1.
University of Bern
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The University of Bern is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern and it is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and programs in eight faculties and some 150 institutes. With around 17,428 students, the University of Bern is the third biggest University in Switzerland, the University of Bern operates at three levels, university, faculties and institutes. Other organizational units include interfaculty and general university units, the universitys highest governing body is the Senate, which is responsible for issuing statutes, rules and regulations. Directly answerable to the Senate is the University Board of Directors, the Board comprises the Rector, the Vice-Rectors and the Administrative Director. The structures and functions of the University Board of Directors and the organizational units are regulated by the Universities Act. The University of Bern offers about 39 bachelor and 72 master programs, with enrolments of 7,869 and 4,425, the university also has 2,648 doctoral students. Around 1,575 bachelor,1,566 masters degree students and 534 PhD students graduate each year, for some time now, the university has had more female than male students, at the end of 2014, women accounted for 56% of students. Unlike other universities, the University of Bern does not have a large campus on the edge of the city. Most institutes and clinics are still in the Länggasse, the university district adjoining the city centre. The University has won awards for its intelligent, ecological. The vonRoll site, another factory building, is in the process of being refurbished to house the Faculty of Human Sciences. The roots of the University of Bern go back to the century, when, as a consequence of the Reformation. As part of its reorganization of education, the government of Bern transformed the existing theological college into an academy with four faculties in 1805. Henceforth, it was possible to not only theology in Bern. As in other countries of Europe, nineteenth century politics in Switzerland were dominated by the struggle between conservative and liberal currents. The liberals gained control of the Canton of Bern in 1831 and in 1834 turned the academy into a university, with an academic staff of 45 to teach 167 students. Owing to the situation, it was not until the promulgation of the federal constitution in 1848 that the university was able to embark on a period of peaceful development
2.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
3.
Bern
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The city of Bern or Berne is the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to by the Swiss as their Bundesstadt, or federal city. With a population of 141,762, Bern is the fourth-most populous city in Switzerland, the Bern agglomeration, which includes 36 municipalities, had a population of 406,900 in 2014. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000, Bern is also the capital of the canton of Bern, the second-most populous of Switzerlands cantons. The official language in Bern is German, but the language is an Alemannic Swiss German dialect. In 1983, the old town in the centre of Bern became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bern is ranked among the top ten cities for the best quality of life. The etymology of the name Bern is uncertain and it has long been considered likely that the city was named after the Italian city of Verona, which at the time was known as Bern in Middle High German. As a result of the find of the Bern zinc tablet in the 1980s, it is now common to assume that the city was named after a pre-existing toponym of Celtic origin. The bear was the animal of the seal and coat of arms of Bern from at least the 1220s. The earliest reference to the keeping of bears in the Bärengraben dates to the 1440s. No archaeological evidence that indicates a settlement on the site of city centre prior to the 12th century has been found so far. In antiquity, a Celtic oppidum stood on the Engehalbinsel north of Bern, fortified since the second century BC, during the Roman era, a Gallo-Roman vicus was on the same site. The Bern zinc tablet has the name Brenodor, in the Early Middle Ages, a settlement in Bümpliz, now a city district of Bern, was some 4 km from the medieval city. The medieval city is a foundation of the Zähringer ruling family, according to 14th-century historiography, Bern was founded in 1191 by Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen. In 1218, after Berthold died without an heir, Bern was made an imperial city by the Goldene Handfeste of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In 1353, Bern joined the Swiss Confederacy, becoming one of the eight cantons of the period of 1353 to 1481. The city grew out towards the west of the boundaries of the peninsula formed by the river Aare, the Zytglogge tower marked the western boundary of the city from 1191 until 1256, when the Käfigturm took over this role until 1345. It was, in turn, succeeded by the Christoffelturm until 1622, during the time of the Thirty Years War, two new fortifications – the so-called big and small Schanze – were built to protect the whole area of the peninsula
4.
