Category Astronomy

Which is the first American woman in space?

On June 18, 1983, NASA Astronaut Sally K. Ride became the first American woman in space, when she launched with her four crewmates aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-7.  Ride and five other women had been selected in 1978 for NASA Astronaut Group 8, the first American selection class to include females.  With the advent of the space shuttle, NASA expanded astronaut selection from only pilots to scientists and engineers, and women became eligible for selection.  NASA announced Ride and her classmates to the public on Jan. 16, 1978.

NASA announced Ride would be part of the STS-7 crew on April 30, 1982, serving as mission specialist and joining Commander Robert L. Crippen, mission specialist John M. Fabian, physician-astronaut Norman E. Thagard and pilot Frederick H. Hauck on the historic flight.

Over six days, the crew’s complex tasks included launching commercial communications satellites for Indonesia and Canada and deploying and retrieving a satellite using the shuttle’s robotic arm. Ride, who was 32 at the time, was the first woman to operate the shuttle’s mechanical arm. 

 

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Which is the second woman to travel into space was also the first woman to fly to space?

Svetlana Savitskaya was just the second woman to reach space. She was also a record-breaking jet pilot. Savitskaya was born in Moscow in 1948, and likewise started skydiving as a teenager. Her father, a high-ranking officer in the Soviet military, was allegedly unaware of her skydiving exploits. However, he soon supported her passion for flying jets, and Savitskaya quickly found herself competing in aerobatic competitions.

In 1970, while she was still in her early 20s, Savitskaya won the prestigious competition: the World Aerobatic Championship. That flying prowess helped her earn a spot as a cosmonaut, and she went on to earn her astronaut wings in 1982. That made her just the second woman to travel to space, following Tereshkova’s in 1963. Unlike Tereshkova, however, Savitskaya did get to fly a second time, making her the first woman to travel to space multiple times.

 

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Do all the planets and their moons have active volcanoes?

For many years, scientists believed that Jupiter’s moon lo was geologically dead. This means it didn’t have things such as earthquakes, newly forming mountains or volcanoes. However, it turns out the scientists were wrong about lo. In 1979, when NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft took close up pictures of lo, the pictures showed a massive plume erupting from lo’s surface into space. That’s when they realise that lo did not just have volcanoes, it had active volcanoes. And, lo was no longer considered geologically dead. When these pictures were taken it was the first time an erupting volcano was found anywhere other than Earth. So that leaves us wondering, do all the planets and their moons have active volcanoes? Let’s take a look

Mercury: The planet once had active volcanoes, but not anymore. Scientists believe violent volcanic eruptions that shaped Mercury’s surface, likely ended about 3.5 billion years ago.

Venus: Venus, on the other hand is covered with volcanoes. The hottest planet in our solar system has over 1,000 volcanoes, including some that might still be active, according to what scientists think.

Mars: Mars is home to Olympus Mons, the solar largest volcano in our system. It is also the mountain in our solar largest led our solar system Mars is filled with tall volcanic mountains, and while scientists haven’t seen an eruption on Mars, they think there could be some in the future.

Jupiter: Scientists have found volcanoes and observed volcanic activity only on lo, Jupiter’s moon. Eruptions from lo’s volcanoes are so massive that it can been seen by a spacecraft that is pretty far from lo.

Saturn: Saturn’s moon Enceladus has cryovolcanoes. These volcanoes are similar to regular volcanoes, except they spew water and other gases like geysers.

Uranus: Since it is a gas planet, it does not have any volcanoes.

Neptune: While Neptune doesn’t have volcanoes as it is a gas planet, its frozen moon, Triton, has cryovolcanoes that are active.

 

Picture Credit : Google

How the Moon can block the light from the big star?

In the event of a total solar eclipse, the Sun’s light is completely blocked by the Moon. But have you wondered how the Moon, which is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, can block the light from the big star?

It’s a matter of distance

The distance between the Earth and the Sun, and the Earth and the Moon is at the crux of this answer.

Objects that are closer to us appear much larger than objects that are much farther away. For example, the stars in the sky might look like tiny objects but are actually much larger than the Sun. they appear so because their distance from the Earth is much more than the Sun’s distance from Earth.

Thus, though the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, because it is much closer to Earth, it appears to be the same size as the Sun from Earth. So, when the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun, it appears to completely block the light from the Sun.

An end to total eclipse?

Total solar eclipses won’t be around forever because the Moon’s orbit is changing. The Moon’s orbit grows about 1.5 inches larger every year. And as the Moon’s orbit takes it farther away from the Earth, it will appear much smaller than it does currently. Once the Moon’s growing orbit takes it approximately 23,500 km farther from Earth, it will be too far away to completely block the light from the Sun.

The good news though is, if you look at the maths, this won’t happen for the next 600 million years, at least.

 

Picture Credit : Google

How long do footprints last on the Moon?

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin were the first humans to step foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969, and naturally, they left behind their footprints.

But do these still exist? Yes, they do!

How long will they last?

The first footprints, rather, all the footprints left on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, when the last human mission to the Moon happened, will still be there.

They might actually be there for years and years together, and if we are lucky, probably as long as the Moon lasts.

Why?

This is because unlike Earth, there is no erosion by water or wind on the Moon as it has no atmosphere and all the water on its surface is frozen. Also, there is no volcanic activity on the Moon which can change the lunar features. So, nothing really gets washed away from the Moon’s surface.

It may or may not last forever

The reason there is no guarantee that the footprints will remain permanently on the Moon is because of meteorites and solar wind.

Like the planets and other objects in the solar system, the Moon too is prone to bombardment by meteorites. Even one little space rock that lands anywhere near any of the footprints can wipe them off.

Due to the lack of atmosphere on the Moon, it is exposed to solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles coming from the Sun. Over time, this solar wind can act like the weather on Earth and scour the surface of the Moon, wiping away all footprints.

The good news though is that this process is very, very slow. So, footprints on the Moon are likely to remain there for a really long time.

 

Picture Credit : Google

What are auroras on the sun?

For those living near the North or South Pole, the night sky can often put on a show, dubbed the aurora. The lights are called aurora borealis or northern lights near the North Pole, while it is called aurora australis or southern lights near the South Pole.

Irrespective of where it occurs, it is quite a sight to behold. And even though the spectacle is best seen in the night, it is actually caused by the sun.

When the sun burps…

Along with heat and light, sun sends a lot of energy and small particles as well. While the Earth’s magnetic field is adept at shielding us from these most times, there are occasions when the energy and small particles can travel into the Earth’s atmosphere, especially near the poles.

One of those occasions occurs during a coronal mass ejection, a type of a solar storm. The sun can be said to burp a huge bubble of electrified gas that has ability to move at high speeds through space. Some of the energy and solar particles from this can make their way to the Earth’s atmosphere near the poles.

Not just on Earth

Once in the Earth’s atmosphere, the particles can then interact with the gases available. It is this interaction that results in the brilliant displays in the night sky. Green (like in the picture here) and red lights are given off by oxygen, while interaction with nitrogen leads to a bluish or purple glow.

Auroras are not limited to just Earth. If a planet possesses an atmosphere and magnetic field, then the chances of auroras open up. In fact, we have observed splendid auroras both on Jupiter and Saturn. 

 

Picture Credit : Google