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Robert Barbere

Category Archives: Science

The Moon That Smiles Upon Me

02 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by robb1138 in Science

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Apollo Astronauts, Astronomy, Moon, regolith, Solar sYstem

Public domain image, royalty free stock photo from www.public-domain-image.comFor centuries the moon has dominated man’s imagination. The moon plays a predominant part in man’s religious and social culture. However, the moon is a purely physical entity and tells man more about the Earth, the Solar System and how it is all related than any myth about the moon and its effect on us ever did. Man’s ability to travel to the Moon in 1969 dispelled many theories and led to the creation of many more. When being a planet with an atmosphere, size matters.

We know more about the Moon than for any other solar system object except Earth. On July 20, 1969, American Astronauts became the first men to walk on the surface of the Moon. The moon’s gravity is one-sixth that of the Earth’s; a man who weighs 180 lbs on Earth weighs only 30 lbs on the Moon. The Moon is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles) distant from the Earth. Its diameter is 3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). The rotation of the Moon and its revolution around Earth takes 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes. This synchronous rotation is caused by an unsymmetrical distribution of mass in the Moon, which has allowed Earth’s gravity to keep one lunar hemisphere permanently turned toward Earth. The Apollo Astronauts planted four nuclear powered seismic stations to collect seismic data about the interior of the Moon. What they have found is that the Moon has a crust 60 kilometers (37 miles) thick at the center of the near side. If the Moon’s crust is uniform, it would constitute about 10% of the Moon’s volume as compared to the less than 1% on Earth.

The moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. It’s just too small to contain one. Without an atmosphere the moon has been left unprotected since its birth to the ravages of outer space. Meteorites impacting on the surface of the Moon brought a variety of rocks, so that samples obtained from the 9 landing locations produced many different rock types for study. The impacts also exposed Moon rocks of great depth and distributed their fragments laterally away from their places of origin, making them more accessible. Geological activity on the Moon consists of occasional large impacts and the continued formation of the regolith. Micrometeorite bombardment has thoroughly pulverized the surface rocks into fine-grained debris called the regolith. The regolith, or lunar soil, is unconsolidated mineral grains, rock fragments, and combinations of these which have been welded by impact-generated glass. The earth on the other hand was healed its scares. Having an atmosphere, the earth has weather and weather washes away (erodes) most of the telltale signs of this planet’s early bombardment.

The dark, relatively lightly cratered maria cover about 16% of the lunar surface and is concentrated on the nearside of the Moon, mostly within impact basins. The relatively bright, heavily cratered highlands are called terrae. The dominant rock type in this region contain high contents of plagioclase feldspar (a mineral rich in calcium and aluminum) and are a mixture of crust fragments molded and fused by meteorite impacts. Most terrae breccias are composed of still older breccia fragments. Other terrae samples are fine-grained crystalline rocks formed by shock melting due to the high pressures of an impact event. The density of the moon is about 3/5ths the density of the Earth. Current scientific hypothesis about the creation of the Moon leans toward an object from within the Solar System shearing off a piece of the Earth’s crust and do with the help of the Earth’s gravitational pull and the mass of the debris formed our Moon. A satellite object without an iron core and just the mantel; this is our Moon.

The Moon is our little brother who was formed roughly around the same time as the Earth and the Solar system. The Moon never had the size and mass that its big brother had and therefore could never develop the atmosphere that gave birth to the life on the Earth. Not being able to have the protection of an atmosphere the Moon shows us, what could have been.

Some Great Links:

http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/
http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/uc/earth/2/uce2_3a.html
http://www.synapses.co.uk/astro/moon3.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/report/planet/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/astrorpt/planetrpt.shtml
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/moons_and_rings.html&edu=elem
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm

 

The Warmth of the Sun

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by robb1138 in Science

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Andromeda galaxy, Astronomy, lookback

sun-in-blue-skyI know many people who refuse to wake up or get out of bed in the morning until the gentle rays of the Sun warm their face. What is not apparent to the average person is that those rays of light travel at the finite speed of 186,000 miles per second. That those rays of light transverse about 93 million miles from the Sun to the Earth. It has taken those same rays of light 8.3 minutes ((93000000/(186000 mps x 60) = 1116000 mpm) =8.3). The time that it takes light to travel from the source (the Sun) to an observer is called “lookback” time. In this case the lookback time is 8.3 minutes.

When looking at distant stars we are seeing the light of those stars that has finally arrived here on Earth that in some cases have taken over 2 billion years to transverse the void of space. We are seeing these stars as they were 2 billion years ago.

