Help Pick Name of Surface Features of Pluto & Charon
On July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto, snapping the first-ever high resolution
pictures of that small, distant world and its largest moon, Charon. As
the surface features of these two worlds are revealed – craters, rifts,
valleys – they’ll need names.
You can help decide what labels will go on the images and maps coming
from the flyby. In cooperation with the International Astronomical
Union, the SETI Institute has launched its “Our Pluto” campaign, which
is soliciting input from the public on how to name features on the
surfaces of Pluto and Charon.
You can vote for your favorites from a list of names, or suggest names
not on the list. The names must be associated with a set of broad themes
related to mythology and the literature and history of exploration. The Internet web site also includes a simple ballot to allow young children to participate.
Eagle? Freedom? GalaxyOne? United Launch Alliance wants public input
in the naming of a next-generation launcher designed to replace the
historic Atlas and Delta rocket lines in the 2020s.
The top three finalists were selected from more than 400 names
submitted by ULA’s 3,400 employees and space enthusiasts, the company
said in a statement.
“ULA’s new rocket represents the future of space — innovative,
affordable and reliable,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO.
“More possibilities in space means more possibilities here on earth.
This is such a critical time for space travel and exploration and we’re
excited to bring all of America with us on this journey into the
future.”
ULA’s new rocket — called the Next Generation Launch System for now —
is scheduled for its first flight in 2019. It will replace the Atlas 5
and Delta 4 rocket families in the early 2020s.
VOTINGDEADLINE: APRIL 6, 9:00 a.m. EDT / 13:00 UTC
Photograph of Brashear Telescope Factory Time Capsule immediately after being opened. As the contents were removed for inspection and photo-documentation, the contents were kept in their original order while in the Time Capsule. (Image Source: Al Paslow)
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
A dispute has arisen over the legal
ownership of a Time Capsule uncovered during the demolition of the
historic Brashear Telescope Factory building on Pittsburgh's North
Side. Although the City of Pittsburgh has owned the land and building
since 2012, the Jadell Minniefield Construction Company believes the
emergency city demolition contract allows them to keep all
salvageable materials from the demolition.
The Brashear Telescope Factory
building, built in May of 1886 near the site of the original Allegheny Observatory and added to the National Register of
Historic Places in 2012, was originally the home of the John A.
Brashear Company which had manufactured hundreds of telescopes and
precise scientific instruments for observatories and scientific
institutions throughout the world, in the latter part of the
nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.
With limited formal education, John Brashear had transformed his love of Astronomy into a business, due to his expert craftsmanship in producing exquisite optics for telescopes and other instruments. He was Acting Director of the Allegheny Observatory, and later Acting Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania (today's University of Pittsburgh), refusing permanent appointment to both positions. He, along with two other civic leaders, assisted Andrew Carnegie in designing the Carnegie Technical Schools (known today as Carnegie Mellon University).
Demolition of the historic Brashear Telescope Factory building, which had been vacant for about
20 years, was necessitated after a wall of the building collapsed
onto a nearby two-floor apartment building. The apartment
building had to be evacuated, until city inspectors declared the
building safe for occupancy.
The wall collapse had occurred on March
16, with demolition of the rest of the building beginning the next
day. When the author and editor of this SpaceWatchtower blog, Glenn A. Walsh,
viewed the site on the evening of the Vernal Equinox (March 20, the
official beginning of the season of Spring), the majority of the
building had been brought-down, with the exception of small portions
of the north and south walls. In a March 24 electronic mail message, Antique Telescope Society member Al
Paslow reported that the demolition was completed, and the site has
been covered in straw, as of Tuesday afternoon (March 24).
The demolition crew reported to have
found the Time Capsule on March 22, while bringing down the last
wall, on the north side of the building. They were unsuccessful in
attempts to contact the city and the Heinz History Center regarding
the find. So, on Tuesday when Al
Paslow visited the demolition site, it was decided to open the Time
Capsule and photo-document the contents.
