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Brightest Moon in Two Decades

2011-03-19T23:59:00.000+05:30

Tonight the Moon will be closest to Earth in 18 years making it the biggest and the brightest since then. With all the hype created over the last week I really wanted to know what's the big deal. Last two days the moon really looked big enough at sun set. Just a while back I took a walk to my garden to check its brightness and it was bright enough. The shadow created by the moon was so dark and the garden was so well illuminated that I felt like sitting in there for an hour chilling out (I had bought a KFC bucket with chilled Pepsi) but for those ridiculous mosquitoes. Yet I feel all the hype ("Super Moon") wasn't worth it. It's still worth to have a look.

Picture of the Month - November 2010

2010-11-30T18:33:00.000+05:30

The above two images were taken on an early morning on 5th of November. This picture shows the thinnest Moon you can ever see. The thin crescent Moon was accompanied by a crescent Venus, shining bright, right before the sun rise. The crescent shape of the Venus is quite clearly seen in the above picture.

The phases of Venus was first identified by Galileo Galilei when he looked through his telescope for the first time on 1610, which confirmed the theory of heliocentric (Sun is in the center of the Solar System) which was proposed by Copernicus.

Picture of the Month - October 2010

2010-10-15T00:00:00.001+05:30

You must be wondering what those two bright objects at the bottom left of the picture is. It can't be Venus, since Venus doesn't have any satellite. It can't be Jupiter since none of the Jupiter's satellite are big enough as in the picture. It can't be Mars since Mars appears red. What else could it be? A binary star?

Well, that's it how Earth and Moon looks like from Mercury. This picture was captured by MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging), a spacecraft sent to Mercury by NASA, which was launched in 2004.

Picture of the Month - September 2010

2010-09-27T12:00:00.001+05:30

This beautiful image was captured at Spain last week. The Venus is found glowing bright to the right of the crescent Moon. The sky was almost entirely covered clouds letting only the Moon and the Venus to shine. The thick storm clouds surrounded by the thin anvil clouds which are greatly illuminated by the setting Sun. And the flock of birds that appear as a dark shadow over the clouds. What a sight!

Jupiter At Its Brightest!

2010-09-20T13:47:00.000+05:30

Anytime you look into the night sky you can see that the brightest object is the Moon, followed up by Venus and Jupiter. For the last few weeks I had been enjoying the beauty of Venus in the west and just as Venus sets, Jupiter rises in the east. I am waiting for the Venus to shift its position so that can I see Venus in the east and Jupiter in the west at the same time. I haven't seen them together since the 'Great Smile Incident', Dec 2008.

Venus on the top-left, Jupiter on the top-right, Moon in the bottom-middle. The Great Smile.

Also to add an interesting fact, Jupiter is found to be the closest to Earth tonight since 1963. It will be just 368 million miles away from Earth. So Jupiter is going to very bright today (though not as bright as Venus). So keep an eye on Jupiter tonight!

Picture of the Month - August 2010

2010-08-15T00:00:00.001+05:30

The above picture is taken during a Total Solar Eclipse. A strange shadow of darkness can be seen around the sun. This is called as Shadow Cones and they are visible due to the scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere. Shadow Cones are particularly dramatic when the eclipse is near the horizon. The above picture of Shadow Cone was taken last month from Patagonia, Argentina along with the background of Andes Mountains.

Picture of the Month - July 2010

2010-07-15T00:00:00.001+05:30

This is one of the most beautiful pictures taken by International Space Station (ISS). While orbiting around the Earth in July 2006, the astronauts captured the Moon floating near the horizon and the Earth covered by a thick blanket of clouds. You can notice that a part of the moon appears blue. This is created by the atmosphere around the Earth. The Air Molecules in the atmosphere scatter the blue light which makes the sky look blue from Earth and the horizon look blue from space. Also the atmosphere deflect the Moon's light which makes the lower end of the Moon appear to fade.

Picture of the Month - June 2010

2010-06-15T00:00:00.002+05:30

The above image is a stunning false-colour picture of 'Cat's Eye Nebula' with a halo around it. The center white portion of the image is the Cat's Eye Nebula surrounded by a faint halo of gaseous material. Cat's Eye is one of the most famous Planetary Nebula which is believed to be around 1000 yrs old. The halo is said to be 3 light years across. Only recently the halos around many planetary nebulae have been discovered including this one.

Cryogenic Technology

2010-06-04T06:34:00.001+05:30

Well, throughout April you would have heard a lot of news about the cryogenic technology that ISRO used in the recent rocket that was launched and that it failed. Before explaining what the cryogenic technology is, let me explain about orbits.

There are several types of orbit for a satellite around Earth but let us consider two commonly used orbits. They are Elliptical Orbit and Geo-Stationary Orbit. Satellites in an elliptical orbit moves around the Earth in a ellipse with the height ranging from 800 - 2000 km from the Earth's surface.

Geo-stationary Orbits form a perfect circle and the satellites in Geo-stationary orbits moves along with the Earth's rotation, i.e. the satellite seems to be in a fixed position as seen from Earth. The height of these orbits are approx 30,000 km from the Earth's surface.

It is impossible to reach 30,000 km using normal propellant. This is where a cryogenic technology is used. Without cryogenic technology ISRO cannot move further in their space ambition.

About 22 yrs ago, ISRO requested NASA for the cryogenic technology which was refused. The reason was NASA feared that India may use this technology for creating missiles. ISRO then asked Russia to provide but due to the pressure from NASA, Russia refused to give it as well. In the last 18 yrs, ISRO researched on this matter and they created their own technology without any external help hence being called as the ingenious technology.

Unfortunately, their first mission on cryogenic technology failed. GSLV-D3 which was launched on 15th April, met with a malfunction in its third stage. This does not mean that the technology was the failure. ISRO will continue to test this technology and I hope it will succeed the next time.

Picture of the Month - May 2010

2010-05-17T00:00:00.002+05:30

This most amazing picture is a combination of 8 images taken at Portsmouth, UK at 7:50 pm between April 4th to April 15th, 2010. This composite image shows the trail of Venus and Mercury with a beautiful backdrop. Venus (extreme left) was continuing to move away from the Sun during the time while Mercury (in the center) was rising until April 11th and then began to fall. The movement of both the planets are due to the revolution around the Sun with Mercury reaching the furthest distance from the Sun on April 11th. The thin crescent Moon joined this beautiful party on April 15th. Click on the picture for the enlarged version.

Picture of the Month - April 2010

2010-04-15T00:00:00.000+05:30

Another Startrail image taken along with the view of Annapurna ranges, Himalayas. This trail was taken during the entire day showing the complete Earth's rotation. Using this trail, the celestic North Pole can be identified, the center of the concentric trails. Also Polaris, the north star can be identified which is the bright one very near the center.

Picture of the Month - March 2010

2010-03-15T00:00:00.000+05:30

This is one breath taking photo taken from the ISS. The picture taken from the window shows the solar panel of the ISS along with the crescent Earth and the beautiful and bright Sun. One of the most beautiful images I have seen.

Happy B'day Pluto

2010-02-23T00:00:00.000+05:30

Pluto celebrated its 80th birthday on 18th of this month. Yes, 80 yrs since Clyde Tombaugh discovered the then farthest object of our solar system.

Using Newtonian Mechanics, Neptune's position was predicted before its discovery after analyzing the perturbation in the orbit of Uranus. After Neptune's discovery it was found that the Uranus' orbit was disturbed by another object other than Neptune. The start for the search of a new planet started in 1905 and it took nearly 25 yrs to discover it. Pluto was discovered just like any other planet - by relative movement.

Pluto was so far that it was impossible to identify its diameter or mass. At first it was believed that Pluto was larger than Mercury. Pluto was considered to be the ninth planet of our Solar System until August 2006 when International Astronomical Union (IAU) brought out a definition for the term 'Planet' for the first time and thus Pluto was added in to the list of 'Dwarf Planets' along with the others discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Pluto is now a distinct member of the Kuiper Belt (Similar to Asteroid Belt but this one is found beyond Neptune's Orbit). Three satellites were discovered orbiting Pluto namely Charon, Nix and Hydra.

Dog or Planet:

There is a very famous question which had been asked very often. Which came first? The Dog or the Planet? Pluto, the famous Disney Dog, as well as the planet Pluto were created/discovered in 1930. Some say that the dog was named after the planet and some say that the planet was named after the dog. The question which started in 1930 was answered only in 2006. Venetia Burney (who was 11 yrs old in 1930) was the one who suggested the name Pluto for the planet. It was believed that she was fascinated by the cartoon character Pluto and suggested the same name for the planet. But in 2006, the 88 yr old Venetia said, "The name had nothing to do with the Disney Cartoon. Mickey Mouse's dog was named after the planet, not the other way around."

Picture Of The Month - February 2010

2010-02-15T00:00:00.000+05:30

The brilliant fireball meteor, as bright as the full moon was captured in this snapshot over the city of Groningen, Netherlands on October 13th, 2009. The sightings of the meteor were widely reported throughout the Netherlands and Germany at approximately 17:00 UT. Accompanied by sonic booms and rumbling sounds, the meteor was seen to break up into bright fragments, eventually leaving a persistent smoke-like trail. Even though there are bright fireball meteors in planet Earth's atmosphere every day, sightings of them are relatively rare because they more often occur over oceans and uninhabited areas.

Annular Eclipse

2010-02-09T00:00:00.001+05:30

If you had read my post on Solar Eclipse, you would have known that Annular Eclipse is a type of Solar Eclipse where the moon does not block the entire Sun. If you had read my last post about the eclipses, I had mentioned that on Jan 15th, 2010, India would witness an Annular Eclipse. It was the first in India after 108 years.

An Annular Eclipse is when the Solar Eclipse occurs when the moon is smaller than its average size. Due to this, the moon does not block the entire sun and forms a ring.

For the first time of my life, I felt the effect of an eclipse. The day was bright as it always is in Chennai when the brightness began reducing. One can still feel the heat of the sun yet the brightness alone had reduced as if a very very thick cloud had blocked the sun.

Below is the formation of the annular eclipse as taken from Chennai on 15th January, 2010.

The next solar eclipse in India would be on 26th December 2019 which would again be an annular eclipse. It will be experienced through out the South India and Sri Lanka.

Picture Of The Month - January 2010

2010-01-15T00:00:00.002+05:30

The above image shows the different types of rockets used by the Indian Space Administration (ISRO). SLV and ASLV are no longer used. We now usually use PSLV and GSLV. India is yet to test GSLV MK-3 which could carry twice the weight of the normal GSLV. Our GSLV had already made a record by carrying 10 satellites succesfully in one go. India is also trying to get a hand on the Re-usable launch vehicles which would drastically cut-down the expenses and revolutionize the future missions.

ISRO Mars Mission

2009-12-27T00:00:00.000+05:30

Indian Government has finally approved for the Indian Mars Mission. But the mission may take place anytime between 2018 to 2030. ISRO chairman is pretty confident that the mission will be done before 2030. I'm not sure on why ISRO needs such a long time to plan the mission. But looks like they are concentrating on the Moon and Manned Space missions for now.

Chandrayaan-2 is set to launch in 2013 with a rover (robotic car) and based on the result of C2 ISRO may plan C3 with man landing on the moon. The discussion will start only after the success of C2. Also Manned Space Mission is on the way when India may send their own astronauts to space by 2016. ISRO will only start planning the Mars mission after the success of these missions.

China has already planned their Mars mission 'Yinghuo-1' which was set to launch on October 2009??? I have no idea what happened to this mission as no website seem to mention this. Even Wikipedia says that "it will be launched on October 2009" (note the future tense).

