Download Mon Feb 13, 2012 JULES VERNE The French science fiction writer

Mon Feb 13, 2012
JULES VERNE
The French science fiction writer Jules Verne was born on February 8th in the year 1828. He wrote of journeying to the
earth’s center, and of circumnavigating the world in a submarine; and he also wrote, "From the Earth to the Moon," all
about an "impossible" voyage of a three-man "space capsule" to our lunar neighbor. In his novel Verne envisioned the
launch taking place in Florida. After rounding the moon the space travelers splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean,
where a ship picked them up - all this a hundred years before we actually went there. In a sense, traveling to the moon has
once again become an impossibility. The last manned moon mission was in 1972, and the last Apollo spaceship that ever
flew returned to earth in 1975, at the conclusion of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. A new program, the Constellation/Orion
project was set up to return men, and women, to the moon by the year 2020, but it was cancelled by the current
administration.
Tue Feb 14, 2012
PLANET OF LOVE
On Valentine’s Day the planet of love can be found shining in the sky after sunset. It appears as a brilliant star-like object
above the western horizon. Venus got its name from the Roman goddess of love and beauty, which was based on the
mythical Greek Aphrodite. And Venus is a beautiful sight in the sky as seen from earth, but an actual stay on Venus is not
recommended even for the hardiest of travelers. Its atmosphere is mostly unbreathable carbon dioxide, and the air pressure
is about ninety times greater on the surface than it is on earth – Venus would crush you like an eggshell. And the air
temperature is a fairly constant nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit – pretty toasty. At that temperature you could cook a
pizza in three minutes, but with all that carbon dioxide in the air, it would probably give you gas. And did I mention the
sulfuric acid clouds? Oh well, you gotta love the planet of love!
Wed Feb 15, 2012
GALILEO’S BIRTHDAY
The astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei was born on February 15 in the year 1564. Galileo did not invent the
telescope, but when he heard of its invention, he built his own, and like other astronomers of the 17 th century, Galileo
aimed his telescope at the sky and made some amazing discoveries. He saw the rough features of the moon, its mountains
and craters, which suggested that it was another world in space, like the earth. He discovered the four largest moons of
Jupiter, named the Galilean satellites in his honor. Using safe projection methods, he observed the sun and saw dark spots
on its face – sunspots. He noted that the planet Venus went through phases like the moon, which showed that it orbited the
sun and not the earth. And he saw the myriad stars of the Milky Way - more stars than could be seen by the unaided eye
alone. There evidently was much more to the heavens than had heretofore been realized.
Thu Feb 16, 2012
SIRIUS
There are many bright stars in our winter night skies, and the two brightest ones are actually planets: brilliant Venus in the
west after sunset; and above it, Jupiter, nearly as bright. The third brightest star-like object in tonight’s sky really is a star,
over in the southeast, and it’s called Sirius, a name derived from the Greek “seirios,” which means, scorching, or
sparkling. So you could say Sirius is the star you meant when you recited Twinkle Twinkle as a kid. This brilliant white
star does twinkle, owing to the effects of our earth’s atmosphere, which cause its image to dance and flash. Sirius is also
called the Dog Star, because it's supposed to mark the nose of the Big Dog in the sky, Canis Major. Stars have different
brightnesses. Some are bright because they're close to us; others are bright because they're either hotter or bigger. In the
case of Sirius, it's a little of both - a big, white-hot star, very close to us - only 9 light years, or 54 trillion miles away.
Fri Feb 17, 2012
THE PLEIADES
Near the top of the sky this early evening, you’ll find a small, distinctive group of stars known as the Seven Sisters. Even
with street lights shining, you can find them, although the serious light pollution problems we experience here reduces the
Seven Sisters down to just two or three, or possibly they may look like a little smudge overhead. But if you can get away
from the bright lights, you’ll see between six to eight stars here, arranged in a very tiny dipper shape. In Greek mythology,
the Seven Sisters were the Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas, on whose shoulders the world rested. To the Seneca Indians,
they were seven dancing sisters, who would not gather in food during the harvest, and so were carried in the arms of the
West Wind, who placed them in the heavens where they became stars. But the Mayans called these stars Itzab, the tail of
the rattlesnake. Binoculars aimed at the Pleiades will reveal over a dozen stars, and astronomers have counted hundreds of
stars in this open cluster.