DOCSLIB.ORG

Mysterious Mercury

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mysterious Mercury INTERNATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE SPATIUM Published by the Association Pro ISSI No. 29, May 2012 Editorial Uranus was the first planet to be regularities. It stood to reason that discovered since ancient times. Such Le Verrier should again come up Impressum was the luck of the young musician with the idea that an unknown William Herschel in 1781. It was planet, which he swiftly called Vul- not just a coincidence, however, be- cain, was shaking Mercury. This is cause Herschel was not only a gifted now the stuff that galvanizes as- composer and organist, but also a tronomers, and it did not last long SPATIUM skilled builder of telescopes which until hasty observers claimed to Published by the he used to observe Britain’s night have seen the hypothetical planet. Association Pro ISSI sky. Later observations of Uranus re- Still, further analyses showed in all vealed strange orbital irregularities cases that the putative Vulcains that could not be explained by were mere products of imagination: Kepler’s laws. This is why the planet planet Vulcain could not be found. continued to stir up interest in the The mystery was only solved in Association Pro ISSI astronomical community and later 1915, when Albert Einstein ex- Hallerstrasse 6, CH-3012 Bern the French astronomer Urbain Le plained Mercury’s anomalous orbit Phone +41 (0)31 631 48 96 Verrier undertook to unveil its se- with his general theory of see cret. Months of complex calcula- relativity. www.issibern.ch/pro-issi.html tions - at that time the matter of a for the whole Spatium series clear mind, much paper and a sharp That may have been the first, yet pencil - brought him to the con- undoubtedly not the last of Mer- President clusion that the planet’s wobbling cury’s many secrets to be unveiled. Prof. Nicolas Thomas, orbit might be caused by an addi- However, the more scientists look University of Bern tional neighbouring yet unknown at this planet the more they get fas- planet. He quickly announced his cinated by that small, hot sphere. Layout and Publisher findings to the French Academy on Prof. Peter Wurz of the Physics Dr. Hansjörg Schlaepfer 31 August 1846; and he also sent Institute of the University of Bern, CH-6614 Brissago them to Johann Galle of the Berlin the author of the present issue of Observatory who found the wanted Spatium, is no exception. On Printing planet precisely on the indicated 30 March 2011, he presented the Stämpfli Publikationen AG spot. That marvellous success earned current status of Mercury research CH-3001 Bern Le Verrier the nickname of the man to our PRO ISSI association. We who discovered a planet with the point thank Prof. Wurz for his consent and of his pen. support in publishing his enlight- ening talk, and wish our readers a Unknown to Le Verrier, similar cal- hearty portion of that great fasci- culations were made at virtually the nation scientists get when study ing same time by a student in England; mysterious Mercury. yet, they got lost and re-found again only much later, prompting lengthy Hansjörg Schlaepfer disputes about the true finder of Brissago, May 2012 Neptune, as the newcomer was Front Cover named soon after. Anyway, spurred Craters are Mercury’s trademark so by his success, Le Verrier set out to to speak. The front page shows address a further astronomical mys- the crater Kuiper seen by NASA’s tery: he began observing Mercury, Messenger camera, interpreted by which also exhibits some orbital ir- an artist. SPATIUM 29 2 Mysterious Mercury1 by Prof. Peter Wurz, Physics Institute, University of Bern Introduction When the first astronomical tele- cury’s orbit remains a puzzle until scopes appear in the 17th century, 1915, when Albert Einstein solves Mercury is an attractive object in the problem conclusively by means the sky. Even though observation of his general theory of relativity. The solar system’s history begins turns out to be difficult due to the Einstein’s point takes into account with a huge interstellar cloud of gas glare caused by the nearby Sun, the effect of relativity as a result of and dust far out in one of the Milky Urbain Le Verrier3 notes that its or- the tremendous forces of gravity Way’s several arms. Gravitational bit slightly deviates from what is to reigning in Mercury’s quarters close instabilities cause it to collapse into be expected from