O amigo e astrônomo Col Maybury de Newcastle / Australia, juntamente com um membro do parlamento australiano, o Dr. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, conseguiram aprovar junto a NASA e IAU, a designação de “Nobbys Head” para uma formação na superfície de Marte.
“Nobbys Head” é uma pequena e bela ilha rochosa redonda, localizada na baia de Newcastle/Austrália, marcado a entrada do rio Hunter e do porto de Newcastle.
A pequena ilha “Nobbys Head” foi avistada pelo Capitão Cook quando navegava pela costa da Austrália em 1770 e descrita por ele, na época, como uma pequena pedra ou ilha.
Col Maybury, presidente da associação astronômica Hunter, de Newcastle teve a brilhante idéia e o Dr. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, membro do parlamento australiano prontamente deu apoio à idéia e escreveu para a NASA fazendo o pedido. Ambos conseguiram eternizar na história marciana e espacial, o nome da pequena ilha que é um marco da cidade de Newcastle.
Imagem: o amigo e astrônomo Col Maybury, de Newcastle / Australia.
Imagem: o Nobbys Head original (terráqueo).
Assista a entrevista do astrônomo Col Maybury sobre Nobbys Head em Marte, para a estação de TV de Newcastle/Australia: http://soulstream1.sptel.com.au/NBN_News//nobbysmars120911.wmv
Veja abaixo, as informações publicadas pela University of Newcastle, Australia sobre a aprovação do nome da pequena ilha australiana para uma formação na superfície marciana:
Nobbys Head on Mars
August 18, 2011 by uoncc
Exciting news from Col Maybury, President of the Astronomical Society of the Hunter, with the inclusion of the name ‘Nobbys Head’ on a geological feature on the planet Mars.
Col wrote to the NASA team for naming rights a year or so ago as the little Mars Rover Opportunity trundled its way across the Martian desert. He asked that they consider naming a small prominence on Mars located at the aptly named Endeavour Crater after Captain Cook’s sighting of Nobbys by moonlight, while traveling up our coast on the 10th of May 1770.
He wrote that Captain Cook:
"recorded its co-ordinates in his journal, marvelously accurately, as behooves a scientist of his stature. The ” Small round rock or island,” still marks the entrance to the Hunter River and Port of Newcastle and, as you can see by the accompanying picture, is loved by Novocastrians which us residents of Newcastle call each other".
NASA replied that they would look at the request when Opportunity arrived at the Endevour. He again wrote to them recently and sent a letter to the editor published from the Newcastle Herald from Elaine Street with Brett Whitely’s painting of Nobbys Head, and was thrilled to announce yesterday that it did it!
Nobbys Head is immortalised on Mars and in Captain Cooks Journal. The area is reminiscent of the original drawing of Nobbys by Barrallier in 1801.
And here is its location.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/multimedia/gallery/pia13708.html
Location of the rim of the Endevour Crater on Mars
Here is a closer look.
Closeup of Nobbys Head on Mar
Email from Ray Arvidson (NASA) to Col Maybury:
"Attached is a jpeg showing part of a HiRISE orbital image and covering the part of Endeavour’s rim that we named Knobbys Head. On Mars the central bumpy part is about 100 m wide and a few meters tall. The surrounding flat bench extends out to a diameter of about 200 m. The bumpy parts are part of Endeavour’s rim and the surrounding bench is made of sedimentary rocks that embay the rim. Knobbys Head is south of Cape York and Sutherland Point".
Thanks to Col Maybury for placing Newcastle and its iconic Nobbys on the intergalactic map.
