Space & Earth

Astronomy

2010-02-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

Astronomy is the oldest and most fascinating science. Since ancient times, people have tried to understand the universe and the earth’s position in it. It may have begun in superstition with attempts to foretell the future of individuals. But it has gradually explained the marvels of the heavens. About 4000 B.C., the Egyptians developed a Calendar based on the Chinese have recorded the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. The Early astronomers whose names we were the Greek philosophers, like tales, Pythagoras, Eratosthenes heptarchs, Aristech’s and Ptolemy. The astronomers like Nicholas Copernicus. Tyco brave, Johannes keeper and astronomy. Edwin Hubble. Cecelia Payne – Gaposchkin, William hugging. Percival Lowell, Eleanor Helen, William Herschel are some of the modern astronomers.

Newton‘s laws of gravity established the science of celestial mechanics. Astronomy first centered on the solar system, later explored the stars and distant galaxies. By 1900, astronomers began taking photographs of heavenly bodies instead of making visual observations. With the discovery of structure of atom, the astronomers started of atom, the astronomer’s started the study of nature of stars by analyzing starlight. Today’s an astronomer is no longer person working in many fields of science but is a specialist on the specific aspect of science but is a specialist on the specific aspect of astronomers. Research in astronomy is of two types – theoretical and observational. Theoretical studied predict and interpret the behaviors of astronomical bodies while the observational work produces the facts on which theories must be based.

Bode's Galaxy

2010-02-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

The Hubble Space Telescope has sent back the best view yet of a picture-perfect galaxy known as M81 or Bode's Galaxy, resolving single points of starlight as well as star clusters and glowing regions of fluorescent gas. The pronounced grand-design spiral galaxy M81 forms a most conspicuous physical pair with its neighbor, M82, and is the brightest and probably dominant galaxy of a nearby group called M81 group. A few tens of millions years ago, which is semi-recently on the cosmic time scale, a close encounter occurred between the galaxies M81 and M82. M81, which lies 11.6 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major, is a popular target for astronomers and amateur stargazers. It can be seen in clear, dark skies with binoculars or a small telescope. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team under Wendy Freedman of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has investigated 32 Cepheid variables in M81 and determined the distance to be 11.0 million light years, in 1993 well before the HST was refurbished. Together with the new distance scale correction implied by the results of ESA's Hipparcos satellite, the true distance of M81 is probably closer to 12.0 million light years

Mountains and Oceans on the Earth

2010-02-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

The crust of the earth is its outer most surface layer which is about 6- 35 km thick. It is not an even surface but forms hollows that are full of water. These are called and ridges and wrinkles that are the great mountain chains. This outer surface of the Earth moves constantly producing the oceans and mountains.

Mountains also keep growing or eroding. But these are very slow processes that take several million years to occur. The vast Himalayan mountain range in Asia began to grow 50 million years ago, but it is so young that it is still being formed. The Aravalli range, in the south west of Delhi and in Rajasthan, is believed to be the oldest mountain range in the world. It is eroding and degenerating.

Plate Tectonic Theory

2010-01-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

For several centuries it was believed that the continents were fixed permanently in their place. In 1965, an English scientist, Sir Edward Bullard using computer tested the fit of Africa and America and found that at a depth of 2000 meters the match was close indeed. It was then proved that continents are continually drifting away from each other on the surface of the earth like logs floating on water. This is called continental drift. Seabed is also recycled every 200 million years. Magma (molten rock) rises from inner layers of the earth at certain sites on ocean floor called ocean ridges.

The mid _Atlantic Ridge represents the boundary between two huge blocks of crystal material. The magma solidifies and moves outwards before being swallowed up at sites called ocean trenches. Thus new crust is being created by volcanic material welling up from below and spreading outwards. This process is called sea floor spreading and the boundary is called a constructive margin. These margins lie along ocean ridges. Since, the earth is not getting bigger this plates and are carried by their apart the continents. The edge of a plate where it is being destroyed is called destructive plate margin. These lie along ocean trenches.

Here, one block or plate or plate of crystal material is forced beneath another. This movement results in the earth quakes and volcanic activities. The idea of sea floor spreading combined with the idea of continental drift forms a theory what is called plate tectonics.

