Yep, your turn.

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

Ok. My question has two parts.

A) Some people have suggested that the universe will come to an end when its ever-increasing rate of expansion causes all matter to basically fly apart. What is the term applied to this theory?



B) If it wasn't for me, the Earth would be getting bombarded with asteroids, and terrestrial life would have never evolved as far as it did. What am I?

The big rip

You must be the planet Jupiter.

__________________
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

Yep your right, your turn

Oh superluminal, where art thou? The board thirsteth for your question...

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

I was going to look something up that would really stump everybody, but don't look like I'll have time this weekend. So here's something that ought to be easy.

Who discovered the volcanos of Io?

__________________
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

The volcanism was detected on images taken with the Voyager I spacecraft. But as for whom? - Hmmmm. The first publication on Io's volcanism is

Strom, R.G., R.J. Terrile, H. Masursky, and C.J. Hansen, "Volcanic Eruption Plumes on Io," Nature, Vol. 280, p. 733, 1979.

So maybe you are talking about these four?

__________________
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Partially correct, V1 is the spacecraft, but the name I'm looking for was a member of the navigation team.

__________________
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

A woman?

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- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

I venture it was: Linda Morabito (today Morabito Keller)

__________________
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Arneb got it. Your turn.

__________________
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

Ah, nice. It's been a while. Another attempt at tormenting you with some - very - amateur astrophotography:

I shot this image near Paks, Hungary, with a 35 mm film SLR and a 50 mm lens. When, exactly (to within five minutes)?

Attached Images

Arneb_UAQ_2.jpg (88.6 KB, 23 views)

__________________
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Well, I'll start the ball rolling. I probably haven't even got the year right:

31 August 2005 at 11:05 am

__________________
- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

how did you not damage your camera? Is Venus that easy to capture?

__________________
"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

Nope - In fact, the date is quite far off. How did you get the idea, by the way?

No problem with the camera.

__________________
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

I just fiddled with Starry Night until Venus seemed to be in the right position with respect to the Sun.

__________________
- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

That's a nice picture, Arneb. I noticed the sky seems a bit blue; you must have taken it during the day.

Was that day in November?

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I'm glad to read that. I would be afraid to take a photo of the sun, even at short exposures.

__________________
"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

OK, I'll have another go.

The horizontal angle of view for 35mm film taken with a 50mm lens is 39.6°.

So, in your photo the angle between Venus and the Sun is about 19.8°?

26 May 2004 at 7:30 am

(There are plenty of more recent dates that might also fit these parameters, but this was the first that caught my eye on the Ephemeris Generator.)

__________________
- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

Last year (2005) there were two time periods near that angle: Late Jan and early Feb; May.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Nope again; again, quite far off.

That seems a good guess and holds a clue to the answer - from watching the simulated sky for the true time the photo was taken [insert evil laughter smiley here], I guessed the angle to be close to 15° - but that was only "pi times thumb" reckoning.

May I venture that some lateral thinking is involved in the solution of the question. This is not an exercise in astronomical image processing, nor was this image taken with anything like astronomical/scientific accuracy in mind. I dare say astronomical software will be essentially useless. As you say, there are many dates with Venus being x ° away from the Sun. The sheer angular separation, even if you could compute ist to 0.x° would never give you a sufficient answer because you do not (and neither do I) know how far Venus was above/below the ecliptic nor do you even know how I held the camera when I shot this photo (did I shoot by hand; is the lower edge parallel to the local horizon? did I shoot from an alt-az mount; an equatorial...?).

May I also say that I think the information I have given in my post - image and text - is both necesessary and sufficient to produce the correct answer.