines and small-arms firesecuring Sapper Hill, including four Marines from 40 Commando, one Sapper from Condor Troop and a forward officer (Major Brian Armitage) from 3 Commando Brigade HQs.
The Royal Marines in Second Lieutenant Carl Bushby's 9 Troop protecting the landing zone successfully defended their position when the Argentine Marines under Davis launched a counter-attack, the last one of the ground campaign. Two parked British Sea Kings within range from Koch's Marines sustained minor damage from Sergeant Miguel Angel Vaca's machine-gun and rifle-grenades fired by Corporal Carlos Jorge Sini, but both remained operational.
At the foot of the hill, there was an enormous minefield. Lieutenant Paul Allen and Marine Wayne McGregor of 7 Troop were both wounded activating anti-personnel mines. A group of Sappers from Condor Troop went ahead to clear a path through the mines, losing Sergeant Peter Thorpe badly wounded in the process. Tanks of the Blues & Royals moved forward, to provide covering fire if necessary. During the helicopter evacuations of the wounded, Captain Sam Drennan of No. 656 Squadron would win the Distinguished Flying Cross for rescuing a wounded Gurkha and Guardsman from the middle of a minefield. However, when the Royal Marines and Welsh Guardsmen advanced they found Sapper Hill abandoned. The delay caused by the mines probably saved many lives. The Argentine Marine companies had been deeply entrenched and were well equipped with heavy machine guns. To Guardsman Tracy Evens, the Sapper Hill positions looked impregnable:
We were led to an area that the company would rest at for the night, I still took in the fact the Argies had prepared Sapper Hill well, they had depth positions that would have made the task of taking it very hard.
As the Guardsmen and Royal Marines consolidated their positions, the British lost a Volvo Bv 202 tracked vehicle to an anti-tank mine planted in the Sapper Hill sector.
We ran over a mine. I went up through the roof and the vehicle went up and was turned right round by the explosion, recalled Major Brian Armitage who was shortly evacuated to receive medical treatment.
Military recognition.
For the courage displayed in the attack, men from 2 SG were awarded one Distinguished Service Order, two Military Crosses, two Distinguished Conduct Medals (one posthumously) and two Military Medals. Men from 9 Para Squadron, Royal Engineers, were awarded two Military Medals and Captain Sam Drennan, the Army Air Corps Scout pilot who had picked up the injured soldiers under fire and a former Scots Guards NCO, received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Carlos Robacio, BIM5 commander, was awarded the Argentine Nation to the Valour in Combat Medal and the battalion itself was decorated by the Argentine Congress in 2002.
Due to his actions on both Two Sisters and Tumbledown, Private Oscar Ismael Poltronieri of La Madrid's platoon was awarded the Argentine Nation to the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross, Argentina's highest military decoration. He is the only conscript soldier in his nation's recent history who has received this honour.
After the battle, Pipe Major James Riddell of 2 SG stood near the top of the mountain and played his bagpipes. He played a quick march he had composed "on the back of a fag packet" [cigarette pack] during the battle, following a long tradition in which Pipe Majors were encouraged "to write tunes to commemorate any actions in which their regiments have been engaged". He named the tune "The Crags of Tumbledown Mountain". It was released as a single by the Pipes and Drums of 2SG a year later.
Tumbledown after the war.
The film "Tumbledown", directed by Richard Eyre, premiered on 30 May 1988. It is based on the experiences of Lieutenant Robert Lawrence, who was severely wounded during the battle. The film won several awards including the RTS Television Award 1989 for best male actor for Colin Firth's performance in the role of Lieutenant Lawrence.
In 2012, Argentine journalist Nicolas Kasanzew wrote a tango called "Carlos Daniel Vazquez's Thermopylae", which is sung by Carlos Longoni.
A cross has been erected at the summit of the mountain as a memorial to the soldiers who died in the battle.
Two British artists have depicted the battle in painting, Mark Churms and Terence Cuneo, the latter commissioned by the Scots Guards.
In the UK a Tumbledown Veterans And Families Association was created.
An ode was written in honour of the fallen:


Methane on Mars

The reported presence of methane in the atmosphere of Mars is of interest to many geologists and astrobiologists, as methane may indicate the presence of microbial life on Mars, or a geochemical process such as volcanism or hydrothermal activity.
Since 2004, trace amounts of methane (range from 60 ppbv to under detection limit (< 0.05 ppbv)) have been reported in various missions and observational studies. The source of methane on Mars and the explanation for the enormous discrepancy in the observed methane concentrations are still unknown and are under study. Whenever methane is detected, it is rapidly removed from the atmosphere by an efficient, yet unknown process.
History of detections.
Methane (CH4) is chemically unstable in the current oxidizing atmosphere of Mars. It would quickly break down due to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun and chemical reactions with other gases. Therefore, a persistent or episodic presence of methane in the atmosphere may imply the existence of a source to continually replenish the gas.
The first evidence of methane in the atmosphere was measured by ESA's "Mars Express" orbiter with an instrument called the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer. In March 2004, the "Mars Express" science team suggested the presence of methane in the atmosphere at a concentration of about 10 ppbv. This was confirmed soon after by three ground-based telescope teams, although large differences in the abundances were measured between observations taken in 2003 and 2006. This spatial and temporal variability of the gas suggests that the methane was locally concentrated and probably seasonal. It is estimated that Mars must produce 270 ton/year of methane.
In 2011, NASA scientists reported a comprehensive search using high-resolution infrared spectroscopy from high-altitude Earth ground-based observatories (VLT, Keck-2, NASA-IRTF) for trace species (including methane) on Mars, deriving sensitive upper limits for methane (< 7 ppbv), ethane (< 0.2 ppbv), methanol (< 19 ppbv) and others (H2CO, C2H2, C2H4, N2O, NH3, HCN, CH3Cl, HCl, HO2 – all limits at ppbv levels).
In August 2012, the "Curiosity" rover landed on Mars. The rover's instruments are capable of making precise abundance measurements, but cannot be used to distinguish between different isotopologues of methane and so it cannot determine if it is geophysical or biological in origin. However, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) can measure these ratios and point to their origin.
The first measurements with "Curiosity" Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in 2012 indicated that there was no methane —or less than 5 ppb— at the landing site, later calculated to a baseline of 0.3 to 0.7 ppbv. In 2013, NASA scientists again reported no detection of methane beyond a baseline. But in 2014, NASA reported that the "Curiosity" rover detected a tenfold increase ('spike') in methane in the atmosphere around it in late 2013 and early 2014. Four measurements taken over two months in this period averaged 7.2 ppbv, implying that Mars is episodically producing or releasing methane from an unknown source. Before and after that, readings averaged around one-tenth that level. On 7 June 2018, NASA announced the confirmation of a cyclical seasonal variation in the background level of atmospheric methane. The largest concentration of methane detected "in situ" by the "Curiosity" rover shows a spike to 21 ppbv, during an event in late June 2019. The "Mars Express" orbiter happened to be performing spot tracking in that area 20 hours before "Curiosity" methane detection, as well as 24 and 48 hours after the detection, and the TGO was performing atmospheric observations at around the same time but at a higher latitude.
The Indian [[Mars Orbiter Mission]], which entered orbit around Mars on 24 September 2014, is equipped with a [[Fabry–Pérot interferometer]] to measure atmospheric methane, but after entering Mars orbit it was determined that it was not capable of detecting methane, so the instrument was repurposed as an [[Albedo feature|albedo mapper]]. As of April 2019, the TGO showed that the concentration of methane is under detectable level (< 0.05 ppbv).
The [[Perseverance (rover)|"Perseverance" rover]] (landed Feb 2021) and the [[Rosalind Franklin (rover)|"Rosalind Franklin" rover]] (due 2023) will not be equipped to analyze the atmospheric methane nor its isotopes, so the proposed [[Mars sample-return mission]] in the mid-2030s seems the earliest a sample could be analyzed to differentiate a geological vs biological origin.
Potential sources.
[[File:PIA19088-MarsCuriosityRover-MethaneSource-20141216.png|right|thumb|250x250px|Possible methane sources and sinks on Mars.]]
Geophysical.
The principal candidates for the origin of Mars' methane include non-biological processes such as [[Properties of water|water]]-rock reactions, [[radiolysis]] of water, and [[pyrite]] formation, all of which produce [[Hydrogen|H2]] that could then generate methane and other hydrocarbons via [[Fischer–Tropsch process|Fischer–Tropsch synthesis]] with [[Carbon monoxide|CO]] and CO2. It has also been shown that methane could be produced by a process involving water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral [[olivine]], which is known to be common on Mars. The required conditions for this reaction (i.e. high temperature and pressure) do not exist on the surface but may exist within the crust. Detection of the mineral by-product [[serpentinite]] would suggest that this process is occurring. An analog on Earth suggests that low-temperature production and exhalation of methane from serpentinized rocks may be possible on Mars. Another possible geophysical source could be ancient methane trapped in [[clathrate hydrates]] that may be released occasionally. Under the assumption of a cold early Mars environment, a [[cryosphere]] could trap such methane as clathrates in a stable form at depth, that might exhibit sporadic release.
On modern Earth, volcanism is a minor source of methane emission, and it is usually accompanied by sulfur dioxide gases. However, several studies of trace gases in the Martian atmosphere have found no evidence for sulfur dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, which makes [[volcanism on Mars]] unlikely to be the source of methane. Although geologic sources of methane such as [[serpentinization]] are possible, the lack of current [[volcanism]], [[hydrothermal activity]] or [[Hotspot (geology)|hotspots]] are not favorable for geologic methane.
It had also been proposed that the methane might be replenished by meteorites entering the atmosphere of Mars, but researchers from the [[Imperial College London]] found that the volumes of methane released this way are too low to sustain the measured levels of the gas. It has been suggested that the methane was produced by chemical reactions in meteorites, driven by the intense heat during entry through the atmosphere. Although research published in December 2009 ruled out this possibility, research published in 2012 suggest that a source may be [[organic compound]]s on meteorites that are converted to methane by [[ultraviolet]] radiation.
Lab tests demonstrated that bursts of methane can be produced when an electrical discharge interacts with water ice and CO2. The discharges from the electrification of dust particles from sand storms and dust devils in contact with permafrost ice may produce about 1.41×1016 molecules of methane per joule of applied energy.
Current [[photochemical]] models cannot explain the apparent rapid variability of the methane levels in Mars. Research suggests that the implied methane destruction lifetime is as long as ≈ 4 Earth years and as short as ≈ 0.6 Earth years. This unexplained fast destruction rate also suggests a very active replenishing source. A team from the Italian [[National Institute for Astrophysics]] suspects that the methane detected by the "Curiosity" rover may have been released from a nearby area called [[Medusae Fossae Formation]] located about 500 km east of Gale crater. The region is fractured and is likely volcanic in origin.
Biogenic.
Living [[microorganism]]s, such as [[methanogen]]s, are another possible source, but no evidence for the presence of such organisms has been found on Mars. In Earth's oceans, biological methane production tends to be accompanied by [[ethane]] (). The long-term ground-based spectroscopic observation did not find these organic species in the Martian atmosphere. Given the expected long lifetimes for some of these species, emission of biogenic organics seem to be extremely rare or currently non-existent.
The reduction of [[carbon dioxide]] into methane in the presence of [[hydrogen]] can be expressed as follows:
Some of the CO2 reacts with the hydrogen to produce methane, which creates an [[electrochemical gradient]] across the [[cell membrane]], used to generate [[Adenosine triphosphate|ATP]] through [[chemiosmosis]]. In contrast, [[plant]]s and [[algae]] use water as their [[reducing agent]].
Measuring the ratio of [[hydrogen]] and methane levels on Mars may help determine the likelihood of [[life on Mars]]. A low H2/CH4 ratio in the atmosphere (less than approximately 40) may indicate that a large part of atmospheric methane could be attributed to biological activities, but the observed ratios in the lower Martian atmosphere were "approximately 10 times" higher "suggesting that biological processes may not be responsible for the observed CH4".
Since the 2003 discovery of methane in the atmosphere, some scientists have been designing models and "in vitro" experiments testing the growth of [[methanogen]]ic bacteria on simulated Martian soil, where all four methanogen strains tested produced substantial levels of methane, even in the presence of 1.0 wt% [[perchlorate]] salt. Methanogens do not require oxygen or organic nutrients, are non-photosynthetic, use hydrogen as their energy source, and carbon dioxide (CO2) as their carbon source, so they could exist in subsurface environments on Mars. If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it probably resides far below the surface, where it is still warm enough for [[Water on Mars|liquid water]] to exist.
Research at the University of Arkansas published in 2015 suggested that some methanogens could survive on Mars' low pressure similar to a subsurface liquid aquifer on Mars. The four species tested were "[[Methanothermobacter]] wolfeii", "[[Methanosarcina]] barkeri", "[[Methanobacterium]] formicicum", and "[[Methanococcus maripaludis]]".
A team led by [[Gilbert Levin]] suggested that both phenomena—methane production and degradation—could be accounted for by an ecology of methane-producing and methane-consuming microorganisms.
Even if rover missions determine that microscopic Martian life is the seasonal source of the methane, the life forms probably reside far below the surface, outside of the rover's reach.
Potential sinks.
It was initially thought that methane is chemically unstable in an oxidizing atmosphere with UV radiation and so its lifetime in the Martian atmosphere should be about 400 years, but in 2014, it was concluded that the strong methane sinks are not subject to atmospheric oxidation, suggesting an efficient physical-chemical process at the surface that "consumes" methane, generically called a "sink".
A hypothesis postulates that the methane is not consumed at all, but rather condenses and evaporates seasonally from [[Clathrate compound|clathrates]]. Another hypothesis is that methane reacts with tumbling surface sand quartz (silicon dioxide ) and [[olivine]] to form covalent Si –  bonds. The researchers showed that these solids can be oxidized and gases are ionized during the erosion processes. Thus, the ionized methane reacts with the mineral surfaces and bonds to them.
References.
[[Category:Atmosphere of Mars]]
[[Category:Mars]]
[[Category:Astrobiology]]