On Wednesday morning, shortly after the
SpaceWatchtower blog published the story of the finding of the Time
Capsule, Matthew S. McHale, Assistant City Solicitor for the City of
Pittsburgh Department of Law, sent an electronic mail message to
SpaceWatchtower Editor Glenn A. Walsh seeking information on the
whereabouts of the Time Capsule and contents. By early afternoon, Mr.
Walsh had confirmed that the demolition company retained possession
of the Time Capsule and contents, thanks to the assistance of another
member of the Antique Telescope Society, Janet Gunter (who also
serves on the Boards of the Perry Hilltop Citizens' Council and the
Allegheny City Society historical association). Mr. Walsh, then,
transmitted this information to Mr. McHale.
When the City Law Department sought
possession of the historic artifacts, the Hazelwood demolition company
maintained it was part of the salvageable materials from the
demolition, and hence, the demolition company retains ownership of
the Time Capsule and contents. The City Law Department is now
looking into their legal options for obtaining control of the
historic artifacts. The demolition company is consulting with their
attorney.
More details in Pittsburgh's morning newspapers ---
Photograph, from August of 1894, of the employees of the Mechanical Department of the John A. Brashear Company, which produced telescopes and other precise scientific instruments. This is one of the documents from a time capsule found in the now-demolished telescope factory building built on Pittsburgh's North Side in 1886. (Image Source: Al Paslow)
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
Yesterday (March 24), Al Paslow, a
member of the Antique Telescope Society, and members of a demolition
crew opened a time capsule, a small brass box sealed with solder,
that had been placed inside a cornerstone of the now-demolished
Brashear Telescope Factory building on the North Side of Pittsburgh.
The building, built in May of 1886 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, was originally the home of the
John A. Brashear Company which had manufactured hundreds of
telescopes and precise scientific instruments for observatories and
scientific institutions throughout the world, in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.
Demolition of the historic building,
which had been vacant for about 20 years, was necessitated after a
wall of the building collapsed onto a nearby two-floor apartment
building on March 16. The apartment building had to be evacuated,
until city inspectors declared the building safe for occupancy.
Jadell Minniefield Construction Company, of the Hazelwood section of
Pittsburgh, demolished the Brashear Telescope Factory building under
an emergency demolition order issued by Maura Kennedy, who heads the City of Pittsburgh's Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections.
While inspecting the remains of the
nearly-demolished building yesterday, members of the demolition crew
showed Al Paslow a time capsule that had been found near a building
cornerstone a few days earlier. After calls to several societies and
organizations went without result, it was decided that Al Paslow and
three members of the demolition crew would open the time capsule and
photo-document the contents.
As displayed at the beginning of this
blog post, one photograph in the time capsule shows employees of the
Mechanical Department of the John A. Brashear Company. The photograph
is dated August of 1894, which is eight years after the
construction of the Brashear Telescope Factory building. So,
unlike most building time capsules, apparently this time capsule was
installed after building completion, instead of during the laying of the building's cornerstone.
The time capsule also included:
a letter from John Brashear;
newspaper articles from 1891 to
1894 August 9;
photographs of John Brashear's
family, including his mother and father;
photographs of prominent citizens
of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City (Pittsburgh's "twin city" at that time, where the factory and Allegheny Observatory were actually located, Allegheny City was annexed to Pittsburgh in 1907 and became Pittsburgh's North Side);
a piece of glass with the
inscription, “One of the first pieces of Optical glass Made in
America”;
a lock of hair from John
Brashear's wife, Phoebe, inside a small envelope so-labeled;
a letter from Worcester Reed
Warner and Ambrose Swasey, owners of Cleveland telescope
manufacturer Warner and Swasey Company, congratulating the Brashear
Company on the completion of the new factory building (Brashear and
Warner and Swasey collaborated on several projects);
a book labeled, “In Memoriam
William Thaw.” complete with photographs (John Brashear's mentor
who had paid for the land and construction of the factory building,
William Thaw had died in 1889);
at the bottom of the time capsule
box were plans and blueprints for the factory building.
In an electronic mail message
distributed over the Antique Telescope Society's mail-group (copied
over the History of Astronomy mail-group by John W. Briggs)
yesterday, Al Paslow wrote, “Most of the contents of the Time
Capsule are in remarkable shape; however some older photographs are
faded but many look as good as the day they were left inside.” He
has placed many photographs of the time capsule contents on his
personal Internet web site (a link to this web site is at the end of this blog post).
The wall collapse had occurred on March
16, with demolition of the rest of the building beginning the next
day. When the author of this SpaceWatchtower blog, Glenn A. Walsh,
viewed the site on the evening of the Vernal Equinox (March 20, the official beginning of the season of Spring), the
majority of the building had been brought-down, with the exception of
small portions of the north and south walls. In his March 24 e-mail
message, Al Paslow reported that the demolition was completed, and
the site has been covered in straw, as of Tuesday afternoon (March
24).
Al Paslow did not mention the disposition of
the time capsule and contents in his message. As, at the time of demolition, the
Brashear Telescope Factory building was legally owned by the City of
Pittsburgh, the time capsule and contents would be the legal property
of the City.
Special Thanks: Al Paslow, John W.
Briggs, Antique Telescope Society, History of Astronomy Mail-Group.
Time of totality during a Total Solar Eclipse or Total Eclipse of the Sun in France in 1999. (Image Source: Wikipedia.org , Photographer: I, Luc Viatour )
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
Today, Friday, 2015 March 20, marks the
beginning of the season of Spring in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. The
Vernal Equinox, the moment Spring officially begins, occurs at 6:45
p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time (EDT) / 22:45 Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC).
But, the day of the Vernal Equinox in
2015 also includes a Total Solar Eclipse about 12 hours before the
Vernal Equinox occurs. This Total Solar Eclipse or Total Eclipse of
the Sun occurs in the morning over the North Atlantic Ocean.
A partial phase of this eclipse will be
visible in much of Europe, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, northern
and western Asia, northern and western Africa, and part of the Middle
East. Several live Internet web-casts of this eclipse will be
available for those who do not live in these areas, or if cloudy
weather precludes direct viewing of this eclipse.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER look
directly at the Sun or a Solar Eclipse with a telescope, binoculars,
or any optical device. This would cause PERMANENT BLINDNESS
INSTANTLY. Blindness could occur quickly, without any pain,
as there are no nerve endings in the eyes. Such damage to the eyes
could also happen if you look at the Sun or a Solar Eclipse with the
naked-eyes for more than a second or two. Near the end of this blog
post is a link which gives tips on a safe way to view a solar
eclipse, as well as links to Internet web-casts that would allow you
to safely view the solar eclipse on your computer.
Although the New Moon phase occurs
during this Solar Eclipse, some consider it a “Super Moon,” as
the New Moon occurs about 13.5 hours after a lunar perigee, when the
Moon is closest to Earth in its orbit during the month of March. The
Moon was at lunar perigee, 357,584 kilometers from Earth, on March 19
at 4:00 p.m. EDT / 20:00 UTC. Due to this lunar perigee New Moon,
high-than-normal tides are predicted along ocean coastlines.
And, with the beginning of Spring is
the annual Spring festival in America's nation's capital. Washington,
DC's National Cherry Blossom Festival runs from March 20 through
April 12.
