title: Sun content: Long-term secular change in sunspot number is thought, by some scientists, to be correlated with long-term change in solar irradiance, which, in turn, might influence Earth's long-term climate. For example, in the 17th century, the solar cycle appeared to have stopped entirely for several decades; few sunspots were observed during a period known as the Maunder minimum. This coincided in time with the era of the Little Ice Age, when Europe experienced unusually cold temperatures. Earlier extended minima have been discovered through analysis of tree rings and appear to have coincided with lower-than-average global temperatures. A recent theory claims that


title: Sun content: there are magnetic instabilities in the core of the Sun that cause fluctuations with periods of either 41,000 or 100,000 years. These could provide a better explanation of the ice ages than the Milankovitch cycles. The Sun today is roughly halfway through the most stable part of its life. It has not changed dramatically for over four billion years, and will remain fairly stable for more than five billion more. However, after hydrogen fusion in its core has stopped, the Sun will undergo dramatic changes, both internally and externally. The Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse


title: Sun content: of part of a giant molecular cloud that consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium and that probably gave birth to many other stars. This age is estimated using computer models of stellar evolution and through nucleocosmochronology. The result is consistent with the radiometric date of the oldest Solar System material, at 4.567 billion years ago. Studies of ancient meteorites reveal traces of stable daughter nuclei of short-lived isotopes, such as iron-60, that form only in exploding, short-lived stars. This indicates that one or more supernovae must have occurred near the location where the Sun formed. A shock wave from a


title: Sun content: nearby supernova would have triggered the formation of the Sun by compressing the matter within the molecular cloud and causing certain regions to collapse under their own gravity. As one fragment of the cloud collapsed it also began to rotate because of conservation of angular momentum and heat up with the increasing pressure. Much of the mass became concentrated in the center, whereas the rest flattened out into a disk that would become the planets and other Solar System bodies. Gravity and pressure within the core of the cloud generated a lot of heat as it accreted more matter from


title: Sun content: the surrounding disk, eventually triggering nuclear fusion. HD 162826 and HD 186302 are hypothesized stellar siblings of the Sun, having formed in the same molecular cloud. The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence stage, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. Each second, more than four million tonnes of matter are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation. At this rate, the Sun has so far converted around 100 times the mass of Earth into energy, about 0.03% of the total mass of the Sun. The Sun will spend


title: Sun content: a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main-sequence star. The Sun is gradually becoming hotter during its time on the main sequence, because the helium atoms in the core occupy less volume than the hydrogen atoms that were fused. The core is therefore shrinking, allowing the outer layers of the Sun to move closer to the centre and experience a stronger gravitational force, according to the inverse-square law. This stronger force increases the pressure on the core, which is resisted by a gradual increase in the rate at which fusion occurs. This process speeds up as the core


title: Sun content: gradually becomes denser. It is estimated that the Sun has become 30% brighter in the last 4.5 billion years. At present, it is increasing in brightness by about 1% every 100 million years. The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova. Instead it will exit the main sequence in approximately 5 billion years and start to turn into a red giant. As a red giant, the Sun will grow so large that it will engulf Mercury, Venus, and probably Earth. Even before it becomes a red giant, the luminosity of the Sun will have nearly doubled,


title: Sun content: and Earth will receive as much sunlight as Venus receives today. Once the core hydrogen is exhausted in 5.4 billion years, the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over about half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the red-giant-branch phase where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. After the red-giant branch the Sun has


title: Sun content: approximately 120 million years of active life left, but much happens. First, the core, full of degenerate helium ignites violently in the helium flash, where it is estimated that 6% of the core, itself 40% of the Sun's mass, will be converted into carbon within a matter of minutes through the triple-alpha process. The Sun then shrinks to around 10 times its current size and 50 times the luminosity, with a temperature a little lower than today. It will then have reached the red clump or horizontal branch, but a star of the Sun's mass does not evolve blueward along


title: Sun content: the horizontal branch. Instead, it just becomes moderately larger and more luminous over about 100 million years as it continues to burn helium in the core. When the helium is exhausted, the Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the hydrogen in the core was exhausted, except that this time it all happens faster, and the Sun becomes larger and more luminous. This is the asymptotic-giant-branch phase, and the Sun is alternately burning hydrogen in a shell or helium in a deeper shell. After about 20 million years on the early asymptotic giant branch, the Sun becomes increasingly unstable,


title: Sun content: with rapid mass loss and thermal pulses that increase the size and luminosity for a few hundred years every 100,000 years or so. The thermal pulses become larger each time, with the later pulses pushing the luminosity to as much as 5,000 times the current level and the radius to over 1 AU. According to a 2008 model, Earth's orbit is shrinking due to tidal forces (and, eventually, drag from the lower chromosphere), so that it will be engulfed by the Sun near the tip of the red giant branch phase, 3.8 and 1 million years after Mercury and Venus


title: Sun content: have respectively suffered the same fate. Models vary depending on the rate and timing of mass loss. Models that have higher mass loss on the red-giant branch produce smaller, less luminous stars at the tip of the asymptotic giant branch, perhaps only 2,000 times the luminosity and less than 200 times the radius. For the Sun, four thermal pulses are predicted before it completely loses its outer envelope and starts to make a planetary nebula. By the end of that phase—lasting approximately 500,000 years—the Sun will only have about half of its current mass. The post-asymptotic-giant-branch evolution is even faster.


title: Sun content: The luminosity stays approximately constant as the temperature increases, with the ejected half of the Sun's mass becoming ionised into a planetary nebula as the exposed core reaches 30,000 K. The final naked core, a white dwarf, will have a temperature of over 100,000 K, and contain an estimated 54.05% of the Sun's present day mass. The planetary nebula will disperse in about 10,000 years, but the white dwarf will survive for trillions of years before fading to a hypothetical black dwarf. The Sun lies close to the inner rim of the Milky Way's Orion Arm, in the Local Interstellar


title: Sun content: Cloud or the Gould Belt, at a distance of 7.5–8.5 kpc (25,000–28,000 light-years) from the Galactic Center. The Sun is contained within the Local Bubble, a space of rarefied hot gas, possibly produced by the supernova remnant Geminga, or multiple supernovae in subgroup B1 of the Pleiades moving group. The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years. The Sun, and thus the Solar System, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone. The "Apex of the Sun's Way", or the solar apex, is the direction that the Sun


title: Sun content: travels relative to other nearby stars. This motion is towards a point in the constellation Hercules, near the star Vega. Of the 50 nearest stellar systems within 17 light-years from Earth (the closest being the red dwarf Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.2 light-years), the Sun ranks fourth in mass. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, and it is presently moving in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus. A simple model of the motion of a star in the galaxy gives the galactic coordinates , , and as: where , , and are the respective velocities with


title: Sun content: respect to the local standard of rest, and are the Oort constants, formula_4 is the angular velocity of galactic rotation for the local standard of rest, formula_5 is the "epicyclic frequency", and ν is the vertical oscillation frequency. For the sun, the present values of , , and are estimated as formula_6 km/s, and estimates for the other constants are = 15.5 km/s/kpc, = −12.2 km/s/kpc, κ = 37 km/s/kpc, and ν=74 km/s/kpc. We take and to be zero and is estimated to be 17 parsecs. This model implies that the Sun circulates around a point that is itself going


title: Sun content: around the galaxy. The period of the Sun's circulation around the point is formula_7. which, using the equivalence that a parsec equals 1 km/s times 0.978 million years, comes to 166 million years, shorter than the time it takes for the point to go around the galaxy. In the () coordinates, the sun describes an ellipse around the point, whose length in the direction is and whose width in the direction is The ratio of length to width of this ellipse, the same for all stars in our neighborhood, is formula_10 The moving point is presently at The oscillation in


title: Sun content: the direction takes the Sun above the galactic plane and the same distance below it, with a period of formula_14 or 83 million years, approximately 2.7 times per orbit. Although formula_15 is 222 million years, the value of formula_16 at the point around which the Sun circulates is (see Oort constants), corresponding to 235 million years, and this is the time that the point takes to go once around the galaxy. Other stars with the same value of formula_18 have take the same amount of time to go around the galaxy as the sun and thus remain in the same


title: Sun content: general vicinity as the Sun. The Sun's orbit around the Milky Way is perturbed due to the non-uniform mass distribution in Milky Way, such as that in and between the galactic spiral arms. It has been argued that the Sun's passage through the higher density spiral arms often coincides with mass extinctions on Earth, perhaps due to increased impact events. It takes the Solar System about 225–250 million years to complete one orbit through the Milky Way (a "galactic year"), so it is thought to have completed 20–25 orbits during the lifetime of the Sun. The orbital speed of the


title: Sun content: Solar System about the center of the Milky Way is approximately 251 km/s (156 mi/s). At this speed, it takes around 1,190 years for the Solar System to travel a distance of 1 light-year, or 7 days to travel 1 AU. The Milky Way is moving with respect to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in the direction of the constellation Hydra with a speed of 550 km/s, and the Sun's resultant velocity with respect to the CMB is about 370 km/s in the direction of Crater or Leo. The temperature of the photosphere is approximately 6,000 K, whereas the


title: Sun content: temperature of the corona reaches 1,000,000–2,000,000 K. The high temperature of the corona shows that it is heated by something other than direct heat conduction from the photosphere. It is thought that the energy necessary to heat the corona is provided by turbulent motion in the convection zone below the photosphere, and two main mechanisms have been proposed to explain coronal heating. The first is wave heating, in which sound, gravitational or magnetohydrodynamic waves are produced by turbulence in the convection zone. These waves travel upward and dissipate in the corona, depositing their energy in the ambient matter in the


