My Science School

          You might have observed the sudden flash of a bright moving object in the night sky. These bright trails are left by pieces of rocks in outer space, known as meteors. Millions of meteors speed towards our Earth every day, but they burn up due to the friction caused by Earth’s atmosphere.

          The Moon does not have an atmosphere to blanket itself. Therefore, there is no friction that would burn the pieces of rock approaching the Moon at great speeds. As a result, they crash on the surface of the Moon, forming lunar soil.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          The Moon’s surface not only has mountains, it also has rocks. Scientists found out that these moon rocks are similar to the igneous rocks on the Earth. They too are formed when molten lava solidifies after cooling down. But, their chemical make-up is different from that of the rocks found on Earth.

          Moon rocks do not contain any traces of water. Much of the Moon’s surface is covered by tiny pieces of rocks, and dust. This is known as lunar soil.

          It takes billions of years to form lunar soil. It is formed when large and small pieces of rocks rain on the surface of the Moon. Unlike the Earth, there is less iron on lunar soil.

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          When seen with the naked eye from the Earth, the Moon looks like a smooth sphere, just like the globe, with dark and light patches here and there.

          A telescopic view of the Moon suggests otherwise. It would not be wrong if someone says that the Moon looks like cheese! Its surface has lots of holes and sometimes, it appears yellowish as well.

          The dark patches on the surface of the Moon are lowlands of rock. These areas were once thought to be water bodies by Galileo. It’s covered by a thin layer of rocky soil. On the other hand, the lighter areas are known as highlands. The highlands are mountainous and rough.

          Huge craters are found in the mountainous areas. Craters are found in the lowlands as well, but in much fewer numbers. The surface is barren and the sky always appears dark.

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          Since a lot many people wondered about the Moon, we have several theories about its formation. Though we still don’t know exactly how the Moon came into existence, these theories are based on scientific explanations.

          The Capture Theory suggests that the Moon was a planet that once moved in its orbit around the Sun. The Earth, with its greater gravitational force pulled the Moon towards our planet. The Co-formation Theory suggests that the Earth and Moon were formed at the same time from a cloud of dust and gas.

          It was George Howard Darwin, Charles Darwin’s son who proposed the Fission Theory. According to G H Darwin, the Earth spun so fast in the early years that a bulge formed on one of its sides. After a while, the Sun’s gravitational pull tore off this bulge. It fell off in space and later formed the Moon.

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          There are many theories that try to explain how the Moon was formed. ‘The Impact Theory’ is a popular one among them. This theory suggests that the Moon is younger than the Earth though it is billions of years old.

          The Impact Theory talks about something that happened about 4.5 billion years ago. Back then, the Earth did not have any satellites. A huge body about the size of Mars hit our planet. This shook off the Earth from its orbit as a result of which, portions of the Earth broke.

          Gradually, these broken pieces came together along with gas and dust, and solidified to form the Moon. This unification had other effects however; molten lava oozed out from the interior of the Moon for the next two billion years.

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          Ever since Man started looking at the Moon with his naked eyes, he was curious to learn about this brightly shining heavenly body. It was an Italian scientist who closely observed the Moon for the first time. His name was Galileo Galilei.

          It happened in 1609. Galileo built an equipment called telescope that made objects in space look larger and closer.

          For centuries, scientists had believed that the Moon had a smooth surface. Galileo shattered this belief; he observed that the Moon’s surface was not so smooth; instead it had mountains, pits, valleys, shadows and other features, just like the surface of the Earth. He thought the vast dark shadowy areas to be seas of water and called them ‘maria’, the Latin word for sea. Galileo’s work laid the foundation for modern studies in astronomy.

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          Tracing the origins of the Moon’s name is a bit difficult as the Moon existed from the prehistoric times.

          The Moon has been known by different names since times immemorial. For instance, the Greeks call it Selene, while Moon is known as Luna in Latin. However, the English ‘Moon’ comes from ‘mona’, an Old English word. This word is derived from a Latin word ‘mensis’ meaning month.

