Word: sinton
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Telltale Band. Most important was proof that organic (carbon-hydrogen) compounds probably exist on Mars. Dr. William Sinton of the Smithsonian Institution started with the fact that compounds containing carbon, when joined to hydrogen, absorb infra-red radiation with a wave length of 3.46 microns. His first step was to look for this absorption band in infra-red light reflected from dry leaves, lichens and mosses, which are made almost entirely of carbon-hydrogen compounds. It showed up strongly...
...Then Dr. Sinton hitched a supersensitive infra-red detector to Harvard's 61-in. telescope and looked for the same absorption band in sunlight reflected from Mars. Many observations were necessary because of the feebleness of Martian light, but at last the band appeared. Apparently, something on Mars absorbs infra-red in the same way that earthside vegetation does. Dr. Sinton thinks his observation is strong evidence that Mars has living organisms whose bodies are made of compounds containing carbon and hydrogen...
...Einstein prediction that a ray of light bends noticeably when passing a massive body like the sun has been checked several times, according to Sinton, but never with the accuracy that should be possible this time...
...University group hopes to determine whether the light of the sun's inner corona, a glowing gaseous envelope surrounding the sun, is white or slightly colored. "Previous observations have shown no trace of color, but they have at best been only accurate to within 10 percent," said Sinton. "We hope, with luck, to reduce the margin of error to one percent," he added...
Accompanying Sinton will be Owen J. Gingerich 4G, an astronomy student, and Harold Zirin, research fellow in Astronomy. "No unusual discoveries are expected," said Sinton, "but they seldom are. And then again, it might even be cloudy...