Space 'facts' that you thought were true: but are not!

Spiral galaxies visible from the Earth. (Creative commons, File)

Distant planets and enigmatic galaxies have captivated humanity's imagination for ages. In our quest to understand the cosmos, numerous myths and misconceptions have emerged. In a tete-a-tete with astronomy enthusiast and ISRO-recognized space tutor, Tanmaye Vyas describes the cosmos with a critical eye as he helps debunk many of the commonly assumed 'facts'.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes walking around camouflaging as well-known facts:

"Sun does not rise from the east."

Vyas dispels the myth by saying, “We have always heard about how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.” He adds, “However, this might surprise many that this is a baseless saying.”

Vyas explains, “We don't realize that is a generalisation. In fact, it (the sun) only rises due east and sets due west only twice a year: the fall and spring equinoxes.” Each day the rising and setting points change slightly due to the tilting of our home planet.

Image source: Creative commons

"Indians celebrate Uttarayan on the wrong day!"

Uttarayan is one of the few festivals celebrated on a fixed date of Jan 14 of every year (except Jan 15 in some communities when it's a leap year). Uttarayan marks the day when the Sun starts moving towards the north. The sun's rising position decides the occurrence of the festival. So, in a technical sense, Makar Sankranti and Uttarayan occur on different days and Uttarayan starts from Dec 21! From that day onwards nights are longer and days are shorter.

Image source: Creative commons

“Noon and midnight are not 12.”

The local noon differs from place to place. When the sun is at a culmination (the highest point in the sky), that is referred to as noon or noon. So, the time of noon is not fixed due to variations in the sun's culmination.

Image source: Creative commons

"Pole star is not the brightest star in the sky."

The pole star popularly known as Dhruv tara is not the steadiest or brightest star in the sky. Instead, it is the 46th brightest on the list! Vyas said, "The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, also known as the 'Dog Star'."

Image source: Creative commons


For more such updates and news on the go, follow us on

Instagram | YouTube | Facebook

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Earthquake in the world of online advertising!

Image
The world of the internet is driven by personalized advertising - Apple has shot an arrow at its core This is not easy to do in today's world, but suppose you go out to the market with a bag in hand. Suddenly, someone stood beside him and said that he would be your shadow and walk with you everywhere in the market. Not only that, everything you do in the market will see - how much and at what price you bought vegetables, who attacked whom on the way, who you stared at, what drugs you bought from the drugstore, what more than two minutes to the billboards. While staring, the tea kettle stood up to drink tea and asked not to put sugar in the tea or to add half a cup of sugar, etc. Everything like that, Dharar wants to see and know the person who wants to be your shadow. Would you let him do that? Apparently you would shake his hand and tell him not to take a single step with you. Now that person will change his maneuver. He will tell you that if you let him walk with you and see
Read more

A mix of old and new times in a single photograph

Image
Look at the above picture carefully. If you look at the part connecting the two parts of the picture, you will immediately realize that both the pictures are of the same place! The only difference is that on one side of the river there is a boat , while on the other side there are cars and roads! Both the pictures are actually from the same place , only there is a gap of 107 years and 10 months between them. The first picture is from January 1910 , when the river Seine flooded and flooded part of Paris, France , on the other hand, a century later , the same place! We see 'before and after ' images in advertisements or websites of weight loss clinics or dental clinics. The site we are talking about has a wealth of similar ' before and after ' and ' then and now ' images. The difference is that here you can see such photographs of various places or people around the world. In fact , a real- estate company in England called Rightmove
Read more

The problem of education, the solution from technology, but also the responsibility of parents

Image
- RLxhLkuxLku fkhýu Mkðk ÷ kuLkk çkuêk sðkçk yLku Ÿze Mk {s çktLku {u¤ððkt Mknu ÷ kt çkLÞkt Au - yuf yuÃk yk çktLku fk {fhe ykÃku Au Dad , this equation is not solved , help me! "When a father or mother is asked such a question, most of the time neither of them can help the child. Mom or Dad can help until the son reaches eighth grade , then he has to raise his hand. As a result the student becomes more confused. You will have the experience that it is very important to clear the basic concepts in Maths , Physics , Chemistry , English etc. If that doesn't happen, it's still a way to get more involved. In the competitive examination after 12th standard, most of the questions are asked by twisting. It doesn't seem to work at all. The student can find the answer only if the concept is clear. But in the last two years, the education system has been disrupted and students and their parents have been in trouble. This is going to have a very long term effec
Read more

Two WhatsApp in one phone!