Picture of the Month - December 2009

2009-12-19T00:00:00.001+05:30

Most of you would be familiar with the star trail images. Well, its just a photograph of the sky with the shutter opened for hours so that it can capture the trail or the movement of the stars. This image also shows the trail of the moon (you can easily guess) and also Jupiter (the bright trail very near the moon). This image also shows that the stars get dimmer as it reaches the horizon. That is because of the greater air masses at the horizon.

Supernova

2009-11-30T00:00:00.001+05:30

Supernova (Supernovae in plural) is a Stellar Explosion (explosion of a star) which are so bright that it can be clearly seen even during the day time for months. Every star is made up of Hydrogen atoms. Just like how humans convert oxygen to carbon-dioxide in the process of breathing, similarly stars convert their Hydrogen atoms to Helium. When all the hydrogen atoms in the star has been converted, it will no longer be able to resist the gravity trying to compress the mass into its core. The star collapses and the outer layer is exploded resulting in Supernova. Not all stars ends in a Supernova.

Stars with a mass of more than 6 times the mass of the Sun ends up in a supernova explosion and the stars with lesser masses (including the Sun) ends up as a White Dwarf. A white dwarf radiates the remaining heat through out the universe for billions of years.

As the outer layer of the star explodes, the core of the star collapses either as a Neutron Star. If the mass of the remnant is large, it ends up into a Black Hole.

The last supernova in the Milky Way was recorded in the year 1604 called Kepler's Supernova (SN1604) which was brighter than all stars and planets. There hasn't been a supernova recorded in our galaxy since then but many were recorded in the nearby galaxies.

This is a false-color composite of Kepler's Supernova

Supernova is classified based on absorption lines of chemical elements. But it gets too scientific and so I don't want to go into it.

On June this year, astronomers noted that a star 'Betelgeuse' (one of the brightest stars in the night sky), in the constellation of Orion has shrunk 15% since 1993 at a very high speed. It is one of the largest known stars (Red Supergaint). There is a possibility that the star has already had a supernova explosion. Since it is around 600 light years away, we could see the explosion only 600 years after it has really occured. The explosion maybe expected anytime within the next 50 years atleast. The explosion will be the largest ever recorded and it may be as large as the moon. Betelgeuse will end up into a black hole due to its huge mass. Unlike certain theories this explosion will not cause any problem to Earth.

Post requested by Sidhu

Picture Of The Month - November 2009

2009-11-29T00:00:00.000+05:30

Water has been discovered on the surface of the Moon. Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper radios back that parts of Moon's surface absorb a very specific colour of light which are identified previously only with water. But there is no clue of what amount of water or what form exists there. A fascinating clue being debated is whether the water signal rises and falls during a single lunar day. If true, the signal might be explainable by hydrogen flowing out from the Sun and interacting with oxygen in the lunar soil. This could leave an extremely thin monolayer of water, perhaps only a few molecules thick. Some of the resulting water might subsequently evaporate away in bright sunlight. Pictured above, the area near a crater on the far side of the Moon shows a relatively high abundance of water-carrying minerals in false-color blue

Nibiru - The Birth

2009-11-26T00:00:00.004+05:30

Nibiru, the most talked topic of the century, is (unbelievably) believed by many. You search Nibiru online and every website tells you that it is a fact and that it will destroy Earth in 2012. But if you notice carefully, you'll realize that none of these websites were created by a professional astronomers. I made a little research to find more about how the rumor of Nibiru actually began.

It all began with the Mayan Calendar. Mayans were one of the oldest civilization. They had formatted a calendar which lasted for more than 3000 years. The last date of the Mayan Calendar leads to 21st December, 2012. Why did the Mayans stop their calendar on that date and why didn't they continue beyond that? Did the Mayans think that Earth will end on that date? These questions attracted many people. And that's how it began. But Mayans never meant the end of the world with their calendar. Mr. Jim Papp from Seattle made a research back in 1998 and found that the Mayan Calendar does not end in 2012, but in fact it was the end of a cycle and that the cycle would repeat all over again. It is similar to the Chinese 12-year Calendar.

Visit this website to know more about research of Mr. Papp.

Another very important fact is that the Mayans never mentioned about any unknown planets.

If Mayans didn't know about the planet Nibiru, where did it come from. Well, the name 'Nibiru' was invented by Zecharia Sitchin (born 1922 A.D.), who is an author and a scholar. He created a theory which says that an unknown planet, which he called 'Nibiru', collided a planet that existed between Mars and Jupiter and this collision led to the formation of the asteroid belt. He claims that this effect happened in 2024 B.C. Sitchin himself accepted that it was only a theory and no proof of the existence of Nibiru. He also said that he never theorized about Nibiru colliding Earth.

Sumerian Mythology believes that a planet will collide Earth which will lead to the destruction of Earth and all mankind. Now the fact is that Sumerians never claimed to have seen this planet nor did they predict when this would happen. It was just a belief like every other civilization on Earth have, including the modern day ones. It was a belief just like Kalki in Hinduism and Judgement Day in Christianity.

Now lets get back to how the rumor began. People who were obsessed by the Mayan Calendar, began telling everyone that the Earth will end but none would believe. They realised that people will believe them only if they bring about a scientific theories which would grab people's attention. That's how the theories began. Some of the theories said the Earth will get destroyed by - a planet colloiding Earth, Cosmic Radiation, Nuclear War, Aliens attacking Earth, etc. Actually all these theories exists. But Nibiru was well bought by people - thanks to these websites.

Now if you go about those Nibiru websites, it is clearly written that Mayans named the planet 'Nibiru'. But wikipedia says that Sitchin invented that name. This clearly says which is true and which is fake.

Other 2012 rumors:

In 1995, Nancy Lieder proposed the theory of an object that would collide Earth. She describes herself as a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extra-terrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain (lol). She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the Solar System in May 2003, causing a pole shift that would destroy most of humanity. The date was then revised to 2010 and then to 2012. I'm pretty sure that in another 2 years it will again be revised to 2015.This whole story was created by her just to get public attention.

Click Here to read about Nancy Lieder from Wikipedia

Why don't you google search for "Nostradamus prediction of World War III". It says a nuclear war between major countries will begin which will destroy most of the Earth and it will end in 2012. The website actually says that it was predicted by Nostradamus himself. I saw this news in 2006 which then said that WW3 will take place between 2007-2012. A year later I checked that website. It was revised to 2008-2012. Now it says 2009-2012. Can you guess what it will be after few months. Hard guess, I guess. :p

Click here to read about the Nostradamus Prediction.

One of the visible star in the night sky called, 'Betelgeuse', was noted to have shrunk 15% since 1993. That is, it is expected to die anytime between the next 5-50 years causing huge explosion which will be clearly seen even during day (And this explosion will not affect Earth by anyway). But now some websites says that the star will die in 2012 creating huge cosmic radiation which will kill all humans just like it killed dinosaurs.
Click Here for the Betelgeuse Rumor.

There are hundreds of other theories as well but most of them are toooooo kiddish to even mention. Of all such theories only the ones I mentioned above had atleast a bit of logic. Well, my point is that all these theories have only one common stuff - the year 2012 and this clearly proves that these theories were created to make people get obsessed about 2012 but none of these will make is a fact.

Sun Dog

2009-07-30T12:00:00.000+05:30

I had mentioned in my previous post about Sun Dog, which is a type of an ice halo. Click Here to read my post on Halo.

A Sun Dog is a particular type of ice halo. It is a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22 (or more) degrees distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun. It is the most commonly or second most commonly seen of the ice halos. Sun Dogs can be seen anywhere in the world during any season. They are best seen and at their most conspicuous when the sun is low. They are not rainbows.

These Sun Dogs are commonly mistaken for the Planet Nibiru.

Here are some of the pictures of the Sun Dog.

Planet Nibiru and 2012

2009-07-21T14:01:00.003+05:30

This post is dedicated to my friend Shiyamili who once asked me to write a post about the Planet Nibiru and the destruction of Earth in 2012.

First of all, what is Planet Nibiru? There is a conspiracy thoery stating that a rogue planet will destroy Earth on December 12, 2012. It is said that this threatening planet on a 3600-year orbit was discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians, who named it Nibiru, and it was known also to the Mayans, who associated it with the end of their calendar "long count" in December 2012.

It is rumored that the planet will be visible to our naked eye by 2009 in the southern hemisphere. It is also rumored that NASA is keeping an eye on the planet.

"In spite of my frustrations, I can always hope that Nibiru will turn into a teaching moment. Its proponents are convinced that it will be visible to the unaided eye this coming spring, and its effects on the rotation and orbit of the Earth will be obvious by summer. When none of this happens, I hope they'll realize that they need better tools to distinguish fact from fiction.", says David Morrison, a space scientist at NASA.

The existence of Nibiru is based on Sumerian mythology. At that time there was no telescope and hence there was no way the Sumerians would have seen a planet beyond the range of Pluto. Moreover, every object discovered beyond the range of Pluto are smaller than Pluto itself. Such large planet doesn't seem to exist. If the theory is true, the planet must have been visible to our naked eye by now. The only way to confirm is, by waiting, as David Morrison said.

But there are news of Planet Nibiru, which can be seen in our naked eye. Here's the picture proof.

That's an interesting one. If Planet Nibiru was so bright, why aren't everyone able to see it? Anyways, you want to know what that bright spot is? It's called as the 'Sun Dog'. A Sun Dog is a particular type of a Ice Halo. Some amateur astronomers and photographers are confusing it with the Planet Nibiru. Click Here to know about Sun Dogs.

Well, all I can say is that there is no such thing as the Planet Nibiru or destruction of Earth in 2012. If it is true, you MUST be able to see the planet in the next few months. Or, it's just fake and nothing else.

Click Here to know how the rumor of Nibiru began.

Solar Eclipse - July 22, 2009

2009-07-17T09:10:00.006+05:30

A Total Solar Eclipse occurs on July 22, 2009. The eclipse will be visible on northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean. This is also the first Solar Eclipse of the year [January eclipse was an annular].

The below picture shows the umbra and penumbra of the eclipse. The regions under the dot experiences a total solar eclipse and the regions under the shadow circle experiences a partial eclipse. [NOTE: It is an animated image]

Chennai City experiences a partial eclipse. The eclipse begins right at sunrise 5:28 am and ends at 10:42 am when the moon leaves the sunset point at the pacific. The next solar eclipse in India will be on January 5, 2010, which will be an annular eclipse with umbra passing near Chennai.

Earthquake and Tsunami Prediction:

There has been an earthquake prediction by a software developer who specializes in Computer Game Physics and has posted a theory on a blog post. According to the theory, the long total eclipse will cause a tectonic plate shift in south of Japan resulting a major Tsunami. However, the author claims that this is only a theory and acknowledges that he is not qualified to make a formal prediction. The news is swiftly gaining attention worldwide as an electronic chain letter. Mainstream scientists and media have already rejected this hypothesis stating that there is no credible evidence to prove any relationship between solar eclipses and earthquakes.

Picture Of The Month - June 2009

2009-06-04T16:01:00.003+05:30

The above picture shows the Trio stars of the Orion's Belt along with The Great Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula. The three bright stars along the diagonal are the three stars of the Orion Belt.

The reddish cloud below the left most star is the Flame Nebula. The Flame Nebula includes the Horsehead Nebula (the darkest portion on the leftmost of the flame nebula is in the shape of the head of a horse). The bright cloud on top of the left most star is the Great Orion Nebula.

