Book 2 | Science

Our World

“The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival.”

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it’s forever.” Carl Sagan

Our World

Book 2 | Science

The Big Bang

Big Bang is what happened at the very beginning of our universe. Discoveries in astronomy and physics have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that our universe did in fact have a start and beginning. Prior to that moment there was nothing; during and after that moment there was something: our universe. The big bang theory is an effort to explain what happened during and after that moment in time.

Our universe continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos.

Our Solar SystemOur Solar System and all the planets within it is but a speck of dust in our own galaxy. Today with the use of our strongest telescope it is estimated that there is around 500 billion galaxies within the realms of space. Only a few years ago our leading scientists predicted there was 125 billion galaxies.

It is difficult to comprehend the vast size of our own galaxy for our solar system is only a speck of dust in comparison

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Jupiter

Mars

The earth takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds (365.242199 days) to make a full revolution around the sun.

We have discovered so many new stars since the hubble telescope first opened it’s eyes. A new star called W Cephei is the brightest star that we can see and it dwarfs our sun in the same way our sun dwarfs Pluto.

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Pluto

The Sun

8 minute

sMercury

The sun is getting hotter every day. One billion years from now the earth will become so warm that Antartica will become a nice spot for a holiday. Two billion year from now and the sun will evaporate all of the earths oceons it will be so hot. The energy in the sunlight we get today started 30,000 years ago in the suns core.

The sunlight we feel on our face today took 8 minutes to travel from the surface of the sun to your cheek.

30,000 years

sunlight to earth

8 minute

s

Venus

First Life3.8 billion years ago simple cells were born

2 billion years ago the sim

ple cells developed into comp

lex cells

1 billion years ago

multi cellular life stem

ed from the com

plex cells

3.8 billion years ago simple cells were born2 billion years ago the sim

ple cells developed into comp

lex cells

1 billion years ago

multi cellular life stem

ed from the com

plex cells

600

mill

ion

year

s ag

o simple sea life

animals were born

570

mill

ion

year

s ag

o a

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opod

s, a

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of insects, arachnids and crustaceans are born

500 million years ago fi sh and proto-amphibians b

egin to form47

5 m

illion years ago land plants sprout up400 million years ago insects begin to w

alk on earth

300 mill

ion

year

s ag

o r

eptil

es fo

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from insect cells and take to the earth

200

mill

ion

year

s ag

o th

e fi rst mammals are born

150 million years ago and b

irds take fi rst fl ight

65 million years ago

the dinosaurs die out

What camefirst?

Evolution

It was the egg.

The reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal’s life.

Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.

“We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.” Carl Sagan

Great Minds

Leonardo da Vinci A master of intelligence he was a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.

Charles Darwin His theory of evolution by natural selection that was ground breaking, Darwin’s theory explained the mechanism for evolution.

Galileo GalileoInventing the world’s first telescope, Galileo was able to make many ground breaking explorations of the universe.

Nikola Tesla Was best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnet-ism. One of the most important contributors to the birth of electricity.

Isaac Newton Built the first practical reflecting telescope and is the most famous contributor to the development of calculus as we know it.

Albert EinsteinIs one of the most notable physicist of all time. His theories of special relativity and general relativity led to receiving a Nobel Prize in 1921 for Physics.

Stephen Hawking His big bang and black hole theories have caught the attention of the world in recent years. Hawking is also a strong supporter of the parallel universe theories.

Space Travel

MercuryMercury remains the least explored of the inner planets. As of January 2008, only two missions have made close observations of Mercury. A third mission to Mercury is on scheduled to arrive in 2020. With Mercury being so close to the Sun, it is a difficult planet to explore and orbits around it are rather unstable.

VenusVenus despite being one of the most hostile surface environments in the solar system, it has had more landers sent to it (most from the Soviet Union) than any other planet in the solar system.

The MoonEarth’s Moon was the first celestial object to be the object of space exploration. It holds the distinctions of being the first remote celestial object to be flown by, orbited, and landed upon by spacecraft, and the only remote celestial object ever to be visited by humans so far.

MarsThe exploration of Mars has been an important part of the space exploration programs for many countries. Dozens of robotic spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been launched toward Mars since the 1960s. These missions were aimed at gathering data about current conditions and answering questions about the history of Mars. The questions raised by the scientific community are also expected to give a better appreciation of the red planet but also yield further insight into the past, and possible future, of Earth.

JupiterThe exploration of Jupiter has consisted solely of a number of automated NASA spacecraft visiting the planet since 1973. A large majority of the missions have been flybys, in which detailed observations are taken without the probe landing or entering orbit. As Jupiter is believed to have only a relatively small rocky core, a landing mission is impossible.

SaturnSaturn has around 60 satellites, although the exact number is debatable since Saturn’s rings are made up of vast numbers of independently orbiting objects of varying sizes. The largest of the moons is Titan. Titan holds the distinction of being the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere denser and thicker than that of the Earth.

UranusThe exploration of Uranus has been entirely through the Voyager 2 spacecraft, with no other visits currently planned.

NeptuneThe exploration of Neptune consists of a Voyager 2 flyby, the sole visit to the system as of 2009. There is a possibile Neptune Orbiter being discussed, but no other missions have been given thought.

Pluto This small planet throws up all sorts of challenges for spacecraft because of its great distance from Earth and small mass. Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto, but NASA opted instead for a close flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Global Warming

Global warming is the increase inthe temperature that effects the Earth.

Most of the observed temperature increases since the middle of the 20th century was very likely caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activitysuch as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. It’s also proven that variations in natural phenomena such as solar radiation and volcanic eruptions had a small cooling effect after 1950. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies, including all of the national academies of science, of all the major industrialized countries. Warming will continue beyond 2100 even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of he oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. An increase in global temperature will cause all sea levels to rise, changing the amount and pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts.

Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arcticand with this associated with continuing retreat of the glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects include changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions and changes in agricultural yields. Warming and related changes will vary from region around the globe, though the nature of these regional variations are uncertain.

New Life

Those worlds in space are as countless as all and every grain of sand on all the beaches on planet Earth. Each of those worlds is as real as ours and every one of them is a succession of incidents, events, occurrences which influence its future. Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time.

With our solar system being just a micro dot in our own galaxy and with over 500 billion galaxies out there in space. It seems like a awful lot of space for us just to be the only one’s out there. With that thought maybe there is someone else out there on another world thinking the same thing as you.

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Planet X

Planet X, also known as The Nibiru collision is a supposed encounter between the Earth and a large planetary object (either a collision or a near-miss).

Astronomers point out that such an object so close to Earth would be easily visible to the naked eye (Jupiter and Saturn are both visible to the naked eye, and are dimmer than Nibiru would be at their distances). the planet would also be creating noticeable effects in the orbits of the outer planets. Some counter this by claiming that the object has been hiding behind the Sun for several years, though such a claim is geometrically impossible. So for the time being it looks like our little blue planet is safe.