Light 2

Objects that emit light of their own are called Luminous objects. For example - Sun, stars etc. Whereas objects that do not emit light but are visible because light from other sources fall on them are called Non-luminous objects. For example - moon, chair, table, wall etc.
If light rays coming from an object meet or appear to meet at a point after reflection or refraction, then that point is called image of the object. If the rays actually meet then that is called a real image, and if the rays appear to meet then that is a virtual image.

Light 1 : Introduction

Light is an electromagnetic radiation that helps in the sensation of sight.The different properties of light can be understood only if we consider its dual character - wave and particle.
Many optical phenomena can be understood if we consider light as waves. Some characteristics of light waves are -
1. They are electromagnetic in nature. They consist of oscillating electric and magnetic fields at mutually perpendicular planes in same frequency.
2. They do not require any material medium for their propagation. Light from Sun reaches Earth travelling vast expanse of space where nothing exists.
3. Light waves travel with a speed of 30,00,00,000 m/s in vacuum or free space.
But, the speed of light decreases when it travels through a medium of higher density.
A light wave propagates from source to destination in one single straight line, which we generally refer to as a 'Ray'. A collection of such rays make a beam of light

Attempts to watch the heavens..

The night sky, with its large number of twinkling stars, have always fascinated mankind. Since the dawn of civilization, attempts were made and further improvements followed for making that perfect instrument for observing the stars, the planets and other celestial objects. What followed was a series of developments in the area of Optics, to achieve that perfect instrument, which now has lead to building of telescopes and satellites.

In 1300, Greek philosophers and astronomers already knew about the properties of lenses. They even tried to manufacture lenses, without bubbles, that could be used for reading glasses. What followed was arrival of eyeglasses in the cities like Florence and Venice. But they were not for both eyes, they were small lenses mounted on small cylindrical cases, that nowadays you can see used by jewelry-makers.

In 1608, the govt. of Netherlands asked the manufacturers to make an instrument that would help in seeing far-away objects clearly. The govt. would take patent for the instrument. What followed, was a man named Jacob Metins provided the basic mechanism, using only two lenses. Hans Lipperhey designed the instrument, but the mechanism was so simple that the govt. didn't give any patent for this instrument - the instrument that we call Binocular these days. Till now the stars were heavenly objects whose patterns and brilliance was believed to be ruled by Gods. But this instrument shifted the authority of what we observe, from their hands!

Galileo's Telescope

By that time, in around 1543, a brilliant man named Nicholus Copernicus had already told the concept of heliocentricity - the fact that it was sun at the centre and Earth rotates around it. The theory challenged the words of the Bible and was controversial in its time. Galileo Galilei, in 1609, made his first refractive telescope for his personal use. He used a concave lens as the eyepiece, and a convex lens as the objective. He allowed his patrons to use this, but was not satisfied as the glass used in the lenses had green tint and bubbles. As a result, the images obtained were blurred and had colourful haloes. But the positive aspect was that he achieved 9 times magnification.

Galileo's model was modified by Johannes Kepler in 1611. Instead of two different lenses ; he used two convex lenses. The result was high magnification with better clarity of the image. Though the image was upside down, it didn't matter for observing celestial objects. This was the first telescope.

Spherical and chromatic aberration still posed a problem. The craftsmen tried to get better image quality by decreasing the curvature of the lenses, thereby, increasing the focal length. As a result, the telescopes became longer in size.Gradually telescopes of length 15-20 ft became very common. The most prominent work done; was by Havelius in 1673.

Havelius telescope

Huygen and his brother Constantine achieved 100 times magnification through their telescope measuring 23 ft, in 1656. They got to observe the great Orion nebula.

Shaping up of Modern World

About hundreds of millions of years ago, when the Earth was formed, the Earth was a hot ball of molten substances containing everything that we see around us today. But gradually, with time, the upper surfaces began to cool and solidify. This process of cooling continued for millions of years forming the upper surface of the Earth - the Crust. The crust, thus, floats on semi-molten layers of elements and rocks of the mantle. This layer is also called Asthenosphere where the radioactive processes still continue and the heat generated here comes towards the surface of the Earth in Convection currents.

Convection currents within Earth

It is believed that there were two large blocks of land formed from a single large block the Pangea - the Laurasia plate(Sometimes called Angaraland) and the Gondwanaland. While the former was in the Northern hemisphere the Gondwanaland was in the southern hemisphere. The convection currents broke and drifted these large chunks of land according to the Continental Drift Theory. These gave rise to formation of different tectonic plates. These tectonic plates further collides and slide against each other giving rise to major earthquakes and large sea waves. The evidence of a single large landmass is provided by the fact that the soil types and kind of fossil that are found on both the sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Pangea

Different tectonic plates

In this way, the modern world map came into existence, along with the 7 major tectonic plates - the North American, the South American, the Eurasian, the African, the Indo-Australian, the Pacific and the Antarctic plates.

