Tuesday, December 7, 2010

BABY STEPS FOR INDIAN SPACE PROGRAM

After the release of Chandrayaan-1, India entered the elite club of space-faring nations.  ISRO now can be talked about in same breadth as NASA if the below images are to be seen.......awesome.


ISRO now plans to launch another robotic rover on the moon's surface.


Hats off to everyone involved...

Saturday, December 4, 2010

HAND OF GOD??

The picture below taken by Chandra x-ray observatory shows what looks like on first glance a gigantic cosmic hand reaching out for a superhot doorknob.

Dissapointingly its not that.  The suggestive shape is formed by the charged/magnetized gases and clouds.  What else is remarkable in this picture you say?  The bright region near the wrist of the cosmic hand contains a pulsar (a neutron star) that spins like 7 times a second!!.

Unfortunately this remarkable image cannot be viewed by our human eyes as not only is it far away, but visible only in x-ray spectrum.....right.


Thursday, December 2, 2010

Hubble Space Telescope and the meaning of life.

Whenever I look at the image taken by Hubble telescope of the deepest part of our universe(the so called "Hubble Deep Field"), I always wonder what exactly is our purpose and/or role in this universe and why are the damn galaxies are going away, away, away from us (I mean like in every direction you look at) at a super fast rate.

I always have to pick up my jaw from the floor whenever I look at this....Ladies and Gentleman......the farthest photo ever taken by anyone.  Some of the faintest galaxies that you are looking at are some of the oldest and distant objects known to mankind (12 billion light years!!!!)...as to the meaning of life....perhaps we are asking the wrong question????

 Thanks to Hubble Space Telescope.