Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. [1] Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil , which comes from the Dutch word traan ("tear drop"). Sperm oil , a special kind of oil obtained from the head cavities of sperm whales , differs chemically from ordinary whale oil: it is composed mostly of liquid wax .
The sensationalist History Channel documentary "America:The Story of Us" in episode 4 makes the breathless claim that the Hubble Space Telescope "runs" on whale oil. I don't know if they just meant that some parts are lubed with it, but they said "run" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.249.51.220 04:34, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
NGC 4631 (also known as the Whale Galaxy or Caldwell 32) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici about 30 million light years away from Earth. It was discovered on 20 March 1787 by German-British astronomer William Herschel . [ 4 ]
New Bedford was once the city that lit the world, exporting vast quantities of whale oil for lamps in the early 1800s. Nearly two centuries later New Bedford aspires to light the world again, in a ...
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope , but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy .
Whale oil is preferred for lubricating clocks, because it does not evaporate, leaving dust, although its use was banned in the US in 1980. [14] It is a long-running myth that spermaceti from whales has still been used in NASA projects such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager probe because of its extremely low freezing temperature ...
Studying X-ray and gamma-ray objects with Hubble, as well as Chandra and Compton, gives accurate size and positional data. In particular, Hubble's resolution can often discern whether the target is a standalone object, or part of a parent galaxy, and if a bright object is in the nucleus, arms, or halo of a spiral galaxy. Similarly, the smaller ...
The Hale Telescope is a 200-inch (5.1 m), f / 3.3 reflecting telescope at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, US, named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1928, he orchestrated the planning, design, and construction of the observatory, but with the project ending up taking ...