Asteroid

Asteroids are minor planets, especially those of the inner Solar System. The larger ones have also been called planetoids. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet. As minor planets in the outer Solar System were discovered and found to have volatile-based surfaces that resemble those of comets, they were often distinguished from asteroids of the asteroid belt. In this article, the term "asteroid" refers to the minor planets of the inner Solar System including those in co-orbit with Jupiter.

There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun's solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets. The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, or are co-orbital with Jupiter (the Jupiter trojans). However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth asteroids. Individual asteroids are classified by their characteristic spectra, with the majority falling into three main groups: C-type, M-type, and S-type. These were named after and are generally identified with carbon-rich, metallic, and silicate (stony) compositions, respectively.

Asteroids (video game)

Asteroids is an arcade space shooter released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. and designed by Lyle Rains, Ed Logg, and Dominic Walsh. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The object of the game is to shoot and destroy asteroids and saucers while not colliding with either or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases.

Asteroids was one of the first major hits of the golden age of arcade games. The game sold over 70,000 arcade cabinets and proved both popular with players and influential with developers. It has since been ported to multiple platforms. Asteroids was widely imitated and directly influenced two popular and often cloned arcade games, Defender and Gravitar, as well as many other video games.

Asteroids was conceived during a meeting between Logg and Rains and used hardware developed by Howard Delman previously used for Lunar Lander. Based on an unfinished game titled Cosmos and inspired by Spacewar! and Computer Space, both early shoot 'em up video games, Asteroids' physics model and control scheme were derived by Logg from these earlier games and refined through trial and error. The game is rendered on a vector display in a two-dimensional view that wraps around in both screen axes.

AMC

AMC may refer to:

Film and television

Education

Finance

Medicine

AMC (Europe)

AMC is a European TV channel launched by AMC Networks International. AMC replaced the MGM Channel on 5 November 2014. AMC produced dramas Halt & Catch Fire and The Divide are among the first original series that premiered on the channel. The channel also airs films from MGM, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The channel launched in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2015, in partnership with BT TV and branded AMC from BT.Sky customers must subscribe to 'BT Sport pack' to access the channel.

Programming

References

External links

AMC (TV channel)

AMC is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs theatrically released movies, along with a limited amount of original programming. The channel's name originally stood for "American Movie Classics", but since 2003 the full name has been de-emphasized as a result of a major shift in its programming.

As of July 2015, AMC was received by approximately 94,491,000 households in the United States that subscribe to a pay television service (81.2% of U.S. households with at least one television set). In March 2015, Dish Network's Sling TV announced it would soon begin making AMC channels available to cord cutters, including AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV, and WE tv.

History

Focus on classic films (1984–2003)

American Movie Classics, as AMC was originally known, debuted on October 1, 1984 as a premium channel. Its original format focused on classic movies – largely those made prior to the 1950s – that aired during the afternoon and early evening hours in a commercial-free, generally unedited, uncut and uncolorized format. AMC was originally operated as a joint venture between Rainbow Media and cable television provider Tele-Communications Inc. (John Malone, who owned TCI and its parent Liberty Media, would launch another premium service Encore – which also originally focused on older films, mainly from the 1960s to the 1980s – seven years later in April 1991). During its early years, it was not uncommon for AMC to host a marathon of Marx Brothers films, or show classics such as the original 1925 release of The Phantom of the Opera. In 1987, the channel began to be carried on the basic cable tiers of many cable providers. By 1989, AMC was available to 39 million subscribers in the U.S.