1.
Opava
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Opava is a city in the northern Czech Republic on the river Opava, located to the north-west of Ostrava. Opava is one of the centres of Silesia. It was a capital of Czech Silesia. Opava is now in the Moravian-Silesian Region and has a population of 57,843, Opava is located on the Opava Hilly Land on the Opava River and Moravice River. Opava was first documented in 1195, first mention of Magdeburg city rights came from 1224. It was capital of the Silesian, Bohemian and finally Austrian Duchy of Opava, in 1614 Karl I of Liechtenstein became Duke of Opava. The Congress of Troppau took place there in the period 27 October-17 December 1820, according to the Austrian census of 1910, the town had 30,762 inhabitants,29,587 of whom had permanent residence there. The census asked people for their language, which showed that 27,240 were German-speaking,2,039 were Czech-speaking and 274 were Polish-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish, and most of them thus declared German as their native language, the main religious group was Roman Catholics with 28,379, followed by Protestants with 1,155 and Jews with 1,112. After the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, Troppau became part of Czechoslovakia in 1919 as Opava, from 1938–45 Opava was part of Nazi Germany according to the Munich agreement. Already a day before Germanys annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, after the end of World War II, the entire German population of Opava was forcibly expelled in 1945–46 under terms included in the Beneš decrees, the city was resettled with Czechs. Many of the population settled in Bamberg, Germany. While the Duchy of Opava has ceased to exist, the title of Duke of Troppau lives on to present day, with Hans-Adam II, Opava is currently an important business and cultural center of Opavian Silesia. Opava is home to the public university in the country not situated in a regional capital. The city is part of an industrial area along with Ostrava. Opava also awards its own Cultural Prize, the Silesian Theatre in Opava was founded in 1805. Plays were performed in German until the end of the Second World War, the first is the white tower, known as Hláska, adorning the Neo-Renaissance Opava Town Hall on Horní náměstí square. cz Old postcards Opava International Organ Competition
2.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
3.
Asteroid
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Asteroids are minor planets, especially those of the inner Solar System. The larger ones have also been called planetoids and these terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet. As minor planets in the outer Solar System were discovered and found to have volatile-based surfaces that resemble those of comets, in this article, the term asteroid refers to the minor planets of the inner Solar System including those co-orbital with Jupiter. There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the remnants of planetesimals. The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, or are co-orbital with Jupiter. However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth objects, individual asteroids are classified by their characteristic spectra, with the majority falling into three main groups, C-type, M-type, and S-type. These were named after and are identified with carbon-rich, metallic. The size of asteroids varies greatly, some reaching as much as 1000 km across, asteroids are differentiated from comets and meteoroids. In the case of comets, the difference is one of composition, while asteroids are composed of mineral and rock, comets are composed of dust. In addition, asteroids formed closer to the sun, preventing the development of the aforementioned cometary ice, the difference between asteroids and meteoroids is mainly one of size, meteoroids have a diameter of less than one meter, whereas asteroids have a diameter of greater than one meter. Finally, meteoroids can be composed of either cometary or asteroidal materials, only one asteroid,4 Vesta, which has a relatively reflective surface, is normally visible to the naked eye, and this only in very dark skies when it is favorably positioned. Rarely, small asteroids passing close to Earth may be visible to the eye for a short time. As of March 2016, the Minor Planet Center had data on more than 1.3 million objects in the inner and outer Solar System, the United Nations declared June 30 as International Asteroid Day to educate the public about asteroids. The date of International Asteroid Day commemorates the anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid impact over Siberia, the first asteroid to be discovered, Ceres, was found in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, and was originally considered to be a new planet. In the early half of the nineteenth century, the terms asteroid. Asteroid discovery methods have improved over the past two centuries. This task required that hand-drawn sky charts be prepared for all stars in the band down to an agreed-upon limit of faintness. On subsequent nights, the sky would be charted again and any moving object would, hopefully, the expected motion of the missing planet was about 30 seconds of arc per hour, readily discernible by observers
4.
