Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions.
There are several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects.
Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
Chemistry
Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure and change of matter. Chemistry is sometimes called the science because it bridges other natural sciences, including physics. For the differences between chemistry and physics see comparison of chemistry and physics, the history of chemistry can be traced to alchemy, which had been practiced for several millennia in various parts of the world. The word chemistry comes from alchemy, which referred to a set of practices that encompassed elements of chemistry, philosophy, astronomy, mysticism. An alchemist was called a chemist in popular speech, and the suffix -ry was added to this to describe the art of the chemist as chemistry, the modern word alchemy in turn is derived from the Arabic word al-kīmīā. In origin, the term is borrowed from the Greek χημία or χημεία and this may have Egyptian origins since al-kīmīā is derived from the Greek χημία, which is in turn derived from the word Chemi or Kimi, which is the ancient name of Egypt in Egyptian.
Alternately, al-kīmīā may derive from χημεία, meaning cast together, in retrospect, the definition of chemistry has changed over time, as new discoveries and theories add to the functionality of the science. The term chymistry, in the view of noted scientist Robert Boyle in 1661, in 1837, Jean-Baptiste Dumas considered the word chemistry to refer to the science concerned with the laws and effects of molecular forces. More recently, in 1998, Professor Raymond Chang broadened the definition of chemistry to mean the study of matter, early civilizations, such as the Egyptians Babylonians, Indians amassed practical knowledge concerning the arts of metallurgy and dyes, but didnt develop a systematic theory. Greek atomism dates back to 440 BC, arising in works by such as Democritus and Epicurus. In 50 BC, the Roman philosopher Lucretius expanded upon the theory in his book De rerum natura, unlike modern concepts of science, Greek atomism was purely philosophical in nature, with little concern for empirical observations and no concern for chemical experiments.
Work, particularly the development of distillation, continued in the early Byzantine period with the most famous practitioner being the 4th century Greek-Egyptian Zosimos of Panopolis. He formulated Boyles law, rejected the four elements and proposed a mechanistic alternative of atoms. Before his work, many important discoveries had been made, the Scottish chemist Joseph Black and the Dutchman J. B. English scientist John Dalton proposed the theory of atoms, that all substances are composed of indivisible atoms of matter. Davy discovered nine new elements including the alkali metals by extracting them from their oxides with electric current, british William Prout first proposed ordering all the elements by their atomic weight as all atoms had a weight that was an exact multiple of the atomic weight of hydrogen. The inert gases, called the noble gases were discovered by William Ramsay in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh at the end of the century, thereby filling in the basic structure of the table.
Organic chemistry was developed by Justus von Liebig and others, following Friedrich Wöhlers synthesis of urea which proved that organisms were, in theory
Borehole
A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. g. in Carbon capture and storage. This includes holes advanced to collect samples, water samples or rock cores, to advance in situ sampling equipment. Samples collected from boreholes are often tested in a laboratory to determine their physical properties, typically, a borehole used as a water well is completed by installing a vertical pipe and well screen to keep the borehole from caving. This helps prevent surface contaminants from entering the borehole and protects any installed pump from drawing in sand and natural gas wells are completed in a similar, albeit usually more complex, manner. As detailed in proxy, borehole temperature measurements at a series of different depths can be inverted to help estimate historic surface temperatures. Clusters of small-diameter boreholes equipped with heat exhangers made of plastic PEX pipe can be used to heat or cold between opposing seasons in a mass of native rock.
The technique is called seasonal thermal energy storage, media that can be used for this technique range from gravel to bedrock. There can be a few to several hundred boreholes, and in practice, Borehole drilling has a long history. Han Dynasty China used deep borehole drilling for mining and other projects, chinese borehole sites could reach as deep as 600 m. The practice of logging in boreholes dates to 1927, for the French Pechelbronn oil field. For many years, the world’s deepest borehole was the Kola Superdeep Borehole, from 2011 until August 2012 the record was held by the 12, 345-metre long Sakhalin-I Odoptu OP-11 Well, offshore the Russian island Sakhalin. The Chayvo Z-44 extended-reach well took the title of the worlds longest borehole on 27 August 2012, z-44s total measured depth is 12,376 m. However, ERD wells are more shallow than Kola Superdeep Borehole, drillers may sink a borehole using a drilling rig or a hand-operated rig. The machinery and techniques to advance a borehole vary considerably according to manufacturer, geological conditions, for offshore drilling floating units or platforms supported by the seafloor are used for the drilling rig.
Askam Borehole in Pennsylvania Borehole thermal energy storage Deep borehole disposal Hole opener Kola Superdeep Borehole Vertical seismic profile
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine.
Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation.
Crystals of calcite, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
Phase (matter)
In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space, throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, index of refraction, magnetization, a simple description is that a phase is a region of material that is chemically uniform, physically distinct, and mechanically separable. In a system consisting of ice and water in a jar, the ice cubes are one phase, the water is a second phase. The glass of the jar is another separate phase, the term phase is sometimes used as a synonym for state of matter, but there can be several immiscible phases of the same state of matter. Also, the phase is sometimes used to refer to a set of equilibrium states demarcated in terms of state variables such as pressure and temperature by a phase boundary on a phase diagram. Distinct phases may be described as different states of such as gas, solid. Useful mesophases between solid and liquid form other states of matter, distinct phases may exist within a given state of matter.
As shown in the diagram for iron alloys, several phases exist for both the solid and liquid states, phases may be differentiated based on solubility as in polar or non-polar. A mixture of water and oil will separate into two phases. Water has a low solubility in oil, and oil has a low solubility in water. Solubility is the amount of a solute that can dissolve in a solvent before the solute ceases to dissolve. A mixture can separate into more than two phases and the concept of phase separation extends to solids, i. e. solids can form solid solutions or crystallize into distinct crystal phases. Metal pairs that are mutually soluble can form alloys, whereas metal pairs that are mutually insoluble cannot, as many as eight immiscible liquid phases have been observed. Mutually immiscible liquid phases are formed from water, hydrophobic solvents, silicones, several different metals. Not all organic solvents are completely miscible, e. g. a mixture of ethylene glycol, phases do not need to macroscopically separate spontaneously.
Emulsions and colloids are examples of immiscible phase pair combinations that do not physically separate, left to equilibration, many compositions will form a uniform single phase, but depending on the temperature and pressure even a single substance may separate into two or more distinct phases. Within each phase, the properties are uniform but between the two phases properties differ, water in a closed jar with an air space over it forms a two phase system. Most of the water is in the phase, where it is held by the mutual attraction of water molecules
Granite
Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone.
The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents.
Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
Pedology
Pedology is the study of soils in their natural environment. It is one of two branches of soil science, the other being edaphology. Pedology deals with pedogenesis, soil morphology, and soil classification, while edaphology studies the way soils influence plants, during its formation and genesis, the soil profile slowly deepens and develops characteristic layers, called horizons, while a steady state balance is approached. Soil users showed initially little concern in the dynamics of soil and they saw it as medium whose chemical and biological properties were useful for the services of agronomic productivity. On the other hand and geologists did not initially focus on the applications of the soil characteristics but upon its relation to the nature. Today, theres an integration of the two disciplinary approaches as part of landscape and environmental sciences and they understand that the current balance is fragile and that only a thorough knowledge of its history makes it possible to ensure its sustainable use.
Important pedological concepts include, Complexity in soil genesis is more common than simplicity, soils lie at the interface of Earths atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. Contemporary soils carry imprints of pedogenic processes that were active in the past, five major, external factors of formation, and several smaller, less identifiable ones, drive pedogenic processes and create soil patterns. Characteristics of soils and soil landscapes, e. g. Distinctive bioclimatic regimes or combinations of pedogenic processes produce distinctive soils. Thus, observable morphological features, e. g. illuvial clay accumulation in B horizons, are produced by combinations of pedogenic processes operative over varying periods of time. Pedogenic processes act to create and destroy order within soils, these processes can proceed simultaneously. The resulting soil profile reflects the balance of processes, present. These processes do, have varying degrees of expression and intensity over space and time. A succession of different soils may have developed, eroded and/or regressed at any site, as soil genetic factors and site factors, e. g. vegetation, geomorphology.
