Sabine Stanley

Sabine Stanley is a Canadian physicist, currently at Johns Hopkins University in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth And Planetary Sciences and was awarded a Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship in 2017. She was previously a Canada Research Chair of Planetary Physics at University of Toronto. She was awarded the William Gilbert Award by the AGU in 2010 and was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2011.
Education.
Sabine Stanley earned a Bachelors of Science in Astronomy and Physics from University of Toronto in 1999. She subsequently earned a Masters in Geophysics in 2003 and a PhD in Geophysics in 2004 from Harvard University.
Career.
After the awarding of her PhD at Harvard, Dr. Sabine Stanley was a postdoc working with Maria Zuber from 2004 to 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology prior to returning to Canada and the University of Toronto.
Honors.
In 2010, Dr Stanley was awarded the William Gilbert Award from the American Geophysical Union for her major theoretical contributions to the study of planetary magnetism and the use of dynamo theory. In 2011, she was amongst the 118 Sloan Foundation fellowship recipients, specifically in Physics and was one of only three Canadian awardees that year.


David Spergel

David Nathaniel Spergel (born March 25, 1961), is an American theoretical astrophysicist. He is the Director of the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute and the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Spergel is known for his work on the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) mission. Spergel is a MacArthur Fellow. He was a member of the NASA Advisory Council and chair of the Space Studies Board. He was once the W.M. Keck distinguished visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was part of the team that originated the WMAP mission and designed the spacecraft, and has worked on deciphering the data that it beams back from space. Spergel is playing a leading role in developing the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a multibillion-dollar space mission planned for launch in the mid-2020s. He
shared the 2010 Shaw Prize in astronomy with Charles L. Bennett and Lyman Alexander Page, Jr. for their work on WMAP. He shared the 2015 Dannie Heineman Prize with Marc Kamionkowski "for their outstanding contributions to the investigation of the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background that have led to major breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe".
In December of 2020, Spergel was selected to succeed Marilyn Simons as president of Simons Foundation, effective July 1st, 2021.
Education.
Spergel was born in Rochester, New York, and attended John Glenn High School in Huntington, New York. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University in 1982 after completing a senior thesis titled "The jolly red giant: late-type evolved stars and their evolution to planetary nebulae" under the supervision of Gillian R. Knapp. He was then a visiting scholar at Oxford University in 1983, where he studied with James Binney. He obtained his master's degree (Astronomy) at Harvard University, 1984, and his doctorate (Astronomy), Harvard University, 1985, with a thesis entitled "Astrophysical Implications of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles".
Research.
His interests range from the search for planets around nearby stars to the shape of the universe. The WMAP Satellite has been the main focus of his research. His WMAP papers are currently the #1 and #2 most cited new papers in all of physics and space science. WMAP was successfully launched on June 30, 2001. He is also interested in understanding how galaxies form and evolve. Spergel's thesis work was on dark matter and he has recently returned to this field, exploring the possibility that the dark matter might be more complex than previously imagined. In 2000, Spergel and his Princeton colleague Paul Steinhardt introduced the concept of strongly self-interacting dark matter (SIDM). Spergel is among a group of scientists and engineers at Princeton University who are developing new technologies attempting to enable the direct imaging of earth-like planets around nearby stars.
Students.
Spergel's thesis students include Julianne Dalcanton, Arlie Petters, James Rhoads, Eiichiro Komatsu, Hiranya Peiris, Joseph Hennawi, and Shirley Ho. Licia Verde, Jo Dunkley, Rachel Bean and Olivier Dore were postdoctoral researchers in his lab.
Personal life.
Spergel is an avid bicyclist and skier. He has taken sabbaticals in France and Chile.
Awards and honors.
Spergel was named one of "Nature"'s ten "people who mattered" of 2014 on December 18, 2014, along with Maryam Mirzakhani, Radhika Nagpal, and others.
He was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy in 1994. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. For 2018 he received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Spergel was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 and as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.
He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.


Weitkamp Observatory

Weitkamp Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Otterbein College. Donated in 1955 by Alfred Henry Weitkamp in memory of Mary Geeding Weitkamp, it is located in Westerville, Ohio (USA).


William Townshend (cricketer)

William Townshend (16 November 1849 – 19 July 1923) was an English first-class cricketer and clergyman.
The son of Edward Dupré Townshend, he was born in British India at Sehore in November 1849. He was educated in England at Rossall School, before going up to Brasenose College, Oxford. While studying at Oxford, he made his debut in first-class cricket for Oxford University against the Gentlemen of England at Oxford in 1870. He played first-class cricket for Oxford until 1872, making fourteen appearances. He scored a total of 399 runs in his fourteen matches for Oxford, averaging 15.96 and making a high score of 55. He somewhat failed to live up the batting reputation he had gained at Rossall School, where he was considered the second best batsman at the school after F. W. Wright.
After leaving Oxford he became a priest in the Church of England. He later played first-class cricket in 1874, appearing in two matches, making an appearance each for the Gentlemen of England and the Marylebone Cricket Club. He played county cricket for Cheshire, Denbighshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire and Shropshire.
He was the rector of Thurlaston in Leicestershire in 1880. Townshend died in Leicestershire at Kirkby Mallory in July 1923.


Zabrodje meteorite

Zabrodje is an ordinary chondrite that fell through a roof of a house in the village of , Stowbtsy District (then part of the Russian Empire, now Belarus) approximately two hours before dawn on 22 September 1893.
Only one fragment was recovered. Initial studies of the meteorite were conducted by professor Romul Alexandrovitch von Prendel of the Odessa University. He took for analysis; after his studies he deposited the remaining at the Odessa University. The main mass of ended up at the Museum of Antiquities in Vilnius.
The main mass of is held at the Museum of Geology of Vilnius University. Other fragments are held: at the Odessa University, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, at the Geological Survey of Canada, at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and Natural History Museum in Berlin, at the Natural History Museum in London, and others.


Susan Niebur

Susan Niebur (1973–2012) was an American planetary scientist, promoter of women in science, and mommyblogger.
Life.
Nieber graduated in 1995 from Georgia Tech with a bachelor's degree in physics. She earned a Ph.D. in 2001 at Washington University in St. Louis, joined NASA as an intern in 2001, and became a scientist in the NASA Discovery Program in 2003. She left NASA to become a consultant in 2006.
She was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in 2007, and died of it on February 6, 2012.
Contributions.
While still a student, Niebur founded the Forum on Graduate Student Affairs of the American Physical Society and the National Doctoral Program Survey, and was president of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students. At NASA, she founded the Early Career Fellowships and Workshops for Planetary Scientists. She began her "Women in Planetary Science" blog in 2008, and also wrote a widely-read mommyblog, "Toddler Planet".
Recognition.
Niebur was given the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society, for outstanding service to planetary science and exploration, posthumously in 2012.
Asteroid 113394 Niebur is named for Niebur.
An annual meeting for women in planetary science, the Susan Niebur Women in Planetary Science Networking Event, is also named after her.


Emilia Pisani Belserene

Emilia Pauline Pisani (Lee) Belserene (December 12, 1922 – December 11, 2012) was an American astronomer specializing in the observation of variable stars and recognized as an expert on RR Lyrae variable stars. She became known for her work as the director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket and for her biographical writings on Maria Mitchell.
Education and career.
Belserene was a student at New Rochelle High School, and was awarded a full scholarship to Smith College. She became the only astronomy student there, with astronomer Clinton B. Ford as a faculty mentor. She graduated summa cum laude in 1943, and went to Columbia University for part-time graduate study while at the same time raising a family and teaching part-time at Hunter College.
She completed her Ph.D. in 1953. Her dissertation, "Period changes of variable stars in Messier 3", was supervised by Martin Schwarzschild. It involved observations using the 36-inch refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory in California; although this telescope had long been in use, with first light in 1888, Belserene was the first woman to use it.
She became a professor of astronomy at Lehman College and then, in 1979, was hired as director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory. In her period as director of the observatory, she supervised many student research projects involving the observations of variable stars, and the analysis of those observations using computer algorithms she had written, leading to over 100 publications.
She retired in 1991, moved to Port Angeles, Washington, and died on December 11, 2012.
Recognition.
Belserene was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1959.


University of Washington Planetarium

The University of Washington Planetarium is an active planetarium located in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, WA. The dome is 30 feet in diameter and utilizes six digital projectors to create an interactive display using the Worldwide Telescope planetarium software.
History.
The planetarium was constructed in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium in 1994. It initially featured a Minolta MS-8 starball projector, but in 2009, the University of Washington partnered with the Microsoft Research division to bring the WorldWide Telescope software to the planetarium. The upgrade was completed in 2011, and the transition from physical to digital technology gave the planetarium "a rich and truly interactive experience," according to team member Jonathan Fay at the 2010 Astronomical Society of the Pacific in Boulder, CO. The projector configuration creates an 8-million pixel digital display.
Mobile Planetarium.
The University of Washington also constructed a mobile planetarium available to faculty and students which is used as an outreach tool to bring astronomy to schools in the Seattle area. The University purchased a Go-Dome mobile planetarium dome and a fish-eye projection lens. Philip Rosenfield, an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote a guide for constructing a mobile planetarium with based on the construction of the University of Washington mobile planetarium titled "The University of Washington Mobile Planetarium Do-it-Yourself Guide."


Adzhi-Bogdo

The Adzhi-Bogdo is a chondrite meteorite weighing . It was found on October 30, 1949, in Govi-Altay, Mongolia.