title: Sun content: form of heat. The other is magnetic heating, in which magnetic energy is continuously built up by photospheric motion and released through magnetic reconnection in the form of large solar flares and myriad similar but smaller events—nanoflares. Currently, it is unclear whether waves are an efficient heating mechanism. All waves except Alfvén waves have been found to dissipate or refract before reaching the corona. In addition, Alfvén waves do not easily dissipate in the corona. Current research focus has therefore shifted towards flare heating mechanisms. Theoretical models of the Sun's development suggest that 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, during


title: Sun content: the Archean eon, the Sun was only about 75% as bright as it is today. Such a weak star would not have been able to sustain liquid water on Earth's surface, and thus life should not have been able to develop. However, the geological record demonstrates that Earth has remained at a fairly constant temperature throughout its history, and that the young Earth was somewhat warmer than it is today. One theory among scientists is that the atmosphere of the young Earth contained much larger quantities of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane) than are present today, which trapped


title: Sun content: enough heat to compensate for the smaller amount of solar energy reaching it. However, examination of Archaean sediments appears inconsistent with the hypothesis of high greenhouse concentrations. Instead, the moderate temperature range may be explained by a lower surface albedo brought about by less continental area and the "lack of biologically induced cloud condensation nuclei". This would have led to increased absorption of solar energy, thereby compensating for the lower solar output. The enormous effect of the Sun on Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times, and the Sun has been regarded by some cultures as a deity. The Sun


title: Sun content: has been an object of veneration in many cultures throughout human history. Humanity's most fundamental understanding of the Sun is as the luminous disk in the sky, whose presence above the horizon creates day and whose absence causes night. In many prehistoric and ancient cultures, the Sun was thought to be a solar deity or other supernatural entity. Worship of the Sun was central to civilizations such as the ancient Egyptians, the Inca of South America and the Aztecs of what is now Mexico. In religions such as Hinduism, the Sun is still considered a god. Many ancient monuments were


title: Sun content: constructed with solar phenomena in mind; for example, stone megaliths accurately mark the summer or winter solstice (some of the most prominent megaliths are located in Nabta Playa, Egypt; Mnajdra, Malta and at Stonehenge, England); Newgrange, a prehistoric human-built mount in Ireland, was designed to detect the winter solstice; the pyramid of El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Mexico is designed to cast shadows in the shape of serpents climbing the pyramid at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. The Egyptians portrayed the god Ra as being carried across the sky in a solar barque, accompanied by lesser gods, and to


title: Sun content: the Greeks, he was Helios, carried by a chariot drawn by fiery horses. From the reign of Elagabalus in the late Roman Empire the Sun's birthday was a holiday celebrated as Sol Invictus (literally "Unconquered Sun") soon after the winter solstice, which may have been an antecedent to Christmas. Regarding the fixed stars, the Sun appears from Earth to revolve once a year along the ecliptic through the zodiac, and so Greek astronomers categorized it as one of the seven planets (Greek "planetes", "wanderer"); the naming of the days of the weeks after the seven planets dates to the Roman


title: Sun content: era. In the early first millennium BC, Babylonian astronomers observed that the Sun's motion along the ecliptic is not uniform, though they did not know why; it is today known that this is due to the movement of Earth in an elliptic orbit around the Sun, with Earth moving faster when it is nearer to the Sun at perihelion and moving slower when it is farther away at aphelion. One of the first people to offer a scientific or philosophical explanation for the Sun was the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. He reasoned that it was not the chariot of Helios, but


title: Sun content: instead a giant flaming ball of metal even larger than the land of the Peloponnesus and that the Moon reflected the light of the Sun. For teaching this heresy, he was imprisoned by the authorities and sentenced to death, though he was later released through the intervention of Pericles. Eratosthenes estimated the distance between Earth and the Sun in the 3rd century BC as "of stadia myriads 400 and 80000", the translation of which is ambiguous, implying either 4,080,000 stadia (755,000 km) or 804,000,000 stadia (148 to 153 million kilometers or 0.99 to 1.02 AU); the latter value is correct


title: Sun content: to within a few percent. In the 1st century AD, Ptolemy estimated the distance as 1,210 times the radius of Earth, approximately . The theory that the Sun is the center around which the planets orbit was first proposed by the ancient Greek Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BC, and later adopted by Seleucus of Seleucia (see Heliocentrism). This view was developed in a more detailed mathematical model of a heliocentric system in the 16th century by Nicolaus Copernicus. Observations of sunspots were recorded during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) by Chinese astronomers, who maintained records of


title: Sun content: these observations for centuries. Averroes also provided a description of sunspots in the 12th century. The invention of the telescope in the early 17th century permitted detailed observations of sunspots by Thomas Harriot, Galileo Galilei and other astronomers. Galileo posited that sunspots were on the surface of the Sun rather than small objects passing between Earth and the Sun. Arabic astronomical contributions include Albatenius' discovery that the direction of the Sun's apogee (the place in the Sun's orbit against the fixed stars where it seems to be moving slowest) is changing. (In modern heliocentric terms, this is caused by a


title: Sun content: gradual motion of the aphelion of the "Earth's" orbit). Ibn Yunus observed more than 10,000 entries for the Sun's position for many years using a large astrolabe. From an observation of a transit of Venus in 1032, the Persian astronomer and polymath Avicenna concluded that Venus is closer to Earth than the Sun. In 1672 Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer determined the distance to Mars and were thereby able to calculate the distance to the Sun. In 1666, Isaac Newton observed the Sun's light using a prism, and showed that it is made up of light of many colors. In


title: Sun content: 1800, William Herschel discovered infrared radiation beyond the red part of the solar spectrum. The 19th century saw advancement in spectroscopic studies of the Sun; Joseph von Fraunhofer recorded more than 600 absorption lines in the spectrum, the strongest of which are still often referred to as Fraunhofer lines. In the early years of the modern scientific era, the source of the Sun's energy was a significant puzzle. Lord Kelvin suggested that the Sun is a gradually cooling liquid body that is radiating an internal store of heat. Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz then proposed a gravitational contraction mechanism to


title: Sun content: explain the energy output, but the resulting age estimate was only 20 million years, well short of the time span of at least 300 million years suggested by some geological discoveries of that time. In 1890 Joseph Lockyer, who discovered helium in the solar spectrum, proposed a meteoritic hypothesis for the formation and evolution of the Sun. Not until 1904 was a documented solution offered. Ernest Rutherford suggested that the Sun's output could be maintained by an internal source of heat, and suggested radioactive decay as the source. However, it would be Albert Einstein who would provide the essential clue


title: Sun content: to the source of the Sun's energy output with his mass-energy equivalence relation . In 1920, Sir Arthur Eddington proposed that the pressures and temperatures at the core of the Sun could produce a nuclear fusion reaction that merged hydrogen (protons) into helium nuclei, resulting in a production of energy from the net change in mass. The preponderance of hydrogen in the Sun was confirmed in 1925 by Cecilia Payne using the ionization theory developed by Meghnad Saha, an Indian physicist. The theoretical concept of fusion was developed in the 1930s by the astrophysicists Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Hans Bethe. Hans


title: Sun content: Bethe calculated the details of the two main energy-producing nuclear reactions that power the Sun. In 1957, Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle showed that most of the elements in the universe have been synthesized by nuclear reactions inside stars, some like the Sun. The first satellites designed to observe the Sun were NASA's Pioneers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, which were launched between 1959 and 1968. These probes orbited the Sun at a distance similar to that of Earth, and made the first detailed measurements of the solar wind and the solar magnetic field. Pioneer


title: Sun content: 9 operated for a particularly long time, transmitting data until May 1983. In the 1970s, two Helios spacecraft and the Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount provided scientists with significant new data on solar wind and the solar corona. The Helios 1 and 2 probes were U.S.–German collaborations that studied the solar wind from an orbit carrying the spacecraft inside Mercury's orbit at perihelion. The Skylab space station, launched by NASA in 1973, included a solar observatory module called the Apollo Telescope Mount that was operated by astronauts resident on the station. Skylab made the first time-resolved observations of the solar transition


title: Sun content: region and of ultraviolet emissions from the solar corona. Discoveries included the first observations of coronal mass ejections, then called "coronal transients", and of coronal holes, now known to be intimately associated with the solar wind. In 1980, the Solar Maximum Mission was launched by NASA. This spacecraft was designed to observe gamma rays, X-rays and UV radiation from solar flares during a time of high solar activity and solar luminosity. Just a few months after launch, however, an electronics failure caused the probe to go into standby mode, and it spent the next three years in this inactive state.