ETH Zurich
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ETH Zurich is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics university in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. ETH Zurich is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world, twenty-one Nobel Prizes have been awarded to students or professors of the Institute in the past, the most famous of whom was Albert Einstein. It is a member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities. ETH was founded in 1854 by the Swiss Confederation and began giving its first lectures in 1855 as a polytechnic institute and it is locally still known as Poly, derived from the original name Eidgenössische polytechnische Schule, which translates to Federal Polytechnic School. ETH is an institute, whereas the University of Zürich is a cantonal institution. In the beginning, both universities were co-located in the buildings of the University of Zürich, from 1905 to 1908, under the presidency of Jérôme Franel, the course program of ETH was restructured to that of a real university and ETH was granted the right to award doctorates. In 1909 the first doctorates were awarded, in 1911, it was given its current name, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. In 1924, another reorganization structured the university in 12 departments, however, it now has 16 departments. ETH Zurich, the EPFL, and four associated research institutes form the ETH Domain with the aim of collaborating on scientific projects, ETH Zurich is ranked among the top universities in the world. Historically, ETH Zurich has achieved its reputation particularly in the fields of chemistry, there are 21 Nobel Laureates who are associated with ETH. The most recent Nobel Laureate is Richard F, heck who was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010. Albert Einstein is perhaps its most famous alumnus, in 2016, the QS World University Rankings placed ETH Zurich at 8th overall in the world. In 2015, ETH also ranked 6th in the world in Natural Sciences, ETH Zurich had an budget of 1.712 billion CHF in the year 2015 to support its cutting-edge research. For Swiss students, ETH is not selective in its admission procedures. Like every public university in Switzerland, ETH is obliged to grant admission to every Swiss resident who took the Matura, an applicant can be admitted to ETH even without any verifiable educational records by passing the comprehensive entrance exam. As at all universities in Switzerland, the year is divided into two semesters. Examinations are often held during examination sessions which are immediately before the beginning of the next semester, after the first year of study, bachelor students must pass a block examination of all courses taken in the first year, called the Basisprüfung. If the weighted average score is not sufficient, a student is required to retake the entire Basisprüfung which usually means having to re-sit the whole first year
5.
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
6.
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
7.
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
8.
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
9.
Supernova
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This causes the sudden appearance of a new bright star, before slowly fading from sight over several weeks or months. Supernovae are more energetic than novae, in Latin, nova means new, referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix super- distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous, the word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931. It is pronounced /ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ with the plural supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas, only three Milky Way naked-eye supernova events have been observed during the last thousand years, though many have been seen in other galaxies using telescopes. The most recent directly observed supernova in the Milky Way was Keplers Supernova in 1604, Supernovae may expel much, if not all, of the material away from a star, at velocities up to 30,000 km/s or 10% of the speed of light. This drives an expanding and fast-moving shock wave into the interstellar medium, and in turn, sweeping up an expanding shell of gas and dust. Supernovae create, fuse and eject the bulk of the chemical elements produced by nucleosynthesis, Supernovae play a significant role in enriching the interstellar medium with the heavier atomic mass chemical elements. Furthermore, the shock waves from supernovae can trigger the formation of new stars. Supernova remnants are expected to accelerate a large fraction of primary cosmic rays. They are also potentially strong galactic sources of gravitational waves, in the second case, the core of a massive star may undergo sudden gravitational collapse, releasing gravitational potential energy as a supernova. While some observed supernovae are more complex than these two simplified theories, the astrophysical collapse mechanics have been established and accepted by most astronomers for some time, in Latin, Nova means new, referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix super- distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous, the word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931. It is pronounced /ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ with the plural supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas, the earliest recorded supernova, SN185, was viewed by Chinese astronomers in 185 AD. The brightest recorded supernova was SN1006, which occurred in 1006 AD and was described in detail by Chinese, the widely observed supernova SN1054 produced the Crab Nebula. Johannes Kepler began observing SN1604 at its peak on October 17,1604 and it was the second supernova to be observed in a generation. There is some evidence that the youngest galactic supernova, G1. 9+0.3, occurred in the late 19th century, neither supernova was noted at the time. In the case of G1. 9+0.3, high extinction along the plane of the galaxy could have dimmed the event sufficiently to go unnoticed, the situation for Cassiopeia A is less clear. Infrared light echos have been detected showing that it was a type IIb supernova and was not in a region of especially high extinction, before the development of the telescope, there have only been five supernovae seen in the last millennium
10.
