Gagarin's First Orbit, Failed telephony prediction, How many moons in the Solar System?

[Nostromics Newsletter]

Nostromics Newsletter

Nostromics science gifts product news, educational resources & science tidbits

Nostromics Newsletter, 6 April 2011 - You are welcome to share this mail, see newsletter back issues

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Gagarin's First Orbit movie

April 12, 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight. On april 12, 1961 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly into space onboard the Vostok 1 Soviet spacecraft. To celebrate this pioneering mission, The Attic Room media company, in collaboration with the European Space Agency and other partners, will release worldwide First Orbit, a free film inspired by 50 years of human space flight.

First Orbit is the closest view of what Yuri Gagarin actually saw from space. It is based on footage shot by International Space Station astronauts flying over the same Earth areas and ligthing conditions of Gagarin's flight. It also features actual mission audio and an original soundtrack.

The film will be streamed for the premiere on the FirstOrbit YouTube channel from midnight on the International Date Line on April 12, 2011. The film will also be screened at many events around the world for celebrating Yuri's Night - The World Space Party. It will later be possible to watch the movie online, and share it under a Creative Commons license.

A failed prediction on the future of telephony

Telephones are now ubiquitous and we take them for granted, but there was a time when the future and diffusion of this communication system was dubious and unclear.

Our No Telephone Needed Women's T-Shirt mentions a failed prediction about the future development of telephones. The text on the T-shirt says "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.", and it was written in 1876 by British Post Office chief engineer Sir William Preece. Not exactly what happened.

See other No Telephone Needed clothing in the History of Science section of Nostromics Store. More science gifts and products at Nostromics Store.

How many moons there are in the Solar System?

The total number of moons in the Solar System, i.e. natural satellites orbiting around the planets, changes from time to time due to new discoveries from unmanned space probes visiting these objects. So far we have the following counts:

• Jupiter: 63
• Saturn: 62
• Uranus: 27
• Neptune: 13
• Mars: 2
• Earth: 1
• Mercury, Venus: 0

So, 168 moons are currently known to orbit the 8 planets.

-- Paolo Amoroso & Mauro Arpino (Nostromics), science educators - Milan, Italy

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Copyright (C) 2011 by Paolo Amoroso and Mauro Arpino