Museum of Innovation and Science

miSci - The Museum of Innovation and Science (formerly the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium) is a museum and planetarium located in Schenectady, New York. miSci's exhibitions and educational programming focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM). The Museum's President is Gina C. Gould, Ph.D., Vice President of Collections + Exhibitions is Chris Hunter, and Director of Grants and Special Events is Dan Beck.
Inside of the museum is the Suits-Bueche Planetarium. It contains a GOTO Chronos Star Machine, one of only 16 in the United States, which is capable of displaying 8,500 stars and 24 constellation outlines. The projector can show the sky from any location on Earth 100,000 years in the past or in the future.
Also located at miSci is a Challenger Learning Center (CLC). Opened in 2014.
The archives contain over 1.5 million photographs, making them the seventh largest collection of photographs in the US (not including the federal government). The archives also include 110 radios, 60 televisions, 15,000 patents, 5000 books, and 1000 films. Many of the items relate to the history of Schenectady and General Electric. The archives are open to the public with an appointment.
Hours and fees.
mISci is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Sunday from 12-5PM.


Solid earth

Solid earth refers to "the earth beneath our feet" or "terra firma", the planet's solid surface and its interior. It contrasts with the Earth's fluid envelopes, the atmosphere and hydrosphere (but includes the ocean basin), as well as the biosphere and interactions with the Sun. It includes the liquid core.
Solid-earth science refers to the corresponding methods of study, a subset of Earth sciences, predominantly geophysics and geology, excluding aeronomy, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, hydrology, and ecology.


Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory

Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory is an astronomical observatory is located at 1610 Hillside Mill Road, Greenville, Delaware, United States. This observatory is home to a 0.6-meter telescope used by the Delaware Astronomical Society, the University of Delaware, and the Whole Earth Telescope.
Associated with the Observatory is the Mt. Cuba Astronomy Group (MCAG). The MCAG is composed of interested amateurs and engages in astronomy education and public outreach. Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory.
A Sunquest sundial, designed and machined by Richard L. Schmoyer, is on the Mount Cuba Observatory grounds near the parking lot. This mean time sundial automatically corrects for the equation of time through the use of an analemma-inspired gnomon.


International Planetary Patrol Program

The NASA International Planetary Patrol Program consists of a network of astronomical observatories to collect uninterrupted images and observations of the large-scale atmospheric and surface features of the planets. This group was established in 1969, and consisted of the Mauna Kea Observatory, the Mount Stromlo Observatory, the Perth Observatory, the Republic Observatory, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the Magdalena Peak Station of the New Mexico State University, and the Lowell Observatory. The activities were coordinated by William A. Baum of Lowell Observatory.
For Mars, they monitored clouds and dust storms, as well as the seasonal fluctuations in the climate. The martian dust storms of 1971 and 1973 were extensively covered. They also observed changes in the Jovian atmosphere, including the Great Red Spot. Venus has been monitored for circulation of the cloud deck.


George Frederick Chambers

George Frederick Chambers (October 18, 1841–May 24, 1915) was an English barrister, amateur astronomer and author, who wrote a number of popular books about science.
Chambers was born on 18 October 1841 at Upton-upon-Severn,
Worcestershire. He was introduced to astronomy by his uncle, who
owned an observatory in Eastbourne, Sussex, where Chambers stayed
from time to time as a child. Chambers went on to study engineering as
a student in London.
George Chambers published his first book,
"A Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy", when he was aged only 19 years.
It provided a review of astronomy across 600 pages. It was later republished in an
expanded form, and eventually appeared as three volumes.
Chambers turned from engineering to study law. He became a
barrister in 1868, and worked for many years as a parliamentary
barrister.
Chambers set up home in Eastbourne in 1873, where he and his family lived
until 1902. He built a private observatory, which he used to study
double stars, variable stars, and star colours. He served as
director of the Star-Colour Section of the British Astronomical Association
between 1894 and 1900.
Chambers became a prolific author. He produced a revised version of
"A Cycle of Celestial Objects" by Admiral W. H. Smyth.
This was followed by "Pictorial Astronomy" in 1891.
His most popular books were a series of introductions to astronomy, with
volumes called "The Story of the Solar System", "The Story of the Stars",
"The Story of Eclipses", and "The Story of Comets". These
served to educate general readers about science.
Chambers also wrote geographical guides and travel books, including a
"Handbook to Eastbourne". He was the author of many magazine articles
and legal works.
George Chambers later moved to Sydenham in south London. He died there on 24 May 1915.


Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium

The Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium, named for astronaut Roger B. Chaffee, was constructed in the early 1960s as part of the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. The facility initially featured a plaster dome and a Goto Optics mechanical star projector. Among the planetarium's first shows was "Star of Wonder", an astronomical attempt at an explanation of the Star of Bethlehem. The show received positive reviews in the Grand Rapids area and remained in the Chaffee's catalogue for several years.
The Chaffee, then known as the Planetarium of the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, came under the curatorship of David L. DeBruyn in 1964. A young man fresh out of college at the University of Michigan, DeBruyn helped found the Great Lakes Planetarium Association in 1965, hosting the first meeting in Grand Rapids. In 1967 the theater was dedicated as the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium, following the death of the astronaut in the Apollo 1 mission.
During the late 1960s the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association began a project to construct a new dark sky observatory in the Grand Rapids area. A site was leased to them on Kissing Rock Hill and the James C. Veen Observatory was constructed by the Association members, with some support from the Public Museum and Chaffee Planetarium. Today the Veen remains tied to the museum and the Chaffee.
In 1994 the planetarium was relocated to a new facility, along with the entire museum, where it would feature a new aluminum dome and the state-of the art projection system: a prototype of the Evans and Sutherland Digistar II digital star projector, running on Digistar software. Within a few years this was upgraded to software for Digistar II. The system also features three Sony video projectors, a Barco video projector, scores of Kodak ektagraphic slide projectors and even more special effect projectors and devices. The planetarium is well known for its many educational programs, as well as its unique library of laser light shows, many programmed at the Chaffee itself, making use of the unique effects of the Chaffee and innovative and original Digistar programming.
Visiting the Planetarium is a popular activity for students of all ages in Grand Rapids and across Michigan, from preschoolers who learn about the cycles of day and night, to elementary students studying the solar system and stars, up to high schoolers and even college students focused on the more mysterious wonders of the universe. The Chaffee also draws in visitors to its educational public shows, especially its informal "Under Starlit Skies" descriptive astronomy lectures and spectacular laser light shows.
The Chaffee remains a member of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, and as of 1995 began hosting conferences on the decennial anniversaries. David L. DeBruyn officially retired after forty years of curatorship in 2003, and still serves in an advisory capacity as a volunteer.
In 2014 the planetarium received a 1.2 million dollar upgrade.


Frosty Drew Observatory

Frosty Drew Observatory is an educational astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Frosty Drew Memorial Fund. It is located in the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in Charlestown, Rhode Island midway along the coast line between Westerly and Point Judith. It is named after Edwin "Frosty" Drew. The main instrument is a Meade LX200 16" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope which was installed in July, 1999. The current Director of the observatory and nature center is Scott MacNeill.


Frank Zabriskie

Frank Zabriskie is a Scottish astronomer and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, elected in 1962.


Kika Silva Pla Planetarium

The Santa Fe College Kika Silva Pla Planetarium is a 34-foot in diameter, domed theater in Gainesville, Florida. The planetarium seats 60 people and uses two projection systems. An In-Space-System (ISS) 1C-3K digital projection system by RSA Cosmos and an optical-mechanical Chronos Space Simulator manufactured by Goto.
History.
The planetarium was dedicated in September 2006 and officially opened to the public in September 2007 and is located on the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College. The SF Kika Silva Pla Planetarium was made possible by a donation of John Pla and his wife Amy Howard, on behalf of the Pla family, in recognition of his mother, Kika Silva Pla's, commitment to education and passion for social justice and civic engagement. The planetarium was funded with additional support from a special federal appropriation arranged by Congressman Cliff Stearns.
Laurent Pellerin was the planetarium's first coordinator. James C. Albury became the planetarium coordinator in October 2009, and was a co-host on the internationally syndicated PBS show "".


