De l’eau glacée découverte sur Mercure
Mercure, la planète la plus proche du soleil, pourrait sembler être le dernier endroit où trouver de la glace. Pourtant l’eau glacée y est abondante, selon les dernières observations de la sonde américaine Messenger. Cette découverte a été publiée jeudi dans la revue américaine Science.
Selon les observations de la sonde, il y a de la glace au fond des cratères des pôles perpétuellement à l’ombre. © Reuters NASA
Il n’y a pas que Mars et son robot mobile Curiosity. La NASA scrute aussi de très près d’autres planètes du système solaire, notamment Mercure. Toute proche du soleil et fortement chauffée, sa température moyenne est de 169 degrés. Son eau s’est progressivement élevée sous forme de vapeur.
Les pôles ne voient jamais le soleil
Mais l’inclinaison de seulement un degré de son axe de rotation fait que les zones aux pôles sont constamment à l’ombre. Les températures y sont d’environ -200 degrés. C’est dans ces régions que de l’eau sous forme de glace a été repérée par la sonde américaine Messenger, premier engin sur l’orbite de Mercure et ce depuis 2011 après un périple de plus de six ans. Les résultats des mesures ont été dévoilés par la NASA et publiés jeudi dans la revue américaine Science.
Ice on the poles of Mercury has been discovered by the probe Messenger. It is not only Mars that the mobile robot Curiosity is probing. It also looks at planets close by. Mercury is the closest planet to our sun in our Solar System and as a result it it very hot and has an average temperature of 169 degC. However because of it’s one degree tilt on it’s axis the poles are in continuous darkness with massively cold temperatures of -200 degC. It is in these regions that ice was disovered by Messenger and the results of it’s measurements were unveiled by NASA yesterday in the American science Review. Voila c’est superbe que une autre secret de notre universe fantastique etait decouverté.
About bill
Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer.
The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013.
Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI.
Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug
2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website.
But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien.
The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50.
Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea.
Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
