Asteroids

Asteroids : Asteroids are also known as minor planets. They are objects that revolve around the Sun. They are mostly found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids are a belt of debris which failed to assemble into planets and keeps on revolving around the Sun. This has come to be called as 'asteroid belt'.

An Asteroid

More than 5000 asteroids have been identified. Asteroids may be spherical, elongated or irregular in shape. All asteroids rotate on their axis, every 5 to 20 hours. Certain asteroids may have satellites.

Trojan asteroids are found in two clouds moving in the orbit of Jupiter, one moving ahead of it and the other moving behind it.

Rotating Asteroid

"Scientits believe that these asteroids occupy a place where a planet could have exited but was prevented from its formation by the disruptive gravitational force of the giant planet, Jupiter."

Venus the second planet from the Sun

Venus : Venus is the second planet in distance from the Sun. Venus is nearest to the Earth and is also the brightest planet.

Venus is known as the "Evening Star" as well as well "Morning Star". Venus is surrounded by a thick cloud cover, hence known as the "Veiled Planet".

Evening Star

Venus is like the Earth in size and mass, and hence also known as the "Earth's Twin".

Planet Venus

Venus is a very hot planet. Venus has no water on it. There is no sufficient oxygen on the Venus.

Pluto is not a planet?...Why?....Know here»»

Our Solar System...»»

Countries and their Capital

Countries and their Capital with their National Flags

»»    Argentina    :    Buenos Aires

National Flag of Argentina

»»    Belgium    :    Brussels

National Flag of Belgium

»»    Ireland    :    Dublin

National Flag of Ireland

»»    Kyrgyzstan    :    Bishkek

National Flag of Kyrgyzstan

»»    Mongolia    :    Ulan Bator

National Flag of Mongolia

»»    Nauru    :    Yaren

National Flag of Nauru

»»    Norway    :    Oslo

National Flag of Norway

»»    Romania    :    Bucharest

National Flag of Romania

»»    Cyprus    :    Nicosia

National Flag of Cyprus

New Seven Wonders of the World

"New 7 Wonders of the World" declared on 7th July, 2007 by the foundation called "New Seven (7) Wonders Foundation" of Switzerland, at an amazing ceremony organized in the Benefica stadium situated in Lisbon, Portugal.

(1). Taj Mahal : Agra, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA

Taj Mahal

(2). "Great Wall of China" : CHINA

Great Wall of China

(3). "The Pink Ruins of Petra" : Ma'an Governorate ,JORDAN

The Pink Ruins of Petra

(4). "Statue of Christ the Redeemer" : Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL

Statue of Christ the Redeemer

(5). "Machu Picchu" : Cuzco Region ,PERU

Machu Picchu

(6). "The ancient Mayan City of Chichen Itza" : Yucatán , MEXICO

The ancient Mayan City of Chichen Itza

(7). "Colosseum" : Rome, ITALY

Colosseum

Uranus : The 7th Rock from the Sun

Uranus - Seventh Planet of the Solar System : Uranus is about four times the size of the Earth. Uranus appears "greenish" in color because of "Methane" gas present in its atmosphere.

It was discovered by "Sir William Hersiel" in 1781. It is the seventh planet from the "Sun". 'Uranus' is also the very first planet to have been discovered by the use of a 'Telescope'.

Planet - Uranus

Uranus is the 3rd biggest planet of the Solar System. Uranus is extremely cold, having surface temperature -190°C.

Uranus is surrounded by 5 rings namely, alpha, beta, gamma, delta and epsilon. Uranus rotates from east to west on its axis, which is opposite to other planets.

The axis of Uranus has very large inclination so that it appears to be lying down, hence, it bears the name "A Planet on its Side".

Countries and their Currency

»»   Austria       :     Shilling

»»   Bulgaria     :     Lev

»»   Cuba         :     Peso

»»   Denmark   :     Danish Krone

»»   Ghana       :     Cedi

»»   Hungary    :     Florint

»»   India         :     Rupee

»»   Japan        :     Yen

»»   Nigeria      :     Naira

»»   Poland      :     Zloty

Image of Indian Rupee Symbol

Natural Levees

Natural Levees : When a river is over flooded, its water crosses its banks. At that time, the speed of the water is reduced, and the pebbles and stones carried by the river get deposited near the banks.

Natural Levee

On account of frequent floods, the area where these sediments are deposited near the bank of the river rises higher than the flood plain.

This high wall is called a natural levee or natural embankment. Such levees are found on the banks of the Mississippi, the Huang - ho etc., Southern bank of river Ganga (India).

Countries and their main Industries/Produces

»»   Brazil          :   Coffee


»»   Iraq             :   Dates, Petroleum

Spices

»»   Malaysia      :   Rubber, Tin


»»   Spain           :   Lead


»»   China          :   Tea, Silk, Rice


»»   Denmark     :   Textiles, Paper


»»   Taiwan       :   Camphor, Rice


»» India            :     Jute, Textiles, Sugar, Spices, Tea, Cement, Mica

Pacific Ocean

There are four oceans. In order of their size, they are : Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and Arctic Ocean.

