DESTINATION MARS!

   
         Our resources are limited and it may not be possible to live on planet Earth forever. It is therefore imperative for us to search for the possibility of life on other planets and determine whether we can inhabit those territories. Of all the planet explorations taking place, the findings of planet Mars gives us hope to mankind about the possibility of another livable planet. Here are some of these findings.



How Far Is Mars From The Sun?
       Mars has an elliptical orbit around the Sun, so sometimes it is closer to the Sun and sometimes its farther. When its closest, it is approximately 206,600,000 km away






What Are The Gases In The Planet Mars?
       The atmosphere consists of mainly of carbon dioxide (95 per cent), argon and nitrogen. Mars has a very thin atmosphere. The suspicion of life on Mars was supported by the stream beds consisting of water, lava and frozen water ice at the poles. So there might even be traces of hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere.

Is There Water On Mars?
       Evidence shows that water flowed abundantly on Mars during its first 500 million years of history. There are winding channels and great gorges similar to water cut canyons. One such canyon is the Valles Marineris which is 10 times longer and about four times deeper than the Grand Canyon on Earth.

Where Has The Water Gone?
        It is believed that water on Mars dried up, because, at only about half the Earth's diameter, it was unable to retain the heat of its birth for as long. It is the dynamo action of molten material circulating deep inside a planet that creates a magnetic field. This magnetic field shields a planet's atmosphere from the ravages of the million-mile an hour solar wind. Without this magnetic shield, the atmosphere of Mars was quickly stripped away and so liquid water could no longer exist on its surface.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Phoenix mars lander

Did Life On Mars Exist?     
            Advanced life forms require liquid water. Since the mid 1960's, studies have shown the presence of frozen water at the Martian poles. Tn recent years, NASA Rover robots on Mars (Mars Pathfinder, The Spirit and Opportunity Rovers and The Phoenix Mars Lander) coupled with data from Mars orbiters proved the previous existence of liquid water on Mars.

NASA Mars Rover

     



       Also, from images and techniques used to measure ice levels, it appears that at the polar extremes of the planet there are large amounts of ice. If melted, this ice would lead to an average level of water covering the entire surface by 11 meters high, thereby generating oxygen in the atmosphere thus justifying the probability of life on the Planet.

Mars pathfinder

         

Why Is Study Of Mars Important As Compared To Other Planets?
         The existence of Earth-like life should necessarily be restricted to planets where Earth conditions exist or have existed. Taking a closer look at the other planets, we find Mars to be the only planet that can provide answers.

• WHY NOT VENUS? - With its crushingly high atmospheric surface pressure, lead- melting temperatures and thick carbon dioxide atmosphere that is resistant to sunlight, Venus's surface makes for an extremely unfriendly environment for any robotic lander.

• WHY NOT MERCURY? - Though it might be very much like the moon, half the planet and the satellites in orbit around it are subjected to high solar radiation. The heat from the sun could fry a spacecraft and the radiation could destroy all on board electronics. So nobody can ever live there.

• WHY NOT JUPITER? - The giant gas planet Jupiter is very, very, far away. So with our current and near-future propulsion technology, humans can only reach it in huge colony ships. And once we would get there, we would have only some small, dead moons to live on. So if Jupiter is improbable, then life on SATURN, URANUS and NEPTUNE is just impossible! 

              This means we would need a leap in technology to survive on the Venus surface. We would need huge spaceships to get to Jupiter, and nobody would be able to return home for decades. And so Mars is definitely the only planet that we could go out to, explore and probably inhabit in the near future. 

How Similar Is Mars To Earth?

• Each planet has roughly the same amount of land surface area. Atmospheric chemistry is relatively similar, at least as Earth is compared to the other planets in the solar system. Both planets have large, sustained polar caps, which is probably made of water ice. Mountains on Mars are much larger than Earth's mountains.

• Mars does not have the same kind of magnetic field as Earth. But evidence collected by the Mars Global Surveyor(MGS) indicates that the planet may have once had a global magnetic field, generated by and internal dynamo. Evidence suggests that the planet's magnetic field reversed direction, or flipped, several times in its early days as conditions in the mantle and core of the planet changed. But the dynamo faded, leaving only faint traces of its magnetic past locked in the Martian crust.

• On earth much of the planets fresh water is locked up in ice covering the two poles. This polar ice and the vast ice sheet covering Greenland in the north may only represents roughly three percent of the overall water contained on Earth, it represents two thirds of all the available fresh water, that is vital to many of the lifeforms found here. Likewise, data now indicate that Mars's northern polar region may contain as much water as that contained on Greenland's ice sheet, a vast tract of frozen water that's up to three kilometres thick in some places.

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THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

 What is THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?