Valz Prize
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The Valz Prize was awarded by the French Academy of Sciences, from 1877 through 1970, to honor advances in astronomy. The Valz Prize was established in June 1874 when the widow of astronomer Benjamin Valz, Marie Madeleine Julie Malhian, the Valz Prize was to be awarded for work of similar stature as that honored by the pre-existing Lalande Prize. The first Valz Prize was awarded in 1877 to brothers Paul and Prosper Henry, save for 1924, the French Academy of Sciences awarded the Valz Prize annually from 1877 to 1943. After 1943, the prize was awarded only sporadically, in 1970 the Valz Prize was combined with the Lalande Prize to create the Lalande-Valz Prize, which continued to be awarded through 1996. In 1997, that prize was combined with numerous other Academy prizes to create the Grande Médaille
5.
Astronomy
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Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
6.
University of Vienna
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The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is one of the oldest universities in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich history, the University of Vienna has developed one of the biggest universities in Europe. It is associated with 15 Nobel prize winners and has been the home of a large number of figures both of historical and academic importance. The University was founded on 12 March 1365 by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, the University of Vienna was modelled after the University of Paris. However, Pope Urban V did not ratify the deed of foundation that had been sanctioned by Rudolf IV and this was presumably due to pressure exerted by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to avoid competition for the Charles University in Prague. Approval was finally received from the Pope in 1384 and the University of Vienna was granted the status of a full university, the first university building opened in 1385. It grew into the biggest university of the Holy Roman Empire, in its early years, the university had a partly hierarchical, partly cooperative structure, in which the Rector was at the top, while the students had little say and were settled at the bottom. The Magister and Doctors constituted the four faculties and elected the academic officials from amidst their ranks, the students, but also all other Supposita, were divided into four Academic Nations. Their elected board members, mostly graduates themselves, had the right to elect the Rector and he presided over the Consistory which included procurators of each of the nations and the faculty deans, as well as over the University Assembly, in which all university teachers participated. Complaints or appeals against decisions of faculty by the students had to be brought forward by a Magister or Doctor, being considered a Papal Institution, the university suffered quite a setback during the Reformation. In addition, the first Siege of Vienna by Ottoman forces had devastating effects on the city, leading to a sharp decline, with only 30 students enrolled at the lowest point. For King Ferdinand I, this meant that the university should be tied to the church to a stronger degree. It was only in the Mid-18th century that Empress Maria Theresa forced the university back under control of the monarchy. Her successor Joseph II helped in the reform of the university. Big changes were instituted in the wake of the Revolution in 1848, with the Philosophical Faculty being upgraded into equal status as Theology, Law and Medicine. Led by the reforms of Leopold, Count von Thun und Hohenstein, the current main building on the Ringstraße was built between 1877 and 1884 by Heinrich von Ferstel. The previous main building was located close to the Stuben Gate on Iganz Seipel Square, current home of the old University Church, women were admitted as full students from 1897, although their studies were limited to Philosophy
7.
Astronomer
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An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who concentrates their studies on a specific question or field outside of the scope of Earth. They look at stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies, as well as other celestial objects — either in observational astronomy. Examples of topics or fields astronomers work on include, planetary science, solar astronomy, there are also related but distinct subjects like physical cosmology which studies the Universe as a whole. Astronomers usually fit into two types, Observational astronomers make direct observations of planets, stars and galaxies, and analyze the data, theoretical astronomers create and investigate models of things that cannot be observed. They use this data to create models or simulations to theorize how different celestial bodies work, there are further subcategories inside these two main branches of astronomy such as planetary astronomy, galactic astronomy or physical cosmology. Today, that distinction has disappeared and the terms astronomer. Professional astronomers are highly educated individuals who typically have a Ph. D. in physics or astronomy and are employed by research institutions or universities. They spend the majority of their time working on research, although quite often have other duties such as teaching, building instruments. The number of astronomers in the United States is actually quite small. The American Astronomical Society, which is the organization of professional astronomers in North America, has approximately 7,000 members. This number includes scientists from other such as physics, geology. The International Astronomical Union comprises almost 10,145 members from 70 different countries who are involved in research at the Ph. D. level. Before CCDs, photographic plates were a method of observation. Modern astronomers spend relatively little time at telescopes usually just a few weeks per year, analysis of observed phenomena, along with making predictions as to the causes of what they observe, takes the majority of observational astronomers time. Astronomers who serve as faculty spend much of their time teaching undergraduate and graduate classes, most universities also have outreach programs including public telescope time and sometimes planetariums as a public service to encourage interest in the field. Those who become astronomers usually have a background in maths, sciences. Taking courses that teach how to research, write and present papers are also invaluable, in college/university most astronomers get a Ph. D. in astronomy or physics. Keeping in mind how few there are it is understood that graduate schools in this field are very competitive
8.
