The Mysterious Milky Way!
Hello friends,
This is Cameron Ahmad talking to you about Space, the science associated with it, and how Physics plays a role in all that.
In my previous blog, we tried to compare the size of homo sapiens living on this earth to the size of the Milky Way. The logical question that comes to one’s mind is what comprises the Milky Way galaxy. The crisp answer according to Astronomers and Physicists is that the Milky Way galaxy contains Dwarfs, Black Holes, and Neutron Stars while the intervening space between the stars has Gas, and Dust termed as the interstellar medium. Each of the terms mentioned here is a subject of serious research today among astronomers and space scientists coming from multiple disciplines.
So, the Milky Way is a collection of over 5000 planets discovered by astronomers to date that form this galaxy. One within this galaxy is our “Solar System”. At the center of the Solar System is the Sun with eight planets hovering around it. It came into existence as per one estimate in over 14 billion years ago as a result of the dust and gas floating in space coalesced under the force of gravity. The mass of the Sun by one estimate is around 2xE+30 Kgs lying at the center of our solar system.
So, a question may arise, what is the effect of the Sun with such a huge mass in space? To get a whiff of this we can understand it by the Theory of General Relativity without getting entangled with any mathematics and equations. Really? Imagine a bedsheet is stretched by two persons holding its four corners above the ground. Next, a large apple is placed in the middle of this bedsheet while it is in stretched condition. Then, as a result of the mass of the apple, the bedsheet would cure or bend all around it. The bedsheet here represents the space (S) it is occupying at a given time (T). The apple has a mass. No sooner the apple is put in the middle of the bedsheet, it curves around it at that instant (T). This curving of the bedsheet happened only when (T) the apple appeared in its middle, not before it!
So, in such a simple way this enables one to visualize how S-T curvature gets generated by the existence of a mass that leads to the formation of gravity. It is this that forms the General Theory of Relativity propounded by Albert Einstein. Was there any mathematics or an equation required to visualize S-T curvature? NO! By the way, this theory has also been proved mathematically, and experimentally, during the Total Solar Eclipse! Interesting, isn’t it?
Now, there are several billions of stars within the Milky Way. Sun is one such star in it. And around the Sun are planets. The Solar system comprises of eight planets viz., Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Mercury is closest to the Sun. Neptune is the farthest. These planets move around the sun as per Physics’ laws that have been confirmed mathematically and experimentally.
In my previous blog or video, you saw how the Milky Way looks in space. Now, here is how our Solar System and its planets appear within the Milky Way provided by NASA. In our next blog we will talk about the laws that govern the motion of our planets around the Sun, and giving rise to seasons on our earth. Interesting, isn’t it?
Let us stop here to unravel the mystery about space, and the areas under focus by the scientists of the world.
Bye for now till we meet again!
