Is there a “Home Plate” on Mars?

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this false-color image on Mars during the rover’s 746th Martian day, or sol, after using the rock abrasion tool to brush the surfaces of rock targets informally named “Stars” (left) and “Crawfords” (right). Small streaks of dust extend for several centimeters behind the small rock chips and pebbles in the dusty, red soils. Because the rover was looking southwest when this image was taken, the wind streaks indicate that the dominant wind direction was from the southeast. Stars and Crawfords are on a rock outcrop located on top of “Home Plate.” The outcrop is informally named “James ‘Cool Papa’ Bell,” after a Negro League Baseball Hall of Famer who played for both the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Kansas City Stars. To some science team members,the two brushed spots resemble the eyes of a face, with rocks below and between the eyes as a nose and layered rocks at the bottom of the image as a mouth.

You can find more fascinating images of Mars in Mars as Art  actual images of Mars taken from orbit and from the planetary surface by visiting spacecraft. Five thousand images were nominated by scientist; forty-five were selected by a panel of professional artists, photographers, and photo editors. Every successful Mars mission since Viking is represented in this collection.

The Mars as Art exhibition showcases selected images returned by spacecraft from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). These images are chosen for their aesthetic rather than scientific value. The exhibit was unveiled on July 20, 2006, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Viking Landing.

You can learn more about Mars and missions to Mars in these Library resources:

• Science in Context – Mars
• Science Online
• Imaging: Real-Life Math Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2006. p262-268.
• Commercialization of Space: Mathematics
• Digital Images: Computer Sciences
• Destination Mars : new explorations of the Red Planet
• The case for Mars
• Martian summer
• Exploring Mars
• Life on Mars : poems
• NASA Mars Missions
• NASA Art
• International Association of Astronomical Artists:

 

Brain Teaser – Which Instrument are these musicians famous for playing?

All you have to do in this brainteaser is say which instrument these musicians are or were most famous for playing. For example, if the musician is Elton John or Mozart, the answer would be the piano. Need help? Use Credo Reference Online.

1. Ringo Starr.

2. Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

3. Brian May (born 1947).

4. Jerry Lee Lewis.

5. Jacqueline du Pré.

6. Benny Goodman (1909-1986)

7. Colin Greenwood (of Radiohead).

8. Ravi Shankar.

9. Louis Armstrong.

10. Franz Liszt.

How did you do?

0 – 1 Mmmm, not exactly brilliant.
2 – 5 A reasonable stab.
6 – 8 A good showing. But there’s still room for improvement!
9 – 10 You really know your stuff. Well done!

Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)

The Umbrellas

The Umbrellas (about 1881-1886), the artist of the painting is Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a French Impressionist painter. According to Renoir, he began the painting in 1881, painting the figures on the right, but then put it aside and finished it about five years later. During those years, Renoir rethought his whole approach to painting and rejected Impressionism.

Fun Fact: The painting looks like the work of two different artists, because the figures on the right are painted in a loose, Impressionist style with feathery brushwork, blurred contours and intense blues while the rest of the picture is more linear and more sombre in coloring. Read More…

Other Library Resources to learn about art & artists:

Hot Topics Arts – Visual Arts

Biography in Context

Freegal – Free Music

This week we gave our free music site – Freegal – a great new look, an improved search engine, upgraded capacity and quicker browsing access to the most popular music.   The alphabetical browsing of artists is still there, but it has been moved to the genres page, which is accessed by pressing the “see all genres” button on the lower left part of the home page.

Freegal is busy loading in over 2 million songs from over 15,000 music labels through their new distribution deal with IODA Alliance.  That process should be complete by the end of the month.

At the end of this month, we expect to notify you of the availability of the Freegal Mobile apps for Apple and Android.

Brain Teaser – Which Group?

Can you identify the rock and pop groups to which these players belong or belonged? Need Help? Use Credo Reference Online!

1. Which US pop group included

, Tito Jackson and Jermaine Jackson?

2. Which Swedish pop group included Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson?

3. Which British rock band included Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook?

4. Which US group included Carl Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine?

5. Which British pop group, formed in 1960, had a drummer called Pete Best?

6. Which Irish boy band, created by Louis Walsh, included Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately?

7. Which American vocal group included Renaldo Benson, Abdul Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Levi Stubbs?

8. Which British synth-pop duo formed in 1981 consisted of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart?

9. Which British rock band included Jonny Buckland and Will Champion?

10. Which American band included Billy Corgan, James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky?

How did you do?

0 – 1 Mmmm, not exactly brilliant.
2 – 5 A reasonable stab.
6 – 8 A good showing. But there’s still room for improvement!
9 – 10 You really know your stuff. Well done!

Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)