The three Nebulea together is known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

My Theory

2009-01-08T22:12:00.011+05:30

*~*Disclaimer: The following theory is put forward all by myself. The contents may or may not be true. *~*

I hope you would have read my previous topic, ‘How Old is Everything’. There I explained how the age of the Universe was estimated to be between 11 to 18 billion years. In this topic I’m not going to tell you that the Universe has a limit or that there is a perfect boundary for the Universe but I’m going prove that one cannot see anything in the Universe beyond a particular range which could form an invisible boundary.

Before explaining my theory let me start with the basics. I hope you all would have heard of the term ‘Light Year’. It is the distance traveled by light in one year. Now imagine you see a star which is 10 LY (Light Year) away. The light from the star that you actually see was produced from the star 10 years ago. It has taken 10 years for the light to travel from that star all the way to Earth. Based on this there are three possibilities on whether you can see a particular star.

1. Now let us imagine a star which is 10 million LY away. If the star was alive 10 million years ago then we will be able to see the star at present as the light produced from the star 10 million years ago would reach the Earth at the present time. I hope there is no doubt about that.

2. Now let us assume that the star (10 million LY away) was not present 10 million years ago. Let the age of the star be 1 million years old. Though the star does exist at present we would not be able to see it from Earth because the light of the star will take 9 million more years to reach Earth.

3. Now let us imagine that a star (10 million LY away) did exist 10 million years ago but it does not exist at present. Let us assume that the star died about 5 million years ago. Yet we would be able to see the star. Only after 5 million years we would be able to see the star die from Earth.

My theory is based on these three points. Once you understand these three points, you would be able to understand my theory.

Coming to the point, let us assume that the Universe is 1 billion years old and there was no source of light before that. Let us assume that there is a star 1 billion LY away and that it was present right from the beginning of the Universe. Then we can surely see that source from Earth. Now let us assume that there is a star which is 2 billion LY away. We would not be able to see it because the star was not present 2 billion years ago. Since that was before the birth of Universe, there was nothing in the universe at that time. Hence we can see nothing beyond the range of 1 billion LY since there was no source of light at that time. Thus our range of sight is only up to 1 billion LY is all direction.

Therefore I conclude that though Universe does not have a definite boundary, it certainly has a limit beyond which nothing can be seen, whether or not something is present. And this limit is given by the age of the Universe. Hence every second, the limit is further extended by 1 light second (3x10^8 meters). Hence every year, the limit is extended by 1 LY. Is this what the scientists say that the Universe is expanding??? Or is it just a coincidence???

The object within the white circle is the farthest object ever discovered. Abell 2218 is a tiny galaxy at a distance of roughly 13 billion LY from Earth

Here is another point I have discovered. Using the above theory one can say that the limit of the universe is approximately the age of the universe itself. And one cannot see anything beyond this range from Earth. By theory of relativity, it can also be said that the Earth is in the center of this boundary or relatively Earth is at the center of the Universe.

Chandrayaan 2 Design Complete

2008-12-25T18:05:00.006+05:30

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the design for the second moon mission, 'Chadrayaan 2' is completed on December 24th, Wednesday. The mission is supposed to carry a lander/rover whereas the mother spacecraft will orbit the Moon. Chandrayaan 2 is said to be launched on 2012.

ISRO has collaborated with Russia for building the rover. The rover will have a soft landing on the moon unlike the MIP probe of Chandrayaan 1 which had a hard landing. The rover will collect the soil and rock samples from the moon, do in-situ tests and send the data to Earth through the orbiter. The estimated cost for Chandrayaan 2 is said to be Rs. 425 crore (US $ 90 million).

ISRO is currently earning about Rs 10 billion (Rs 1,000 crore) annually from its commercial wing. Chandrayaan is expected make it grow at 20 percent per year.

Anyways, I forgot to mention this in my previous post. The previous one was my 50th post. :)

W2M Satellite Launched

2008-12-21T10:46:00.004+05:30

Another achievement by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) as the satellite "W2M" was successfully launched Sunday morning at Kourou in French Guyana.

Ariane - 5 before launch

Ariane-5 (rocket) was launched on sunday bearing two satellites, "W2M and Hot Bird 9". The space craft W2M, weighing 3463 kg was built by ISRO. This is the heaviest satellite ever built by ISRO and its capable of operating over 15 years. W2M is a communication satellite built on a commercial basis in partnership with EADS-Astrium of Europe.

Picture Of The Month - December 2008

2008-12-18T10:21:00.005+05:30

This is not a very clear image but it is an astonishing one of the crescent Moon and Venus. This was viewed right here at Chennai on May 21st, 2004. It may be old but I would never forget this incident where the Moon forms a magical lamp with Venus brightly light at the end. This image was published in "The Hindu" on the next day. Ever since I started this blog I wanted to post this image but I never found it. By mere luck I found the old newspaper with this image and using its date I found the image in "The Hindu" website. I now hold the newspaper cutting (where the image is clear) as a possession. Click Here to read the article.

A Halo!

2008-12-18T10:02:00.007+05:30

I remember my friend Kavin, who use to ask me repeatedly, "What is an Halo and how it is formed?". I had no answer to this question except that I knew it occurs quite regularly. So finally I decided to check on what an Halo is, and this is what I found.

Halos are nothing but a dim circle of light that is formed around the Sun or the Moon or any bright source of light for that matter (eg. a street lamp). These halos are formed due to ice crystals that are found in the clouds. These ice crystals acts as a lens reflecting and refracting the light.

A picture of the Sun's Halo

A Moon Halo

Geminids Experience

2008-12-17T21:30:00.003+05:30

It is the day of Geminids. I had a very long, horrible day throughout. The worst day of my entire life had a happy ending with about 5 meteors. Click here to read the experience of my day. Due to various reasons I reached home as late as 11 pm. I went straight to my terrace at around 11:15 only to find most of the sky covered in clouds. I realized that the clouds were moving very fast and within 10 mins they must clear. Just as I thought the sky was cleared in 10 mins making the sky, around Gemini, clear. The Moon was very bright and I was sure to miss out lots of meteors. I positioned myself such that I could see all around Gemini especially the western part of the sky.

11:39 - South-west, 80 deg from the horizon, a short meteor. Not the brightest.

11:48 - This one was a little to the west from zenith (exactly over-head). It was very quick and very short. It was very quick and also being short, it disappeared less than a second.

11:55 - About 60 deg from the northern horizon, moving towards west. It was a little bright and longer than the previous two.

This was when a bunch of clouds came in. Had to wait a long time for it to clear.

12:15 - About 45 deg from the western horizon. It was less bright but it was quick.

12:30 - About 60 deg from south-west horizon. This one was bright and it moved slowly, about the normal speed with all others being too quick.

The long tiring day started to take over me and I realized I almost dozed at the terrace. I decided to get back into the house and sleep. But it was a good experience.

I hope atleast one of my friends had caught one.

Geminids 2008

2008-12-09T08:48:00.005+05:30

Yet another Meteor Showers. This one is called Geminids. These meteors appear to out of the constellation Gemini, just as Leonids did from the constellation Leo. It can be viewed between December 8th till December 17. But it peaks on December 13-14.

Best time to look out for Geminids is from 9pm on December 13th till sunrise on December 14th. It peaks at about 100 meteors an hour. On non-peak days, you may only spot about 10 an hour. Geminids are one of the best shower of the year. These meteors originated in a mysterious object called 3200 Phaethon, which looks like a cross between an asteroid and a burned-out comet. Each time Earth reaches this point in space, the debris falls into the atmosphere causing the meteors.

Where to look? Look at the entire sky during the time. It can appear anywhere. Its direction would be away from Gemini. For those who feel safe to know the location of Gemini, the constellation is exactly where the moon is on December 13th. And yes! Its a full moon. The bright full moon may block most of the meteors. Hence, you can only see the bright meteors. All the dull meteors will be shunt by the bright light of the moon. So look at the entire sky, best being around the moon.

Click Here to see the position of the moon over Gemini and also how the meteors appear from the constellation. The red "X" on the picture is the radiant of the shower. Radiant is a point from where the meteors appear to move from. No meteor will be visible at the radiant. It only appears to move away from it.

Images Of Venus-Jupiter-Moon Smile

2008-12-09T08:19:00.006+05:30

Here are some of the images of the Smile created by Moon, Venus and Jupiter in the sky on 1st December, 2008. Venus and Jupiter forms the eyes and the crescent Moon forms the mouth. The brighter eye to the left is Venus and the one of the right is Jupiter.

The beautiful sky smile over the city of New York.

Through the clouds.

Close-up Shot

It looks perfect here.

This image is hours after the smile. Moon has moved past Venus and Jupiter.

Venus Jupiter Conjunction

2008-11-30T18:52:00.003+05:30

Have a look at the west after sunset tomorrow, December 1st, 2008. You can see the three brightest objects of the night sky very close to each other. The crescent Moon, the goddess of love - Venus, and the king of the planets - Jupiter, are all close together forming a triangle between them. Venus and Jupiter move very close to each other which is called 'Conjunction'. Venus and Jupiter will only be 2 degrees apart.

The above picture is an illustration of the conjunction between Venus and Jupiter and the triangle with the Moon. In India, it can be viewed after sunset and not at 9pm.

Venus is very bright, its magnitude being -4.02 (Lesser the magnitude, brighter the object). Venus can sometime reach the magnitude of -4.6. With the rest of the sky consisting of faint stars, the triangle between the three brightest objects of the night sky will be eye-catching.

MoonLITE Mission

2008-11-23T19:39:00.002+05:30

Britain is set to launch its maiden moon mission to study the phenomenon of mysterious moonquakes, weeks after India's spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 successfully entered the lunar orbit.
The 100-million-pound unmanned mission 'MoonLITE' would aim to understand the cause of mysterious quakes that vibrate through the lunar rock and put it into the satellite's orbit before firing a series of probes into the moon's surface.

The launch of MoonLITE (Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecommunications Experiment), will be announced next month after which engineers would work on the technical designs with an aim to launch the satellite between 2012 and 2014.

Backed by NASA, the spacecraft would also examine the chemical composition of the rocks and even search for water on the moon's surface.

The existence of moonquakes has puzzled scientists as the moon does not have the tectonic plate activity that causes quakes on the earth.

The MoonLITE mission is expected to fire four suitcase-sized penetrator probes into different points around the lunar surface.

Bright Meteor Over Canada

2008-11-23T19:27:00.005+05:30

A huge fireball was seen in the sky on 20th November 2008 over Edmonton, Canada. A video has been captured of this bright meteorite that fell onto Earth. Here is one of the most rarest and the latest video of a meteorite.

Mission Aditya

2008-11-23T06:04:00.006+05:30

After the Success of Chandrayaan 1, ISRO has now developed a Sun Mission called 'Aditya'. Aditya has been approved by the government and the work has been started. Aditya is planned to be launched by 2012. Aditya will study the outer most region of the Sun called 'Corona'.

The temperature of the solar corona goes beyond million degrees. From the Earth, corona can be seen only during total solar eclipses mainly due to the bright Solar disc and the scattering of the sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere. One has to go beyond the atmosphere to be able to mask the bright solar disc and study the corona.

Sun's Corona during the Solar Eclipse

"That's a mini satellite. In fact, the design is just getting completed. During solar maxim...which is happening...we would like to see the type of emissions which are taking place in the Sun and how it interacts with the ionosphere and atmosphere and so on. A basic understanding of the physical processes and continuous monitoring would help in taking necessary steps towards protecting ISRO's satellites either by switching them off or putting them on a stand-by mode as warranted by the background conditions.", says Madhavan Nair.

The satellite will remain in Earth's orbit and will study the Sun's Corona, sun spots and the Solar flare. 'Aditya' mission lies behind the international Sun missions 'Yohkoh', launched by Japan, collaborating with US and UK in 1991 and 'Hinode' in 2006. But 'Aditya' will be an Indian satellite with no collaboration.

