15 résultats pour "observatory"
-
Observatory - astronomy.
Ultraviolet radiation, X rays, and gamma rays have shorter wavelengths than visible light has. These types of radiation tell astronomers about the hottest and mostviolent phenomena in the universe. Earth’s atmosphere blocks most of this radiation, so astronomers must send their observatories above the atmosphere aboardballoons, rockets, or satellites. Ultraviolet telescopes are much like visible light telescopes, but X-ray telescopes must have special nested cylindrical mirrors to prevent Xrays...
- European Southern Observatory [ESO] - astronomie.
-
Infrared Space Observatory - astronomy.
know how often these disks occur around stars to help them understand how common it is for planets to form. ISO found several previously unknown stars with disks.ISO also detected olivine, a silicate mineral found in Earth’s own rocky mantle, in the comet Hale-Bopp, which was visible from Earth in 1996 and 1997. The discovery ofolivine in the comet suggests that the comet and Earth have a similar origin. The satellite also detected the first evidence of water outside of the solar system inplanet...
-
Infrared Space Observatory [ISO] - astronomie.
la vie de l’étoile. L’imagerie et la spectroscopie infrarouge permettent de sonder ces milieux et d’en déterminer l’exacte composition chimique, ainsi que la structure. Parmi les découvertes marquantes d’ISO figure la détection de la présence d’olivine dans la comète de Hale-Bopp visible de la Terre en 1996 et 1997. Ce minéral à base desilicates est contenu également dans le manteau rocheux de la Terre, ce qui confirme l’origine commune de ces deux corps. Par ailleurs, ISO a détecté pour la prem...
-
Astronomy - astronomy.
Telescopes may use either lenses or mirrors to gather visible light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects. Those that use lenses arecalled refracting telescopes, since they use the property of refraction, or bending, of light ( see Optics: Reflection and Refraction ). The largest refracting telescope is the 40-in (1-m) telescope at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, founded in the late 19th century. Lenses bend different colors of light by d...
-
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...
-
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...
-
X-Ray Astronomy - astronomy.
Some neutron stars have weaker magnetic fields that allow incoming material to settle onto the entire surface of the neutron star. Eventually, so much material buildsup that the surface layer becomes dense enough to set off a vast thermonuclear explosion, called an outburst. The explosion heats gas to produce X rays. Such aneutron star—called an X-ray burster—can increase its X-ray production by a million times during an outburst. The X-ray glow fades over time, and the binary systementers a lon...
-
-
Space Telescope - astronomy.
of its normal companion star and heating it to millions of degrees. See also X-Ray Astronomy; Chandra X-Ray Observatory. D2 Gamma-Ray Space Observatories Studying gamma rays offers scientists answers to some of the most perplexing questions about the explosive and dynamic physical processes in the universe. Gamma-ray observation also provides clues about the structure and dynamics of the Milky Way and other galaxies; the nature of pulsars, quasars, black holes, and neutronstars; and the orig...
-
NASA - astronomy.
Challenger shuttle after launch in 1986 and the Columbia shuttle during reentry in 2003, killing both crews. Investigations traced the accidents to design flaws and tomanagement problems. Both accidents led to design and procedure changes, and to a temporary stoppage of shuttle flights. Following the Columbia disaster, NASA alsoannounced plans to retire the shuttle in 2010, after completion of the International Space Station (ISS), a human orbital research facility. The Constellation program is...
-
Infrared Astronomy - astronomy.
ft above sea level. With the launch of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), by the United States, the United Kingdom, and The Netherlands in 1983, infraredastronomy took another leap forward. This mission surveyed the entire sky at wavelengths of 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns (1 micron is a millionth of a meter) until itsonboard supply of liquid helium ran out. A short time later infrared astronomy was revolutionized by the first introduction of devices that could take infrared images. Thea...
-
Edwin Hubble.
California. The Hale telescope was the largest telescope in the world from when it went into operation in 1948 until the Keck telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory inHawaii was completed in 1990. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST), a powerful telescope launched in 1990 and carried aboard a satellite in orbit around Earth, wasnamed after Hubble and has helped scientists make many important observations. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
-
spatial, télescope - astronomie.
Les sources de rayonnement ultraviolet sont nombreuses. Parmi elles, figurent les étoiles les plus chaudes, les naines blanches récemment formées, les phénomènesénergétiques de nature explosive, telles les novae et les supernovae, l’environnement circumstellaire des jeunes étoiles, et le cœur des galaxies actives ( voir astronomie de l’ultraviolet). Le satellite international IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer) réalisé conjointement par la NASA, l’ESA et la Grande-Bretagne, a été d’une exc...
-
Moon - astronomy.
B Volcanic Features Maria, domes, rilles, and a few craters display indisputable characteristics of volcanic origin. Maria are plains of dark-colored rock that cover approximately 40 percent ofthe Moon's visible hemisphere. The maria formed when molten rock erupted onto the surface and solidified between 3.16 billion and 3.96 billion years ago. This rockresembles terrestrial basalt, a volcanic rock type widely distributed on Earth, but the rock that formed the maria has a higher iron content an...
-
exoplanète - astronomie.
s’expliquer par un phénomène de migration : les planètes ne restent pas là où elles se sont formées. Dans leur jeunesse, elles subissent des interactions gravitationnellesavec le disque et avec d’éventuelles autres planètes. En fonction des différentes interactions, elles peuvent soit s’éloigner, soit se rapprocher de leur étoile centrale. Des mesures effectuées en 2003 sur un Jupiter chaud particulier qui éclipse son étoile (HD 209458b) indiquent que ce type de planète est entouré d’un nuage d’...