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Risultati della ricerca nelle immagini - "Asteroid" |
0-433-EROS-01.gif433 Eros (GIF-Movie; credits: Dr G. Barca)98 visiteIn questi giorni, dopo anni di silenzio, abbiamo parlato del bizzarro (se non altro nelle sue forme...) asteroide noto come 433-Eros.
Sono bastate poche, ma ragionate, parole ed immagini per capire quanta ignoranza e quanta disinformazione caratterizzi il nostro Mondo: il Mondo dei Ricercatori nel Campo delle Scienze Planetarie e delle Analisi su Fenomeni (cosiddetti) "di Confine".
La Missione NEAR-Shoemaker, quando si svolse (sostanzialmente nel silenzio dei media - come sempre...), ci lasciò affascinati e sorpresi.
Affascinati, perchè l'Universo "affascina", per definizione.
Sopresi, perchè per noi, Anomaly Hunters, l'asteroide 433-Eros sembrò rivelarsi - ictu oculi - come una "fucina di Anomalìe".
Ma il tempo passa: si cresce, ci si sviluppa, si migliora (di solito ed auspicabilmente, almeno). E con il passare del tempo, il nostro entusiasmo - relativo alle Anomalìe di 433-Eros - si è spento.
Si è spento perchè, di "Anomalìe VERE", su quell'Asteroide, siamo arrivati a verificare - e quindi a convincerci razionalmente - che non ce ne sono.
Ma non tutti la pensano come noi. E questo è giusto.
Che fare, allora? Semplice: essendo la nostra Associazione una Associazione che ha per fine, in fondo, la Divulgazione del Sapere, abbiamo deciso di creare un Album il quale fosse integralmente dedicato a questo Asteroide e che contenesse - come da titolo - "le immagini, i fatti e le leggende".
In quello che vedrete e leggerete non c'è pretesa di Verità Assoluta, questo è evidente, ma non c'è neppure l'arroganza di dire "le cose stanno così, e chi non crede a quello che diciamo noi, o è un incompetente o un idiota". Tertium non datur.
Questo Album è dedicato, oltre che all'asteroide 433-Eros, a TUTTI coloro che coltivano la Pianta del Sapere, agendo nella quieta consapevolezza che il Giardino in cui essa "cresce" è di tutti, e nella certezza che la capacità di trarre nutrimento e giovamento dai suoi "frutti" (qualora ne nascano) è tuttavia un fatto assolutamente personale e dagli effetti imprevedibili...MareKromium
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001-Ceres-alone.jpg1-Ceres from Hubble Space Telescope61 visiteNASA's Hubble Space Telescope took these images of the asteroid 1 Ceres over a 2-hour and 20-minute span, the time it takes the Texas-sized object to complete one quarter of a rotation. One day on Ceres lasts 9 hours.
Hubble snapped 267 images of Ceres as it watched the asteroid make more than one rotation. By observing the asteroid during a full rotation, astronomers confirmed that Ceres has a nearly round body like Earth's. Ceres' shape suggests that its interior is layered like those of terrestrial planets such as Earth. Ceres may have a rocky inner core, an icy mantle, and a thim, dusty, outer crust.
The "Bright Spot" that we see is a mistery: it is (obviously) brighter than its surroundings, but it is still very dark (very low albedo) reflecting only a small portion of Sunlight.
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004-Ceres.jpgMoments of 1-Ceres (1)54 visiteDa "NASA - Picture of the Day", del 21 Agosto 2006:"Is 1-Ceres an Asteroid or a Planet?
Although a trivial designation to some, the recent suggestion by the Planet Definition Committee of the International Astronomical Union would have 1-Ceres reclassified from Asteroid to Planet.
A change in taxonomy might lead to more notoriety for the frequently overlooked world. Ceres, at about 1000 Km across, is the largest object in the main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Under the newly proposed criteria, Ceres would qualify as a planet because it is nearly spherical and sufficiently distant from other planets. Pictured above is the best picture yet of Ceres, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a series of exposures ending in 2004 January. Currently, NASA's Dawn mission is scheduled to launch in 2007 June to explore Ceres and Vesta, regardless of their future designations".
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005-Ceres.jpgMoments of 1-Ceres (2)54 visiteFor 2 centuries it was the largest known rock in the Solar System. The Texas-sized asteroid Ceres, about 930 Km (about 580 miles) across, was the first asteroid ever detected. The space rock was identified in 1801 by astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, a monk in Sicily and the founding director of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory. He noted over a few nights a shifting point in the sky that wasn't one of the planets, their moons or a star. Thus, he discovered the rock.
After discovering the asteroid, Piazzi was invited to join the Celestial Police, a group of 24 international astronomers looking for what they called "guest planets" between Mars and Jupiter. The Celestial Police noted that the spacing between planets was fairly regular, but that there was a large gap between Mars and Jupiter.
Soon other small bodies were discovered in that region (Pallas in 1802, Juno in 1804 and Vesta in 1807), so the Celestial Police concluded that not just one, but many minor planets had to exist in a Main Asteroid Belt.
