11.

Our universe: Astronomy

Astronomy is science of celestial objects. It is one of the oldest sciences. It

involves study of moon, planets, comets, asteroids, sun, stars, galaxies, nebulas and
everything which can be observed from earth!
Our planet Earth is a very small object in the universe. Earth is a part of solar
system. Our sun is also a tiny star. It is part of our galaxy called ‘Milky way’. And such
billions and billions of galaxies are there in the universe which is known to us.
The big bang theory is proposed by scientist to explain the formation of universe.
As per this theory, the entire universe is formed after a big explosion called big-bang,
around 13.8 billion years ago. After the explosion, the universe started to expand and also
started getting cooled. Energy got converted into matter and protons, neutrons, electrons,
and eventually hydrogen, helium got formed.
If a sufficiently big cloud of hydrogen gas is there, then it can attract itself due to
gravity. Due to it, it starts to shrink and becomes hot due to internal friction. If it becomes
sufficiently hot, it can start atomic reactions at its centre. The hydrogen gets converted to
helium and very huge amount of energy is given out. Due to this the star becomes
extremely hot and if starts emitting heat and light from its surface. Thus we can see a star
shining!
Stars have death too! When the hydrogen gas inside the core of the star gets over,
the star cannot generate heat and then it slowly stops shining. Some stars are very
massive. At the end they get crushed under their own weight! They very very big red
giants. Some stars explode and form neutron stars
or even black holes. Inside black holes gravity is so
strong, that even light cannot come out of it.
Our Sun is in ‘Milky-Way’ galaxy. It is
spiral galaxy. In clear dark night sky, we can see
this galaxy like a milky band. We cannot
distinguish individual stars with naked eye.
Andromeda galaxy is our neighbor galaxy.
The sun is the nearest star to earth. It is very
big compared to earth. Radius of sun is
700,000km. Sun alongwith all planets rotate
around centre of our galaxy. Sun to earth distance is 15 x 10 8 km. A light ray started from
sun takes around 8.3 minutes to reach earth. Temperature of surface of sun is approx
60000C. and it is extremely hot at its centre. Hydrogen gas is present in the center of the
Sun. Atomic reaction constantly takes place on sun converting hydrogen to helium
releasing enormous heat & light energy
energy. Estimated age of our sun is 10 billion years. Out
of which 5 billion years are already ove
over.
The Solar System comprises the Sun
and the objects that orbit it, oof those
objects, the largest eight are the planets
planets.
The remaining are significantly smaller
objects, such as dwarf planets (Pluto) and
comets and asteroids.
Mercury, Venus, Earth and M Mars are
called as terrestrial (they have solid
surface) planets. They have outer crust and
inner molten core like earth. They have
thin atmosphere (mercury doesn’t)
doesn’t). These
planets are also called inner planets.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune are called ‘Jovian planets’ as they are like
Jupiter. They are gaseous. They do not have solid surface. They show rings around them.
Saturn rings are very clear than any other. These planets are called outer planets
The planets rotate around the sun in elliptical (e (egg
gg shaped) orbits. The laws of
planetary motion were discovered by Kepller. Planets don’t have their own light. They
reflect the sunlight and we can see them.
Our Earth is the only planet where there is life. Earth looks blue form space
because 75% or thee surface is covered with water
water.. Earth rotates around itself from west to
east in 24 hrs. Due to which we have day and night. Due to this rotation sun appears to
rise from east and set at west. All the other celestial bodies appear to be moving from east
to west. In very old times people believed that earth is at the centre of universe and all
others rotate around earth. Polish scientist Nicholas Copernicus (1473(1473-1543)
1543) showed that
Sun is in the center of our solar system and planets revolve around it.
Earth rotates around sun in 365 days + 1/4th day. This time is called as one year.
Due to this 1/4th extra day, we have leap year. Every 4th year has one day extra dated 29th
Feb. Earth’ss axis is tilted. Hence we have seasons.
Earth has got atmosphere. Atmosph
Atmosphereere carries heat from one part to another. Due
to which temperature
erature fluctuations on earth are less
less.
Mercury and Venus are closer to sun and can be seen for some time before sunrise
or after sunset. Venus has thick cover of clouds, which reflects sunlight
sunlight.. Venus appears
very bright. Though it is a planet, it is called morning or evening star.
Asteroids are rock like bodies revolving around the sun. They form a belt between
Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is the biggest asteroid.
 Pluto revolves around sun in 288 years. It is 600 crore km away from sun. Pluto is now
declared as dwarf planet.
Stars are bigger than planets. But they are so far that they appear as a point source
of light. When light from star comes through atmosphere, it bends. Due to this we feel
that the position of the star is changing a bit. This effect is called twinkling of stars.
Planets are much closer to earth. They do not appear as a point source hence they do not
appear to twinkle.
Astronomical distances are measured in unit of light years. One light year distance
is distance traveled by light in one year. Which is equal to
300000 × 60× 60 ×24 × 365 Kms = 9.4605284 × 10 15 meters.
Distance between earth and sun is called one astronomical unit AU.