Amazonis quadrangle

The Amazonis quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Amazonis quadrangle is also referred to as MC-8 (Mars Chart-8).
The quadrangle covers the area from 135° to 180° west longitude and 0° to 30° north latitude on Mars. The Amazonis quadrangle contains the region called Amazonis Planitia. This area is considered to be among the youngest parts of Mars because it has a very low density of craters. The Amazonia period is named after this area.
This quadrangle contains special, unusual features called the Medusae Fossae Formation and Sulci.
Medusae Fossae Formation.
The Amazonis quadrangle is of great interest to scientists because it contains a big part of a formation, called the Medusae Fossae Formation. It is a soft, easily eroded deposit that extends for nearly 1,000 km along the equator of Mars. The surface of the formation has been eroded by the wind into a series of linear ridges called yardangs. These ridges generally point in direction of the prevailing winds that carved them and demonstrate the erosive power of Martian winds. The easily eroded nature of the Medusae Fossae Formation suggests that it is composed of weakly cemented particles, and was most likely formed by the deposition of wind-blown dust or volcanic ash. Using a global climate model, a group of researchers headed by Laura Kerber found that the Medusae Fossae Formation could have easily been formed from ash from the volcanoes Apollinaris Mons, Arsia Mons, and possibly Pavonis Mons. Another evidence for a fine-grained composition is that the area gives almost no radar return. For this reason it has been called a "stealth" region. Layers are seen in parts of the formation. Images from spacecraft show that they have different degrees of hardness probably because of significant variations in the physical properties, composition, particle size, and/or cementation. Very few impact craters are visible throughout the area so the surface is relatively young. Researchers found that nearly all the dust in that coats everything and is in the atmosphere has its origin in the Medusae Fossae formation. It turns out that the chemical elements (sulfur and chlorine) in this formation, in the atmosphere, and covering the surface are the same. The amount of dust on Mars is sufficient to form a 2 to 12 meters thick layer over the entire planet. Since there are relatively few depositional features in the Medusae Fossae Formation, most of the materials being eroded are probably small enough to be suspended in the atmosphere and transported long distances.
An analysis of data from the "2001 Mars Odyssey" Neutron Spectrometer revealed that
parts of the Medusae Fossae Formation contain water.
Sulci.
A very rugged terrain extends from the base of Olympus Mons. It is called Lycus Sulci. Sulci is a Latin term for the furrows on the surface of a brain, so Lycus Sulci has many furrows or grooves. The furrows are huge—up to a full kilometer deep. It would be extremely difficult to walk across it or to land a space ship there. A picture of this area is shown below.
Columnar Jointing.
Lava flows sometimes cool to form large groups of more-or-less equally sized columns. The resolution of the HiRISE images is such that the columns were found in various locations in 2009.
Craters.
Impact craters generally have a rim with ejecta around them, in contrast volcanic craters usually do not have a rim or ejecta deposits. As craters get larger (greater than 10 km in diameter) they usually have a central peak. The peak is caused by a rebound of the crater floor following the impact. Sometimes craters will display layers. Since the collision that produces a crater is like a powerful explosion, rocks from deep underground are tossed onto the surface. Hence, craters can show us what lies deep under the surface.
A pedestal crater is a crater with its ejecta sitting above the surrounding terrain and thereby forming a raised platform. They form when an impact crater ejects material which forms an erosion resistant layer, thus protecting the immediate area from erosion. As a result of this hard covering, the crater and its ejecta become elevated, as erosion removes the softer material beyond the ejecta. Some pedestals have been accurately measured to be hundreds of meters above the surrounding area. This means that hundreds of meters of material were eroded away. Pedestal craters were first observed during the Mariner missions.
Research published in the journal Icarus has found pits in Tooting Crater that are caused by hot ejecta falling on ground containing ice. The pits are formed by heat forming steam that rushes out from groups of pits simultaneously, thereby blowing away from the pit ejecta.
Linear ridge networks.
Linear ridge networks are found in various places on Mars in and around craters. Ridges often appear as mostly straight segments that intersect in a lattice-like manner. They are hundreds of meters long, tens of meters high, and several meters wide. It is thought that impacts created fractures in the surface, these fractures later acted as channels for fluids. Fluids cemented the structures. With the passage of time, surrounding material was eroded away, thereby leaving hard ridges behind.
Since the ridges occur in locations with clay, these formations could serve as a marker for clay which requires water for its formation. Water here could have supported past life in these locations. Clay may also preserve fossils or other traces of past life.
Dark Slope Streaks.
Dark slope streaks are narrow, avalanche-like features common on dust-covered slopes in the equatorial regions of Mars. They form in relatively steep terrain, such as along escarpments and crater walls. Although first recognized in Viking Orbiter images from the late 1970s, dark slope streaks were not studied in detail until higher-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft became available in the late 1990s and 2000s.
The physical process that produces dark slope streaks is still uncertain. They are most likely caused by the mass movement of loose, fine-grained material on oversteepened slopes (i.e., dust avalanches). The avalanching disturbs and removes a bright surface layer of dust to expose a darker substrate.
Research, published in January 2012 in Icarus, found that dark streaks were initiated by airblasts from meteorites traveling at supersonic speeds. The team of scientists was led by Kaylan Burleigh, an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. After counting some 65,000 dark streaks around the impact site of a group of 5 new craters, patterns emerged. The number of streaks was greatest closer to the impact site. So, the impact somehow probably caused the streaks. Also, the distribution of the streaks formed a pattern with two wings extending from the impact site. The curved wings resembled scimitars, curved knives. This pattern suggests that an interaction of airblasts from the group of meteorites shook dust loose enough to start dust avalanches that formed the many dark streaks. At first it was thought that the shaking of the ground from the impact caused the dust avalanches, but if that was the case the dark streaks would have been arranged symmetrically around the impacts, rather than being concentrated into curved shapes.
The crater cluster lies near the equator 510 miles) south of Olympus Mons, on a type of terrain called the Medusae Fossae formation. The formation is coated with dust and contains wind-carved ridges called yardangs. These yardangs have steep slopes thickly covered with dust, so when the sonic boom of the airblast arrived from the impacts dust started to move down the slope.
Using photos from Mars Global Surveyor and HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists have found about 20 new impacts each year on Mars. Because the spacecraft have been imaging Mars almost continuously for a span of 14 years, newer images with suspected recent craters can be compared to older images to determine when the craters were formed. Since the craters were spotted in a HiRISE image from February 2006, but were not present in a Mars Global Surveyor image taken in May 2004, the impact occurred in that time frame.
The largest crater in the cluster is about 22 meters (72 feet) in diameter with close to the area of a basketball court. As the meteorite traveled through the Martian atmosphere it probably broke up; hence a tight group of impact craters resulted.
Dark slope streaks have been seen for some time, and many ideas have been advanced to explain them. This research may have finally solved this mystery.
Streamlined shapes.
When a fluid moves by a feature like a mound, it will become streamlined. Often flowing water makes the shape and later lava flows spread over the region. In the pictures below this has occurred.
Layers.
Many places on Mars show rocks arranged in layers. Rock can form layers in a variety of ways. Volcanoes, wind, or water can produce layers.
A detailed discussion of layering with many Martian examples can be found in Sedimentary Geology of Mars.
Sometimes the layers are of different colors. Light-toned rocks on Mars have been associated with hydrated minerals like sulfates. The Mars Rover Opportunity examined such layers close-up with several instruments. Some layers are probably made up of fine particles because they seem to break up into find dust. Other layers break up into large boulders so they are probably much harder. Basalt, a volcanic rock, is thought to in the layers that form boulders. Basalt has been identified on Mars in many places. Instruments on orbiting spacecraft have detected clay (also called phyllosilicate) in some layers.
A detailed discussion of layering with many Martian examples can be found in Sedimentary Geology of Mars.
Layers can be hardened by the action of groundwater. Martian ground water probably moved hundreds of kilometers, and in the process it dissolved many minerals from the rock it passed through. When ground water surfaces in low areas containing sediments, water evaporates in the thin atmosphere and leaves behind minerals as deposits and/or cementing agents. Consequently, layers of dust could not later easily erode away since they were cemented together.
Dust devils.
Dust devil tracks can be very pretty. They are caused by giant dust devils removing bright colored dust from the Martian surface; thereby exposing a dark layer. Dust devils on Mars have been photographed both from the ground and high overhead from orbit. They have even blown dust off the solar panels of two Rovers on Mars, thereby greatly extending their useful lifetime. The pattern of the tracks has been shown to change every few months. A study that combined data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) found that some large dust devils on Mars have a diameter of and last at least 26 minutes.


Iapygia quadrangle

The Iapygia quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Iapygia quadrangle is also referred to as MC-21 (Mars Chart-21).
The Iapygia quadrangle covers the area from 270° to 315° west longitude and from 0° to 30° south latitude on Mars. Parts of the regions Tyrrhena Terra and Terra Sabaea are found in this quadrangle. The largest crater in this quadrangle is Huygens. Some interesting features in this quadrangle are dikes. the many layers found in Terby crater, and the presence of carbonates on the rim of Huygens crater.
Dikes.
Near Huygens, especially just to the east of it, are a number of narrow ridges which appear to be the remnants of dikes, like the ones around Shiprock, New Mexico. The dikes were once under the surface, but have now been eroded. Dikes are magma-filled cracks that often carry lava to the surface. Dikes by definition cut across rock layers. Some dikes on earth are associated with mineral deposits. Discovering dikes on Mars means that perhaps future colonists will be able to mine needed minerals on Mars, instead of transporting them all the way from the Earth.
Some features look like dikes, but may be what has been called linear ridge networks. Ridges often appear as mostly straight segments that intersect in a lattice-like manner. They are hundreds of meters long, tens of meters high, and several meters wide. It is thought that impacts created fractures in the surface; these fractures later acted as channels for fluids. Fluids cemented the structures. With the passage of time, surrounding material was eroded away, thereby leaving hard ridges behind.
Since the ridges occur in locations with clay, these formations could serve as a marker for clay which requires water for its formation. Water here could have supported life.
Layers.
Many places on Mars show rocks arranged in layers. Rock can form layers in a variety of ways. Volcanoes, wind, or water can produce layers.
A detailed discussion of layering with many Martian examples can be found in Sedimentary Geology of Mars. Layers can be hardened by the action of groundwater. Martian ground water probably moved hundreds of kilometers, and in the process it dissolved many minerals from the rock it passed through. When ground water surfaces in low areas containing sediments, water evaporates in the thin atmosphere and leaves behind minerals as deposits and/or cementing agents. Consequently, layers of dust could not later easily erode away since they were cemented together. ,
Craters.
Impact craters generally have a rim with ejecta around them, in contrast volcanic craters usually do not have a rim or ejecta deposits. Sometimes craters will display layers. Since the collision that produces a crater is like a powerful explosion, rocks from deep underground are tossed unto the surface. Hence, craters can show us what lies deep under the surface.
Carbonates.
Carbonates (calcium or iron carbonates) were discovered in a crater on the rim of Huygens Crater. The impact on the rim exposed material that had been dug up from the impact that created Huygens. These minerals represent evidence that Mars once was had a thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere with abundant moisture. These kinds of carbonates only form when there is a lot of water. They were found with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Earlier, the instrument had detected clay minerals. The carbonates were found near the clay minerals. Both of these minerals form in wet environments. It is supposed that billions of years age Mars was much warmer and wetter. At that time, carbonates would have formed from water and the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. Later the deposits of carbonate would have been buried. The double impact has now exposed the minerals. Earth has vast carbonate deposits in the form of limestone.
Evidence of rivers.
There is enormous evidence that water once flowed in river valleys on Mars. Images of curved channels have been seen in images from Mars spacecraft dating back to the early seventies with the Mariner 9 orbiter.
Vallis (plural "valles") is the Latin word for "valley". It is used in planetary geology for the naming of landform features on other planets, including what could be old river valleys that were discovered on Mars, when probes were first sent to Mars. The Viking Orbiters caused a revolution in our ideas about water on Mars; huge river valleys were found in many areas. Space craft cameras showed that floods of water broke through dams, carved deep valleys, eroded grooves into bedrock, and traveled thousands of kilometers. Some valles on Mars (Mangala Vallis, Athabasca Vallis, Granicus Vallis, and Tinjar Valles) clearly begin at graben. On the other hand, some of the large outflow channels begin in rubble-filled low areas called chaos or chaotic terrain. It has been suggested that massive amounts of water were trapped under pressure beneath a thick cryosphere (layer of frozen ground), then the water was suddenly released, perhaps when the cryosphere was broken by a fault.
Dunes.
The Iapygia quadrangle contains some dunes. Some of them are barchans. Pictures below show sand dunes in this quadrangle. When there are perfect conditions for producing sand dunes, steady wind in one direction and just enough sand, a barchan sand dune forms. Barchans have a gentle slope on the wind side and a much steeper slope on the lee side where horns or a notch often forms. The whole dune may appear to move with the wind. Observing dunes on Mars can tell us how strong the winds are, as well as their direction. If pictures are taken at regular intervals, one may see changes in the dunes or possibly in ripples on the dune’s surface. On Mars dunes are often dark in color because they were formed from the common, volcanic rock basalt. In the dry environment, dark minerals in basalt, like olivine and pyroxene, do not break down as they do on Earth. Although rare, some dark sand is found on Hawaii which also has many volcanoes discharging basalt. Barchan is a Russian term because this type of dune was first seen in the desert regions of Turkistan.
Some of the wind on Mars is created when the dry ice at the poles is heated in the spring. At that time, the solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) sublimates or changes directly to a gas and rushes away at high speeds. Each Martian year 30% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere freezes out and covers the pole that is experiencing winter, so there is a great potential for strong winds.