Organic Evolution

Variation is important and occurs naturally for a species. As was put forward by Darwin's theory, the complex forms of life, that we observe around us today, were actually the result of continuous change and development of simpler forms of life, obviously the process is time consuming and is endless. Speaking lucidly, the gradual change of life forms from simple to complex is known as Organic Evolution.

Embryology is the study of development of an organism from egg to adult. Strikingly it is observed that for different vertebrates, the embryos resemble one another; though they may belong to different species altogether. The fact that the embryos of a fish, a frog, a turtle or a man resemble each other is a direct proof of evolution. We may infer that they have evolved from some common ancestor, over time.

Embryos of different vertebrates

Starting of Life from meteorites

The Andes range in South America is well known as a place for finding meteorites. It is known, that the meteorites were formed actually during the time of formation of solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. They are believed to have remained unchanged since then. So a close study of their constituents and properties actually revealed the nature of the substances that made up the different planets, moons, comets etc. In other words, their nature reveals the form of our planet; in which it existed; when it was first formed.

The Andes mountain range

These meteorites are actually pieces of rock, of different sizes and shapes, that travel through the solar system, and sometimes; they may even actually fall on Earth. Studies reveal that they contain a vital ingredient called amino acids, which are the essential building blocks for proteins. Proteins are vital substances found in all living creatures. The Carbon - another essential ingredient for all living things, is also produced in the heart of a star (as was described in a previous article). 

Section of a meteorite : the yellow points are amino acids

So, everything that we see around us, is actually built somewhere in the space in their most elementary forms. The universe is believed to have been created from the Big Bang, in which matters just burst out into space. Subatomic particles acquired mass in the process - amongst them were the quarks. Gradually as the temperature of the universe decreased, these particles joined to form larger, more complex structures like protons and neutrons. These protons and neutrons again came together; to form the building blocks of all elements - the nucleus. The basic difference in matters, that we see around, is due to difference in the structure of this nucleus. The difference in structure of these nuclei results in 92 different elements that can be found.

Oh ! Dear Gold !

The cosmos never fail in conspiring different ways to amaze us and make us wonder about its different beautiful aspects.

A nebula - the blue lights are the stars that are forming

About 13.5 billion years ago, when our universe didn't take shape that we observe today, there was only gaseous Hydrogen of a nebula from which it was formed. Hydrogen is lightest of all the elements that can be found anywhere. These atoms of hydrogen, or the tiny mass-points, were pulled together by gravity - a force that manifests itself fully with increasing mass. These clusters of mass-points produced hydrogen-clouds. Gradually with increasing conglomeration of more Hydrogen atoms; the gravity increased followed by rise in temperature. The process repeats itself time and again until a massive central core is formed with high density and temperature. The energy of the particles that are pushed towards the centre of the nebula gets converted into heat energy, thereby, increasing the temperature of the core of the nebula. Finally, a temperature of about 10million degrees is reached; when accidentally by the process of nuclear fusion, the Hydrogen at the core gets converted into the next heavier element - Helium. This nuclear reaction is followed by further rise in temperature and the energy is radiated in the form of heat and light. This is how a star is born. This is a thousand times bigger than our sun and is deep blue in colour.

The star that is born

Helium being heavier than Hydrogen sinks down to the centre of the star, the layers of Hydrogen outside the core provides the fuel required to continue the nuclear fusion process at the centre. These hydrogen-clouds are  further used up by the core to produce more Helium and the process is repeated time and again. The mass of the core increases, gravitational pull increases, further increasing the temperature. At such a high temperature, the Helium atoms fuse together forming heavier elements like Carbon(a vital element found in every living thing) and Oxygen. This process of fusion goes on repeating to produce different elements of heavier mass and finally Iron is formed. Now, this iron cannot undergo any fusion reaction further to produce heavier elements. The star which was increasing in size and temperature becomes gigantic and glows with a red colour. This is then called a Red Giant.

Red giant

While the gravitational forces tend to contract the star, the energy released by nuclear fusion taking place at the centre; pushes the matter out. An equilibrium is reached when these two opposing forces balance each other. Then the size of the star remains constant for almost a few billion years.

At a time when all the surrounding Hydrogen  are used up in the core and the star is mostly made of Iron, the nuclear furnace at the centre stops and the equilibrium is lost. Gravity now takes over - squashing all the Iron and other elements that were produced at the centre. This process is accompanied by increase in density as well as rise in temperature to about 100 times the core of our sun! Finally the star collapses and explodes, giving out enormous amount of light - a process called 'death of the star'. The exploding star throwing out large amount of matter and light in the space is a visual treat and is called a Supernova. 

                      Hubble Space Telescope image showing Supernova 1994D in galaxy NGC 4526

From the remnants of this explosion some of the most valued elements are formed! This explosion, for a brief microsecond, forces the Iron to fuse to produce heavier elements - like Gold, Platinum, Lead. So in a way, they are forged in the heart of an exploding star at its time of death!

A chunk of Gold

So, if you have a gold ring; make sure you appreciate it. The metal was built in a blinding flash of light billions of years ago!