1160000

The time it takes light to travel from a source to an observer. Light travels at the finite speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. The Sun is so distant that light takes 8.3 minutes to travel from it to Earth. Hence, the Sun has a lookback time of 8.3 minutes; we see it as it was 8.3 minutes ago. The Andromeda Galaxy has a lookback time of 2 million years; we see it as it was 2 million years ago

Some Great Links:
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/lookback_time.html
http://www.site.uottawa.ca:4321/astronomy/index.html#lookbacktime
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/Lookback.html

The Age of Reason

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by robb1138 in History, Philosophy, Science

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Aristarchus of Samos, Charles Darwin, Claudius Ptolemy, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Nicolaus Copernicus, René Descartes, Steven Hawking, Tycho Brahe

Throughout the history of modern astronomy the scientific method has played an important role in helping to guide scientist in correctly modeling a theory of how our solar system interacts in the whole cosmology of the universe. The history of scientific method and the history of astronomy seem to develop hand in hand. A development in astronomy seems to coincide with a refinement in the method of studying the sciences. The ancient Egyptians, using a form of the method in their surgical manuals, stated the basic forms of examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. The ancient Greeks formalized at tradition of a scientific method that included some of the steps that we include today. However, it was during the renaissance period that we get a more defined version of a method. The philosopher/scientists Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Newton all played a part in defining this process and in turn used it to prove to the world that the model of the universe was not geocentric, but was in fact, heliocentric, the Earth revolved around the Sun.

The Heliocentric model of the solar system was put forth by an ancient astrologer  Aristarchus of Samos in 200 BCE, however without any method to prove this theory, this model was overshadowed by the geocentric model of the Solar System and common sense.The method commonly accepted today, in its simplest form, includes the following four steps: The first step involves observing and describing a phenomenon or group of phenomena. The ability to observe what was happening up in the heavens in ancient times was limited at best. With out the aid of telescopes ancient man resorted to using mathematics to explain what the thought they saw in the sky. Claudius Ptolemy (85 -165 CE) used mathematics to portray a very complicated geocentric model trying to explain how the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets revolved around the Earth. This model of the universe was accepted by the Catholic Church and survived and prevailed for almost 1400 years due to the church’s heavy influence.

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Philosophy of Movement

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by robb1138 in Science

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Andromeda galaxy, Astronomy, Mikolaj Kopernik, Milky Way galaxy, Nicolaus Copernicus, Virgo Cluster

As in Philosophy, so it is in Astronomy, there are many events that happen on a regular basis that we take these proceedings for granted. In Philosophy the question, “How do you know that the sun will rise again tomorrow?” always comes across the first year philosophy student and leaves him just as perplexed about it at the end of his ponderings as he did prior to them. The fact of the matter is, the sun does not move in the manner in which we commonly take for granted.

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Aldous Huxley: A Blind Man Who Saw the Future

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by robb1138 in Philosophy, Science

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Aldous Huxley, Charles Darwin, Double Helix, Genetics, hallucinogenic drug, Life

At birth, Aldous Huxley immediately found himself surrounded by England’s Literary and Scientific elite. His father, Leonard Huxley was teaching classic literature at Charterhouse School in Surry England. Leonard later wrote biographies on Robert Scott, Charles Darwin, and his own father Thomas Henry Huxley. Aldous’s grandfather, biologist Thomas Henry Huxley or as he was better known as, “Darwin’s Bulldog”; was an avid defender of evolution and a supporter of Charles Darwin. His mother Judith or Julia Arnold was the granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School and the niece of English Poet Matthew Arnold. His older brother Julian followed his grandfather’s example and become an excellent biologist, philosopher, and educator. Huxley’s half brother Andrew went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Born during the height of Victorian era in England, Aldous Leonard Huxley came into this world on July 26 1894, in Godalming, Surrey England.

Educated at home by his mother, Aldous attended Eton and after graduating Balliol College, Oxford in 1916, Huxley started his career as a writer and an author. Starting as a journalist, writing primarily satire, Huxley’s later works offered more in depth thoughts about politics, society, and psychology. Aldous Huxley’s first full-length novel Chrome Yellow, written in 1921, continued in a similar satirical vein. During the 1920s and 30s Huxley spent much of his time traveling the world visiting the United States, India, and Europe, spending much of it in Italy during the rise of Fascism. It was in this setting in 1932 that he wrote his classic novel, “A Brave New World.” In 1937, Huxley immigrated to the United States and settled in California. Continue reading →

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     Archeology is the search for facts, not truth, So, When looking at the historical King Arthur, we, unfortunately, must put aside all the romantic characters and imagery that we have been exposed to throughout our lives. We forget the tales of knights in shining armor and start from scratch with the story of Arthur.I am not even sure if there was a King Arth […]
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