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Transit Of Venus, 2004
A transit of Venus was observed from Earth on 8 June 2004. The event received significant attention, since it was the first Venus transit after the invention of broadcast media. No human alive at the time had witnessed a previous Venus transit since that transit occurred on 1882 transit of Venus, 6 December 1882 in the 19th century. The ESO, European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the EAAE - European Association for Astronomy Education, European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) launched the VT-2004 project, together with the Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Éphémérides (IMCCE) and the Observatoire de Paris in France, as well as the Astronomical Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences, Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. This project had 2,763 participants all over the world, including nearly 1,000 school classes. The participants made a measurement of the astronomical unit (AU) of 149 608 708 km ± 11 835 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12.5 million (1.25 crore). Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the seventh-most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 23 million (2.3 crore). Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires out of any city in Asia. The seven islands that constitute Mumbai were earlier home to communities of Marathi language-speaking Koli people. For centuries, the seven islands of Bombay were under the control of successive indigenous rulers before being ceded to the Portuguese Empire, and subsequently to the East India Company in 1661, as part of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2004 In Science
The year 2004 in science and technology involved some significant events. Anthropology * October 27 – Remains of a previously unknown species of human is discovered in Indonesia. Named '' Homo floresiensis'', the hominin is a dwarfed version that lived 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores. Astronomy * March 15 – Astronomers announce the discovery last year of trans-Neptunian object 90377 Sedna, one of the most distant objects in the Solar System. * April 19 – Partial solar eclipse. * May 18 – Scientists using the Chandra X-ray Observatory announced their findings that supports the notion that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. * July 1 (01:12–02:48 UTC) – Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens. * June 8 – Transit of Venus across the Sun. * September 13 – Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announce images that appear to show a planet orbiting a brown dwarf about 230 light-years away. The system is beli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Association Of Lunar And Planetary Observers
The Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO or A.L.P.O.) is an international scientific and educational organization established in March 1947 in the United States by Walter H. Haas, and later incorporated in 1990. ALPO is an organization for advancing and conducting astronomical work by both professional and amateur astronomers who share an interest in Solar System observations. It is currently headquartered in Springfield, Illinois. ALPO studies Solar System objects such as the Sun, the Earth's Moon, planets, asteroids, meteors, and comets. ALPO stimulates, coordinates, and generally promotes the study of these bodies using methods and instruments available within the communities of both amateur and professional astronomers. The organization holds a conference each summer, usually in conjunction with other astronomical groups. Sections ALPO had no initial formal structure but later found it necessary to specialize as its membership chose to narrow their studies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transit Of Venus, 2012
The 2012 transit of Venus, when the planet Venus appeared as a small, dark spot passing across the face of the Sun, began at 22:09 UTC on 5 June 2012, and finished at 04:49 UTC on 6 June. Depending on the position of the observer, the exact times varied by up to ±7 minutes. Transit of Venus, Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable celestial phenomena and occur in pairs. Consecutive transits per pair are spaced 8 years apart, and consecutive pairs occur more than a century apart: The Transit of Venus, 2004, previous transit of Venus took place on 8 June 2004 (preceded by transits on 9 December 1874 and 6 December 1882); the next pair of transits will occur on 10–11 December 2117 and December 2125 within the 22nd century. Observations of the event The entire transit was visible from the western Pacific Ocean, northwesternmost North America, northeastern Asia, Japan, the Philippines, eastern Australia, New Zealand, and high Arctic locations including northernmos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of the total electromagnetic radiation output from the Sun. It is also produced by electric arcs, Cherenkov radiation, and specialized lights, such as mercury-vapor lamps, tanning lamps, and black lights. The photons of ultraviolet have greater energy than those of visible light, from about 3.1 to 12 electron volts, around the minimum energy required to ionize atoms. Although long-wavelength ultraviolet is not considered an ionizing radiation because its photons lack sufficient energy, it can induce chemical reactions and cause many substances to glow or fluoresce. Many practical applications, including chemical and biological effects, are derived from the way that UV radiation can interact with organic molecules. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bangalore
Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Karnataka. As per the 2011 Census of India, 2011 census, the city had a population of 8.4 million, making it the List of cities in India by population, third most populous city in India and the most populous in South India. The Bengaluru metropolitan area had a population of around 8.5 million, making it the List of million-plus urban agglomerations in India, fifth most populous urban agglomeration in the country. It is located near the center of the Deccan Plateau, at a height of above sea level. The city is known as India's "Garden City", due to its parks and greenery. Archaeological artifacts indicate that the human settlement in the region happened as early as 4000 Common Era, BCE. The first mention of the name "Bengalooru" is from an ol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sony Mavica
Mavica (''Magnetic Video Camera'') is a discontinued brand of Sony cameras which use removable disks as the main recording medium. On August 25, 1981, Sony unveiled a prototype of the Sony Mavica as the world's first electronic still video camera. As with all Mavica cameras until the early 1990s (including later models sold commercially) this first model was not digital. Its Charge-coupled device, CCD sensor produced an analog video signal in the NTSC format at a resolution of pixels. Mavipak 2.0" disks (later adopted industry-wide as the Video Floppy and labelled "VF") were used to write 50 still frames onto tracks on disk. The pictures could be shown on a television screen, using a "special playback viewer unit" plugged into the television set. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sony reused the Mavica name for a number of digital (rather than analog) cameras that used standard 3.5" floppy disk or 8 cm CD-R media for storage. Original analog Mavica models The initial pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communication, navigation, scientific research, and commerce. UTC has been widely embraced by most countries and is the effective successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in everyday usage and common applications. In specialised domains such as scientific research, navigation, and timekeeping, other standards such as Universal Time, UT1 and International Atomic Time (TAI) are also used alongside UTC. UTC is based on TAI (International Atomic Time, abbreviated from its French name, ''temps atomique international''), which is a weighted average of hundreds of atomic clocks worldwide. UTC is within about one second of mean solar time at 0° longitude, the currently used prime meridian, and is not adjusted for daylight saving time. The coordination of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time (IST), sometimes also called India Standard Time, is the time zone observed throughout the Republic of India, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments. In military and aviation time, IST is designated E* ("Echo-Star"). It is indicated as ''Asia/Kolkata'' in the IANA time zone database. History The Indian Standard Time was adopted on 1 January 1906 during the British era with the phasing out of its precursor Madras Time (Railway Time), and after Independence in 1947, the Union government established IST as the official time for the whole country, although Kolkata and Mumbai retained their own local time (known as Calcutta Time and Bombay Time) until 1948 and 1955, respectively. The Central observatory was moved from Chennai to a location at Shankargarh Fort in Allahabad district, so that it would be as close to UTC+05:30 as possible. Daylight Saving Time (DST) was used brief ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transit Of Venus
A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus reoccur periodically. A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December (Gregorian calendar) followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. The dates advance by about two days per 243-year cycle. The periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities. The last pairs of transits occurred on 8 June 2004 and 5–6 June 2012. The next pair of transits will occur on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125. Transits of Venus were in the past used to determine the size of the Solar System. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