classical New- to the Sun. a large flat disk. Most of the matter tonian mechanics. Trying to explain concentrates in its centre where the planet’s mysterious behaviour, A further of Mercury’s many pe- the later Sun will emerge. The re- he stipulates a further hypothetical culiarities is found by Gordon maining material forms the outer planet which by its gravitation Pettengill5 with the help of the parts of the disk, where over a causes the excessive shift of Mer- giant 304.8 m diameter Arecibo ra- period of some 50 million years cury’s perihelion4, Fig. 1. The un- dar telescope in Puerto Rico in planets form together with all the known planet even gets a name: 1965. He recognizes Mercury’s 3 : 2 other bodies populating the solar Vulcain; yet all attempts to get hold spin/orbit resonance, meaning that system2. of it are bound to fail: the suspected whilst Mercury orbits the Sun planet cannot be found, and Mer- twice, it rotates around its axis ex- Next to the Sun is Mercury, the actly three times. Such resonances smallest of all planets. It is known occur in celestial mechanics as a re- from times immemorial as it can be sult of tidal forces caused by a large seen under good conditions by the body (here the Sun) acting on a naked eye notwithstanding its small smaller companion (here Mercury). size. The Babylonians call it Babo, The latter is slightly deformed by the messenger of the Gods, an at- the larger body’s gravity field which tribute reflecting its fast orbit in turn tends to synchronize it into around the Sun, faster than any a resonant revolution mode. other planet. Civilizations change, Mercury keeps its attribute: the That is about all that is known Greeks call it Hermes and Apollo, before the first space probes visit which is reduced to Hermes when Fig. 1: While Newtonian mechanics Mercury at close quarters. In 1974 it becomes known that the planet and Kepler’s laws stipulate an ellipti- NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft cal orbit, Mercury orbits on a rosette-like in the morning sky next to the Sun pattern around the Sun as a consequence reaches the planet after a half year is the same as that in the evening of – amongst other things – the near Sun’s journey, followed 30 years later by sky. Roman astronomers call it powerful gravity field. The anomalous NASA’s Messenger mission. Both Mercury, the God of dealers and perihelion shift amounts to 43 per cen- programmes provide fascinating tury, which is 120 km/year. This com- thieves, a name the planet bears pares to Earth’s anomalous perihelion new insights into the secrets of down to our day. shift of only 3.8 per century. Mercury, at the same time raising 1 The present issue of Spatium reports on a lecture by Prof. Wurz for the PRO ISSI audience on 30 March 2011. 2 See Spatium no. 6: From Dust to Planets by Willy Benz, October 2000. 3 Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, 1811, Saint-Lô, Manche, France – 1877 Paris, French mathematician and astronomer. 4 The term perihelion designates the point on a planetary orbit which is closest to the Sun. Correspondingly, the aphelion is the farthest point from the Sun. If the reference is not the Sun, then the terms periapsis and apoapsis are used. 5 Gordon Pettengill, 1926, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, US-American radio astronomer and planetary physicist. SPATIUM 29 3 many new questions. This is why Mysterious inner solar system billions of years the European Space Agency ESA, ago. So, to understand the Earth’s in collaboration with the Japanese Mercury history, one also has to understand Space Agency JAXA, is currently Mercury’s evolution. implementing a mission called Be- piColombo in honour of the Ital- ian space scientist Giuseppe Co- The deeper scientists look at Mer- Orbital Characteristics lombo, see text box. This mission is cury the more they get fascinated scheduled for launch in August by the small, yet unusual planet as We have already addressed some pe- 2015. As a space mission to Mer- it turns out to be an outright sto- culiarities of the planet’s orbit. Yet, cury poses uncommon, yet specific rybook telling the early history of there are many more: As the inner- fascinating challenges to engineers the solar system, including that of most planet in the solar system, and scientists, we will treat these the Earth. This property is owed to Mercury’s mean distance to the Sun programmes somewhat more in the fact that the planet has neither is a mere 0.39 AU6. This leads to a depth below. an atmosphere nor tectonic acti vities very short year on the planet: Mer- that would tend to erode any traces cury completes one orbit around of the distant past, as is the case for Sun in only 87.97 Earth days, faster instance on Earth. Rather, Mercury than any other planet in the solar preserves faithfully the marks left by system. Furthermore, Mercury’s or- violent events and processes in the bit has the largest eccentricity7 of all planets, see Fig.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Discovering the Lost Race Story: Writing Science Fiction, Writing Temporality
    Discovering the Lost Race Story: Writing Science Fiction, Writing Temporality This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia 2008 Karen Peta Hall Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Discipline of English and Cultural Studies School of Social and Cultural Studies ii Abstract Genres are constituted, implicitly and explicitly, through their construction of the past. Genres continually reconstitute themselves, as authors, producers and, most importantly, readers situate texts in relation to one another; each text implies a reader who will locate the text on a spectrum of previously developed generic characteristics. Though science fiction appears to be a genre concerned with the future, I argue that the persistent presence of lost race stories – where the contemporary world and groups of people thought to exist only in the past intersect – in science fiction demonstrates that the past is crucial in the operation of the genre. By tracing the origins and evolution of the lost race story from late nineteenth-century novels through the early twentieth-century American pulp science fiction magazines to novel-length narratives, and narrative series, at the end of the twentieth century, this thesis shows how the consistent presence, and varied uses, of lost race stories in science fiction complicates previous critical narratives of the history and definitions of science fiction. In examining the implicit and explicit aspects of temporality and genre, this thesis works through close readings of exemplar texts as well as historicist, structural and theoretically informed readings. It focuses particularly on women writers, thus extending previous accounts of women’s participation in science fiction and demonstrating that gender inflects constructions of authority, genre and temporality.
    [Show full text]
  • Craters of the Pluto-Charon System
    Icarus 287 (2017) 187–206 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus Craters of the Pluto-Charon system ∗ Stuart J. Robbins a, , Kelsi N. Singer a, Veronica J. Bray b, Paul Schenk c, Tod R. Lauer d, Harold A. Weaver e, Kirby Runyon e, William B. McKinnon f, Ross A. Beyer g,h, Simon Porter a, Oliver L. White h, Jason D. Hofgartner i, Amanda M. Zangari a, Jeffrey M. Moore h, Leslie A. Young a, John R. Spencer a, Richard P. Binzel j, Marc W. Buie a, Bonnie J. Buratti i, Andrew F. Cheng e, William M. Grundy k, Ivan R. Linscott l, Harold J. Reitsema m, Dennis C. Reuter n, Mark R. Showalter g,h, G. Len Tyler l, Catherine B. Olkin a, Kimberly S. Ennico h, S. Alan Stern a, the New Horizons LORRI, MVIC Instrument Teams a Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St., Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302, United States b Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States c Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, United States d National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ 85726, United States e The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States f Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States g SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 100, Mountain View CA 94043, United States h NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 84043, United States i NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States j Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States k Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States l Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States m Ball Aerospace, Boulder, CO, United States n NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: NASA’s New Horizons flyby mission of the Pluto-Charon binary system and its four moons provided hu- Received 3 March 2016 manity with its first spacecraft-based look at a large Kuiper Belt Object beyond Triton.
    [Show full text]
  • Producing MIDS NAC Dems from MESSENGER Images
    Producing MESSENGER DEMs from MDIS NAC Images MANHEIM1, HENRIKSEN, ROBINSON, AND THE MESSENGER TEAM 1ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, TEMPE AZ—[email protected] Launched: August 2004 MESSENGER Mercury Orbit: March 2011 Completed: April 2015 Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) 2 framing cameras: a monochrome NAC and a multispectral WAC NAC wasn’t a stereo camera, but off-nadir observations enable the creation of DEMs NACs have 5 m pixel scale at closest approach Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) Radial accuracy of < 20 m Only available between 90° N and 18° S Highly Elliptical Orbit Periapsis: 200 – 500 km (near North Pole) Apoapsis: 10,000 – 15,000 km Methodology: Overview Site Selection & Image Selection Illumination Conditions Imaging Geometry DEM Production Using the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) and SOCET SET 5.6 Error analysis Creating data products for PDS release Image Selection Selecting stereo images requires compromise between finding optimal images and building up desired coverage. These parameters will dictate the precision of the final product. Strength of stereo: parallax between the two images / unit height Illumination compatibility: distance between the tips of shadows in two images / unit height *Guidelines adapted from Becker, et al. 2015. Images Selected for Our DEMs n=49 Selecting Images to Build Mosaics Sander Crater mosaic: 21 images Selecting Images to Build Mosaics Sander Crater mosaic: 21 images 36 stereo pairs (areas of overlap producing ‘good’ stereo) Selecting Images to Build Mosaics Sander Crater mosaic: 21 images 36 stereo pairs (areas of overlap producing ‘good’ stereo) Resulting DEMs can be mosaicked together (using ISIS) to create one large-area DEM Processing in SOCET SET: Overview Import into SOCET SET 5.6 Relative Triangulation Registration to MLA tracks DEM Extraction Orthophoto Generation Creating Additional Data Products PDS Release *This process is quite similar to that described for LROC NAC DEMs in Henriksen, et al.
    [Show full text]
  • March 21–25, 2016
    FORTY-SEVENTH LUNAR AND PLANETARY SCIENCE CONFERENCE PROGRAM OF TECHNICAL SESSIONS MARCH 21–25, 2016 The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center The Woodlands, Texas INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT Universities Space Research Association Lunar and Planetary Institute National Aeronautics and Space Administration CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Stephen Mackwell, Lunar and Planetary Institute Eileen Stansbery, NASA Johnson Space Center PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRS David Draper, NASA Johnson Space Center Walter Kiefer, Lunar and Planetary Institute PROGRAM COMMITTEE P. Doug Archer, NASA Johnson Space Center Nicolas LeCorvec, Lunar and Planetary Institute Katherine Bermingham, University of Maryland Yo Matsubara, Smithsonian Institute Janice Bishop, SETI and NASA Ames Research Center Francis McCubbin, NASA Johnson Space Center Jeremy Boyce, University of California, Los Angeles Andrew Needham, Carnegie Institution of Washington Lisa Danielson, NASA Johnson Space Center Lan-Anh Nguyen, NASA Johnson Space Center Deepak Dhingra, University of Idaho Paul Niles, NASA Johnson Space Center Stephen Elardo, Carnegie Institution of Washington Dorothy Oehler, NASA Johnson Space Center Marc Fries, NASA Johnson Space Center D. Alex Patthoff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Cyrena Goodrich, Lunar and Planetary Institute Elizabeth Rampe, Aerodyne Industries, Jacobs JETS at John Gruener, NASA Johnson Space Center NASA Johnson Space Center Justin Hagerty, U.S. Geological Survey Carol Raymond, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lindsay Hays, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Paul Schenk,
    [Show full text]
  • Picturing France
    Picturing France Classroom Guide VISUAL ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY ORIENTATION ART APPRECIATION STUDIO Traveling around France SOCIAL STUDIES Seeing Time and Pl ace Introduction to Color CULTURE / HISTORY PARIS GEOGRAPHY PaintingStyles GOVERNMENT / CIVICS Paris by Night Private Inve stigation LITERATURELANGUAGE / CRITICISM ARTS Casual and Formal Composition Modernizing Paris SPEAKING / WRITING Department Stores FRENCH LANGUAGE Haute Couture FONTAINEBLEAU Focus and Mo vement Painters, Politics, an d Parks MUSIC / DANCENATURAL / DRAMA SCIENCE I y Fontainebleau MATH Into the Forest ATreebyAnyOther Nam e Photograph or Painting, M. Pa scal? ÎLE-DE-FRANCE A Fore st Outing Think L ike a Salon Juror Form Your Own Ava nt-Garde The Flo ating Studio AUVERGNE/ On the River FRANCHE-COMTÉ Stream of Con sciousness Cheese! Mountains of Fra nce Volcanoes in France? NORMANDY “I Cannot Pain tan Angel” Writing en Plein Air Culture Clash Do-It-Yourself Pointillist Painting BRITTANY Comparing Two Studie s Wish You W ere Here Synthétisme Creating a Moo d Celtic Culture PROVENCE Dressing the Part Regional Still Life Color and Emo tion Expressive Marks Color Collectio n Japanese Prin ts Legend o f the Château Noir The Mistral REVIEW Winds Worldwide Poster Puzzle Travelby Clue Picturing France Classroom Guide NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON page ii This Classroom Guide is a component of the Picturing France teaching packet. © 2008 Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, Washington Prepared by the Division of Education, with contributions by Robyn Asleson, Elsa Bénard, Carla Brenner, Sarah Diallo, Rachel Goldberg, Leo Kasun, Amy Lewis, Donna Mann, Marjorie McMahon, Lisa Meyerowitz, Barbara Moore, Rachel Richards, Jennifer Riddell, and Paige Simpson.
    [Show full text]
  • Impact Melt Emplacement on Mercury
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 7-24-2018 2:00 PM Impact Melt Emplacement on Mercury Jeffrey Daniels The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Neish, Catherine D. The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Geology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Science © Jeffrey Daniels 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Geology Commons, Physical Processes Commons, and the The Sun and the Solar System Commons Recommended Citation Daniels, Jeffrey, "Impact Melt Emplacement on Mercury" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5657. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5657 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Impact cratering is an abrupt, spectacular process that occurs on any world with a solid surface. On Earth, these craters are easily eroded or destroyed through endogenic processes. The Moon and Mercury, however, lack a significant atmosphere, meaning craters on these worlds remain intact longer, geologically. In this thesis, remote-sensing techniques were used to investigate impact melt emplacement about Mercury’s fresh, complex craters. For complex lunar craters, impact melt is preferentially ejected from the lowest rim elevation, implying topographic control. On Venus, impact melt is preferentially ejected downrange from the impact site, implying impactor-direction control. Mercury, despite its heavily-cratered surface, trends more like Venus than like the Moon.
    [Show full text]
  • WEATHER-PROOFING Poems by Sandra Schor
    “Weather-Proofing” Shenandoah. Fall, 1974: 18-19. WEATHER-PROOFING Poems by Sandra Schor Acknowledgments Some of the poems in this manuscript have previously appeared in The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Centennial Review, Colorado Quarterly, Confrontation, Florida Quarterly, The Journal of Popular Film, The Little Magazine, Montana Gothic, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Southern Poetry Review. Table of Contents I Weather-Proofing A Priest’s Mind . 1 Weather-Proofing . 2 Riding the Earth . 3 Small Consolation . 4 To the Poet as a Young Traveler . 6 The Fact of the Darkness . 7 Outside, Where Films End . 9 On Revisiting Tintern Abbey . 10 The Coming of the Ice: A Sestina . 11 House at the Beach . 13 Postcard from a Daughter in Crete . 15 Spinoza and Dostoevsky Tell Me About My Cousins . 16 Looking for Monday . 17 On the Absence of Moths Underseas . 18 II The Practical Life The Practical Life . 19 Taking the News . 21 In the Best of Health . 22 In the Center of the Soup . 23 Masks . 24 They Who Never Tire . 25 Decorum . 26 After Babi Yar . 27 Death of the Short-Term Memory . 29 Open-Ended . 30 Joys and Desires . 31 Snow on the Louvre . 32 Night Ferry to Helsinki . 33 The Unicorn and the Sea . 35 III Hovering Hovering . 36 Gestorben in Zurich . 37 In the Church of the Frari . 39 Death of an Audio Engineer . 40 For Georgio Morandi . 42 Piano Recital from Second Row Center . 43 In the Shade of Asclepius . 44 The Accident of Recovery . 45 On a Dish from the Ch’ing Dynasty . 46 Swallows on the Moon .
    [Show full text]
  • In Brief Suggested How to Put a Spacecraft Into an Poles of Mercury, Where the Temperature Orbit That Would Bring It Back Repeatedly to Is Milder
    r bulletin 100 — december 1999 Mercury Mission Named these and other questions with three ‘BepiColombo’ in Honour separate sets of scientific instruments. According to preliminary studies of Space Pioneer completed in April 1999, a Planetary Meeting in Naples on 20-23 September, Orbiter will examine the planet from an ESA’s Science Programme Committee orbit over the poles, using two cameras recognised the achievements of the late and half a dozen other remote-sensing Giuseppe Colombo of the University of instruments. Seven detectors in a smaller Padua by adopting his name for the Magnetospheric Orbiter will observe planned ESA Mercury project. Almost Mercury’s magnetic field and its everything known until now about the interactions with the solar wind. planet Mercury comes from three passes by NASA’s Mariner 10 in 1974-75 and A Surface Element dropped by inspired by Colombo’s calculations. He BepiColombo will land near one of the In Brief suggested how to put a spacecraft into an poles of Mercury, where the temperature orbit that would bring it back repeatedly to is milder. Here the instruments will include Mercury. The Italian scientist also a camera, a seismometer, a detector for explained, as an unsuspected resonance, chemical elements, and a package for Mercury’s peculiar habit of rotating three assessing the temperature, heat capacity, times in every two revolutions of the Sun. density and hardness of Mercury’s ‘soil’. The Surface Element is expected to ESA’s mission to Mercury is one operate for at least a week and the two of ESA’s science programme orbiters for about 12 months.
    [Show full text]
  • Select Bibliography
    Select Bibliography by the late F. Seymour-Smith Reference books and other standard sources of literary information; with a selection of national historical and critical surveys, excluding monographs on individual authors (other than series) and anthologies. Imprint: the place of publication other than London is stated, followed by the date of the last edition traced up to 1984. OUP- Oxford University Press, and includes depart­ mental Oxford imprints such as Clarendon Press and the London OUP. But Oxford books originating outside Britain, e.g. Australia, New York, are so indicated. CUP - Cambridge University Press. General and European (An enlarged and updated edition of Lexicon tkr WeltliU!-atur im 20 ]ahrhuntkrt. Infra.), rev. 1981. Baker, Ernest A: A Guilk to the B6st Fiction. Ford, Ford Madox: The March of LiU!-ature. Routledge, 1932, rev. 1940. Allen and Unwin, 1939. Beer, Johannes: Dn Romanfohrn. 14 vols. Frauwallner, E. and others (eds): Die Welt Stuttgart, Anton Hiersemann, 1950-69. LiU!-alur. 3 vols. Vienna, 1951-4. Supplement Benet, William Rose: The R6athr's Encyc/opludia. (A· F), 1968. Harrap, 1955. Freedman, Ralph: The Lyrical Novel: studies in Bompiani, Valentino: Di.cionario letU!-ario Hnmann Hesse, Andrl Gilk and Virginia Woolf Bompiani dille opn-e 6 tUi personaggi di tutti i Princeton; OUP, 1963. tnnpi 6 di tutu le let16ratur6. 9 vols (including Grigson, Geoffrey (ed.): The Concise Encyclopadia index vol.). Milan, Bompiani, 1947-50. Ap­ of Motkm World LiU!-ature. Hutchinson, 1970. pendic6. 2 vols. 1964-6. Hargreaves-Mawdsley, W .N .: Everyman's Dic­ Chambn's Biographical Dictionary. Chambers, tionary of European WriU!-s.
    [Show full text]
  • Get Smart with Art Is Made Possible with Support from the William K
    From the Headlines About the Artist From the Artist Based on the critics’ comments, what aspects of Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) is Germany in 1830, Albert Bierstadt Bierstadt’s paintings defined his popularity? best known for capturing majestic moved to Massachusetts when he western landscapes with his was a year old. He demonstrated an paintings of awe-inspiring mountain early interest in art and at the age The striking merit of Bierstadt in his treatment of ranges, vast canyons, and tumbling of twenty-one had his first exhibit Yosemite, as of other western landscapes, lies in his waterfalls. The sheer physical at the New England Art Union in power of grasping distances, handling wide spaces, beauty of the newly explored West Boston. After spending several years truthfully massing huge objects, and realizing splendid is evident in his paintings. Born in studying in Germany at the German atmospheric effects. The success with which he does Art Academy in Düsseldorf, Bierstadt this, and so reproduces the noblest aspects of grand returned to the United States. ALBERT BIERSTADT scenery, filling the mind of the spectator with the very (1830–1902) sentiment of the original, is the proof of his genius. A great adventurer with a pioneering California Spring, 1875 Oil on canvas, 54¼ x 84¼ in. There are others who are more literal, who realize details spirit, Bierstadt joined Frederick W. Lander’s Military Expeditionary Presented to the City and County of more carefully, who paint figures and animals better, San Francisco by Gordon Blanding force, traveling west on the overland who finish more smoothly; but none except Church, and 1941.6 he in a different manner, is so happy as Bierstadt in the wagon route from Saint Joseph, Watkins Yosemite Art Gallery, San Francisco.
    [Show full text]
  • Mysterious Mercury Bepicolumbo Heads for the World of Ice and Fire
    A Digital Supplement to Astronomy Insights Astronomy Magazine © 2018 Kalmbach Media Mysterious Mercury BepiColumbo Heads for the World of Ice and Fire Dcember 2018 • Astronomy.com Voyage to a world Color explodes from Mercury’s surface in this enhanced-color mosaic taken through several filters. The yellow and orange hues signify relatively young plains likely formed when fluid lavas erupted from volcanoes. Medium- and dark-blue regions are older terrain, while the light-blue and white streaks represent fresh material excavated from relatively recent impacts. ALL IMAGES, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW 2 ASTRONOMY INSIGHTS • DECEMBER 2018 A world of both fire and ice, Mercury excites and confounds scientists. The BepiColombo probe aims to make sense of this mysterious world. by Ben Evans of extremesWWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 3 Mercury is a land of contrasts. The solar system’s smallest planet boasts the largest core relative to its size. Temperatures at noon can soar as high as 800 degrees Fahrenheit (425 degrees Celsius) — hot enough to melt lead — but dip as low as –290 F (–180 C) before dawn. Mercury resides nearest the Sun, and it has the most eccentric orbit. At its closest, the planet lies only 29 mil- lion miles (46 million kilometers) from the Sun — less than one-third Earth’s distance — but swings out as far as 43 million miles (70 million km). Its rapid movement across our sky earned it a reputation among ancient skywatchers as the fleet-footed messenger of the gods: Italian scientist Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo helped develop a technique for sending a space Hermes to the Greeks and Mercury to the Romans.
    [Show full text]
  • Modeling and Mapping of the Structural Deformation of Large Impact Craters on the Moon and Mercury
    MODELING AND MAPPING OF THE STRUCTURAL DEFORMATION OF LARGE IMPACT CRATERS ON THE MOON AND MERCURY by JEFFREY A. BALCERSKI Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2015 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Jeffrey A. Balcerski candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Committee Chair Steven A. Hauck, II James A. Van Orman Ralph P. Harvey Xiong Yu June 1, 2015 *we also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein ~ i ~ Dedicated to Marie, for her love, strength, and faith ~ ii ~ Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................1 2. Tilted Crater Floors as Records of Mercury’s Surface Deformation .....................4 2.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................5 2.2 Craters and Global Tilt Meters ................................................................8 2.3 Measurement Process...............................................................................12 2.3.1 Visual Pre-selection of Candidate Craters ................................13 2.3.2 Inspection and Inclusion/Exclusion of Altimetric Profiles .......14 2.3.3 Trend Fitting of Crater Floor Topography ................................16 2.4 Northern
    [Show full text]