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B.P.PODDHAR
INSTITUTION


Space Discovery
The world of mystery
Space Introduction
What is space?

For millions of years, space was out of reach for humans stranded
here on planet Earth. Like any inaccessible object, it was much
dreamed about and inspired many different interpretations. Indeed,
for centuries the heavens were believed to be the realm of the gods
bathing in everlasting happiness.

Humans had to find out the truth, and the only way was to see things
for themselves. When they got there, they found no divine presence
but a strange place without air, noise or smells. Space proved to be
a paradox of nature, at once so empty and yet so hostile, both a
world of silence and a source of incredibly high-energy phenomena.

Such energy in a sea of emptiness has taxed the minds of scientists
and changed our view of the world forever.

Famous Astronomers
Nicholas Copernicus (1473 -1543)

Nicholas Copernicus is a famous polish astronomer who is well known for his
Copernican theory, which states that the sun is the center of the universe and the
earth revolves around and completes one revolution in a year. Although having
studied subjects in areas as varied as liberal arts, law and medicine it was his
interaction with a mathematician Domenico Maria de Novara that that sparked his
interest in astronomy. He was fascinated after experiencing eclipse by the moon of
the star Aldebaran in the year 1497.

Tycho Brahe(1546-1601)

Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who is supposed to have made the most
accurate astronomical observations about measurements of the solar system and
over 700 other stars. He was the first one to make these observations and to
catalogue the planets and stars with adequate accuracy so as to determine whether
the Ptolemaic or Copernican system was more valid in describing the universe or the
planetary systems. In 1572 he found a supernova near the Cassiopeia constellation.
In 1576, he built the astronomy observatory, which is now known as the Castle of
Uranienborg. As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine the geometrical benefits of
the Copernican system with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system only to
create his own model of the universe, the Tychonic system. From 1600 until his death
in 1601, Johannes Kepler assisted him. Kepler later used Tycho's astronomical
information to develop his own theories of astronomy.


Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)



Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist and an astronomer. His achievements include
improvements to the telescope, noteworthy astronomical observations, and support
for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational
astronomy." In 1589 he became a professor of mathematics at Pisa and supposedly
taught theories that contradicted Aristotle's theories, and in 1592 his contract was not
renewed. The same year he was appointed as the chair of mathematics at the
University of Padua, where he invented a 'calculating compass' for solving
mathematics problems. In December 1609 he had built a telescope twenty times
stronger than the first, which he was able to use to view craters on the moon with,
stars in the Milky Way, and the four largest satellites of Jupiter and the phases of
Venus. In 1613 he published a book about sunspots. In the year 1624 he wrote
Dialogue on the Tides which he discussed the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories.
Galileos championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime since
the view had been dominant since the time of Aristotle, and the controversy that
emerged due to Galileo's opposition to this view resulted in the Catholic Church's
prohibition of heliocentrism. Galileo was forced to recant his theory and had to spend
the last years of his life under house arrest on orders of the Inquisition.

Recent Astronomers from India
Kalpana Chawla was born in a Punjabi family at Karnal,
Haryana, India. Chawla joined the NASA in March
1995 and selected for her first flight in 1998.Her first
space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part
of Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla
was the first Indian-born woman and the second
person of Indian origin to fly in space, following
cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma . Kalpana died in the
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on
February 1, 2003,

Sunita Williams (born September 19, 1965) is a
United States Naval officer and a NASA astronaut.
Selected by NASA in June 1998, Williams began her
training in August 1998.Her Astronaut Candidate
training included orientation briefings and tours,
numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive
instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station
systems etc.
Space Instrument

Instrumentation of space weather

Instrumentation plays a major part in space weather
analysis and data collecting. In fact there are numerous
space weather stations found worldwide to be able to
collect and forecast from a variety of tools and
instruments.





