14 résultats pour "planetary"

• Planetary Science - astronomy.

  III ORIGINS AND COMPOSITIONS OF PLANETS Astronomers believe that planetary systems are formed of elemental materials that were created in the interiors of giant stars. Some of this material comes from giantstars that shed material into space as they age. Most of the matter to form planets, however, comes from stars that explode as supernovas and spread debris enrichedwith the heavier chemical elements into space. According to the currently accepted views, the most likely first stage in the evo...

• Gravitation I INTRODUCTION Gravitation, the force of attraction between all objects that tends to pull them toward one another.

  precise observations possible, and Galileo was one of the first to use a telescope to study astronomy. In 1609 Galileo observed that moons orbited the planet Jupiter, afact that could not reasonably fit into an earth-centered model of the heavens. The new heliocentric theory changed scientists' views about the earth's place in the universe and opened the way for new ideas about the forces behind planetarymotion. However, it was not until the late 17th century that Isaac Newton developed a theory...

• Gravitation - astronomy.

  precise observations possible, and Galileo was one of the first to use a telescope to study astronomy. In 1609 Galileo observed that moons orbited the planet Jupiter, afact that could not reasonably fit into an earth-centered model of the heavens. The new heliocentric theory changed scientists' views about the earth's place in the universe and opened the way for new ideas about the forces behind planetarymotion. However, it was not until the late 17th century that Isaac Newton developed a theory...

• History of Astronomy - astronomy.

  Egypt, the Sun was directly overhead at noon. On the same date and time in Alexandria, Egypt, the Sun was about 7 degrees south of zenith. With simple geometryand knowledge of the distance between the two cities, he estimated the circumference of the Earth to be 250,000 stadia. (The stadium was a unit of length, derivedfrom the length of the racetrack in an ancient Greek stadium. We have an approximate idea of how big an ancient Greek stadium was, and based on that approximationEratosthenes was...

• Geology.

  terminology. Today the geologic time scale is generally agreed upon and used by scientists around the world, dividing time into eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Everyfew years, the numerical time scale is refined based on new evidence, and geologists publish an update. Geologists use several methods to determine geologic time. These methods include physical stratigraphy, or the placement of events in the order of their occurrence,and biostratigraphy, which uses fossils to determine geologic time...

• Extrasolar Planets - astronomy.

  When a planet passes in a front of the star it orbits—an event called a transit—it causes a small dip in the brightness of the star. Measuring the slight change in thebrightness can be used not only to directly detect a planet, but to determine its size and orbit. However, the planet needs to orbit in a plane that lies in a telescope’sline of sight on the star. Despite long odds, Earth-based telescopes have detected and studied a few exoplanets using this method. The first space telescope design...

• Telescope - astronomy.

  Observatory). In some telescopes designed in the 1990s, the mirror’s weight has been dramatically reduced by sandwiching a honeycomb pattern of glass ribs between a thin, butrigid, concave mirror and a flat back plate. Engineers have even developed meniscus mirrors—mirrors that are too thin to support their own weight. An adjustableframework supports the meniscus mirror, and servomechanical actuators, controlled by computer, continually adjust the shape of the mirror as it tracks celestial tar...

• Jupiter (planet) - astronomy.

  Beneath the supercritical fluid zone, the pressure reaches 3 million Earth atmospheres. At this depth, the atoms collide so frequently and violently that the hydrogenatoms are ionized—that is, the negatively charged electrons are stripped away from the positively charged protons of the hydrogen nuclei. This ionization results in asea of electrically charged particles that resembles a liquid metal and gives rise to Jupiter’s magnetic field. This liquid metallic hydrogen zone is 30,000 to 40,000 k...

• Pluto - astronomy.

  depended on how Pluto was classified. The status of Pluto drew world attention in 2006 when the official body that governs the naming of astronomical objects, the International Astronomical Union (IAU),voted for an official definition of the term planet . According to the standards adopted, a “classical planet” must orbit the Sun, must have a rounded shape from effects of its own gravity, and must be the dominant object in its region of space, having cleared the neighborhood of its orbit of oth...

• Astrobiology - astronomy.

  water to help reactions along. American chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey tested part of Oparin and Haldane’s hypothesis in the early 1950s by simulating conditions of the early Earth. In whathas become known as the Miller-Urey experiment, the two scientists connected two flasks with a loop of glass tubing that allowed the gases to pass between the flasks.They filled the upper flask with methane, ammonia, and hydrogen—components thought to have been in the early atmosphere. They filled the...

• Physics I INTRODUCTION Physics, major science, dealing with the fundamental constituents of the universe, the forces they exert on one another, and the results produced by these forces.

  Starting about 1665, at the age of 23, Newton enunciated the principles of mechanics, formulated the law of universal gravitation, separated white light into colors,proposed a theory for the propagation of light, and invented differential and integral calculus. Newton's contributions covered an enormous range of naturalphenomena: He was thus able to show that not only Kepler's laws of planetary motion but also Galileo's discoveries of falling bodies follow a combination of his ownsecond law of m...

• Mercury (planet) - astronomy.

  In 1991 powerful radio telescopes on Earth revealed signs of possible deposits of ice in the polar regions of Mercury. These ice deposits occur in areas where sunlightnever falls, such as crater bottoms near both of the planet’s poles. Similar ice deposits may have been found during the 1990s near the poles of the Moon by theClementine and Lunar Prospector spacecrafts. The ice on Mercury likely comes from comets or water-bearing meteorites that have hit Mercury over the planet’s historyup throug...

• Isaac NewtonIINTRODUCTIONIsaac Newton (1642-1727), English physicist, mathematician, and natural philosopher, considered one of the most important scientists of all time.

  B Calculus (Newton’s “Fluxional Method”) In 1669 Newton gave his Trinity mathematics professor Isaac Barrow an important manuscript, which is generally known by its shortened Latin title, De Analysi . This work contained many of Newton’s conclusions about calculus (what Newton called his “fluxional method”). Although the paper was not immediately published, Barrowmade its results known to several of the leading mathematicians of Britain and Europe. This paper established Newton as one of the...

• Isaac Newton.

  B Calculus (Newton’s “Fluxional Method”) In 1669 Newton gave his Trinity mathematics professor Isaac Barrow an important manuscript, which is generally known by its shortened Latin title, De Analysi . This work contained many of Newton’s conclusions about calculus (what Newton called his “fluxional method”). Although the paper was not immediately published, Barrowmade its results known to several of the leading mathematicians of Britain and Europe. This paper established Newton as one of the t...