title: Sun content: In 1984 Space Shuttle "Challenger" mission STS-41C retrieved the satellite and repaired its electronics before re-releasing it into orbit. The Solar Maximum Mission subsequently acquired thousands of images of the solar corona before re-entering Earth's atmosphere in June 1989. Launched in 1991, Japan's Yohkoh ("Sunbeam") satellite observed solar flares at X-ray wavelengths. Mission data allowed scientists to identify several different types of flares, and demonstrated that the corona away from regions of peak activity was much more dynamic and active than had previously been supposed. Yohkoh observed an entire solar cycle but went into standby mode when an annular eclipse


title: Sun content: in 2001 caused it to lose its lock on the Sun. It was destroyed by atmospheric re-entry in 2005. One of the most important solar missions to date has been the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, jointly built by the European Space Agency and NASA and launched on 2 December 1995. Originally intended to serve a two-year mission, a mission extension through 2012 was approved in October 2009. It has proven so useful that a follow-on mission, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), was launched in February 2010. Situated at the Lagrangian point between Earth and the Sun (at which the gravitational


title: Sun content: pull from both is equal), SOHO has provided a constant view of the Sun at many wavelengths since its launch. Besides its direct solar observation, SOHO has enabled the discovery of a large number of comets, mostly tiny sungrazing comets that incinerate as they pass the Sun. All these satellites have observed the Sun from the plane of the ecliptic, and so have only observed its equatorial regions in detail. The Ulysses probe was launched in 1990 to study the Sun's polar regions. It first travelled to Jupiter, to "slingshot" into an orbit that would take it far above the


title: Sun content: plane of the ecliptic. Once Ulysses was in its scheduled orbit, it began observing the solar wind and magnetic field strength at high solar latitudes, finding that the solar wind from high latitudes was moving at about 750 km/s, which was slower than expected, and that there were large magnetic waves emerging from high latitudes that scattered galactic cosmic rays. Elemental abundances in the photosphere are well known from spectroscopic studies, but the composition of the interior of the Sun is more poorly understood. A solar wind sample return mission, "Genesis", was designed to allow astronomers to directly measure the


title: Sun content: composition of solar material. The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission was launched in October 2006. Two identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to (respectively) pull further ahead of and fall gradually behind Earth. This enables stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections. The Indian Space Research Organisation has scheduled the launch of a 100 kg satellite named "Aditya" for 2017–18. Its main instrument will be a coronagraph for studying the dynamics of the Solar corona. The brightness of the Sun can cause pain from looking at it with the naked


title: Sun content: eye; however, doing so for brief periods is not hazardous for normal non-dilated eyes. Looking directly at the Sun causes phosphene visual artifacts and temporary partial blindness. It also delivers about 4 milliwatts of sunlight to the retina, slightly heating it and potentially causing damage in eyes that cannot respond properly to the brightness. UV exposure gradually yellows the lens of the eye over a period of years, and is thought to contribute to the formation of cataracts, but this depends on general exposure to solar UV, and not whether one looks directly at the Sun. Long-duration viewing of the


title: Sun content: direct Sun with the naked eye can begin to cause UV-induced, sunburn-like lesions on the retina after about 100 seconds, particularly under conditions where the UV light from the Sun is intense and well focused; conditions are worsened by young eyes or new lens implants (which admit more UV than aging natural eyes), Sun angles near the zenith, and observing locations at high altitude. Viewing the Sun through light-concentrating optics such as binoculars may result in permanent damage to the retina without an appropriate filter that blocks UV and substantially dims the sunlight. When using an attenuating filter to view


title: Sun content: the Sun, the viewer is cautioned to use a filter specifically designed for that use. Some improvised filters that pass UV or IR rays, can actually harm the eye at high brightness levels. Herschel wedges, also called Solar Diagonals, are effective and inexpensive for small telescopes. The sunlight that is destined for the eyepiece is reflected from an unsilvered surface of a piece of glass. Only a very small fraction of the incident light is reflected. The rest passes through the glass and leaves the instrument. If the glass breaks because of the heat, no light at all is reflected,


title: Sun content: making the device fail-safe. Simple filters made of darkened glass allow the full intensity of sunlight to pass through if they break, endangering the observer's eyesight. Unfiltered binoculars can deliver hundreds of times as much energy as using the naked eye, possibly causing immediate damage. It is claimed that even brief glances at the midday Sun through an unfiltered telescope can cause permanent damage. Partial solar eclipses are hazardous to view because the eye's pupil is not adapted to the unusually high visual contrast: the pupil dilates according to the total amount of light in the field of view, "not"


title: Sun content: by the brightest object in the field. During partial eclipses most sunlight is blocked by the Moon passing in front of the Sun, but the uncovered parts of the photosphere have the same surface brightness as during a normal day. In the overall gloom, the pupil expands from ~2 mm to ~6 mm, and each retinal cell exposed to the solar image receives up to ten times more light than it would looking at the non-eclipsed Sun. This can damage or kill those cells, resulting in small permanent blind spots for the viewer. The hazard is insidious for inexperienced observers


title: Sun content: and for children, because there is no perception of pain: it is not immediately obvious that one's vision is being destroyed. During sunrise and sunset, sunlight is attenuated because of Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering from a particularly long passage through Earth's atmosphere, and the Sun is sometimes faint enough to be viewed comfortably with the naked eye or safely with optics (provided there is no risk of bright sunlight suddenly appearing through a break between clouds). Hazy conditions, atmospheric dust, and high humidity contribute to this atmospheric attenuation. An optical phenomenon, known as a green flash, can sometimes be


title: Sun content: seen shortly after sunset or before sunrise. The flash is caused by light from the Sun just below the horizon being bent (usually through a temperature inversion) towards the observer. Light of shorter wavelengths (violet, blue, green) is bent more than that of longer wavelengths (yellow, orange, red) but the violet and blue light is scattered more, leaving light that is perceived as green. Ultraviolet light from the Sun has antiseptic properties and can be used to sanitize tools and water. It also causes sunburn, and has other biological effects such as the production of vitamin D and sun tanning.


title: Sun content: Ultraviolet light is strongly attenuated by Earth's ozone layer, so that the amount of UV varies greatly with latitude and has been partially responsible for many biological adaptations, including variations in human skin color in different regions of the Earth. The Sun has eight known planets. This includes four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). The Solar System also has at least five dwarf planets, an asteroid belt, numerous comets, and a large number of icy bodies which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Sun The


title: Saxophone content: Saxophone The saxophone (also referred to as the sax) is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. Like the clarinet, saxophones have holes in the instrument which the player closes using a system of key mechanisms. When the player presses a key, a pad either covers a hole or lifts off a hole, lowering or raising the pitch, respectively. The saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. Adolphe Sax wanted to create a group or series of instruments


title: Saxophone content: that would be the most powerful and vocal of the woodwinds, and the most adaptive of the brass instruments, that would fill the vacant middle ground between the two sections. Sax patented the saxophone on June 28, 1846, in two groups of seven instruments each. Each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B and E, designed for military bands, have proved popular and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. Instruments from the so-called "orchestral" series, pitched in C and F, never gained a foothold, and the B and E instruments


title: Saxophone content: have now replaced the C and F instruments when the saxophone is used in an orchestra. The saxophone is used in classical music (such as concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, and, occasionally, orchestras), military bands, marching bands, and jazz (such as big bands and jazz combos). The saxophone is also used as a soloing and melody instrument or as a member of a horn section in some styles of rock and roll and popular music. Saxophone players are called "saxophonists". The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, and clarinetist. Born in Dinant


title: Saxophone content: and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Before work on the saxophone, he made several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics and extending its lower range. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with these two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument


title: Saxophone content: with the projection of a brass instrument and the agility of a woodwind. He wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers. Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, a 15-year patent for the instrument on June 28, 1846. The


title: Saxophone content: patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered "orchestral", there is no evidence that Sax intended this. As only three percent of Sax's surviving production were pitched in F and C, and as contemporary composers used the E alto and B bass saxophone freely in orchestral music, it is almost certain that Sax experimented to find the most suitable keys for these instruments, settling upon instruments alternating between E and B rather than those


title: Saxophone content: pitched in F or C, for reasons of tone and economy (the saxophones were the most expensive wind instruments of their day). The C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. All the instruments were given an initial written range from the B below the treble staff to the F, one space above the three ledger lines above staff, giving each saxophone a range of two and a half octaves. Sax's patent expired in 1866. Thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design and keywork. The first substantial modification was by


title: Saxophone content: a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification. This extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings allows a player to play faster and more easily. A player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, and wide interval jumps. Sax's original keywork, which was based on


title: Saxophone content: the Triebert system 3 oboe for the left hand and the Boehm clarinet for the right, was simplistic and made playing some legato passages and wide intervals extremely difficult to finger, so numerous developers added extra keys and alternate fingerings to make chromatic playing less difficult. While early saxophones had two separate octave vents to assist in the playing of the upper registers just as modern instruments do, players of Sax's original design had to operate these via two separate octave keys operated by the left thumb. A substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by


title: Saxophone content: which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. The modern layout of the saxophone emerged during the 1930s and 1940s, first with right-side bell keys introduced by C. G. Conn on baritones, then by King on altos and tenors. The mechanics of the left hand cluster were revolutionized by Selmer with their balanced action instruments in 1936 and in 1948 Selmer introduced their Super Action saxophones with offset left and right hand stack keys. Between 30 and 40 years after Selmer devised their final layout it had been


title: Saxophone content: adopted for virtually every saxophone being produced, from student to professional models. One of the most radical, however temporary, revisions of saxophone keywork was made in the 1950s by M. Houvenaghel of Paris, who completely redeveloped the mechanics of the system to allow a number of notes (C, B, A, G, F and E) to be flattened by a semitone simply by pressing the right middle finger. This enables a chromatic scale to be played over two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit. However, this keywork never gained much popularity,


