explicadinho: 08/30/15

30 agosto 2015

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy

By: vivian on domingo, agosto 30, 2015

What is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy? Andromeda. In fact, our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Although visible without aid, the above image of M31 is a digital mosaic of 20 frames taken with a small telescope. Much about M31 remains unknown, including exactly how long it will before it collides with our home galaxy.

from NASA http://ift.tt/1Eq99t1
via IFTTT

Osage Warrior (1805–7), a watercolor with pencils by French...

By: vivian on domingo, agosto 30, 2015

Osage Warrior (1805–7), a watercolor with pencils by French aristocrat Saint-Mémin. From 1803 to 1810, he worked in the eastern United States as an itinerant artist. He was in the nation’s capital in 1804–6 when delegations of Native Americans whose lands had been acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase came to Washington to meet President Jefferson and discuss trade relations. Saint-Mémin’s fifteen portraits of native Plainsmen are not only the most ethnographically correct but also the earliest known portraits of these tribes.

explore-blog: Oliver Sacks (July 9, 1933 – August 30,...

By: vivian on domingo, agosto 30, 2015

explore-blog:

Oliver Sacks (July 9, 1933 – August 30, 2015).

There is no better way to remember his remarkable mind and spirit than it the incredible story of how he once saved his own life by literature and song.

What is Environmental Health?Environmental Health is a field...

By: vivian on domingo, agosto 30, 2015

What is Environmental Health?

Environmental Health is a field of science that studies how the environment influences human health and disease. In other words, Environmental Health professionals protect humans from the hazards in our environment. The “environment” can include the buildings we live in, the places we work as well as the land use around us. Environmental Health professionals study and monitor how these hazards can move through the environment to reach our bodies and cause illness.

Many Environmental Health professionals work in local, state, and federal agencies that protect the public such as health departments, environmental protection and business regulation agencies. Private sector professionals are often employed by businesses to ensure the safety and purity of their employer’s products and services.

(From FEHA, Florida Environmental Health Association)

Who Invented The Tank?

By: vivian on domingo, agosto 30, 2015

The invention of the tank is usually credited to Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, a British military officer and author. But the real credit might belong to Australian soldier Lance de Mole, who apparently came up with the idea for the tank in December 1914 (although he might have been working on it as early as 1912). He subsequently designed an armored vehicle with chain wheels, allowing for easy steering while traveling off-road and over trenches. De Mole immediately submitted his plans to the British War Office, which rejected them, believing the concept to be impractical. He would present his idea again in 1915 and 1917, only to see it rejected both times, although his third attempt did secure him a grant of £987 to offset his expenses. Swinton would eventually develop his own plans for the tank after seeing a tractor with a gun on it in 1914, though the British Army would not start working with them until 1916. If they had adopted tanks when De Mole first suggested, they might have ended World War I a few years earlier.