       The International Space Station (ISS) is a large and special kind of spacecraft floating in space. It is a large research facility with people on-board who run science experiments that can only be done in space. It orbits 250 miles above the Earth flying through space at around 17,000 miles per hour. This means the ISS goes around the Earth approximately once every 90 minutes.

WHO BUILT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?

         The ISS deigned so that many countries all over the world could cooperate and have a place on-board to perform their science and technology experiments. The two primary countries involved with the ISS are the United States with NASA and RUSSIA with the Russian Space Agency (RSA). Other countries involved with the construction and ongoing activities on the ISS are The Canadian Space Agency, The European Space Agency, Japan, Brazil, and many others.

WHEN WAS IT MADE?

          The first piece of ISS was launched in 1998. Over time, the US space shuttle and Russian rockets were primarily used to get materials, parts, and people back and forth from the Earth up to the Space station. The first crew arrived in October 2000. People have lived on the space station ever since. Over time more pieces have been added. NASA and its partners around the world finished the space station in 2011.

HOW BIG IS THE SPACE STATION?

       The Space Station is as big as a house with five bedrooms. It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window. Six people are able to live there. It weighs almost a million pounds. It is big enough to cover a football field.

WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF THE SPACE STATION?

        The Space Station has many parts. The parts are called modules. The first modules had parts needed to make the Space Station work. Astronauts also lived in those modules. Modules called "nodes" connect parts of the station to each other. Labs on the Space Station let astronauts do research. On the sides of the Space Station are solar arrays. These arrays collect energy from the Sun to convert into electricity. Airlocks on the Space Station are like doors. Astronauts use them to go outside on spacewalks. Docking ports are like doors, too. The ports allow visiting spacecraft to connect to the space station. New crews and visitors enter the station through the docking ports. Astronauts fly to the space station on the Russian Soyuz. The crew members use the ports to move supplies onto the station.

WHY IS THE SPACE STATION IMPORTANT?

         The Space Station is a home in orbit where crew members do research. This research could not be done on Earth. Scientists study what happens to people when they live in space and how to keep a spacecraft working for a long time. These lessons will be important in the future.

WHAT TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS ARE DONE ON ISS?

          Experiments with space medicine, gravity's affect on life, future space travel, biology in space, discovery of new materials, and various technology experiments are being conducted on ISS. Studying materials like fluids, flames, metals, and different objects in space helps us gain a better understanding of all these things on Earth. From the ISS, we have a great window to watch the Earth, watching weather, climate, agriculture trends, natural disasters, pollution, deforestation, etc. We can even have a more clear view of all the galaxies out in the universe and we can even study the very nature of space itself.

HOW IS INFORMATION FROM THE ISS COMMUNICATED TO EARTH?

         The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRS) is a series of satellites that the ISS uses to communicate with the ground. Using TDRS with its satellites positioned all around the Earth, the ISS can communicate to the Earth any time it needs to. The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) is the NASA network that controls TDRS.

WHO IS ON BOARD THE ISS NOW?

       The Expedition 32 crew is on board the ISS. Crew members are from the USA, Russia and Japan. On July 14, 2012 Indian born astronaut, Sunita Williams was launched in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to join the Expedition 32 crew. She will stay on and become the commander of Expedition 33

LIFE INSIDE THE ISS:-

    Once a person is inside the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, they can float around without needing a spacesuit. The only time an astronaut would need a spacesuit is if they are doing a spacewalk, which means they are going outside the space station to work on something. As for Oxygen, there are life support systems on the ISS which provide oxygen and remove carbon dioxide so astronauts can do their job on board and breathe normally. Much of this oxygen comes from a process where the electricity from the ISS solar panels is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. On the ISS, meals often come in a meal tray, and the meal tray becomes a sort of dinner place with several foods to choose from. The tray holds the foods down so they don't float away. The food and drink come in cans or dehydrated so things don't have to be refrigerated. As for sleeping, astronauts are weightless and can sleep in any orientation. However, they have to attach themselves to a wall, seat or bed so they don't float around and bump into something.

ISS TRIVIA :-

• The Space Station is the largest manned object ever sent into space. It is a research facility that measures 290 feet in length and 356 feet in width. It weighs more than 1 million pounds.
• It is being powered by solar energy. This energy is necessary to power the six laboratories and all the living space on board.
• The ISS was designed and built with the collaboration of 100,000 people, sixteen nations, and hundreds of companies.

HERE IS A VIDEO:-

Was Is Informative? Being an astronaut is amazing, isn't it? We get to see our Earth, various planets, especially the Sun and much more! I wish I was an Astronaut..! What do you think? :D

METEOR SHOWER

What Is A Meteor Shower?
          Meteor showers are caused by debris from a comet burning up in our atmosphere. These small fragments of cosmic debris enter the Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed, with the friction producing spectacular shooting stars which blaze across the night sky. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which they appear.

