Word: orbitals
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...program since Sputnik, the honor of confirming life on Mars is not expected to fall to some brash NASA spacecraft, but to a quirky British-built pod assembled by a shaggy-haired English egghead. The British space program hasn't had a leading role since James Bond went into orbit in Moonraker. But in June a small, unmanned pod named Beagle 2 (after Charles Darwin's famous ship) has a chance to change all that. Masterminded by Professor Colin Pillinger, an eccentric and exuberant planetary scientist at Britain's remote learning Open University, the Beagle is on track to beat...
...Heinz Wolff. How will the probe know if there is life on Mars? The planet's surface is a dry and frozen desert, seemingly hostile to any life-forms. But astronomers say it was once covered in rivers, lakes and possibly oceans; NASA 's Mars Odyssey satellite, currently in orbit around the planet, has detected huge quantities of ice just a few feet below the surface. Beagle will search for evidence that these areas have supported extremophiles, micro-organisms living deep underground or in extremes of heat, pressure or toxicity, that represent a kind of rock-bottom definition...
...Leonid shower occurs each November when the Earth’s orbit passes through the trail of dust left by comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings around the sun once every 33 years. The dust grains, traveling at 158,000 miles per hour, glow and vaporize as friction heats them up in the upper atmosphere and produces streaks of light...
...that of a passive bystander. “The Bible is too important to be left just to divinity students,” he explains passionately. “They’ll get it one way or another. So when someone like you falls into my orbit, I’m delighted.” I can’t keep the skepticism off of my face as I think how much more meaningful these classes must be to religious students. As if sensing my doubt, Gomes expands, “You chose this course, in place of other...
...They alternate as narrators, each with a distinct voice and backstory. Their club meets in the opening chapters and spring-boards each plot, as babysitting dates are made and followed through in subsequent chapters. Around the central members, a huge, busy network of families, teachers and innumerable baby-sittees orbit, forming a long, evolving story kept up with admirable thoroughness...