There are very few old soils because they can be destroyed or buried by geological events, little of the soil continuum dates back beyond the Tertiary period and most soils and land surfaces are no older than the Pleistocene Epoch. However, preserved/lithified soils are an almost ubiquitous feature in terrestrial environments throughout most of geologic time, since they record evidence of ancient climate change, they present immense utility in understanding climate evolution throughout geologic history. Knowledge and understanding of the genesis of a soil is important in its classification, soil classification systems cannot be based entirely on perceptions of genesis, because genetic processes are seldom observed and because pedogenic processes change over time. Knowledge of soil genesis is imperative and basic to soil use, human influence on, or adjustment to, the factors and processes of soil formation can be best controlled and planned using knowledge about soil genesis
Lithic fragment (geology)
Lithic fragments, or lithics, are pieces of other rocks that have been eroded down to sand size and now are sand grains in a sedimentary rock. They were first described and named by Bill Dickinson in 1970, lithic fragments can be derived from sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic rocks). A lithic fragment is defined using the Gazzi-Dickinson point-counting method and being in the sand-size fraction, sand grains in sedimentary rocks that are fragments of larger rocks that are not identified using the Gazzi-Dickinson method are usually called rock fragments instead of lithic fragments. Sandstones rich in lithic fragments are called lithic sandstones and these can include granular, microlitic and vitric. These correlations between composition and volcanic lithic fragment type are approximate, at best, by definition, intrusive igneous rock fragments can not be considered lithic fragments. These can include shale siltstone fragments, and chert and these can include fine-grained schist and phyllite fragments, among others
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable, shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimeter in thickness, called fissility. Mudstones, on the hand, are similar in composition. Before the mid 19th century, the slate, shale. In the context of underground mining, shale was frequently referred to as slate well into the 20th century. Non-fissile rocks of similar composition but made of smaller than 0.06 mm are described as mudstones or claystone. Rocks with similar sizes but with less clay and therefore grittier are siltstones. Shale is the most common sedimentary rock, shales are typically composed of variable amounts of clay minerals and quartz grains and the typical color is gray. Addition of variable amounts of minor constituents alters the color of the rock, black shale results from the presence of greater than one percent carbonaceous material and indicates a reducing environment.
Black shale can be referred to as black metal, red and green colors are indicative of ferric oxide, iron hydroxide, or micaceous minerals. Clays are the constituent of shales and other mudrocks. The clay minerals represented are largely kaolinite and illite, clay minerals of Late Tertiary mudstones are expandable smectites whereas in older rocks especially in mid- to early Paleozoic shales illites predominate. The transformation of smectite to illite produces silica, calcium, magnesium and these released elements form authigenic quartz, calcite, ankerite and albite, all trace to minor minerals found in shales and other mudrocks. Shales and mudrocks contain roughly 95 percent of the matter in all sedimentary rocks. However, this amounts to less than one percent by mass in an average shale, black shales, which form in anoxic conditions, contain reduced free carbon along with ferrous iron and sulfur. Pyrite and amorphous iron sulfide along with carbon produce the black coloration, the process in the rock cycle which forms shale is called compaction.
The fine particles that compose shale can remain suspended in long after the larger particles of sand have deposited. Shales are typically deposited in very slow moving water and are found in lakes and lagoonal deposits, in river deltas, on floodplains
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, the German Renaissance specialist Georgius Agricola wrote works such as De re metallica and De Natura Fossilium which began the scientific approach to the subject. Systematic scientific studies of minerals and rocks developed in post-Renaissance Europe, the modern study of mineralogy was founded on the principles of crystallography and to the microscopic study of rock sections with the invention of the microscope in the 17th century. Nicholas Steno first observed the law of constancy of interfacial angles in quartz crystals in 1669 and this was generalized and established experimentally by Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de lIslee in 1783. In 1814, Jöns Jacob Berzelius introduced a classification of minerals based on their chemistry rather than their crystal structure, james D.
Dana published his first edition of A System of Mineralogy in 1837, and in a edition introduced a chemical classification that is still the standard. It, retains a focus on the structures commonly encountered in rock-forming minerals. An initial step in identifying a mineral is to examine its physical properties and these can be classified into density, measures of mechanical cohesion, macroscopic visual properties and electric properties and solubility in hydrogen chloride. If the mineral is crystallized, it will have a distinctive crystal habit that reflects the crystal structure or internal arrangement of atoms. It is affected by crystal defects and twinning. Many crystals are polymorphic, having more than one crystal structure depending on factors such as pressure and temperature. ”Examples of polymorphs are calcite and aragonite - two minerals with identical chemical composition, distinguished by their crystallography, calcite is rhombohedral and aragonite is orthorhombic. The crystal structure is the arrangement of atoms in a crystal and it is represented by a lattice of points which repeats a basic pattern, called a unit cell, in three dimensions.
