Radio Data Using Vikings on Mars Further Confirm Einstein Theory
By Credit...The New York Times ArchivesEstimated Delay of Waves
Results of the experiment were reported at a news conference held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The Viking 1 and 2 spacecraft are being controlled there.
The experiment was conducted last Nov. 25, Thanksgiving Day, at the time of solar conjunction. At that time, Mars moved behind the sun in relation to Earth, causing a total blackout of communications between the Vikings and Earth.
But just before and after the blackout, radio signals were transmitted from antennaes at Goldstone, Calif., and Canberra, Australia, to both of the Viking orbiters and landers and then from the spacecraft back to Earth. The round‐trip travel times of the signals were carefully clocked. The transmissions were repeated frequently to check for accuracy.
The results, Dr. Shapiro said, were “in very good agreement with the theory of general relativity.”
Not that he expected to prove Einstein wrong. Previous tests using spacecraft communications systems tended to confirm the theory, but the Viking test is considered twice as accurate, or more, than the previous ones.
In a telephone interview after the conference, Dr. Shapiro said:
“I would have been very surprised Einstein was wrong. But one just can't take theories for granted. Physics is an experimental approach to nature. Einstein came along to explain deviations in Newton's theory of gravity. And at some level of probing we may find Einstein's theory will break down and no longer be a totally adequate theory of the way nature behaves.”
I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture.
Sep 30, 2015,10:51am EDT
Updated Sep 30, 2015, 03:56pm EDT
This article is more than 9 years old.
The dominant science news story of the moment is the latest discovery of water on Mars, which is fortuitously timed to coincide with the release of the movie The Martian this week. A little over a month from now, the big story will be the 100th anniversary of Einstein's completion of General Relativity. These might not seem like they have much to do with each other, but in fact, Mars missions have a closer connection to relativity than you might think.
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, speaks with... [+]
General relativity famously involves the warping of space and time by gravity, and it was observations during a 1919 eclipse showing the bending of light that catapulted Einstein to fame. Stars near the disk of the Sun had their apparent position (relative to stars farther from the Sun) shifted slightly, as the rays that passed close to the Sun were deflected by its warping of spacetime. The measured deflection agreed nicely with Einstein's prediction, and the rest is one of the great hyperbolic headlines is history.
Of course, relativity makes lots of predictions about what should happen near a massive object like the Sun, and the bending of starlight only tests one. Another thing that ought to happen is a slight "stretching" of space-- which is why discussions of relativity almost always include stretched rubber sheets. The distance between two points in space will be slightly longer along a path that passes close to the Sun than along one that never goes near it.
Embedding diagrams showing the spacetime distortion in the vicinity of a massive object, and the... [+]
This is kind of a difficult thing to get your head around, but like everything else, it comes back to the fact that keeping the laws of physics consistent regardless of how you're moving requires the mixing of space and time. In special relativity, what one observer sees as purely a distance in space, somebody moving at constant speed relative to them will see as a mix of space and time-- the position of the two endpoints is measured at two slightly different times. This is the root of most of the "paradoxes" of relativity. The exact mix of space and time depends on the speed of the observer, and the equations of relativity tell you how to calculate that.
General relativity tells us that the exact mix of space and time for a particular measurement also depends on the presence of gravity. What an observer near the Sun sees as purely a distance in space will look, from far away, like a mix of space and time. This mixing changes the result for distance measurements.
Foundation stone. On August 15, 1806, Emperor Napoleon I's birthday, the foundation stone of the building was laid at a depth of eight meters, between the two southern pillars.
This striking, high-resolution image of the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, was captured by Planet SkySat – a fleet of satellites that have just joined ESA’s Third Party Mission Programme in April 2022. The Arc de Triomphe, or in full Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, is an iconic symbol of France and one of the world’s best-known commemorative monuments. The triumphal arch was commissioned by Napoleon I in 1806 to celebrate the military achievements of the French armies. Construction of the arch began the following year, on 15 August (Napoleon’s birthday).
The arch stands at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, the meeting point of 12 grand avenues which form a star (or étoile), which is why it is also referred to as the Arch of Triumph of the Star. The arch is 50 m high and 45 m wide.
The names of all French victories and generals are inscribed on the arch’s inner and outer surfaces, while the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I lies beneath its vault. The tomb’s flame is rekindled every evening as a symbol of the enduring nature of the commemoration and respect shown to those who have fallen in the name of France.
