Let in the Light: Ancient Roman Fort Designed for Celestial Show (Hardknott Roman Fort)

"The gateways of an ancient Roman fort in Britain are roughly aligned with the light from the sun during the summer and winter solstices — a design that would have resulted in a striking scene on the shortest and longest days of the year, a researcher says. ... "Let in the Light: Ancient Roman Fort Designed for Celestial Show

Hardknott Roman Fort 

Watch Water Droplets Explode When Frozen from Outside-In | Video

Watch Water Droplets Explode When Frozen from Outside-In | Video

Egg rock

Cratere Gale, Sol 1505 (27 Ottobre 2016, tempo terrestre).

Il rover Curiosity si trova nella zona detta Murray Formation presso la base del Monte Sharp che è al centro del cratere. Durante la ricognizione, la Front Right Hazcam del rover, una delle quattro Hazard Avoidance Camera di Curiosity, registra l'immagine che vediamo nella Figura 1. Vicino al rover c'è qualcosa delle dimensioni di una pallina da golf, con una superficie sferica liscia e scura, che merita di essere vista meglio con la Mastcam, il sistema che fornisce immagini true-color del suolo di Marte. Il rover trasmette così a Terra un immagine che mostra che questo piccolo oggetto sferico è un meteorite ferroso (Figura 2), una parte di un corpo celeste che si è fuso nell'impatto con l’atmosfera di Marte. Questo meteorite è stato chiamato “Egg Rock”.

https://www.scribd.com/document/399967850/Egg-Rock-il-meteorite-ferroso-di-Marte

La guerra di Caligola contro Poseidone

La guerra di Caligola contro Poseidone

Questo link vi porta alla discussione di un meme motivatore, su curioso aneddoto di Gaio Giulio Cesare Augusto Germanico, il terzo imperatore romano passato alla storia col nomignolo di Caligola.

"Ogni volta che fai qualcosa di stupido, ricorda che l’Imperatore Caligola intraprese una guerra contro Poseidone (Dio del mare) e ordinò ai suoi uomini di sferrare coltellate all’acqua e scagliare lance in mare così a caso."

"Sfortunatamente, - dice il sito - stiamo parlando in questo caso dell’equivalente storico di una leggenda urbana. Tutto quel che sappiamo degli imperatori è frutto ciò che ci è stato tramandato dai membri della classe senatoria, i quali erano ostili a chiunque volesse incentrare tutti i poteri su di sé. "
In questo caso è Svetonio, Caligola, Liber IV.46.  "L’evento ricalca un topos letterario nella narrazione delle guerre persiane: la flagellazione dell’Ellesponto. Durante la seconda spedizione, Serse I di Persia volle costruire un ponte di barche per superare un tratto di mare piuttosto profondo dell’antico Stretto dei Dardanelli. Il ponte fu distrutto dalla violenza del mare quando i lavori erano ormai quasi giunti al termine. Serse decapitò i responsabili della costruzione e ordinò di flagellare l’Ellesponto, colpevole di avergli arrecato un’offesa personale."

Images - Mars Science Laboratory

Images - Mars Science Laboratory

Alveolar Stones on Mars

Curiosity - Sol 1403

Adjusted

Green stone of Mars

Curiosity Sol 1505

Curiosity Rover Finds and Examines a Meteorite on Mars

http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=8149

Alveoli in the stone - Mars

Here magnificent alveoli in the stone on MARS. Curiosity Sol 1523

Note the bright lines which are segmenting the stone!

Wonderful.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=1523MH0003690000600330R00_DXXX&s=1523.76560068931

Again, we have a sort of honeycomb weathering. "Honeycomb weathering, also known as fretting, cavernous weathering, alveoli/alveolar weathering, stone lattice, stone lace or miniature tafoni weathering (Mustoe, 1982) is a form of salt weathering common on coastal and semi-arid granites, sandstones and limestones (Mustoe 1982)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_weathering

Martian Curiosity

"Martian Wood"

Of course, this is not wood. This formation is interesting because it looks like a sort of  honeycomb weathering.  "Honeycomb weathering, also known as fretting, cavernous weathering, alveoli/alveolar weathering, stone lattice, stone lace or miniature tafoni weathering (Mustoe, 1982) is a form of salt weathering common on coastal and semi-arid granites, sandstones and limestones (Mustoe 1982)."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_weathering

Curiosity Sol 1523

Martian Curiosity

Curiosity Sol 1537.

"Snake"

This is a very interesting rock formation. When the image is enhanced,  the colours make it looking like a "snake". 

We can see a stone of the same kind in other images of Curiosity - Sol 1514

Fantastic Research and Where to Find It

Fantastic Research and Where to Find It


Very interesting on SSRN BLOG

If we haven’t already sent you running to do a QuickSearch for “Harry Potter” in the eLibrary then perhaps we can interest you with some choice titles we found there. Without further ado:

Our Favorite Harry Potter Themed Titles Available on SSRN

Ales Stenar and the Moon

The Ales Stenar, known in English as the Ale’s Stones, is an ancient megalithic monument of Sweden. The stones are outlining a ship. The paper

"Astronomical Alignments of Ales Stenar Along Sunset and Moonset Directions"

shows alignments of the stones along the northern possible moonset on major and minor lunar standstills. These astronomical alignments are shown using the Photographer’s Ephemeris. It is possible that this megalithic monument was used for observing the cycles of the moon.

In this image, we can see the left side of the Ales Stenar and the direction of the northern moonset (blue line) on a major lunar standstill, represented by the blue line. Note the alignment of the stones along this direction.

Here, we can see the right side of the Ales Stenar and the direction of the northern moonset (blue line) on a minor lunar standstill, represented by the blue line. Note the alignment of the stones along this direction.

The images are snapshots of the results of Photographer's Ephemeris. In the images, the yellow and orange lines are giving the directions of sunrise and sunset on the days of lunar standstills.

On the summer solstice, we have the main axis of Ales Stenar oriented along the sunset. In the following image, this direction is given by the orange line. 

A skyscraper as a huge diffraction grating

The Intesa Sanpaolo Tower in Torino behaves like a huge "diffraction grating". The facade is a doudle-skin one, the outer skin being mabde by a steel frame an orientable transparent panels. This outer skin  becomes a huge optical device.
The south side has only the central part covered by the doudle-skin. The rest is covered by photovoltaic panels. In the proper incident sunlight,  we can see the central part dispersing the white light in colored beams. Here two images of the phenomenon.

The sequence lasts 10 minutes. 

For more details, read please this article
A skyscraper as a huge diffraction grating

Vito Volterra

Vito Volterra and his commemoration for the centenary of Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01353959/

On the Karnak Temple and the Sun Hierophany

The Karnak Temple and the Motion of the Earth's Axis

Article published on SSRN Journal.

Abstract: The Karnak Temple complex comprises a vast mix of temples, chapels and other buildings. Its construction began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued during the Ptolemaic period. The temple was the main place of worship the Amun-Ra, the Sun God. Not surprisingly his temple has its axis aligned along the sunrise azimuth on the winter solstice. Here we will discuss how the motion of the Earth’s axis has altered, in four thousand years, this alignment of half a degree.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2795239

Sun hierophany at the temple on the winter solstice