Here are the times for this Solar
Eclipse or Eclipse of the Sun:
Partial Solar Eclipse begins –
Sun enters lunar penumbra: 3:40:52.1 a.m. EDT / 7:40:52.1 UTC
Sun enters lunar umbra: 5:09:33.1 a.m. EDT / 9:09:33.1 UTC
Total Solar Eclipse begins: 5:16:12.7 a.m. EDT /
9:16:12.7 UTC
Moon Phase: New Moon – Lunation #
1141 5:36 a.m. EDT / 9:36
UTC
Time of Greatest Total Solar
Eclipse: 5:45:39.1 a.m. EDT / 9:45:39.1 UTC
Total Solar Eclipse ends: 6:14:42.9 a.m. EDT /
10:14:42.9 UTC
Sun exits lunar umbra:
6:21:21.7 a.m. EDT
/ 10:21:21.7 UTC
Partial Solar Eclipse ends – Sun
exits lunar penumbra: 7:50:12.4 a.m. EDT / 11:50:12.4
UTC
Vernal Equinox – Spring begins:
6:45 p.m. EDT / 22:45 UTC
The historic John A. Brashear Factory building, in its hey-day, where telescopes and precise scientific instruments were produced in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. More recent photograph at end of blog post. (Image Source: Historic Pittsburgh. Allegheny Observatory Records, 1850-1967)
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
A wall, close to Pittsburgh's Perrysville Avenue, of the original factory building used by
famous telescope-maker John A. Brashear, in the latter part of the
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century,
collapsed on Monday evening. Consequently for reasons of public
safety, the City of Pittsburgh (which at this point in time owned the
historic, yet dilapidated structure) found it necessary to demolish
the remainder of the building.
Part of a wall of the two-floor and
basement factory building collapsed onto a nearby, two-floor
apartment building March 16 at about 10:20 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
/ Tuesday at about 2:20 Coordinated Universal Time, necessitating the
evacuation of the apartment building. The American Red Cross has
provided shelter to occupants of the apartment building, until city
inspectors declare the apartment building safe to inhabit. The
Brashear Factory building had been vacant for about 20 years.
The Brashear Factory building had been
officially condemned by the city in May of 2012, due to facade and
structural damage including holes in the roof. It seems the wall
collapse was due to the freeze and thaw cycle of late Winter, as well
as a roof that was rotted-out.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto had been
trying to find funding to rehabilitate the historic building, but he
told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that time had just run-out
and the city could not afford the cost. As a City Councilman in 2012,
the Mayor had been Executive Producer of a historic documentary,
“Undaunted: The Forgotten Giants of the Allegheny Observatory,”
regarding the history of the Allegheny Observatory and John Brashear.
The author, Glenn A. Walsh, served as a historical consultant for
this documentary.
The North Side Pittsburgh building was
the headquarters of the John A. Brashear Company, which specialized
in high quality lenses and mirrors for telescopes and other optical
devices. Later in the twentieth century, this company which produced
high-quality telescopes, spectrascopes, and other high-precision
scientific instruments was known as the J.W. Fecker Company, which
moved out of the factory building in 1954.
Optics manufactured by the John A.
Brashear Company were used in the famous Michelson-Morley physics
experiment in 1887, for precisely calculating the speed of light,
which eventually led to Albert Einstein's Theory of Special
Relativity in 1905.
Finished in May of 1886, the Brashear
Factory building was accompanied by construction of a new home for
John Brashear and his family, next-door. The former Brashear home is
in good condition and is currently being used as a half-way house for
men with chemical dependencies.
John A. Brashear was a self-taught
scientist, whose craftsmanship made the telescopes and scientific
instruments he produced second-to-none in quality, in his era. His
telescopes and scientific devices were sold throughout the world and
were in very high demand.
For a time John Brashear was Acting
Director of the Allegheny Observatory, and later for a time, Acting
Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania (today known as
the University of Pittsburgh); in both cases, he refused permanent
appointment to those positions. He was one of three Pittsburgh civic
leaders to be instrumental in the design of Andrew Carnegie's
Carnegie Technical Schools (today known as Carnegie Mellon
University). And, he single-handedly raised the money, in one Summer,
needed to build the new and much larger Allegheny Observatory
building dedicated in 1912.
John Brashear died at age 79 in 1920.
His ashes along with those of his wife, as well as the ashes of
another former Allegheny Observatory Director, James E. Keeler, and
his wife and son, are interred in a crypt in the basement of
Allegheny Observatory.