The Arc de Triomphe’s location at the Place Charles de Gaulle places it at the heart of the capital and the western terminus of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées (visible in the bottom-right of the image). Often referred to as the ‘most beautiful avenue in the world’, the Champs-Élysées is known for its theatres, cafés and luxury shops, as the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, as well as for its annual Bastille Day military parade.
This image, captured on 9 April 2022, was provided by Planet SkySat – a fleet of 21 very high-resolution satellites capable of collecting images multiple times during the day. SkySat’s satellite imagery, with 50 cm spatial resolution, is high enough to focus on areas of great interest, identifying objects such as vehicles and shipping containers.
SkySat data, along with PlanetScope (both owned and operated by Planet Labs), serve numerous commercial and governmental applications. These data are now available through ESA’s Third Party Mission programme – enabling researchers, scientists and companies from around the world the ability to access Planet’s high-frequency, high-resolution satellite data for non-commercial use.
Within this programme, Planet joins more than 50 other missions to add near-daily PlanetScope imagery, 50 cm SkySat imagery, and RapidEye archive data to this global network.
Peggy Fischer, Mission Manager for ESA’s Third Party Missions, commented, “We are very pleased to welcome PlanetScope and SkySat to ESA’s Third Party Missions portfolio and to begin the distribution of the Planet data through the ESA Earthnet Programme.
“The high-resolution and high-frequency imagery from these satellite constellations will provide an invaluable resource for the European R&D and applications community, greatly benefiting research and business opportunities across a wide range of sectors.”
To find out more on how to apply to the Earthnet Programme and get started with Planet data, click here.
The Arc de Triomphe, or in full Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, is an iconic symbol of France and one of the world’s best-known commemorative monuments. The triumphal arch was commissioned by Napoleon I in 1806 to celebrate the military achievements of the French armies. Construction of the arch began the following year, on 15 August (Napoleon’s birthday).
Illustration on the base of the obelisk, showing how it was raised into place in 1836
Hieroglyphs on the obelisk.
Hieroglyphs on the upper obelisk. The Pharaoh on his throne is portrayed at the top
The centrepiece of the Place de la Concorde is an ancient Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. It is one of two which the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The other one stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time. On 26 September 1981 President François Mitterrand formally returned the title of the second obelisk to Egypt.[16]
The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The wali of Egypt, or hereditary governor, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk as a diplomatic gift to France in 1829. It arrived in Paris on 21 December 1833. Three years later, it was hoisted into place, on top of the pedestal which originally supported the statue of Louis XV, destroyed during the Revolution. The raising of the column was a major feat of engineering, depicted by illustrations on the base of the monument. King Louis Philippe dedicated the obelisk on 25 October 1836.[17]
The obelisk, a yellow granite column, rises 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 tonnes (280 short tons). Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat – on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the machinery that was used for the transportation. The government of France added a gold-leafed pyramidal cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998, replacing the missing original, believed stolen in the 6th century BC.[18]
La plaza de la Concordia se encuentra al pie de la avenida de los Campos Elíseos y bordea los jardines de las Tullerías. Hoy destaca por el Obelisco de Luxor (que data del año 3.300 a.C. y fue erigido en mayo de 1998), los prestigiosos hoteles que la bordean y sus dos fuentes monumentales (Fontaine des Mers y Fontaine des Fleuves). Creada a finales del siglo XVIII, la plaza de la Concordia fue conocida por ser uno de los lugares de ejecución durante la Revolución Francesa. Luis XVI y María Antonieta (entre otros) fueron guillotinados aquí. Entre 1836 y 1846, el arquitecto Jacques-Ignace Hittorf transformó la plaza en lo que es hoy.
You may know Paris for its cathedral Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, its café culture and its amazing museums and art galleries. The French capital is also famous for its fantastic perspective that runs from the Louvre to La Défense. This is the ‘Voie Triomphale’, aka the Historical Axis of Paris.
This line is one of the most prestigious perspectives in the world. In fact, its design has inspired cities such as Buenos Aires, Washington DC, New Delhi and Canberra. In this article, we’ll learn more about the Historical Axis of Paris. We’ll discover the stunning monuments and I reveal to you some stunning facts.
More than just a series of monuments placed along the axis, it seems that a complex symbolism was at work in the mind of the successive urban planners.
The Historical Axis runs through some of Paris’ most celebrated monuments and squares:
The Louvre: the Glass Pyramid, the equestrian statue of Louis XIV portrayed as ‘Alexander the Great’ in the Cour Napoléon, and the Inverted Pyramid.
The Seine-Arche project endeavours to push the axis beyond La Défense, to the Seine.