title: Saxophone content: and is no longer in use. The saxophone consists of an approximately conical tube, usually of thin brass, flared at the tip to form a bell. At intervals along the tube are between 20 and 23 tone holes of varying size and two very small vent holes to assist the playing of the upper register. These holes are covered by keys (also known as pad cups) containing soft leather pads, which are closed to produce an airtight seal. At rest some of the holes stand open and others are closed. The keys are activated by keytouches pressed by the fingers,


title: Saxophone content: either directly on the pad cup or connected to it with levers, either directly or with joints called "linkages." The right thumb sits under a thumb rest to stabilize and balance the saxophone, while the weight of most saxophones is supported by a neckstrap attached to a strap ring on the rear of the body of the instrument. The fingering for the saxophone is a combination of that of the oboe with the Boehm system and is similar to the flute or upper register of the clarinet. Instruments that play to low A have a left thumb key for that


title: Saxophone content: note. The simplest design of saxophone is a straight conical tube, and the sopranino and soprano saxophones are usually of this design. However, as the lower-pitched instruments would be unacceptably long, they usually incorporate a U-bend ("bow") at or slightly above the third-lowest tone hole. As this would cause the bell to point almost directly upward, the end of the instrument is either beveled or tilted slightly forward. This U-shape has become a distinctive feature of the saxophone family, to the extent that soprano and even sopranino saxes are sometimes made in the curved style. By contrast, tenors and even


title: Saxophone content: baritones have occasionally been made in the straight style. Most commonly, however, the alto and tenor saxophones incorporate a detachable, curved "neck" above the highest tone hole directing the mouthpiece to the player's mouth while the instrument is held in a playing stance. The baritone, bass, and contrabass saxophones accommodate the length of the bore with extra bows and right-angle bends between the main body and the mouthpiece. Although most saxophones are made from brass, they are categorized as woodwind instruments. This is because sound is produced by an oscillating wooden reed, not lips against a mouthpiece as in a


title: Saxophone content: brass instrument, and because pitches are produced by breath passing opening and closing keys. The screw pins that connect the rods to the posts, and the needle and leaf springs that cause the keys to return to their rest position after being released, are usually made of blued or stainless steel. Since 1920 most saxophones have "key touches", smooth replaceable pieces placed where the fingers touch the instrument, which are usually made from either plastic or mother of pearl. Some saxophones are made with abalone or stone key touches. For visual and tonal effect, higher copper alloys are sometimes substituted


title: Saxophone content: for the more common "yellow brass" or "cartridge brass". Yanagisawa made its 902 and 992 series saxophones with phosphor bronze to achieve a darker, more "vintage" tone than the brass 901 and 991 models. Other saxophones made of high copper alloys are sold under the brands Chateau, Kessler, Saxgourmet, and Bauhaus Walstein. King introduced saxophones with necks and bells of sterling silver during the 1930s and continued that scheme into the early 1960s. Yanagisawa revived it during the 1980s and later introduced entire instruments of sterling silver. Keilwerth and P. Mauriat have made saxophones with nickel silver bodies. Opinions vary


title: Saxophone content: on the significance of body materials to sound. With the exception of the identical brass and phosphor bronze Yanagisawa models, opportunities to isolate body materials from other variables in design and construction are lacking. Other materials have been tried with varying degrees of success, such as the 1950s Grafton plastic alto saxophone and its successor, the Vibratosax, a polycarbonate model. Wooden Sawat saxophones are made in Thailand on a small scale. Before final assembly, manufacturers usually apply a thin coating of clear or colored acrylic lacquer or silver plate over the brass. The lacquer or plating serves to protect the


title: Saxophone content: brass from oxidation and maintains its shiny appearance. Several different types and colors of surface finish have been used over the years. It is also possible to plate the instrument with nickel or gold, and a number of gold-plated saxophones have been produced. Plating saxophones with gold is an expensive process because gold does not adhere directly to brass. As a result, the brass is first plated with silver, then gold. Some saxophonists, sellers, and repair technicians argue that the type of lacquer or plating or absence thereof may enhance an instrument's tone quality. The possible effects of different finishes


title: Saxophone content: on tone are difficult to isolate from other variables that affect an instrument's tone colors. In any case, what constitutes a pleasing tone is a matter of personal preference. The saxophone uses a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. Most saxophonists use reeds made from "Arundo donax" cane, but since the 20th century some have also been made of fiberglass and other composite materials. Saxophone reeds are proportioned slightly differently from clarinet reeds, being wider for the same length, although some soprano saxophonists use clarinet reeds. Each size of saxophone (alto, tenor, etc.) uses a different size of


title: Saxophone content: reed. Reeds are commercially available in a vast array of brands, styles, and strengths. Saxophonists experiment with reeds of different strength (hardnesses) and material to find which strength and cut suits their mouthpiece, embouchure, physiology, and playing style. The saxophone mouthpiece is larger than that of the clarinet, has a wider inner chamber, and lacks the cork-covered tenon because the saxophone neck inserts into the mouthpiece whereas the clarinet mouthpiece is inserted into the barrel. Saxophone and clarinet embouchures differ from each other in firmness, position of the lower lip, and range of entry angles. The "long tones" exercise is


title: Saxophone content: used to develop embouchure, along with airstream and breath control. Mouthpieces come in a wide variety of materials, including vulcanized rubber (sometimes called hard rubber or ebonite), plastic, and metals such as bronze or surgical steel. Less common materials that have been used include wood, glass, crystal, porcelain, and even bone. According to Larry Teal, the mouthpiece material has little, if any, effect on the sound, and the physical dimensions give a mouthpiece its tone colour. There are examples of "dark" sounding metal pieces and "bright" sounding hard rubber pieces – Marcel Mule, for example, used a metal mouthpiece to


title: Saxophone content: perform classical music. Mouthpiece design has a profound impact on tone. Early mouthpieces were designed to produce a warm and round sound for classical playing. Among classical mouthpieces, those with a concave ("excavated") chamber are more true to Adolphe Sax's original design; these provide a softer or less piercing tone favored by some saxophonists, including students of Sigurd Raschèr, for classical playing. Saxophonists who follow the French school of classical saxophone playing, influenced by Marcel Mule, generally use mouthpieces with smaller chambers than Rascher style mouthpieces. The use of the saxophone in dance orchestras and jazz ensembles put a premium


title: Saxophone content: on dynamic range, projection, and tonal richness, leading to rapid innovation in chamber shape and tip design, and metal construction. At the opposite extreme from the classical mouthpieces are those with a small chamber and a low clearance above the reed between the tip and the chamber, called high baffle. These produce a bright sound with maximum projection, suitable for having a sound stand out among amplified instruments and typical of modern pop and smooth jazz. Most saxophonists who play different styles have a mouthpiece suited for each style. The primary (military band) saxophone family alternates instruments in B and


title: Saxophone content: E. The other (orchestral) family patented by Sax, alternating instruments in C and F, has always been marginal, although some manufacturers tried to popularise the soprano in C (C soprano saxophone), the alto in F (mezzo-soprano saxophone), and the tenor in C (C melody saxophone) early in the twentieth century. The C melody enjoyed some success in the late 1920s and early 1930s as a parlor instrument. One company has recently revived production of the C soprano and C melody. Instruments in F are rare. A mezzo-soprano in G has also been produced. The saxophone first gained popularity in one


title: Saxophone content: of the uses it was designed for: military bands. Although the instrument was mostly ignored in Germany at first, French and Belgian military bands took full advantage of the instrument that Sax had designed. Most French and Belgian military bands incorporate at least a quartet of saxophones, comprising an E baritone, B tenor, E alto and B soprano. These four instruments have proved the most popular of all of Sax's creations, with the E contrabass and B bass usually considered impractically large and the E sopranino insufficiently powerful. British military bands tend to include at minimum two saxophonists, on the


title: Saxophone content: alto and tenor. The saxophone was introduced into the concert band, which usually calls for an E alto saxophone, a B tenor saxophone, and an E baritone saxophone. A concert band may include two altos, one tenor, and one baritone. A B soprano saxophone is also used, in which case it is played by the first alto saxophonist. A bass saxophone in B is used in some concert band music (especially music by Percy Grainger). Saxophones are used in chamber music, such as saxophone quartets and other chamber combinations of instruments. The classical saxophone quartet consists of a soprano saxophone,


title: Saxophone content: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and baritone saxophone. There is a repertoire of classical compositions and arrangements for the SATB instrumentation dating back to the nineteenth century, particularly by French composers who knew Sax. Classical saxophone quartets include Quatuor Habanera, the h2 quartet, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, the New Century Saxophone Quartet. The quartets led by Marcel Mule and Daniel Deffayet, saxophone professors at the Conservatoire de Paris, were started in 1928 and 1953, respectively, and were highly regarded. The Mule quartet is often considered the prototype for quartets due the level of virtuosity demonstrated by its


title: Saxophone content: members and its central role in the development of the quartet repertoire. However, organized quartets existed before Mule's ensemble, the prime example being the quartet headed by Eduard Lefebre (1834–1911), former soloist with the John Philip Sousa band in the United States around 1904–1911. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the saxophone found increased popularity in symphony orchestras. In one or another size, the instrument has also been found as a useful accompaniment to genres such as opera and choral music. Many musical theatre scores include parts for a saxophone, sometimes doubling another woodwind or brass instrument. In this way,