California Institute of Technology
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The California Institute of Technology is a private doctorate-granting university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910, the university is one among a small group of Institutes of Technology in the United States which is primarily devoted to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences. Caltech has six divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering, managing $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research. Its 124-acre primary campus is located approximately 11 mi northeast of downtown Los Angeles, first-year students are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduates remain in the on-campus House System at Caltech. Although Caltech has a tradition of practical jokes and pranks. The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division IIIs Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Caltech is frequently cited as one of the worlds best universities. There are 112 faculty members who have elected to the United States National Academies. In addition, numerous faculty members are associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as NASA, according to a 2015 Pomona College study, Caltech ranked number one in the U. S. for the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a PhD. Caltech started as a school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, the vocational school was disbanded and the preparatory program was split off to form an independent Polytechnic School in 1907. At a time when research in the United States was still in its infancy, George Ellery Hale. He joined Throops board of trustees in 1907, and soon began developing it and he engineered the appointment of James A. B. Scherer, a literary scholar untutored in science but a capable administrator and fund raiser, scherer persuaded retired businessman and trustee Charles W. Gates to donate $25,000 in seed money to build Gates Laboratory, the first science building on campus. In 1910, Throop moved to its current site, arther Fleming donated the land for the permanent campus site. The promise of Throop attracted physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes from MIT to develop the institution and assist in establishing it as a center for science, with the onset of World War I, Hale organized the National Research Council to coordinate and support scientific work on military problems. This institution, with its able investigators and excellent research laboratories, through the National Research Council, Hale simultaneously lobbied for science to play a larger role in national affairs, and for Throop to play a national role in science. During the course of the war, Hale, Noyes and Millikan worked together in Washington on the NRC, subsequently, they continued their partnership in developing Caltech. Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes and Millikan, Caltech grew to prominence in the 1920s
11.
Fritz Zwicky
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Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, in 1933, Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to infer the existence of unseen dark matter, describing it as dunkle Materie. Fritz Zwicky was born in Varna, in the Principality of Bulgaria and his father, Fridolin, was a prominent industrialist in the Bulgarian city and also served as ambassador of Norway in Varna. The Zwicky House in Varna was designed and built by Fridolin Zwicky, fritzs mother, Franziska Vrček, was an ethnic Czech of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fritz was the oldest of the Zwicky familys three children, he had a brother named Rudolf and a sister, Leonie. Fritzs mother died in Varna in 1927, and his father Fridolin remained in Bulgaria until 1945 and his sister Leonie married a Bulgarian from Varna and spent her entire life in the city. In 1904, at the age of six, Fritz was sent to his grandparents in the familys ancestral canton in Glarus, Switzerland, to study commerce. His interests shifted to math and physics and he received an education in mathematics and experimental physics at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, located in Zurich. He was responsible for positing numerous cosmological theories that have a impact on the understanding of our universe today. He was the first to coin the term supernova during his fostering the concept of neutron stars, Zwicky was a lone wolf and did all of his own mathematical work. He intended to write an autobiography titled, Operation Lone Wolf and it would be five years later when Oppenheimer would publish his landmark paper announcing neutron stars. He developed some of the earliest jet engines and holds over 50 patents, many in jet propulsion, and is the inventor of the Underwater Jet, the Two Piece Jet Thrust Motor and Inverted Hydro Pulse. In April 1932, Fritz Zwicky married Dorothy Vernon Gates, a member of a prominent local family and her money was instrumental in the funding of the Palomar Observatory during the Great Depression. Nicholas Roosevelt, cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt, was his brother-in-law by marriage to Tirzah Gates, Zwicky and Dorothy divorced amicably in 1941. In 1947 Zwicky was married in Switzerland to Anna Margaritha Zurcher, Zwicky died in Pasadena on February 8,1974, and was buried in Mollis, Switzerland. He is remembered as both a genius and a curmudgeon, one of his favorite insults was to refer to people he did not approve of as spherical bastards, because, he explained, they were bastards no matter which way you looked at them. A recent biography in English was published by the Fritz Zwicky Foundation, Alfred Stöckli & Roland Müller, a review of the book is available from Acta Morphologica Generalis. Fritz Zwicky was a prolific scientist and made important contributions in areas of astronomy
12.
