Tuesday, January 10, 2012

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.

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