When a streak of light ran across the sky and crashed into the earth the…
Ron Howard's re-creation of the happenings aboard NASA's Apollo 13 flight combined some of the biggest talent in Hollywood to produce a masterful film. Apollo 13 takes us back in time, to the late 1960's and early 70's, when America's NASA space program was thriving and the world stood aside to see who would reach the moon first. The impacts of space program are still evident to this day. It is even said that by beating the Russians to the moon, we established ourselves are the top power in the world and propelled ourselves to the status we hold today. While today our space program flounders in the public eye, this movie illustrates a time when NASA's successes and failures held a huge sociological impact on American and even international life.…
Scientist believe that the collision of earth with a smaller body caused the earth to tilt on it axis at 23 degrees. The blasting debris is said to have formed the moon. The period from the accretion of the earth to the formation of the oldest existing rocks can be retraced to the stratification or differentiation of the earth.…
For a long period which could have lasted several years, dust and other debris from the impact formed a layer on the surface of the Earth.(13) This may have caused a threat to the survival of terrestrial animals.(13) Sunlight was unable to reach the surface of the Earth and this would have contributed to the cooling effect.(13) This layer on the Earth would have been created when the intense force of the asteroid hit Earth in the second stage which caused small pieces of earth and dust to scatter.(13) The intense wind following the event would have contributed to the spread of the debris.(7) After the asteroid, the sky would have darkened and would not have returned to its normal state for a number of months or even years.(7) The darkening of the sky must have been caused by the release of gases and distribution of dust.(7) The gases released included 10,000 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, 100 billion tonnes of carbon monoxide and 100 billion tonnes of methane.(7) This release would have also temporarily destroyed the ozone layer.(7) The darkening of the sky made photosynthesis difficult and threatened the food chain as many plants were unable to grow.(7) Photosynthesis relies heavily on the sunlight and the darkness of the sky restricted the amount filtering through to the…
* Scientists noticed that all stars & planets are moving away from Earth which supports the theory that a massive explosion once occurred. (Big Bang)…
Due to science and the discovery of a “heliocentric” universe, there was a transformation of humankind’s perception of its place in the larger scheme of things.…
Review this great video to explain how Earth’s moon was formed (look specifically at 4:40 through 7:00 min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4pt0fFn_a4&feature=related…
It is easy to flip to the index of an astronomy textbook to discover that, say, the Sun lies 150 million kilometers away from Earth. It is far more difficult (if not impossible), however, to picture this distance in our mind. In this exercise, we will learn to access the often unpalatable distances encountered in astronomy by simply scaling the huge distances to more recognizable, familiar numbers. So long as every distance within the system of interest is scaled by the same factor, we retain the meaningful information about relative distances between objects. This is exactly the same principle employed by map makers, so that they can fit Texas, onto a book page.…
Whenever history is reviewed on Astronomy, great Scientists such as Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei must be mentioned for their great contribution in the world of Astronomy. Comparing Copernicus with Galileo, we see that Copernicus made great discoveries which Galileo would later use in making his scientific discoveries and proofs. Copernicus is regarded to as the father of Astronomy because of his great contribution towards making the universe understandable to many people. This essay focuses on major accomplishments of Nicholas Copernicus and how Galilei Galileo used them later to become successful scientist explorer.…
On July 16, 1969, over a million people crammed onto the shores of Cape Canaveral to see a glimpse of the first spaceship heading to the moon launch into space (Reynolds 134). A monumental event would soon take place, but that would only be the beginning. The world and it’s technology was about to change forever. As Neil Armstrong once said, “It’s a beginning of a new age,” (Loff).…
As I entered the observatory I knew I would come home with information I had never knew about. There where so many things to touch and look at. I wanted to spend every minute observing the displays. The walls and the ceilings have large beautiful murals painted all along the ceiling, like something from a cathedral in Rome. I was told, they were created to show the connection between science and mythology, as well as the connection between the earth and the sky. There were even murals of all the Astronomers who helped develop Griffith’s idea. The center of the building included a large Pendulum, which was a device used to measure the earth’s rotation. It was the observatories main attraction and had required perfect creation in order for it to be exact. As everyone was gathered around this object, we wondered how it worked. At the bottom of the floor was a measuring device with domino like blocks rotating around it. It worked in the strangest way I can imagine, as the ball moved back and forth it would knock down the blocks according to…
Throughout the article, Bauman’s syntax demonstrates to his audience that he is both sincere and knowledgeable with the issues relating to cosmology. By studying stars, constellations, and the “incomprehensible universe” through his own telescope, he creates a sentimental but provocative notion with his reader. The author often questions himself and popular belief to create a sense of doubt in his audience. Bauman goes back and forth between creationism and evolution. However, his diction while studying the desert stars at night leads him in the direction of intelligent design. Bauman evokes wonder in his audience when, “I… take off my glasses just so that I can stare with averted vision toward the fuzzy light and know I am seeing with my own eyes a vast stellar city of many billions of stars…” By using loaded language such as “averted vision” and “a vast stellar city”, the audience can picture staring up at the stars themselves, just like Huck and Jim did on their raft. Even though Bauman never stated his direct view on the beginning of the universe, with emotional words and phrases, the audience infers his experiences with the stars are more than scientific formulas and theories.…
Not only did The Apollo Program prove NASA’s capabilities, but other space projects have also had significant accomplishments. Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, various spacecrafts were sent into space to explore the Earth, Sun, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter. NASA’s Discovery program, one of their low cost missions that focuses on the solar system, sent the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990 to orbit Earth and take photographs of its atmosphere. The photos taken by Hubble “revolutionized ideas about the universe, contributing to the discovery of dark energy, a force that caused the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate, and the discovery and characterization of planets outside the solar system” (Flynn). For centuries, humans have had limited knowledge about space and the planets that occupy it, however, The Hubble Space Telescope expanded the world’s knowledge on astronomy.…
Space has been the most interesting concepts since the early ages and our curiosities about it have grown so much over time. With Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong became the first person to step on the moon. For many years of struggles and loss of lives, it has only lead to great discoveries but the sacrifices that were made will always be mourned and remembered. Even despite all the risks, it has led us to understandings and the truth yet there is so much to learn and it’s necessary and worthy for the future of America to continue the research, to learn more, and to help Earth, and from that our name will forever live on. The aims of the space program that should be today are to get more and more people involved, providing safety, and continuing…
The atmosphere and oceans first appeared about 4.5 billion years ago, soon after the Earth and Moon completed their formational phases (Mirali & Skinner, 2009). Oxygen was nearly absent in the atmosphere of the early Earth. The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), or Great Oxidation, was the…