          In the olden days, people used the Moon to measure time. The satellites of other planets like Jupiter and Saturn are also commonly known as moons.

          You might have also heard words like lunar orbit and lunar rover. Anything related to the Moon is usually known as lunar.

I appreciate your interest to resolve the conflict between your friends. Your intentions are good and you have to handle the situation carefully. Even before you get into resolving the conflict, analyze if you are prepared to do it. Here are a few suggestions.

• Understand the situation


• Do not take sides and end u getting onto an argument


• Remain calm


• Identify the threats perceived by each of them


• Choose the appropriate time and place for the discussion


• Be empathetic. Understand each of their explanations


• Work on the best ways to bring collaboration


• Focus on the positive aspects of each of your friends


• Avoid aggressiveness n the way you communicate with them


• Give them the time and space to make the changes

 

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In all of history, there is only one documented case of a meteorite actually hitting a person. That person was Ann Hodges, a resident of Sylacauga in the American state of Alabama. On the afternoon of November 30, 1954, Ann was napping on her couch when a softball-sized hunk of black rock broke through the ceiling and hit her in the side. The 3.5-kilo rock was still warm and it left a huge oval-shaped bruise.

Though 30 to 170 meteorites weighing over 10 grams hit Earth every day, they usually fall into the ocean or in vast, remote, largely uninhabited places.

Once it was officially determined to be a meteorite, it was given to the Hodges. Their landlady claimed it was here as it had hit her house! The Hodges paid her $500 for the rock, hoping to sell it for a large sum elsewhere. No one showed any interest and eventually they donated the meteorite to the Alabama natural history museum.

The stress caused Ann Hodges to suffer a nervous breakdown. She died a few years later at the age of 52.

 

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New Horizons photographed an object called 2014MU69 on January 1, 2019. New Horizons had been launched in January 2006 and made its closet approach to Pluto in July 2015. The mission team had to find a new target for the spacecraft and Hubble provided just that! The team set up New Horizons to photograph the object, called 2014 MU69, at its closet approach on New Year’s Day 2019.

It is a bi-lobed contact binary, formed of two different-sized objects that collided gently with each other and fused together. It has a reddish hue and appears to contain ice made of nitrogen or methane and feature such as hills and plateaus.

Classical Kuiper Belt objects are extremely primitive, virtually unchanged since the dawn of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Studying 2014 MU69 will provide scientists with clues as to how the solar system formed.

 

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Antibiotics are widely used to treat infections caused by microorganisms called bacteria. They work by destroying or slowing down the growth of bacteria that may cause illness.

Usually as soon as the bacteria enter our body and begin to multiply, the body’s immune system gets into action. The army of white blood cells in the blood begins to destroy the harmful bacteria even before the symptoms surface. Although our immune system is capable of tackling mild infections, sometimes extra help is needed in the form of antibiotics.

An antibiotic like penicillin kills the bacterium by inhibiting its ability to either turn glucose into energy or to construct its cell wall.

Antibiotics are effective only against bacteria, fungi and parasites. They do not work against viruses. Therefore it is important to find out if the infection is bacterial or viral. For example, infections such as the common cold and sore throats are generally caused by viruses and taking antibiotics will not really help.

 Antibiotics should be taken only when prescribed by the doctor. When antibiotics are overused the bacteria are likely to become resistant and the antibiotic becomes less effective against a particular type of bacterium.

It is also crucial to complete the entire course of medication even if the condition improves. Otherwise some bacteria may survive in the body causing the infection to recur. Worse still, any future antibiotic treatment many not be as effective as the bacteria that survived in the body when the antibiotic was stopped abruptly have has some exposure to antibiotics and have consequently built up a resistance to it.

