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Binoculars for Astronomy
The First Seven Astronauts
Everything starts somewhere, and the space program began in earnest with the selection of the first seven astronauts that would participate in manned space flight. The NASA selection committee was made up of Charles Donlan, a senior management engineer; Warren North, a test pilot engineer; Stanley White and William Argerson, flight surgeons; Allen Gamble and Robert Voas, psychologists; and George Ruff and Edwin Levy, psychiatrists.
When the selection committee began their task, they received 508 applications. This number was reduced to 110 candidates after records were reviewed. The 110 candidates were brought together at an undisclosed location. A battery of tests were given and interviews were conducted. It took a month but the number of possible candidates was reduced to 32.
The 32 candidates were then subjected to even more stressful physical, psychological, and mental examinations. They were given full-body x-rays, tested in pressure suits, endured a variety of cognitive tests and really intense interviews. Finally, 18 or the 32 were recommended to the Mercury program without any medical reservations.
The final choices were made by Robert Gilruth, who was the head of the Space Task Group, as well as Charles Donlan, Warren North, and Stanley White.
The first seven astronauts selected for the Mercury program (the first manned space flight program) were Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr., and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton. Their names will resound through history forever.
Six of the original seven flew in Project Mercury. Only "Deke" Slayton did not fly because of a heart condition that had not been discovered. Deke later flew as a crewmember of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
See Also:
Hubble Space Telescope
Carl Sagan
The Planet Mars
Earthlings have always been fascinated by the planet, Mars. The "little green men from Mars" invading Earth has been the stuff of science fiction for decades. On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles did a dramatization of H. G. Wells's "War of the Worlds" on the Mercury Theatre on the Air radio show. During the four commercial breaks of the program, there were disclaimers aired telling the audience that the content was fictional. Still, panic erupted in towns across America.
There was a new 40-inch telescope being built by the University of Chicago in 1895. An astronomy professor, Samual Leland Phelps, wrote a book about the project called "World Making." In the book, the professor wrote, "It will be possible to see cities on Mars, to detect navies in [its] harbors, and the smoke of great manufacturing cities and towns...Is Mars inhabited? There can be little doubt of it...conditions are all favorable for life, and life, too, of a high order. Is it possible to know this of a certainty? Certainly." Well…not exactly, professor!
From observations of Mars from stationary observatories on earth, astronomers concluded that:
1. The reddish color of Mars is caused by red rocks and dust.
2. The polar ice caps increase and decrease according to seasons.
3. There are what were thought to be canals on the surface. (That has since been disproved)
4. There are areas of Mars that change color. (It was believed that this was vegetation, but that has been disproved, as well.)
5. Mars has an atmosphere.
Space probes, beginning with Mariner 4, 6, 7, and 9 from 1965 through 1971, and the Viking 1 and 2 probes in 1976, disproved many of the previously held beliefs about Mars. We are learning more about Mars all the time, and one important fact is that there aren't any little green (or any other color) men living on Mars. |
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More articles:
Constellation Energy Group
The Planet Jupiter
Merck Fragments ยป Seven Star - My Mother And Father Were Astronauts ...
Planting by the Moon Phases - by E. A. Crawford
Earth and stars to scale.
Our Sun's Twin
Our Sun's Twin
Jorge Melendez of the Australian National University, and Ivan Ramirez of the University of Texas at Austin, are both astronomers from Peru. Using the Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory located atop Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, they discovered the best candidate as a twin to our sun that has been found to date in November 2007. The findings by Melendez and Ramirez suggest that our sun's chemical composition is not unique, as some previously thought.
The star found by the Peruvian astronomers is in the constellation Draco, which is over 200 light years away from our solar system. HIP 56948, the star in question is more like our sun than any yet seen. The star may be a billion years older than the sun.
There have been three other possible twins to our sun located, but there is a major difference in the amount of lithium they contained. These stars -- 18 Scorpius, HD 98618, and HIP 100963 -- have all been contenders, but they all contain several times more lithium than our sun. This difference has led astronomers to believe that our sun was possibly unique because of its low amount of lithium. Now, it seems, maybe our sun is not so unique after all.
The search for solar twins to our sun is important because astronomers use our sun as a baseline for a variety of astronomical studies, and studying our own sun is very difficult because it is too close and too bright.
The discovery of HIP 56948 by Melendez and Ramirez lays to rest the belief that our sun is somehow completely unique and that the uniqueness is what allowed life to spring up and thrive and raises the possibility (no, probability) that life exists in other places in the universe. Maybe we aren't alone.
Related Topics: Deep Sky Objects,
The Planet Jupiter, The Planet Mars
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