Zimmerwald Observatory
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The Zimmerwald Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the AIUB, the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern. Built in 1956, it is located at Zimmerwald,10 kilometers south of Bern, numerous comets and asteroids have been discovered by Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory, most notably comet 81P/Wild, which was visited by NASAs Stardust space probe in 2004. The main belt asteroid 1775 Zimmerwald has been named after the location of the observatory, the 1-meter aperture ZIMLAT telescope was inaugurated in 1997. List of largest optical reflecting telescopes Swiss Space Office Zimmerwald Observatory
13.
Robert Burnham Jr.
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Robert Burnham Jr. was an American astronomer, best known for writing the classic three-volume Burnhams Celestial Handbook. He is the discoverer of numerous asteroids including the asteroid/minor planet 3397 Leyla, Burnhams late years were tragic, he died destitute and alone. However, he is remembered by a generation of deep sky observers for his contribution to astronomy. The main-belt asteroid 3467 Bernheim was named in his honor, Burnham was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1931, the son of Robert Sr. and Lydia. His family moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 1940, and that was the culmination of his formal education. Always a shy person, he had few friends, never married, in the fall of 1957 he received considerable local publicity when he discovered his first comet. This led to his being hired by Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, while Burnham was working at Lowell, he and his co-worker, Norman G. Thomas, discovered five more comets, and in excess of 1500 asteroids. In addition to his duties at the observatory, Burnham spent almost all of his free time working on the Celestial Handbook. His writing and his book were never supported by Lowell Observatory. Subtitled An Observers Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System, thousands of stars and deep sky objects visible in small telescopes are covered in meticulous detail. It is still in-print and is considered to be a classic in the literature of amateur astronomy, ortega then described the book series as. a sort of real-life hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, a compendium with something to say about nearly every cosmic destination worth visiting. Part travel guide, part history text, part encyclopedia, its like a natural history museum of the universe. And for decades its held a grip on the imaginations of most people who ply the night skies with telescopes, people who yearn to travel in space and know that they can, any dark and clear night. And all of it is meant as an incentive for the reader to recover those treasures by merely looking upward and it is rarely compared to other books because there simply is none other like it. No other popular work approaches its utility and completeness, few other scientific texts contain its sense of wonder, despite months of warning, he failed to make other arrangements and, after twenty-one years at Lowell, his job ended in December of that year. Unwilling to take the position that was offered to him. Burnham was never able to personally, professionally, or financially after he lost the job at Lowell. Over the next few years, while sales of the Celestial Handbook were rapidly growing and his shyness increased and he shunned all publicity, becoming even more reclusive
14.
Periodic comet
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Periodic comets are comets having orbital periods of less than 200 years or that have been observed during more than a single perihelion passage. Periodic comet is sometimes used to mean any comet with a periodic orbit. Periodic comets receive a permanent number prefix usually after the perihelion passage. In nearly all cases, comets are named after their discoverer, even so, quite a few comets were lost because their orbits are also affected by non-gravitational effects such as the release of gas and other material that forms the comets coma and tail. Unlike a long-period comet, the perihelion passage of a numbered periodic comet can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy. Periodic comets sometimes bear the same name repeatedly, the IAU system distinguishes between them either through the prefix or by the full designation. In the literature, a numbering system is applied to periodic comets, thus 181P and 192P are known as Comet Shoemaker–Levy 6 and Comet Shoemaker–Levy 1. Non-periodic Shoemaker–Levy comets are interleaved in this sequence, C/1991 B1 between 2 and 3, C/1991 T2 between 5 and 6, C/1993 K1 and C/1994 E2 after Shoemaker–Levy 9. In comet nomenclature, the letter before the / is either C, P, D, X, or A for an object that was identified as a comet. Some lists retain the C prefix for comets of periods larger than about 30 years until their return is confirmed
15.
