Jean Kovalevsky
Jean Kovalevsky (May 18, 1929 – August 17, 2018) was a French astronomer, specializing in celestial mechanics. He is known as a primary initiator (with Pierre Lacroute) and a leader of the Hipparcos space experiment. Biography Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Kovalevsky was the son of Russian immigrants and grew up bilingual in Russian and French. He studied from 1951 to 1955 at the ''École normale supérieure'' graduating with the ''agrégation'' in mathematics in 1954. He held from 1955 to 1960 the positions ''attaché de techerche'' and then ''chargé de recherche'' (CR) at the Paris Observatory. He was from 1957 to 1959 a graduate student and research assistant at Yale University. In 1959 he received his doctorate at Yale from Dirk Brouwer on the movement of the 8th moon of Jupiter. From 1960 to 1971 Kovalevsjy was head of celestial mechanics at the ''Bureau des Longitudes''. Celestial mechanics experienced a new boom in the Sputnik age and he published an introduction to the sub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Celestial Mechanics
Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to produce ephemeris data. History Modern analytic celestial mechanics started with Isaac Newton's Principia of 1687. The name "celestial mechanics" is more recent than that. Newton wrote that the field should be called "rational mechanics." The term "dynamics" came in a little later with Gottfried Leibniz, and over a century after Newton, Pierre-Simon Laplace introduced the term "celestial mechanics." Prior to Kepler there was little connection between exact, quantitative prediction of planetary positions, using geometrical or arithmetical techniques, and contemporary discussions of the physical causes of the planets' motion. Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was the first to closely integrate the predictive geom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grasse
Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal oc, Grassa in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional it, Grassa) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Regions of France, region on the French Riviera. In 2017, the Communes of France, commune had a population of 50,396. Considered the world's capital of perfume, Grasse obtained two flowers in the ''Concours des villes et villages fleuris'' and was made ''Ville d'Art et d'Histoire'' (City of Art and History). Festivals There is an annual ''Fête du Jasmin'' or ''La Jasminade'', at the beginning of August. The first festival was on August 3–4, 1946. Decorated Float (parade), floats drive through the town, with young women in skimpy costumes on board, throwing flowers into the crowd. Garlands of jasmine decorate the town center, and the fire department fills a fire truck with jasmine-infused water to spray on the crowds. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prix Georges Lemaître
The Prix Georges Lemaître is an award created in 1995, in celebration of the centenary of the birth in 1894 of Georges Lemaître. The ''Association des Anciens et Amis de l'Université catholique de Louvain'' (Association of the Alumni and Friends of the Université catholique de Louvain) initiated the award, as well as the ''Fondation Georges Lemaître'' (Georges Lemaître Foundation). The prize, endowed with 25,000 euros as of 2003, is awarded every two years to a scientist who has made a remarkable contribution to ''développement et à la diffusion des connaissances dans les domaines de la cosmologie, de l'astronomie, de l'astrophysique, de la géophysique, ou de la recherche spatiale'' (development and dissemination of knowledge in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics, geophysics, or space science). The winner is chosen by an international jury of scientists, chaired by the rector of the Université catholique de Louvain. List of recipients * 1995 — Philip James ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Catherine Turon
Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christian era it came to be associated with the Greek adjective (), meaning "pure", leading to the alternative spellings ''Katharine'' and ''Katherine''. The former spelling, with a middle ''a'', was more common in the past and is currently more popular in the United States than in Britain. ''Katherine'', with a middle ''e'', was first recorded in England in 1196 after being brought back from the Crusades. Popularity and variations English In Britain and the U.S., ''Catherine'' and its variants have been among the 100 most popular names since 1880. The most common variants are ''Katherine,'' ''Kathryn,'' and ''Katharine''. The spelling ''Catherine'' is common in both English and French. Less-common variants in English include ''Katheryn'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lennart Lindegren
Lennart Lindegren is a member of the staff at Lund Observatory, Sweden, where he obtained his PhD in 1980, and became a full professor of astronomy in 2000. Space astrometry and its various applications has been his main focus in astronomy since 1976. His career has been marked by his continuous involvement in, leadership of, and profound contributions to, ESA's Hipparcos and Gaia missions over their entire duration. Contributions to Hipparcos During the early studies of ESA's Hipparcos space astrometry mission, and while still a graduate student in 1976, he was "recruited" to the project by Erik Høg and thereafter played a crucial role in various aspects of the mission definition and in the data analysis. He set out the overall principles of the astrometric data reduction aiming to combine and solve together the attitude, the system and the astrometric parameters of the stars. This crucial '3-step procedure' was used successfully by the two consortia (NDAC and FAST) later entrus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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CNES
