The Planets

Gr. phosphoros, light bearing ancient name for the planet Venus when appearing before sunrise) Brand discovered phosphorus in 1669 by preparing it from urine. 

Anglo-Saxon lead L. plumbum) Long known, mentioned in Exodus. The alchemists believed lead to be the oldest metal and associated with the planet Saturn. Native lead occurs in nature, but it is rare. 

Of all the monosaccharides d (+) glucose is the best known most important and most abundant Its formation from carbon dioxide water and sunlight is the central theme of photosynthesis Carbohydrate formation by photosynthesis is estimated to be on the order of 10 tons per year a source of stored energy utilized directly or indi rectly by all higher forms of life on the planet Glucose was isolated from raisins m 1747 and by hydrolysis of starch m 1811 Its structure was determined in work culmi nating m 1900 by Emil Fischer... 

Irradiation of ethyleneimine (341,342) with light of short wavelength ia the gas phase has been carried out direcdy and with sensitization (343—349). Photolysis products found were hydrogen, nitrogen, ethylene, ammonium, saturated hydrocarbons (methane, ethane, propane, / -butane), and the dimer of the ethyleneimino radical. The nature and the amount of the reaction products is highly dependent on the conditions used. For example, the photoproducts identified ia a fast flow photoreactor iacluded hydrocyanic acid and acetonitrile (345), ia addition to those found ia a steady state system. The reaction of hydrogen radicals with ethyleneimine results ia the formation of hydrocyanic acid ia addition to methane (350). Important processes ia the photolysis of ethyleneimine are nitrene extmsion and homolysis of the N—H bond, as suggested and simulated by ab initio SCF calculations (351). The occurrence of ethyleneimine as an iatermediate ia the photolytic formation of hydrocyanic acid from acetylene and ammonia ia the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter has been postulated (352), but is disputed (353). 

Magnetospheric plasmas are produced and heavily influenced by solar emissions and activity and by magnetic fields of the planets. Interplanetary plasmas result from solar emission processes alone. Protons in the solar wind have low densities (10—100/cm ) and temperatures below 10 to more than 10 K (1—10 eV). Their average outward kinetic energy from the sun is approximately 400 eV (58,59). The various 2ones and phenomena from the sun s visible surface to the upper atmosphere of the earth have been discussed (60—62). 

Uranium [7440-61-17 is a naturally occurring radioactive element with atomic number 92 and atomic mass 238.03. Uranium was discovered in a pitchblende [1317-75-5] specimen ia 1789 by M. H. Klaproth (1) who named the element uranit after the planet Uranus, which had been recendy discovered. For 50 years the material discovered by Klaproth was thought to be metallic uranium. Pnligot showed that the uranit discovered by Klaproth was really uranium dioxide [1344-57-6] UO2, and obtained the tme elemental uranium as a black powder in 1841 by reduction of UCl [10026-10-5] with potassium (2). 

The ocean is an integral part of the climate system. It contains almost 96% of the water in the Earth s biosphere and is the dominant source of water vapour for the atmosphere. It covers 71% of the planet s surface and has a heat capacity more than four times that of the atmosphere. With more than 97% of solar radiation being absorbed that falls on the surface from incident angles less than 50" from the vertical, it is the main store of energy within the climate system. 

Thus the atmospheric component of the planet s radiation budget is strongly modulated by the indirect effects of oceanic gas and particle exchange. As will be... 

Benedick, R. E., "Ozone Diplomacy New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet." Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991. 

An extensive source of natural pollutants is the plants and trees of the earth. Even though these green plants play a large part in the conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen through photosynthesis, they are still the major source of hydrocarbons on the planet. The familiar blue haze over forested areas is nearly all from the atmospheric reactions of the volatile organics... 

All of the energy that drives the atmosphere is derived from a minor star in the universe—our sun. The planet that we inhabit, earth, is 150 million km from the sun. The energy received from the sun is radiant energy—electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic spectrum is shown in Fig. 17-1. Although this energy is, in part, furnished to the atmosphere, it is primarily received at the earth s surface and redistributed by several... 

The last three decades have seen the development of a new science to help us better understand the risk of events about which there is often very little information. The reason there is interest in such a science is that there are a great many societal benefits from activities that involve risk risk that if properly managed through better understanding can greatly benefit the quality of all life on the planet earth, both plant and animal. That science is quantitative risk assessment, also known by such names as probabilistic risk assessment and probabilistic salety assessment, the latter being the preferred name for this text. Probabilistic safety assessment divides the risk question into three questions "What can go wrong " "How likely is it " and "What are the consequences "... 

An increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 has been thought by some to expose the planet to the dangers of a greenhouse... 

Sulfur and H2SO4 detected in the atmosphere of the planet Venus by USSR Venera 8 (subsequently confirmed... 

Plutonium, Pu G. T. Seaborg, 1940 Bombardment of jU The planet Pluto (next... 

Thus, astronomers also suffer from the three-body problem when they try to study the motion of the planets round the sun. They are lucky in that the gravitational force between bodies A and B goes as... 

The poorer nations of the planet had no choice, and used bicycles and public transportation exclusively. For example, when China was under Mao Tse Tung s rule, the number of private automobiles was only in the hundreds. 

The superiority of Einstein s over Newton s theory became manifest in 1915, when Einstein could for the first time explain an anomaly in the motion of the planet Mercuiy (advance of the perihelion), known obseiwationally since 1859. He also predicted that... 

In November 1919 Einstein became the mythical figure he is to this day. In May of that year two solar eclipse expeditions had (in the words of the astronomer Eddington) confirm[ed] Einstein s weird theory of non-Euclidean space. On November 6 the president of the Royal Society declared in London that this was the most remarkable scientific event since the discoveiy [in 18461 of the predicted existence of the planet Neptune. ... 

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