title: Saxophone content: the saxophone serves as a middle point between other woodwinds and the brass section, helping to blend them. On tenor saxophone, Coleman Hawkins established the saxophone as a solo instrument in the 1920s, citing as influences Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson. He was the first to improvise on it and the first to tailor a method to it rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet, though his arpeggios show the influence of clarinet. Hawkins's style is aggressive, emotional, and loud. He explored the harmonic and technical possibilities of the instrument while using vibrato frequently. He influenced a


title: Saxophone content: generation of saxophonists that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, and Herschel Evans and the generation after that which included Don Byas, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, and Buddy Tate. Lester Young's approach on tenor saxophone differed from Hawkins'. With Jimmy Dorsey and Frankie Trumbauer as models, Young was more interested in melody in technical or harmonic exploration. He used vibrato less, fitting it to the passage he was playing. His style was smoother and darker, helped in part by the hard rubber mouthpiece he used. Young's direction had followers,


title: Saxophone content: too: Al Cohn, Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Charlie Parker, and Art Pepper. The Duke Ellington Orchestra of the late 1920s featured saxophone-based ensembles and solos by Otto Hardwick, Johnny Hodges, and Harry Carney. The swing bands of the 1930s used arrangements of saxophone and brass sections playing off each other in call-response patterns. The influence of tenor saxophonist Lester Young with the Count Basie Orchestra in the late 1930s and the popularity of Hawkins' 1939 recording of "Body and Soul" marked the saxophone as an influence on jazz equal to that of the trumpet, which had been the


title: Saxophone content: defining instrument of jazz since its beginnings in New Orleans. But the greatest influence of the saxophone on jazz was to occur a few years later when alto saxophonist Charlie Parker became an icon of the bebop revolution that influenced generations of jazz musicians. The small-group format of bebop and post-bebop jazz ensembles, usually with one to three lead instruments including a saxophone, a chordal instrument, bass, and drums, gained ascendancy in the 1940s as musicians emphasized extended exploration, using the harmonic and melodic freedom pioneered by Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Bud Powell. The alto saxophone was also


title: Saxophone content: popularized in the 1950s by Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Criss and Paul Desmond. The tenor sax was popularized by Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, and Zoot Sims. The baritone sax, featured more in big bands (notably by Harry Carney in the Duke Ellington Orchestra) and larger ensembles than as a solo instrument, was popularized in jazz as a solo instrument within small groups by musicians such as Serge Chaloff, Gerry Mulligan, Pepper Adams and Leo Parker. The soprano saxophone was popularized by Sidney Bechet in early jazz, but then largely fell out


title: Saxophone content: of favor with greater emphasis on section playing during the 1930s. Steve Lacy renewed attention to the soprano in the context of modern jazz during the 1950s and John Coltrane boosted the instrument's popularity during the 1960s. Popular smooth jazz and contemporary pop musician Kenny G also uses the soprano sax as his principal instrument. Saxophonists such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sam Rivers, and Pharoah Sanders defined the forefront of creative exploration with the avant-garde movement of the 1960s. Modal, harmolodic, and free jazz further removed boundaries and the new space was explored with every device that saxophonists could


title: Saxophone content: conceive of. Sheets of sound, tonal exploration, upper harmonics, and multiphonics were hallmarks of the creative possibilities that saxophones offered in the new realm. One lasting influence of the avant-garde movement is the exploration of non-Western ethnic sounds on the saxophone, for example, the African-influenced sounds used by Sanders. The devices of the avant-garde movement have continued to be influential in music that challenges the boundaries between avant-garde and other categories of jazz, such as Steve Coleman and Greg Osby. A jazz saxophone quartet is usually made up of one B soprano, one E alto, one B tenor and one


title: Saxophone content: E baritone (SATB). On occasion, the soprano is replaced with a second alto sax (AATB); a few professional saxophone quartets have featured non-standard instrumentation, such as James Fei's Alto Quartet (four altos) and Hamiet Bluiett's Bluiett Baritone Nation (four baritones). Recently, the World Saxophone Quartet has become known as the preeminent jazz saxophone quartet. The saxophone, as a solo instrument or as part of a horn section, can also be heard in blues, soul music, rhythm and blues, reggae, ska, funk, rock and roll, and other forms of popular music. Some players of these genres include King Curtis, Maceo Parker,


title: Saxophone content: Bobby Keys, Clarence Clemons, the Memphis Horns, and the Phenix Horns. A number of saxes and saxophone-related instruments have appeared since Sax's original work, most with no significant success. These include the "saxello", essentially a straight B soprano, but with a slightly curved neck and tipped bell; the straight alto; and the straight B tenor. Since a straight-bore tenor is approximately five feet long, the cumbersome size of such a design makes it almost impossible to either play or transport. "King" Saxellos, made by the H. N. White Company in the 1920s, now command prices up to US $4,000. A


title: Saxophone content: number of companies, including Keilwerth, Rampone & Cazzani ("altello" model), L.A. Sax and Sax Dakota USA, are marketing straight-bore, tipped-bell soprano saxophones as saxellos (or "saxello sopranos"). The "contralto" saxophone, similar in size to the orchestral soprano, was developed in the late 20th century by Californian instrument maker Jim Schmidt. This instrument has a larger bore and a new fingering system, and does not resemble the C melody instrument except for its key and register. Another new arrival to the sax scene is the soprillo sax, a piccolo-sized straight instrument with the upper speaker hole built into the mouthpiece. The


title: Saxophone content: instrument, which extends Sax's original family, as it is pitched a full octave higher than the B soprano sax, is manufactured by Benedikt Eppelsheim, of Munich, Germany. There is a rare prototype slide tenor saxophone. One company that produced a slide soprano saxophone was Reiffel & Husted, Chicago, c. 1922 (catalog NMM 5385). Two of these variants were championed by jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who called his straight Buescher alto a "stritch" and his modified saxello a "manzello", the latter with an oversized bell and modified key work. Though rare, the Buescher straight alto was a production item instrument


title: Saxophone content: while the manzello was indeed a saxello with a custom-made bell. Another unusual variant of the saxophone is the "Conn-O-Sax", a straight-conical bore instrument in F (one step above the E alto) with a slightly curved neck and spherical bell. This instrument, which combines a saxophone bore and keys with a bell shaped similar to that of a heckelphone, was intended to imitate the timbre of the English horn and was produced only in 1929 and 1930. The instrument has a key range from low A to high G. Fewer than 100 Conn-O-Saxes are in existence and they are highly


title: Saxophone content: sought by collectors. A mezzo-soprano in the key of G has been produced by Danish woodwind technician Peter Jessen, most notably played by Joe Lovano. This instrument is more in the timbral quality of Bb soprano saxophone. The tubax, developed in 1999 by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim, plays the same range and with the same fingering as the E contrabass saxophone; its bore, however, is narrower than that of a contrabass saxophone, making for a more compact instrument with a "reedier" tone (akin to the double-reed contrabass sarrusophone). It can be played with the smaller (and more commonly


title: Saxophone content: available) baritone saxophone mouthpiece and reeds. Eppelsheim has also produced subcontrabass tubaxes in C and B, the latter being the lowest saxophone ever made. Among the most recent developments is the aulochrome, a double soprano saxophone invented by Belgian instrument maker François Louis in 2001. The fingering scheme of the saxophone, which has had only minor changes since the instrument's original invention, has presented inherent acoustic problems related to closed keys below the first open tonehole that affect response of, and slightly muffle, some notes. There is also a lack of tactile consistency moving between key centers. Extra effort is


title: Saxophone content: required from the player to adjust modes of muscle memory when moving between key centers. Two efforts to remedy the acoustic problems and awkward aspects of the original fingering system are noteworthy. The Leblanc Rationale and System saxophones have key mechanics designed to remedy the acoustic problems associated with closed keys below the first open tonehole. They also enable players to make half-step shifts of scales by depressing one key while keeping the rest of the fingering consistent with that of the fingering a half step away (which can also trip up players used to certain alternate fingerings on a


title: Saxophone content: regular saxophone). Some Leblanc System features were built into the Vito Model 35 saxophones of the 1950s and 1960s. The acceptance of what was arguably a superior system was impaired by the adjustment required of players switching between System and non-System horns, and the added costs associated with the compounded complexity of certain key mechanisms. The chromatic or linear fingering, saxophone is a project of instrument designer and builder Jim Schmidt, developing a horn maximizing tactile and logical consistency between every interval regardless of the key, and avoiding the acoustic problems associated closed keys below the first open tone hole.


