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Herschel Heights
The Herschel Heights () are a complex of nunataks of which Mimas Peak on the east is the highest, located southwest of the Enceladus Nunataks and near the head of Saturn Glacier in southeastern Alexander Island, Antarctica. The eastern part of this feature was photographed by Lincoln Ellsworth, November 23, 1935, in the course of his trans-Antarctic flight and was plotted from the air photos by W.L.G. Joerg. The heights were named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee from association with Mimas and Enceladus, after Sir William Herschel, the British astronomer who discovered these two satellites of Saturn in 1789. See also * Debussy Heights * Sutton Heights Sutton Heights () is an eminence rising to about 800 m lying between the Lassus Mountains and Debussy Heights, in the northern portion of Alexander Island, Antarctica. The area was photographed from the air by Ronne Antarctic Research Exped ... References Nunataks of Alexander Island {{AlexanderI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nunatak
A nunatak (from Inuit ''nunataq'') is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They are also called glacial islands. Examples are natural pyramidal peaks. When rounded by glacial action, smaller rock promontories may be referred to as rognons. The word is of Greenlandic origin and has been used in English since the 1870s. Description The term is typically used in areas where a permanent ice sheet is present and the nunataks protrude above the sheet.J. J. Zeeberg, ''Climate and Glacial History of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, Russian Arctic''. pp. 82–84 Nunataks present readily identifiable landmark reference points in glaciers or ice caps and are often named. While some nunataks are isolated, sometimes they form dense clusters, such as Queen Louise Land in Greenland. Nunataks are generally angular and jagged, which hampers the formation of glacial ice on their tops, although snow can a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mimas Peak
Mimas Peak () is a sharp conspicuous peak, rising to about west of the head of Saturn Glacier and west of the Dione Nunataks in the southeast part of Alexander Island, Antarctica. It was first seen and photographed from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth on November 23, 1935, and mapped from these photos by W.L.G. Joerg. The peak was sighted from a distance in 1949 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) and roughly positioned. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for its association with nearby Saturn Glacier, Mimas being one of the satellites of the planet Saturn. The peak and surrounding area were first mapped in detail from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition 1947–48, by D. Searle D. or d. may refer to, usually as an abbreviation: * Don (honorific), a form of address in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and their former overseas empires, usually given to nobles or other individuals of high social rank. * Date of death, as an abbrevia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enceladus Nunataks
The Enceladus Nunataks () are a group of about eight nunataks scattered over a wide area at the head of the drainage basin of Saturn Glacier, in southern Alexander Island, Antarctica. They were mapped from trimetrogon air photography taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1947–48, and from survey by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1948–50. The group was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee from association with Saturn Glacier, Enceladus Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refle ... being one of the moons of the planet Saturn. See also * Franck Nunataks * Iapetus Nunatak * Selene Nunatak References Nunataks of Alexander Island {{AlexanderIsland-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn Glacier
Saturn Glacier () is a glacier lying in southeast Alexander Island, Antarctica. The glacier is 15 nautical miles (28 km) long and 6 nautical miles (11 km) wide, flowing southeast into the George VI Ice Shelf of George VI Sound north of Corner Cliffs. Although the glacier is not situated within Planet Heights, its name derives from the nearby mountain range (Planet Heights) along with many other glaciers named after planets of the Solar System. The nunataks at the head of the glacier are also named after solar system features, for example the Enceladus Nunataks named for a moon of Saturn. The coast in this vicinity was first seen from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth on November 23, 1935, and roughly mapped from photos obtained on that flight by W.L.G. Joerg. The glacier was surveyed in 1949 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) and named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) for the planet Saturn, the sixth planet of the Solar Syste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Island
Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula from which it is separated by Marguerite Bay and George VI Sound. The George VI Ice Shelf entirely fills George VI Sound and connects Alexander Island to Palmer Land. The island partly surrounds Wilkins Sound, which lies to its west.Stewart, J. (2011) ''Antarctic An Encyclopedia'' McFarland & Company Inc, New York. 1776 pp. . Alexander Island is about long in a north–south direction, wide in the north, and wide in the south. Alexander Island is the second-largest uninhabited island in the world, after Devon Island. History Alexander Island was discovered on January 28, 1821, by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named it Alexander I Land for the reigning Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Wha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lincoln Ellsworth
Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva Frances Butler in Chicago, Illinois. He also lived in Hudson, Ohio, as a child. He attended The Hill School and took two years longer than usual to graduate, before entering the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. His academic performance was poor, and he subsequently enrolled at Columbia University and McGill before ending his academic career. Lincoln Ellsworth's father, James, a wealthy coal man from the United States, spent US$100,000 to fund Roald Amundsen's 1925 attempt to fly from Svalbard to the North Pole. Amundsen, accompanied by Lincoln Ellsworth, pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, flight mechanic Karl Feucht and two other team members, set out in two Dornier Wal flying boats, the N24 and N25, in an attempted to reach the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee
The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI). Such names are formally approved by the Commissioners of the BAT and SGSSI respectively, and published in the BAT Gazetteer and the SGSSI Gazetteer maintained by the Committee. The BAT names are also published in the international Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica maintained by Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, SCAR. The Committee may also consider proposals for new place names for geographical features in areas of Antarctica outside BAT and SGSSI, which are referred to other Antarctic place-naming authorities, or decided by the Committee itself if situated in the unclaimed sector of Antarctica. Names attributed by the committee * Anvil Crag, named for descriptive featu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mimas (moon)
Mimas , also designated Saturn I, is a moon of Saturn discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. It is named after Mimas, a son of Gaia in Greek mythology. With a diameter of , it is the smallest astronomical body that is known to still be rounded in shape because of self-gravitation. However, Mimas is not actually in hydrostatic equilibrium for its current rotation. Discovery Mimas was discovered by the astronomer William Herschel on 17 September 1789. He recorded his discovery as follows: "I continued my observations constantly, whenever the weather would permit; and the great light of the forty-feet speculum was now of so much use, that I also, on the 17th of September, detected the seventh satellite, when it was at its greatest preceding elongation." The 40-foot telescope was a metal mirror reflecting telescope built by Herschel, with a aperture. The 40 feet refers to the length of the focus, not the aperture diameter as more common with modern telescopes. Name Mima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enceladus (moon)
Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most reflective bodies of the Solar System. Consequently, its surface temperature at noon only reaches , far colder than a light-absorbing body would be. Despite its small size, Enceladus has a wide range of surface features, ranging from old, heavily cratered regions to young, tectonically deformed terrain. Enceladus was discovered on August 28, 1789, by William Herschel, but little was known about it until the two Voyager spacecraft, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2'', flew by Saturn in 1980 and 1981. In 2005, the spacecraft '' Cassini'' started multiple close flybys of Enceladus, revealing its surface and environment in greater detail. In particular, ''Cassini'' discovered water-rich plumes venting from the south polar region. Cryovolc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Herschel
Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750–1848). Born in the Electorate of Hanover, William Herschel followed his father into the military band of Hanover, before emigrating to Great Britain in 1757 at the age of nineteen. Herschel constructed his first large telescope in 1774, after which he spent nine years carrying out sky surveys to investigate double stars. Herschel published catalogues of nebulae in 1802 (2,500 objects) and in 1820 (5,000 objects). The resolving power of the Herschel telescopes revealed that many objects called nebulae in the Messier catalogue were actually clusters of stars. On 13 March 1781 while making observations he made note of a new object in the constellation of Gemini. This would, after several weeks of verification and consultation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galaxies – in either observational astronomy, observational (by analyzing the data) or theoretical astronomy. Examples of topics or fields astronomers study include planetary science, Sun, solar astronomy, the Star formation, origin or stellar evolution, evolution of stars, or the galaxy formation and evolution, formation of galaxies. A related but distinct subject is physical cosmology, which studies the Universe as a whole. Types Astronomers usually fall under either of two main types: observational astronomy, observational and theoretical astronomy, theoretical. Observational astronomers make direct observations of Astronomical object, celestial objects and analyze the data. In contrast, theoretical astronomers create and investigate C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Satellite
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are often colloquially referred to as ''moons'', a derivation from the Moon of Earth. In the Solar System, there are six planetary satellite systems containing 209 known natural satellites altogether. Seven objects commonly considered dwarf planets by astronomers are also known to have natural satellites: , Pluto, Haumea, , Makemake, , and Eris. , there are 442 other minor planets known to have natural satellites. A planet usually has at least around 10,000 times the mass of any natural satellites that orbit it, with a correspondingly much larger diameter. The Earth–Moon system is a unique exception in the Solar System; at 3,474 kilometres (2,158 miles) across, the Moon is 0.273 times the diameter of Earth and about of its mass. The next largest ratios are the Neptune–Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