Christy A. Tremonti

Christy A. Tremonti is an observational astronomer on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She was a 2005 Hubble Fellow while at the University of Arizona. She received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2003 and her BS from Colgate University in 1994. She completed her dissertation, "The physical properties of low redshift star forming galaxies: Insights from the space-UV and 20,000 SDSS spectra", under the supervision of Timothy M. Heckman.
Tremonti's primary interests involve galaxy formation and evolution, including star-forming galaxies, active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, galactic winds, and galaxy mergers. She is also interested in spectroscopy and data mining, and is a member of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. She has over sixty journal articles in publications including the "Astronomical Journal", "Astrophysical Journal", and the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society". Most of her articles can be found in full text on the arXiv. Tremonti has over 150 co-authors across her publications. Some of her most frequent collaborators are Timothy M. Heckman, Jon V. Brinkmann, and Donald P. Schneider. According to Scopus, her h-index as of March, 2015 is 44.
As of March 15, 2015, Tremonti's top three most highly cited articles present research about the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, including the most highly cited article on which Tremonti was lead author, "The origin of the mass-metallicity relation: Insights from 53,000 star-forming galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey". She was one of the first to use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's statistical power for galaxy evolution studies.
Tremonti is a member of the International Astronomical Union.


J. A. Ratcliffe

John Ashworth Ratcliffe CB CBE FRS (known to intimates as "Jar"; 12 December 1902 – 25 October 1987) was an influential British radio physicist. (Several sources misspell his name as Radcliffe.)
Biography.
Ratcliffe was born in Bacup, the elder son of Harry Heys Ratcliffe, a partner in the stone quarrying firm of Henry Heys and Co., and Beatrice Alice. daughter of Richard Ashworth, founder of the firm of Mitchells, Ashworth, Stansfield and Co.
He was educated at Bacup and Rawtenstall Secondary School (1912–1924), Heversham Grammar School (1914–19) and Giggleswick School (1919–1921). In 1921 he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and graduated in natural sciences with first-class honours in 1924.
That year Ratcliffe started research on radio wave propagation under Edward Appleton. They and M A F Barnett developed methods to understand why ‘fading’ of radio signals from a fixed transmitter occurred during hour of darkness. In 1927 Ratcliffe was made head of a group in the Cavendish Laboratory known as the radio ionosphere research group. They studied how radio waves were reflected from the ionized layer in the upper atmosphere (previously called the Heaviside layer), and how the layer was formed. The work of the group and their publications are described at some length in the Royal Society’s biographical memoir.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, dozens of radar stations formed a network, known as Chain Home (CH), covering the eastern and southern coasts of Britain. Physicists from the Cavendish and elsewhere were assigned to spend a month at one of the stations: Ratcliffe was sent to the one near Dover, but was soon made part of the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in Dundee where he was in charge of a new form of CH known as Chain Home Low (CHL), used to detect aircraft flying at altitudes below those detectable by CH stations. His work took him to various locations during the war: Swanage, Petersham, back to Dundee, and Malvern.
At the end of the conflict, Ratcliffe was back at the Cavendish, which had been enlarged, enabling him to restart research with a larger group. Martin Ryle and some others from TRE joined them and decided to follow up the discovery of radio emission from the sun. Ryle was in charge of a section concerned with radio astronomy.
In October 1960 Ratcliffe left Cambridge to take up the post of director of the Radio Research Station at Ditton Park. He resigned in 1966.
Family.
John Ratcliffe married Nora Disley at St Nicholas Church, Newchurch on 28 August 1930. They had two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth. Elizabeth died in 1966, and Nora in 1977.
Ratcliffe died at his home, 193 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, on 25 October 1987.


59239 Alhazen


Ralph Belknap Baldwin

Ralph Belknap Baldwin (June 6, 1912 – October 23, 2010) was an American planetary scientist known for his work on lunar craters, beginning in the late 1940s. His book, "The Face of the Moon" made the case for the impact nature of lunar craters. He published "The Measure of the Moon" in 1963.
Prior to his lunar work he was Senior Physicist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory during World War II working on the Proximity fuze. In 1947 he began working for Oliver Machinery Company. In 1970 he became president of the company and chairman of the board in 1982. He retired in 1984. He died on October 23, 2010.
Early life.
Baldwin was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, receiving his B.S. in 1934, M.S. in 1935, and Ph.D. in 1937, on the "spectroscopic study of novae". After graduation, he taught astronomy at the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University from 1935 through 1942. The photographs at the Adler Planetarium, where he lectured to earn extra money, sparked his interest in lunar craters. This led to an article in "Popular Astronomy" in 1942 and later his book "The Face of the Moon", in 1949. During World War II Baldwin helped to develop the radar proximity fuze. He published a history of proximity fuze development in 1980 entitled "The Deadly Fuze".
Awards and honors.
Baldwin has been honored for each of his three careers. During his work on the radio proximity fuze he was awarded the Army Chief of Ordnance Award and the U.S. Naval Bureau Ordnance Award (1945). In 1947 he was a recipient of the Presidential Certificate of Merit. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980.
In planetary science he has been awarded the Barringer Medal (2000), Leonard Medal (1986), G.K. Gilbert Award (1986), and the J. Lawrence Smith Medal (1979)
The Ralph B. Baldwin Award by the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America was established in his honor.


