astronomy

The World At Night

The World At Night is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The World At Night rather than just read about it. In short: The World At Night (TWAN) is an international project to produce and present a collection of high-quality photos, videos, and virtual reality (VR) images of the night sky taken at various natural, cultural, and historic locations worldwide. Based on the peacemaking slogan of "One People, One Sky", TWAN aims to demonstrate that humanity is one family when considered under the roof of the night sky.

Key takeaways

The World At Night belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The World At Night to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The World At Night from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The World At Night (TWAN) is an international project to produce and present a collection of high-quality photos, videos, and virtual reality (VR) images of the night sky taken at various natural, cultural, and historic locations worldwide. Based on the peacemaking slogan of "One People, One Sky", TWAN aims to demonstrate that humanity is one family when considered under the roof of the night sky. According to its website, "TWAN is a bridge between art, humanity, and science. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above all the landmarks and symbols of different nations and regions, attesting to the truly unified nature of Earth as a planet rather than an amalgam of human-designated territories."

Access This imagery is available for viewing on the TWAN website, through media contributions and presentations and exhibits in various countries. TWAN events have been organized in countries such as United States, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Algeria, Iran, India, Thailand, South Korea, South Africa, and Australia. The images are also presented in the form of publications and TWAN books and DVDs are planned for release in 2010.

Management About 30 night sky photographers from around the world combine their talents and expertise through TWAN. They travel globally and photograph scenes that tell how the familiar sky appears the same from country to country and continent to continent. The TWAN project is coordinated by Astronomers Without Borders (AWB). According to its website, "TWAN has brought together photographers, astronomers and organizations worldwide to create a new international team that fulfills its primary goal of bringing to the public a new way of seeing the beauty of nights sky and wonders of our planet, portraying Earth’s people as one family and our world as a living planet we must care for." In addition to the main photo and video galleries on the TWAN website, there are specific galleries for UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and images that have appeared on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website. TWAN also has a "Guest Gallery" where people can submit their own night-sky images. This furthers the reach and variety of the image collection, which includes more than 1500 photos, videos, and VR imagery. Sites from about 50 countries are represented, spanning every continent. The photographic imagery on the TWAN website is copyrighted.

TWAN has been designated by UNESCO and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as a Special Project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009). A TWAN exhibition accompanied the opening ceremony of IYA2009 in the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Examples of photos TWAN photos that have been NASA's Astronomy Pictures of the Day include the following:

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: A True Image from False Kiva (29 September 2008) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: A Starry Night in Brazil (9 May 2009) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Mars and Orion Over Monument Valley (25 December 2007) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: 6 Minutes 42 Seconds (30 July 2009) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Big Picture (11 April 2009) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Circle 'round the Moon (13 February 2009) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Orion Dawn Over Mount Nemrut (16 December 2008) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Mauna Kea Milky Way Panorama (19 February 2009) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Solstice Moonrise, Cape Sounion (20 June 2008) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Alborz Mountain Milky Way (3 May 2008) NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Sky Delights Over Sweden (15 April 2008)

Notes

External links Official website Photos that have appeared on NASA's APOD Imagery of UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Illustrations

The World At Night: A TWAN photo displays a moonlit winter night in Alborz Mountains of Iran. — A TWAN photo displays a moonlit winter night in Alborz Mountains of Iran.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The World At Night

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The World At Night claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The World At Night before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The World At Night ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The World At Night

In research: The World At Night appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The World At Night in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The World At Night is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Astronomical imaging, Photographic collections, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The World At Night outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The World At Night in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The World At Night means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The World At Night out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The World At Night in simple terms?

Why does The World At Night matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The World At Night?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The World At Night.