Sky Imager Magnetometer data acquired from all-sky
imagers is an important component of auroral research.
The imager provides a complete view of the sky around
the imager. Any auroral activity visible from the
instrument site will be captured, digitized, and sent to
scientists for data analysis














Incoherent Scatter Radar is the most powerful ground based
technique for the study of the Earth's ionosphere and its interactions with
the upper atmosphere, the magnetosphere and the interplanetary medium.
The 'incoherent' scatter echo is the result of the scattering of
electromagnetic energy, radiated from the radar, by electrons in the
ionosphere plasma, which are controlled by the much slower, massive
positive ions. Most of the power is due to scattering from electron density
fluctuations caused by the presence of these ions and the frequency
spectrum of the received signal provides information about their
temperature, composition and velocity.


Instrumentation plays a major part in space weather analysis
and data collecting. In fact there are numerous space weather
stations found worldwide to be able to collect and forecast from a
variety of tools and instruments.


Space Exploration

Since space exploration first began on October 4, 1957, spacecrafts
have explored every type of object in the Solar System and in outer
space. On that day, the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial
satellite to orbit the Earth. The first space flight with humans aboard
was made on April 12, 1961 when a Soviet cosmonaut circled the
Earth in a spacecraft. We always dreamed of travelling in space,
and wanted to explore the unknown to answer many questions
about the Universe, such as, how the stars, the Sun, and the planets
were made, and whether life exists elsewhere. Scientists thought it
was impossible to reach the Moon until the Apollo 8 spacecraft
orbited the Moon 10 times in 1968. During the fifty years since the
first space expeditions were made, spaceships have travelled
around the Solar System visiting all kinds of different planets.
Solar System

A Solar System is a collection of heavenly bodies comprising a star,
with planets and other objects orbiting around it. Our Solar System
consists of the Sun which is orbited by 8 planets (including our very
own Earth), and many other objects like moons (which orbit
planets), asteroids and meteors. Several heavenly bodies of the
Solar System like the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn are visible to the naked eye, while the rest of the planets
are visible through telescopes.
By analyzing the radioactive decay of radioactive elements in
the meteorites, astronomers have said that the origin of the
Solar System can be traced back to 4.6 billion years ago.
According to this Nebular theory, the Solar System was
formed from a massive, rotating cloud of dust and gas called
the Solar Nebula. It so happened that the Solar Nebula
began collapsing under its own gravitational force. Several
scientists believe that the collapse of this giant gas cloud was
triggered by a supernova (exploding star) near it, resulting
into the contraction of the Nebula. As the cloud collapsed,
heat increased causing the dust particles to vaporize and
resulting in the compression of the cloud at the center.

Sun,the energy source
The Sun is the Solar System's
star, and by far its chief
component. Its large mass
(332,900 Earth masses) produces
temperatures and densities in its
core great enough to sustain
nuclear fusion, which releases
enormous amounts of energy,
mostly radiated into space as
electromagnetic radiation, peaking
in the 400to700 nm band we
call visible light.
Along with light, the Sun radiates
a continuous stream of charged
particles (a plasma) known as the
solar wind. This stream of
particles spreads outwards at
roughly 1.5 million kilometres per
hour,[20] creating a tenuous
atmosphere ,the heliosphere .
Cosmic rays originate outside the
Solar System .
Lets introduce the planets
Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet
in the Solar System. Its relatively large iron core and thin mantle
have not yet been adequately explained.
Venus
Venus is close in size to Earth, and like Earth, has a thick
silicate mantle around an iron core. It is the hottest planet,
with surface temperatures over 400 C.
Earth
Earth is the largest and densest of the inner planets. Its
liquid hydrosphere is unique among the terrestrial
planets, and it is also the only planet where plate
tectonics has been observed. It contain 21% free oxygen
.
Mars
Mars is smaller than Earth and Venus.It possesses
an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide. Its red
colour comes from iron oxide (rust) in its soil .
Jupiter
Jupiter, at 318 Earth masses, is 2.5 times the mass of all
the other planets put together. It is composed largely of
hydrogen and helium. Jupiter's strong internal heat
creates a number of semi-permanent features in its
atmosphere, such as cloud bands and the Great Red
Spot.
Saturn
Saturn,distinguished by its extensive ring system,
has several similarities to Jupiter, such as its
atmospheric composition and magnetosphere.
Uranus
Uranus , at 14 Earth masses, is the lightest of the
outer planets.It has a much colder core than the
other gas giants.
Neptune
Neptune ,though slightly smaller than Uranus, is
more massive and therefore more dense. It radiates
more internal heat.
Most important objects of space
Galaxies are systems or clusters of gas, dust, and
stars which are held together by gravitational force; a
galaxy contains anywhere from 100,000,000 to
3,000,000,000 stars. It is among the oldest large
scale objects in the Universe. The Milky Way is a
spiral galaxy.