Vesto Slipher

Vesto Melvin Slipher (; November 11, 1875 – November 8, 1969) was an American astronomer who performed the first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies. He was the first to discover that distant galaxies are redshifted, thus providing the first empirical basis for the expansion of the universe. He was also the first to relate these redshifts to velocity.
Biography.
Slipher was born in Mulberry, Indiana, and completed his doctorate at Indiana University in 1909. He spent his entire career at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he was promoted to assistant director in 1915, acting director in 1916, and finally director from 1926 until his retirement in 1952.
His brother Earl C. Slipher was also an astronomer and a director at the Lowell Observatory.
Slipher used spectroscopy to investigate the rotation periods of planets and the composition of planetary atmospheres. In 1912, he was the first to observe the shift of spectral lines of galaxies, making him the discoverer of galactic redshifts.
In 1914, Slipher also made the first discovery of the rotation of spiral galaxies.
He discovered the sodium layer in 1929. He was responsible for hiring Clyde Tombaugh and supervised the work that led to the discovery of Pluto in 1930.
Edwin Hubble is often incorrectly credited with discovering the redshift of galaxies; these measurements and their significance were understood before 1917 by James Edward Keeler (Lick & Allegheny), Vesto Melvin Slipher (Lowell), and William Wallace Campbell (Lick) at other observatories.
Combining his own measurements of galaxy distances with Vesto Slipher's measurements of the redshifts associated with the galaxies, Hubble and Milton Humason discovered a rough proportionality of the objects' distances with their redshifts. This redshift-distance correlation, today termed Hubble–Lemaître's law (formerly named as Hubble's law, the IAU Decision of October 2018 recommends the use of a new name), was formulated by Hubble and Humason in 1929 and became the basis for the modern model of the expanding universe.
Slipher died in Flagstaff, Arizona and is buried there in Citizens Cemetery.