63P/Wild
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63P/Wild is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 13.21 years.3. Its elliptical orbit was calculated to have an orbital period of 13.17 years. Its predicted reappearance in 1973 was observed by Elizabeth Roemer of the U. S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff, although not found in 1986 it was rediscovered in 1999 with a magnitude of around 12. The 2013 return was moderately favourable with magnitude again around 12
16.
81P/Wild
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Comet 81P/Wild, also known as Wild 2, is a comet named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild, who discovered it on January 6,1978, using a 40-cm Schmidt telescope at Zimmerwald, Switzerland. For most of its 4.5 billion-year lifetime, Wild 2 probably had a more distant, in September 1974, it passed within one million kilometers of the planet Jupiter, the strong gravitational pull of which perturbed the comets orbit and brought it into the inner Solar System. Its orbital period changed from 43 years to about 6 years, and its perihelion is now about 1.59 astronomical unit. Dimensions,5.5 km ×4.0 km ×3.3 km Density,0.6 g/cm3 Mass,2.3 kg ×1013 NASAs Stardust Mission launched a spacecraft, named Stardust, on February 7,1999. It flew by Wild 2 on January 2,2004, and collected samples from the comets coma. 72 close-up shots were taken of Wild 2 by Stardust and they revealed a surface riddled with flat-bottomed depressions, with sheer walls and other features that range from very small to up to 2 kilometres across. These features are believed to be caused by impact craters or gas vents, during Stardusts flyby, at least 10 gas vents were active. The comet itself has a diameter of 5 kilometres, Stardusts sample return canister was reported to be in excellent condition when it landed in Utah, on January 15,2006. A NASA team analyzed the particle capture cells and removed individual grains of comet and interstellar dust, NASA is collaborating with The Planetary Society who will run a project called Stardust@Home, using volunteers to help locate particles on the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector. As of 2006, the composition of the dust has contained a range of organic compounds. Indigenous aliphatic hydrocarbons were found with longer lengths than those observed in the diffuse interstellar medium. No hydrous silicates or carbonate minerals were detected, which suggests a lack of processing of Wild 2 dust. Very few pure carbon particles were found in the samples returned, a substantial amount of crystalline silicates such as olivine, anorthite and diopside were found, materials only formed at high temperature. This is consistent with observations of crystalline silicates both in cometary tails and in circumstellar disks at large distances from the star. Possible explanations for this high temperature material at large distances from Sun were summarised before the Stardust sample return mission by van Boekel et al, both in the Solar System and in circumstellar disks crystalline silicates are found at large distances from the star. The origin of these silicates is a matter of debate, the crystals in these regions may have been transported outward through the disk or in an outward-flowing wind. An alternative source of crystalline silicates in the outer disk regions is in situ annealing, a third way to produce crystalline silicates is the collisional destruction of large parent bodies in which secondary processing has taken place. We can use the mineralogy of the dust to derive information about the nature of the primary and/or secondary processes the small-grain population has undergone
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86P/Wild
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86P/Wild is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 6.84 years. It was discovered on photographic plates exposed on 11/12 April 1980 by Paul Wild of the Astronomical Institute of University of Bern and he reported the brightness at a magnitude of 15.5 and that the comet was diffuse. He rediscovered it on 7 May 1980 and calculations by Brian G. Marsden estimated that perihelion would take place on 6 October 1980, the same team re-observed it in 1994 with a faint brightness of magnitude 21. It has since been observed in 2001,2008 and 2015
18.