The cost of the land, buildings, and
factory machinery of the Brashear House and Factory on the North Side
was funded by Pittsburgh philanthropist William Thaw, Vice President
of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a trustee of the Western University
of Pennsylvania (today known as the University of Pittsburgh). Mr.
Thaw leased the land, buildings, and factory machinery to John
Brashear, free-of-charge!
This lease was only terminated by John
Brashear's death in 1920. William Thaw admired John Brashear, and
Allegheny Observatory Director Samuel Pierpont Langley (in 1887,
Professor Langley was appointed Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, then considered the greatest scientific appointment in
America), and considered the money he provided to both as his
donation to important scientific research.
John Brashear's original home and shop,
both much smaller than the new buildings, had been located on
Pittsburgh's South Side Slopes (located on the south side of the
Monongahela River), above the mill where John Brashear had previously
been employed before deciding to start his own telescope-making
business. His new home and factory were located on the original
Observatory Hill on the North Side (across the Allegheny River from
Downtown Pittsburgh, and just up the hill from the site of what would
become Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of
Popular Science in 1939), only about a block from the original
Allegheny Observatory. Mr. Thaw had, wisely, decided to locate John
Brashear close to Professor Langley's research facility (the
Allegheny Observatory had been donated to the Western University of
Pennsylvania in May of 1867).
The Brashear House and Factory
buildings, on Pittsburgh's North Side, were listed on the National
Register of Historic Places on 2012 December 26, after a campaign
waged for such designation by Pittsburgh-area historic
preservationists including the author, Glenn A. Walsh.
Last year, the Young Preservationists
Association of Pittsburgh had placed the Brashear Factory building on
its annual list of the Top Ten Preservation Opportunities for 2014.
The list is an annual effort, by the preservation group, to promote
the restoration and reuse of historic properties.
In 1890, the main campus of the Western
University of Pennsylvania relocated, from Downtown, to a site
between the original Allegheny Observatory and the Brashear Factory
building. However, this hilltop location had limited space for
expansion, so in 1909 the University campus moved again to the
Oakland section of the city, about three miles east of Downtown. By
an act of the Pennsylvania General Assembly in the Summer of 1908,
the name was changed from the Western University of Pennsylvania to
the University of Pittsburgh.
Oakland, where the main University
campus remains today, became the city's civic, educational, and
medical center district. It is where Andrew Carnegie had constructed
his museums and main library (Carnegie Museums of Natural History and
Art, and the Main Branch of The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) in
1895, and the Carnegie Technical Schools (today known as Carnegie
Mellon University) in 1900. Andrew Carnegie's colleague, Henry
Phipps, had establshed the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens here in1893. Schenley
Park, one of the city's four large parks, opened in Oakland in 1889.
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and
Military Museum opened in Oakand in 1910. The Historical Society of
Western Pennsylvania established a small museum and historical
library in the Oakland neighborhood in 1914 (these were moved to a
much larger building, Downtown, in 1996). Mount Mercy College
(today's Carlow University) was added to the Civic Center district in
1929. And in addition to being the home to several major hospitals,
even the Pittsburgh Pirates called Oakand home, at Forbes Field, from
1909 to 1970!
The loss of the Brashear Factory
building is only the latest loss of historic structures related to
historic Pittsburgh astronomy. The original Allegheny Observatory
building, built in 1860 near the Brashear Factory building site, was
demolished in the 1950s. Replaced by a much larger, three-dome,
Allegheny Observatory building two miles further north in Riverview
Park in 1912, the original Allegheny Observatory building had been
used as an orphanage before demolition.
In the late 1990s, we lost the private astronomical observatory of Leo Scanlon, Co-Founder of the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh and strong advocate for the establishment of Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science. Built in 1930 next to Mr. Scanlon's home in the Summer Hill section of Pittsburgh's North Side, this observatory included the world's first all-aluminum astronomical observatory dome. Mr. Scanlon's observatory proved that aluminum was a strong enough material to hold-up such a dome. While the observatory had to be razed in the late 1990s, when Mr. Scanlon moved to a nursing home (he died in 1999 at the age of 96), the historic all-aluminum dome was preserved. In 2013, the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh donated this historic dome to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to be displayed at the Cherry Springs State Park in Potter County.