Bhuvan vs Google Earth

2008-11-19T16:02:00.004+05:30

Yes it is. On March 2009 ISRO will launch its own IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) image portal called 'Bhuvan'. Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth) will offer detailed satellite views of our planet just like Google Earth and Wikimapia.

Bhuvan will use a network of satellites to create a high-resolution, bird's-eye view of India – and later, possibly, the rest of the world – that will be accessible at no cost online and will compete with Google Earth. If a pilot version passes muster, Bhuvan will be fully operational by the March. There are also plans to incorporate a Global Positioning System (GPS) into the online tool. Bhuvan will mainly focus on the sub-continent.

Bhuvan has an edge over Google Earth. Bhuvan has a lot more features than the famed Google Earth. Lets compare Bhuvan with Google Earth.

Google Earth zooms in upto 200 meters, Wikimapia zooms upto 50 meters but Bhuvan can zoom upto 10 meters. The image is of a very high resolution such that you can get a view from the three storey building.

Google Earth is a single layer information whereas Bhuvan is a multilayer information.

In Google Earth the images are upgraded every 4 years whereas in Bhuvan, it is upgraded every year.

Google Earth has no alternative viewing option. In Bhuvan you have an option of viewing on different dates.

Google Earth uses international satellites for mapping but Bhuvan uses Indian satellites.

The prototype of Bhuvan will be ready by the end of November and ISRO is hoping to officially launch the service by March 2009.

ISRO is now booming itself since the launch of Chandrayaan.

Chandrayaan's First Video

2008-11-18T20:37:00.006+05:30

Here is the first video of the Chandrayaan Mission. This video was taken by Moon Impact Probe (MIP), a payload of Chandrayaan - I which had a crash landing on the Moon on November 14th, 2008. MIP took images of the moon as it was descending down to the surface. The 15,000 frames generated by MIP during its 25 mins journey to the moon's surface was decrypted and the complete video is yet to be created. Here is a 2 min part of the video.

LEONIDS' Experience

2008-11-17T06:30:00.005+05:30

Hi. Here I am to share my experience on Leonids 2008. Well, November 17, 2008 is D-day, and here it is. Alarm was set-up at 3:00am on my mobile to start my first meteor hunt (my second actually. My first was 2005 Leonids which I was looking at a complete wrong time and hence failed).

I woke up from a dream (not a nightmare), and discovered that the time was 3:40 and the alarm was off. I didn’t know whether to call myself lucky or unlucky. Went straight to my terrace and I realized that I am, actually unlucky. It was overcast, especially the east horizon. Since the constellation Leo is said to be at the east horizon and that the meteors appear to origin from that constellation, I wasn’t really happy.

Went back downstairs and scanned through the Planetarium Software on my system to find the exact location of the constellation Leo. It was about nearly 4:10 when I decided to go back to my terrace.

I was happy that the sky was partly clear and that the clouds were moving pretty fast. I positioned myself such that I could see the east part of the sky quite clearly. I kept looking there for about 20 mins with no success. During this time I was also trying to identify the constellation Leo. All I could see was two stars near the horizon. At around 4:30 I noticed more stars at the east horizon and I realized that the brighter of the two stars was Regulus (Constellation Leo) and another bright at the dead east was actually Saturn. I decided to go back to my computer to check the planetarium software again and that was moment I would never forget for the rest of my life.

4:32 am – I spotted my first ever meteor. It was to the right of Regulus. It was moving further right away from Regulus. Yes, it was a Leonid and it was moving away from Leo. It was short compared to what I saw in youtube. And quick! Very quick! If I had attempted to blink I may not have caught it after all.

I was really excited. I was literally jumping with joy. Now I noticed that the sky is much clear. I was looking at Sirius, how bright it was; and Orion (my favorite constellation); and the Moon, was really bright. And then –

4:37 am – Another one - To the north of the Moon - Moving towards the west. Again away from Leo (Leo was still at the east). I realized that the meteor may not actually appear near the constellation. Moon was at the constellation Gemini and so was this meteor.

I ran back downstairs and woke up mom. My friend, Kavin messaged me asking if it was worth having a look. Somehow I convinced him to go to his terrace and have a try. Nearly 30 mins later my mom said she was tired and she went back. Bad Luck for her, I thought. A little while later, Kavin messaged me saying it was getting cloudy again and that he was quitting. Bad Luck for him too. I went back to my computer to confirm the location of Leo and Saturn.

Went back upstairs and by now I was really fed up. No meteors in the last 45 mins. I just turned to see if the sky was clear and again –

5:27 am – Another. My third lucky meteor! This one was a little above the north horizon, moving from east to west. Again, away from Leo! This was when I realized how wrong I was. I thought that Leonids would appear near Leo. Now I realized that it can appear anywhere in the sky. The only thing was that it appears to move away from Leo.

Now I decided to stand up and look all over the sky. I was sure I missed a lot of them when I was only looking at east. I’m not gonna miss anymore. 10 mins later I felt I saw a faint meteor near the east horizon. Bright Moon and tiny source of light at the east (rising Sun), it could have really been a meteor but I might have imagined as well.

In another 10 mins light was growing on the east. I realized that I was finding difficult to spot even Orion. All I was able to see on the sky apart from Moon was Sirius, Regulus, Rigel and Saturn. All the other stars had faded due to the growing sun light. That was when I decided to quit my first meteor hunt. Pretty successful. But that’s not the end of the story. Geminids still waiting on December.

Picture Of The Month - November 2008

2008-11-15T19:37:00.008+05:30

Here is a colourful, close-up picture of the Moon taken by Moon Impact Probe (MIP), which is one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-I. MIP was ejected by Chandrayaan on November 14th and had a crash landing (as planned) on the Moon at around 8:31 pm IST. MIP took this picture on its way to the surface of the moon. MIP (with the tri-coloured flag painted on its sides) landed on the Moon, making India the fourth country to make a physical contact on the Moon.

Meteoroids

2008-11-14T17:53:00.009+05:30

This is my first post on Meteoroids and I am going to help you guys catch a Meteor Shower. In 3 days time you can catch Leonids, on 17th November, 2008. Before guiding you through that let me explain what a meteoroid is.

Meteoroids are tiny rock particles found in space. It may be broken asteroids or remains of a comet. It is smaller than asteroids and they do not have a definite orbit. When a meteoroid enters the Earth's Atmosphere it is called a Meteor. And when it hits the ground it is called a Meteorite. Smaller meteors gets burned up when it reaches the atmosphere hence not all meteors reaches the ground. Meteors are more famously called as 'Shooting Stars' or 'Falling Stars'.

A Meteor or a Shooting Star

Meteor Shower is an Astronomical Event when many meteors are observed at the same point of region in the sky on the same night. If the night sky is clear and if the moon is not too bright, you may even catch up about 50 meteors. Let us see what causes the Meteor Shower.

When a comet moves closer to the Sun, some of its ice particles and debris remains. When Earth passes through the same region in space most of the debris fall into the Earth's atmosphere causing Meteors Showers. This is an annual event. Every year when Earth passes through the same region you can notice many meteor showers.

One such Meteor showers can be noticed on 17th November. This Meteor Shower is called as Leonids. Leonids occur every mid november. As mentioned earlier all the meteors appears to come from the same point on the sky. In this case all the meteors appear to come from the constellation of Leo, hence the name. This can be easily explained by this picture.

The above picture shows the constellation of Leo and how the meteors appear to come from the same point.

So wake up very early on the morning of November 17th, and keep looking into the sky near the constellation of Leo. Use Stellarium Software to help yourself find the constellation of Leo. At an average you may spot 10 to 15 meteors an hour. Even if you cannot spot Leo, just keep looking up at the sky between 3:30 am until sunrise. You should be able to catch quite a few meteors.

NOTE: You need to be really patient if you want to catch some meteors. Hope the clouds and the Moon won't spoil the show. And the meteor can be quick that you can easily miss it. So watch carefully.

View this video to get an idea on how you actually see it. Note that this is a fast forward.

I haven't seen a Meteor yet. This is the first time I'm going to hunt for meteors. I hope I'm successful and you too.

Successfully in Orbit

2008-11-08T18:23:00.007+05:30

Chandrayaan - I has successfully entered into the Lunar Orbit today at around 5 pm IST.

Chandrayaan - I was launched on October 22nd, 2008. After its launch the space craft was put into the Earth's orbit, taking an elliptical path of 22,860 km as apogee (farthest point from the Surface of the Earth) and 255 km as perigee (nearest point from the Surface of the Earth). Since then the space craft was propelled, increasing its distance from Earth and nearing the Moon. Its final orbit around the Earth had an apogee of 3,84,000 km and perigee of 1,019 km until Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) started at around 5 pm for about 800 secs.

LOI is when a space craft is propelled so that it shifts from Earth's Orbit to the Lunar Orbit. At LOI the Earth and the Moon's gravitational force are almost equal. LOI is always a danger since even a small deviation by the space craft would make it crash into the Moon's surface or the Earth's surface or out into the deep space. Experts recall that about 30% of the unmanned moon missions by NASA and Soviet Union have failed during LOI.

Chandrayaan, after completing LOI at around 5:15 pm, is now making an elliptical orbit around the Moon with 7,500 km as aposelene (farthest point from the Surface of the Moon) and 500 km as pericelene (nearest point from the Surface of the Moon). Chandrayaan will further reduce its distance from the Moon to merely about 100 km. This may probably happen on November 14th or 15th.

Picture Of The Month - October 2008

2008-11-04T19:57:00.008+05:30

These are the first images of Earth taken by Chandrayaan-I on October 29th, 2008 using Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) which is one of the 11 payloads of the spacecraft. The first image was taken at 8 am at a height of 9,000 km showing Northern coast of Australia. The second image was taken at 12:30 pm at a height of 70,000 km showing southern coast of Australia.

Plans of Chandrayaan-II

2008-10-22T17:19:00.009+05:30

After the success of India's first unmanned moon mission ISRO has now proposed its second odyssey to the moon, Chandrayaan-II will be launched by the end of next year or early 2010. Initially, the plans of Chandrayaan-II was that it would be launched by the end of 2010 or early 2011. But the success of Chandrayaan-I has pre-poned the launch of Chandrayaan-II.

PSLV C-11 Rocket being launched today morning bearing Chandrayaan-I

Chandrayaan-II is an Indo-Russian joint venture. Russian federal space agency have already signed a pact with ISRO. "One of the two GSLV missions next year will carry Chandrayaan-II", says ISRO Chairman Mr. G. Madhavan Nair.

Chandrayaan-II would feature a lander and a rover for a soft land on moon. The rover will be designed by Russia’s federal space agency. India may be the second country to land a rover on the moon after USA during NASA's Apollo missions.

Mr. Nair expects more accomodating payloads (experiments) from other space agencies for the second odyssey just as in Chandrayaan-I. Chandrayaan-I carried 11 payloads of which 5 are Indian, 3 are from the European Space Agency, 2 from the NASA and one from Bulgaria.

"Even though China's and Japan's moon satellite (which are still in Moon's orbit) took high resolution pictures of the moon, they aren't as comprehensive as Chandrayaan-I", says former NASA associate administrator Scott Pace. The budget of Chandrayaan-I is also considerably cheaper than that of Japan or China.

This also strenghtens the space race in Asia. Japan, China and now India have successfully launched moon missions. China is leading in the race ever since they put taikonauts (Chinese Astronauts) in space in 2003 and had their first space walk last month. Even though this is India's first space expedition beyond Earth's orbit India is quickly catching up with China. India might even successfully land a rover and also humans on the moon's surface even before China.

