Big Questions

What is Universe?

The vast empty space around us that consists of stars, solar system, galaxies etc is called Universe.
The major components of the universe are discussed below:
1.Solar system- Basically the name solar system is describing the sun’s family. The sun occupies the centered place. Around the sun the remaining nine planets revolve around in different orbits. Due to the change in rotation of the planets their distances vary with respect to the sun. Rotation also affects the velocity of the planets. As the planets came near to the sun their rotation speed goes on increasing. The motion of all the planets is controlled by the sun’s gravitational pull.
There are nine planets in our solar system. Ordered list of all these planets is given below:

1. Mercury
2. Venus
3. Earth
4. Mars
5. Jupiter
6. Saturn
7. Uranus
8. Neptune
9. Pluto
The nearest planet to the sun is mercury and the farthest planet is Pluto. So the above list of planets is arranged according to the increasing distances of the planets from sun.
If you will think that this will be difficult for you to recall the list of planets in the same order then there is a simple formula. Cram the line given below:
“My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas”. The first character of each word will recall you the name of the planet.
Lots of other heavenly bodies are present in the universe which usually revolves around the planets of the solar system. These heavenly bodies are known as satellites. Moon is also a satellite. It is the natural satellite of earth. Meteors, Asteroids and comets are also part of the solar system.
2. Galaxies: Galaxies are formed by group of starts, gases, and dust particles all are together by strong gravitational forces. Milky Way is one of the galaxies of the universe in which we live. It is also called Akashganga. It appears like an unclear white strip of light elongated across the sky. It is mostly visible on a clear night. Lots of stars including sun (sun is the brightest star) are a part of this galaxy. A Milky Way galaxy contains billions of stars, near about -10¹¹. Like Milky Way lots of other galaxies exist in the Universe. The galaxy count is approximately 10¹¹.
3. Stars: Stars are glowing heavenly bodies. Stars emit light due to their high temperatures. Stars can be seen on a clear night. The nearest star to us the sun. It is the brightest star. On a clear night at a single time the no of stars we can see is near about 2500. The second brightest star is Alpha Centauri. The approximate distance of the star Alpha Centauri from earth is near about 4.3 light years.


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Do Dinosaurs Still Exist?

The idea of still-living dinosaurs has captured the public imagination for well over a century. 
Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, published a 1912 novel called "The Lost World," set in the remote Venezuelan jungle where dinosaurs still survive in modern times. Films such as "Jurassic Park" and "Land of the Lost," which opens Friday, were inspired by Conan Doyle's vision — in fact the sequel to "Jurassic Park" was titled "The Lost World."
The animated film "Up" (currently No. 1 at the box office) also takes place in this lost world, the plot involving the discovery of an unknown, multicolored dinosaur.

For most of us, fiction is good enough. Yet some believe that giant dinosaurs still exist today, just beyond the reach of scientific proof.
Lake monsters
There are hundreds of lakes harboring reputed monsters around the world, from Scotland's Loch Ness to Canada's Lake Okanagan, America's Lake Champlain to Argentina's Lake Nahuel.
The explanations for such monsters include dinosaurs and dinosaur-like animals. Believers and researchers ask what else could be so big, and account for the sightings.
Many believe that lake and sea monster reports can be "explained" as animals like the plesiosaur (a long-necked aquatic reptile that reached 40 feet in length) or the ichthyosaur (shonisaurus sikanniensis), which were as big as a submarine.
Mokele-Mbembe
In the remote jungles of central Africa, native stories tell of a dinosaur-like creature said to be up to 35 feet long, with brownish-gray skin and a long, flexible neck. Many believe that it lives in caves it digs in riverbanks, and feeds on elephants, hippos, and crocodiles.
Roy Mackal, a retired University of Chicago biologist who conducted two expeditions in search of the Mokele-Mbembe, believes that the descriptions of the creature suggest "a small sauropod dinosaur."
Despite more than two dozen searches for the "living dinosaur" as recently as last year, evidence is elusive. There are no photographs or films of the creature, no bones or teeth, no evidence beyond stories and anecdote.
The surprising truth
Of course the fatal flaw in the idea that giant dinosaurs still lurk in remote jungles or cold, deep lakes is that all the evidence suggests they died out about 65 million years ago. Many of the lakes said to hide dinosaurs were created only about 10,000 years ago.
If dinosaurs had existed up until much more recently — say, the Nixon administration or even Shakespeare's time — the likelihood of a few remaining, lonely huge dinosaurs might be plausible. But 65 million years is a long time for giant dinosaurs to live and die without leaving any recent fossils.
Yet scientifically speaking, not all dinosaurs died out. Most of us see dinosaurs every day, and some people even have them in their homes. Birds are the modern version of dinosaurs, though seeing Will Ferrell or Jeff Goldblum running terrified from an approaching pigeon just isn't very dramatic.

• Our 10 Favorite Monsters
• Gallery: Drawing Dinosaurs
• Dinosaur News, Information & Images

Benjamin Radford is managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. His books, films, and other projects can be found on his website. His Bad Science column appears regularly on LiveScience.

What is reality?

 

WHEN you woke up this morning, you found the world largely as you left it. You were still you; the room in which you awoke was the same one you went to sleep in. The outside world had not been rearranged. History was unchanged and the future remained unknowable. In other words, you woke up to reality. But what is reality? The more we probe it, the harder it becomes to comprehend. In the eight articles on this page we take a tour of our fundamental understanding of the world around us, starting with an attempt to define reality and ending with the idea that whatever reality is, it isn’t what it seems. Hold on to your hats.

DEFINITION

Even trying to define what we mean by "reality" is fraught with difficulty