Pacific Ocean : The famous explorer "Ferdinand Magellan", who then circumnavigated the Earth, named this ocean "Pacific" meaning 'Peaceful'.

Pacific Ocean

The pacific ocean is the largest ocean of the world with an area of 166,240,000 sq. km. It is the deepest ocean with an average depth of 4,200m.
The Mariana Trench is the world's deepest trench with a depth of 36,201 feet. Most of the islands of this ocean are of volcanic or coral origin.

Factors which make the earth suitable for life to evolve and survive

The earth has all the essential elements like Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen which act as building blocks for the origin of life. The earth is neither too hot nor too cold. It has exactly right temperature range for carrying out the precious life sustaining chemical reactions.

The Sun

The Sun is at the center of the Solar System. Its size is thirteen lakh times as that of the Earth. It is the nearest star to Earth. It is an ultimate source of energy for life on Earth. Its diameter is 14 lakhs kms.

It is composed of 17% Hydrogen, 26.5% Helium and 2.5% other elements. Hydrogen and Helium are the main gases present in the Sun. Within the Sun, hydrogen is converted to Helium due to nuclear fusion releasing a tremendous amount of heat and light.

The Sun

It has a surface temperature of about 6000°C. The temperature at the center is around 15,000,000°C. Shining surface of the Sun is called photosphere, it appears like a disc, radiates energy and acts as a source of energy.

The outer layer of Sun's atmosphere made up of thin hot gases, is called Corona. Corona is visible only during a total eclipse of the Sun or with a special solar telescope called Coronagraph.

The planet travels with the Sun through millions of stars in our galaxy at a speed of about 70,000 km per hour. The Sun is about 150 million kms away from the Earth. Light takes about 8.5 minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun at the speed of 300,000 km per second.

The Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun, the eight planets and their satellites (or moons), and thousand of other smaller heavenly bodies such as asteroids, comets and meteors. The Sun is at the center of the solar system and all these bodies are revolving around it.

The gravitational pull of the Sun keeps all the planets and other objects revolving round it. Thus, the motion of all the member of the solar system is governed mainly by the gravitational force of the Sun. Planets revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbit.

The Solar System

In the solar system the planets nearest to the Sun is Mercury and the farthest from the Sun is Neptune. The size of solar system has been estimated to at about 'ten raise to the power five' A.U.
The solar system is dominated by the Sun which accounts for almost 99.9% of the matter in the whole solar system.

The Sun is also the source of all the energy in the solar system. Pluto is a dwarf planet. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars are called terrestrial planets and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called gaseous planets.

Comets

The name 'Comet' derived from the Latin words "stella cometa" which means "hairy star". Comets are also called 'visitors of the Solar System'. Comets are among the most spectacular and unpredictable bodies in the Solar System.

Comets moved around the Sun in regular orbits, but their orbits are elongated ellipses that it takes them hundreds and, sometimes even thousands of years to complete one revolution around the Sun.

Comet

Comets are made up of frozen gases which hold together rocky and metallic material. A comet becomes visible only when it travels close to the Sun. Its ice melts and the gas and dust is swept back into a tail. The tail always points away from the Sun. So when it is travelling away from the Sun it is led by its tail.

Features of a Comet :
»» A comet is characterised by a long luminous tail, which emits light. But this is visible only when the comet's orbit passes close to the sun.

»» When the comet travels close to the Sun, the ice melts to a head of gas called a Coma.

»» The Sun's radiation sweeps this into a gas tail.

»» Dust particles are also swept back to form a dust tail.

Pluto is not a Planet now

On the basis of the new definition of planet given by the IAU (International Astronomical Union), the world's top institution on space science research, leading astronomers participating in IAU's meet at Prague (Czech Republic) on August 24, 2006, declared that Pluto would no longer remain a planet.

Astronomers

Under the IAU's new guidlines, the number of planets in the Solar System has thus been reduced from nine to eight. Its merits mentioning here that, prior to this decision, Pluto had been holding the planetary status since its discovery in 1930 by Cyde Tombaugh.


Now, with the omission of Pluto from the Solar System, its membership has been restricted to the eight "classical" planets, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupitor, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Solar System

Weeks after it was demoted to a sub-planetary status, Pluto was given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet in September 2006. The former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Centre (MPC), the official organisation responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our Solar System.

Our Galaxy : Milky Way Galaxy

Milky Way Galaxy was formed 5 billion years after the big bang. Latest known galaxy is the Dwarf Galaxy. Origin of the universe is explained by the Big Bang Theory, formulated and proposed by the Belgian astronomer and cosmologist Georges Lemaitre. Andromeda is our nearest galaxy.

Big Bang

Milky Way

A galaxy is a vast system of billions of stars, which also contains a large number of a gas clouds and dust, isolated in space from similar systems. There are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and each galaxy has, on an average, 100 billion stars.

The Milky Way Galaxy is the home of the Earth and our Solar System. It is spiral in shape.

Solar System

Universe

Universe : The universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all physical matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies and the contents of intergalactic space.
The universe has no limit. The study of universe is known as Cosmology.

Our Galaxy