Chandrayaan in Orbit

2008-10-22T07:23:00.009+05:30

India becomes the sixth country (after Soviet, USA, European Space Agency, Japan and China) to launch a satellite to the moon as Chandrayaan-I has been successfully placed in its orbit around Earth. The PSLV with the satellite was launched at the designated time and the path of the rocket was perfect as planned. Chandrayaan will orbit earth for a few days and then head its way to the Moon. It will be expected to reach the Moon on November 5^th.

Chandrayaan was launched at 6:22am today and by 18 mins the satellite was put into orbit. So far there has not been a problem in the satellite or the rocket. The rocket projected through the designated path perfectly and ISRO says it has hit a “Bull’s Eye”.

I was eagerly waiting with a camera to shoot a video of the rocket on my terrace. Unfortunately over-cast did not help me at all. Thick clouds blocked the view of the rocket completely.

PSLV C-11 with Chandrayaan on its way to the Launch Pad

PSVL C-11 ready for the launch

I will be constantly updating on the Chandrayaan mission and hope that it will successfully reach the moon’s orbit which is due in two weeks time.

Mission Chandrayaan

2008-10-20T19:26:00.014+05:30

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) reaches a new peak in their mission. In two days time Chandrayaan-I will be launched at Sriharikota on October 22, 2008 at exactly 6:20am IST.

Chandrayaan-I is an un-manned lunar spacecraft (meaning it carries no human). The spacecraft (Chandrayaan-I) will be launched by a modified version of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11). The lunar probe would revolve around Moon for two years taking high resolution images of the lunar surface and also mapping its chemical and mineralogical content. It also concentrates on the polar region where water and ice could possibly be found. The satellite weighs about 1304 kg and the estimated cost is about INR 3.8 billion.

Chandrayaan-I under construction

The scientific payloads/experiments of Chandrayaan are TMC, HySI, LLRI, HEX, MIP, C1XS, SIR-2, SARA, RADOM, MiniSAR and M3. Click here to know more about them.

The Path of Chandrayaan

The Moon Exploration began on September 14, 1959, when Luna 2 was launched by Soviet Union. Since then USA, Japan and China have also successfully launched spacecrafts to the moon. This is India’s first mission to Moon and India will be the sixth country to send a spacecraft there. USA is the only country that has successfully sent man to during the Apollo Missions (1963-1972).

Chandrayaan-I will be followed by Chandrayaan-II in 2010/11. Chandrayaan-II will consist of the spacecraft itself and a landing platform with the Moon Rover. A moon rover is an automated motorized vehicle which moves around the surface of the moon, collecting soil and rock samples, do in situ chemical analysis and transmit it to the mother-spacecraft, Chandrayaan-II. USA has already used the lunar rover during their Apollo missions (Apollo 15 - 17).

A artistic representation of the Chandrayaan-II rover

The Lunar Rover of Apollo 15 with James Irwin

ISRO also plans to undertake a manned space exploration by 2014 (send man to space). India would then become the fourth country to send man to space after Soviet Union, USA and China.

If these missions succeed, then ISRO plans to send a manned mission to the moon on 2020. If ISRO succeeds in this, India will be the second country to land man on moon.

Meanwhile China plans to land a rover on the moon on 2012. China has entered into an agreement to work with Russia to eventually land Taikonauts (Chinese Astronauts) on the moon before 2020. So its all a race between India and China on who will reach there first.

I just hope all this works out for India as the countdown for Chandrayaan-I has begun.

Chandrayaan-I is ready for the launch

People who live in Chennai can actually see the launch of Chandrayaan-I. Look at North at the exactly 6:20am on October 22^nd. You should be able to see the rocket shooting upwards provided the clear sky.

Picture Of The Month - September 2008

2008-10-01T10:52:00.004+05:30

This picture was taken on September 1st, at Perth, Australia. This evening picture shows the crescent Moon along with three planets. The brightest of the three is Venus as the Evening Star. The tiny shining object above Venus is Mercury and the object at the top most is Mars. The three planets are found on the western sky after the sunset. This picture was taken across the Swan River and the six towers on the left of the image surrounds the Perth Cricket Stadium.

Big Bang Recreation???

2008-09-10T15:53:00.005+05:30

European scientists are taking the initial steps in what has been described as the most ambitious scientific experiment the world has ever seen.

At a purpose-built underground centre by CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, the scientists are carrying out limited tests on a multi-million euro machine called the Large Hadron Collider.

The ultimate aim is to recreate conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang.

The team hopes to pinpoint dark matter, the name given to unseen particles thought to exist all around us and throughout space.

The experiment, which began at 8 am this morning Irish time, involves smashing protons - one of the building blocks of matter - into each other at velocities only a fraction less than the speed of light.

In the flashes from the collisions, scientists expect to reproduce conditions that existed during the first billionth of a second after the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.

Large Hadron Collider

Details on the on-going experiments will be posted very soon.

Picture of the Month - August 2008

2008-08-31T13:51:00.004+05:30

Do you see a Sun Spot on the Sun??? Click on the Picture to see it in a larger resolution. You can now clearly see that its not a Sun Spot but a space Station. It is the International Space Station (ISS) trasiting the Sun. As the ISS moves around the Earth, the space station (very rarely) appears to move across the surface of the Sun as in this Picture.

Solar Eclipse

2008-08-16T17:38:00.008+05:30

If you had read my previous post on Occultation you would have known that Solar Eclipse is also an Occultation. Solar Eclipse is nothing but the effect of Moon occulting the Sun.

The Moon revolves around the Earth just as Earth revolves around the Sun. Moon takes approximately 30 days to move around the Earth. During this revolution the Moon comes in between the Earth and the Sun once every 30 days which we call as New Moon. On certain New Moon days the Moon is exactly in between the Earth and the Sun such that the Moon blocks the sun light, thus creating a shadow on the surface of the Earth. The Moon appears to move across the surface of the Sun when viewed from those shadowed area. This phenomenon is known as Solar Eclipse.

The Shadow of the Eclipse on the Earth

There are three types of Solar Eclipse.

Partial Solar Eclipse:

When viewed from Earth the Moon blocks a part of the Sun and does not block it completely. This is known as Partial Solar Eclipse. The region under the penumbra experiences the Partial Solar Eclipse. Partial Solar Eclipse is not dangerous to view at all. But continuous view of Sun can create some damage to the eye and hence it can be viewed through any Sun Glass.

A view of Partial Solar Eclipse

Total Solar Eclipse:

This occurs when the Moon completely blocks the Sun letting no light reach the Earth. The region under the umbra experiences the Total Solar Eclipse. The total Solar Eclipse begins with the partial eclipse with the Moon moving slowly across the surface of the Sun until it completely blocks the Sun. For about a minute the sky would be dark. Then as the Moon continues to move a bright light comes out from one end of the Sun which looks like a Diamond Ring and hence it is called so. Since a great amount of light comes in within a fraction of a second it can blind us permanently when tried to view. Total Solar Eclipse can be viewed using a special google created for the eclipse.

Formation of Total Solar Eclipse

The Diamond Ring Effect

Annular Eclipse:

This is the most rarest of all eclipses. This occurs when the Moon is farthest from Earth during the eclipse. This occurs when the shadow of the Sun could not reach the Earth or when the Earth is at antumbra. The Moon appears smaller than the sun when viewed from Earth and hence at a Total eclipse the Moon does not block the Sun entirely but only the center portion of it. The outer surface of the Sun is clearly seen.

Annular Eclipse

The following image explains more about the Umbra, Penumbra and Antumbra and the reason why we experience partial, total or annular eclipse.

Umbra, Penumbra and Antumbra

India experienced a Partial Solar Eclipse as recently as August 1st, 2008. And that was the day I heard so many rumors about the Eclipse which were not true. I tried telling my friends but none believed me. But I would like to share it to all so that none would believe such rumors next time.

Some of them were very scared that staying outside on such days will affect their health. The only trouble Solar Eclipse gives us is blinding us only when we look at the Sun at a perfect Total Solar Eclipse. Watching a Partial Solar Eclipse is like watching the Sun any other day which does not create much damage except by continuous looking at it.

One such friend of mine didn't have his lunch saying that he heard that people should not eat during a Solar Eclipse in a News Channel. Later when I viewed the same channel I realized that it was a superstitions that was brought out by the News Channel. In reality Solar Eclipse does not change our body mechanism by any way and hence we need not lose our appetite on the eclipse day.

The best of all was a conversation between two girls that i over heard as I was walking on the road. As it started drizzling i heard them talk.
Girl 1: Oh God!! Its about to rain.
Girl 2: It cant rain today. Its Solar Eclipse.
What's Solar Eclipse got to do with the clouds or rain? Its simply rumors and people need not be fooled by such things. Solar Eclipse does not create any damages to us other than blinding us.

The next Total Solar eclipse in India occurs on January 26th, 2009 and the next Annular Eclipse occurs on January 15th, 2010.

Picture of the Month - July 2008

2008-07-09T22:02:00.010+05:30

Here is a beautiful picture of Venus transitting Jupiter. This one is not an original picture. This is a screen shot from the Stellarium software. Do you want to view this in stellarium? Set your location to Chennai (India) and the date and time to November 22nd, 2065, 6:11pm. Click on either Venus or Jupiter and zoom in to see the beautiful transit. Venus transits only between 6:07 to 6:15 pm IST.

NOTE: Don't forget to turn off the ground and the atmosphere.

Occultation

2008-06-20T07:41:00.024+05:30

Here is yet another Astronomical Term - Occultation. Sounds weird but a simple term. An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. Does it sound familiar? Yes! Eclipses and Transits are also known as Occultations.

Every object in space move in a particular direction. By coincidence any two objects may come in the same line of sight from Earth which causes Occultation. The most famous occultation is the Eclipse.

Total Solar Eclipse

In case of Solar Eclipse, the Moon comes in between the Sun and the Earth. Hence the Moon and the Sun are in the same line of sight. The Moon appears to block the Sun from the view or the Moon occults the Sun.

But this is not the case in the Lunar Eclipse. In Lunar Eclipse it is the Earth that occults the Moon when observed from the Sun and not from the Earth. Hence Lunar Eclipse cannot be called the Occultation.

Position of the Earth, Sun and the Moon during the Total Solar Eclipse (left) and the Lunar Eclipse (right)

The term Transit is used when one object appears to move across the face of another object. Usually one of the object is small when compared to the other. The most famous transits are that of Mercury and Venus over the Sun.

Transit of Mercury over the Sun

Transit of Venus over the Sun

Enlarged Image of the transit of Venus

Transit of Io (Satellite of Jupiter) over Jupiter

The other types of occultation are when a star occults another star or when a satellite occults another satellite. This can only be observed through telescopes.

Dione (Satellite of Saturn) occulting Rhea (satellite of Saturn)

Another rare type of occultation is when a planet occults another planet. It is not seen very often. Here is the list of occultation by planets that occured in the past and the ones which will occur in the future.

* 19 Sep 1702 - Jupiter occults Neptune
* 20 Jul 1705 - Mercury transits Jupiter
* 14 Jul 1708 - Mercury occults Uranus
* 4 Oct 1708 - Mercury transits Jupiter
* 28 May 1737 - Venus occults Mercury
* 29 Aug 1771 - Venus transits Saturn
* 21 Jul 1793 - Mercury occults Uranus
* 9 Dec 1808 - Mercury transits Saturn
* 3 Jan 1818 - Venus transits Jupiter
* 22 Nov 2065 - Venus transits Jupiter
* 15 Jul 2067 - Mercury occults Neptune
* 11 Aug 2079 - Mercury occults Mars
* 27 Oct 2088 - Mercury transits Jupiter
* 7 Apr 2094 - Mercury transits Jupiter
* 21 Aug 2104 - Venus occults Neptune
* 14 Sep 2123 - Venus transits Jupiter
* 29 Jul 2126 - Mercury occults Mars
* 3 Dec 2133 - Venus occults Mercury

A simulation of Venus transiting Jupiter, as it did on January 3, 1818.

