Síntese de Junho

♥ 30 de Maio a 6 de Junho 2008
-> Festival Rock In Rio 2008, no Parque da Bela Vista - Lisboa

01 de Junho 2008
-> Selecção Portuguesa chega a Neuchâtel - Suiça

07 de Junho 2008
-> EURO - Portugal 2 - Turquia 0

10 de Junho 2008
-> Greves, Greves, Greves... Portugal está um Caos!!!

11 de Junho 2008
-> EURO - Portugal 3 - Rep. Checa 1

14 de Junho 2008
-> EURO - Portugal 0 - Suiça 2

19 de Junho 2008
-> EURO - Portugal 2 - Alemanha 3 (Portugal é Eliminadado do Euro!!!)

16 de Junho 2008
-> Descoberta de Três Super-Terras a 42 Anos Luz

21 de Junho 2008
-> Sulstício de Verão

29 de Junho 2008
-> EURO FINAL - Espanha 1 - Alemanha 0

A Trio Of Super-Earths

♥ On 16th June, at an International Conference, a team of European Astronomers announced a new discover considered as a remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets.
Using the HARPS Spectrograph (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) of the 3.6-m telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, the Astronomers have found a triple system of Super-Earths around the Star HD 40307. However, looking at their entire sample studied with HARPS, the astronomers count a total of 45 candidate planets with a mass below 30 Earth masses and an orbital period shorter than 50 days. This implies that one solar-like star out of three harbours such planets.

“Since the discovery in 1995 of a planet around the star 51 Pegasi by Mayor and Didier Queloz, more than 270 exoplanets have been found, mostly around solar-like stars. Most of these planets are giants, such as Jupiter or Saturn, and current statistics show that about 1 out of 14 stars harbours this kind of planet.”

According with Stéphane Udry, one of Mayor's colleagues, “With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph on ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, the Astronomers can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth's mass," as that planets are more massive than the Earth but less massive than Uranus and Neptune (about 15 Earth masses), they are called Super-Earths.

“The group of astronomers have now discovered a system of three Super-Earths around a rather normal star, which is slightly less massive than our Sun, and is located 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations.”

Mayor’s also says that it was "made very precise measurements of the velocity of the star HD 40307 over the last five years, which clearly reveal the presence of three planets".

The planets, having 4.2, 6.7, and 9.4 times the mass of the Earth, orbit the star with periods of 4.3, 9.6, and 20.4 days, respectively.

These discoveries have been announced on 16 June at the international conference "Extra-solar Super-Earths" which took place in Nantes, France, on 16 to 18 June.

Further Info.:
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-19-08.html

The Antarctic winter cannot protect Wilkins Ice Shelf!!!

♥ This is some of the last news given by ESA!
According with ESA - European Space Angency – from 30 May to 31 May 2008, Wilkins Ice Shelf has experienced further break-up with an area of about 160 km² breaking off. This was the the first ever-documented episode to occur in winter, captured by ESA’s Envisat satellite.

“Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad plate of floating ice south of South America on the Antarctic Peninsula, is connected to two islands, Charcot and Latady. In February 2008, an area of about 400 km² broke off from the ice shelf, narrowing the connection down to a 6 km strip; this latest event in May has further reduced the strip to just 2.7 km.” More than half!!!

“The ASAR images (…) were acquired as part of ESA’s support to IPY. ESA is helping scientists during IPY to collect an increasing amount of satellite information, particularly to understand recent and current distributions and variations in snow and ice and changes in the global ice sheets.(…)

The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced extraordinary warming in the past 50 years of 2.5°C, (…). In the past 20 years, seven ice shelves along the peninsula have retreated or disintegrated, including the most spectacular break-up of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002.”

Everytime I hear or read anything about Antarctic, and all the problems we will have if we don’t stop a bit to think about it, I feel that I can, not to stop it, but to inform you once more about what’s happening around us - it’s never enough to do it!!!
We can’t be so selfish and think that in our generation, we will not have any problem with the environment or global warming… and think that is only a problem of the new generations will come…
No! It’s nothing like that.
We must notice that we are the most responsible of what’s happening now, and before the new generations will come, we also will have to pay ours bills to the environment.
So, let’s to do what we can do… even few… together, we can make a lot. Don’t stop it!!! Think only about what you/we can do to improve it… and be conscious, for your goodness…

Further Information and Animated Photos:

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMG58VG3HF_index_0.html
Thanks to F. Pimentel, who sent me this link.

Adeus Euro 2008…

♥ Depois de Portugal ter garantido a sua posição nos Quartos-de Final do Euro logo nos dois primeiros jogos, contra a Turquia (2-0) e à Rep. Checa (3-1), eis que no terceiro contra uma das equipas da casa – Suíça – que já estava eliminada do Euro, Portugal sofre sua a primeira derrota (0-2) a favor do país anfitrião.
Mas apesar da desilusão causada, Portugal mantinha-se na frente da batalha e pronto para o próximo confronto, que mais tarde viríamos a saber que seria com a Alemanha. Até estávamos convictos de uma possível vitória, mas o facto é que isso não aconteceu. A Alemanha começou cedo no ataque contra Portugal, e embora Portugal tenha feito mais de vinte ataques à baliza (o dobro dos alemães), o certo é que só conseguimos marcar 2 golos contra os 3 da Alemanha… Resultado, foi frustração total. Adeus Euro e adeus Suiça!
Esperemos que em 2012 tenhamos mais sorte!!!

Na fase do mata-mata,
acabámos mesmo por “Morrer”... Cedo!!!

June’s Picture

♥ The Children are… The Most Beautiful thing in the whole World!!!