Alexander Eugen Conrady

Alexander Eugen Conrady (January 27, 1866 – June 16, 1944) was an eminent optical designer, academician, and textbook author.
Ancestry.
The Conrady family had long lived in Germany near the border with the Netherlands, as A.E. Conrady records in an autobiographical account, augmented and published by his daughter Hilda Conrady Kingslake. His paternal male ancestors from at least the 17th century up to the time of his father had been headmasters in the school of the town of Uedem. His father after beginning in that profession, turned to private business and the establishment of factories in the textile trade.
The family name had originally employed the Germanic spelling of "Conradi." This was later altered—perhaps in the 18th century—to Conradij to conform with Dutch spelling, and A.E. Conrady himself employed this form of the name until World War I.
Conrady knew less about his maternal ancestors, though he mentions that his maternal grandfather had been a distiller by the name of Scriverius, and that his mother (Mathilde) had been educated in his paternal grandfather's school, and then sent to a finishing school in the upper Rhine region for a year. His father acted as music teacher to his mother and they were later married in 1859, whereupon they settled in Burscheid, Germany, where his father had obtained the headmastership of a local school.
Early life and education.
Here A.E. Conrady was born in 1866 in Burscheid, Germany. After attending school in Burscheid and Barmen, Germany, he proceeded to Bonn University in 1884, where he studied science and mathematics under such eminent instructors as Rudolf Lipschitz, Rudolf Clausius, Eduard Schönfeld, and August Kekulé. In 1886, his father persuaded him to leave the university and sent him to England to act as his agent with Stanfield, Brown and Co., learning how to set up button-sewing machines so that he might then return to Germany and supervise their erection there.
In 1887, Conrady returned to Bonn. He worked with the organic chemist, Otto Wallach, who later won a Nobel Prize in 1910. Conrady published his first two scientific papers (on chemistry) during this period.
Emigration to England.
Conrady's health was always rather delicate; and already in his early twenties, as his daughter Hilda records, he had suffered several health "breakdowns." These in conjunction with "a growing distaste for the existing German regime"—i.e. the militaristic German Empire under the Hohenzollern Kaisers—led him to abandon an academic career in Germany for travel and residence abroad. At the behest of George W. Brown of Stanfield, Brown and Co., Conrady travelled to North America and then in 1896 to South Africa. Business ventures of his own in the manufacture of electrical equipment and model-making did not succeed, but by way of them in the 1890s he found his ultimate calling in the study of microscope and telescope optics, at first as a diversion and hobby.
Conrady finally settled in England, where he married Annie Bunney in 1901 and became a naturalized citizen in 1902. His daughter, Hilda, records that he "remained to the end a loyal and almost fanatically devoted citizen of his adopted country." During this period he finally abandoned his business ventures and went to work for Messrs. W. Watson and Son as a scientific adviser and lens designer. And the first of his four daughters was soon born. Perhaps as a result of this career-change and new-found domestic happiness, his bibliographic output increased dramatically, and by 1910 he had published thirteen papers on optics, astronomy, and spectroscopy. Fully ten of these papers (some of fundamental importance) appeared in 1904–1905.
Work in optical design.
Conrady himself records in the preface to his "magnum opus", "Applied Optics and Optical Design", that his optical work during these years led to "a large number of new types of telescopic, microscopic, and photographic lens systems...followed during the great war by the design of most of the new forms of submarine periscopes and of some other Service instruments." The success of this work led to his appointment in 1917 to the principal teaching post of the newly founded Technical Optics Department at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, a position he occupied until 1931.
Conrady's teaching proved seminal, since he was able to take the arcane and rather disorganized discipline of optical design and establish it on a systematic, didactic basis, applying many of his newly devised procedures and theoretical insights, "e.g.", the doctrine of the "optical path length" ("OPL") and "optical path difference" ("OPD"), which he had published during the period from 1904 to 1920. Many important optical designers of the 20th century—most notably his son-in-law, Rudolf Kingslake, as well as his eldest daughter, Hilda Conrady Kingslake—received his instruction and utilized his methods.
"Applied Optics".
By 1929, Conrady had published twenty-nine scientific papers, most of them relating to optical design. These along with his decade of university teaching and about 35 years of practical experience in optical design and manufacture led to the publication of his most important work, a book laying out the systematic basis for the practical design of all kinds of optical instruments: "Applied Optics and Optical Design", (Oxford UP, 1929). The book became a classic—widely used and referred to—and although its computational methods have been totally superseded by modern computer "ray-tracing" lens-design programs, its theoretical and mathematical insights remain valid and the book continues in print today.
Final years and death.
Subsequently, Conrady planned and partially wrote a second volume. But the disruptions of life in London during World War II, along with his own ill health, prevented Conrady from finishing the work. He died in 1944 at the age of 78 in London. His younger daughter, Irene, carefully preserved his manuscript and other unpublished papers until after the war. It finally fell to Hilda Conrady Kingslake and her husband Rudolf Kingslake to edit and complete the manuscript, which they published as "Applied Optics and Optical Design", part two (Dover, 1960).
Conrady was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Microscopical Society, the Quekett Microscopical Club, and Royal Photographic Society. This last awarded him its Traill-Taylor Medal in 1920. He also published a book entitled, "Photography as a Scientific Implement," (New York, 1923).


Outerra Virtual Mars


(524435) 2002 CY248

, provisional designation , is a trans-Neptunian object and weak dwarf-planet candidate from the classical Kuiper belt in the outermost region of the Solar System, approximately in diameter. It was first observed on 6 February 2002, by American astronomer Marc Buie at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, United States.
Orbit and classification.
 orbits the Sun at a distance of 39.4–53.1 AU once every 314 years and 6 months (114,859 days; semi-major axis of 46.2 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Kitt Peak with its official first observation on 6 February 2002. A 10-million-year integration of the orbit shows that it is a Classical Kuiper belt object that does not get closer to the Sun than or further than 54 AU.
Physical characteristics.
Based on an absolute magnitude of 5.2, and an assumed albedo of 0.09, the "Johnston archive" estimates a mean-diameter of approximately , while astronomer Michael Brown assumes an albedo of 0.06 and calculates a diameter of using a fainter magnitude of 5.5. Brown also characterizes the object as a "probable dwarf planet", an intermediate category in his classification scheme "(also see list of candidates)".
As of 2018, no rotational lightcurve of this object has been obtained from photometric observations. The object's rotation period, pole and shape remain unknown.
Numbering and naming.
This minor planet was numbered by the Minor Planet Center on 18 May 2019 (). As of 2019, it has not been named.


