Christopher Columbus
"Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa between August and October 1451. His father was a weaver and small-time merchant. As a teenager, Christopher went to sea, travelled extensively and eventually made Portugal his base. It was here that he initially attempted to gain royal patronage for a westward voyage to the Orient - his 'enterprise of the Indies'.
When this failed, and appeals to the French and English courts were also rejected, Columbus found himself in Spain, still struggling to win backing for his project. Finally, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agreed to sponsor the expedition, and on 3 August 1492, Columbus and his fleet of three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña, set sail across the Atlantic.
Ten weeks later, land was sighted. On 12 October, Columbus and a group of his men set foot on an island in what later became known as the Bahamas. Believing that they had reached the Indies, the newcomers dubbed the natives 'Indians'. Initial encounters were friendly, but indigenous populations all over the New World were soon to be devastated by their contact with Europeans. Columbus landed on a number of other islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Hispaniola, and returned to Spain in triumph. He was made 'admiral of the Seven Seas' and viceroy of the Indies, and within a few months, set off on a second and larger voyage. More territory was covered, but the Asian lands that Columbus was aiming for remained elusive. Indeed, others began to dispute whether this was in fact the Orient or a completely 'new' world.
Columbus made two further voyages to the newfound territories, but suffered defeat and humiliation along the way. A great navigator, Columbus was less successful as an administrator and was accused of mismanagement. He died on 20 May 1506 a wealthy but disappointed man."
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Columbus’s Extraterrestrial Connections
Asteroid 327 Columbia
327 Columbia is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 March 1892, by French astronomer Auguste Charlois at Nice Observatory in southeast France. It is named after Christopher Columbus (1451–1506).
Columbia orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 8 months, rotates about its axis every 5.93 hours and is between 26.13 and 30.29 kilometers in diameter.
It was named in honour of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), who reached the New World during his first voyage in 1492, instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended. The asteroid was named in 1892, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of this historic discovery. Naming citation was first mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955.
Mars Crater Columbus
Columbus Crater is a crater in the Memnonia quadrangle of Mars, located at 29.8° south latitude and 166.1° west longitude. It is 119 km in diameter and was named after Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer (1451–1506). The discovery of sulfates and clay minerals in sediments within Columbus Crater are strong evidence that a lake once existed in the crater. Research with an orbiting near-infrared spectrometer, which reveals the types of minerals present based on the wavelengths of light they absorb, found evidence of layers of both clay and sulfates in Columbus crater. This is exactly what would appear if a large lake had slowly evaporated. Moreover, because some layers contained gypsum, a sulfate which forms in relatively fresh water, life could have formed in the crater.
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Moon Crater Columbo
Colombo is a lunar impact crater that lies on the strip of rough continental terrain between Mare Fecunditatis to the east and Mare Nectaris in the west. It is located to the south of the crater Goclenius, and northwest of Cook.
The rim of Colombo is circular, although slightly indented along the northwest where Colombo A intrudes slightly into the interior. The inner wall is asymmetrical, being much more narrow to the north and northwest and wider to the southeast. The rim is somewhat eroded, and several tiny craterlets lie along the inner wall to the southeast. The small satellite crater Colombo B lies across the south-southwestern rim.
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