Why Do Meteor Showers Happen?
         When comets pass through space, they leave behind a trail of dust and ice. If the Earth then crosses this trail, these comet fragments will burn up in our atmosphere. From the ground, we see them as jets of bright light, shooting across the sky. The Earth follows the same path around the Sun every year. So it always crosses a comet trail at the same point in its orbit, and we see meteor showers at the same time every year.

Type Of Meteor Showers:      

          There are two kinds of meteors- sporadic meteors and shower meteors. Sporadic meteors originate from random bits of solar system dust than orbit the Sun. Their chance encounters with Earth are unpredictable. Shower meteors come from the dust released by comets as they travel through our solar system. Meteor showers that touch the ground are called meteorites. Because meteors move across the sky so fast, there is no point in trying to see them through a telescope. All you need to do is look up at the right part of the sky.

WHAT IS GALEX MISSION?

GALEX TELESCOPE

          Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope to conduct the first space UV sky-survey, observing galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. It was launched into orbit aboard a Pegasus rocket on April 28, 2003.

GALEX TELESCOPE WHEN MADE

What Is The Objective Of The Mission?
              GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing us closer to understanding how galaxies like our own Milky Way were formed. The spacecraft's mission is to observe hundreds of thousands of galaxies, with the goal of determining how far away each galaxy is from Earth and how fast stars are forming in each galaxy.

NGC 4248

   How Does GALEX Do It?     
          GALEX will make observations at ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation in the Universe. Since scientists believe the universe is about 13 billion years old, the mission will study galaxies and stars across about every 94 minutes and travels approximately 408,470 million miles per day

M106 GALAXY

What Are The Findings Till Date?
       GALEX has been operating for over seven years, well beyond its nominal 29 month mission life. 
Over these years, GALEX has photographed
hundreds of millions of galaxies in ultraviolet light. Galaxies like M106, NGC 4248, dwarf galaxy UGC 7365 are some of the galaxies photographed. Over the past five years, the GALEX telescope has imaged half a billion objects over 27,000 square degrees of sky; equivalent to an area that would be covered by 138,000 full moons!


HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO:-

Hope you like it.. :)

Up TO 4 Billion Meteoroids Fall To Earth Every Day!

         It is estimated that four billion meteoroids fall to earth everyday. Though they enter the Earth's atmosphere at as much as 130,000 miles per hour, most of them are too tiny to do any noticeable harm. In 2004, a 30-foot-wide meteoroid struck the atmosphere over Antarctica. If left two million pounds of dust in its wake affecting the climate on the other side of the planet. After it impacts the Earth, a meteoroid is referred to as a meteoroid.

ASTRO TALK

BLACK HOLE...

         
What Is A Black Hole?
         A black hole is a region of space from which nothing can escape, not even light. It is like a vacuum cleaner that cleans up all the debris left behind i outer space. And because even light travelling at 300,000 km every second cannot  overcome the force of gravity  and get out of a black hole, it looks like a whole lot of nothingness, and that's why they are called black holes.

How Do Black Holed Form?

      When a large star runs out of fuel it  can no longer support its heavy weight. The pressure from the star's massive layers of hydrogen press down, forcing the star to get smaller than an atom, packing a huge mass into its tiny volume.Its gravity becomes so strong and powerful that it can gobble anything that comes near thenm, even sars,gas and light
.

IS THERE NO ESCAPE FROM THE BLACK HOLE?
    A black hole's gravity becomes so powerfu that it can suck everything that comes in its way.The middle of a black hole is called a Singularity. When you get  too close to the singularity you will begin to fall into it. When you begin to fall toward it you know you have you know you have passed the Outer Event Horizon. At this point you could still escape, but you had better hurry, because as soon as you pass the Inner Event Horizon it will be too late.

HERE IS A VIDEO:-

                                           

THE SUN WILL DIE IN ABOUT FIVE MILLION YEARS!

             In about five billion years years from now, the sun will begin to die. As the Sun grows old, it will expand. As the core runs out of hydrogen and then helium, the core will contract and the ouer layers will expand, cool, and become less bright , making the Sun a red giant star. After this phase, the outer layers of the Sun  will continue to expand. As this happens, the core will contract ,the helium atoms in the core will fuse together, forming carbon atoms and releasing energy. The remaining Sun will then cool and shrink and eventually be only a few thousand  miles in diameter , forming a white dwarf. It radiates its left-over heat for billions of years. When its head is all dispersed, the Sun will gradually fade away, becoming dimmer and eventually, after billions maybe even trillions of years, it will stop glowing. At that point it will be what we call a black dwarf star and our Sun will become a dead star!