The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research. It operates from the Toulouse Space Centre and the Guiana Space Centre, but also has payloads launched from space centres operated by other countries. The president of CNES is Philippe Baptiste. CNES is a member of Institute of Space, its Applications and Technologies. It is Europe's largest and most important national organization of its type. History CNES was established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961. It is the world's third oldest space agency, after the Soviet space program (Russia), and NASA (United States). CNES was responsible for the training of French astronauts, until the last active CNES astronauts transferred to the European Space Agency in 200 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prix Jules Janssen
The Prix Jules Janssen is the highest award of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society. This annual prize is given to a professional French astronomer or to an astronomer of another nationality in recognition of astronomical work in general, or for services rendered to Astronomy. The first recipient of the prize was Camille Flammarion, the founder of the Société astronomique de France, in 1897. The prize has been continuously awarded since then with the exception of the two World Wars. Non-French recipients have come from various countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Hungary, India, the former Czechoslovakia, and the former Soviet Union. It was established by the French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen (known as Jules Janssen) during his tenure as president of SAF from 1895 to 1897. Janssen announced the creation of the new prize at a meet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Académie Des Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academies of Sciences. Currently headed by Patrick Flandrin (President of the Academy), it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France. History The Academy of Sciences traces its origin to Colbert's plan to create a general academy. He chose a small group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the King's library, near the present-day Bibliothèque Nationals, and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there in the two rooms assigned to the group. The first 30 years of the Academy's existence were relatively informal, since no statutes had as yet been laid down for the institution. In contrast to its British ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frascati
Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with science, being the location of several international scientific laboratories. Frascati produces the white wine Frascati (wine), with the same name. It is also a historical and artistic centre. History The most important archeological finding in the area, dating back to Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman times, during the late Republican Age, is a patrician Roman villa probably belonging to Lucullus. In the first century AD its owner was Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus, who married Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero. His properties were later confiscated by the Flavian imperial dynasty (69–96 AD). Consul Flavius Clemens lived in the villa with his wife Domitilla during the rule of Domitian. According to the ''Liber Pontificalis'', in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gaia (spacecraft)
''Gaia'' is a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 2013 and expected to operate until 2025. The spacecraft is designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented precision. The mission aims to construct by far the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made, totalling approximately 1 billion astronomical objects, mainly stars, but also planets, comets, asteroids and quasars, among others. To study the precise position and motion of its target objects, the spacecraft monitored each of them about 70 times over the five years of the nominal mission (2014–2019), and continues to do so during its extension. The spacecraft has enough micro-propulsion fuel to operate until about November 2024. As its detectors are not degrading as fast as initially expected, the mission could therefore be extended. ''Gaia'' targets objects brighter than magnitude 20 in a broad photometric band that covers the e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Antibes
Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is in the commune of Antibes and the Sophia Antipolis technology park is northwest of it. History Origins Traces of occupation dating back to the early Iron Age have been foundPatrice Arcelin, Antibes (A.-M.). Chapelle du Saint-Esprit. In : Guyon (J.), Heijmans (M.) éd. – ''D’un monde à l’autre. Naissance d’une Chrétienté en Provence (IVe-VIe siècle)''. Arles, 2001, (catalogue d’exposition du musée de l’Arles antique) in the areas of the Musée Picasso (Antibes), castle and Antibes Cathedral, cathedral. Remains beneath the Holy Spirit Chapel show there was an indigenous community with ties with Mediterranean populations, including the Etruscans, as evidenced by the presence of numerous underwater amphorae a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |