Pluto's Discovery

Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. A planet beyond Neptune had been theorized since the 1840s. Percival Lowell himself searched for a number of years. He caught faint image of Pluto in 1915 but, sadly for him, they were not recognized as the ninth planet. Tombaugh's discovery was confirmed by followup photographs, and was announced on March 13, 1930. In the years since, the Kuiper Belt has been discovered: a very large belt of objects from asteroids to dwarf planets. Pluto is one such planet in the belt. The object Eris is larger than Pluto. Since other planets and their moons (if any) have a "clear" orbit of their own around the Sun (unlike Pluto and its many Kuiper objects), the International Astronomical Union "demoted" Pluto to dwarf planet status. A certain amount of unhappiness resulted, even including resolutions in state legislatures to affirm Pluto as a planet!  Pluto orbits the Sun once in 248 Earth years. So it has made a little over 1/3rd of its journey since 1930. During some Earth years, Pluto's atypical orbit brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune. It has five satellites, and a surface temperature that can reach 33 degrees K (-400 degrees F).

Picture from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#/media/File:Pluto_in_True_Color_-_High-Res.jpg

Pale Blue Dot

The Voyager 1 space probe was launched in 1977 to study the outer Solar System. On February 14, 1990, when the probe had traveled about 3.7 billion miles, the probe's camera was turned around to get a final photo of Earth. Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot in the band of light on the right. Carl Sagan, who proposed the idea of the picture, wrote a book Pale Blue Dot (1994) in which he reflects on our smallness in the universe. "It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

 

Copied under fair use principles. 

Landscapes!

Some beautiful paintings that I've seen posted on Facebook lately. (Copied under fair use.) 

'

'''

\

The Four Chaplains

On the Episcopal calendar, the Four Chaplains are honored today, the anniversary of their deaths in 1943 when their ship, the SS Dorchester, was torpedoed by a German sub and sunk. Rev. George Fox was a Methodist Minister, Rev. John P. Washington was a Catholic priest, Dr. Alexander D. Goode was a Reform rabbi, and Rev. Clark V. Pooling was a Reformed Church minister. As the ship sank, they assisted soldiers in boarding lifeboats, calmed the men, and gave their own life jackets to soldiers. They prayed for the men and sang hymns together, their arms joined, and went down with the ship. Dr. Goode also prayed in Hebrew, and Fr. Washington in Latin. Only 230 of the 904 crew members were rescued. 

The four chaplains are honored in numerous ways, including the 1948 postage stamp pictured here. I first learned of the men when I was little and collected stamps, and my dad, who was a Pacific war veteran, told me the story.

The Illinois Territory

On this day in 1809, Congress passed legislation that established the Illinois Territory. Ninian Edwards, the namesake of nearby Edwardsville, IL (and father of Lincoln's brother-in-law), was governor for nearly all of the territorial period. Fun fact: Edwards' daughter Julia married politician Daniel Pope Cook, who became the namesake for Cook County, Illinois. There has never been a history focused upon Illinois territory and its government, but "The Illinois Country, 1673-1818" by Clarence Alvord (1918) is a classic study that has sufficed.

Copied under fair use principles. 

Landscape: Grant Wood

Grant Wood, Spring in Town, 1941. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 

Copied under fair use principles. 

Landscape: Oswald Achenbach

I discovered this artist this evening. Born February 2, 1827, Oswald Achenbach isn't so well known today but was acclaimed in his own time. Here are his paintings "Fireworks in Naples" (1875), "Morning" (1854), and "Constantine's Triumphal Arch in Rome" (1886).