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Natural Hazards: Impacts of Catastrophic Collisions
“I have grown, looking at sky and stars.” Many people can say this, including me. We loved to watch stars in night. We enjoyed the Sunrise and Sunsets. And offcourse, millions of people loves NASA’s Astronomy Pic Of the Day and they like to add APOD as their wallpapers. There are many more beautiful phenomena in the universe, like Solar Eclipse, Eagle Nebula, Aurora etc. We feel safe, cheer and enjoy our life. However, it does not mean that a smaller strike of any tragedy cannot happen even as you are reading this blog. For a horrible example, who was knowing about the latest Tsunami in Japan, before the date it occured?
The theory of gravity is not enough developed that you can exactly state the motion of a planet or star or any other material in the space. Some bodies, like dwarf planets, sattelites, meteoroids, have random motions. The most fearful motion is of meteoroids, the rock like structures. Usually these are found in between Mars and Jupiter as a belt. But when a meteoroid leaves the belt, the gravitational attraction of the earth, nearest planet to mars, can pull that into it. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, friction causes it to heat up and glow. Then we call it a shooting star or a meteor. Small meteors burn up completely as they pass through the atmosphere. Larger ones end up on earth as meteoroid. Impact craters are formed when a large meteoroid or comet crashes into a planet. One such massive natural hazard happened in past, which destroyed all the Dinosaurs.
Laser Light : An Introduction
L A S E R S
Light Amplified by Stimulated Emission of Radiation i.e. LASER is one of the most incredible discoveries of Physics. First produced in 1960s, it recently completed its 50th year.
Laser light is emitted when atoms make transition from one Quantum State to a lower one.
Properties of Laser Light
1) Laser light is highly monochromatic.
2) Laser Light is highly coherent .
3) Laser light is highly directional.
4) Laser light can be sharply focused.
Types of Lasers
There are many kinds of LASERs differing their operational wavelength & applications:
I. Gas LASERs:
The Helium-Neon Gas Laser, Carbon dioxide gas Laser
II. Chemical LASERs:
HF Laser
III. Solid LASERs: Ruby LASER (most popular), Hybrid Silicon LASER, Diode LASER
IV. Metal Vapour LASERs: Copper Vapour LASER, Gold Vapour LASER
V. Dye LASERs
VI. RAMAN LASERs
VII. Free Electron LASER
VIII. Gas Dynamic LASER
Uses
* The smallest Lasers are use in Fibre Optics– for -Voice & Data Transmission over Optical Fibres.
* The Largest lasers are used for nuclear fusion research, to measure astronomical distances and in military applications.
* Other uses are– Reading Bar Codes, Manufacturing and Reading CDs and DVDs, Performing Surgery, Surveying, Cutting hundred layes Cloth at a time in the garment industry, weldings and in generating holograms.
Must Follow Science Resources on Twitter: Physics, Astronomy & General Science.
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This list is arranged Randomly. Click on Twitter Username to View profile & Follow the user:
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Introduction to Universe: PART I : Stars and their types
Image via Wikipedia
What is it?
There are many millions of stars in the sky. In the whole heavens, fewer than 6000 stars are bright enough to be visible and at any one time, less than 2500 stars are visible above the horizon.
Stars account for 98% of the matter in a galaxy. The rest of 2% consists of interstellar or galactic gas & dust in a very attenuated form. The normal density of interstellar gas throughout the galaxy is about one tenth of a hydrogen atome per cm³ volume. Stars tend to form groups.
What I shall discuss here?
There are many types of stars in the universe having different name & definitions. I’ll discuss a few of them!
Major kinds of Stars according to numbers
• Lone Stars :These are alone and going on their own. Lone stars are exception in the Universe.
These donot follow up the condition to be in galaxy. And this is the difference between it & Single stars.
•Single Stars These are found in galaxy & are single (for example Our Sun). These do not number more than 25% of Stellar (Star) Population.
•Binary Stars or Double Stars These exist as couples of stars (e.g., Antares in Scorpio is actually two stars) and they are some 33% of stellar population.
The rest are •Multiple Stars (e.g., Capella & Alpha Centuri comprize 3 stars each, while Castor consists of 6 stars).
Note that, stars which appear single to the naked eyes are sometimes double stars. There are two stars revolving around a common center of gravity. They are also found in orbital motion round each other, in periods varying from about one year to many thousands of years.
Vivid types of Stars according to their nature
Red Giants
When the hydrogen, the main element in a star, is depleted, its outer regions swell and redden. This is the first sign of age. Such stars are called Red Giants.
Our Star, the Sun, is expected to turn into a red giant in another 5 billion years. Red giants are dying stars that has expanded greatly from its original size and gives off red light. They have gigantic dimensions.
Black Dwarf
It is the blackened corpse of a star. Ultimately it disappears into the blackness of the space.
White Dwarf
It is a tiny, dense, hot star, representing a late stage in the life of a star. The matter in it is so incredibly dense that a single teaspoonful of it would weigh several tonnes.
Supergiants
These are huge stars, with all their hydrogen fuel used up in their core, but continue to expand hundred of times bigger than its original size before they finally die.
Novae & SuperNovae
These are kind of stars, whose brightness increases suddenly by 10 to 20 times are more and then fades gradually into normal brightness. The sudden increase in brightness is attributed to a partial or outright explosion. In Nova, it seems that only the outer shell explodes, whereas in SuperNova the entire star explodes.
Variable Stars
There are stars that show varying degrees of luminosity.
Quasars
These are variable stars and are powerful quasi stellar sources of radio radiations.
Pulsars
These are also variable stars which emit regular pulses of electro-magnetic waves of very short duration.
© Gaurav Happy Tiwari, 2011