Let’s move along the Historical Axis of Paris, from East to West, starting from the Louvre.
The Palace of the Louvre
Today the great perspective starts at the Louvre, immediately beyond the Church of St Germain l’Auxerrois.
The crab-shaped Palace was the main residence of the kings of France until 1682, when Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’, moved his court to Versailles. It currently houses one of the world’s most wonderful museums in a complex that is known as the “Grand Louvre”.
President François Mitterrand left his mark with his pharaonic project of “Le Grand Louvre”. He wished to complete it for the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution in 1989. The titanic project comprised of major renovation works and the construction of a new landmark along the Historical Axis: the celebrated (and controversial) Glass Pyramid.
But if you look closer, you’ll notice that the glass pyramid is not aligned with the other monuments on the Historical Axis.
That’s why something had to be added in this vast courtyard of the Louvre…
La Llama de la Libertad, ofrecida al pueblo francés por donantes de todo el mundo como símbolo de la amistad franco-americana, en la plaza Diana (París).
La Llama de la Libertad (en francés, Flamme de la Liberté) de París es una réplica del mismo tamaño de la nueva llama situada en el extremo de la antorcha que lleva en la mano la Estatua de la Libertad de Nueva York desde 1986.1 El monumento, que tiene aproximadamente 3,5 metros de longitud, es una escultura de una llama de cobre dorado, apoyada en un pedestal de mármol gris y negro. Está situado cerca del extremo norte del puente del Alma, en la plaza Diana, en el distrito 8 de París, Francia.2
Fue ofrecida a la ciudad de París en 1989 por el International Herald Tribune en nombre de los donantes, que habían contribuido aproximadamente 400 000 dólares para su realización. Representaba la culminación de las celebraciones de 1987 del periódico por su cien aniversario de la publicación de un periódico en inglés en París. Más importante, la Llama era una muestra de agradecimiento por la restauración de la Estatua de la Libertad realizada tres años antes por dos empresas francesas que hicieron el trabajo artesanal del proyecto: Métalliers Champenois, que hizo el trabajo del bronce, y Gohard Studios, que aplicó el pan de oro. Aunque el regalo a Francia fue motivado por el centenario del periódico, la Llama de la Libertad es un símbolo más general de la amistad que une los dos países, igual que la Estatua de la Libertad cuando fue regalada a los Estados Unidos por Francia.
Este proyecto fue supervisado por el director de la unión de artesanos franceses en aquel momento, Jacques Graindorge. Propuso la instalación de la Llama de la Libertad en una plaza pública llamada Place des États-Unis en el distrito 16, pero el alcalde de París, Jacques Chirac, se opuso a esto. Tras un prolongado período de negociaciones, se decidió que la alama se situaría en una zona abierta cerca de la intersección de la Avenue de New-York y la Place de l'Alma. El monumento fue inaugurado el 10 de mayo de 1989 por Chirac.
En la base del monumento hay una placa conmemorativa que relata la siguiente historia:
"La Llama de la Libertad. Una réplica exacta de la llama de la Estatua de la Libertad ofrecida al pueblo de Francia por donantes de todo el mundo como símbolo de la amistad franco-americana. Con ocasión del centenario del International Herald Tribune, París 1887-1987."
La llama se convirtió en un monumento no oficial de Diana de Gales después de su muerte en 1997 en el túnel bajo el Pont de l'Alma.3 La llama es una atracción para turistas y seguidores de Diana, quiens pegan pósteres y folletos con material conmemorativo en la base. El antropólogo Guy Lesoeurs dijo que "la mayoría de las personas que vienen aquí piensan que se construyó para ella."2 La plaza del monumento se llama desde entonces Plaza Diana (París).
El monumento está cerca de la estación del Metro de París llamada Alma-Marceau en la línea 9 y de la estación Pont de l’Alma Línea 'C' del RER, así como por los buses número 42, 63, 72, 80, 92, y los autobuses turísticos Balabus.
Timeline: June 18-24: Gov. Sanford missing/crying in Argentina June 21: 'Impact' Part 1 on ABC; Prince William birthday June 22: DC Metro Red Line trains in collision June 23: US Moon probes (LRO/LCROSS) reach Moon June 24: Gov. Sanford reveals Argentine affair June 25: Death of Michael Jackson & Farahh Fawcett
'Metro' means 'meter' in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc. The meter is historically defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the North Pole and the equator through Paris, or in other words the Paris Meridian between the North Pole and the equator. The Paris Meridian is also the 'Rose Line' (an esoteric concept popularized by The Da Vinci Code) i.e. a 'Red Line'...
