The first
mission to Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons
Spacecraft blasts off from Cape Canaveral
(USA). At 36,000 miles (57,600km) per hour, this is the fastest spacecraft ever
launched and will transmit its first close up images of Pluto in 2015.
Smaller
than Earth’s moon, Pluto loses its planetary status when scientists discover
2003 UB313 (or Xena) – a much larger rocky object beyond Pluto. However debate
continues to rage with astronomers divided over the definition of a planet!
According to International Astronomical Union (IAU) the eight worlds from
Mercury to Neptune are planets, while Pluto and
other round objects farther away are to be
called dwarf planets.
NASA’s
Messenger spacecraft to Mercury sets a record by sending a laser signal to
Earth from a distance of about 24 m km. the last such transmission was from the
Galileo spacecraft about 6 m km away, in 1992.
Launched
in 1999, NASA’s spacecraft Stardust sends cosmic dust back to Earth.
Three rocks in the red planet –Mars are given
Indian names. They are Kohinoor, Nalanda and Pongal.
There is proof that there was water and life
in the Mars about 4 billion years ago.
The scientist also got a broken statue of a
face of a man, but the scientists are not getting the man who made the
statue.
But it is very difficult to live in Mars. In
the daytime, the temperature raises upto 55 degrees centigrade and at nighttime
the temperature goes down to –133 degrees centigrade.
If you take one second to count a star in the
sky, you can count all the stars in our galaxy easily in 2,500 years.
All the coal, oil, natural gas and all the
fuel found on the earth will only keep the sun for burning for a few days
The sun occupies 99.8 percent of the total
mass of the total solar system.
The earth has passed through three or four
comets unhurt.
C. V. Raman said “I think, a man who does not
look at the even thorough that modest equipment – a pair of binoculars – cannot
be called an educated person because he has missed the most wonderful thing,
and that is the universe in which he lives”.
Hydrogen is the most important fuel burnt to
produce energy.
Stars are of red, blue, white, green and
purple colors.
The speed of light is 1, 86, 000 miles (2,
97, 000km) per hour.
1 light year=6x10^12 miles (9.6x10^12km) per
hour.
The sunlight contains about 8x10^24 watts.
Maximum width of our galaxy is 1, 20, 000
light years.
Our galaxy belongs to the cluster of Local
Galaxy containing 20 galaxies. The biggest of them is the Andromeda galaxy.
Andromeda galaxy, which is 22, 00, 000 light
years wide, is 50% larger than ours.
Large
and small Magellanic Clouds are two other galaxies close to the earth with a
distance of about 1, 80,000 light years.
Our galaxy is 1, 400 crore years old.
Our universe is 2, 000 crore years old.
Elbert Einstein said that a ray of light will
go around the universe in 1, 000 million years.
Sole, the Roman sun god is the official name
of the sun.
The solar is 35, 000 light years away from
the galactic center of the Milky Way and is near the edge of the spiral arm.
Its age is 4.6x 10^9 years and goes around the center of our galaxy in 20, 00,
00, 000 years. This is called a cosmic year.
Copernicus formulated the heliocentric
theory.
Hans
Lippersy called his telescope ‘Kyker’ meaning looker.
Galileo wrote the book ‘Dialogue of the two
world systems’ ridiculing the thought of Ptolemy.
On May 23, 1543, the book ‘Concerning the revolutions of the
celestial bodies’ was delivered to Nicolas Copernicus at his deathbed.
In the trial in Pisa, when the judge forced Galileo to accept the
theory that the sun and all other planets move around the earth and the earth
is stationary, Galileo said ‘Epur Si Mouve’ meaning, still it moves.
Galileo discovered the mountains, plains and
craters of the moon, the sunspots, the phases of Venus and Mars, the four
satellites of Jupiter called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Castillo (Galilean
satellites), the stellar nature of Milky Way and the superb system of the rings
of Saturn.
Mercury is also known as the speedy messenger.
Venus is also known as the morning star or
evening star.
Earth is also known as the watery planet or
the blue planet.
Jupiter is also known as Jove.
Saturn is also known as the ringed planet.
Pluto is also known as the Icy planet.
Newton first constructed the reflecting telescope.
If the mass of two attracting bodies is
doubled, then the attraction is doubled, but if the distance is doubled, then
the attraction becomes one fourth.