THE DAWN MISSION..

THE DAWN MISSION..

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WHAT IS THE DAWN MISSION?
      The Dawn mission will study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, which are celestial bodies believed to have been formed by the effect of gravity pulling together surrounding objects and gases, early in the history of the solar system. Data returned from the Dawn spacecraft could provide opportunities for significant breakthroughs in our knowledge of how the solar system formed.

CERES

What Is The Objective Of The Mission? 
        During the earliest epochs of our solar system, the materials in the solar nebula varied with their distance from the sun. As this distance increased, the temperature dropped, with terrestrial bodies forming closer to the sun, and icy bodies forming farther away. The Dawn mission will characterise the early solar system and the processes that dominated the formation of such bodies.

VESTA

Why Vesta And Ceres?
         The asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres have been selected because, while both have conditions and processes that were depicted early in the formation of the solar system, they developed into two different kind of bodies. Vesta is a dry, differentiated object with a surface that shows signs of resurfacing. It resembles the rocky bodies of the inner solar system, including Earth. Ceres, by contrast, has a primitive surface containing water-bearing minerals, and may  posses a weak atmosphere. By studying both these two distinct bodies the Dawn mission hopes to compare the different evolutionary path each took and also create an overall picture of the early solar system


DAWN'S JOURNEY:-
Launch: September 27, 2007
Vesta Arrival :August 2011
Vesta Departure: May 2012
Ceres Arrival: February 2015
End Of Primary Mission: July 2015
     
HERE IS A VIDEO:-

 HOPE YOU LIKE IT..:)

ASTROLOGY TALKS....

THE SURFACE OF THE SUN IS MUCH COOLER THAN ITS ATMOSPHERE..(AstroFact)

THE SUN

         


The Sun's surface is a warm 
6,000    
degrees Celsius. The center of 
the earth is  
estimated to be about the same 
temperature 
 as this solar surface. In the 
corona, or outer 
atmosphere, which is usually 
invisible and            
 extends  millions of miles into  
space, the
atoms become so active that the 
temperature 
jumps again to about a million  
degrees. 


      
      

THE SUN'S SURFACE

       


So  as you travel away from the Sun's surface,
the atmosphere heats up to millions 
of degrees.
Scientists are not sure how the atmosphere
can be as hot as it is,with such a cool surface.
And did you know that the sun is actually about 
5 million kilometers closer to the earth in
in January than it is in July. So just 
feel the heat!        

WHAT IS THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD (LMC)?

HERE

        The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a nearby satellite galaxy of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. At a distance of slightly less than 160,000 light years, the LMC is the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way. It is visible as a faint 'cloud' in the night sky of the southern hemisphere,raging in the border between the constellations of Dorado and Mensa..




The Discovery:-
      The first recorded mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud was by the Persian astronomer,  
Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi, in his Book of Fixed Stars around 964 AD. The next recorded observation was in 1503-05 by Amerigo Vespucci, Discoverer of America in a letter about this third voyage. But it was Fernao de Magalhaes, who was the first to bring the LMC into common knowledge in 1519. The galaxy now bears his name..




What Makes It Unique?
          The LMC is full of a wide range of galactic objects and phenomena that make it aptly known as an "astronomical treasure-house, a great celestial laboratory for the study of the growth and evolution of the stars". Surveys of the galaxy have found roughly 60 globular clusters, 400 planetary nebulae and 700 open clusters, along with hundreds of thousands of giant and super giant stars. It is home to the Tarantula Nebula, the most active star-forming region.
       It has a mass equivalent to approximately 10 billion times the mass of our Sun, making it roughly 1/10th as massive as the Milky Way. Like many irregular galaxies, the lmc is rich in gas and dust.


HERE IS A VIDEO..:-

                                                         HOPE YOU LIKE It..:)

MISSION KEPLER

          The Kepler Mission is a space photometer being developed by NASA to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It will observe the brightness over 100,000 stars over 3.5 years. The Kepler Mission will,for the first time,enable humans to search our galaxy for Earth size or even smaller planets.

Objective:-
     The scientific objective of the Kepler Mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems and determine how many terrestrial and larger planets are there in or near the habitable zone of  a wide variety of spectral types of stars. It will also determine the range of orbit size, brightness, size, mass and density of short period giant planets, while determining the properties of those stars that harbour planetary systems. Data from the mission will be used for studying variable stars of various types and performing asteroseismology, particularly on stars showing solar-like oscillations.

How Will Kepler Do It?
          Kepler will monitor more than 100,000 stars for signatures of planets of various sizes and orbital distances. It has the ability to locate rocky planets like Earth, including those that lie in a star's habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to measure their frequency..