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Posts Tagged ‘gold jewellery’

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA. It was an American Spacecraft that was launched to research and monitor the possibility of life on Mars. The primary mission of MGS was completed in 2001, but in its third extended mission, the spacecraft failed to respond because it had gone into safe mode. Despite strenuous efforts, the problem could not really be resolved, and the mission formally ended in January 2007.

Developing a spacecraft is never easy, and when you talk about Mars Global Surveyor, the task looked near to impossible. Thanks to the technology, we now know the properties of gold metal that are helpful in making numerous industrial machines. The use of gold in the manufacturing of technologies like microelectronics, telecommunications, optics, aviation and space has been increasing tremendously since last 2 decades. It has become vital resource for nations in the technological and economic competitiveness.

Without gold, the manufacturing of MGS was in no way possible. Let us have a look at the use of gold in the manufacturing of MGS. The Mylar sheets that protected the spacecraft from solar heat were gold coated. Other than spacecraft, a thick layer of gold was also used on the helmet-visors of the astronauts to protect them from any harmful effect of solar radiation. For reliability, corrosion-resistant and static-free performance of satellite microelectronics, gold components were used that relay data around the globe instantly.

With its discovery over thousands of years ago, gold has always been a popular precious metal. All over the world gold has been used for many things including financial backing, electronic components and medicinal uses too. The most obvious use of gold however is within jewellery.

Gold jewellery has been an important part of many cultures throughout history. Whether worn for beauty, status or ceremonial purposes it has been a popular symbol of power, wealth and beauty. Across the world gold jewellery has taken the form of earrings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, other body piercings and rings. It has also been used in royal accessories such as the crown.

Just as it has been throughout history gold is today still seen as a symbol of wealth and beauty. The purchase of gold jewellery is often for a loved one as a marker of a special occasion or symbol of adoration. Gold jewellery will often be passed down from generation to generation as an investment.

The admiration of gold jewellery not only comes from its natural expensive quality, due to its rarity, and of course it’s natural beauty too – but because of its unique elemental properties. These properties mean that gold is a mineral that cannot be tarnished or corroded. Gold is malleable too making it great for jewellery and also benefits from the ability to successfully combine with other metal alloys. It I when gold is combined with metal alloys that the different shades of gold jewellery can be produced including yellow and white gold.

Gold in telescopes, sounds weird, huh? When it is first heard it, the first thought that comes in my mind is that some kind of jewellery or decor, which contains gold. However, when it is looked at deeply, and researched thoroughly, it comes to surface that telescopes are expensive, and are a symbol of aristocracy and nobility, thus addition of gold to the telescope increases its value. However, there is much more to it; it has functional use as well.

What is a telescope and why is it used? It has been derived from a Greek meaning to look far off. Telescope is an optical device to view distant objects; it was made to view heavenly bodies like stars, planets and was used by astronomers.

The famous Greek philosopher, scientist Galileo to observe the planetary motion, formerly used telescope. He was the first one to declare that earth is not the centre of solar system, instead it is the sun, and he made this discovery using the telescope.

However, there have been records found of telescopes used by Democritus, Pythagoras, Babylonians, and ancient Chinese as when they recorded their observations in their transcripts.

Telescopes have concave and convex mirrors for the purpose of reflection and refraction. As mirrors are coated with an amalgam to make them reflect and refract, but some of the reflected rays are absorbed by the amalgam of silver and mercury because of the non-inert characteristic of both mercury, and silver. Here gold comes in!

Some of us purchase gold jewelry because – it looks excellent, our mother said so, it compliments the color of our skin, its a great possible investment, yaddy, yaddy yah. The reasons are as plentiful as the overly honest dealers who would sell you the jewellery.

Perhaps I shouldn’t skip too quickly over the “great investment theme” because it is somewhat important to know that “10 Carat gold” all the way up to “18 Carat gold” is not generally considered to be great investment material. And unfortunately the fact that your home insurance will cover it still doesn’t make it investment grade material.

If investment is your reason and you don’t want to buy gold bars or certificates, and of course you want to flaunt your investment on your skin during special occasions then go for jewellery that is at least 22-24 Carat Gold. The trick, especially in North America and England, is – where does one buy 24K Gold?

Some jewellers who don’t sell stronger than 18 Carat gold are likely to tell you that there is no such thing in jewelry since its too soft for most applications. They do have a point there however from experience I can tell you that 22 Carat Gold necklaces of 110 grams have been known to support the pull of a 50 pound child.

I first started buying gold in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. It was, at one time very inexpensive there. Later I frequented the gold souks of Dubai and the other middle east commercial centers. Real 24K stuff can be purchased there.