Topic Review
(486958) 2014 MU69
(486958) 2014 MU69, previously designated PT1 and 1110113Y, and nicknamed Ultima Thule by the New Horizons team, is a trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper belt located in the outermost regions of the Solar System. It was discovered by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope on 26 June 2014. The irregular shaped classical Kuiper belt object is a suspected contact binary or close binary system and measures approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter. In August 2015, this object was selected as the next target for the New Horizons probe shortly after it had visited Pluto. The flyby will occur on 1 January 2019, which will make it the farthest object in the Solar System ever to be visited by a spacecraft. After four course changes in October and November 2015, New Horizons is on course toward 2014 MU69. On 13 March 2018, NASA announced that (486958) 2014 MU69 would receive the nickname Ultima Thule. The decision was based on the results of a public voting campaign. Ultima Thule /ˈθuːliː/, or Ultima for short, serves as an unofficial name for the object until the IAU decides on an official name at some point after the flyby.
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  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
A Message from Earth (2008)
A Message from Earth (AMFE) is a high-powered digital radio signal that was sent on 9 October 2008 towards Gliese 581c, a large terrestrial extrasolar planet orbiting within the Gliese 581 system. The signal is a digital time capsule containing 501 messages that were selected through a competition on the social networking site Bebo. The message was sent using the RT-70 radar telescope. The signal will reach the planet Gliese 581c in early 2029. More than half a million people including celebrities and politicians participated in the AMFE project, which was the world's first digital time capsule where the content was selected by the public. As of 1 February 2018, the message has traveled 62.43 trillion kilometers of the total 192 trillion kilometers, which is 33.5% of the distance to the Gliese 581 system. On 13 February 2015, scientists (including David Grinspoon, Seth Shostak, and David Brin) at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, discussed Active SETI and whether transmitting a message to possible intelligent extraterrestrials in the Cosmos was a good idea; That same week, a statement was released, signed by many in the SETI community, that a "worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent". However neither Frank Drake, nor Seth Shostak signed this appeal. On 28 March 2015, a related essay with some different point of view was written by Seth Shostak and published in The New York Times .
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  • 21 Oct 2022
Biography
A. S. Osborn
Albert Sherman Osborn, commonly known as A. S. Osborn (1858-1946), was a renowned forensic document examiner who is often referred to as the "Father of Document Examination". His contributions to forensic science and his ground-breaking work in the area of questioned document analysis have earned him recognition. Osborn, who started his career in document analysis in the late 19th century and es
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  • 22 Mar 2023
Biography
Abraham Esau
Robert Abraham Esau (7 June 1884 – 12 May 1955) was a German physicist. After receipt of his doctorate from the University of Berlin, Esau worked at Telefunken, where he pioneered very high frequency (VHF) waves used in radar, radio, and television, and he was president of the Deutscher Telefunken Verband. During World War I, he was a prisoner of war of the French; he was repatriated to Germa
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  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Accretion (Astrophysics)
In astrophysics, accretion is the accumulation of particles into a massive object by gravitationally attracting more matter, typically gaseous matter, in an accretion disk. Most astronomical objects, such as galaxies, stars, and planets, are formed by accretion processes.
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  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Aether Drag Hypothesis
In the 19th century, the theory of the luminiferous aether as the hypothetical medium for the propagation of light was widely discussed. An important part of this discussion was the question concerning the state of motion of Earth with respect to this medium. The aether drag hypothesis dealt with the question of whether or not the luminiferous aether is dragged by or entrained within moving matter. According to the first variant no relative motion exists between Earth and aether; according to the second one, relative motion exists and thus the speed of light should depend on the speed of this motion ("aether wind"), which should be measurable by instruments at rest on Earth's surface. Specific aether models were invented by Augustin-Jean Fresnel who in 1818 proposed that the aether is partially entrained by matter. The other one was proposed by George Stokes in 1845, in which the aether is completely entrained within or in the vicinity of matter. While Fresnel's almost stationary theory was apparently confirmed by the Fizeau experiment (1851), Stokes' theory was apparently confirmed by the Michelson–Morley experiment (1881, 1887). This contradictory situation was resolved by the works of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1895, 1904) whose Lorentz ether theory banished any form of aether dragging, and finally with the work of Albert Einstein (1905) whose theory of special relativity does not contain the aether as a mechanical medium at all.
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  • 04 Nov 2022
Biography
Alan Tower Waterman
Alan Tower Waterman (June 4, 1892 – November 30, 1967) was an United States physicist. Born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, he grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts. His father was a professor of physics at Smith College. Alan also became a physicist, doing his undergraduate and doctoral work at Princeton University, from which he obtained his Ph.D. in 1916.[1] He joined the faculty of the
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  • 26 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Allan Hills 84001
Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) is a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica on December 27, 1984, by a team of American meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Like other members of the shergottite–nakhlite–chassignite (SNC) group of meteorites, ALH84001 is thought to have originated on Mars. However, it does not fit into any of the previously discovered SNC groups. Its mass upon discovery was 1.93 kilograms (4.3 lb). In 1996, a group of scientists found evidence of microscopic fossils of bacteria in the meteorite, suggesting that these organisms also originated on Mars. The claims immediately made headlines worldwide, culminating in then-U.S. president Bill Clinton giving a speech about the potential discovery. These claims were controversial from the beginning, and the wider scientific community ultimately rejected the hypothesis once all the unusual features in the meteorite had been explained without requiring life to be present. Despite there being no convincing evidence of Martian life, the initial paper and the enormous scientific and public attention caused by it are considered turning points in the history of the developing science of astrobiology.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Allan McLeod Cormack
Allan MacLeod Cormack (February 23, 1924 – May 7, 1998) was a South African American physicist who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (along with Godfrey Hounsfield) for his work on X-ray computed tomography (CT).
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  • 18 Oct 2022
Biography
Amedeo Odoni
Amedeo Odoni is an American physicist currently the T. Wilson Chair Professor Emeritus of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1][2] His most cited papers are 971 and 689.[3] Belobaba, P., A. Odoni and C. Barnhart (eds.), The Global Airline Industry, John Wiley & Sons, London, 2009 Larson, R. C. and A. Odoni, Urban Operations Research, Dynamic Ideas, Belmo
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  • 09 Dec 2022
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