APOD 3.2

This is a picture of mars from the view of the land rover, Opportunity. Winter is rolling around on mars, and the lack of sunlight has adverse affects on the rover's sunlight powered system. The rover was instructed to climb a large hill so that it could receive more sunlight. This is a picture of Greely's Haven, that hill that the rover climbed. The impact crater is also visible in the picture, and will be explored by this rover once winter is over.

APOD 3.1

This week's picture is one of Orion, a constellation easily seen in the winter sky. The picture was taken in Ireland, and contains pictures of bare trees and a lake. The star Betelgeuse is unusually yellow, and is located above his shoulder. The opposing star, Rigel, is near his foot and is extremely blue. The sword hangs with a three star cluster from his belt.The pink fuzzy blotch near the sword indicates the Orion Nebula.

APOD 2.8

This is a picture of a supernova SNR 0509-67.5. The impressive thing about this particular supernova is that the companion star of the exploded star is not visible. There is no visible light where the star should be, but it must exist. Therefore the companion star is suspected to be a faint white dwarf that is similar to the detonated star. This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light, x-ray light, and red imaged/false green imaged light.

Jean Baptiste Delambre

Jean Baptiste Delambre was a French mathematician and Astronomer that lived from September of 1749 to August of 1822. Delambre had a childhood illness that left him with very sensitive and changed eyes. Because of his fear of blindness, Delambre began to study as much as he could before he would lose his eyesight. Delambre became fluent in English and German, and memorized extensive works that he could recite. After publishing his first work, Regles et methodes faciles pour apprendre la langue anglaise, Baptiste was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. After the Academy was commissioned to measure the distance between the North Pole and the equator so that the exact measure of the meter could be established, one of the expedition members to measure the distance quit, so Delambre was put in charge. Delambre also studied astronomy and mathematics in school. Delambre is also famous for calculating his table of Uranus, which helped get him elected into the Academy of the Sciences. He became secretary of Mathematics for the Academy in 1803. His final years were spend researching and studying mathematics and science. He created many works, some astronomical such as his tables of Jupiter. He was also very involved in measurements of the earth, writing works involving latitude and longitude. He spent a lot of work researching the planets and the earth, and gave data and measurements that he calculated that would further research and exploration of our solar system and universe. 

Astronomy cast q.2 part 2

Cast 1: Calendars: The calendars that are used across the world are mostly based on astronomy. There original calendars were based on the movement of constellations throughout the sky. Charts were made and people recognized when the constellations were in the exact same spot, and created leap years accordingly. Religious conflicts often affect calendars. The Islamic calendar has completely ignored the astronomical part. Islamic calendars are completely religious events and do not account. The calendar that is commonly used today uses a system where a leap day is added every four years to made up for the portion of the day that is missed on the regular 365 days. This calendar is called the Gregorian Calendar after Pope Gregory. The catholic church endorsed this calendar and once again religion played an impact in the calendar.

Cast 2: IO: Io is one of the 4 Galilean moons. The satellite of Jupiter has a diameter of 2263 miles and is the fourth largest moon of the solar system. Galileo discovered Io in January of 1610. Io is an extremely volcanic satellite. This is caused by the force of friction that is caused as Io is pulled between Jupiter and the other Galilean moons. The gravitational pulls are similar to squishing a ball, which does warm it up. The volcanoes eject sulfur and sulfur dioxide that go miles into the sky. Unlike most moons in the outer solar system, Io is made of mostly silicate rock and has a molten core. These traits make Io more similar to earth then other planets closer to Io. Io is relatively colorful due to its coat of sulfur that creates many different colorful compounds. Io has seen multiple flybys and is partially responsible for the calculations of the speed of light, Kepler's laws, and models of the solar system. Life on Io is very unlikely, unless exophiles are able to live in the extreme temperatures. The archaic type of bacteria can live in toxic, explosive environments like Io.

Astronomy cast qt.2 part 1

Astro cast 1: Tunguska event: The Tunguska event was an occurence near the Tunguska River in Russia. This event is considered to be an impact of a meteorite. It is really suspected to not be actual impact, but an impact of a column of air created by a meteorite. The object was only suspected to be a few meters across. Despite exploding in the air and causing air to impact the earth, the impact had energy similar to 30 megatons of TNT. It caused a significant amount of destruction, knocking down 80 million trees over 830 square miles. The significance of this occurence is that it has prompted discussion on how to prevent predicted collisions with celestial objects and earth. The lack of residue from impact suggests that the event was caused by a comet. Comets are mainly composed of ice and dust, so any traces of it would be difficult to find. Therefore the Tunguska event could be considered an indirect impact by a comet.

Astro cast 2: Binary Stars: Binary star systems are two stars that revolve around their common center of mass. The larger of the two stars is called the primary, while the smaller is called the either the secondary or the companion. They can be identified using optics or measurements of parallax with devices that allow for both star to be identified. These systems are extremely important because it allows for the mass of the stars to be calculated accurately. Density and radius can be indirectly measured and estimated. There are several different classifications of binary stars. Visual binaries, spectroscope binaries, eclipsing binaries, and astrometric binaries are all observed phenomena. Binary star systems evolve from formation to mass transfer and accretion, finally to nova. Matter can transfer between the two stars, but if the mass cannot be transferred fast enough, it can be lost through solar wind. Contact can sometimes be made and star systems can develop into runaway stars.

APOD 2.7

This is a picture of an aurora that appeared in Norway about one moth ago. Auroras are caused electrons and protons that hit earth's atmosphere and create this light. Auroras often appear as circles around the pole of earth. The camera angle and digital effects of horizontal compression create the image that you see.

biography 2 sources

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=fl_sarhs&tabID=T003&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE|CX2830901126&&docId=GALE|CX2830901126&docType=GALE


http://www.surveyhistory.org/jean_baptiste_delambre1.htm

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Delambre.html