The Vast Universe
- Have you ever looked in the sky? If you have noticed countless Stars and the Beautiful Silvery Moon. All these heavenly bodies like the Sun, the Eight Planets, the Moon and Stars are a part of the Universe.
- The Universe includes almost everything we can think about. It is very mysterious. Scientists use telescopes and space probes to find out the hidden secrets of the Universe.
- Some of the Secrets like age and the origin of the Universe have been known. But there are several other secrets which are still unexplored.
Origin of the Universe
According to Scientists, the Universe was born as a result of huge explosion called the Big Bang. It looks place about 137,000 million years ago. Energy, Space, Time and Various forms of matter originated in this explosion. Scientists and Astronomers have traced the Origin of the Universe using modern techniques and equipment.
Countless Galaxies
Galaxies are often known as "Star Cities" because they comprise of countless Stars existing together. There are millions and billions of Galaxies in Space. Galaxies differ in shapes and sizes. The Speed of rotation affects the shape acquired galaxy.
Galaxies occur in groups or clusters that range in size from a few to a few thousands Galaxies. Clusters can further occur in groups called Superclusters. Superclusters are the largest structures that we know of in the entire Universe. Scientists have not been able to explore the entire Universe. But they have broadly divided galaxies they have discovered into four types :-
- Cartwheel Galaxy
- Spiral Galaxy
- Elliptical Galaxy
- Irregular Galaxy
The Milky Way
A Galaxy is a collection of many million stars. We also live in such star city. You must have noticed a White Ribbon crossing the sky during the night time. This Ribbon comprises of millions and billions of stars closely bound together to from a band of Light.
The Milky Way is the Galaxy to which our Solar System belongs. Our Sun is one of the 500,000 million stars in our Galaxy. The Sun lies quite a distance from the Center of the Galaxy.
Astronomy
Astronomy is the oldest branch of Science known to Mankind. Man has always wanted to solve the Mysteries of the Universe. Earlier, Astronomy was considered to be an ally of Astrology.
Astrologists predicted the future by Observing the heavenly bodies. They also believed that the Earth was the Center of the Universe.
In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish Priest, published this theory that the Sun, and not the Earth, is at the Center of the Universe.
Now, Astronomers have proved that the Universe is Expanding continuously. This Expansion is because of the moving apart of the Galaxies and the Stars caused by the Big Bang Explosion.
Observatory
You might have used binoculars or mini telescope to watch the stars at night. But for the Scientists, these instruments are not of much help. They carry out their studies of the Universe in an Observatory.
Observatories are equipped with a number of telescopes and other instruments. This makes the researchers continue their research more efficiently. These observatories are situated on high Mountains, away from the polluted and illuminated sky of the cities.
Do You Know Why these observatories are situated on a mountain top ? : It is done so because an Optical Observatory can gather Star Light before it gets distorted by entering the Earth's Atmosphere
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