Following table gives comparative data about 8 planets or our solar system. Values in the
column ‘diameter’, ‘mass’ and ‘orbit diameter’ are relative to earth.
Planet Diameter Mass Orbit Orbital Rotational atmosphere temperature
Diameter period period moons
mercury 0.38 0.06 0.39 88days 59 d 0 Minimal -1500C to
0
+450 C
Venus 0.94 0.82 0.72 223 d 243 d 0 CO2,N2 Hottest
Earth 1 1 1 365 d 24 hr 1 N 2 , O2
Mars 0.53 0.11 1.5 1.88 yr 24 hr 2 CO2, N2 Red iron
oxide in soil
Jupiter 11.2 317 5.2 11.8 yr 9hr50min 67 H2, He Storms, red
spot
Saturn 9.44 95.2 9.5 84 yr 10hr14min 62 H2,He Distinct rings
Uranus 4 14.6 19.22 165 yr 17 hr 27 H2,He,CH4 Axis tilted by
90deg.
Neptune 3.88 17.2 30.6 248 yr 18 hr 14 H2,He,CH4

Brightest star in our night sky is Sirius in the orion constellation. Star nearest to us
other than Sun is Proxima Centauri 4.1 light years away. (proxima centauri is a very dim
and small star. Hence its twin, Alpha Centauri or mitra tara is considered as nearest start
to sun)
Pole star appears to be stationary. This is because it lies on the axis of rotation of
earth. All other objects appear to rotate around pole star form east to west direction. Due
to this pole star always shows us north direction.
Comets are ‘visitors’ to our solar system. They come from outside our solar
system. Sun pulls them due to gravity. Most of the comets visit sun only once. Few
comets rotate in elliptical orbit around sun. eg. Halley’s comet is seen after every 76.3
years, last seen in 1986.
Comets are mainly made de up of ice, dust, soil, stone and gases. As they come near
sun the ice starts melting. Also sun emits small particles which collide with molten comet
material. The comet material then spreads and we can see a tail to the comet. Tail always
points away from sun.
Shoemaker Lavy- 9 comet crashed on Jupiter on 16th July 1994. Collisions
occurred on backside of Jupiter therefore not visible directly from Earth.
Alan Hale and Thoms Bop observed Hale Bop comet on 23rd July 1995. It was
brightest comet. Its orbit
bit period is 4200 years.
Apart from planets, moons, asteroids, comets there are thousands of small objects
here and there in our solar system. They are ‘m ‘meteors’. They can be upto few km in
diameter. Sometimes they get attracted towards earth due to Earth’s gravitational force.
While entering in the atmosphere due to friction with air they heat up and start burning.
Hence they look like burning stars falling from the sky. They are called Meteors or
shooting stars. Very big size meteors can hit the earth. rth. They are called Meteorites. They
create big crater on the earth surface. Arizona in America and crater at Lonar in Buldhana
district of Maharashtra are formed due to meteorites. Moon’s surface has many craters as
there is no atmosphere on moon to burn the incoming meteors
Constellation is a group of stars forming a recognizable
shape. E.g. Orion, Ursa Major (Saptarshi), Ursa Minor,
(Rohini). Ursa major can be used to detect pol pole star and
hence
ce it gives us north direction.

Some other information-

o Galileo invented telescope. He used convex lenses
o Newton invented reflecting telescope. He used 2 convex mirrors
o Uri Gagarine (USSR) was 1st human to enter in space
o Valentina Tereschova was 1st lady to enter in space
o Neil Armstrong, Edwin Adrian launched on moon but Michael Collins remained
in Apollo 11(all from USA
USA—America)
st
o Rakesh Sharma was 1 Indian to travel in the space.
o Kalpana Chavla was the 1st Indian lady to travel in the space.
o Aryabhatta was 1st artificial satellite of India.
o Pruthvi and Agni, Bramhos are missiles of India.
o ISRO – Indian space research organization, Banglore.
o NASA : National Aeronautical Space Administration
o Project SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) is to find possibility of life
in space other than Earth.
th.
o Gregorian calendar is used all over the world. Hindu calendar is luni-solar
calender.
o In which movements of Sun and the moon are considered.
o Sunita Williams was in space in 2007, spend maximum days in space.
o Artificial satellites are called ‘eyes in the night sky’
o First satellite ‘sputnik’ was launched by Russia in 1957.
o Geostationary or geosynchronous or communication satellites has time period
same as that of earth.
o Rockets used to launch the satellite in space uses liquid hydrogen and liquid
oxygen as a fuel.
o solid fuel Aluminium powder and NH4NO3 or ammonium perchlorate is also used
as rocket fuel
o Each rocket (launch vehicle) can carry a specified load into space. This capacity is
called payload. Payload may be a satellite, a telescope or any other device to be
put in space. Also if payload capacity is large, more than one satellite can be put
into space at a time.
o Rocket or launch vehicle sometimes has some additional thrusters called boosters
attached. They are separated from the rocket once rocket reaches a certain height.
Also some rockets have more than one stage. Each stage gets separated once its
fuel is consumed or once desired height is reached. Then next stage is ignited.
Such vehicle is called multistage vehicle.
o The satellites which pass over south and north pole of earth are called polar
satellite. They do not remain steady over any country all the time. Such satellites
are used for weather forecast, remote sensing etc.
o Orbit of the satellite is kept stable by ‘tracking’. Some rockets are fixed on the
Satellite which are fired to correct its path.
o velocity of a satellite(v) = Square root of (GxM/R)
o time period T = (2 r )/ v
o from Shriharikota Indian ‘Chandrayan’ is sent to moon