Occultation can also occur in other types such as Moon occulting a star, Moon occulting a planet, Planet occulting a satellite, etc.

Minutes before the Moon occulted the star Albedaran

Before Moon occults Jupiter

Jupiter occulting Europa (Satellite of Jupiter)

The most recent occultation took place on 10th May, 2008 when the Moon occulted the planet Mars at around 8pm IST. It was clearly visible even at Chennai.

Picture of the Month - March 2008

2008-04-01T19:59:00.003+05:30

Blasting into a dark night sky, the Space Shuttle Endeavour began its latest journey to orbit in the early morning hours of March 11. In this stunning picture following the launch, the glare from Endeavour's three main rocket engines and flanking solid fuel booster rockets illuminates the orbiter's tail section and the large, orange external fuel tank. Embarking on mission STS-123, Endeavour left Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A, ferrying a crew of seven astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The cargo included the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system. Astronauts will conduct a series of space walks to install the new equipment during the 16-day mission, the longest shuttle mission to the ISS.

Planetarium Software

2008-03-07T19:44:00.006+05:30

Interested in Astronomy? Love to look into the night sky? Being an amateur you would find it very difficult to identify stars and planets and other stuffs. But it can be made easy using certain Planetarium Softwares. These softwares show you how a night sky may look like at any time from any place. These softwares label every star so that you can identify it in the sky easily using the software. There are many such softwares available in the internet. I came across one such software which is very user-friendly.

Stellarium 0.9.1 is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. You can set your coordinates such as your location and time zone and look through the night sky. This software also shows you the planets, nebulae, galaxies, comets, meteors, etc. Every star, planet or a galaxy is labeled which makes it user-friendly. You can zoom into any stars or planets to know how it looks like in a telescope. You can also see the night sky of any time at any year. It even shows you the night sky of the year 2100.

Here are some of the Screen Shots of the software.

The full view of the constellations.

A shooting star passing near the Moon.

A zoomed in view of the Planet Jupiter.

A zoomed in view of a nebula.

You can download this software from this website.

http://www.stellarium.org/

Picture of the Month - February 2008

2008-03-01T11:48:00.005+05:30

You must have known how Auroras look like from Earth. But how does it look like from space? This magnificient image gives you the answer. The International Space Station (ISS) pictured the above digitally sharpened image of the green aurora crawling over northern Canada. ISS reported that the auroras appears to crawl around like gaint amoebas, 300km above the surface. Still, the auroral electron and proton streams pose no direct danger to the ISS.

Picture of the Month - January 2008

2008-01-06T21:57:00.002+05:30

This is a spectacular image of a waning crescent Moon and Jupiter, which is seen at the bottom right of the image. The four sources of light around Jupiter are its four bright satellites namely - Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io. These satellites are known as the Galilean satellites as it was discovered by Galileo when he looked up at Jupiter for the first time in his newly formed telescope. The satellites can be seen clearly even through a small telescope.

Black Holes

2007-12-28T10:15:00.001+05:30

If you had read my article on ‘The Life of the Star’, you would have known that a Black Hole is created when a huge and massive star (more than 2.5 times the mass of the sun) runs out of hydrogen and collapses into a Supernova explosion. If the core of the star remains the explosion it becomes a black hole. But what exactly is a Black Hole? Why is it different from other dead stars?

This image shows how a Black Hole may look like in the Milky Way.

When such a massive star is crushed into a smaller volume, the gravitational attraction of the star increases and hence the escape velocity. The gravitational attraction of a Black Hole is very high that it pulls out anything that is closer to it. The escape velocity of a Black Hole is more than the velocity of light i.e. an object in a Black Hole should travel faster than the speed of Light to escape the gravity of Black Hole. And hence even light cannot escape its gravity. Eventually nothing can escape out of a Black Hole as nothing can travel faster than light. This is the same reason that the Black Hole is invisible. You can only see an object when it reflects light. But since Black Hole does not reflect light it is invisible.

NOTE: None of the images of the Black Holes are real. They are artistic works to show how a Black Hole may look like. A Black Hole can not be photographed. It can only be detected.

There are three types of Black Holes – Stellar Black Holes, Supermassive Black Holes and Miniature Black Holes.

A Stellar Black Hole is a Black Hole created by a single star as explained above. It can be seen in almost every other galaxy.

This is an image of a Stellar Black Hole.

A Supermassive Black Hole is a Black Hole whose mass is between 105 and 1010 times the mass of the sun. It is known that most of the galaxies, including the Milky Way contains a Supermassive Black Hole in the center. It could have formed when a Stellar Black Hole start growing by pulling stars of huge mass by means of gravity. Supermassive Black Holes are only found in the center of the galaxy.

Image of a Supermassive Black Hole.

A Miniature Black Hole has not been identified but some theories say that Miniature Black Holes might have formed a short while after the Big Bang.

Questions may arise such as ‘How a Black Hole was discovered if it is invisible?’ and ‘Who discovered the first Black Hole?’ Here are the answers.

Before answering them let me explain about Binary Star System. A binary star system consists of two stars very close to each other and also moves around each other. Most of the stars we see in the night sky are binary stars though it looks like one twinkling star. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky is a binary star. Sirius A is bigger and brighter than Sirius B which can be seen only through a telescope. Sun, of course is a single star. Distance between two binary stars may be about 20 to 50 times the distance between Sun and Earth. But the distance between two single stars will be in Light years.

Image of Sirius A (bright one) and Sirius B (smaller one above it).

Consider a binary system of stars where one of the stars is a black hole and the other a normal star. If the normal star's envelope gets close enough to the black hole, then the fierce gravity of the black hole can rip out gas from the normal star which is then swallowed by the black hole.

However, due to the conservation of angular momentum, the gas cannot plunge straight into the black hole, but must orbit it for some time before it gets sucked. Thus, a disc like structure is formed around the black hole from which gas is pulled slowly into the black hole. When the gas orbits the black hole in the disc, its temperature is raised to several millions of degrees which emits radiation in the X-ray part of the spectrum (by the first note that I explained above). Thus, when we detect X-ray sources in the sky, then we know that there is gas which has been heated to several million degrees, and one of the mechanisms to achieve that is the accretion disc around the black hole. Now about actual discovery: In the early 1970s, an intense X-ray source was found in the constellation Cygnus called Cygnus X-1. As the years passed, in the 1972, Cygnus X-1 was identified with a star known by its classification number HDE226868 (which is a radio source). Soon evidence was found that it is a binary star system with a period of about 5.6 days.

By the special Theory of Relativity, no information can travel faster than the speed of light. Hence, a celestial object cannot change its luminosity on a time scale shorter than the time taken for the light to reach from one side of it to the other. Analysis of Cygnus X-1 showed that its emission had luminosity variations on time scales as short as thousandths of a second, suggesting that the object was only a few kilometers wide. Thus evidence was found that one of the stars was a compact object. Finally, astronomers used the binary star system to determine the mass of the compact object and found that it was greater than the critical mass, so that it was most likely a black hole. That is about the discovery of the first black hole in our universe.

Look for Mars

2007-12-18T11:26:00.000+05:30

This is the perfect time to watch Mars in the sky. Mars will come to its opposition on December 24th, 2007 in the constellation of Gemini. By opposition I mean that Sun, Earth and Mars will lie in a perfect straight line is such a way that Mars will be exactly opposite to the Sun from Earth. Mars will be seen over head at midnight on its opposition.

But six days earlier to it, that is today, December 18th, 2007, Mars will be at its closest to the Earth. Mars will be just 88.42 million km from Earth and from today for a week it will be the perfect time to look out for Mars in the sky. The magnitude of Mars will be -1.5. Magnitude is nothing but the brightness of an object in the sky. The object is brighter when it is negative. Sun, the brightest object in the sky is of magnitude -26.8. The brightest star, Sirius is of magnitude -1.46. So Mars will be bright enough to be noticed.

Look out at the east about an hour or two after sunset. If you don’t know which is east look at the direction opposite to the direction where the sun had set. Between North-East and East you should be able to see a bright star which is Mars. Be careful not to misjudge Sirius, the brightest star, with Mars as Sirius will also be present somewhere nearby. Mars will be a little reddish compared to Sirius.

Check out this site. It is a digital planetarium which shows the complete night sky. I’ll try to help you to find Mars using this.

www.neave.com/planetarium/

Set the date and the time on the top left corner of the page. Set the latitude and the longitude of the city you are living at present. For latitude the positive value is north and the negative is south. For longitude positive is east and negative is west.

For example set to latitude to 13 and longitude to 80 (For Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) and set the time to 18:00:00 and the date to 18th December, 2007. Rotate the sky such that you face east. Near the horizon on the east you should be able to see a tiny red star, which labels as Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. Mars should be seen somewhere around the left of the star. But you cannot spot it in this website as it only shows the stars. Try to spot those stars you can spot Mars easily.

In this picture you can see the full moon. The white streak of light is the movement of the space station and a tiny dot below it is the Mars.

Hope you find Mars. You can go to a planetarium nearby to view Mars through the telescope. If you are lucky you may be able to see its two satellites – Phobos and Deimos.

The Life of a Star

2007-12-16T16:25:00.000+05:30

What is a Star? A star is a hot body of glowing gases that emits light and undergoes nuclear reaction. This is the only difference one can point out between a star and a planet. There are billions and billions of stars found in our galaxy, The Milky Way. There are thousands of galaxies in the Universe. It is said that there are more stars in the universe than the number of grains of sand found in all the beaches of the Earth. It is predicted that there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. Stars vary in their size, mass, temperature, density, etc. No two stars are alike just as no two humans are alike (left alone the identical twins). But yes, the stars do look alike as you watch them in the night but if you watch them carefully you can see that some stars are bright and some are comparatively less bright.

Stars, just like life, have birth and death of its own. Stars live for a period of time and then it dies. By saying stars I also include the Sun. At average stars live upto 10 billion years. Let’s see how a star is born.

Birth of a Star:

Usually a star is born in a region of high density Nebula. Nebula is nothing but a cloud of dust in the space in which stars and planets are born. Nebulae are visible to our naked eye as a tiny coloured patch of light. The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebula situated in the Orion Constellation.

The picture above shows the orion nebula at the bottom left and horse head nebula at the top right. This nebulae is found in the constellation of Orion.

When the nebula condenses and contract under its own gravity it creates a new star. The region of condensing matter will begin to heat up and it starts to glow. These glowing bodies are called as protostars.

The above picture shows a protostar in a nebula. The x-ray version does not show the protostar but you can clearly see them in an Infrared version of the image.

When a protostar contains enough matter the central temperature reaches 15 million degrees centigrade. At this temperature nuclear reactions starts where Hydrogen fuses to form Helium. The star then begins to release energy stopping it from contracting. Now it is called as Main Sequence Star. Sun is in Main Sequence Star level. A star is said to be in its Main Sequence Level for 10 billion years before it starts to die. Sun is said to be 5 billion years old and it is said to live for 5 billion more years.

Death of a Star:

A star is considered dead when all the hydrogen is burnt into helium. But what happens to a star after its death? There are two possibilities based on their mass.