Harrie Massey

Sir Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey (16 May 1908 – 27 November 1983) was an Australian mathematical physicist who worked primarily in the fields of atomic and atmospheric physics.
A graduate of the University of Melbourne and Cambridge University, where he earned his doctorate at the Cavendish Laboratory, Massey became an independent lecturer in Mathematical Physics at the Queen's University of Belfast in 1933. He was appointed Goldsmid Professor of Applied Mathematics at University College London, in 1938. During the Second World War, Massey worked at the Admiralty Research Laboratory , where he helped devise countermeasures for German magnetic naval mines, and at the Admiralty Mining Establishment in Havant, where he helped develop British naval mines. In 1943, Mark Oliphant persuaded the Admiralty to release Massey to work on the Manhattan Project. He joined Oliphant's British Mission at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, where they worked on the electromagnetic isotope separation process. When Oliphant returned to Britain in 1945, Massey took over the Berkeley Mission.
Massey returned to University College London, in October 1945 to find it badly damaged by bombing, and the Mathematics Department in dingy temporary accommodation. In 1950 he was appointed Quain Professor of Physics and head of the University College London, Physics Department. The department was merged with Astronomy in 1973, but he remained its head until he retired in 1975. Under his direction, the Physics Department was reoriented towards particle physics and upper atmosphere physics. He worked with the Woomera Rocket Range to develop British Skylark rocket, and was on the governing board of the Anglo-Australian Telescope. He was the chairman of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) from 1959 to 1978, and of its British national chapter. He was also the first Chairman of the European Space Sciences Committee, and helped found the European Space Research Organization and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London.
Early life.
Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey was born in Invermay, Victoria, Australia, on 16 May 1908, the only child of Harrie Stewart Massey, a miner, and his wife Eleanor Elizabeth née Wilson. He grew up in the rural community of Hoddles Creek, and enrolled in the local state school in 1913. He received his Merit Certificate, normally awarded after completing the eighth grade, when he was nine, but due to his age he still had to stay there for another three years. He won a scholarship to University High School, and moved to Parkville with his mother in 1920. At University High School he was president of the Science Club and vice captain of the cricket team.
Career.
At the age of 16, Massey won a scholarship to the University of Melbourne, which he entered in 1925. He had thoughts of studying chemistry, but was impressed by the physics lectures given by Eric Hercus. This was a stroke of luck; first year physics lectures were normally given by Thomas Laby. Massey recalled in 1980 that "in a fairly wide experience I would rate [Laby] the worst lecturer I have heard". At the University he played cricket, billiards, tennis and baseball, which he played for the University. He was awarded his Bachelor of Arts (BSc) in physics with first class honours in 1928, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in mathematics in 1929. At a meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in Perth in August 1925, he met a schoolteacher, Jessica Elizabeth Bruce. They were married on 11 January 1928 at the district registrar's office in Perth. They had a daughter, Pamela Lois.
At that time, the university did not offer a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program so Massey undertook a Master of Science (MSc) course, with both experimental and theoretical components. The former, in cooperation with Courtney Mohr, dealt with soft X-ray deflection from metal surfaces; the latter with wave mechanics. This involved translating numerous articles from German journals such as "Zeitschrift für Physik", "Annalen der Physik" and "Physikalische Zeitschrift". His external examiner was Ralph Fowler from the University of Cambridge, who was Paul Dirac's PhD supervisor.
In 1929, with the benefit of an Aitchison travelling scholarship from the University of Melbourne, Massey went to Trinity College, Cambridge to perform research at the Cavendish Laboratory led by Ernest Rutherford. The scholarship expired after two years, but he was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1931. At this time the Cavendish Laboratory was one of the leading centres of physics in the world. In 1932 Cavendish laboratory scientists John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the atomic nucleus, James Chadwick discovered the neutron, and Patrick Blackett and Giuseppe Occhialini confirmed the existence of the positron.
Fowler was appointed as Massey's supervisor although it was clear that he did not need any supervision "per se". Massey obtained his PhD on "The Collisions of Material Particles" in 1932. Shortly afterwards, he co-authored a book on atomic collision processes with Nevill Mott, "Theory of Atomic Collisions" (1933). He also applied the theory of collisions to models of neutron structure. At the Cavendish laboratory, he also played hockey with Cockcroft, and cricket for the Cavendish Cricket Club, becoming team captain in his final year there.
In June 1933 Massey became an independent lecturer in Mathematical Physics at the Queen's University of Belfast. He was the only member of the department until R. A. Buckingham arrived in 1934. Despite having to give nine lectures a week, he found time to write his second book, "Negative Ions" (1938), and began working on upper atmospheric physics. Frustrated with the tiresome and time-consuming process of calculation, he had his physics workshop superintendent, John Wylie, build him a small-scale differential analyzer, an analog computer that could solve differential equations, for just £50. This was used to solve problems related to low temperature helium, and the photo-ionisation of oxygen in the upper atmosphere.
Massey was appointed Goldsmid Professor of Applied Mathematics at University College London, in 1938, following the death of L. N. G. Filon the previous year. He brought with him Buckingham, now an 1851 Exhibition Scholar himself, and David Bates, a promising graduate student. They brought the differential analyser with them to London, where it was destroyed by an air raid during the Second World War.
Second World War.
Soon after the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Germans began a naval mine campaign against Britain. The results were devastating. Nineteen ships totaling 59,027 tons were sunk by mines in October, and 27 totaling 120,958 tons in November, along with the destroyer . Many more ships were damaged, including the cruiser . The nature of the mines was initially unknown, but on 23 November 1939, a bomb disposal team under Lieutenant Commander J. G. D. Ouvry recovered an intact aerial mine from a mudflat at Shoeburyness, and the threat was revealed to be a magnetic mine.
In December 1939, Massey joined a group at the Admiralty Research Laboratory in Teddington led by Stephen Butterworth. They were soon joined by a number of other physicists, including Bates, Buckingham, Francis Crick and John Gunn. Together, they came up with a series of countermeasures that enable the Navy to successfully sweep the mines. With this in hand, Massey became Deputy Chief Scientist to the Scientific Section of Mine Design Department at the Admiralty Mining Establishment in Havant in early 1941. This time, the job was to create mines as good as the German ones. Massey brought his team with him. While Bates worked on packaging to protect the mine when it was dropped from an aircraft, Buckingham and Gunn calculated its theoretical effectiveness, and Crick designed the circuitry. Their mine codenamed MX, was soon in service, and the group turned its attention to developing acoustic or pressure mines. On the retirement of A. B. Wood in 1943, Massey became Chief Scientist at Havant.
After the August 1943 Quebec Agreement merged the British and American atomic bomb projects, Mark Oliphant persuaded the Admiralty to release Massey to work on the Manhattan Project. In November 1943, Massey set out with Oliphant for the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley in a B-24 Liberator bomber. The Radiation Laboratory's part was to develop an electromagnetic isotope separation process. Massey was in charge of its Theoretical Group, which included American David Bohm and Australian Eric Burhop. They studied the characteristics of electric discharges in magnetic fields, today known as Bohm diffusion, and studied the ionization of uranium compounds used as feed in the electromagnetic uranium enrichment process such as uranium tetrachloride (UCl4) and uranium hexafluoride (UF6). Oliphant returned to Britain in March 1945, and was replaced as head of the British mission in Berkeley by Massey. Wartime papers produced by the group were collected and published in "The Characteristics of Electrical Discharges in Magnetic Fields" (1949).
Later life.
Massey returned to University College London, in October 1945 to find it badly damaged by bombing, and the Mathematics Department in dingy temporary accommodation. He was allowed to pick his own lecturers, so he chose Bates, Burhop, Buckingham and Gunn. While they had to teach mathematics, they were free to choose their own research topics, so they chose to research physics, carrying out physical experiments. This situation lasted until 1950, when Edward Andrade retired, and Massey was appointed Quain Professor of Physics and head of the University College London, Physics Department. The department was merged with Astronomy in 1973, but he remained its head until he retired in 1975. He also served as University College London's Vice-Provost from 1969 to 1973.
When Massey took over the Physics Department, most of his physicists, including Bates, Buckingham, Burhop and Robert Boyd, moved with him. Like the Mathematics Department, it was still in temporary accommodation owing to bomb damage during the war. A new building was under construction, but to develop the technical infrastructure, Massey hired Harry Tomlinson, who had worked for him in the British Mission in Berkeley. The Department acquired several accelerators, including a 20 MeV synchrotron from the Atomic Energy Authority. Dick Jennings and Franz Heymann built two microtrons. Under Massey, the Physics Department moved away from researching the physics of metals and liquids, and focused on particle physics and upper atmosphere physics. Massey saw the potential of computers. He arranged with Andrew Booth for a copy of his All Purpose Electronic Computer, and recruited two programmers, Joan Lawson and Jane Wallace. When the University of London established a computing unit, Buckingham left to head it.
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1940, Massey was awarded its Hughes Medal in 1955, and its Royal Medal in 1958. He was a member of its council from 1949 to 1951 and again from 1959 to 1960, before serving as its Physical Secretary and Vice-President from 1969 to 1978. He became a member of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research's Nuclear Physics Sub-Committee in 1956. When the National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science was founded in 1957, he became one of the initial members of its governing board. He became a member of the Research Grants Committee in 1959, and was chairman of the Council for Scientific Policy from 1965 to 1970. He was knighted for his services in 1960.
Rockets had seen enormous development for military purposes during the Second World War, and Massey saw their potential for studying the upper atmosphere. He became a major supporter of space science, and wrote a book on the subject, "History of British Space Science" (1984). He was the chairman of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), which was established by the International Council of Scientific Unions, from its founding in 1959 until 1978, and also of the British National Committee for Space Research, its British national chapter. He was also the first Chairman of the European Space Sciences Committee, and helped found the European Space Research Organization and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London.
Space science also gave Massey an excuse to visit Australia; he made some twenty trips. He was involved in the testing of balloons for upper atmosphere research at the University of Melbourne's site in Mildura, Victoria. As chairman of the Rocket Subcommittee of the Royal Society's Gassiot Committee, he visited the Weapons Research Establishment near Adelaide and the Woomera Rocket Range to discuss collaboration on the British Skylark rocket, which was test fired from Woomera in 1957. He sought to develop a UK space program in cooperation in space with Australia, the United States and European countries. He was successful in building international cooperation, although his Black Knight project was cancelled in favour of Black Arrow, which launched Prospero, only satellite launched with a British launch vehicle, from Woomera in 1971. He was involved in the negotiations leading to the establishment of the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Mountain in New South Wales.
Massey received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1975.
He was a United Kingdom member and deputy chairman its governing board from 1975 to 1980, and chairman from 1980 to 1983.
Death and legacy.
After a long illness, Massey died at his home in Esher, Surrey, which Jessica had named "Kalamunda", from the Australian Aboriginal word for the area in Western Australia where she had once lived, on 27 November 1983. He was survived by his wife and daughter. The Royal Society/COSPAR Massey Award is named after him, as is the Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre and Harrie Massey Prize at University College London, and the Harrie Massey Medal and Prize, jointly awarded by the Australian Institute of Physics and British Institute of Physics. His papers are in the University College London, archives.
Hoddles Creek Primary School, the state school attended by Massey during his childhood, named 'Massey house' (one of the school's four houses) in his honour. A pine tree planted by Massey in the school grounds in 1937 remains, as well as a plaque commemorating Massey's achievements.