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008-Ceres-Dumas_300-PCF-LXTT.jpg1-Ceres from Keck Observatory104 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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018-Vesta-6-PIA13428.jpgSome of the "Faces" of 4-Vesta, from Hubble Space Telescope96 visiteNASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped these images of the Asteroid 4-Vesta in preparation for the Dawn Spacecraft's visit in 2011. Each of the 4 Hubble images captures views of Vesta during its 5,34-hour rotation period. Hubble's sharp "eye" can see features as small as about 40 Km (24,84 miles) across in these images. Vesta was 211 MKM (approx. 131 MMs) from Earth when Hubble made the observations.
The images show the difference in brightness and color on the Asteroid's Surface. These characteristics hint at the large-scale features that the Dawn Spacecraft will see when it visits the potato-shaped asteroid.
Astronomers used the images, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, to better determine 4-Vesta's Spin Axis. Based on the HST observations, astronomers calculated a slightly different, and more precise, Rotation Axis for Vesta. The new calculation will change the pattern of sunlight expected to illuminate the Asteroid when Dawn arrives.
Determining a more accurate Spin Axis for 4-Vesta will also help scientists refine the Dawn Spacecraft's orbit around the Asteroid. Dawn will orbit the rocky object for a year, beginning in July 2011. The Spacecraft will then travel to the "Dwarf Planet" 1-Ceres, arriving in 2015.
Hubble has kept its "eye" on 4-Vesta for more than 15 years, beginning in 1994. Hubble images of 4-Vesta in 1997 helped astronomers discover the Asteroid's very large Impact crater. Astronomers combined views of 4-Vesta in Near-UltraViolet and blue light to construct these images and the images were taken on Feb. 25, 2010.MareKromium
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019-Vesta-5-PIA13427.jpg4-Vesta from Hubble Space Telescope103 visiteThe Asteroid 4-Vesta is somewhat like our Moon, with ancient Lava Beds (the dark patches) and powdery Debris (or Regolith), such as the pulverized remains of impacts (the orange-colored areas). A flattened area on one end of 4-Vesta is a giant Impact Crater formed by a collision that perhaps occurred billions of years ago.
The crater is approx. 460 Km (285,66 miles) across, which makes it close to 4-Vesta's roughly 530-Km (329,13-mile) diameter. The asteroid is about the size of Arizona.
4-Vesta is one of the largest of a reservoir of about 100.000 Asteroids, the leftover material from the formation of our Solar System.
Astronomers combined images of Vesta in Near-UltraViolet and blue light to make this picture movie. The Hubble observations were made on Feb. 25 and Feb. 28, 2010.MareKromium
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024-Vesta.jpg4-Vesta55 visite4-Vesta (o anche solo Vesta) è uno dei tanti asteroidi conosciuti da tantissimo tempo e che sembra, di quando in quando, avvicinarsi (in senso cosmico...) in maniera "perigliosa" al nostro pianeta.
Ma lo sanno tutti - gli Scienziati per primi - che, un giorno o l'altro, da oggi a fra qualche milione di anni nel futuro, qualche "roccia vagante" finirà con l'incrociare la sua orbita con quella della Terra e, quindi, con il produrre - con ogni probabilità - una catastrofe di dimensioni globali la quale sarà causa di sostanziali cambiamenti dell'intero ecosistema.
E' inevitabile, si sa.
Così come si sa che, quando questo momento arriverà, gli ultimi a prenderne atto saranno proprio quelli che, questo Pianeta, lo abitano...
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039-Vesta-PIA14121.jpgApproaching 4-Vesta79 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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040-Vesta-PIA14122.jpgApproaching 4-Vesta81 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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049-Vesta-PIA14124.jpg4-Vesta in Spectrometer View (Visible Light and IR)75 visiteCaption NASA:"On June 8, 2011, the Visible and InfraRed Mapping Spectrometer aboard NASA's Dawn Spacecraft captured the instrument's first images of 4-Vesta that are larger than a few pixels, from a distance of about 218.000 miles (approx. 351.000 Km). The images were taken for calibration purposes.
Images obtained in the Visible part of the light Spectrum, at about 0,55 microns in wavelength, appear on the left. Images obtained in the InfraRed Spectrum, at around 3 microns in wavelength, appear on the right. The spatial resolution of these images is about 60 miles (approx. 90 Km) per pixel.
The Visible and InfraRed mapping spectrometer will be able to provide images of 4-Vesta in 432 wavelengths, which will help scientists determine the basic composition of the Asteroid".MareKromium
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050-Vesta-HR_Video.gif4-Vesta: Full Rotation (a GIF-Movie by NASA / JPL / UCLA / MPS / DLR / PSI)105 visiteAs Dawn continued its approach to 4-Vesta on June 20, 2011, it occasionally quit thrusting and turned to the spinning Asteroid to perform a "rotation characterization," seeing all longitudes as 4-Vesta rotated beneath the Spacecraft.MareKromium
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