Science 9 Astronomy: April 2010

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory

The Diminion Raido Astrophysical Obervatory is located in Penticton, B.C by White Lake. It is the largest radio astronomy observatory in Canada. Carlyle Smith Beals was the creator of this, she wanted to expand the field of astrogoly in Canada.

This observatory has three instruments. Fristly, there is the Synthesis telescope. The Synthesis telescope is used for the study of hydrogen. Hydrogen is very important and studying it can help astronomers find out about the structure of our galaxy. Secondly, there is the Solar-flux monitor. Lastly, there is a 26-meter telescope. This site also supports engineering labortories. There is also a raido telescope. From 1995 to 2005, the raido telescope was used to map out a large part of the Milky Way.

Today, the observatory is still running well. It is under the responsibility of the National Research Council and still continues to do its job 24 hours a day.

Marvin the marshall.

Marvin the marshall is an alien from Mars. But he is ususally found around Earth or in other places around the universe. Marvin is almost always with his alien dog, named "K-dog". Sometimes he is found with other creatures aswell.

Marvin has been trying to destroy the Earth for a very long time but has always been unscuccesful. He said it destroys his view of Venus. Marvin is not the average height and is quite small looking. He has quite the temper also and is ususally found saying "You are making me very angry! Very angry indeed!". Also, Marvin does not have a mouth but he can still talk. Marvin is always found wearing old fashioned basketball shoes and Roman soilder's uniform. His head is like a sphere and is also always found wearing a helmet.

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Marvin is always found using a small pistol that fires ethier bubbles or energy beams. He is also very long-lived and has been living for thousands of years now. Marvin is still found around Earth and many other places around the Universe with his fellow dog. He still trys to destroy the Earth but is ususally very unsuccesfull.

Mir Space Station.

The Mir space station is the world's frist long-term research station in space. It is a russian space station. It had been out in space for 15 years until March 23 2001. It was thought to only last five years, but ended up much longer than that. Than, on purpose it was breaked apart.

The Mir had the ablitly to support a crew of three people, but could also hold more crewt for a short-term visit. The Mir was also the start of space tourism. Many wealthy familes paid to go up there. Close to 100 people have been to the Mir Space Station and have all stayed up there for an reasonable amount of time. In 1997, the Mir crew had faced many diffuculties onborad. There was a very dangerous fire caused by a backup oxygen-generating device, they had faced many differnt types of borad system failures and also, they had a total power loss on the spaceship causing it to "tumble" through space.

The Russian Space Agency than annouced that the Mir space station would have to be destroyed in a safe manner. The space station was than taken into the Earth's astomphere near Nadi, Fiji. It was than burned. The unburned material fell into the South Pacific Ocean. That was the end of the Mir Space Station.

Laika The Dog

Laika is the frist ever animal to orbit the space and also the frist death to occur in space. Laika was a space dog. Laika was taken to outer space because some astroglers belived that humans would not be able to survive the conditions of outer space, so therefore they used non-humans to test this.

Laika was found in Moscow. Scientists chose Moscow because they figured that animals in Moscow were already used to the extreme cold and hunger. Laikia was launched into space November 3, 1957. Laika died within the frist few hours due to overheating. But people did not become aware of her death until 2000. People got told that she died due to the fact that her oxygen ran out, but that was definality not the case.

Laikia helped the scienstist discover that humans can survive in the orbit. In her memory, a small monument was bulit infront of the military research facility in Moscow. The monument is of a dog standing on a rocket. This way, Laikia will always be remembered.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Famous astronmer: Frank Drake.

Frank Drake is a famous astronmer. He was born in Chicago on May 28, 1930. He lived a normal average childhood life in Chicago. Frank had two other siblings; brother, Frank and sister, Alma. Frank had always been very intrested in astronomy right from when he was a child. Instead of playing video games or playing around with toys, Frank and his friends would spend hours experimenting on radios and chemistry sets. He had fallen in love with science right from his childhood.

At the age of 8 Frank started to think that there was a possiblity of life on other planets but Frank didn't feel comfortable discusing this topic with his parents or teachers due to religous problems. So, he kept it to himself. His knowlefge about the universe began to grow and grow as he got older.
Eventually Frank succesfully completed highschool and went on to university at Cornell on an ROTC scholarship to study electronics. But he had fallen in love with raido astronomy so that is what he had decided to study. As he was studying there, his idea of life existing on other planets had expanded and he had become more and more intrested in that topic since he had gotten a lecture from one of the world's preeminent astrophysicists. He had finally found someone else who had belived that there was life one other planets, so that definality inspried him.

After Frank completed his education he got a job at the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a officer there. At one of the conferences that Frank had attended, he came up with the "Drake Equation". Which is what he is most famous for. Frank also worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab and Cornell's Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. Frank decided to go back to Cornell with his family.

Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons is located in Mars. It is the biggest valcano and mountain knowen in our Solor System. It is estimated to be the size of Arizona, USA and a little under three times as tall as Mount Everest. Olympus Mons was formed way back in the 19th century.

Olympus Mons is knowen to be a shield valcano. Which means there is high fluid lava coming out of the valcano for long periods of times. It is similiar to the valcaneos in Hawaii. In size, the Olympus Mons is more wider than taller. The size of the valcano is very big because Mars doesn't have tectonic plates like Earth does. Also, the Olympus Mons was visable from Earth to the 19th century viewers but it is sadly not anymore.

Olympus Mons still continues to be the largest valcano and moutain in our solor system. Astroglers predict that there may be more valcanioc activty yet to happen. They still are gathering more information about this amazing creation.