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               Aryabhatta was a great mathematician and astronomer of ancient India. The first artificial Indian satellite, ‘Aryabhatta’ launched on April 19th, 1975 was named after this famous Indian mathematician.

               Aryabhatta was born in 476 AD at Kusumapura (Pataliputra), India. He was a noted astrologer and mathematician of his times. He was the first astronomer in the world to arrive at the currently accepted theory that the earth is round and that it rotates on its own axis and travels around the sun, thus causing day and night. His works are still available. He was one of those known to have used Algebra for the first time. In 499 AD he wrote a book entitled Aryabhatiya. Written in a concise and scientific manner and in couplets it summarizes the contemporary knowledge of the science of mathematics. It was a famous book of the period and deals with astronomy and spherical trigonometry. In that book 33 rules of arithmetic, algebra and plane trigonometry were given.

                Aryabhatta gave an accurate approximation for pi (), as 3.1416 and introduced the inverse sine function into trigonometry.

               Aryabhatta made many contributions to the sciences of mathematics and astronomy. He was one of the most learned persons in King Vikramaditya’s Court. This great man died in 550 AD. 

 

 

Name the space probe that was used to study the Sun.

The space probe Ulysses was launched in 1990 by a U.S. Shuttle under the joint project by NASA and European space Agency and arrived near the Sun in 1994 in a three and half years journey via Jupiter covering a distance of 150 million kilometers. It went into a polar orbit around the Sun and transmitted a large amount of useful data back to Earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name the powerful optical telescope placed in Earth orbit.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into Earth orbit by the space shuttle “Discovery” in 1990, and is designed to transmit useful data about the universe better than Earth based telescopes.

In January 1994, a historic repair of its main mirror was carried out after 30 hours of space walks by five astronauts sent on a space shuttle at a cost of $ 360 million. NASA announced that it had repaired the fault. It now performs 10 times better than any ground based instruments.

 

 

 

Name the first Indian satellite launching vehicle (SLV).

SLV-3 was the first satellite launching vehicle developed in India. It was fabricated at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapurum, and Kerala. It was later replaced by the augmented version ASLV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which was the satellite first launched by SLV-3?

Rohini-I launched in 10 August 1979 from Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) went into orbit but could not accomplish its mission due to some snags. A “stretched” version was launched successfully on 20 May, 1992.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name the Indian satellite used exclusively for remote sensing?

Indian Remote-sensing Satellite (IRS). The first satellite IRS-1A went into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on 19 March 1988 enabling it to concentrate on specific areas and register optical as well as radiation images.

 

 

Name India’s first operational multipurpose domestic satellite.

Insat-IA was launched on 10 April 1982 from USA with a mission to enhance communicational, meteorology, TV relay and radio broadcasting facilities.

Which was the first Indian satellite launched by space shuttle?

Insat-IB was launched on 30 August 1983 by space shuttle from Nevada Base, USA.

How are the Indian satellites controlled from Earth?

At the time of the launching of Insat-1, a network of ground-based communication facilities was developed all over India.

 

 

 

Name India’s first satellite.

India’s first satellite was Aryabhatta launched on 19 March, 1975 from the Baikanur cosmodrome in Kazakstan, U.S.S.R.

What was the mission of Aryabhatta?

The primary mission of Aryabhatta was the development of Indian expertise in satellite technology and control of a satellite in orbit. However, some experiments in communication, remote sensing and weather monitoring were also included.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was India’s second satellite?

India’s second satellite was Bhaskara-I launched on 7 June 1979 from the USSR. The satellite was designed and built at the Satellite Centre, Bangalore and its primary mission was to collect information on India’s land, water, forest and ocean recourses. 

 

 

How did Albert Einstein revolutionize the theories of astronomy and physics?

Einstein posed simple questions that could have been asked centuries earlier. For example: “What do we mean when we say two events are simultaneous?” or “What happens when two objects approach each other at the speed of light?”

Paradoxes seemed to emerge everywhere if you could travel at the speed of light. By providing explanations for such paradoxes, Einstein unraveled the riddles of the Universe. He is noted chiefly for his General and Special Theories of ‘Relatively’ that hold that motion, time, distance, acceleration and gravitation are not absolute, but relative, to moving frames of reference. 

 

 

 

 

Who was Bhaskara, after whom India’s second satellite was named?

Bhaskara (1114-1185 A.D.) was a famous Indian mathematician.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which Indian scientist predicted the hydrogen line in the solar spectrum, X-ray emission from the Sun and molecules existing in interstellar space?

Maghnad Saha (1893-1956).

 

 

What were the other contributions of Fredrick Herschel to astronomy, besides his discovery of the planet Uranus?