DC Metro Red Line = French/Columbian Rose Line
...traditionally implying the Blood Royal/Sangraal or the Marian/Columbian Bloodline of the Holy Grail.
In Bloodline of the Holy Grail Laurence Gardner writes of the House of Stuart, the royal bloodline to which Princess Diana and her children belong (pp. 344-5):
n 1854 a slab of marble donated by Pope Pius IX arrived in Washington, D.C. He had it engraved “A Roma Americae,” or “From Rome to America,” as a sign of goodwill. He had sent it over to be included in the Washington Monument, which was then under construction. Many foreign governments had sent similar contributions to honor America’s first president. The Know Nothings, however, had no intention of allowing a gift from the Pope to be included in the Washington Monument. They were certain the stone was a sign of darker intentions by the Pope. So on March 9, 1854, under cover of darkness, a group of these anti-Catholics broke into the yard, stole the stone, and after damaging it with hammers they dropped it in the Potomac River. No one was ever credibly accused of the crime, despite reward offers and a public outcry. Many years later, however, after a tip, the stone was discovered… only to disappear again. But today, there is a stone from the Pope in the Washington Monument, this one was provided by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
La estatua fue esculpida por Robert Berks en 19 trozos y luego se soldaron los trozos. Pesa 3.2 toneladas y mide 6.4 m de altura. La estatua se sienta en un banco de granito blanco de Washington D.C La estatua y el banco están en un lado de un estrado circular, de 8.5 metros de diámetro, hecho de granito de color esmeralda-perla de Larvik (Noruega). En el mismo estrado hay más de 2.700 tachones de metal que representan la ubicación de objetos astronómicos (el Sol, la Luna, los planetas, 4 asteroides, 5 galaxias, 10 quasares y muchas estrellas) como se veían al medioda del 22 de abril de 1979 cuando el monumento se inauguró. Los tachones tienen tamaños diferentes para denotar la magnitud aparente de los objetos relevantes, y otros tachones indican estrellas binarias, binarias espectroscópicas, púlsares, cúmulos globulares, cúmulos abiertos y quásares.
En los papeles sujetos por hcamila los importantes avances científicos de Einstein:
The memorial, situated in an elm and holly grove in the southwest corner of the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences, was unveiled at the Academy's annual meeting, April 22, 1979, in honor of the centennial of Einstein's birth. At the dedication ceremony, physicist John Archibald Wheeler described the statue as "a monument to the man who united space and time into space-time...a remembrance of the man who taught us...that the universe does not go on from everlasting to everlasting, but begins with a bang."[1] The memorial is a popular spot for tourists visiting the national mall to pose for pictures.[2]
The statue depicts Einstein seated in casual repose on a three-step bench of Mount Airy (North Carolina) white granite. The bronze figure weighs approximately 4 tons and is 12 feet in height. The monument is supported by three caissons, totaling 135 tons, sunk in bedrock to a depth of 23 to 25 feet.,[3] It was cast at Modern Art Foundry, Astoria Queens, NY.
Einstein was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1922, the year after he won the Nobel Prize in physics, and became a member of the Academy in 1942, two years after he became a naturalized American citizen.[3]
The statue and bench are at one side of a circular dais, 28 feet (8.5 m) in diameter, made from emerald-pearl granite from Larvik, Norway. Embedded in the dais are more than 2,700 metal studs representing the location of astronomical objects, including the sun, moon, planets, 4 asteroids, 5 galaxies, 10 quasars, and many stars at noon on April 22, 1979, when the memorial was dedicated. The studs are different sizes to denote the apparent magnitude of the relevant object, and different studs denote binary stars, spectroscopic binaries, pulsars, globular clusters, open clusters, and quasars. The celestial objects were accurately positioned by astronomers at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Familiar constellations are marked on the map for easy identification.[1]
To a visitor standing at the center of the dais, Einstein appears to be making direct eye contact, and any spoken words are notably amplified.
Engraved as though written on the papers held in the statue's left hand are three equations, summarizing three of Einstein's most important scientific advances:
���−12����=���� (the general theory of relativity)
Along the back of the bench, behind the statue, three famous quotations from the scientist are inscribed. They were selected to reflect Einstein's sense of wonder, scientific integrity, and concern for social justice.[1] They are :
"As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail."
"Joy and amazement at the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion ..."
"The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true."
In July 2012, the sculpture was yarn bombed by the Polish-born artist Olek, who enclosed the entire statue in a colorful crocheted wrap of pinks, purples, and teal.[6]