Apollo asteroid
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The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth, as of November 2016, the steadily growing number of known Apollo asteroids has reached a total of 8,180 members. It is by far the largest group of objects, compared to the Aten, Amor. Currently, there are 1,133 numbered Apollos, asteroids are not numbered until they have been observed at two or more oppositions. There are also 1,472 Apollo asteroids that are enough. The closer their semi-major axis is to Earths, the eccentricity is needed for the orbits to cross. The largest known Apollo asteroid is 1866 Sisyphus, with a diameter of about 8.5 km, examples of known Apollo asteroids include, Apollo asteroids Apollo asteroid records List of Apollo minor planets
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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
20.
3552 Don Quixote
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3552 Don Quixote, provisionally designated 1983 SA, is a near-Earth asteroid, also classified as Amor, Mars-crossing, and Jupiter-crossing asteroid. It has a highly inclined orbit of 31 degrees that leads to frequent perturbations by Jupiter. Don Quixote measures 18.4 kilometres in diameter and has a period of 7.7 hours. It was discovered by Paul Wild at the Swiss Zimmerwald Observatory in 1983, due to its comet-like orbit and albedo, Don Quixote has ever been suspected to be an extinct comet. However, infrared observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope at 4.5 μm revealed a faint coma, the cometary activity is interpreted as CO2 molecular band emission. It is not clear if the activity is persistent or an outburst. Orbital simulation from JPL / Ephemeris 3552 Don Quixote at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
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NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
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Stardust (spacecraft)
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Stardust was a 300-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on February 7,1999. Its primary mission was to collect dust samples from the coma of comet Wild 2, as well as samples of cosmic dust and it was the first sample return mission of its kind. En route to comet Wild 2, the craft also flew by, the primary mission was successfully completed on January 15,2006, when the sample return capsule returned to Earth. A mission extension codenamed NExT culminated in February 2011 with Stardust intercepting comet Tempel 1, Stardust ceased operations in March 2011. On August 14,2014, scientists announced the identification of possible interstellar dust particles from the Stardust capsule returned to Earth in 2006, beginning in the 1980s, scientists began seeking a dedicated mission to study a comet. During the early 1990s, several missions to study comet Halley became the first successful missions to return close-up data, however, the US cometary mission, Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby, was canceled for budgetary reasons. In the mid-1990s, further support was given to a cheaper, Stardust was competitively selected in the fall of 1995 as a NASA Discovery Program mission of low-cost with highly focused science goals. Construction of Stardust began in 1996, and was subject to the maximum contamination restriction, Comet Wild 2 was selected as the primary target of the mission for the rare chance to observe a long-period comet that has ventured close to the Sun. The comet has since become a short period comet after an event in 1974, in planning the mission, it was expected that most of the original material from which the comet formed would still be preserved. Facilitating the intercept of significant numbers of interstellar dust particles using the collection medium. Returning as many high resolution images of the coma and nucleus as possible. The spacecraft was designed, built and operated by Lockheed Martin Astronautics as a Discovery-class mission in Denver, JPL provided mission management for the NASA division for mission operations. The principal investigator of the mission was Dr. Donald Brownlee from the University of Washington, the spacecraft bus measured 1.7 meters in length, and 0.66 meters in width, a design adapted from the SpaceProbe deep space bus developed by Lockheed Martin Astronautics. To maintain low costs, the spacecraft incorporated many designs and technologies used in past missions or previously developed for missions by the Small Spacecraft Technologies Initiative. The spacecraft featured five scientific instruments to collect data, including the Stardust Sample Collection tray, the spacecraft was launched with 80-kilograms of propellant. Information for spacecraft positioning was provided by a camera using FSW to determine attitude, an inertial measurement unit. The probe was powered by two arrays, providing an average of 330 watts of power. The arrays also included Whipple shields to protect the surfaces from the potentially damaging cometary dust while the spacecraft was in the coma of Wild 2
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Glycine
