Information about NASA

In 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established. Today, 50 years on, NASA has a host of programmers to showcase its achievements.

One of the objectives of NASA has been to interact with the community through extensive outreach programmers impacting the thoughts and imagination of generations of children the world over. Encouraging kids to dream big and study hard, through competitions, designed to get children thinking about space — and by extension, math and science — in new ways is what NASA aims at. Each year over 60,000 students get to directly interact with NASA’s educational opportunities.

NASA has numerous activities, games, amazing stories, study material, competitions, student conferences and scholarships for different age groups. From providing an opportunity of asking an astronaut on the space station a question, assisting students with homework and projects, assembling paper model spacecraft to interactive websites with every information on space and space related subjects, NASA is a must visit site for the curious child.

Importantly October 4 to 10 is celebrated annually in some 50 nations as World Space Week to mark the anniversary of two great milestones of humanity’s exploration of space. The first human-made Earth satellite, SPUTNIK I being launched on October 4, 1957, and the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, coming into force on October 10, 1967. Special World Space Week instructional materials in several languages with activities for all grades are made available to schools at no charge.

You can begin your own space odyssey and lucky for you that you need not even venture into space for it — just get to a computer and connect to NASA. This is one place where the sky is certainly not the limit – only a beginning to the limitless!

Nikolas Copernicus the Astronomer

Copernicus (February 14, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was not only a great astronomer, but also a painter and philosopher. Mankind should ever be grateful to the Polish astronomer Nikolas Copernicus, for giving the right answer to the riddle of the universe.

Copernicus and Columbus were contemporaries. While Columbus was discovering a new continent, Copernicus propounded a new theory of the universe.

Before Copernicus, the prevalent astronomical belief was that the earth was the centre of the universes and the sun and other stars and planets revolved round the earth.

After 30 years of study and without the help of even a telescope — the telescope was invented much later — Copernicus put forward his theory that the earth moved round the sun, like a top spinning on its own axis and along an oval orbit and the moon moved around the earth. Other planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury and so on moved around the sun, which was the centre of our universe.

Some foolish contemporaries of Copernicus ridiculed his findings and sent clowns to villages to tell the people of the immovable earth and the moving sun — “things which any fool can see” — and laugh at Copernicus, “the crazy priest” who said that the earth moved and the sun stood still. Copernicus was not angry with his critics. He said: “Let them be. The movement of the heavenly bodies will be influended not in the least either by ridicule or by the respect of these foolish men.”

Copernicus, the great astronomer, had also tried his hand at painting, philosophy and medicine. He was a repository of kindness and wisdom

Volcanoes In other planets

Volcanic features aren’t exclusive to our planet. Our satellite, the moon, exhibits volcanic features, as does Io, a Jovian satellite (one of the moons of the planet Jupiter). So do other planets in our solar system, most notably Mars and Venus.

The volcanic features on Mars are similar in shape to those on Earth. Scientists suspect that they were probably formed by similar processes, and that volcanism has been significant throughout Martian history. However, it is interesting to note that they also feel there is no geological evidence yet of recent plate tectonic motion such as that on Earth.

Scientists have identified more than 1700 volcanic centres on Venus. The craters vary greatly in size, shape, and eruptive activity.

Undoubtedly the most spectacularly volcanic planetary body is Io, the moon closest to the giant planet Jupiter. In 1979, images from the Voyager 1 spacecraft arrived on Earth. They showed active volcanic plumes rising up to 300 km above this tiny moon’s surface. The surface is pockmarked with volcanic centres, and at least around 70 of these are active.One of the foremost researchers in the field of planetary geology was Dr. Eugene Shoemaker. He helped map the surface of the moon. You can't beat a good euphonious

Spirit of kolu

During Navarathri, people arrange kolus which usually follow mythological stories. If you’ve been inside temples, you would have seen that the walls have many grand sculptures of gods and godessess. we can see the arts of marriages of the gods, like Siva and Parvathi, Durga destroying the demon Mahisha and more.

During Navarathri, people bring these themes into their homes by keeping kolus. A kolu can be really grand with 11 steps depicting the stories of gods and godesses. this began started from story of birth of Krishna and his destruction of the evil snake Kaliya. we can see the gods in the top steps and idols of sages and saints, after the gods then while coming lower down, we can see scenes of local life people in markets, at weddings and so on.

Women get together and sing songs. This is a time when people of the community visit each others’ homes. Those who are too shy to sing in front of others cannot get away!