1.
Rotterdam
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Rotterdam is a city in the Netherlands, located in South Holland, within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt river delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270 when a dam was constructed in the Rotte river by people settled around it for safety, in 1340 Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland and slowly grew into a major logistic and economic centre. Nowadays it is home to Europes largest port and has a population of 633,471, ranking second in the Netherlands, just behind Amsterdam. The Greater Rijnmond area is home to approximately 1.4 million people, Rotterdam is part of the yet larger Randstad conurbation with a total population of 7,100,000. The city of Rotterdam is known for the Erasmus University, riverside setting, lively cultural life, the near-complete destruction of Rotterdams city centre during World War II has resulted in a varied architectural landscape including sky-scrapers, which are an uncommon sight in other Dutch cities. Rotterdam is home to some world-famous architecture from renowned architects like Rem Koolhaas, Piet Blom, Ben van Berkel and others. Recently Rotterdam was listed eighth in The Rough Guide Top 10 Cities to Visit, the port of Rotterdam is the largest cargo port in Europe and the 10th largest in the world. Rotterdams logistic success is based on its location on the North Sea. The rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt give waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, the extensive distribution system including rail, roads, and waterways have earned Rotterdam the nickname Gateway to Europe, and, conversely, Gateway to the World in Europe. The settlement at the end of the fen stream Rotte dates from at least 900 CE. A dam on the Rotte or Rotterdam was built in the 1260s and was located at the present-day Hoogstraat, on 7 July 1340, Count Willem IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, which then had approximately 2,000 inhabitants. The port of Rotterdam grew slowly but steadily into a port of importance, becoming the seat of one of the six chambers of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed the completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872. The city and harbor started to expand on the bank of the river. The Witte Huis or White House skyscraper, inspired by American office buildings and built in 1898 in the French Château-style, is evidence of Rotterdams rapid growth, when completed, it was the tallest office building in Europe, with a height of 45 m. During World War I the city was the worlds largest spy centre because of Dutch neutrality, many spies who were arrested and executed in Britain were led by German secret agents operating from Rotterdam. MI6 had its main European office on de Boompjes, from there the British coordinated espionage in Germany and occupied Belgium. In WWI an average of 25,000 Belgian refugees lived in the city, as well as hundreds of German deserters, during World War II, the German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Adolf Hitler had hoped to conquer the country in just one day, the Dutch army was finally forced to capitulate on 15 May 1940, following Hitlers bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May and threatening to bomb other Dutch cities
2.
Comet
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A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to evolve gasses, a process called outgassing. This produces an atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are due to the effects of radiation and the solar wind acting upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred metres to tens of kilometres across and are composed of collections of ice, dust. The coma may be up to 15 times the Earths diameter, if sufficiently bright, a comet may be seen from the Earth without the aid of a telescope and may subtend an arc of 30° across the sky. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures, Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from several years to potentially several millions of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc, long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to halfway to the nearest star. Long-period comets are set in motion towards the Sun from the Oort cloud by gravitational perturbations caused by passing stars, hyperbolic comets may pass once through the inner Solar System before being flung to interstellar space. The appearance of a comet is called an apparition, Comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere surrounding their central nucleus. This atmosphere has parts termed the coma and the tail, however, extinct comets that have passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids. Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System, the discovery of main-belt comets and active centaur minor planets has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets. As of November 2014 there are 5,253 known comets, however, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total potential comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System is estimated to be one trillion. Roughly one comet per year is visible to the eye, though many of those are faint. Particularly bright examples are called Great Comets, the word comet derives from the Old English cometa from the Latin comēta or comētēs. That, in turn, is a latinisation of the Greek κομήτης, Κομήτης was derived from κομᾶν, which was itself derived from κόμη and was used to mean the tail of a comet. The astronomical symbol for comets is ☄, consisting of a disc with three hairlike extensions. The solid, core structure of a comet is known as the nucleus, cometary nuclei are composed of an amalgamation of rock, dust, water ice, and frozen gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ammonia. As such, they are described as dirty snowballs after Fred Whipples model
3.
Telescope
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A telescope is an optical instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation. The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s and they found use in both terrestrial applications and astronomy. Within a few decades, the telescope was invented, which used mirrors to collect. In the 20th century many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s, the word telescope now refers to a wide range of instruments capable of detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors. The word telescope was coined in 1611 by the Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani for one of Galileo Galileis instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei Lincei, in the Starry Messenger, Galileo had used the term perspicillum. The earliest recorded working telescopes were the telescopes that appeared in the Netherlands in 1608. Their development is credited to three individuals, Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen, who were spectacle makers in Middelburg, Galileo heard about the Dutch telescope in June 1609, built his own within a month, and improved upon the design in the following year. Also in 1609, Thomas Harriot became the first person known to point a telescope skyward in order to make observations of a celestial object. The idea that the objective, or light-gathering element, could be a mirror instead of a lens was being investigated soon after the invention of the refracting telescope. The potential advantages of using parabolic mirrors—reduction of spherical aberration and no chromatic aberration—led to many proposed designs, in 1668, Isaac Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope, of a design which now bears his name, the Newtonian reflector. The invention of the lens in 1733 partially corrected color aberrations present in the simple lens and enabled the construction of shorter. The largest reflecting telescopes currently have objectives larger than 10 m, the 20th century also saw the development of telescopes that worked in a wide range of wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. The first purpose built radio telescope went into operation in 1937, since then, a tremendous variety of complex astronomical instruments have been developed. The name telescope covers a range of instruments. Most detect electromagnetic radiation, but there are differences in how astronomers must go about collecting light in different frequency bands. The near-infrared can be collected much like light, however in the far-infrared and submillimetre range. For example, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observes from wavelengths from 3 μm to 2000 μm, on the other hand, the Spitzer Space Telescope, observing from about 3 μm to 180 μm uses a mirror. Also using reflecting optics, the Hubble Space Telescope with Wide Field Camera 3 can observe in the range from about 0.2 μm to 1.7 μm
4.
Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
5.
Mile
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The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959. The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 feet but the importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile then spread to the British-colonized nations who continue to employ the mile, the US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile continues to see some use. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated as mph, mpg. The modern English word mile derives from Middle English myl and Old English mīl, the present international mile is usually what is understood by the unqualified term mile. When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, in British English, the statute mile may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament which set it as a distance of 1,760 yards. Under American law, however, the statute mile refers to the US survey mile, the mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, and mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi in order to avoid confusion with the SI metre and millilitre. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated in the United States, United Kingdom, the BBC style holds that There is no acceptable abbreviation for ‘miles’ and so it should be spelt out when used in describing areas. The Roman mile consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would push a carved stick in the ground after each 1000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles, the distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippas establishment of a standard Roman foot in 29 BC, and the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet, surveyors and specialized equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra then spread its use. In modern times, Agrippas Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about 1,481 metres in length, in Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet. The mílion continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire. The Roman mile also spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below, also arising from the Roman mile is the milestone. All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire –50,000 miles of stone-paved roads, at every mile was placed a shaped stone, on which was carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the center of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one knew how far one was from Rome
6.
Eusebio Kino
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Eusebio Francisco Kino, was an Italian Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer. For the last 24 years of his life he worked in the then known as the Pimería Alta, modern-day Sonora in Mexico. He explored the region and worked with the indigenous Native American population, including primarily the Tohono OOdham, Sobaipuri and he proved that the Baja California Peninsula is not an island by leading an overland expedition there. By the time of his death he had established 24 missions, Kino was born Eusebius Chinus in the village of Segno, then in the sovereign Prince-bishopric of Trent, a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Other sources cite his name as Eusebio Francesco Chini and his parents were Franciscus Chinus and Margherita Luchi. The exact date of his birth is unknown but he was baptized on 10 August 1645 in the parish church, Kino was educated in Innsbruck, Austria, and after recuperating from a serious illness, he joined the Society of Jesus on 20 November 1665. From 1664-69, he received training as a member of the Society at Freiburg, Ingolstadt. After completing a stage of training in the Society, during which he taught mathematics in Ingolstadt. Although Kino wanted to go to the Orient, he was sent to New Spain, due to travel delays while crossing Europe, he missed the ship on which he was to travel and had to wait a year for another ship. While waiting in Cádiz, Spain, he wrote some observations, done during late 1680 and early 1681, about his study of a comet, which he published as the Exposición astronómica de el cometa. This publication was later the subject of a sonnet by the noted colonial nun and poet of New Spain, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, kinos first assignment was to lead the Atondo expedition to the Baja California peninsula of Las Californias Province of New Spain. He established the Misión San Bruno in 1683, after a prolonged drought there in 1685, Kino and the Jesuit missionaries were forced to abandon the mission and return to the viceregal capital of Mexico City. See also Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert Father Kino began his career in the Pimería Alta on the morning of 14 March 1687,24 years and this was the morning he left Cucurpe, a town once considered the Rim of Christendom. Once Father Kino arrived in the Pimería Alta, at the request of the natives, subsequently Kino traveled across northern Mexico, and to present day California and Arizona. He followed ancient trading routes established millennia prior by the natives and these trails were later expanded into roads. His many expeditions on horseback covered over 50,000 square miles, Kino was important in the economic growth of the area, working with the already agricultural indigenous native peoples and introducing them to European seed, fruits, herbs and grains. He also taught them to raise cattle, sheep and goats, kinos initial mission herd of twenty cattle imported to Pimería Alta grew during his period to 70,000. Historian Herbert Bolton referred to Kino as Arizonas first rancher, in his travels in the Pimería Alta, Father Kino interacted with 16 different tribes
Media related to Great Comet of 1680 at Wikimedia Commons