Earth natural satellite

2010-01-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

The Moon is our only natural satellite. The young Earth had no moon, but soon after the Earth formed, a Mars-sized rogue planet struck it a huge glancing blow. A large chunk of Earth and most of the rogue planet were vaporized into a cloud that rose more than 22,000km in altitude, where it condensed gradually into the solid moon.Looking down from the north pole we would see the Moon orbiting counterclockwise from west to east. Neil Armstrong took that historical step of "one small step for man one giant step for mankind".The diameter of the moon is 2,160 miles. The Moon takes about 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.6 seconds to go all the way around the Earth and return to its starting position. The U.S.S.R. had made the opening gambit, sending the first artificial satellites into orbit, starting with the 83.5-kilogram Sputnik I in October 1957. Most planets are named for Roman gods but moons are named for Greek gods.The moon is slowly moving away from Earth. The current distance between the Earth and the moon is 384,000km but it was closer in the past.

Comet

2010-01-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

Earth mostly regarded the comets as messengers of destruction and rarely as bringers of good or prosperity, while the scientists today think they might have played a key role in the formation of our planet and view them as carriers of possible information about the galaxy. Comets have been the most feared and admired sky spectacles of all. But while astronomers have been able to predict eclipses for thousands of years, only in the 1700s was a comet's return correctly predicted, by Edmond Halley. The comets that pass close to the Sun originally came from one of two places that either the Oort cloud or the Kuiper Belt. You can think of the Oort cloud as a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun that's filled with about 1 million comets. In the early 1930 an Estonian astronomer proposed a structure formed of billions of comets which lie beyond the Kuiper belt. However, the theoretical structure one light year in radius equivalent to a quarter of the distance to the nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, has not been detected yet.

Apollo 11

2010-01-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

Apollo 11 was scheduled to fulfill an age-old dream of mankind. July 16,1969, Was the fateful day when the Saturn V rocket carrying Apollo 11 rose gracefully into the air from cape Canaveral. Its crew whose names were to go down in history, Were all experienced astronauts from the Gemini programmed- Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin. Their launch and outward voyage to the Moon proved faultless, a good omen for their later success.

The Apollo flight plan required a space craft made up of three sections or modules. The three-man crew were housed in the command module (CM) linked to the main equipment section, the service module (SM). For the outward fight the CM was mated to the lunar module (SM). For the outward fight the CM was mated to

The lunar module (LM) when the craft reached Lamar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin crawled into the LM nicknamed Eagle and separated it from the CM for the descent to the selected landing spot in the sea of tranquility one of the Moons land plains After their moon walk, they returned to dock with the CM orbiting above the LM was then discarded before the flight home.

Sun

2010-01-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

The sun is just one of about 100 billion stars in our galaxy. The Sun is by far the largest object in the solar system. It contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System. The Sun's diameter is around 1.4 million km. It is approximately 109 times wider than the earth. The diameter of the Sun is 840,000 miles which is more than 100 times the diameter of the Earth. Its mass is more than 300,000 times that of the Earth with a surface temperature of about 5500° C. The outer layers of the Sun exhibit differential rotation at the equator the surface rotates once every 25.4 days and near the poles it's as much as 36 days. The Sun is about 4.5 BILLION YEARS old. It will probably continue to exist in its present FORM for about another 5 BILLION YEARS before RUNNING out of HYDROGEN. Astronomers think that the Sun formed from the solar nebula about 4.59 billion years ago. The Sun is in the main sequence stage right now, slowly using up its hydrogen fuel.

First Astronaut

2010-01-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

Like the first satellite, the first human to travel in space was a Russian. His name was Yuri Gagarin. An army major, the 27 – year – old Gagarin blasted off from the Soviet Union in his Vostck I space – craft on April 12, 1961. The overstock I was a sphere 2.3 meters (7.5 fit) in diameter coated with heat – resistant material.

A small instrument unit behind the sphere jettisoned (cast off) before re – entry contained gas bottles to provide air for the consonants as well as electrical batteries and retro rockets. Before – entries the atmosphere overstock 1 high. Gagarin was ejected from the spacecraft after re entry and he parachuted safely to the earth. Bigger chutes opened on Vostok I carryings the space craft to a gentle landing. From blast – off to loading Gagarin’s mission lasted 108 minutes.