Chinese star names

Chinese star names (Chinese: , "xīng míng") are named according to ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology. The sky is divided into star mansions (, "xīng xiù", also translated as "lodges") and asterisms (, "xīng guān"). The system of 283 asterisms under Three Enclosures and Twenty-eight Mansions was established by Chen Zhuo of the Three Kingdoms period, who synthesized ancient constellations and the asterisms created by early astronomers Shi Shen, Gan De and Wuxian. Since the Han and Jin Dynasties, stars have been given reference numbers within their asterisms in a system similar to the Bayer or Flamsteed designations, so that individual stars can be identified. For example, Deneb (α Cyg) is referred to as ("Tiān Jīn Sì", the Fourth Star of Celestial Ford).
In the Qing Dynasty, Chinese knowledge of the sky was improved by the arrival of European star charts. "Yixiang Kaocheng", compiled in mid-18th century by then deputy Minister of Rites Ignaz Kögler, expanded the star catalogue to more than 3000 stars. The newly added stars (, "zēng xīng") were named as ("zēng yī", 1st added star), ("zēng èr", 2nd added star) etc. For example, γ Cephei is referred to as ("Shào Wèi Zēng Bā", 8th Added Star of Second Imperial Guard). Some stars may have been assigned more than one name due to the inaccuracies of traditional star charts.
While there is little disagreement on the correspondence between traditional Chinese and Western star names for brighter stars, many asterisms, in particular those originally from Gan De, were created primarily for astrological purposes and can only be mapped to very dim stars. The first attempt to fully map the Chinese constellations was made by Paul Tsuchihashi in late 19th century. In 1981, based on "Yixiang Kaocheng" and "Yixiang Kaocheng Xubian", the first complete map of Chinese stars and constellations was published by Yi Shitong (伊世同).
The list is based on "Atlas Comparing Chinese and Western Star Maps and Catalogues" by Yi Shitong (1981) and "Star Charts in Ancient China" by Chen Meidong (1996). In a few cases, meanings of the names are vague due to their antiquity. In this article, the translation by Hong Kong Space Museum is used.
Three Enclosures.
Purple Forbidden Enclosure.
The Purple Forbidden Enclosure ( "Zǐ Wēi Yuán") occupies the region around the North Celestial Pole and represents the imperial palace. It corresponds to constellations Auriga, Boötes, Camelopardalis, Canes Venatici, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, Hercules, Leo Minor, Lynx, Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor.
Added Stars
Supreme Palace Enclosure.
The Supreme Palace Enclosure (, "Tài Wēi Yuán") represents the imperial court. It corresponds to constellations Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices, Leo, Leo Minor, Lynx, Sextans, Ursa Major and Virgo.
Added Stars
Heavenly Market Enclosure.
The Heavenly Market Enclosure (, "Tiān Shì Yuán") represents the emperor's realm. It corresponds to constellations Aquila, Boötes, Corona Borealis, Draco, Hercules, Ophiuchus, Sagitta, Serpens and Vulpecula.
Added Stars
Azure Dragon.
Horn.
The Horn mansion represents the Dragon's horns. It corresponds to constellations Centaurus, Circinus, Coma Berenices, Hydra, Lupus and Virgo.
Added Stars
Neck.
The Neck mansion represents the Dragon's neck. It corresponds to constellations Boötes, Centaurus, Hydra, Libra, Lupus and Virgo.
Added Stars
Root.
The Root mansion represents the Dragon's chest. It corresponds to constellations Boötes, Centaurus, Hydra, Libra, Lupus, Serpens and Virgo.
Added Stars
Room.
The Room mansion represents the Dragon's abdomen. It corresponds to constellations Libra, Lupus, Ophiuchus and Scorpius.
Added Stars
Heart.
The Heart mansion represents the Dragon's heart. It corresponds to constellations Lupus, Ophiuchus and Scorpius.
Added Stars
Tail.
The Tail mansion represents the Dragon's tail. It corresponds to constellations Ara, Ophiuchus and Scorpius.
Added Stars
Winnowing Basket.
The Winnowing Basket mansion is the last of the Azure Dragon mansions. It corresponds to constellations Ara, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius.
Added Stars
Black Turtle.
Dipper.
The Dipper mansion is the first of the Black Turtle mansions. It corresponds to constellations Aquila, Corona Australis, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, Scutum and Telescopium.
Added Stars
Ox.
The Ox mansion corresponds to constellations Aquila, Capricornus, Cygnus, Delphinus, Lyra, Microscopium, Sagitta, Sagittarius and Vulpecula. Its name derives from the Cowherd Star.
Added Stars
Girl.
The Girl mansion corresponds to constellations Aquarius, Aquila, Capricornus, Cygnus, Draco and Delphinus.
Added Stars
Ruins.
The Ruins mansion (also translated as Emptiness) corresponds to constellations Aquarius, Capricornus, Delphinus, Equuleus, Grus, Microscopium, Pegasus and Piscis Austrinus.
Added Stars
Rooftop.
The Rooftop mansion corresponds to constellations Andromeda, Aquarius, Cepheus, Cygnus, Draco, Lacerta, Pegasus, Piscis Austrinus and Vulpecula.
Added Stars
Encampment.
The Encampment mansion corresponds to constellations Andromeda, Aquarius, Capricornus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cygnus, Lacerta, Pegasus, Pisces and Piscis Austrinus.
Added Stars
Wall.
The Wall mansion corresponds to constellations Andromeda, Cetus, Pegasus and Pisces.
Added Stars
White Tiger.
Legs.
The Legs mansion represents the tail of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cetus, Pisces and Triangulum.
Added Stars
Bond.
The Bond mansion represents the body of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Andromeda, Aries, Cetus, Fornax, Perseus, Pisces and Triangulum.
Added Stars
Stomach.
The Stomach mansion represents the body of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Aries, Camelopardalis, Cetus, Eridanus, Perseus, Taurus and Triangulum.
Added Stars
Hairy Head.
The Hairy Head mansion represents the body of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Aries, Cetus, Eridanus, Fornax, Perseus and Taurus.
Added Stars
Net.
The Net mansion represents the body of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Auriga, Eridanus, Horologium, Lepus, Orion, Perseus and Taurus.
Added Stars
Turtle Beak.
The Turtle Beak mansion represents the head of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Auriga, Gemini, Lynx, Orion and Taurus.
Added Stars
Three Stars.
The Three Stars mansion represents the body of White Tiger. It corresponds to constellations Columba, Eridanus, Lepus, Monoceros and Orion.
Added Stars
Vermilion Bird.
The final seven mansions represents the Vermilion Bird, creature of the direction south and the element fire.
Well.
The Well Mansion corresponds to constellations Auriga, Cancer, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Carina, Columba, Gemini, Monoceros, Orion, Pictor, Puppis and Taurus.
Added Stars
Ghosts.
The Ghosts Mansion corresponds to constellations Cancer, Gemini, Hydra, Monoceros, Puppis, Pyxis and Vela.
Added Stars
Willow.
The Willow Mansion corresponds to constellations Cancer, Hydra and Leo.
Added Stars
Star.
The Star Mansion corresponds to constellations Cancer, Hydra, Leo, Leo Minor, Lynx, Sextans.
Added Stars
Extended Net.
The Extended Met Mansion corresponds to constellation Hydra.
Added Stars
Wings.
The Wings Mansion corresponds to constellations Crater and Hydra.
Added Stars
Chariot.
The Chariot Mansion corresponds to constellations Corvus, Crater, Hydra and Virgo.
Added Stars
Individual Stars with Traditional Names.
Names listed above are all enumerations within the respective Chinese constellations. The following stars have traditional proper names.