Frederick Herschel, the German-British astronomer, was born in Hanover. At first, he was a musician, then took up astronomy and made a reflecting telescope in 1774. He discovered the planet Uranus, which he called ‘Georgium Sidus’ and in 1782, he was appointed astronomer to King George III. He also discovered 2 satellites of Saturn, the rotation of Saturn’s rings and the motions of binary stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who was Aryabhatta, after whom India’s First satellite was named?

Aryabhatta (476-550 A.D.) was an astronomer and mathematician at the court of King Chandragupta Vikramaditya.

What was the contribution of the Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhatta?

Aryabhatta worked out a highly precise value for the Earth’s circumference. He also discovered the causes of solar and lunar eclipses and pointed on that the Sun is stationary and the Earth rotates.

 

 

 

 

What discoveries is Jean Foucault, French Physicist and astronomer, noted for?

Jean Foucault is noted mainly for his proof that light travels more slowly in water than in air, and his measurement of the speed of light. In 1851, he proved that the Earth rotates by using a freely suspended pendulum and studying the way it swings from side to side. He also invented the gyroscope and some optical instruments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name the Danish astronomer who detected serious mistakes in the astronomical tables of his time and revised them.

Tycho Brahe, originally studied law, but was more interested in astronomy. In 1563, he discovered serious mistakes in the astronomical tables then in use. He did much important work on the movement of the stars and the Moon.

 

 

 

Which astronomer conclusively proved that the Sun was the centre of the Solar System?

Nicolas Copernicus, the Polish astronomer, studied optics, mathematics, perspective and canon law. Appointed canon in 1497, he studied medicine and worked as a medical attendant until 1512. He completed his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium; he proved that the Sun was at the centre of the Solar System, in 1530. His heliocentric theory was bitterly opposed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was the name of the astronomer who discovered the laws governing the movement of the heavenly bodies?

Johann Kepler, German astronomer and professor of mathematics, who later studied astronomy and worked with Tycho Brahe. He first published his views on the universe in 1596. His analysis of Tycho’s observations of the planets led him to discover “Keplers’ Laws”.

With these fundamental laws, Kepler gained immortal fame. But he could not adequately explain why the planets behaved in this way.

 

 

What was the contribution of Pierre Laplace, the French Astronomer and Mathematician, to the science of astronomy?

Pierre Laplace is famous for his application of applied mathematics to practical astronomy. He published his work Mecanique Celeste in the years 1799-1825. It was an attempt to explain the mechanical problems presented by the Solar System.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name the astronomer who is acclaimed as the father of modern practical astronomy.

John Flamsteed, first Astronomer-Royal of England. In 1676, when Greenwich Observatory was built, he began observations which really began modern practical astronomy. The first reliable catalogue of fixed stars was compiled by him, and he wrote the great book Historia Coelestis Britannica, published in 1725. His work supplied the background for some of Newton’s theories.

 

 

 

 

 

What are lunar faults and ridges?

Lunar faults and ridges are similar to those on earth. One fault called strangely the Straight Wall is some 200 km long and about 300 m high. Lunar ridges run for hundreds of kilometers and may even form complex branch ridges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are the lunar walled plains?

Walled plains are lunar craters which are so vast that they resemble plains surrounded by circular walls of mountains. One of the walled plains, Clavius, is large enough to contain the whole of Switzerland within it.

 

 

What is known as the “Monarch of the Moon”?

The crater Copernicus has been nicknamed “Monarch of the Moon” due to its impressive features. The crater is about 90 km in diameter and is surrounded by mountain walls about 6,000 m high. The inner mountain walls around Copernicus are also not uniformly sloping but terraced, as if the original lava lake in its centre had receded in discrete stages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are lunar domes?

Lunar domes are small convex swellings on the Moon.

How did lunar domes originate?

Lunar domes are possibly large solidified bubbles of lava.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are crater chains?

Sometimes crater-lets occur in linear series which gives the impression that it is a cleft. The Huygens cleft, for example, is not a genuine cleft but actually a crater chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are lunar rays?

Lunar rays appear as lines, more or less straight, drawn on the surface of the Moon. They are also called bright rays since they usually appear as brilliant white streaks. The rays however become invisible when close to the terminator.

Also, the rays are not continuous and when observed closely are seen to possess a definite structure. How they came to be formed has however still not been satisfactorily explained.

 

 

 

 

Continue reading "The Moon"

 

 

 

What are ruined lunar craters?

Ruined craters are ones that have been formed in the early stages of the Moon’s history but have been devastated subsequently by later volcanic eruptions and crustal disturbances. The outlines of some of the heavily ruined craters are barely recognizable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are lunar clefts?

A lunar cleft has the appearance of a river bed on Earth. This is a mere coincidence since there is no water on the Moon and appearances can be deceptive. One of the impressive clefts, the great Heroclotus Valley clefts, is 500 m deep and winds impressively like a river gorge across the plain.