 

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It is done with the help of radio waves. Scientists use a network of ground-based antennae that support interplanetary spacecraft missions, e.g. NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN), and European Space Tracking (ESTRACK) Network etc. These networks enable scientists to explore the solar system and the universe using radio and radar astronomy observations.

A radio telescope sends up a radio signal from Earth with a time code on it towards the spacecraft. After the signal bounces back, scientists calculate the amount of time it takes for the signal to travel from Earth to the spacecraft and back to find out how far it is from Earth. The angle at which the radio telescope is pointing when it receives the signal, reveals the direction in which the ship is travelling.

A more precise method of zeroing in on the spacecraft location is by using a technique called triangulation. Two different radio telescopes receive radio signals from the ship and scientists measure its distance from each telescope. Then the scientists measure the distance between a known object in space that doesn’t change its location (a star, for example) and the telescopes. Comparing the distance to the spaceship and distance to the known object helps to pinpoint the spaceship’s locations.

 

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One of the most stunning natural formations in the world, Wave Rock lies about 300 km east of Perth in Western Australia. It resembles a giant sea smell that has been frozen in stone. It is part of a solitary granite hill called Hyden Rock which is 2.63 billion years old. Both are situated in the 395-acre Hyden Wildlife Park.

Wave Rock stands 15 m high, 100m long and looks like a tall wave just about to break. Its formation has fascinated geologists and the public for years and is one of many interestingly shaped rocky outcrops in the area. Wave Rock is a granite inselberg that has been weathered over millions of years by wind and rainwater. Wave Rock is believed to have formed 2700 million years ago (well before dinosaurs strolled around).

The rock is a spectacular example of what geologists term a ‘flared slope’ that usually forms at the base of an inselberg or isolated mountain that towers over a surrounding flat plain. There are many similar flared slopes found in Australia but none as impressive as Wave Rock.

In 1928, the Public Works Department built a low wall above Wave Rock about halfway up the hill. The wall follows the contours of the rock and funnels rainwater into the Hyden Humps Dam 20 km away. The dam supplies water to the wheat-growing area surrounding the hill and to Hyden town.

Indigenous peoples believe that Wave Rock was created by the mythical Rainbow Serpent who dragged her swollen body across the land after drinking all the water.

 

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Peer into the depths of the deepest cave in the world in Georgia or gaze in awe at a giant wave-shaped rock in Western Australia.

To the untrained eye, a small hole in the ground would not mean much. But in the Arabika Massif (mountain) of the Western Caucasus, near the Black Sea coast in Georgia, one such opening leads to an abyss that seems to have no bottom - the Krubera cave. It was called the Voronya Cave (Crows’ Cave) during the 1980s as many crows nested in the entrance pit. It was later named after Russian geologist Alexander Kruber.

In 2004, a team of cavers led by Yuri Kasjan became the first to touch a depth lower than 2000 m while exploring the cave. One team member claimed that it “was like climbing an invented Mount Everest!” In 2007, Kasjan descended to a depth of 2191m, making it the deepest cave in the world, and the only one known so far to be deeper than 2000 m. With the cave still under study and new pits being discovered, cavers are raring to plunge to greater depths.

The alpine karst of Arabika is home to several other caves like Kujbyshevskaja Cave (1110m), Iljukhina System (1240m) and the Sarma Cave (1,550 m).

A type of landscape made up of limestone plateaus.

 

Picture Credit : Google

In the USA! The United States Postal Service (USPS) allows citizens to mail a coconut anywhere within the country. The USPS regards a coconut as a self-contained unit, one which cannot be easily tampered with. As long as a proper address label is affixed on the coconut, and the correct postage is paid, it will be sent.

How did the practice start?

It all began in the island state of Hawaii.

Visitors to Hawaii can buy a souvenir coconut decorated with traditional art instead of the usual picture postcard and then mail the coconut to the mainland. The Post-a-Nut Service on the island of Molokai even mails coconuts to other countries. The coconut comes free!

 

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