In 2002, the historic mid-1880s home of
Pittsburgh philanthropist Henry Buhl, Jr. (whose Buhl Foundation
built Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular
Science in 1939) was destroyed by a fire started when a kerosene
heater ignited items in the house. The 3 1/2-story brick North Side
home, which was vacant at the time, may have been occupied by
homeless individuals who accidentally started the blaze.
The historic 1805 homestead of Henry
Buhl, Jr.'s father, Christian Buhl, located in the north suburban
Pittsburgh borough of Zelienople, is now a house museum operated by
the Zelienople Historical Society.
The bequest of Henry Buhl, Jr. created
the Buhl Foundation in 1927, which constructed America's fifth major
planetarium in 1939. Henry Buhl, Jr. had owned the Boggs and Buhl
Department Store, which operated from 1869 to 1958, one block south
of the site where Buhl Planetarium was constructed. In 2012,
Allegheny Square (originally, the town square of the former Allegheny
City, until annexed to Pittsburgh in 1907) was rehabilitated and
rededicated as Buhl Community Park at Allegheny Square, directly
between the original Buhl Planetarium building and the site of the
former Boggs and Buhl Department Store.
Originally owned by Mr. Buhl and his
brother-in-law Russell H. Boggs, until Mr. Boggs' death in 1922, the
North Side retail establishment catered to many wealthy clients,
including several industrialists who lived less than a mile away on
Ridge Avenue. Some of the former Ridge Avenue mansions are now used
as classroom buildings for the main campus of the Community College
of Allegheny County.
The historic 1888 mansion of Mr. Boggs,
designed by famous architect H.H. Richardson (who designed the
Allegheny County Courthouse, which was also completed in 1888), is
now used as a bed-and-breakfast hotel. Now known as the Inn on the
Mexican War Streets, located in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood
of Pittsburgh's North Side (homes in this neighborhood were built
shortly after the Mexican War, 1846 to 1848), the mansion sits on
West North Avenue, just across the street from the large Allegheny
Commons West Park.
Below is a photograph of the historic Brashear Factory building in recent years, before the wall collapse that led to demolition this week. A photograph of the building in its hey-day is located at the beginning of this blog post. (Image Source: Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh)
This
cutaway view of Saturn's moon Enceladus is an artist's rendering that
depicts possible hydrothermal activity that may be taking place on and
under the seafloor of the moon's subsurface ocean, based on recently
published results from NASA's Cassini mission. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
Spacecraft Data Suggest Saturn Moon's Ocean May Harbor Hydrothermal Activity
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first clear
evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus exhibits signs of present-day
hydrothermal activity which may resemble that seen in the deep oceans on
Earth. The implications of such activity on a world other than our
planet open up unprecedented scientific possibilities.
“These findings add to the possibility that Enceladus, which contains
a subsurface ocean and displays remarkable geologic activity, could
contain environments suitable for living organisms,” said John Grunsfeld
astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. “The locations in our solar system where
extreme environments occur in which life might exist may bring us closer
to answering the question: are we alone in the Universe.”
NASA’s Hubble Observations Suggest Underground Ocean on Jupiter's Largest Moon
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has the best evidence yet for an
underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. The
subterranean ocean is thought to have more water than all the water on
Earth's surface.
Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and for the search of life as we know it.
“This discovery marks a significant milestone, highlighting what only
Hubble can accomplish,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington.
“In its 25 years in orbit, Hubble has made many scientific discoveries
in our own solar system. A deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede
opens up further exciting possibilities for life beyond Earth.”
