Starship Asterisk*

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gale-walter-frederick-6269 wrote:

Gale, Walter Frederick (1865–1945)
by Harley Wood

<<Walter Frederick Gale (1865-1945), banker and astronomer, was born on 27 November 1865 at Paddington, Sydney, son of Henry Gale and his wife Susannah Gordon. He was educated at Paddington House School. After five years working in insurance and commercial offices, he joined the Savings Bank of New South Wales in 1888. After retiring in 1925 he was manager of Hoskins Investments Ltd until 1938.

Gale's interest in astronomy was stimulated by his father and firmly established by the appearance of the Great Comet of 1882. About 1884 he built a telescope with an 18-cm mirror, the first of many that he owned. Elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, London, in 1893, that year he visited Chile with a Lick Observatory eclipse expedition, and observatories in the United States of America. He valued the contacts then made.

Back in Australia, Gale was a founder and organizing secretary in 1894 of the New South Wales branch of the British Astronomical Association and then secretary for several years. Later he was president for twenty years. He formed the habit of sweeping the sky on every clear night and discovered independently seven comets. In three cases, 1894 II, 1912 II and 1927 VI, priority was recognized by attaching his name to the comet. He also discovered some double stars which bear his name and a ring nebula. He was leader of a party to observe the eclipse of 1922 at Stanthorpe, Queensland.

An assiduous observer of the planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, Gale published drawings in the Journal and Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association. In 1892 he described oases and canals on Mars; Gale was an ardent supporter of the suggestion of life on the planet. On the other hand, he was one who held that the great turbulent activity in the atmosphere of Jupiter must be evidence of an internal energy source—this is now recognized.

When the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales closed in 1931 Gale became chairman of a committee formed to protect depositors, and had to control several turbulent meetings, one by getting the Town Hall organist to drown the noise. His interests included coins, stamps and handwriting; he regularly played cards, solo and poker. In all his fields he was prepared to assist and advise others, particularly the young, and was a frequent and able public lecturer on astronomy.

Gale twice received awards from the (Thomas) Donovan Trust and in 1935 the Jackson-Gwilt medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 'for his discoveries of comets and his work for astronomy in New South Wales'. He was chairman of the board of visitors of Sydney Observatory and a trustee of the Public Library of New South Wales in 1913-37.

Gale's usual sweep of the sky was frustrated by cloud on 1 June 1945; later that night he died in a few minutes from a heart attack; he was cremated. He was survived by his wife, Violet Marion, née Birkenhead, and by two sons and four daughters.>>

bystander wrote:
Probably also safe from lions and tigers and bears (oh my)

[i]Baloo the bear, Leo the lion, and Shere Khan the tiger [b][color=#FF0000]Noah's Ark[/color][/b] Animal Rescue Center in Locust Grove, GA[/i]

---

rstevenson wrote:
Not quite a walk in the park, but safe from rioters, car-jacking, Ponzi schemes and such. For now.

racerguy76 wrote:One would think these missions to Mars are checking that it is safe for us to go there, or have we determined that yet?

islader2 wrote:Ann an ignoramus? "Say it isn't so!" Ann, you are my hero {along with Shoeless Joe Jackson}.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeless_Joe_Jackson wrote:

Joseph Jefferson Jackson (July 16, 1887 – December 5, 1951), nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American baseball player who played Major League Baseball in the early part of the 20th century.
...
Jackson, who played left field for most of his career, currently has the third- highest career batting average in major league history. In 1911, Jackson hit for a .408 average. It is still the sixth-highest single-season total since 1901, which marked the beginning of the modern era for the sport. His average that year also set the record for batting average in a single season by a rookie.[1] Babe Ruth later claimed that he modeled his hitting technique after Jackson's.
...
According to Jackson, he got his nickname during a mill game played in Anderson, South Carolina. Jackson suffered from blisters on his foot from a new pair of cleats, and they hurt so much that he had to take his shoes off before an at bat. As play continued, a heckling fan noticed Jackson running to third base in his socks, and shouted "You shoeless son of a gun, you!", and the resulting nickname "Shoeless Joe" stuck with him throughout the remainder of his life.

saturn2 wrote:I think Ann wrote a wrong thing, indeed.

rstevenson wrote:

racerguy76 wrote:
My first question is, Why do we need to know if life did exist on Mars?

We are human. It is human to wonder. We wonder what's over the hill. We wonder what's across the ocean. We wonder what's on other planets. Science is just organized wondering.

racerguy76 wrote:My first question is, Why do we need to know if life did exist on Mars?

bystander wrote:

Beyond wrote: Now, wheres the Mars bars to go with all the pictures of Mars

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050401.html

Ann wrote:

It's a good thing Google exists for the ignoramuses of us!

Ann

Beyond wrote: Now, wheres the Mars bars to go with all the pictures of Mars

[url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2023.html][b]Rock Layers in Gale Crater[/b][/url] | NASA IOTD (2011 July 29) [i](Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)[/i]

---

This oblique view of the lower mound in Gale Crater shows layers of rock that preserve a record of environments on Mars. Here, orbiting instruments have detected signatures of both clay minerals and sulfate salts, with more clay minerals apparent in the foreground of this image and fewer in higher layers. This change in mineralogy may reflect a change in the ancient environment in Gale Crater.

Mars scientists have several important hypotheses about how these minerals may reflect changes in the amount of water on the surface of Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, will use its full suite of instruments to study these minerals to provide insights into these ancient Martian environments. These rocks are also a prime target in the search for organic molecules since these past environments may have been habitable -- able to support microbial life. Scientists will study how organic molecules, if present, vary with mineralogical variations in the layers to understand how they formed and what influences their preservation.

The smaller hills in this view may provide clues to the modern water cycle on Mars. They contain sulfate salts that have water in them, and as temperatures warm into summer, some of that water may be released to the atmosphere. As temperatures cool, they may absorb water from the atmosphere. The Mars Science Laboratory team will investigate how water is exchanged between these minerals and the atmosphere, helping us understand Mars' modern climate. The hills are particularly useful for this investigation because different parts of the hills are exposed to different amounts of sunlight and thus to different temperatures. Curiosity will be able to compare the water in these contrasting areas as part of its investigations.

This three-dimensional perspective view was created using visible-light imaging by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Three-dimensional information was derived by stereo analysis of image pairs. The vertical dimension is not exaggerated. Color information is derived from color imaging of portions of the scene by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera.

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is being prepared for launch on Nov. 25, 2011. In a prime mission lasting one Martian year -- nearly two Earth years -- after landing, researchers will use the rover's tools to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and for preserving clues about whether life existed.

Guest wrote:So impressive! Austere picture of a pock-mark chunk of rock we can't afford to go visit...