Earthquake

2010-01-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

An earthquake is a series of vibrations on the earth's surface caused by the generation of seismic waves due to sudden rupture within the earth during release of accumulated strain energy. Most recent seismic codes include response modification factors in the definition of the equivalent lateral forces that are used for the design of earthquake resistant buildings. The crust of the earth when it is subject to tectonic forces, bends slightly. But, because the crust is rigid, when the stress or pressure exceeds the strength of the rocks, the crust breaks and snaps into a new position. The effects of earthquakes vary. This is a result of a variety of factors such as the strength of the earthquake, the level of population in an area and the level of economic development of the area struck. Earthquakes cause thousands of deaths worldwide every year, and systematic study of the causes of these deaths can lead to their prevention. Few studies have examined how multiple types of risk factors are related to physical injury during an earthquake.

Nebulae

2009-12-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

The world nebula (plural – nebulae) means mist. A nebula is a giant cloud of gas and dust in the space, of which many still exist in the universe. One famous example is the Great nebula in Orion visible to the naked eye and a magnificent sight through binoculars or a small telescope.

At the heart of nebula are several newborn stars and the light of these stars cause the nebula in space about 5,000 million years ago. Plied, the famous star cluster, formed only 50 million years ago, quite recently in astronomical term. Famous in space about telescopic photographs show the stars to be surrounded by traces of the nebula from which they were formed. French astronomer, Charles messier, first published a catalog of nebula in and dust. A French astronomer, now know a lot more about the nebulae.

Astronauts Live in Space

2009-12-25T15:40:00.000-08:00

In space everything floats and there is no up or down. Astronauts wear special shoes that clip into grids on the floors and walls to stay in one place and work or eat. They do not need chairs to sit down and their beds are just sleeping bags fixed to the walls. They seem to sleep standing up.

Russian and American astronauts have lived in space because human bodies are suited to life on the earth held down by the force of gravity. The atmosphere process down the bodies provide humans air to breathe and protect them from the earth away from astronaut were found deed, when they returned from Salyut I space station in Soyuz II after spending 23 days in the orbit. The Skylab astronauts grew taller in space, but they returned back to the earth and suffered no lasting ill – effects.

Stars

2009-12-19T15:39:00.000-08:00

The giant clouds of gas and dust, called nebula are the sites of star formation. The stellar formation, as the star formation is referred to, is due to compression waves which travel around the galaxy, or the shock waves from the supernova explosion.

Eventually the pro-star starts in its center and it begin its independent existence as a true star. It is now called a T. Taurus type star and release energy produced as a result of nuclear fusion. The rest of the clouds are blown away. Most stars, like the sun, spend their life quietly converting hydrogen to helium in its core. The pressure at the center keeps the star expanded. This is a stable period in a star’s life. It is called main sequence star. The star’s luminosity increase, i.e., it gives out more energy as its core becomes denser and hotter.

Space Stations

2009-12-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

The space age began about twelve years before the first man landed on the moon on October 4, 1957, with the launching of first artificial satellite sputnik by the then soviet union, Gradually both the US and Soviet Union started sending artificial satellites into the space to study the universe and its expanse. They also felt the need of a permanent station to be built in the space so as to facilitate the studies of the outer space.

Today space stations orbit the earth and one day we or our children may live in space. A station is a special kind of satellite in which astronomers or space scientist live and work for week or even months. The first space station, Salyut 1 was launched by the USSR in April 1971.

Skylab was first US space station put into orbit in 1973. Nine astronauts in three crews spent 28, 59 and 84 days respectively; in the Earth’s orbit abroad Skylab. Skylab stayed in space for six years and studied the sun the earth’s orbit aboard Skylab. Skylab stayed in space station was launched in to orbit on February 20, 1986. A soviet space and set record of and it has been devised to sink it in to pacific by March 2000.

Hubble’s law

2009-12-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

In 1929, Edwin Hubble found that the distant galaxies in the universe are moving away from the earth. He found that the speed of moving of moving galaxies depends on their distance from the earth. If a galaxy is ten times as far away as another, it is moving ten times faster than the other. This is what is called Hubble’s in other words, more distant galaxies are moving away from the earth than the ones closer to it. If a galaxy, 1000 light years. Away from the earth, are moving at about 177 km pr sec, moves twice that speed, i.e., 354 km per sec and soon.