Wilfred Brown, Baron Brown

Wilfred Banks Duncan Brown, Baron Brown PC MBE (29 November 1908 – 7 March 1985), was the chairman and the managing director of Glacier Metal Company (1939–1965), author of several books and articles on management and labour issues, university administrator, and United Kingdom's Minister of State at the Board of Trade (1965–1970).
Brown is perhaps best known for his collaboration with the organizational theorist Elliott Jaques on the Glacier Project, which Peter Drucker called "the most extensive study of actual worker behavior in large-scale industry". Sponsored by Glacier Metal Company and its Works Council during Brown's leadership, the project ran from 1948 to 1965, resulting in the development or discovery of felt-fair pay, stratified systems theory, timespan of discretion, levels of work, product pricing analysis and career progression trajectories. These ideas were described in the various books and articles written by Brown and Jaques. (See Bibliography.) Brown later attempted to use these processes in governmental affairs as a member of the House of Lords.
An advocate of practical learning for managers, Brown created the Glacier Institute of Management. He served as the first Chairman of Acton Technical College's Governing Body, Chairman of Brunel University from 1949 to 1965, and Pro-Chancellor of Brunel from 1965 to 1980. Although he never attended university, Brown received honorary degrees from Brunel University (DTech, 1966), Southern Illinois University (Doctor of Laws, 1967) and Cranfield University (DSc, 1972).
He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1943 Birthday Honours and made a life peer as Baron Brown, "of Machrihanish, in the County of Argyll", on 22 December 1964.


Sarah Bridle

Sarah Louise Bridle is a professor in the Extragalactic astronomy and Cosmology research group in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, part of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. She is known for her work applying statistical techniques to the Cosmic microwave background (CMB) and on the use of weak gravitational lensing in cosmology. From 2006 - 2015 she co-led weak lensing efforts with The Dark Energy Survey (DES), was co-lead of the Euclid Weak Lensing working group and was Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) UK Project Scientist from 2013 to 2017.
Education.
Bridle was brought up in Gloucestershire. Her father was involved with computers and AI. She attended the University of Cambridge and was awarded several prizes and then a first class Master of Arts degree in Natural Sciences in 1997. Bridle then started doctoral research about dark matter, which was one of the popular areas in cosmology in the mid-1990s. She was awarded a PhD in 2000 on Bayesian methods in cosmology supervised by Mike Hobson.
Career and research.
Bridle's research investigates the nature of the dark energy which may be the cause of the accelerating universe. She uses weak gravitational lensing to investigate dark energy because it can reveal the distribution of dark matter.
Her research has been funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Royal Society and the European Research Council (ERC).
Following her PhD, Bridle was a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique of the in Toulouse and Selwyn College, Cambridge. In 2004, Bridle was appointed a Lecturer at University College London and was subsequently promoted to Reader in 2008. She was appointed a professor at the University of Manchester in 2013.
In 2015, in part inspired by the illness of David J. C. MacKay, Bridle adopted a new research direction about agriculture, food and sustainability on the planet Earth, making use of data as in her astrophysical research. She leads the Greenhouse Gas and Dietary -choices Open-source Toolkit
(GGDOT) - https://www.ggdot.org/
Bridle has supervised several PhD students.
Awards and honours.
In 2003 Bridle was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) for early career scientists which she held until 2012.
In 2008, Bridle received a L'Oréal UK and Ireland Fellowship for Women in Science. A recipient of the Royal Astronomical Society's 2009 Fowler Award, Bridle was nominated one of the "Top 10 UK Scientists under 40" by the Times Eureka Magazine in 2010.


