page 2
The day arrived on which the Teachers depart from school. During interval time, Lekha Teacher entered the classroom. The girls in the class started to cry. She started to console each one. I was in a dilemma. I didn't know what to do. I was sad because of her departure. But to cry ! I had several reasons to cry in my life. Compared to those, this was very silly. I sat on the bench as if I had lost all my energy. I sat there hiding my face. The Teacher felt that I couldn't control my sorrow. She ran towards me and advised me, "what is this ? You must face all the challenges courageously".
I started to read the book enthusiastically. It began with the technology of rockets. I understood that the escape velocity from the earth is 11 km per hour. Then came solar system. I had a little understanding about it. The descriptions about the 9 ( because of Pluto) planets made me delighted. The Sun at the centre, the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and it's satellite Moon, Mars & it's satellites Deimos & Phobos, the space between Mars & Jupiter called Asteroid belt from which some asteroids enter near the orbit of the earth, then the large planet Jupiter with its satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto, the planet Saturn with its satellites Titan, Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, Mimas, lapetas, Tethys etc., Uranus with its satellites Miranda,Titania, Umbriel, Oberon, Ariel, Puck, Cupid, Mab & the planet Neptune with its satellites Triton, Nereid, Larissa, Protens, Naiad, Thalana, Galatea, Despine etc. Today, the scientists have found some specialities in the previously mentioned satellites viz. Titan, Enceladus, & Triton. They might be searching for water, I think.
The next chapters opened an amazing world before me. Comets which are made up of frozen dust and gases, which travel in extremely elongated orbits around the Sun, made me wonder struck. The author had specially mentioned about "Halley's Comet" because it would appear on March 1986. It was the most famous and "periodic" comet. It returns to Earth's vicinity at every 75 years. I read about Meteors which are fragments of comets, planets, moons, or asteroids that have broken off. Our Solar System is a part of Milky Way ( the name of our galaxy) . There are many galaxies in this universe. Each word & each knowledge made me excited. What surprises are there in this universe ? Pulsars which are rapidly spinning neutron stars and give out radio waves at regular intervals, Quasars which produce tremendous amount of light and microwave radiation, Nebulae which are made up of dust and gas, a Supernova, an extremely large exploding star, which releases huge amounts of energy , Neutron stars which are formed after a supernova explodes and shrinks. A red giant is a large star at the last stage of stellar evolution. In only a few billion years, our own Sun will turn into a red giant, and swallow the closest planets Mercury & Venus and may devour Earth as well. A white dwarf means when a star runs out of energy, the force of gravity at its own centre, pulls the mass of the star in its own centre, forcing it to collapse, it emits a white glow. A black hole is created by total gravitational collapse of a group of stars. It is so dense that even light cannot escape from it. About Dark Matter, scientists say that universe is 27% dark matter, 68% dark energy & 5% normal matter. Observation say that there is far too little visible matter in universe to make up the 27% required by the observation.
( 43 )
It was the time of Teaching Practice of the TTC students from the Teacher's Training Institute. They came as usual, with charts, models and all types of Teaching Aids. If there was a free period, one of them would come and tell stories. Wow ! It was a fantastic experience ! During the last week, they would conduct a Test Paper and the winners would get different types of pencils or pens. I remember one of those Teachers, Lekha, who taught us English and Science. As I had scored 1st position in the class, she gave me a special gift - a book on space written in Malayalam. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the book and its author. The book was there in my collection till recently.The day arrived on which the Teachers depart from school. During interval time, Lekha Teacher entered the classroom. The girls in the class started to cry. She started to console each one. I was in a dilemma. I didn't know what to do. I was sad because of her departure. But to cry ! I had several reasons to cry in my life. Compared to those, this was very silly. I sat on the bench as if I had lost all my energy. I sat there hiding my face. The Teacher felt that I couldn't control my sorrow. She ran towards me and advised me, "what is this ? You must face all the challenges courageously".
I started to read the book enthusiastically. It began with the technology of rockets. I understood that the escape velocity from the earth is 11 km per hour. Then came solar system. I had a little understanding about it. The descriptions about the 9 ( because of Pluto) planets made me delighted. The Sun at the centre, the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and it's satellite Moon, Mars & it's satellites Deimos & Phobos, the space between Mars & Jupiter called Asteroid belt from which some asteroids enter near the orbit of the earth, then the large planet Jupiter with its satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto, the planet Saturn with its satellites Titan, Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, Mimas, lapetas, Tethys etc., Uranus with its satellites Miranda,Titania, Umbriel, Oberon, Ariel, Puck, Cupid, Mab & the planet Neptune with its satellites Triton, Nereid, Larissa, Protens, Naiad, Thalana, Galatea, Despine etc. Today, the scientists have found some specialities in the previously mentioned satellites viz. Titan, Enceladus, & Triton. They might be searching for water, I think.
The next chapters opened an amazing world before me. Comets which are made up of frozen dust and gases, which travel in extremely elongated orbits around the Sun, made me wonder struck. The author had specially mentioned about "Halley's Comet" because it would appear on March 1986. It was the most famous and "periodic" comet. It returns to Earth's vicinity at every 75 years. I read about Meteors which are fragments of comets, planets, moons, or asteroids that have broken off. Our Solar System is a part of Milky Way ( the name of our galaxy) . There are many galaxies in this universe. Each word & each knowledge made me excited. What surprises are there in this universe ? Pulsars which are rapidly spinning neutron stars and give out radio waves at regular intervals, Quasars which produce tremendous amount of light and microwave radiation, Nebulae which are made up of dust and gas, a Supernova, an extremely large exploding star, which releases huge amounts of energy , Neutron stars which are formed after a supernova explodes and shrinks. A red giant is a large star at the last stage of stellar evolution. In only a few billion years, our own Sun will turn into a red giant, and swallow the closest planets Mercury & Venus and may devour Earth as well. A white dwarf means when a star runs out of energy, the force of gravity at its own centre, pulls the mass of the star in its own centre, forcing it to collapse, it emits a white glow. A black hole is created by total gravitational collapse of a group of stars. It is so dense that even light cannot escape from it. About Dark Matter, scientists say that universe is 27% dark matter, 68% dark energy & 5% normal matter. Observation say that there is far too little visible matter in universe to make up the 27% required by the observation.
At the end of the book, the author had requested the whole students not to waste the opportunity to watch Halley's Comet. I also desired strongly to watch it. But I doubted - how would I tell my father to go out of the house at night and stand in an open place to watch it ? I had only a little hope about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment