The Dance of Venus and Earth

Every time Venus passes the Earth, it shows the same face. This remarkable fact has been known for only about 50 years, ever since radio telescopes have been able to peer beneath Venus’ thick clouds and track its slowly rotating surface. This inferior conjunction — when Venus and Earth are the closest — occurs today. The featured animation shows the positions of the Sun, Venus and Earth between 2010-2023 based on NASA-downloaded data, while a mock yellow ‘arm’ has been fixed to the ground on Venus to indicate rotation. The reason for this unusual 1.6-year resonance is the gravitational influence that Earth has on Venus, which surprisingly dominates the Sun’s tidal effect. If Venus could be seen through the Sun’s glare today, it would show just a very slight sliver of a crescent. Although previously visible in the evening sky, starting tomorrow, Venus will appear in the morning sky — on the other side of the Sun as viewed from Earth. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-6Jt

Wikipedia article of the day for June 3, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day is Sega. Check it out: https://ift.tt/1MkzWF1 Summary: Sega is a Japanese video game developer and publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It was founded by Martin Bromley and Richard Stewart on JuneΒ 3, 1960; shortly after, the company acquired the assets of its predecessor, Service Games of Japan. Sega developed its first coin-operated game, Periscope, Following a downturn in the arcade business in the early 1980s, Sega began to develop video game consoles, starting with the SG-1000 and Master System, but struggled against competitors such as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Sega released its next console, the Sega Genesis, in 1988; it found success outside Japan after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. In 2001, Sega stopped manufacturing consoles to become a third-party developer and publisher, and was acquired by Sammy Corporation in 2004. Sega produces multi-million-selling game franchises, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, and Yakuza, and is the world’s most prolific arcade game producer.