title: Saxophone content: Several working prototypes have been built and presented at trade shows. Production of this original and expensive saxophone is on an individual order basis. Although not true saxophones, inexpensive keyless folk versions of the saxophone made of bamboo (recalling a chalumeau) were developed in the 20th century by instrument makers in Hawaii, Jamaica, Thailand, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Argentina. The Hawaiian instrument, called a xaphoon, was invented during the 1970s and is also marketed as a "bamboo sax", although its cylindrical bore more closely resembles that of a clarinet, and its lack of any keywork makes it more akin to a


title: Saxophone content: recorder. Jamaica's best known exponent of a similar type of homemade bamboo "saxophone" was the mento musician and instrument maker 'Sugar Belly' (William Walker). In the Minahasa region of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, there exist entire bands made up of bamboo "saxophones" and "brass" instruments of various sizes. These instruments are imitations of European instruments, made using local materials. Similar instruments are produced in Thailand. In Argentina, Ángel Sampedro del Río and Mariana García have produced bamboo saxophones of various sizes since 1985, the larger of which have bamboo keys to allow for the playing of lower notes. Music


title: Saxophone content: for most saxophones is usually notated using treble clef. The standard written range extends from a B below the staff to an F or F three ledger lines above the staff. Most, if not all, intermediate and professional saxophones made today are built with F keys, with F included on even student instruments. There are many models of soprano saxophone that have a key for high G, and most modern models of baritone saxophone have an extended bore and key to produce low A; it is also possible to play a low A on any saxophone by blocking the end


title: Saxophone content: of the bell, usually with the foot or inside of the left thigh. Low A keys however were not limited to just the baritone saxophone. For a short time Selmer Paris produced mark VI alto saxophones with the low A key. Notes above F are considered part of the altissimo register of any sax, and can be produced using advanced embouchure techniques and fingering combinations. Sax himself had mastered these techniques; he demonstrated the instrument as having a range of just beyond three octaves up to a (written) high B4. Modern saxophone players have extended this range to over 4


title: Saxophone content: octaves on tenor and alto. Because all saxophones use the same key arrangement and fingering to produce a given notated pitch, it is not difficult for a competent player to switch among the various sizes when the music has been suitably transposed, and many do so. Since the baritone and alto are pitched in E, players can read concert pitch music notated in the bass clef by reading it as if it were treble clef and adding three sharps to the key signature. This process, referred to as "clef substitution", makes it possible for the Eb instruments to play from


title: Saxophone content: parts written for baritone horn, bassoon, euphonium, string bass, trombone, or tuba. This can be useful if a band or orchestra lacks one of those instruments. Saxophone The saxophone (also referred to as the sax) is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. Like the clarinet, saxophones have holes in the instrument which the player closes using a system of key mechanisms. When the player presses a key, a pad either covers a hole or lifts off a hole, lowering or raising the pitch,


title: Star content: is established by the temperature gradient of the plasma; the outer part of the star is cooler than the core. The temperature at the core of a main sequence or giant star is at least on the order of 10 K. The resulting temperature and pressure at the hydrogen-burning core of a main sequence star are sufficient for nuclear fusion to occur and for sufficient energy to be produced to prevent further collapse of the star. As atomic nuclei are fused in the core, they emit energy in the form of gamma rays. These photons interact with the surrounding plasma,


title: "Spanish language" content: speakers today are elderly as well as elderly "olim" (immigrants to Israel) who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardi communities, especially in music. In the case of the Latin American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to the risk of assimilation by modern Castilian. A related dialect is Haketia, the Judaeo-Spanish of northern Morocco. This too tended to assimilate with modern Spanish, during the Spanish occupation of the region. Spanish is written in the Latin script, with the addition of the character (, representing the


title: "Scientific method" content: scientific practice" and to a degree this can be enforced by peer review. Originality, importance and interest are more important – see for example the author guidelines for "Nature". Smaldino and McElreath 2016 have noted that our need to reward scientific understanding is being nullified by poor research design and poor data analysis, which is leading to false-positive findings. Philosophy of science looks at the underpinning logic of the scientific method, at what separates science from non-science, and the ethic that is implicit in science. There are basic assumptions, derived from philosophy by at least one prominent scientist, that form


title: "Reform of the date of Easter" content: than in otherwise equivalent common years after February. The Symmetry454 Calendar proposes a fixed date of Easter in week 14, which would agree with the aforementioned proposals in most years, but would be 1 week earlier in F/GF years (like the only deviation of the Pepuzite definition) and also in DC, D/ED and E/FE years. The Sunday of an ordinal ISO week "n" is also the "n"th Sunday of the year, except in A/AG, B/BA and C/CB years where it is the "n"+1st Sunday, so both major proposals put Easter on the 15th Sunday of the year except either in


title: "Red panda" content: Red panda The red panda ("Ailurus fulgens") is a mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, because the wild population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and continues to decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression. The red panda has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs; it is roughly the size of a domestic cat, though with a longer body and somewhat heavier. It is arboreal, feeds mainly on bamboo, but also


title: "Red panda" content: eats eggs, birds, and insects. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day. It is also called the lesser panda, the red bear-cat, and the red cat-bear. The red panda is the only living species of the genus "Ailurus" and the family Ailuridae. It has been previously placed in the raccoon and bear families, but the results of phylogenetic analysis provide strong support for its taxonomic classification in its own family, Ailuridae, which is part of the superfamily Musteloidea, along with the weasel, raccoon and skunk families. Two subspecies are


title: "Red panda" content: recognized. It is not closely related to the giant panda, which is a basal ursid. The head and body length of a red panda measures , and its tail is . Males weigh and females . They have long, soft, reddish-brown fur on the upper parts, blackish fur on the lower parts, and a light face with tear markings and robust cranio-dental features. The light face has white badges similar to those of a raccoon, but each individual can have distinctive markings. Their roundish heads have medium-sized upright ears, black noses, and blackish eyes. Their long, bushy tails with six


title: "Red panda" content: alternating transverse ochre rings provide balance and excellent camouflage against their habitat of moss- and lichen-covered trees. The legs are black and short with thick fur on the soles of the paws. This fur serves as thermal insulation on snow-covered or icy surfaces and conceals scent glands, which are also present on the anus. The red panda is specialized as a bamboo feeder with strong, curved and sharp semi-retractile claws standing inward for grasping narrow tree branches, leaves, and fruit. Like the giant panda, it has a "false thumb", which is an extension of the wrist bone. When descending a


title: "Red panda" content: tree head-first, the red panda rotates its ankle to control its descent, one of the few climbing species to do so. The red panda is endemic to the temperate forests of the Himalayas, and ranges from the foothills of western Nepal to China in the east. Its easternmost limit is the Qinling Mountains of the Shaanxi Province in China. Its range includes southern Tibet, Sikkim and Assam in India, Bhutan, the northern mountains of Burma, and in south-western China, in the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and the Gongshan Mountains in Yunnan. It may also live in south-west Tibet and northern


title: "Red panda" content: Arunachal Pradesh, but this has not been documented. Locations with the highest density of red pandas include an area in the Himalayas that has been proposed as having been a refuge for a variety of endemic species in the Pleistocene. The distribution range of the red panda should be considered disjunct, rather than continuous. A disjunct population inhabits the Meghalaya Plateau of north-eastern India. During a survey in the 1970s, signs of red pandas were found in Nepal's Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve. Their presence was confirmed in spring 2007 when four red pandas were sighted at elevations ranging from . The


title: "Red panda" content: species' westernmost limit is in Rara National Park located farther west of the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve. Their presence was confirmed in 2008. The red panda lives between altitude, inhabiting areas of moderate temperature between with little annual change. It prefers mountainous mixed deciduous and conifer forests, especially with old trees and dense understories of bamboo. The red panda population in Sichuan Province is larger and more stable than the Yunnan population, suggesting a southward expansion from Sichuan into Yunnan in the Holocene. The red panda has become extirpated from the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Qinghai. Distribution of


title: "Red panda" content: the red panda is disjointed, with two extant subspecies: "A. f. styani" has been described by Thomas in 1902 based on one skull from a specimen collected in Sichuan. Pocock distinguished "A. f. styani" from "A. f. fulgens" by its longer winter coat and greater blackness of the pelage, bigger skull, more strongly curved forehead, and more robust teeth. His description is based on skulls and skins collected in Sichuan, Myitkyina close to the border of Yunnan, and Upper Burma. Styan's red panda is supposedly larger and darker in color than the Western member of the species, but with considerable


title: "Red panda" content: variation in both subspecies, and some individuals may be brown or yellowish brown rather than red. The Brahmaputra River is often considered the natural division between the two subspecies, where it makes a curve around the eastern end of the Himalayas, although some authors suggest "A. f. fulgens" extends farther eastward, into China. The red panda is territorial; it is solitary except during mating season. The species is generally quiet except for some twittering, tweeting, and whistling communication sounds. It has been reported to be both nocturnal and crepuscular, sleeping on tree branches or in tree hollows during the day


title: "Red panda" content: and increasing its activity in the late afternoon and early evening hours. It sleeps stretched out on a branch with legs dangling when it is hot, and curled up with its tail over the face when it is cold. This animal is very heat-sensitive, with an optimal "well-being" temperature between , and cannot tolerate temperatures over . Shortly after waking, red pandas clean their fur somewhat like a cat would, licking their front paws and then rubbing their backs, torsos, and sides. They also rub their backs and bellies along the sides of trees or rocks. Then they patrol their


title: "Red panda" content: territories, marking with urine and a weak musk-smelling secretion from their anal glands. They search for food running along the ground or through the trees. Red pandas may use their forepaws alternately to bring food to their mouths or place food directly into their mouths. Predators of the red panda include the snow leopard, mustelids, and humans. If they feel threatened or sense danger, they may try to escape by climbing a rock column or tree. If they can no longer flee, they stand on their hind legs to make themselves appear larger and use the sharp claws on their


title: "Red panda" content: front paws to defend themselves. A red panda, Futa, became a visitor attraction in Japan for his ability to stand upright for ten seconds at a time. (See also: facultative biped) Red pandas are excellent climbers, and forage largely in trees. They eat mostly bamboo, and may eat small mammals, birds, eggs, flowers, and berries. In captivity, they were observed to eat birds, flowers, maple and mulberry leaves, and bark and fruits of maple, beech, and mulberry. Like the giant panda, they cannot digest cellulose, so they must consume a large volume of bamboo to survive. Their diets consist of