The lattice can be characterized by its symmetries and by the dimensions of the unit cell and these dimensions are represented by three Miller indices. The lattice remains unchanged by certain symmetry operations about any point in the lattice, rotation and rotary inversion. Together, they make up an object called a crystallographic point group or crystal class. There are 32 possible crystal classes, in addition, there are operations that displace all the points, screw axis, and glide plane. In combination with the point symmetries, they form 230 possible space groups, most geology departments have X-ray powder diffraction equipment to analyze the crystal structures of minerals. X-rays have wavelengths that are the order of magnitude as the distances between atoms. In a sample that is ground to a powder, the X-rays sample a random distribution of all crystal orientations, powder diffraction can distinguish between minerals that may appear the same in a hand sample, for example quartz and its polymorphs tridymite and cristobalite
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks. The foliations are characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands, the word gneiss comes from the Middle High German verb gneist. It has occurred in English since at least 1757, gneissic rocks are usually medium- to coarse-foliated, they are largely recrystallized but do not carry large quantities of micas, chlorite or other platy minerals. Gneisses that are metamorphosed igneous rocks or their equivalent are termed granite gneisses, diorite gneisses, gneiss rocks may be named after a characteristic component such as garnet gneiss, biotite gneiss, albite gneiss, etc. Orthogneiss designates a gneiss derived from a rock, and paragneiss is one from a sedimentary rock. Gneissose rocks have properties similar to gneiss, gneiss appears to be striped in bands, called gneissic banding. The banding is developed under high temperature and pressure conditions, the minerals are arranged into layers that appear as bands in cross section.
The appearance of layers, called compositional banding, occurs because the layers, the darker bands have relatively more mafic minerals. The lighter bands contain relatively more felsic and these forces stretch out the rock like a plastic, and the original material is spread out into sheets. Another cause of banding is metamorphic differentiation, which separates different materials into different layers through chemical reactions, not all gneiss rocks have detectable banding. In kyanite gneiss, crystals of kyanite appear as random clumps in what is mainly a plagioclase matrix, henderson gneiss is found in North Carolina and South Carolina, US, east of the Brevard Shear Zone. It has deformed into two sequential forms, the second, more warped, form is associated with the Brevard Fault, and the first deformation results from displacement to the southwest. Most of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland have a formed from Lewisian gneiss. In addition to the Outer Hebrides, they form basement deposits on the Scottish mainland west of the Moine Thrust and on the islands of Coll and Tiree.
These rocks are igneous in origin, mixed with metamorphosed marble and mica schist with intrusions of basaltic dikes. Gneisses of Archean and Proterozoic age occur in the Baltic Shield, in antiquity, gneisses were utilized in architectural construction. They were used to erect the Sphinx of Taharqo in the Nile Valley, list of rock types Blatt and Robert J. Tracy. Petrology, Igneous and Metamorphic, 2nd ed. Freeman, mcKirdy, Roger Crofts and John Gordon
Terrestrial planet
A terrestrial planet, telluric planet, or rocky planet is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the planets are the inner planets closest to the Sun, i. e. Mercury, Earth. The terms terrestrial planet and telluric planet are derived from Latin words for Earth, as these planets are, in terms of composition, Earth-like. All terrestrial planets may have the basic type of structure, such as a central metallic core, mostly iron. The Moon is similar, but has a smaller iron core. Io and Europa are satellites that have internal structures similar to that of terrestrial planets, terrestrial planets can have canyons, mountains and other surface structures, depending on the presence of water and tectonic activity. The Solar System has four planets, Venus, Earth. Only one terrestrial planet, Earth, is known to have an active hydrosphere, during the formation of the Solar System, there were probably many more terrestrial planetesimals, but most merged with or were ejected by the four terrestrial planets.
The Earths Moon has a density of 3.4 g·cm−3 and Jupiters satellites, Io,3.528 and Europa,3.013 g·cm−3, the uncompressed density of a terrestrial planet is the average density its materials would have at zero pressure. A greater uncompressed density indicates greater metal content, uncompressed density differs from the true average density because compression within planet cores increases their density, the average density depends on planet size as well as composition. The uncompressed density of terrestrial planets trends towards lower values as the distance from the Sun increases, the rocky minor planet Vesta orbiting outside of Mars is less dense than Mars still, at 3.4 g·cm−3. It is unknown whether extrasolar terrestrial planets in general will follow this trend, most of the planets discovered outside the Solar System are giant planets, because they are more easily detectable. But since 2005, hundreds of terrestrial extrasolar planets have been found. Most of these are super-Earths, i. e.
planets with masses between Earths and Neptunes, super-Earths may be gas planets or terrestrial, depending on their mass and other parameters. During the early 1990s, the first extrasolar planets were discovered orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12, with masses of 0.02,4.3 and it was found to be a gas giant. In 2005, the first planets around stars that may be terrestrial were found, Gliese 876 d, has a mass 7 to 9 times that of Earth. It orbits the red dwarf Gliese 876,15 light years from Earth, oGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, about 5.5 times the mass of Earth, orbits a star about 21,000 light years away in the constellation Scorpius. From 2007 to 2010, three potential terrestrial planets were orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 581
