This is courtesy of Elon Musk and Space X.
We saw how Space X was successful in returning an un-manned booster rocket from space and landing it successfully on a platform in the ocean. What we did not see are all the failures that occurred leading up to that perfect landing. These are the "growing pains" required by any successful company trying something for the 1st time. Congratulations to Elon Musk and Space X, future pioneers of human space travel! Maddalena Environmental Inc. Al Maddalena The Cassini Spacecraft was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. Since this time it has sent us amazing pictures and information on Saturn and its moons. Cassini carried the Huygens probe, that discovered oceans and rivers of liquid methane on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. On another moon, Enceladus was found to have a thick crust of ice with a large salt water ocean beneath it. Geysers of water vapour were pictured shooting out into space from cracks in the ice. It is for these reasons that the moons could contain life and NASA does not want to contaminate any of the moons with Earth microbes or the small amount of plutonium on board. Cassini is now approaching its final mission. It is low on fuel and rather than sending it to one of Saturn's moons (that may harbour life) NASA has decided to plunge the $4 Billion spacecraft into the gas giant. Have a look at this NASA video highlighting Cassini's final mission. Source: NASA
Maddalena Environmental Inc. Al Maddalena The total Eclipse on May 29, 1919 in South America was used by British astronomer Arthur Eddington to prove that light rays from distant stars are bent by the gravitational field of the Sun. Eddington's observations confirmed that Einstein's Theory of General Relativity that massive objects like the Sun exert a massive gravitational field that warp time, space and even light (image below). Eddington was able to observe that distant stars apparent position had changed when the Sun was blocked out during the eclipse of 1919. He observed that light from these stars was distorted off their normal path by the Sun's gravity. The eclipse was an important necessary event because normally the brightness of the Sun blocks out light from distant stars because their light is normally fainter than the Sun's.
So as we look (or don't look) at the eclipse on August 21, 2017, those of us in the science community will be thinking fondly of the most historic eclipse in history. The eclipse of 1919 when one of Einstein's theories was yet again proven correct. To date, all of Einstein's theories have been proven correct. It is an amazing testament to how brilliant he really was. Maddalena Environmental Al Maddalena |