Austrian Silesia
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Not to be confused with the Duchy of Silesia. Austrian Silesia, officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, was a region of the Kingdom of Bohemia. It is largely coterminous with the region of Czech Silesia. Austrian Silesia consisted of two territories, separated by the Moravian land strip of Moravská Ostrava between the Ostravice and Oder rivers, in the west the Golden Mountains formed the border with the County of Kladsko. The area originally formed the part of the Medieval Duchy of Silesia. During the 14th century most Dukes of Silesia had declared themselves Bohemian vassals and his campaign was concluded in 1742 with the Prussian victory at the Battle of Chotusitz leading to the treaties of Breslau and Berlin, in which Silesia was divided. The southern part of the Lower Silesian Duchy of Nysa around Jeseník forming the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, the Nysa territory was held by the Bishops of Wrocław with their residence at Castle Jánský vrch. When in 1804 the Habsurg emperor Francis II established the Austrian Empire, Austrian Silesia was connected by rail with the Austrian capital Vienna, when the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway line was extended to Bohumín station in 1847. In the course of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia became a land of Cisleithanian Austria. Smaller parts of the duchy became a part of Poland. In eastern Teschen, the autonomous Duchy of Bielsko was established in 1754, for example, in 1900, there were 8 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Austrian Silesia
9.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
10.
153 Hilda
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153 Hilda is a large asteroid in the outer main belt, with a diameter of 170 km. Because it is composed of carbonaceous materials, it has a very dark surface. It was discovered by Johann Palisa on November 2,1875, the name was chosen by the astronomer Theodor von Oppolzer, who named it after one of his daughters. Hilda gives its name to a group called the Hilda family. It is not an asteroid family, since the members are not physically related. There are over 1,100 other objects known to be in a 2,3 resonance with Jupiter, Hilda was observed to occult a star on December 31,2002, from Japan. It has a very low-amplitude light curve indicating a body or a non-varying albedo
11.
216 Kleopatra
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216 Kleopatra is an asteroid orbiting in the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on April 10,1880 and it is named after Cleopatra, the famous queen of Ancient Egypt. The asteroid is notable for its shape that resembles that of a ham-bone. In 2008, it was discovered to be a ternary asteroid, Kleopatra is a relatively large asteroid, measuring 217 ×94 ×81 km. Initial observations with the ESO3.6 m Telescope at La Silla and these results were disputed when radar observations at the Arecibo Observatory showed that the two lobes of the asteroid are connected, resembling the shape of a ham-bone. The radar observations provided a detailed shape model that appeared on the cover of Science Magazine, in 1988 a search for satellites or dust orbiting this asteroid was performed using the UH88 telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories, but the effort came up empty. In September 2008, Franck Marchis and his collaborators announced that by using the Keck Observatorys adaptive optics system, the outer and inner satellites are about 5 km and 3 km in diameter, respectively. In February 2011 the moons were named Alexhelios and Cleoselene, after Cleopatras children Alexander Helios and it is believed that Kleopatras shape, rotation, and moons are due to an oblique impact perhaps 100 million years ago. The increased rotation would have elongated the asteroid and caused Alexhelios to split off, Cleoselene may have split off later, around 10 million years ago. Kleopatra is a contact binary - if it were spinning much faster, lightcurve plot of 216 Kleopatra, Palmer Divide Observatory, B
12.