C/2007 K5 (Lovejoy)

C/2007 K5 (Lovejoy) is a periodic comet, discovered on 26 May 2007 by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy.


General Relativity and Gravitation

General Relativity and Gravitation is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal. It was established in 1970, and is published by Springer Science+Business Media under the auspices of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. The two editors-in-chief are Pablo Laguna and Mairi Sakellariadou; former editors include George Francis Rayner Ellis, Hermann Nicolai, Abhay Ashtekar, and Roy Maartens. The journal's field of interest is modern gravitational physics, encompassing all theoretical and experimental aspects of general relativity and gravitation.
Aims and scope.
The aims of "General Relativity and Gravitation" include public outreach through teaching and public understanding, as well as disseminate the history of general relativity and gravitation. Another aim of the journal is to publish original research on numerous topics. Some of the topics of interest are observational, or theoretical work, in cosmology, general relativity, gravity, supergravity, quantum gravity, string theory (including extensions), relativity, and the related complex mathematics involved.
Publishing formats include original research papers, short communications, commentaries, review articles, and book reviews. The journal also includes mathematical topics related to the journal's science topics, along with mathematical results and techniques.
Abstracting and indexing.
"General Relativity and Gravitation" is abstracted and indexed in Academic OneFile, Academic Search, Astrophysics Data System, Compendex, ProQuest, Current Contents/Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences, Digital Mathematics Registry, INIS Atomindex, Inspec, Mathematical Reviews, Science Citation Index, VINITI Database RAS, and Zentralblatt MATH.


George Garrett (inventor)

George William Littler Garrett (4 July 1852 – 26 February 1902) was a British clergyman and inventor who pioneered submarine design.
Early life.
He was brought up in Moss Side in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the son of an Irish-born Church of England curate. He attended Rossall School near Fleetwood and then Manchester Grammar School, then studied Chemistry and General Science at Owens College (also in Manchester) before attending Trinity College, Dublin. He was appointed assistant master at the Manchester Mechanics' Institute and subsequently obtained a BA degree.
In 1873, he passed the Cambridge Theological Examination and became a curate in his father's parish.
Inventions.
He invented a diving suit in 1877, demonstrating it to the French government in the River Seine.
An interest in the possible military application of what at the time were known as submarine boats prompted him to form the Garrett Submarine Navigation and Pneumataphore Company Limited and raise £10,000 through it from Manchester businessmen. (A pneumataphore was a device for removing carbon dioxide from the air).
In 1878, he built a long hand-cranked submarine of about 4.5 tons, which he named the "Resurgam". This was followed by the second (and more famous) "Resurgam" of 1879. It was long, displaced about 30 tons on the surface and 38 tons submerged and was powered by steam - the furnace and chimney being shut off before diving. The "Resurgam" was built by Cochran and Co in Birkenhead, Merseyside,
It was not very practical - the boiler full of superheated water made conditions inside the submarine very hot indeed, and in common with many early submarine inventors he had not overcome the problems of longitudinal stability.
Nevertheless, although the submarine was lost whilst under tow in 1880 near Rhyl on its way to trials in Portsmouth for the Royal Navy, it impressed the Swedish industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt sufficiently to finance him.
Together, they built a submarine for Greece and two for Turkey - Garrett was commissioned as a Commander in the Imperial Ottoman Navy for carrying out trials in these submarines. All of them suffered from severe stability problems. A further submarine was built for Russia but ran aground off Jutland on the way there and the Russians refused to pay for it.
Final years.
After this, Nordenfelt and Garrett parted company. Garrett emigrated to the United States, where he lost his savings in a failed farm in Florida. He then joined the United States Army Corps of Engineers and was promoted to corporal. He became a U.S. citizen and died in New York City in 1902 aged 49.