A supernova is a stellar explosion that creates an
extremely luminous object that is initially made of plasma -
an ionized form of matter. A supernova may briefly out-
shine its entire host galaxy before fading from view over
several weeks or months.

Quasars, the most distant objects discovered by
astronomers in the Universe, are very bright, large point-
like objects just like stars; most are larger than our Solar
System, and they radiate enormous amounts of energy.
Asteroids are mostly small Solar System bodies[e]
composed mainly of refractory rocky and metallic
minerals.The main asteroid belt occupies the orbit between
Mars and Jupiter,It is thought to be remnants from the
Solar System's formation that failed to coalesce because of
the gravitational interference of Jupiter.


Comets are small Solar System bodies,typically only
a few kilometres across, composed largely of volatile
ices. When a comet enters the inner Solar System,
its proximity to the Sun causes its icy surface to
sublimate and ionise, creating a coma: a long tail of
gas and dust often visible to the naked eye.

Meteor is used to describe the streak of light produced
as matter in the solar system falls into Earth's
atmosphere creating temporary incandescence
resulting from atmospheric friction. A meteoroid is
matter revolving around the sun or any object in
interplanetary space that is too small to be called an
asteroid or a comet.




The nebula consists of a cloud of ionized gas, which is lit
from within, by a number of newly formed stars. It is also
observed that a dark cloud containing interstellar dust lies
right in front of it. The dust absorbs light from these ionized
clouds and small red spots seen at the base of the
Horsehead tend to betray the presence of the hidden
protostars.
The black hole is still a mystery. They can gulp many
stars more than the size of a sun and still keep on
eating a lot. Imagine a vacuum cleaner in your house
which pulls all the dust and other littered things
inside it. To become a black hole, the star should be
15 times bigger than the sun. Here, death of a star
means the end of the nuclear fuel as, in the life cycle
of a star there is a continuous nuclear fusion
reaction.
Recent discovered facts
Scientists discovered water in Mars. They had always believed water formed more
than a billion years ago but the latest discovery is the first sign of liquid forming in
the past few hundred thousands years. Nasas latest study, reported in the Journal of
Geophysical Research, concluded the liquid likely formed from melting snow, which
then trickled into the subsurface and dissolved.

Thursday, October 28, 2010 - Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host planets
as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA and the University of
California.

TWO NEW PLANETS---Those who hope to find life elsewhere in the universe have a
couple of new places to look: two larger-than-Jupiter planets just discovered orbiting
faraway stars. Astronomers detected variations in the light coming from each star, which
could be caused by a large planet in orbit. The stars, very similar to the Sun, are about 35
light-years away.

BILLIONS OF NEW GALAXIES: New photos from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal
that the universe may be a lot more crowded than scientists once thought. The photos, like
this one, reveal some 1,500 galaxies (groups of stars like our Milky Way) in a tiny speck of
space. Based on their view of that speck, scientists now estimate there may be 50 billion
galaxies in the universe - 5 times their previous estimate.
Conclusion
So,this was almost what we know
about the space till today.Hope
in near future scientists would be
able to find a new world,which
would become a resident for the
living world.May we will gather
more and more informations
about space and the mystery
world will be open us.
Refference
www.astronomy for kids.com
www.space.com
www.google.com
Encyclopedia
Acknowledgement
special thanks to Apana Bose..