243 Ida
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243 Ida is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 29 September 1884, by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory, later telescopic observations categorized Ida as an S-type asteroid, the most numerous type in the inner asteroid belt. On 28 August 1993, Ida was visited by the unmanned Galileo spacecraft and it was the second asteroid visited by a spacecraft and the first found to have a natural satellite. Like all main-belt asteroids, Idas orbit lies between the planets Mars and Jupiter and its orbital period is 4.84 years, and its rotation period is 4.63 hours. Ida has an diameter of 31.4 km. It is irregularly shaped and elongated, and apparently composed of two large objects connected together and its surface is one of the most heavily cratered in the Solar System, featuring a wide variety of crater sizes and ages. Idas moon, Dactyl, was discovered by mission member Ann Harch in images returned from Galileo and it was named after the Dactyls, creatures which inhabited Mount Ida in Greek mythology. Dactyl, being only 1.4 kilometres in diameter, is about one-twentieth the size of Ida and its orbit around Ida could not be determined with much accuracy. However, the constraints of possible orbits allowed a determination of Idas density. Dactyl and Ida share many characteristics, suggesting a common origin, the images returned from Galileo, and the subsequent measurement of Idas mass, provided new insights into the geology of S-type asteroids. Before the Galileo flyby, many different theories had been proposed to explain their mineral composition, determining their composition permits a correlation between meteorites falling to the Earth and their origin in the asteroid belt. Data returned from the flyby pointed to S-type asteroids as the source for the ordinary chondrite meteorites, Ida was discovered on 29 September 1884 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Observatory. It was his 45th asteroid discovery, Ida was named by Moriz von Kuffner, a Viennese brewer and amateur astronomer. In Greek mythology, Ida was a nymph of Crete who raised the god Zeus, Ida was recognized as a member of the Koronis family by Kiyotsugu Hirayama, who proposed in 1918 that the group comprised the remnants of a destroyed precursor body. Idas reflection spectrum was measured on 16 September 1980 by astronomers David J. Tholen and its spectrum matched those of the asteroids in the S-type classification. Many observations of Ida were made in early 1993 by the US Naval Observatory in Flagstaff and these improved the measurement of Idas orbit around the Sun and reduced the uncertainty of its position during the Galileo flyby from 78 to 60 km. Ida was visited in 1993 by the Jupiter-bound space probe Galileo and its encounters of the asteroids Gaspra and Ida were secondary to the Jupiter mission. These were selected as targets in response to a new NASA policy directing mission planners to consider asteroid flybys for all spacecraft crossing the belt, no prior missions had attempted such a flyby
13.
253 Mathilde
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253 Mathilde /məˈtɪldə/ is a main-belt asteroid about 50 km in diameter that was discovered by Johann Palisa in 1885. It has an elliptical orbit that requires more than four years to circle the Sun. This asteroid has a slow rate of rotation, requiring 17.4 days to complete a 360° revolution about its axis. It is a primitive C-type asteroid, which means the surface has a proportion of carbon. This asteroid was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft during June 1997, during the flyby, the spacecraft imaged a hemisphere of the asteroid, revealing many large craters that have gouged out depressions in the surface. It was the first C-type asteroid to be explored and, until 21 Lutetia was visited in 2010, in 1880, Johann Palisa, the director of the Austrian Naval Observatory, was offered a position as an assistant at the newly completed Vienna Observatory. Although the job represented a demotion for Johann, it gave him access to the new 27-inch refractor, by this point Johann had already discovered 27 asteroids, and he would employ the Vienna 27-inch and 12-inch instruments to find an additional 94 asteroids before he retired. Among his discoveries was the asteroid 253 Mathilde, found on November 12,1885, the initial orbital elements of the asteroid were then computed by V. A. Lebeuf, another Austrian astronomer working at the observatory. The name of the asteroid was suggested by Lebeuf, after Mathilde, in 1995, ground-based observations determined that 253 Mathilde is a C-type asteroid. It was also found to have a long period of rotation. On June 27,1997, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft passed within 1,212 km of 253 Mathilde while moving at a velocity of 9.93 km/s. This close approach allowed the spacecraft to capture over 500 images of the surface, however, only one hemisphere of 253 Mathilde was imaged during the fly-by. This was only the third asteroid to be imaged from a nearby distance, the asteroid has a number of extremely large craters, with the individual craters being named for coal fields and basins around the world. The two largest craters, Ishikari and Karoo, are as wide as the average radius. The impacts appear to have spalled large volumes off the asteroid, no differences in brightness or colour were visible in the craters and there was no appearance of layering, so the asteroids interior must be very homogeneous. There are indications of material movement along the downslope direction, the density measured by NEAR Shoemaker,1,300 kg/m³, is less than half that of a typical carbonaceous chondrite, this may indicate that the asteroid is very loosely packed rubble pile. The same is true of several C-type asteroids studied by ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics systems, up to 50% of the interior volume of 253 Mathilde consists of open space. However, the existence of a 20-km-long scarp may indicate that the asteroid does have some structural strength, the low interior density is an inefficient transmitter of impact shock through the asteroid, which also helps to preserve the surface features to a high degree
14.
Amor asteroid
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The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the asteroid 1221 Amor. They approach the orbit of Earth from beyond, but do not cross it, most Amors cross the orbit of Mars. The two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, may be Amor asteroids that were captured by Marss gravity, the most famous member of this group is 433 Eros, which was the first asteroid to be orbited and then landed upon by a human probe. There are three general criteria which an asteroid must meet to be considered a member of the Amor asteroid class, to be considered near, the asteroid must come closer to Earth than to any other major planet. The closest planet to Earth is Venus, which can come as close as 0.27 AU, therefore, an Amor asteroid must come within 0.30 AU of Earths orbit. The asteroids orbit must be outside the orbit of Earth, asteroids that come close to Earth whose orbits are inside Earths orbit are considered Apohele asteroids. The asteroids orbit must not cross Earths orbit, the most commonly used definition of this is that it never orbits closer to the Sun than Earths average distance from the Sun. A more strict definition is that at any point along the asteroids orbit and this takes into consideration the fact that Earths orbit ranges between 0.983 and 1.016 AU from the Sun. It is more difficult to sort out the Amor asteroids from the non-Amor asteroids using this definition, however. These three criteria boil down to a single test for membership, If an asteroid has a perihelion between 1.000 AU and 1.300 AU, it is an Amor asteroid. Any asteroid with this trait is considered an Amor-class asteroid, regardless of its axis, eccentricity, aphelion, inclination, physical properties, orbital stability. An asteroid belongs to the Amor group if, Its orbital period is greater than one year and this is equivalent to saying that its semi-major axis is greater than 1.0 AU. Its orbit does not cross Earths orbit and that is, its lowest point is higher than Earths highest point. It is an object, that is, its perihelion distance q <1.3 AU. In summary, a >1.0 AU and 1.017 AU < q <1.3 AU, there are 6051 Amor asteroids currently known. 960 of them are numbered, and 73 of them are named, Amor asteroids can be partitioned into four subgroups, depending on their average distance from the Sun. The Amor I subgroup consists of Amor asteroids whose semi-major axes are in between Earth and Mars and that is, they have a semi-major axis between 1.000 and 1.523 AU. Less than one fifth of Amor asteroids belong to this subgroup, Amor I asteroids have lower eccentricities than the other subgroups of Amors
15.
French Academy of Sciences
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The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Currently headed by Sébastien Candel, it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France, the Academy of Sciences makes its origin to Colberts plan to create a general academy. He chose a group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the Kings library. The first 30 years of the Academys existence were relatively informal, in contrast to its British counterpart, the Academy was founded as an organ of government. The Academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious, on 20 January 1699, Louis XIV gave the Company its first rules. The Academy received the name of Royal Academy of Sciences and was installed in the Louvre in Paris, following this reform, the Academy began publishing a volume each year with information on all the work done by its members and obituaries for members who had died. This reform also codified the method by which members of the Academy could receive pensions for their work, on 8 August 1793, the National Convention abolished all the academies. Almost all the old members of the previously abolished Académie were formally re-elected, among the exceptions was Dominique, comte de Cassini, who refused to take his seat. In 1816, the again renamed Royal Academy of Sciences became autonomous, while forming part of the Institute of France, in the Second Republic, the name returned to Académie des sciences. During this period, the Academy was funded by and accountable to the Ministry of Public Instruction, the Academy came to control French patent laws in the course of the eighteenth century, acting as the liaison of artisans knowledge to the public domain. As a result, academicians dominated technological activities in France, the Academy proceedings were published under the name Comptes rendus de lAcadémie des sciences. The Comptes rendus is now a series with seven titles. The publications can be found on site of the French National Library, in 1818 the French Academy of Sciences launched a competition to explain the properties of light. The civil engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel entered this competition by submitting a new theory of light. Siméon Denis Poisson, one of the members of the judging committee, being a supporter of the particle-theory of light, he looked for a way to disprove it. The Poisson spot is not easily observed in every-day situations, so it was natural for Poisson to interpret it as an absurd result. However, the head of the committee, Dominique-François-Jean Arago, and he molded a 2-mm metallic disk to a glass plate with wax
16.
Mathematics
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Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. There is a range of views among mathematicians and philosophers as to the exact scope, Mathematicians seek out patterns and use them to formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proof, when mathematical structures are good models of real phenomena, then mathematical reasoning can provide insight or predictions about nature. Through the use of abstraction and logic, mathematics developed from counting, calculation, measurement, practical mathematics has been a human activity from as far back as written records exist. The research required to solve mathematical problems can take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry, rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in Euclids Elements. Galileo Galilei said, The universe cannot be read until we have learned the language and it is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word. Without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth, carl Friedrich Gauss referred to mathematics as the Queen of the Sciences. Benjamin Peirce called mathematics the science that draws necessary conclusions, David Hilbert said of mathematics, We are not speaking here of arbitrariness in any sense. Mathematics is not like a game whose tasks are determined by arbitrarily stipulated rules, rather, it is a conceptual system possessing internal necessity that can only be so and by no means otherwise. Albert Einstein stated that as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, Mathematics is essential in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, finance and the social sciences. Applied mathematics has led to entirely new mathematical disciplines, such as statistics, Mathematicians also engage in pure mathematics, or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind. There is no clear line separating pure and applied mathematics, the history of mathematics can be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions. The earliest uses of mathematics were in trading, land measurement, painting and weaving patterns, in Babylonian mathematics elementary arithmetic first appears in the archaeological record. Numeracy pre-dated writing and numeral systems have many and diverse. Between 600 and 300 BC the Ancient Greeks began a study of mathematics in its own right with Greek mathematics. Mathematics has since been extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue to be made today, the overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new mathematical theorems and their proofs. The word máthēma is derived from μανθάνω, while the modern Greek equivalent is μαθαίνω, in Greece, the word for mathematics came to have the narrower and more technical meaning mathematical study even in Classical times
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Pula
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Pula or Pola is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia and the eighth largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 57,460 in 2011. Like the rest of the region, it is known for its climate, smooth sea. The city has a tradition of winemaking, fishing, shipbuilding. It has also been Istrias administrative centre since ancient Roman times, evidence of the presence of Homo erectus 1 million years ago has been found in the cave of Šandalja near Pula/Pola. Pottery from the Neolithic period, indicating human settlement, has found around Pula – Pola. In the Bronze Age, a new type of settlement appeared in Istria, called gradine, many late Bronze Age bone objects, such as tools for smoothing and drilling, sewing needles, as well as spiral bronze pendants, have been found in the area around Pula/Pola. The type of materials found in Bronze Age sites in Istria connects these with sites along the Danube, the inhabitants of Istria in the Bronze Age are known as Proto Illyrians. Greek pottery and a part of a statue of Apollo have been found, Greek tradition attributed the foundation of Polai to the Colchians, mentioned in the context of the story of Jason and Medea, who had stolen the golden fleece. The Colchians, who had chased Jason into the northern Adriatic, were unable to catch him and ended up settling in a place they called Polai, the town was elevated to colonial rank between 46–45 BC as the tenth region of the late Roman Republic, under Julius Caesar. During that time the town grew and had at its zenith a population of about 30,000 and it became a significant Roman port with a large surrounding area under its jurisdiction. After Octavians victory, the town was demolished and it was soon rebuilt at the request of Octavians daughter Iulia and was then called Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea. The colony was part of Venetia et Histria, a region of Roman Italy, great classical constructions were built of which a few remain. A great amphitheatre, Pula Arena, was constructed between 27 BC –68 AD, much of it still standing to this day, the Romans also supplied the city with a water supply and sewage systems. They fortified the city with a wall with ten gates, a few of these gates still remain, the triumphal Arch of the Sergii, the Gate of Hercules and the Twin Gates. During the reign of emperor Septimius Severus the name of the town was changed into Res Publica Polensis, the town was the site of Crispus Caesars execution in 326 AD and Gallus Caesars execution in 354 AD. In 425 AD the town became the centre of a bishopric, when their rule ended, Pola came under the rule of the Exarchate of Ravenna. During this period Pola prospered and became the port of the Byzantine fleet. The Basilica of Saint Mary Formosa was built in the 6th century, from 788 on Pola was ruled by the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne, with the introduction of the feudal system
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Refracting telescope
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A refracting telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image. The refracting telescope design was used in spy glasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long focus camera lenses. A refractors magnification is calculated by dividing the length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece. Refractors were the earliest type of optical telescope, Galileo Galilei, happening to be in Venice in about the month of May 1609, heard of the invention and constructed a version of his own. Galileo then communicated the details of his invention to the public, all refracting telescopes use the same principles. The objective in a refracting telescope refracts or bends light and this refraction causes parallel light rays to converge at a focal point, while those not parallel converge upon a focal plane. The telescope converts a bundle of rays to make an angle α. The ratio β/α is called the angular magnification and it equals the ratio between the retinal image sizes obtained with and without the telescope. Refracting telescopes can come in different configurations to correct for image orientation. Because the image was formed by the bending of light, or refraction, the design Galileo Galilei used in 1609 is commonly called a Galilean telescope. It used a convergent objective lens and a divergent eyepiece lens, a Galilean telescope, because the design has no intermediary focus, results in a non-inverted and upright image. Galileo’s best telescope magnified objects about 30 times, because of flaws in its design, such as the shape of the lens and the narrow field of view, the images were blurry and distorted. Despite these flaws, the telescope was still enough for Galileo to explore the sky. The Galilean telescope could view the phases of Venus, and was able to see craters on the Moon, parallel rays of light from a distant object would be brought to a focus in the focal plane of the objective lens. The eyepiece lens intercepts these rays and renders them parallel once more, non-parallel rays of light from the object traveling at an angle α1 to the optical axis travel at a larger angle after they passed through the eyepiece. This leads to an increase in the apparent angular size and is responsible for the perceived magnification, the final image is a virtual image, located at infinity and is the same way up as the object. The Keplerian telescope, invented by Johannes Kepler in 1611, is an improvement on Galileos design and it uses a convex lens as the eyepiece instead of Galileos concave one. The advantage of this arrangement is that the rays of light emerging from the eyepiece are converging and this allows for a much wider field of view and greater eye relief, but the image for the viewer is inverted
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NEAR Shoemaker
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The mission succeeded in closing in with the asteroid and orbited it several times, finally terminating by touching down on the asteroid on 12 February 2001. The primary scientific objective of NEAR was to return data on the properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith properties, interactions with the wind, possible current activity as indicated by dust or gas. This data will be used to understand the characteristics of asteroids in general, their relationship to meteoroids and comets. A radio science experiment was performed using the NEAR tracking system to estimate the gravity field of the asteroid. The total mass of the instruments was 56 kg, and they required 80 W power, a previous plan for the mission was for it to go to 4660 Nereus and do a flyby of 2019 Van Albada en route. In January 2000 it would rendezvous with Nereus but instead of staying it would visit multiple asteroids, the primary goal of the mission was to study the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros from orbit for approximately one year. Eros is an S-type asteroid approximately 13 ×13 ×33 km in size, initially the orbit was circular with a radius of 200 km. The radius of the orbit was brought down in stages to a 50 ×50 km orbit on 30 April 2000 and decreased to 35 ×35 km on July 14,2000. The orbit was raised over succeeding months to a 200 ×200 km orbit, the mission ended with a touchdown in the saddle region of Eros on February 12,2001. Some scientists claim that the goal of the mission was to link Eros. With sufficient data on chemical composition, a link could be established between Eros and other S-type asteroids, and those meteorites believed to be pieces of S-type asteroids. Once this connection is established, meteorite material can be studied with large, complex, and evolving equipment, NEAR-Shoemaker did not prove or disprove this link to the satisfaction of scientists. Between December 1999 and February 2001 NEAR Shoemaker used its gamma-ray spectrometer to detect gamma-ray bursts as part of the InterPlanetary Network, after launch on a Delta 7925-8 and exit from Earth orbit, NEAR entered the first part of its cruise phase. NEAR spent most of the phase in a minimal activity hibernation state. On 27 June 1997, NEAR flew by Mathilde within 1200 km at 12,56 UT at 9.93 km/s, returning imaging, the flyby produced over 500 images, covering 60% of Mathildes surface, as well as gravitational data allowing calculations of Mathildes dimensions and mass. On July 3,1997 NEAR executed the first major deep space maneuver and this decreased the velocity by 279 m/s and lowered perihelion from 0.99 AU to 0.95 AU. The Earth gravity assist swingby occurred on January 23,1998 at 7,23 UT
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178 Belisana
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178 Belisana is a rocky main belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on November 6,1877. It is named after the Celtic goddess Belisana, photometric observations of this asteroid from multiple observatories during 2007 gave a light curve with a period of 12.321 ±0.002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ±0.03 in magnitude. This is in agreement with a performed in 1992. However, it is possible that the curve may have a period of 24.6510 ±0.0003 hours. 178 Belisana at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
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182 Elsa
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182 Elsa is a Main belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa on February 7,1878. The origin of the name is uncertain, it may be named after the character in the legend of Lohengrin perpetuated by Richard Wagners opera of the same name, based upon its spectrum, it is classified as a stony S-type asteroid. It rotates very slowly, in 1980 its rotation period was estimated to be about 3.3 Earth days, a possible companion has been proposed to explain the slow rotation. Elsa has very amplified lightcurve indicating an elongated or irregular body, during 2002,109 Felicitas was observed by radar from the Arecibo Observatory. The return signal matched an effective diameter of 44 ±10 km and this is consistent with the asteroid dimensions computed through other means. 182 Elsa at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
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184 Dejopeja
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184 Dejopeja is a large M-type Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by J. Palisa on February 28,1878, and was named after Deiopea and this is an X-type asteroid with a diameter of 66 km and a geometric albedo of 0.190. Based upon Photometric observations taken during 2000, it has a rotation period of 6.441 ±0.001 h. The light curve is tri-modal, most likely due to an angular shape,184 Dejopeja at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
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192 Nausikaa
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192 Nausikaa is a large main-belt S-type asteroid. It was discovered by Johann Palisa on February 17,1879, at Pula, then in Austria, the name derives from Nausicaä, a princess in Homers Odyssey. This is an S-type asteroid around 86 km with a ratio of 1.51. The sidereal rotation period is 13.6217 hours, based on the lightcurve data obtained from Nausikaa, a possible satellite was reported in 1985. However, this has not been confirmed, a shape model of Nausikaa has been constructed, also based on the lightcurve data. It indicates a roughly cut, but not very elongated body, in 1998 an occultation of a star by the asteroid was observed from the United States. In 1988 a search for satellites or dust orbiting this asteroid was performed using the UH88 telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories, nausikaas orbital period is 3.72 years, its distance from the Sun varying between 1.81 and 2.99 AU. Nausikaa brightened to magnitude 8.3 at a favorable opposition on 2 September 2011. 192 Nausikaa at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
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201 Penelope
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201 Penelope is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on August 7,1879 in Pola. The asteroid is named after Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in Homers The Odyssey, based upon the spectra of this object, it is classified as a M-type asteroid, indicating it may be metallic in composition. It may be the remnant of the core of a larger, near infrared absorption features indicate the presence of variable amounts of low-iron, low-calcium orthopyroxenes on the surface. Trace amounts of water is detected with a fraction of about 0. 13–0.15 wt%. It has a size of around 88 km. With a rotation period of 3.74 hours, it is the fastest rotating asteroid larger than 50 km in diameter
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208 Lacrimosa
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208 Lacrimosa is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on October 21,1879, in Pola. The name derives from Our Lady of Sorrows, a given to Mary. 10µ radiometric data collected from Kitt Peak in 1975 gave an estimate of 42 km for this asteroid. It is classified as an S-type asteroid and is one of the largest members of the Koronis asteroid family, hence it is probably a piece of the original asteroid that was shattered in an ancient impact that created the family. The Asteroid Orbital Elements Database Minor Planet Discovery Circumstances Asteroid Lightcurve Data File It is visible at http,208 Lacrimosa at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
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