The mathematical constant Pi, the ratio
of a circle's circumference to its diameter, is celebrated each March
14: 3.14. Pi is an irrational number which cannot be expressed as a common fraction, and it has a decimal representation that never repeats and never ends.
However, this year (2015), allows a unique moment, which only
occurs once each century, to further consider Pi.
Over the last century, people have
gotten used to describing dates completely by Arabic numerals. And,
with this numeric date convention, certain dates have been given
special significance due to the “coincidence” of the digits,
such as 6-6-66.
Of course, 6-6-66 is understood to mean
June 6, 1966, the first such, “significant,” numeric date
abbreviation I learned in elementary school. Of course, this was
before Y2K when years were described in two digits. Although many
more people today do use a four-digit year when writing a numeric
date, regrettably some people continue to use a two-digit year
despite the computer problems, and consequent conversion expense,
this led to just prior to the year 2000.
While 6-6-66 uses the traditional date
convention (June 6, 1966), it could also designate the European date
convention (6 June 1966). However, it would have to be written 66-6-6
to be expressed in scientific date notation (although, particularly today, scientific date notation would usually use a four-digit year).
Actual dates are not the only things
described as numeric dates. Beginning in 1988 at the Exporatorium science
museum in San Francisco, the first three numeral digits of Pi have
been used as a date, 3.14 (March 14), for an annual celebration of
the mathematical constant: Pi Day.
But, only once in a century is there
a “Pi Moment.” This is the one date and time, in 100 years, that
can be described by the first ten digits of Pi:
3.141592653 --- March 14, 2015, Saturday Morning at
9:26:53 Local Time
(traditional date convention using a two-digit
year)
And, for those who wish to be even more precise, after the first ten digits of Pi, the remainder of Pi can be expressed as a decimal of the 53rd second.
For students (grades 4 through 11) to
celebrate “Super Pi Day” or “Pi Day of the Century,” the
Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has crafted a
math challenge to show students of all ages how NASA scientists and
engineers use the mathematical constant Pi. These four real-world
math problems, which teachers can access as a web infographic and
printable handouts, include:
Calcuating the number of times a
Mars rover's wheels have rotated in 11 years.
Determining the number of images
needed for the Dawn spacecraft to map the entire surface of the
dwarf planet Ceres (the first dwarf planet to be explored).
Determining the potential volume
of water on Jupiter's moon Europa.
Discovering what fraction of a
radio beam from our most distant spacecraft reaches Earth.
More on the NASA / Jet Propulsion
Laboratory student math challenge for “Super Pi Day,” with
instructions on how to download the problems and view the activity
details, including the addressing of Common Core standards:
NASA and other space agencies around the world are preparing for the fourth annual
International Space Apps Challenge, which will be held April 10-12 at
more than 135 locations worldwide, including New York, host of the
event’s Global Mainstage.
During this three-day code-a-thon, participants are asked to develop
mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualization and platform
solutions that could contribute to space exploration missions and help
improve life on Earth.
“These challenges provide opportunities for US and global citizen
scientists, engineers, and students to interact and contribute to space
exploration through code development, data analytics innovation, open
source software and hardware,” said Deborah Diaz, agency chief
technology officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This year’s challenge will include the first ever Data Bootcamp, with
a focus on Women in Data. The bootcamp is open to the public and will
give participants the opportunity to improve their skills with computer
coding and data. The April 10 bootcamp will stream live online from the
Global Mainstage. Astronaut Cady Coleman and NASA Chief Scientist Ellen
Stofan will be on hand at the New York event to work with STEM students
and also will be available for media interviews.
More than 200 data sources, including data sets, services and tools
will be available for this challenge. This event brings together
techy-savvy citizens, scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, and students
to help solve problems and questions relevant to space exploration and
broader subjects that impact life on Earth.
This year, 35 challenges represent NASA mission priorities in four
areas: Earth studies, space exploration, human health research and
robotics. Many of the challenges are in the Earth theme, supporting
NASA’s missions to monitor Earth's vital signs from land, air, and
space.