Image
All of our online lives are divided into two parts, personal and professional. Many people keep two phones or at least two SIM cards in one phone to keep these two things separate. We also have separate Gmail addresses for home and office use. As we know recently, five different accounts can be created and connected simultaneously in Instagram. In all these online services we can easily use different accounts in smartphones. The app for everything remains the same , but we can switch our account in it with the gesture of a finger (a side note - if you have more than one Google account in your smartphone, swipe up or down with your finger on your profile picture that appears in the right corner of each Google service. Your account will be switched!). Among all these , only WhatsApp was a service in which it was possible to use a single account in a single smartphone. If we have separate WhatsApp accounts for personal and business use, we can't get away without having two phone
Read more

Heart rate was 110 beats per minute before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Image
Washington, July 20, 2021, Tuesday As part of the Apollo 11 mission, the US space agency NASA launched Apollo 11 at 1:05 pm local time on July 17. It reached its orbit 15 minutes later. Four days later, the astronauts covered a distance of 3 lakh km and reached the moon. The Apollo 11 mission aroused the curiosity of astronauts and space science enthusiasts. It entered lunar orbit on July 16. It was then decided to land at a place about 50 km southwest of the moon's scatter Sabin dish. The Ranger-2 and Surveyor-2 surveys conducted a comparative study of the area in which the area was found to be flat for landings compared to others. A portion of Apollo 11 was released from the Eagle Command module Scholambias. Neil sent a message to the control center in Houston that they were safe, albeit a short distance from the target. The spacecraft landed northeast of the 50-meter-diameter Swift Cretaceous with 6 seconds of fuel remaining. After the first commander Neil Armstrong landed,
Read more

Finally, get rid of dangerous calls ?!

Image
Which is the most popular app in India ? It is natural that the names of the most popular social media apps , e-commerce sites or games are in this list , but the name of a different type of app in this list also attracts our attention - Truecaller! When the Indian government banned a number of Chinese apps that regularly invaded our country in 2021 , many thought that this Truecaller app would also be banned , as people believed that this app, which is often embroiled in various controversies, would also be Chinese. In fact , Truecaller is a Swedish app and like many other apps , it is hugely popular in India more than other countries. Most likely your phone will have this app and if not , it will have your name in its database! Not all of us take our privacy very seriously , but with the introduction of payment services from UPI in various apps in India , the Government of India has started worrying about our data. As a result, the government has cracked down
Read more

Big upheaval in the world of DTP

Image
- rzrsx÷ {kfuo®xøkLkk s{kLkk{kt zuMfxkuÃk ÃkÂç÷®þøk nðu {kºk «kuVuþLkÕMkLkku Ròhku hÌkku LkÚke What do you think I have to do with desktop publishing ? It was right to ask such a question at one time. Why do we read the pages of the newspaper to prepare the work ? But now times have changed. Now even the people who take orders on the phone and deliver vegetables are doing digital marketing and beautiful , attractive images or videos are the biggest weapons of digital marketing! It is important to know why it is prepared. If you are active in any type of media business, you must know what is going on in the world of designing , as well as if you are in any other type of business and you use social media for its promotion, you must know about designing software. Especially because you don't have the budget to spend on an agency or designer , but if you can spare some time, now you too can prepare attractive designs with a few clicks. There is another reason to talk
Read more

No matter how much the weather changes, the novel Corona virus doesn't matter - study

Image
New York, May 21, 2020, Thursday When a virus or bacterial outbreak naturally increases, it is difficult for it to survive the changing weather. Winter mosquitoes begin to die of heatstroke immediately after the onset of heat in March. The incidence of water borne diseases is higher in the post-monsoon period. The health of the average person is best maintained in winter. Thus, there is a direct relationship between health and weather as pathogens are born and die according to the weather. Winter was raging in many parts of the world when the Novel Corona virus first appeared in China in January. It was clearly believed that the corona virus could not survive above 27 degrees Celsius, but this belief would be false if it were so. A study is being conducted on how the coronavirus, which causes havoc around the world, changes with the changing weather. The results of this study seem disappointing. Corona has infected 5 million people worldwide and killed more than 3 million. Accordin
Read more

Now combine simple tuition classes with coaching apps

Image
Not long ago, small grocery or stationery shopkeepers feared that their customers were being drawn to big malls. Then big and small retailers and malls came to a standstill and it was time for them to face intense competition from online shopping sites. The same is happening now between tuition classes and huge educational platforms. We know that the city of Kota in Rajasthan is known as the capital of the country for coaching classes for competitive exams. Some time ago it happened that a major online educational platform put up billboards in the city of Kota and announced a 95% discount on coaching class fees to students! The condition was that only those students who are enrolled in any real tuition class can get the benefit of this discount. This means that if a student joins a daily tuition class and pays a fee of one lakh rupees or more to prepare for an exam like JEE or NEET , he will have to pay a fee of only five thousand rupees if he joins a virtual tuition class after cl
Read more