Twinkle, twinkle.Some problems can be solved in a snap. Others take 10 years. That's how long Caltech astronomers Famous astronomers and astrophysicists include: Directory: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
Atlas (ăt`ləs), in Greek mythology, a Titan; son of Iapetus and Clymene and the brother of Prometheus. , a star in the Pleiades constellation Constellation, ship Constellation (kŏnstĭlā`shən), U.S. frigate, launched in 1797. It was named by President Washington for the constellation of 15 stars in the U.S. flag of that time. . It's about 440 light years away. (Light travels 5.8 trillion One thousand times one billion, which is 1, followed by 12 zeros, or 10 to the 12th power. See space/time. (mathematics) trillion - In Britain, France, and Germany, 10^18 or a million cubed. In the USA and Canada, 10^12. miles in a year, so multiply mul·ti·ply v. 1. To increase the amount, number, or degree of. 2. To breed or propagate. that by 440... just take our word for it: It's really far.) The distance to Atlas puzzled Caltech astronomer Shri Kulkarni ever since the European satellite, Hipparcos, sent back data placing the star closer to Earth than believed. He was working on other projects during those years, but it was an important one for him to solve. "If you accepted the Hipparcos result, then our ideas of how stars shine would be wrong," he said. The astronomers proved that the data from Hipparcos was inaccurate, and published their findings in Jan. 22 issue of Nature. Kulkarni's since moved on to other things. "My focus these days is on how massive stars die," he said. |
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