Peter Alan Sweet

Peter Alan Sweet (1921–2005) was an English astronomer. He was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1959 until his retirement in 1982. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Science 1973–1975.
Under Sweet's stewardship, the Department of Astronomy grew from 3 to 17 permanent staff. Sweet undertook the building of a new University Observatory located at Acre Road, Glasgow which opened in 1967. The department offices were moved to the top floor of the then new Mathematics Building in University Gardens, within the main University campus.
Sweet was educated at Kingsbury County Grammar School and Wrangler 1942 on a Major Open Scholarship in Maths at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He worked as a Junior Scientific Officer at the Ministry of Aircraft Production from 1942 until the end of the Second World War. He took a position as a lecturer in Astronomy at Glasgow University in 1947. He then moved to become Assistant Director of the University of London Observatory from 1952 until his appointment to the Regius Chair in Glasgow in 1959.


Canyon Diablo (meteorite)

The Canyon Diablo meteorites include the many fragments of the asteroid that created Meteor Crater, Arizona, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diablo, which lies about three to four miles west of the crater.
History.
The asteroid fell about 50,000 years ago. The meteorites have been known and collected since the mid-19th century and were known and used by pre-historic Native Americans. Meteor Crater, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, was the center of a long dispute over the origin of craters that showed little evidence of volcanism. That debate was largely settled by the early 1930s, thanks to work by Daniel M. Barringer, F.R. Moulton, Harvey Harlow Nininger, and Eugene Shoemaker.
In 1953, Clair Cameron Patterson measured ratios of the lead isotopes in samples of the meteorite. The result permitted a refinement of the estimate of the age of the Earth to 4.550 billion years (± 70 million years).
Composition and classification.
This meteorite is an iron octahedrite (coarse octahedrite).
Minerals reported from the meteorite include:
Samples may contain troilite-graphite nodules with metal veins and small diamonds.
Fragments.
The biggest fragment ever found is the , weighing , now on display in the Meteor Crater Visitor Center on the rim of the crater. Other famous fragments:


Alice Everett

Alice Everett (15 May 1865 – 29 July 1949) was a British astronomer and engineer who grew up in Ireland. She also contributed to the fields of optics and early television. Everett is best known for being the first woman to be paid for astronomical work at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, when she began her employment at the observatory January 1890.
Early life.
Born in Glasgow in 1865, Everett moved to Belfast when she was two when her father, Joseph David Everett, FRS, was appointed as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's University, Belfast. Her father would remain in the post until his retirement thirty years later. Everett was educated at the Methodist College Belfast, where she was a prize pupil.
University education.
At this time, the sole means of access to a university education in Ireland for women was through the Royal University of Ireland, which awarded degrees solely through examination. In 1882 Queen's College, Belfast began accepting female students, allowing them to take lectures in preparation for the Royal University examinations. Everett applied for this option and in 1884 she was awarded first place in the first-year science examinations but the college refused to grant the scholarship to a woman. In 1886 Everett moved to the all-women's college Girton College, Cambridge. In 1887 she sat and passed with honours the Royal University in mathematics and mathematical physics and she was awarded a Master of Arts in 1889. Also in 1889,she passed the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge University. Female students were permitted to sit the examinations but the university would not grant degrees to female students until 1928. 1889 marked the end of Everett's university education and the beginning of a ground-breaking career in astronomy.
Career in astronomy.
The UK Civil Service rules that applied at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich made the employment of women very difficult. However, in 1890 the Astronomer Royal William Christie was interested in employing the highly educated women that began graduating from English universities and he got round the regulation by paying women as supernumerary computers and not putting them on the permanent payroll. He employed four women, not as supernumerary computers but as second assistants who undertook both observations and computing. Among others he hired Everett, who became the first woman to work for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich when she began working in January 1890. At Greenwich, Everett was assigned to work in the Astrographic Department, contributing to the international "Carte du Ciel" project. In addition to her work as a "computer", Everett was trained to use the Observatory's new astrographic telescope (installed in 1890) to take the photographs. Everett's job also involved measuring the plates, calculating the co-ordinates of the stars, and reducing the data for the catalogue. During this time, Everett also made observations for the Transit Department with the Prime-Meridian-defining Airy Transit Circle.
In 1891 Everett persuaded her friend Annie Russell to apply to work at the Royal Observatory and in September she began work at the observatory. Russell had attended Girton College with Everett and the two had sat and passed the difficult Tripos examination together. In 1892 Everett, Russell and Elizabeth Brown tried to get elected for fellowship at the Royal Astronomical Society. None of the women was admitted, because all fell short of the required votes. Similarly, the nomination of Isis Pogson had been rejected in 1886. So instead they joined and actively contributed to the amateur British Astronomical Association (BAA).
Everett would publish her work in the BAA's journal, "The Observatory" and would also publish in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society" and elsewhere.
After five years at Greenwich, Everett became tired of the low salary and began looking for work elsewhere. She failed to get a position at the Dunsink Observatory, Dublin, and instead obtained a three-year temporary post at the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam, then Europe's leading institution for astrophysical research. Everett began working at the observatory as a scientific assistant in October 1895, becoming the first woman to work in an observatory in Germany and continued to work on the "Carte du Ciel" project. During her time in Potsdam she measured stars on photographic chart-plates and in one year, 1897, helped measure the positions of 22,000 stars. She left Potsdam July 1899. Everett moved for a one year post at the observatory of Vassar College in the United States where she wrote two papers with Mary Whitney. James Keeler, director of the Lick Observatory had hoped to hire her for the spectroscopic programme at the observatory but was unable to obtain funds. Instead Everett would return to London in 1900 where her interests turned from astronomy to the related field of optics. Her astronomical career came to an end at the age of 35.
Optics.
Everett's interest in optics had been sparked when she assisted her retired father in translating an article in German on Jena optical glass. She would assist her father with his research and experiments in optics until his death in 1904. In 1903 her father communicated a paper by her to the Physical Society of London describing experiments on zonal observations in lenses, the first paper by a woman to appear in the society's journal. However opportunities for women in this field of science (or indeed any field of science) were few. As a result, Everett would be unable to find regular paid work until the First World War, which gave many women an opportunity to enter the workforce. In 1917 and at the age of fifty-two, Everett joined the staff of the National Physical Laboratory. Everett worked in the optics section until she reached the age of retirement (60) in 1925.
Engineering and television.
Retirement would mark the third strand of Everett's technical career, engineering. In the late 1920s Everett would take and pass examinations in wireless and electrical engineering. Everett also developed an interest in the new field of television and may have been one of two women present at the demonstration of the first television image by John Logie Baird in January 1926. As a result, Everett would become one of the founding members and Fellows of the newly established Television Society (now Royal Television Society) in September 1927. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Everett would become involved with the Baird Television Company and Television Society and in 1933 the two would apply for a joint patent relating to television optics. Everett would continue contribution to the field of television for the rest of her life. In recognition of her contribution to the field of physics, she was granted a civil list pension of £100 in 1938. On 29 July 1949, she died in London and would leave her library of scientific books to the Television Society.


Martin Leonard

Martin Patrick Grainge Leonard DSO was an Anglican suffragan bishop from 1953 until his death.
Leonard was born at Torpenhow, near Cockermouth, Cumberland, on 5 July 1889. He was educated at Rossall, Fleetwood, Lancashire and Oriel College, Oxford before embarking on an ecclesiastical career including service as a World War I chaplain. Afterward, Leonard occupied a similar post at Cheltenham College. He spent 14 years with the Toc H organisation. Leonard subsequently became Rector of Hatfield, Rural Dean of Hertford, and Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow. He was a Bishop of Thetford, and a lifelong supporter of the Boy Scout movement.
He died on 21 July 1963.
Works.
"A book of Prayers and Hymns Selected for Scouts"; London; C. A. Pearson; 1933.


Paul D. Lowman

Paul D. Lowman (September 21, 1931 – September 29, 2011) was a geophysicist in the Geodynamics Branch of the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. Throughout his long career, he had worked in the fields of comparative planetology, geology, neotectonics, and remote sensing.
Education.
Lowman earned his B.S. degree in Geology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1953 and earned his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1963.
Career.
Lowman was one of the original scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center. He spent several years with the United States Army Ordnance Corps, and then became a field assistant with the United States Geological Survey. In 1959, he became “the first geologist hired by NASA.” At Goddard, he worked with John A. O'Keefe on the origin of tektites and pre-Apollo lunar geology.
Lowman helped plan the early Apollo missions and later became involved in analyzing lunar samples and interpreting data from the Apollo 15 and Apollo 16 missions. He did early “comparative planetology,” researching what new information from the Moon and Mars could tell us about Earth. He is considered to be the father of Earth orbital photography which led to multispectral imaging of Earth and Landsat satellite imagery.
Lowman's field work included research on ancient exposed rocks in Scotland and the Sudbury Crater in Ontario, Canada. In addition to his scientific achievements, he served in an educational capacity as a faculty member and mentor at a number of universities and programs throughout his long career.
Awards and honors.
Lowman received a number of awards and honors during his career, including NASA's Silver Snoopy Award in 1978, 40 Years of Federal Service Award in 1997, GSFC's Exceptional Achievement Award in 2003, and a NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2003.
Publications.
Lowman wrote a number of books and NASA documents including the following titles:


Christine Jones Forman

Christine Jones Forman is a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She is currently the past president of the American Astronomical Society, and the director of the Smithsonian Institution's Consortium for Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe.
Education and career.
In high school Forman attended the Ross Mathematics Program, Arnold Ross' summer mathematics program for gifted high school students. She finished high school in West Carrollton, Ohio before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she earned three astrophysics degrees from Harvard University: an AB in 1971, AM in 1972, and PhD in 1974. During her time as a student, Forman was both a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics and a Harvard Junior Fellow.
Forman has been an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory since 1973 and previously served as the head of the Chandra Calibration Group from 1990–2010. In 2010, Forman was named director of the Consortium for Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe, and became one of four directors of the Smithsonian Institution’s Consortia for the Four Grand Challenges of the Strategic Plan.
Honors.
In 1985, Forman and her husband William R. Forman were the first recipients of the Bruno Rossi Prize, an award given annually by the American Astronomical Society "for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work." They received a $500 reward and a certificate "for pioneering work in the study of X-ray emission from early type galaxies."
In 2013, Forman became the 14th recipient of the Secretary's Distinguished Research Lecture Award of the Smithsonian Institution.
Personal life.
Forman is married to astrophysicist Bill Forman. Together they have three children: Julia, Daniel, and Miranda.