Mass of the Star is under 1.5 times the mass of the Sun:

If the mass of the star is less than 1.5 times the mass of the Sun then as the hydrogen gets less the star begins to expand. The expanding star is called as a Red Giant.

The above picture shows the size comparison of a Red Giant with the Sun and the Earth.

The helium core runs out, and the outer layers drift of away from the core as a gaseous shell, this gas that surrounds the core is called a Planetary Nebula.

The picture above shows the Boomerang planetary nebula where a shell covers around a star.

The remaining core (that’s 80% of the original star) is now in its final stages. The core becomes a White Dwarf the star eventually cools and dims. Sirius, the brighest star in the sky is a White Dwarf. When it stops shining, the now dead star is called a Black Dwarf.

The picture below shows the white dwarfs which are circled.

Mass of the Star is greater than 1.5 times the mass of the Sun:

If the mass of the star is greater than 1.5 times the mass of the Sun then as the hydrogen gets less the star begins to expand just as the previous case. But here the star becomes massive in size and it is called as a Red SuperGiant.

The above picture is a size comparion of a Red SuperGiant Aldebaran with the Sun.

The SuperGiant then starts of with a helium core surrounded by a shell of cooling, expanding gas. In the next million years a series of nuclear reactions occur forming different elements in shells around the iron core. The core collapses in less than a second, causing an explosion called a Supernova, in which a shock wave blows of the outer layers of the star. The actual supernova shines brighter than the entire galaxy for a short time. The bright object at the top left corner (arrowed) is a supernova explosion.

Sometimes the core of the star survives the explosion. If the surviving core is between 1.5 to 3 times the mass of the sun, it contracts to become a tiny, very dense Neutron Star. If the core is much greater than 3 times the mass of the sun, the core contracts to become a Black Hole.

Picture of the Month - December 2007

2007-12-15T10:31:00.000+05:30

If you take a picture of the Sun at the same time each day for a year, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no.

The shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an Analemma. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis. Earth does not move around the Sun in a perfect circle. The Earth's orbit is rather elliptical. So at some part of the year Sun is closer to the Earth and at some part it is farthest. Earth's axis is tilted at an angle of 23° which gives out seasons. During summer the Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma and lowest during winter.

Analemmas created from different Earth latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. The analemma pictured on top was built up by Sun photographs taken from 1998 August through 1999 August from Ukraine. The foreground picture from the same location was taken during the early evening in 1999 July.

Picture of the Month - August 2007

2007-08-26T13:17:00.002+05:30

Realize what it is? Well, here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse. This photograph was taken from the Mir Space Station during August 11th, 1999 solar eclipse. The shadow of the Moon (dark part) moves across the Earth at nearly 2000 km per hour. Only observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse. Others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears blocked by the Moon. There are two bright spots on the upper left which are possibly Jupiter and Saturn (which is not proved yet).

Picture of the Month - July 2007

2007-07-12T20:31:00.000+05:30

This is one of the rarest image I have ever seen. Well, I guess you can't see anything other than the blue sky with some clouds in it. Click on the picture for a clear view. You can see a very thin crescent Moon and a crescent Venus next to it. Click here to know more about the 'Phases of Venus'. Both Moon and Venus are bright enough to be seen in the daylight (few minutes before sunset). This image was taken at Budapest, Hungary. Few minutes after this photograph was taken the Moon eclipsed the planet.

The Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) - I

2007-06-25T01:31:00.002+05:30

Here is another interesting topic that people would love to discuss about – The UFO. UFO is an abbreviation of Unidentified Flying Objects. There is a misconception that UFOs are Alien Space Ships (space ships coming from other planets) but UFOs are simply objects found in the sky which could not be identified. For the past 75 yrs millions of evidences of UFO have been recorded but most of them had no proper explanation of the flying object. Some of the UFOs were later identified as weather balloons or private aircrates. But the most of them could not be explained what so ever and hence the only possibility that people could think of is the alien space ships.

Thousands of UFO evidences comes up every year, from every other country. Some of them with proofs like photographs and videos. Some of the UFO viewers say that they have seen aliens inside the space ship. But the interesting fact I found quite recently was that there was tales of alien abduction??? Tales such as Aliens abducting people and carring out tests. I don't know how much this can be true. But so far there has been no proof of the aliens on Earth. A leading Dutch hypnotherapist, Hilda Musch, had hypnotized various victims who have been abducted (or they say so) and later found that the stories of most of them were alike. The reports of the Dutch victims also seemed to be identical in every respect to such reports taken in the United States. These people could not have possibly met or shared the story of the Alien Abduction as this report was carried out secretly.

In this computer era you cannot expect anyone to believe a photograph or a video proof. A photoshop is all you need to create a photo proof of a UFO. But there is a possibility that some of them can be true. Some of the photos were taken in 1950s when there was no photoshop to create the fakes.

Well, there is nothing more to say about the UFOs other than the debate whether they really exists or not. On my opinion, I personnaly think that Earth cannot be so special that it is the only planet which contains life. There must be living souls in other planets as well (though not all). I also believe that there is a possibility that such living creatures can visit Earth. But I feel that most of the UFO pictures I found were fakes. Very few I have seen that makes me beleive it could be true.

There is a UFO sighting in INDIA recently. On March this year two UFOs were sighted flying over Delhi Airport. This report was telecasted on CNN-IBN news channel. Click Here to see the report with the video of the UFO. Click Here to read the full article.

Let us see some of the pictures of UFO.

These two photos are probably the oldest photos I found. The one on left was taken over Passaic, New Jersey on 31st July, 1952. It is taken from an FBI document. The one on the right was taken at Brazil.

This is an interesting one. I'm not sure of its location. Its one of the few photos showing a UFO that looks like a space ship. But I also feel that this one is a fake. It looks like a family is out for a picnic and they must be playing around. And the UFO must be added using a photoshop that makes it look like people are running away from it.

Here is another one. This was taken from Google Earth. This object within the circle was found over california, USA. I could not guess what this object is. Google Earth replaced this area with another one and hence this cannot be found any more.

This certainly looks like a fake. This object, what ever it is should have been on top of a building or a pillar. All the parts below the object must have been removed through Photoshop.

This picture is certainly a fake. Just closely look at the UFO. It looks like an object used in the mechanical workshop. It looks like the object was photographed in a close up and the two images are collaged. Moreover the shadow of the car is clearly seen. Where is the shadow of the UFO???

I have no comments on this photo.

This photo was taken at Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.

Here is how the fakes are created.

First the model of the UFO is created (Left).

Then it is photographed in various angles (Right).

Then these photos are collaged with some of the scenaries using the photoshop. And the result is as in below.

The collaged pictures looks too realistic. I wonder if all the pictures are taken as this.

Here is a website that has a big collection of UFO photographs. http://www.ufoevidence.org/photographs/view/newer.htm

The Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) - II

2007-06-25T01:09:00.001+05:30

Let us look at some of the videos of UFO.

Here are the secrets of UFO. A Must watch video.

This video is taken in an helicopter near the World Trade Center. An
object is found on the window of the WTC. The most surpricing thing is
that no object on Earth has ever flew at that high speed (including
rockets).

This is the same as the above. This is the slower version taken from a
Japanese News Channel. There is a surprise here.

A very rare event. UFO seen not in the sky but in space. Viewed from
the camera of the space shuttle 'Discovery'.

Here is a collection of UFO sightings. A very interesting one.

Any guesses on what that object is???

Another interesting video where a UFO lands on Earth.
Click here to view it.

This topic was requested by Kavin.

Picture of the Month - June 2007

2007-06-13T14:50:00.003+05:30

Here's another interesting picture I found on the net. This picture is a fusion of two images. One is the visit of Apollo17 to our satellite and the other is a picture of the Earth. It is fused in such a manner that it looks like Earth is eclipsing the Sun or it is the Solar Eclipse observed in Moon. This picture tries to explain that eclipses not only occur in Earth but in any planets or satellites in our solar system. When Earth comes in between Sun and the Moon, solar eclipse can be observed on Moon whereas it would be a Lunar Eclipse on Earth.

Unlike the solar eclipse on Earth, when you observe the same event on Moon you would find that Earth completely blocks the sun. The Night Earth would be visible in this case as the reddened Moon (total lunar eclipse) reflects the light.

This picture simply tells us that this is how a Solar Eclipse would be viewed from Moon.

FAQ's

2007-05-14T23:33:00.000+05:30

Hi Friends! I hope this blog has been interesting so far. I have decided to make it more interesting. I have been giving some interesting facts to you but now you can ask me any topic you are interested and I'll try to post related to it. You can also ask me any queries and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible. You can ask me your queries via e-mail or the chatter box in this blog. You can mail me to incharaprakash@gmail.com Hope you would find this interesting.

The Secrets of Mars

2007-05-06T23:14:00.001+05:30

Mars – named after the Roman God of War – is the fourth planet in our solar system. It has two natural satellites revolving around it - Phobos and Deimos.

This picture shows Mars along with its two satellites Phobos and Deimos with Sun behind the Mars

Both these satellites are named after the sons of Ares (Mars) from Greek Mythology. These satellites are quite unique in their nature. They are actually escaped asteroids which are bound under the gravity of Mars. The picture on the left is Phobos and the one below is Deimos.

Asteroids are tiny pieces of rocks which are found in between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter which orbits the Sun. The picture below shows the Asteroid belt. Phobos and Deimos escaped from their orbit and they were captured by the strong gravitational force of Mars. Thus Phobos and Deimos were forced to orbit around the Mars.

Phobos has a unique property. It moves very close of the planet; it moves approximately at a distance of 9380 km away from Mars. Phobos also orbits at a very high velocity such that the time taken for Phobos to make one revolution around Mars is quicker than the time taken for Mars to make one rotation around its axis. Due to this Phobos appears to rise in the west and set in the east unlike any other satellites in our solar system. Also due to the high velocity Phobos rises and sets twice in one Mars day (which is also aprrox. 24 hrs.) This makes Phobos a unique satellite in our solar system.

The above picture shows the orbital motion of the two satellites of Mars.

Picture of the Month - May 2007

2007-05-01T08:16:00.000+05:30

(Click on the picture for the best view)

This series of images which was taken by a satellite and fused together shows the Earth during the night time. The continents are seen clearly due to the light of the Full Moon. But what is more astonishing is the brightness of the city lights. The city lights are so bright that it could actually be seen from space. These lights mark the developed areas on Earth. The eastern part of USA and west Europe are the brightest parts which are considered as the most developed areas. Whereas in Asia, Japan, east coast of China, Malaysia, Singapore and most parts of India are glittering with the city lights.

The Green Sun

2007-04-06T11:26:00.001+05:30

Confused by the title? I'm not trying to make an April Fool here. We have indeed witnessed the Green Sun. This video of the setting Sun from a site atop Mt. Autore (altitude 1,850 meters) in Italy has captured a green flash while the Sun was setting. How can the Sun turn green? Why does it occur? When can we observe this phenomenon?

(The time between frames in the gif image above varies from over one minute in the beginning to about one second as the flash becomes visible. If the image is not changing try to refresh the page.)

It is quite difficult to observe the Green Flash. It usually occurs during sunrise or sunset. This phenomenon is caused by the atmospheric bending or refraction of sunlight. Like a weak prism, the Earth's atmosphere breaks white sunlight into the seven colours, bending red colours slightly and green and blue colours through increasingly larger angles. When the sky is clear, a green flash just above the Sun's edge can sometimes be seen for a second or so, when the Sun is close to the horizon.

The above image was taken at the western horizon of Madagascar

This image of Green Flash was taken at the La Silla Observatory, in Chile, on October 15, 2005. The sun has almost set behind the mountain ranges of the western Chile when the Green Flash was observed.