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Glycine is the amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest possible amino acid, the chemical formula of glycine is NH2‐CH2‐COOH. Glycine is one of the amino acids. Its codons are GGU, GGC, GGA, GGG of the genetic code, Glycine is a colorless, sweet-tasting crystalline solid. It is unique among the amino acids in that it is achiral. It can fit into hydrophilic or hydrophobic environments since it exists as zwitterion at natural pH, Glycine was first isolated from gelatin in 1820. The name comes from the ancient Greek word γλυκύς sweet tasting, Glycine was discovered in 1820, by Henri Braconnot who boiled a gelatinous object with sulfuric acid. Glycine is manufactured industrially by treating chloroacetic acid with ammonia, ClCH2COOH +2 NH3 → H2NCH2COOH + NH4Cl About 15 million kg are produced annually in this way, in the USA and in Japan, glycine is produced via the Strecker amino acid synthesis. Glycine is also cogenerated as an impurity in the synthesis of EDTA, arising from reactions of the ammonia coproduct. In aqueous solution, glycine itself is amphoteric, at low pH the molecule can be protonated with a pKa of about 2.4, the nature of glycine in aqueous solution has been investigated by theoretical methods. In solution the ratio of concentrations of the two isomers is independent of both the concentration and of pH. This ratio is simply the equilibrium constant for isomerization, K = / Both isomers of glycine have been observed by microwave spectroscopy in the gas phase. The solid-state structure has been analyzed in detail and this conversion is readily reversible, CO2 + NH+4 + N5, N10-Methylene tetrahydrofolate + NADH + H+ → Glycine + tetrahydrofolate + NAD+ Glycine is coded by codons GGU, GGC, GGA and GGG. Most proteins incorporate only small quantities of glycine, a notable exception is collagen, which contains about 35% glycine. Glycine is degraded via three pathways, the first step is the reverse of glycine biosynthesis from serine with serine hydroxymethyl transferase. Serine is then converted to pyruvate by serine dehydratase, in the third pathway of glycine degradation, glycine is converted to glyoxylate by D-amino acid oxidase. Glyoxylate is then oxidized by lactate dehydrogenase to oxalate in an NAD+-dependent reaction. The half-life of glycine and its elimination from the body varies significantly based on dose, in one study, the half-life was between 0.5 and 4.0 hours
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Minor planet
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A minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is neither a planet nor exclusively classified as a comet. Minor planets can be dwarf planets, asteroids, trojans, centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, as of 2016, the orbits of 709,706 minor planets were archived at the Minor Planet Center,469,275 of which had received permanent numbers. The first minor planet to be discovered was Ceres in 1801, the term minor planet has been used since the 19th century to describe these objects. The term planetoid has also used, especially for larger objects such as those the International Astronomical Union has called dwarf planets since 2006. Historically, the asteroid, minor planet, and planetoid have been more or less synonymous. This terminology has become complicated by the discovery of numerous minor planets beyond the orbit of Jupiter. A Minor planet seen releasing gas may be classified as a comet. Before 2006, the IAU had officially used the term minor planet, during its 2006 meeting, the IAU reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies. Objects are called dwarf planets if their self-gravity is sufficient to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, all other minor planets and comets are called small Solar System bodies. The IAU stated that the minor planet may still be used. However, for purposes of numbering and naming, the distinction between minor planet and comet is still used. Hundreds of thousands of planets have been discovered within the Solar System. The Minor Planet Center has documented over 167 million observations and 729,626 minor planets, of these,20,570 have official names. As of March 2017, the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet is 1974 FV1, as of March 2017, the highest-numbered named minor planet is 458063 Gustavomuler. There are various broad minor-planet populations, Asteroids, traditionally, most have been bodies in the inner Solar System. Near-Earth asteroids, those whose orbits take them inside the orbit of Mars. Further subclassification of these, based on distance, is used, Apohele asteroids orbit inside of Earths perihelion distance. Aten asteroids, those that have semi-major axes of less than Earths, Apollo asteroids are those asteroids with a semimajor axis greater than Earths, while having a perihelion distance of 1.017 AU or less. Like Aten asteroids, Apollo asteroids are Earth-crossers, amor asteroids are those near-Earth asteroids that approach the orbit of Earth from beyond, but do not cross it
Media related to Paul Wild at Wikimedia Commons