Phoebe Waterman Haas

Phoebe Waterman Haas (September 20, 1882 – 1967) was one of the earliest American women to be awarded a doctorate in Astronomy (1913). While her formal professional career ended upon her marriage, she contributed as a citizen scientist, volunteering for the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). The Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory was supported by donations from her family and is named in her honor.
Life.
Phoebe Waterman Haas was born in North Dakota, United States, in 1882, as Emma Phoebe Waterman. Her father was John Charles Waterman.
Initially taught at home by her parents, she later went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to study at High School.
Education and early work.
Phoebe Waterman moved from North Dakota to New York to study at Vassar College, a university for women, where she received a BA degree in 1904. Two years later she earned a master's degree in Mathematics and Astronomy, working with Caroline E. Furness.
At the time, the accepted way for a woman to be professionally involved in the field of astronomy was to be a "computer", performing data analysis and making calculations. As a computer at Mount Wilson Observatory from 1909 to 1911, Phoebe worked with leading astronomers such as George Ellery Hale, Walter S. Adams, Jacobus Kapteyn, and Harold D. Babcock. She was involved in classification and reduction of spectra and measurement of laboratory spectra. She also studied the rotation of the Sun.
Phoebe wanted to be a full professional research astronomer, making her own observations as well as doing analyses. In 1911 she applied to the University of California-Berkeley to a doctorate program. She was accepted and was able to make observations at Lick Observatory in San José, using the Brashear spectrograph on the 36-inch refractor for her research. She was awarded a doctorate of philosophy in Astronomy on May 14, 1913. Her thesis title was "The Visual Region of the Spectrum of the Brighter Class A Stars." She was the first women in earn a doctorate in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. (Waterman's dissertation was published before that of her classmate, Anna Estelle Glancy, who was awarded her degree on the same day.)
Marriage.
In 1913, Phoebe was appointed as an assistant to the Argentine National Observatory at Cordoba, Argentina. On the ship traveling to Buenos Aires she met chemist Otto Haas. They were married on February 22, 1914. They had two children: Fritz Otto and John C. Haas.
AAVSO work.
For many years, Phoebe was an observer, volunteer and benefactor of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). The AAVSO, founded in 1911, was an organization which fostered collaboration between citizen scientists and professionals. John Crane willed his 4-inch Clark refractor to the AAVSO. After he died in 1927, Phoebe Waterman Haas was able to obtain it. She reported her observations of variable stars to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), submitting 338 observations from 1928 to 1933. She also taught her children and friends about astronomy.
In 1953, the AAVSO separated from Harvard College Observatory, losing both its physical location and much of its funding. Phoebe Waterman Haas volunteered to assist the AAVSO Director, Margaret Mayall. For the next eleven years, Haas provided vital support by calculating the five- or ten-day means for southern variable stars. Her data formed the basis for light curves published by AAVSO. She and her family also contributed financially in support of the AAVSO.
Phoebe Waterman Haas died in 1967.
Legacy.
In 1945, following World War II, Phoebe and Otto Haas created the Phoebe Waterman Foundation to help fatherless children and to support medical and educational institutions. Otto Haas himself had had to work at the age of 15 after the death of his father. The foundation was later renamed the William Penn Foundation.
The Rohm and Haas company yearly presents an award in Phoebe Haas' name. The Phoebe Waterman Haas Award is given to a woman, nominated by her peers, who demonstrates outstanding leadership and serves as role model inside and outside the company.
Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory.
The observatory of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. was named the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory in recognition of a USD$6 million donation from the Thomas W. Haas Foundation (founded by Phoebe's grandson) to establish an endowment for the Museum's Public Observatory Program.


Giovanni Battista Lacchini

Giovanni Battista Lacchini (20 May 1884 – 6 January 1967) was an Italian astronomer.
He is primarily noted for his work in the study of variable stars. He published over 100 works, including papers in "Astronomische Nachrichten" and "Memorie della Società astronomica italiana". He was originally a postal worker.
Awards and honors.
The "Giovanni Battista Lacchini Award" is named for him. The Lunar crater "Lacchini" on the far-side of the Moon and the Mars-crossing asteroid 145962 Lacchini were also named in his honor.


Bamahenge

Bamahenge is a full-scale fiberglass replica of England's Stonehenge located on the grounds of Barber Marina near Josephine, Alabama. It was designed and built by artist Mark Cline, at the request of marina owner George W. Barber.
History.
The idea for a Stonehenge replica in Alabama originated with billionaire dairy magnate George W. Barber. In 1991, Barber had commissioned Virginia artist Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios to design and install seven life-size dinosaurs as "lawn ornaments" on one of his properties. While Cline was onsite repairing hurricane damage to the sculptures in 2006, Barber, perhaps aware of the recent installation of Cline's Foamhenge replica in Virginia, asked him to build a life-size Stonehenge replica at his Vintage Motorsports Museum outside of Birmingham, Alabama. By the time Cline was able to begin work on the project in 2012, Barber had relocated four of the dinosaurs to the grounds of Barber Marina and decided to instead install the Stonehenge replica on the marina grounds, in the woods to the north of the dinosaurs.
The name Fiberhenge was briefly considered for the work, but Cline decided that it "didn't have the ring" he wanted and instead named the installation Bamahenge.
Structure.
Bamahenge is a full-scale replica of Stonehenge, measuring tall and across. Like Stonehenge, the installation is oriented so that the sun rises over the center of three lintels on the outer markers on the summer solstice. Bamahenge is not an exact replica, however: the monument is constructed from only four different shapes of fiberglass "stones", oriented in different ways. The pieces were designed so that the smaller ones could nest inside the larger ones for transportation from Cline's Virginia studio to the Alabama coast, which required four flatbed tractor-trailer loads.
Located only from the Gulf of Mexico, Bamahenge is located in an active tropical storm and hurricane zone. To protect the work from high winds, each "stone" is anchored by a wooden pole extending up into the "stone" and a similar distance underground. The lower portion of the "stone" and a pit beneath, surrounding the pole, are filled with concrete.
Access.
Bamahenge is located west of the access road to Barber Marina. A small parking area sits at the head of the path to the monument.
While most closely located to the unincorporated community of Josephine in Baldwin County, Alabama, Bamahenge is more often associated with the larger nearby town of Elberta, Alabama.


Near side of the Moon

The near side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned towards Earth, as opposed to the opposite far side. Only one side of the Moon is visible from Earth because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that the Moon orbits the Earth—a situation known as synchronous rotation, or tidal locking.
The Moon is directly illuminated by the Sun, and the cyclically varying viewing conditions cause the lunar phases. Sometimes the dark portion of the Moon is faintly visible due to earthshine, which is indirect sunlight reflected from the surface of Earth and onto the Moon.
Since the Moon's orbit is both somewhat elliptical and inclined to its equatorial plane, libration allows up to 59% of the Moon's surface to be viewed from Earth (though only half at any moment from any point).
Orientation.
The image of the Moon here is drawn as is normally shown on maps, that is with north on top and west to the left. Astronomers traditionally turn the map to have south on top to correspond with the northern-hemisphere view in astronomical telescopes, which typically show the image upside down.
West and east on the Moon are where you would expect them, when standing on the Moon. But when we, on Earth, see the Moon in the sky, then the east–west direction is just reversed. When specifying coordinates on the Moon it should therefore always be mentioned whether geographic (or rather selenographic) coordinates are used or astronomical coordinates.
The actual orientation you see the Moon in the sky or on the horizon depends on your geographic latitude on Earth. In the following description a few typical cases will be considered.
Differences.
The two hemispheres have distinctly different appearances, with the near side covered in multiple, large "maria" (Latin for 'seas'). These lowlands were believed to be seas of lunar water by the astronomers who first mapped them, in the 17th century (notably, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi). Although no bodies of liquid exist on the Moon, the term "mare" (plural: "maria") is still used. The far side has a battered, densely cratered appearance with few maria. Only 1% of the surface of the far side is covered by maria, compared to 31.2% on the near side. According to research analyzed by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, the reason for the difference is because the Moon's crust is thinner on the near side compared to the far side. The dark splotches that make up the large lunar maria are lava-filled impact basins that were created by asteroid impacts about four billion years ago. Though both sides of the Moon were bombarded by similarly large impactors, the near side hemisphere crust and upper mantle was hotter than that of the far side, resulting in the larger impact craters. These larger impact craters make up the Man in the Moon references from popular mythology.


Gaston Millochau

Gaston Millochau (born 1866, date of death unknown) was a French astronomer.
From 1899 until 1903 he observed Mars at the Meudon Observatory and reported some details visible on its surface. In contrast to other observers at that time he did not see any canal-like features.
A crater on Mars was named in his honor. Awarded the Janssen Medal from the French Academy of Sciences in 1905.


