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Meteor Shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface. Very intense or unusual meteor showers are known as meteor outbursts and meteor storms, which produce at least 1,000 meteors an hour, most notably from the Leonids. The Meteor Data Centre lists over 900 suspected meteor showers of which about 100 are well established. Several organizations point to viewing opportunities on the Internet. NASA maintains a daily map of active meteor showers. Historical developments A meteor shower in August 1583 was recorded in the Timbuktu manuscripts.Abraham, Curtis"Stars of the Sahara" ''New Scientist'', issue 2617,15 August 2007, page 39–41 In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography. Humboldt's advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in the Americas, exploring and describing them for the first time from a modern Western scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in several volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular). Humboldt resurrected th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Jenniskens
Petrus Matheus Marie (Peter) Jenniskens (born 2 August 1962, in Horst) is a Dutch-American astronomer and a senior research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and at NASA Ames Research Center. He is an expert on meteor showers, and wrote the book ''Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets'' published in 2006. He is president of Commission 22 of the International Astronomical Union (2012-2015) and was chair of the Working Group on Meteor Shower Nomenclature (2006–2012) after it was first established. Asteroid 42981 Jenniskens is named in his honor. In 2008, Jenniskens, together with Muawia Shaddad, led a team from the University of Khartoum in Sudan that recovered fragments of asteroid 2008 TC3 in the Nubian Desert, marking the first time meteorite fragments had been found from an object that was previously tracked in outer space before hitting Earth. Published in Letters to Nature NASA Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaigns Meteor showers Jenniskens is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sky And Telescope
''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomical equipment, books, and computer software; * amateur telescope making; and * astrophotography. The articles are intended for the informed lay reader and include detailed discussions of current discoveries, frequently by participating scientists. The magazine is illustrated in full color, with both amateur and professional photography of celestial sights, as well as tables and charts of upcoming celestial events. History ''Sky & Telescope'' was founded by Charles A Federer and his wife Helen Spence Federer and began publication at Harvard College Observatory in November 1941, as a result of the merger of the separate magazines, '' The Sky'' and '' The Telescope''. In 2005, Sky Publishing Corporation was acquired by New Track Media, a por ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icarus (journal)
''ICARUS'' is a scientific journal dedicated to the field of planetary science. It is officially endorsed by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). The journal contains articles discussing the results of new research on astronomy, geology, meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology, and other scientific aspects of the Solar System or extrasolar systems. The journal was founded in 1962, and became affiliated with the DPS in 1974. Its original owner and publisher was Academic Press, which was purchased by Elsevier in 2000. The journal is named for the mythical Icarus, and the frontispiece of every issue contains an extended quotation from Sir Arthur Eddington equating Icarus' adventurousness with the scientific investigator who "strains his theories to the breaking-point till the weak joints gape." Abstracting and indexing This journal is indexed by the following services: * Science Citation Index * Current Contents /Physical, Chemical & Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA and managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating the NASA Deep Space Network. Among the laboratory's major active projects are the Mars 2020 mission, which includes the '' Perseverance'' rover and the '' Ingenuity'' Mars helicopter; the Mars Science Laboratory mission, including the ''Curiosity'' rover; the InSight lander (''Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport''); the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter''; the '' Juno'' spacecraft orbiting Jupiter; the ''SMAP'' satellite for earth surface ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Königliches Astronomisches Rechen Institut
The Astronomical Calculation Institute (german: Astronomisches Rechen-Institut; ARI) is a research institute in Heidelberg, Germany, dating from the 1700s. Beginning in 2005, the ARI became part of the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University (', ). Previously, the institute directly belonged to the state of Baden-Württemberg. Description The ARI has a rich history. It was founded in 1700 in Berlin-Dahlem by Gottfried Kirch. It had its origin in a patent application by Frederick I of Prussia, who introduced a monopoly on publishing star catalogs in Prussia. In 1945 the Institute was moved by the Americans nearer to the United States Army Garrison Heidelberg. On January 1, 2005 the combined Center for Astronomy institute formed by combining ARI, with the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (', ITA) and the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl ("Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory", LSW). The ARI has been responsible among other things for the Gliese cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolf Berberich
Adolf Joseph Berberich (16 November 1861 – 27 April 1920) was a German astronomer best known for his work on calculating the orbits of minor planets and double stars. The minor planet 776 Berbericia was named in his honour. Early life Adolf Berberich was born on 16 November 1861 in Überlingen, Baden, to Katharina Hirt and Michael, a postman in Rastatt. From 1871 – 1880 he attended a gymnasium in Rastatt and then went on to study astronomy at the University of Strasbourg until 1884, during which his family reportedly encountered serious financial difficulties. During his time there, he found himself unsatisfied by the insufficient funding for astronomy, which he blamed partly on Friedrich Winnecke and Wilhelm Schur, who headed the astronomy department and directed the Strasbourg observatory. Berberich originally planned to devote himself to the study of observational astronomy, but severe myopia, or near-sightedness, forced him to turn to theoretical astronomy. Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Matthew Weld Downing
Arthur Matthew Weld Downing (13 April 1850 – 8 December 1917) was an Irish mathematician and astronomer. Downing's major contribution to astronomy is in the calculation of the positions and movements of astronomical bodies, as well as being a founder of the British Astronomical Association. Early life and education Downing was born in County Carlow on 13 April 1850, the younger son of Arthur Matthew Downing and Mary Weld. He attended Nutgrove School, near Rathfarnham, Dublin under the tuition Philip Jones. He then went on to study in Trinity College, Dublin from 1866, receiving a scholarship in science graduating with a B.A. in 1871 with a gold medal in mathematics. Downing went on to receive a Masters in 1881, and an honorary Doctor of Science in 1893. Career He became an assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory on 17 January 1873. He was first in charge of the manuscripts and library, followed by the time department, and then the circle computations. One of his areas o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Johnstone Stoney
George Johnstone Stoney FRS (15 February 1826 – 5 July 1911) was an Irish physicist. He is most famous for introducing the term ''electron'' as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity". He had introduced the concept, though not the word, as early as 1874, initially naming it "electrine", and the word itself came in 1891. He published around 75 scientific papers during his lifetime. Education and employment Stoney was born at Oakley Park, near Birr, County Offaly, in the Irish Midlands, the son of George Stoney (1792–) and Anne Blood (1801–1883). The Stoney family is an old-established Anglo-Irish family. He attended Trinity College Dublin, graduating with a B.A. degree in 1848. From 1848 to 1852 he worked as an astronomy assistant to William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse at Birr Castle, County Offaly, where Parsons had built the world's largest telescope, the 72-inch Leviathan of Parsonstown. Simultaneously Stoney continued to study physics and mathematics and was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1867
Events January–March * January 1 – The Covington–Cincinnati Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, in the United States, becoming the longest single-span bridge in the world. It was renamed after its designer, John A. Roebling, in 1983. * January 8 – African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. * January 11 – Benito Juárez becomes Mexican president again. * January 30 – Emperor Kōmei of Japan dies suddenly, age 36, leaving his 14-year-old son to succeed as Emperor Meiji. * January 31 – Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Bey Karam leaves Lebanon aboard a French ship for Algeria. * February 3 – ''Shōgun'' Tokugawa Yoshinobu abdicates, and the late Emperor Kōmei's son, Prince Mutsuhito, becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan in a brief ceremony in Kyoto, ending the Late Tokugawa shogunate. * February 7 – West Virginia University is established in Morgantown, West Virginia. * February 13 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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