Note: Click on the pictures for a better view.

Picture of the Month - April 2007

2007-04-06T10:51:00.000+05:30

Brilliant Venus, slender crescent Moon, and lights along the Ponte 25 de Abril, which is a 2.3 km long suspension bridge across Tagus river glow against the western twilight in this lovely Moonset scene from Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, recorded on March 20, 2007. In fact, such serene views were enjoyed across planet Earth this week, as the young Moon remained near the setting Sun following a partial solar eclipse, and Venus ruled as the evening star. Because of strong Earthshine - light from the sunlit Earth - even the Moon's night side is clearly visible in the picture.

Picture of the Month - February 2007

2007-02-05T19:06:00.001+05:30

This is dedicated to my friend who was asking me to change the usual topic - Astronomy. This brilliant photo was taken just a second before the Sand Storm that took place at Sumatra Island, Indonesia. This photo was found in a digital camera which was found about one month after the disaster.

Goddess of Love - Venus

2007-01-28T09:40:00.002+05:30

Hi everyone. This is the right time for us to see a Goddess with our own eyes – it’s the Goddess of Love. Goddess of Love is nothing but the planet ‘Venus’. Venus is the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty. The Planet is named so because it is the brightest object in the sky let alone Sun and Moon. The picture below shows the planet Venus taken by a spacecraft.

Venus is the brightest object because its atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide and thick clouds of Sulphuric Acids which covers the planet completely. We can never see the surface of Venus unless we go into its atmosphere. Due to this reason Venus acts as a ‘Green House’. Thus the atmosphere of Venus reflects more than 95% of the light from the sun making it the brightest object in the sky. During the early periods Venus was confused for a UFO. The bright star on the top left of the picture below is the Planet Venus. We can clearly see that Venus is very bright compared to the other stars.

Venus is one of the two Inferior Planet (the other being Mercury). Inferior planets are simply planets whose orbits are within the orbit of Earth. Since Venus is the Inferior Planet we can only see the planet near the Sun i.e. either before sunrise or after sunset. When Venus is seen in the morning before sunrise it is called as the ‘Morning Star’ and when it is seen in the evening after sunset it is called as the ‘Evening Star’.

We can see Venus through our naked eye. It looks like any other star but no star can match its brightness. When you look at the planet through a telescope you can see special phenomenon which can only be noticed by the inferior planets. But Mercury is too close to the Sun and so only Venus exhibit this character very clearly. So far this phenomenon has only been noticed in the Moon, yet it is more special in Venus. This phenomenon is nothing but the ‘Phases of Venus’. It is no different from that of the Moon. Just as Moon, Venus changes its phases from ‘New Venus’ to ‘Full Venus’ and again back to ‘New Venus’. But this effect can only be viewed through a telescope.

When Venus is behind the Sun we can see the full phase of Venus. As Venus moves through its orbit it reduces its shape into a Gibbous, just like Moon. When Venus is exactly at right angles to Sun and Earth we can see Half-Venus. And as Venus continues to move around the sun and as it comes in-between the Earth and the Sun, it reduces its shape to a cresent and finally a new-Venus, exactly as that of the Moon. Yet, there is something different in its formation of phases which makes it phenomenon. During the full phase, the Venus is usually behind the sun and hence it is smaller in size due to the longer distance from the Earth. But during the cresent, Venus comes in-between Sun and Earth and hence it appears larger in size. So as Venus goes around the Sun it not only changes its shape but also its size. This phenomenon could also be seen in Mercury but to a small extent.

The picture below shows the different phases and the sizes of Venus during April-May 2004.

When Venus is exactly in between in the orbit of Earth and Sun we can see its Transit. Transit of Venus is nothing but the movement of Venus on the surface of Sun. We can see Venus as a dark spot on the sun. The picture below shows the transit of Venus over the surface of Sun. The dark spot on the Sun in the left is Venus.

The first person to notice the Phases of Venus is Galileo Galilei with his newly invented telescope. We can now see Venus at this very day as the ‘Evening Star’. We can see the planet clearly with our naked eyes. It looks just like a star but look for the brighest in the west. It is so bright that you can see the planet even before it gets dark completely. The planet will be visible until an hour or so after sunset.

If you want to look at the phases of Venus go to a planetarium nearby.

Picture of the Month - January 2007

2007-01-03T21:23:00.003+05:30

Hi Friends! From this year on, I'll post some exciting pictures every month for you all.

This picture shows the full moon with Andromeda Galaxy(aka M13) in the background. This galaxy is only about 2.5 million LY (Light Years) away and it is known as the closest spiral galaxy to Milky Way. This entertaining image compares the zoomed in image of the galaxy and the normal sized image of the mooon with the same angular view. In the normal view this galaxy looks like a small, faint, fuzzy patch near the constellation of Andromeda.

How old is Everything?

2006-12-28T16:23:00.001+05:30

Hi everyone! First of all I must apologize for not posting for months. I hope I would start posting a little more often than usual. Let’s move on with the topic…

The topic I’m going to discuss is ‘How old is Everything?’ and by saying ‘Everything’ I mean the ‘Universe’.

No one is sure of the age of the Universe, for no one knows how it began. Some say it’s the ‘Big Bang’ and some say it is the ‘Steady State’. In fact there are many more theories put forward to explain the origin of the Universe. But there is no proof for any of the theories but Big Bang has more evidences. The only way to find out when the Universe originated is by moving back in time. We are slowly going to move back in time and see if the Universe existed at that point of time. So let’s get to it.

Universe certainly existed 4000 years ago as we do have some proof of human civilizations in Earth. The best example is Indus Valley Civilization and Egyptian Civilization. But no one knows what had been before that. Discovery of Jurassic bones helped us move a little further. These bones were tested and they were found to have lived about 2000 million years ago. And so we can certainly say that Earth did exist 2000 million years ago.

Some of the rocks on this planet were tested by scientists and they found some of the oldest rocks on the surface of the Earth. These rocks were found to be billions of years old. The oldest rock ever found was nearly 4.5 billion years old. That could be the time when Earth had formed or much before that. We could not find anything older than that and so we assume that Earth is actually 4.5 billion years old. Some scientists believe that the Earth was formed along with the other members of the solar system including the Sun. And so they think that our Solar System is also 4.5 billion years old.

We have some how estimated the age of the Earth but what about the Universe? How can we find out the age of the Universe? We can not take any samples from other stars to tests its age. It is merely impossible to reach other stars. Are there any other methods to find the age of the stars without reaching it?

The age of some of the stars can be found by testing the magnitude or intensity or the brightness of the star. By calculating the magnitude of the star, the amount of Hydrogen that has been burnt in the star can be estimated. With the help of this we can estimate the time when the star will die and also when it was born. Using this method the scientists have found that Sun has a life span of 10 billion years will die in another 5 billion years. This is very close to our assumption of the age of the Earth. So the solar system must be around the age to 4.5 to 5 billion years. The magnitude of the stars from some of the Globular Clusters were calculated. A Globular Cluster is a collection of stars which are bound by gravity. Most of the stars in a globular cluster are old. The above picture shows the Globular Cluster M13 found in the constellation of Hercules. The age of the stars in various clusters was estimated and it was found that the oldest globular cluster was around 11 to 18 billion years old. This is the lowest limit of the age of the Universe we could ever estimate from the stars. Scientists are still trying out various experiments to extend this limit. As of now the age of the Universe is 11 to 18 billion years old.

This information has been acquired from the net. If you have any further doubt or any questions about this topic you can with pleasure mail me via email. You can also visit this website for further details.
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101age.html

The Fate of Pluto

2006-10-08T18:04:00.001+05:30

Hi friends... I have finally started a blog as requested by my friends. Since this is my first topic I have decided to share my knowledge on my favorite topic Astronomy, and in astronomy this is the topic which is discussed most in recent times.

As soon as you read the word 'Pluto' the questions that arises in your mind is ‘Why is Pluto removed from the list of planets? And is it a right decision?’ Some of us think it's crap but some think the decision is absolutely right. And I'm one of them. In fact I was expecting something like this to happen for a year as Pluto is different from other planets in many ways.

Before discussing on why Pluto was removed from the list of planets let us know some of the details about Pluto...

Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930. It was known as the smallest planet. Its distance from Sun is 5870 x 10⁶ km. Its diameter is about 2,301 km. In fact Pluto is smaller than our satellite ‘Moon’ whose diameter is about 3,474 km. In 1978 Pluto was discovered with a satellite moving around it named Charon. And in 2003 astronomers discovered two more satellites moving around Pluto which was named Nix and Hydra.

Now let us see some of the details of Charon...

Charon was discovered in 1978 by James Christy. Its diameter is about 1,207 km which is more than half the size of Pluto. Its mass is about 1/7^th the mass of Pluto. It is the largest of the three satellites of Pluto. But since Pluto is no longer considered as a planet Charon is also not considered as a satellite. It was the discovery of Charon that began to change the fate of Pluto. The picture on the right is the artistic view of Charon from the surface of Pluto.

Since 2003 many more objects were discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune like Sedna, Quaoar, Orcus, Varuna, 2005 FY9, etc. and most of them were almost the same distance from Sun as Pluto. Some of them were almost the size of Pluto. In 2005 a new object was discovered ‘2003 UB313’ which was nicknamed as Xena and now officially called as Eris (in the left). Its diameter was found to be 2400 km which is slightly bigger than that of Pluto. And this discovery put an end to the journey of Pluto as a planet. The odds in the character of Pluto put together with these discoveries led to removal of Pluto from the list of planets.

Now let us see what are the odd characters found in Pluto.

1. Let us assume that the orbit of the Earth is horizontal. If we compare the inclination of the orbits of the other planets with that of Earth it is found that the planets other than Pluto were found to incline at an angle between 1° and 7°. But the inclination of Pluto was found to be 17.2°.

2. If we look at the orbit of Pluto it is found to draw within the orbit of Neptune for a time span of twenty years between 1979 and 1999 i.e. Pluto acts as the eighth planet for a time span of twenty years. This is clearly shown in the picture on the top. This type of behavior is not found in any other planet.

3. You can find huge gap between any two planets. For example the distance between Earth and Venus is 49.4 x 10⁶ km and the distance between Earth and Mars is 78.3 x 10⁶ km. All you find in between this gap is our satellite ‘Moon’. But as I said earlier many objects were discovered around the orbit of Pluto. These objects cannot be the satellites of Pluto as some of them were larger than Pluto itself.

4. A Satellite is an object that revolves around a planet just like a planet around a star. According to the Law of Gravitation the centre of gravity between a satellite and a planet should be approximately found in the centre of the planet which makes the satellite move around the planet in an orbit. If we compare the size of Pluto and Charon it is found that Charon is more than half the size of Pluto. By the Law of Gravitation the centre of gravity between these two masses will be approximately found in between the two objects. Which means that Charon does not revolve around Pluto but Pluto and Charon revolve around each other. Once again Pluto does not abide the rules of the Planet.

These are only few of the reasons that makes Pluto different from other planets and the astronomers had no choice but to remove Pluto from the list of Planets. All the objects which are beyond the orbit of Neptune are now considered as 'Trans-Neptunian Objects' (TNO) which include Pluto, Eris and other recently discovered objects. (The picture on the top is a comparison of the size of TNO's with that of the Earth and the Moon) The larger TNO's such as Pluto and Eris are considered as 'Dwarf Planets'. The eight largest TNO's are compared in the picture below.

And thus according to me removing Pluto from the list of Planets is the right decision. After all these there are still many unanswered questions put up about Pluto’s behavior and also about the Trans-Neptune Objects (TNO) which I believe may be found in the years to come.