A spectacular northern lights display and planetary lineup converged this past weekend, creating an unforgettable night sky show for some lucky stargazers around the world.
But, as night follows day, or as a planetary nebula becomes a white dwarf, it has its detractors.
In this, Sharon was in many ways the distilled embodiment of what Amos Elon meant when he spoke about the sons of the founders — sons who believed (as Moshe Dayan had put it) that walking the Land of Israel taught Jews how the sun comes up in the morning and sets at night; that founders who believed in planetary motion were overcomplicating things.
"So the sceptics might be right: Branson's various climate adventures may indeed prove to have all been a spectacle, a Virgin production, with everyone's favourite bearded billionaire playing the part of planetary saviour to build his brand, land on late night TV, fend off regulators, and feel good about doing bad," Klein writes in This Changes Everything, Capitalism vs The Climate.
Moreover for some days, e. g. 25/03/2005 and 06/02/2006, the thermodynamic conditions in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) adversely affect pollutants dispersion leading to PM10 night values bigger than daily ones, in spite of emission sources reduction during the night.
Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates Curiosity and many of the other planetary missions, said it was well worth the money and compared the night's exhilaration to an adventure movie.
Along with his colleague Wei Pu in the Bureau of Astronomy, Shen Kuo planned to plot out the exact coordinates of planetary and lunar movements by recording their astronomical observations three times a night for a continuum of five years.
Starry nights and urban cities don't mix, as light pollution overpowers constellations and planetary visages, leaving the moon to glow by its lonesome self.
A rare night of spectacular atmospheric conditions at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii last May allowed planetary scientist Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to distinguish the light from Pluto and Charon more clearly than ever before.
That night Thayer and his team will light the petroleum, creating a huge flare that will "petition for man's membership in the fraternity of planetary civilizations".
Dr Robin Russell-Jones Chair, Planetary SOS.