Space

2009-11-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Space is what we see up in the sky. We see stars, planets and a vast expanse of empty space in between them. There are billions of stars and galaxies in the space beyond our planet earth. The expense of space is so vast that even billions of stars, mostly much larger that the sun cannot illuminate it. So it is so vast dark a cold. Space is said to begin about 160 km (100 miles) above the earth. As well as being cold dark it is also silent and airless. It is thus a hostile environment. In the dark space only stars shine.

Space is subjected to extreme heat and cold and is crises – crossed by belts of dangerous radiations. Since early civilizations man has tried to understand – what the space is all about? How the planet earth fits into the space and into the rest of the universe that lies beyond? Early astronomers tried to explain the movements of stars and planets in the space. Today with the help of the most sophisticated technology available the man is able to tell what lies in the space. This technology also helps the man pressure his quest further.

Phoenicians

2009-11-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

For a thousand years (1400 – 400 B.C) a collection of people called Phoenicians played a great part in history. They lived in harbors on the coast of what is now Syria and Lebanon. They were a Semitic people and descended like the Hebrews from the Greek word phonons which in about 2000 B.C and built towns on the word. Phoenicia ion history began in about 1600 B.C. Their most famous town’s foreign rule or influences are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedon, and Rome. But for them commerce was more important than politics. Love of profit and adventure guided their study ships they sailed round Africa, passed through the Pillars of Hercules to the Atlantic and reached the shores of Britain. They mined tin in the silly isles. Where ever they went they traded – in timber, salves, spices, amber, and gems, copper.

Mars’ Structure

2009-11-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

The neighboring planet of the earth mars shows similarities to the earth as well. The planet, like the earth, has brilliant white caps at its poles that change with Martian seasons. White poles are covered with Martian seasons. White poles are covered with dry ice or dry co2 which melts in summer uncovering a surface or rocks and forms again in winter.

There are high mountains, deep craters, enormous volcanoes and deserts. There are high mountains, deep craters, enormous again in winter. There are dried – up river beds, showing mars was warmer and wetter and have plenty of water and have the dried up river beds were observed by a rich amateur interpreted them as water carrying canals built by an advanced Marian civilizations.

Percival Lowell thought that mars were inhabited and the canals took water from the polar caps to dry farm land.All his observations turned out to be optical illusion. The young mars were fully molten for a short time during the formation of the solar system. The rabid solidification of the mars prevented heavier materials like iron, to sink to the bottom. This made mars core smaller than those of the other rocky planets.

Mars and its Smallest Moons

2009-11-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

The brightest red star in the earth’s sky is in fact the planet mars. The planet’s deep red colour led to its being named after the god of war mars. The red color, the most distinctive feature of the planet, comes from rock and dust which cover its surface. The rocks had been measure up to 1 meter across. The dusty soil is rust colored because of iron oxide. Winds from dunes in some regions and wind borne dust gives the Martian sky a permanent pinkish tinge. At certain times wind speeds increase to over 100 km (62 miles) per hour, blowing up strong storms that lasts for months. Mars is half the size of earth and has a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide in which clouds from. Its creativity is about half that of earth. Spacecraft have been reveled several gigantic volcanoes and a set of canyons called the valleys mariners.

This canyon is ten times longer and four times deeper than the Grand Canyon in the united status. The Viking space craft searched for life on mars, but no traces of life were found. Some scientists believe they have found fossils of Martian cells in a meteorite. Mars takes about 24 hours, 37 minutes and 23 seconds to spin on its axis and 657 days to orbit around the sun once at an average distance of 228 million km (142 million miles).

Demos and Photos are the smallest known moon or satellites in the solar system. These were discovered in 1977 as more pinpoints of light and even through most powerful telescope they look specks of light. Mariner – 9 which orbited the mars in 1971 took photographs of mars moons showing them to be irregularly – shaped, created lumps of rocks. These have been believed to be the rocky members of asteroid, creature’s lumps after mythical servant of the god mars.