The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth

"The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth" is the ninth episode of the American documentary television series "". It premiered on May 4, 2014 on Fox, and aired on May 5, 2014 on National Geographic Channel. The episode was directed by Brannon Braga, written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, and featured the voice of Amanda Seyfried as geologist Marie Tharp. The episode explores the history of the Earth starting with the period of the Late Heavy Bombardment, approximately "3.8 to 4.1 Billion years ago during which the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth were battered by space debris." Host Neil deGrasse Tyson then delves into the biography of the Earth, expressed "in its continents, oceans and life living on and in them, saying 'the past is another planet,'" alluding to how plate tectonics have shaped the Earth over millions of years.
The episode received a 1.6/5 in the 18-49 rating/share, with 4.08 million American viewers watching on Fox.
Episode summary.
This episode explores the palaeogeography of Earth over millions of years, and its impact on the development of life on the planet. Tyson starts by explaining that the lignin-rich trees evolved in the Carboniferous era about 300 million years ago, were not edible by species at the time and would instead fall over and become carbon-dioxide-rich coal. Some 50 million years later, near the end of the Permian period, volcanic activity would burn the carbonaceous matter, releasing the carbon dioxide and acidic components, creating a sudden greenhouse gas effect that warmed the oceans and released methane from the ocean beds, all leading towards the Permian–Triassic extinction event, killing 90% of the species on Earth.
Tyson then explains on the nature of plate tectonics that would shape the landmasses of the world. Tyson explains how scientists like Abraham Ortelius hypothesized the idea that land masses may have been connected in the past, Alfred Wegener who hypothesized the idea of a super-continent Pangaea and continental drift despite the prevailing idea of flooded land-bridges at the time, and Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp who discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that supported the theory of plate tectonics. Tyson describes how the landmasses of the Earth lay atop the mantle, which moves due to the motion and heat of the Earth's outer and inner core.
Tyson moves on to explain the asteroid impact that initiated the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, leaving small mammals as the dominate species on Earth. Tyson proceeds to describe more recent geologic events such as the formation of the Mediterranean Sea due to the breaking of the natural dam at the Strait of Gibraltar, and how the geologic formation of the Isthmus of Panama broke the free flow of the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific, causing large-scale climate change such as turning the bulk of Africa from lush grasslands into arid plains and further influencing tree-climbing mammals' evolution towards walking long distances on two legs and using tools. Tyson further explains how the influence of other planets in the Solar System have small effects on the Earth's spin and tilt, creating the various ice ages, and how these changes influenced early human's nomadic behavior. Tyson explains that the climate then stabilized to become the current interglacial period, and finally that this stable period risks to be prematurely ended by the human activity of burning fossil fuels, which will threaten our environment and our ability to feed ourselves. Tyson concludes the episode by noting how Earth's landmasses are expected to change in the future, and postulates what may be the next great extinction event, and that there is a chance that our story will end with it.
Reception.
The episode's premiere on Fox brought a 1.6/5 in the 18-49 rating/share, with an audience of 4.08 million American viewers. It placed fourth and last in its timeslot behind "The Good Wife", "Resurrection", and "Believe"; and thirteenth out of seventeenth for the night.


Silvia Belladitta


F. W. Harvey

Frederick William Harvey DCM (26 March 1888 – 13 February 1957), often known as Will Harvey, and dubbed "the Laureate of Gloucestershire", was an English poet, broadcaster and solicitor whose poetry became popular during and after World War I.
Early life.
Harvey was born in 1888 in Hartpury, Gloucestershire, and grew up in Minsterworth. He was educated at the King's School, Gloucester, where he formed a close friendship with Ivor Gurney, and then at Rossall School. Gurney and Herbert Howells, another local composer, would set a number of his poems to music.
He started on a legal career, which would always be somewhat tentative; and began to consider conversion to Roman Catholicism.
World War I.
On 8 August 1914, only four days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany, Harvey joined the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment as a private. Shortly afterwards, in November, he became a Roman Catholic. He was an adherent of the distributism movement, described as a "third way", in opposition to both socialism and capitalism; and he was influenced by the work of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.
His battalion was posted to France in March 1915, where he was promoted to lance corporal and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. His citation for the DCM reads:
Harvey returned to England for officer training, but after being commissioned and returning to France he was captured on 17 August 1916 in the German front-line trench while carrying out a reconnaissance patrol. He spent the rest of the war in prisoner-of-war camps, including those at Gütersloh, Crefeld, Schwarmstedt, Holzminden, Bad Colberg, and Stralsund.
Writing.
Soon after his arrival in France, Harvey began to contribute to a trench newspaper, the "Fifth Gloucester Gazette". His first volume of poems, "A Gloucestershire Lad at Home and Abroad", was published in September 1916, shortly after his capture. He began to write more intensively in captivity, and poems were sent back to England for publication: his second collection, "Gloucestershire Friends", appeared in 1917. His time in the camps is held to be his most productive period of writing. On returning from a spell of solitary confinement at Holzminden after a failed escape attempt, he saw that a fellow prisoner had drawn a picture over his bed in chalk of ducks in a pool of water. This inspired his most celebrated poem (and the title poem of his third collection, published in 1919), "Ducks".
Post-war life.
Harvey returned home in 1919, married in 1921, and returned to legal practice. He became a respected and loved figure in the Forest of Dean. He worked largely as a defence solicitor (his own captivity convincing him that incarceration was destructive and pointless), and became known as the "poor man's solicitor". His work was not financially successful, and in the 1930s he sold off his practice.
In 1920 he published a memoir of his prison-camp experiences, "Comrades in Captivity"; and in 1921 "Farewell", an acknowledgement of his intention to remove himself from the literary world. He had a brief creative union with his great friend and collaborator, Ivor Gurney. Gurney had written "After-Glow" and "To His Love" for Harvey, on hearing of his supposed death in 1916; and "Ypres-Minsterworth" as a gesture of solidarity with him in his captivity. Their reunion was cut sadly short by Gurney's mental breakdown in 1922.
Harvey's gift for oration and his versatile voice and scripting led him to become a popular broadcaster at the BBC, Bristol, where he used his popularity to promote the Forest of Dean, its people and traditions. He furthered local choirs, musicians and young authors such as Leonard Clark. He was friends with Rutland Boughton and the local MP, Morgan Philips Price, who worked with him to promote the arts and the interests of Foresters.
Later years.
In later life Harvey craved the comradeship he had found in the trenches and was saddened that the new social order he had expected never appeared. His later poetry of remembrance captured those feelings, but retained the essential humour of his early work and included verse in the local dialect.
In 1956, in failing health, he attended the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral to hear Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius", a work that had inspired his ideas about creativity and beauty some fifty years earlier. He died the following year and was buried at Minsterworth.
Personal life.
In 1921 Harvey married Anne Kane, an Irish nurse. They had two children, Eileen Anne (born 1922) and Patrick (born 1925). He led a Bohemian lifestyle, rejecting material values, and often recklessly gave away his professional services and income.
Reputation and legacy.
Harvey's poems published during and immediately after World War I were highly acclaimed, and his status was acknowledged when a collection was published in 1926 in the "Augustan Books of Modern Poetry" series, edited by Edward Thompson.
The lyricism of his poetry led to it being set to music by his friends Ivor Gurney, Herbert Howells and Sir Herbert Brewer, and others, including post-war composers such as Johnny Coppin. His work is noted particularly for its appreciation of the natural world and the landscape and traditions of West Gloucestershire.
Harvey was commemorated by a slate memorial tablet in the south transept of Gloucester Cathedral in 1980.
"Ducks", Harvey's best known verse, was voted one of the nation's 100 favourite poems in 1996 in a nationwide poll conducted by the BBC.


August 2007 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse occurred on August 28, 2007, lasting just over 90 minutes. The Moon entered the Earth's penumbra at 7:53:40 UTC. The first partial phase began in earnest at 8:51:16 UTC when the Moon entered the Earth's umbra. It exited the penumbra at 13:20:57 UTC.
It is a relatively rare central eclipse where the moon passes in front of the center of the Earth's shadow. It was the "longest and deepest lunar eclipse to be seen in 7 years".
 In the total lunar eclipse of July 16, 2000 the moon passed within two arc minutes of the center of the Earth's shadow. In comparison, this still very "deep" eclipse was off-center by over 12 minutes of arc. The next total lunar eclipse of a longer duration was on June 15, 2011.
The lunar eclipse was the second one in 2007. The first one occurred on March 3, 2007.
Viewing.
Viewing from Oceania is favoured for the eclipse, because at the moment of greatest eclipse (10:37:22 UTC), the Moon was at the zenith of French Polynesia. The Pacific regions of Canada and the continental United States (including all of Alaska) witnessed the whole event, along with most of eastern Australia, New Zealand and all the Pacific Island regions (except New Guinea), and the tip of the Chukchi Peninsula that includes the town of Uelen, Russia. The majority of the Americas observed an abbreviated eclipse, with moonset occurring at some time during the eclipse. Siberia, far eastern Russia, eastern South Asia, China, the rest of eastern and southeastern Asia, New Guinea, and the rest of Australia missed out on the beginning of the eclipse, because the eclipse occurred at or close to moonrise in those regions.
Luzon (except Visayas and Mindanao) in the Philippines, particularly Metro Manila, missed the rare eclipse entirely, due to clouds in the area due to the rainy season, which saddened many eclipse watchers in the area, but the eclipse was sighted by other amateur astronomers in other parts of the country as the lunar eclipse seen in clear skies. The eclipse was also missed in New Guinea, especially Port Moresby because of clouds. Greenland, Europe (including western Russia), Africa, western Asia, western Central Asia, and western South Asia missed the eclipse completely.
Relation to other lunar eclipses.
Eclipses of 2007.
This eclipse at the moon's ascending node was the second of two lunar eclipses to occur in 2007. The first at the descending node was on March 3, 2007.
Saros series.
Lunar Saros 128 contains 15 total lunar eclipses between 1845 and 2097 (in years 1845, 1867, 1881, 1899, 1917, 1935, 1953, 1971, 1989, 2007, 2025, 2043, 2061, 2079 and 2097). Solar Saros 135 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.
Half-Saros cycle.
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 135.