Reading Public Museum

The Reading Public Museum, in West Reading, Pennsylvania, has displays featuring science and civilizations, a planetarium and a arboretum.
Galleries feature an variety from art, armor, and artifacts of world civilizations, to natural history and the cultures of Native Americans and Pennsylvania Germans.
Collection.
While the art of many nations and people is represented in the permanent collection, special emphasis has been placed on painting. The fine art collection includes more than seven hundred oil paintings by American and foreign artists such as Benjamin West, Milton Avery, John Singer Sargent, N.C. Wyeth, George Bellows, Raphaelle Peale, Frederic Church, Joshua Reynolds, and Edgar Degas. Modern and Contemporary art in the collection includes works by Dale Chihuly, Chuck Close, and Keith Haring.
The museum's collection includes a real mummy from the Ptolemaic period in ancient Egypt.
The natural history collection includes thousands of insects, birds and mammals, and more than 25,000 mineral specimens. Over 30,000 objects are included in the anthropological and historical collections, including sculpture from Southeast Asia, ivory and jade from China, Roman glass, pre-Columbian gold and a large and comprehensive collection of sculpture and textile work of American Indians, much of which is unique to the Museum. Many of the works in the collection have been donated by citizens. Over 11,000 first class specimens, the best of several old collections purchased by Levi Walter Mengel in the first half of this century, make up the collection of Berks County Indian relics.
History.
Mengel's personal collections, donated during his lifetime, formed the nucleus of the present Museum. The first important teaching exhibits of museum calibre were obtained at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. Nearly 2,000 items were obtained from China, Japan, India, Ceylon, the Philippines and the Central and South American Republics.
With this as a beginning, the third floor of the Reading School District administration building at Eighth and Washington Streets was converted into a museum in 1907. In 1913, the first suggestion was made that an art gallery be incorporated into the plan. Several paintings were presented and the name of the infant museum became the Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery.
It was in 1924 that the Reading School District asked the citizens of Reading to approve a loan to provide certain needed school buildings. Included in this were provisions for a modern museum building. After a campaign in which the school children took an active part, the loan was passed and the plans for the Museum were drawn up. The present site was selected and donated to the Reading School District by Ferdinand Thun, Henry Janssen, and Gustav Oberlaender, three Wyomissing textile magnates, and friends of Mengel, breaking ground in 1925.
By 1928 the current Museum building opened to the public and the collections continued to grow. As with most museums, a comparatively small part of the collection is on exhibit at any one time. Much of the material is held in reserve to permit changes in the displays from time to time, while others are educational collections which may never be exhibited, but are preserved for scholarly study.
The Levi W. Mengel Memorial Trust was established to provide funds to make possible the purchase of some of the many fine and desirable articles which are available from time to time. Increasing the amount of money in the endowment fund is a constant challenge, and gifts or bequests are earnestly solicited.
In 1992 governance of the museum was transferred from the Reading School District to a private, non-profit foundation. With the Foundation's leadership and partnership with the County of Berks, Reading School District, and the City of Reading, there has been a rededication to the Museum's Mission.
Arboretum.
The Arboretum at the Reading Public Museum has been a gem of Berks County since the current Museum building opened in 1928. For over 80 years the Arboretum has been the home of many events: from light-hearted lilac festivals to educational tree walks; private wedding photo shoots to Public Pops concerts; landscape drawing classes to impromptu picnics; and the traditional Easter at the Museum.
Concerned for the future of the grounds, the Museum and its supporters commissioned Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC, an award-winning independent firm of landscape architects, urban designers, and planners, to help create a Landscape Master Plan. The result is a restoration guide that will help recapture the Arboretum’s former spirit, and to provide a memorable, educational and inspiring visit for Museum visitors.


Pine Bluff Observatory

The Pine Bluff Observatory (PBO) is an astronomical observatory located in the town of Cross Plains, Wisconsin (USA) about west of Madison. PBO is owned and operated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-Madison). It opened in 1958, and is mainly used by students and faculty of UW-Madison for instruction and research. PBO also provides a facility for testing new instruments. Recent research conducted at PBO includes measuring the lunar sodium tail, monitoring circumstellar disks around Be stars, and studying the warm ionized medium.


Megastar (projector)

 is a series of planetarium projectors which was recorded in Guinness World Records in 2004 as the planetarium projector that can project the most number of stars in the world. Megastar was developed by Takayuki Ohira in Kawasaki, Japan in 1998. Since 2005, Sega has been selling the Homestar, which is a home edition of Megastar.


Louis Fabry

Louis Fabry was a French astronomer who was born in Marseille, April 20, 1862, and died in Les Lecques, January 26, 1939.
Biography.
Louis Fabry was born in 1862 to a Provençal family with five boys. His brothers Charles, Eugène and Auguste were, respectively, a physicist, a mathematician and a magistrate.
From childhood he showed a keen taste for astronomy and mathematics. He joined the École Polytechnique in 1880, before his brother Eugène and five years before his brother Charles.
After receiving his licenciate, he became a student in the school of astronomy that Admiral Mouchez had just opened at the Paris Observatory. He was then sent to the Nice Observatory and remained there until 1890. It was during his stay in Nice he married and became widowed a few months after.
Back in his hometown, he joined the Marseille Observatory where he was promoted to assistant astronomer in 1895. He remained there until his retirement in 1924.


Beryl H. Potter

Beryl H. Potter (September 16, 1900 – August 10, 1985), born Edna Beryl Hinkle, was an American astronomical researcher. She helped to discover asteroids and, in turn, an asteroid was named for her.
Early life.
Beryl Hinkle was born in Goldsmith, Indiana, the daughter of Edmond Isaac Hinkle and Blanche Adele Cross Hinkle. Her father was a doctor. She graduated from Goldsmith High School in 1917, and attended Indiana University.
Career.
Potter was a research assistant at Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory in Indiana, from 1942 to 1965. She was assistant to astronomer Frank K. Edmondson when he discovered a dwarf star in 1944. She analyzed thousands photographic plates using a device called a blink comparator, and "contributed immensely to the program of minor planet observations". In 1952, she helped to discover the asteroid named 1578 Kirkwood. In 1955, she was part of an "all-Hoosier team" that discovered the asteroid named 1602 Indiana; "Mrs. Beryl Potter, research assistant, gets credit for the most important work, since she actually spotted the tiny planet among thousands of stars on photographic plates," explained a 1955 newspaper report. An asteroid (1729 Beryl) was officially named in her honor in 1968, by astronomer Paul Herget.
Personal life.
Beryl Hinkle married William N. Potter. They lived in Bloomington, Indiana, and had seven children. In 1936 she had serious health issues requiring more than a dozen blood transfusions. She moved to West Lafayette, Indiana in 1975. She died in 1985, aged 84 years, in Frankfort.


James Hough

Sir James Hough (born 6 August 1945) is a Scottish physicist and an international leader in the search for gravitational waves.
Career and research.
Hough has held the following professional positions:
Appearances in media.
Hough received widespread media coverage in 2004 when he placed a bet, against the odds, of detecting gravitational waves before 2010. The original odds were set at 500/1, but following huge interest, the betting company were forced to cut their odds to 6/1.
In April 2007, during the run-up to the Scottish Parliamentary elections, Hough signed an open letter, along with sixty-one other top Scottish scientists, backing the retention of the Union between Scotland and England. They were concerned that Scottish independence would have "detrimental consequences for the health of the Scottish science base and for the long term viability of the Scottish economy and society."