title: "Red panda" content: about two-thirds bamboo, but they also eat mushrooms, roots, acorns, lichens, and grasses. Occasionally, they supplement their diets with fish and insects. They do little more than eat and sleep due to their low-calorie diets. Bamboo shoots are more easily digested than leaves, exhibiting the highest digestibility in summer and autumn, intermediate digestibility in the spring, and lowest digestibility in the winter. These variations correlate with the nutrient contents in the bamboo. Red pandas process bamboo poorly, especially the cellulose and cell wall components. This implies microbial digestion plays only a minor role in their digestive strategy. To survive on


title: "Red panda" content: this poor-quality diet, they have to eat the high-quality sections of the bamboo plant, such as the tender leaves and shoots, in large quantities, over of fresh leaves and of fresh shoots daily. This food passes through the digestive tract fairly rapidly (about 2–4 hr) so as to maximize daily nutrient intake. Red pandas can taste artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, and are the only nonprimates known to be able to do so. Red pandas are able to reproduce at around 18 months of age, and are fully mature at two to three years. Adults rarely interact in the wild


title: "Red panda" content: except to mate. Both sexes may mate with more than one partner during the mating season from mid-January to early March. A few days before birth, females begin to collect material, such as brushwood, grass, and leaves, to build a nest, which is normally located in a hollow tree or a rock crevice. After a gestation period of 112 to 158 days, the female gives birth in mid-June to late July to one to four (usually 1–2) blind and deaf cubs weighing each. After birth, the mother cleans the cubs, and can then recognize each by its smell. At first,


title: "Red panda" content: she spends 60% to 90% of her time with the cubs. After the first week, the mother starts spending more time outside the nest, returning every few hours to nurse and groom the cubs. She moves the young frequently among several nests, all of which she keeps clean. The cubs start to open their eyes at about 18 days of age. By about 90 days, they achieve full adult fur and coloring, and begin to venture out of the nest. They also start eating solid foods at this point, weaning at around six to eight months of age. The cubs


title: "Red panda" content: stay with their mother until the next litter is born in the following summer. Males rarely help raise the young, and only if they live in pairs or in small groups. A red panda's average lifespan is between eight and 10 years, but individuals have been known to reach 15 years. The primary threats to red pandas are direct harvest from the wild, live or dead, competition with domestic livestock resulting in habitat degradation, and deforestation resulting in habitat loss or fragmentation. The relative importance of these factors is different in each region, and is not well understood. For instance,


title: "Red panda" content: in India, the biggest threat seems to be habitat loss followed by poaching, while in China, the biggest threat seems to be hunting and poaching. A 40% decrease in red panda populations has been reported in China over the last 50 years, and populations in western Himalayan areas are considered to be lower. Deforestation can inhibit the spread of red pandas and exacerbate the natural population subdivision by topography and ecology, leading to severe fragmentation of the remaining wild population. Fewer than 40 animals in four separate groups share resources with humans in Nepal's Langtang National Park, where only 6%


title: "Red panda" content: of is preferred red panda habitat. Although direct competition for food with domestic livestock is not significant, livestock can depress bamboo growth by trampling. Small groups of animals with little opportunity for exchange between them face the risk of inbreeding, decreased genetic diversity, and even extinction. In addition, clearcutting for firewood or agriculture, including hillside terracing, removes old trees that provide maternal dens and decreases the ability of some species of bamboo to regenerate. In south-west China, red pandas are hunted for their fur, especially for the highly valued bushy tails, from which hats are produced. In these areas, the


title: "Red panda" content: fur is often used for local cultural ceremonies. In weddings, the bridegroom traditionally carries the hide. The "good-luck charm" red panda-tail hats are also used by local newly-weds. This practice may be quite old, as the red panda seems to be depicted in a 13th-century Chinese pen-and-ink scroll showing a hunting scene. Little or no mention of the red panda is made in the culture and folklore of Nepal. In the past, red pandas were captured and sold to zoos. In an article appearing in the "International Zoo News" in 1969, one reported he personally had handled 350 red pandas


title: "Red panda" content: in 17 years. Due to CITES, this zoo harvest has decreased substantially in recent years, but poaching continues, and red pandas are often sold to private collectors at exorbitant prices. In some parts of Nepal and India, red pandas are kept as pets. The red panda has a naturally low birth rate (usually one single or twin birth per year), and a high death rate in the wild. The red panda is listed in CITES Appendix I. The species has been classified as endangered in the IUCN Red List since 2008 because the global population is estimated at about 10,000


title: "Red panda" content: individuals, with a decreasing population trend; only about half of the total area of potential habitat of is actually being used by the species. Due to their shy and secretive nature, and their largely nocturnal habits, observation of red pandas is difficult. Therefore, population figures in the wild are determined by population density estimates and not direct counts. Worldwide population estimates range from fewer than 2,500 to between 16,000 and 20,000 individuals. In 1999, the total population in China was estimated at between 3,000 and 7,000 individuals. In 2001, the wild population in India was estimated at between 5,000 and


title: "Red panda" content: 6,000 individuals. Estimates for Nepal indicate only a few hundred individuals. No records from Bhutan or Burma exist. Reliable population numbers are hard to find, partly because other animals have been mistaken for the red panda. For instance, one report from Burma stated that red pandas were still fairly common in some areas; however, the accompanying photographic proof of the "red panda" is in fact a species of civet. The red panda is protected in all range countries, and hunting is illegal. Beyond this, conservation efforts are highly variable between countries: A community-managed forest in Ilam District of eastern Nepal


title: "Red panda" content: is home to 15 red pandas which generate household income through tourism activities, including homestays. Villagers in the high-altitude areas of Arunachal Pradesh have formed the Pangchen Red Panda Conservation Alliance comprising five villages with a community-conserved forest area of at an altitude of to over . The red panda is quite adaptable to living in captivity, and is common in zoos worldwide. By 1992, more than 300 births had occurred in captivity, and more than 300 individuals lived in 85 institutions worldwide. By 2001, 182 individuals were in North American zoos alone. As of 2006, the international studbook listed


title: "Red panda" content: more than 800 individuals in zoos and parks around the world. Of these, 511 individuals of subspecies "A. f. fulgens" were kept in 173 institutions and 306 individuals of subspecies "A. f. styani" were kept in 81 institutions. The international studbook is currently managed at the Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands. In cooperation with the International Red Panda Management Group, they coordinate the Species Survival Plan in North America, the European Endangered Species Programme in Europe, and other captive-breeding programs in Australia, India, Japan, and China.<ref name="india/studbook"></ref> In 2009, Sarah Glass, curator of red pandas and special exhibits at the


title: "Red panda" content: Knoxville Zoo in Knoxville, Tennessee, was appointed as coordinator for the North American Red Panda Species Survival Plan. The Knoxville Zoo has the largest number of captive red panda births in the Western Hemisphere (101 as of August 2011). Only the Rotterdam Zoo has had more captive births worldwide. The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling, India, successfully released four captive-bred red pandas to the wild in August and November 2003. The most often cited example of keeping red pandas as pets is the case of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi. Pandas were presented to her family as


title: "Red panda" content: a gift, and they were then housed in "a special tree house". The taxonomic classification of the red panda has been controversial since it was discovered. French zoologist Frédéric Cuvier initially described the red panda in 1825, and classified it as a close relative of the raccoon (Procyonidae), though he gave it the genus name "Ailurus", (from Ancient Greek , "cat"), based on superficial similarities with domestic cats. The specific epithet is the Latin adjective "" ("shining"). At various times, it has been placed in the Procyonidae, Ursidae, with "Ailuropoda" (giant panda) in the Ailuropodinae (until this family was moved


title: "Red panda" content: into the Ursidae), and into its own family, the Ailuridae. This uncertainty comes from difficulty in determining whether certain characteristics of "Ailurus" are phylogenetically conservative or are derived and convergent with species of similar ecological habits. Evidence based on the fossil record, serology, karyology, behavior, anatomy, and reproduction reflect closer affinities with Procyonidae than Ursidae. However, ecological and foraging specializations and distinct geographical distribution in relation to modern procyonids support classification in the separate family Ailuridae. Recent molecular systematic DNA research also places the red panda into its own family, Ailuridae, a part of the broad superfamily Musteloidea that also


title: "Red panda" content: includes the skunk, raccoon, and weasel families. The two subspecies are "A. f. fulgens" and "A. f. styani". However, the name "Ailurus fulgens refulgens" is sometimes incorrectly used for "A. f. styani". This stems from a lapsus made by Henri Milne-Edwards in his 1874 paper "", making "A. f. refulgens" a "nomen nudum". The most recent edition of "Mammal Species of the World" still shows the subspecies as "A. f. refulgens". This has been corrected in more recent works, including "A guide to the Mammals of China" and "Handbook of the Mammals of the World, Volume 1: Carnivores". The red


title: "Red panda" content: panda is considered a living fossil and only distantly related to the giant panda ("Ailuropoda melanoleuca"), as it is naturally more closely related to the other members of the superfamily Musteloidea to which it belongs. The common ancestor of both pandas (which also was an ancestor for all living bears; pinnipeds like seals and walruses; and members of the family Musteloidea like weasels and otters) can be traced back to the Paleogene period tens of millions of years ago, with a wide distribution across Eurasia. Fossils of the extinct red panda "Parailurus anglicus" have been unearthed from China in the


title: "Red panda" content: east to Britain in the west. In 1977, a single tooth of "Parailurus" was discovered in the Pliocene Ringold Formation of Washington. This first North American record is almost identical to European specimens and indicates the immigration of this species from Asia. In 2004, a tooth from a red panda species never before recorded in North America was discovered at the Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee. The tooth dates from 4.5–7 million years ago. This species, described as "Pristinailurus bristoli", indicates that a second, more primitive ailurine lineage inhabited North America during the Miocene. Cladistic analysis suggests that "Parailurus" and


title: "Red panda" content: "Ailurus" are sister taxa. Additional fossils of "Pristinailurus bristoli" were discovered at the Gray Fossil Site in 2010 and in 2012. The frequency with which panda fossils are being found at Gray Fossil Site suggests the species played a large role in the overall ecosystem of the area. The discovery in Spain of the postcranial remains of "Simocyon batalleri", a Miocene relative to the red panda, supports a sister-group relationship between red pandas and bears. The discovery suggests the red panda's "false thumb" was an adaptation to arboreal locomotion — independent of the giant panda's adaptation to manipulate bamboo —


title: "Red panda" content: one of the most dramatic cases of convergent evolution among vertebrates. The first known written record of the red panda occurs in a 13th-century Chinese scroll depicting a hunting scene between hunters and the red panda. Major General Thomas Hardwicke’s 1821 presentation of an article titled "Description of a new Genus of the Class Mammalia, from the Himalaya Chain of Hills Between Nepaul and the Snowy Mountains" at the Linnean Society in London is usually regarded as the moment the red panda became a "bona fide" species in Western science. Hardwicke proposed the name "wha" and explained: "It is frequently


title: "Red panda" content: discovered by its loud cry or call, resembling the word ‘Wha’, often repeating the same: hence is derived one of the local names by which it is known. It is also called "Chitwa"." Hardwicke's paper was not published until 1827, by which time Frédéric Cuvier had published his description and a figure. Hardwicke's originally proposed taxonomic name was removed from the 1827 publication of his paper with his permission, and naming credit is now given to Cuvier. Frédéric Cuvier had received the specimen he described from his brother's stepson, Alfred Duvaucel, who had sent it "from the mountains north of


title: "Red panda" content: India". He was the first to use both the binomial name "Ailurus fulgens" and the vernacular name "panda" in his description of the species published in 1825 in "Histoire naturelle des mammifères". "Ailurus" is adopted from the ancient Greek word (""), meaning "cat". The specific epithet "fulgens" is Latin for "shining, bright". Panda is a Roman goddess of peace and travellers, who was called upon before starting a difficult journey. Whether this is the origin of the French vernacular name "panda" remains uncertain. Later publications claim the name was adopted from a Himalayan language. In 1847, Hodgson described a red


title: "Red panda" content: panda under the name "Ailurus ochraceus", of which Pocock concluded it represents the same type as "Ailurus fulgens", since the description of the two agree very closely. He subordinated both types to the Himalayan red panda subspecies "Ailurus fulgens fulgens". The red panda's local names differ from place to place. The Lepcha call it "sak nam". In Nepal, it is called "bhalu biralo" (bear-cat) and "habre". The Sherpa people of Nepal and Sikkim call it "ye niglva ponva" and "wah donka". The word "wậː" is Sunuwari meaning bear; in Tamang language, a small, red bear is called "tāwām". In the


title: "Red panda" content: Kanchenjunga region of eastern Nepal, the Limbus know red pandas as "kaala" (literally "dark") because of their underside pelage; villagers of Tibetan origin call them "hoptongar". Additionally, Pocock lists the vernacular names "ye" and ' (Nepal); "thokya" and "thongwa" (Limbu); "oakdonga" or "wakdonka" and "woker" (Bhotia); "saknam sunam" (Lepcha). ' may originate from the Nepali word ' or ', a small bamboo, "Arundinaria intermedia", but also refers to a kind of small leopard, or cat-bear. The word ' may originate from the Nepali ' ("claw") or "" ("paw"). "Nigálya pónya" may translate to "bamboo claw/paw". "Nigálya pónya", "nyala ponga", and


title: "Red panda" content: "poonya" are also said to mean "eater of bamboo". The name panda could originate from "panjā". In modern Chinese, the red panda is called "xiăoxióngmāo" (/, lesser or small panda), or / ("hóngxióngmāo", red panda). In contrast, the giant panda is called "dàxióngmāo" (/, giant or big panda), or simply "xióngmāo" (/, panda, literally bear-cat). In English, the red panda is also called "lesser panda" (since it is smaller than the giant panda), though "red panda" is more commonly used nowadays. As it was known in the West decades before the giant panda, initially it was the red panda that


title: "Red panda" content: was simply called "panda". When distinction became necessary, the red panda was still considered the "true panda" and "common panda". Other English names used in the past include "fire fox", "fire cat", "red cat", "fox bear", "bright panda", and "Himalayan raccoon". Many other languages also use "red" or variations of "shining/gold" or "lesser/small" in their names for this species. For instance, in Bulgarian, in French, in Spanish, and in German all mean "red panda". Since at least as far back as 1855, one of its French names has been (shining panda). In Finnish, it is called (gold panda). Variations of


title: "Red panda" content: "lesser panda" occur in French (small panda), German (small panda), Spanish (lesser panda), Dutch (small panda), Russian (, "small panda"), Korean (, "baby panda"), and Japanese (, a transliteration of English "lesser panda"). The red panda was recognized as the state animal of Sikkim in the early 1990s, and was the mascot of the Darjeeling Tea Festival. In 2005, Babu, a male red panda at Birmingham Nature Centre in Birmingham, England, escaped and briefly became a media celebrity, before being recaptured. He was subsequently voted "Brummie of the Year", the first animal to receive this honor. Rusty, a male red


title: "Red panda" content: panda at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, similarly attracted media attention when he briefly escaped in 2013. The name of the open-source Firefox web browser is said to have been derived from a nickname of the red panda: "fire fox". An anthropomorphic red panda was featured as Master Shifu, the kung fu teacher, in the 2008 film "Kung Fu Panda", and its sequels "Kung Fu Panda 2" in 2011 and "Kung Fu Panda 3" in 2016. The red panda Futa inspired the character of Pabu, the so-called "fire ferret" animal companion (primarily of Bolin), in the U.S. animated TV


title: "Red panda" content: series "The Legend of Korra". Red panda The red panda ("Ailurus fulgens") is a mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, because the wild population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and continues to decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression. The red panda has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs; it is roughly the size of a domestic cat, though with a longer body and somewhat heavier. It is arboreal, feeds


title: "Religious pluralism" content: actually worships the same God, whether one knows it or not. Just as Hindus worshiping Ganesh is seen as valid by those worshiping Vishnu, so someone worshiping Jesus or Allah is accepted. Many "foreign" deities become assimilated into Hinduism, and some Hindus may sometimes offer prayers to Jesus along with their traditional forms of God. Religious pluralism is a controversial subject in Islam. The primary sources that guide Islam, namely Quran and hadiths, offer contradictory positions on religious pluralism. Some verses support religious pluralism, while others discourage it. The acceptability of religious pluralism within Islam remains a topic of active


title: Stonehenge content: Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around high, wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were


title: Stonehenge content: raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC. One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882 when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust. Stonehenge could have been


title: Stonehenge content: a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another five hundred years. The "Oxford English Dictionary" cites Ælfric's tenth-century glossary, in which "henge-cliff" is given the meaning "precipice", or stone, thus the "stanenges" or "Stanheng" "not far from Salisbury" recorded by eleventh-century writers are "supported stones". William Stukeley in 1740 notes, "Pendulous rocks are now called henges in Yorkshire...I doubt not, Stonehenge in Saxon signifies the hanging stones." Christopher Chippindale's "Stonehenge Complete" gives the derivation of the


title: Stonehenge content: name "Stonehenge" as coming from the Old English words "stān" meaning "stone", and either "hencg" meaning "hinge" (because the stone lintels hinge on the upright stones) or "hen(c)en" meaning "hang" or "gallows" or "instrument of torture" (though elsewhere in his book, Chippindale cites the "suspended stones" etymology). Like Stonehenge's trilithons, medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joining them, rather than the inverted L-shape more familiar today. The "henge" portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as henges. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch. As


title: Stonehenge content: often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from antiquarian use. Because its bank is inside its ditch, Stonehenge is not truly a henge site. Despite being contemporary with true Neolithic henges and stone circles, Stonehenge is in many ways atypical—for example, at more than tall, its extant trilithons' lintels, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, make it unique. Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project based at Durrington Walls, noted that Stonehenge appears to have been associated with burial from the earliest period of its existence: Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at


title: Stonehenge content: least 1500 years. There is evidence of large-scale construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscape's time frame to 6500 years. Dating and understanding the various phases of activity is complicated by disturbance of the natural chalk by periglacial effects and animal burrowing, poor quality early excavation records, and a lack of accurate, scientifically verified dates. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right. Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes (one may have been a natural


title: Stonehenge content: tree throw), which date to around 8000 BC, beneath the nearby old tourist car-park in use until 2013. These held pine posts around in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted "in situ". Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east-west alignment which may have had ritual significance. Another Mesolithic astronomical site in Britain is the Warren Field site in Aberdeenshire, which is considered the world's oldest Lunar calendar, corrected yearly by observing the midwinter solstice. Similar but later sites have been found in Scandinavia. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been