Today I Had...

Earth  formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion from the solar nebula. Volcanic outgassing probably  created  the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen.  The earliest  life  forms we know of were microscopic organisms (microbes) that left signals of their presence in rocks about 3.7 billion years old. The signals consisted of a type of carbon molecule that is produced by living things.  Oxygen is the gas that is required for the  life  of most creatures. This is present in the  Earth's  atmosphere and also in water. Oxygen is constantly put into the atmosphere by plants and trees.  Earth's  atmosphere also contains a small amount of carbon dioxide. I n March 2017, putative evidence of possibly the oldest forms of  life  on  Earth  was reported in the form of fossilized microorganisms disco...

From the planets to the stars and out to the edge of the unknown, history and science collide in THE UNIVERSE. With ground-breaking new discoveries and even more mysterious questions arising with more we know ,  it’s a wondrous yet deadly adventure through space and time. Fifty years have flown by since man first ventured into outer space, but the heavens are only now yielding their greatest secrets. Like the destructive impact on Jupiter reported to be by a comet or asteroid nearly the size of Earth, new phenomena are being discovered almost daily. Scientists are finding new planets and views into the deepest reaches of space, breaking new ground in understanding the universe and its mysteries. In this article, readers will be transported to new and mysterious places including ones we didn’t even know existed a year ago—some harboring deadly forces that may forever impact life on Earth. The Birth of the Universe The more we discover the more we realize how little we know of the un...

This year has been mostly been in the news due to reasons which were more on the negative side. Out of the many reasons why the year has been a test to humanity, one is the continual passing of asteroids. Although most of them passed the Earth at a far-off distance, Earth had a close shave with some of these asteroids. But a large section of the population is not very familiar with what an asteroid is and how does it matter to us, Earthlings. Not all asteroids are to be feared. Asteroids are rich in rare minerals, which if mined & extracted could fetch multi-quadrillions in currency value back here on Earth. So let's go ahead and find out more about our love-hate relation with asteroids. There are innumerable asteroids in our Solar System orbiting the Sun. The Rock of the Space Asteroids are boulders orbiting the Sun, with sizes ranging from some hundred metres to several kilometres. An asteroid is called a meteorite if it hits the Earth. If it completely evaporates in the Eart...

"Twinkle Twinkle little stars, how I wonder what you are". This is a small extract from arguably the most famous nursery rhymes that we have learned during our kindergarten years and now our next generation are also learning the same and probable the cycle will continue. Stars have long been a part of many traditional folktales across the globe and have mystified the ancient folks with their mere presence in the night skies. In medieval times, sailors have used the star position in the night sky to navigate their way to different places. Even now stars play with our imagination and make us wonder about interstellar travel. As we all know that the Sun is the nearest star, but very few know anything more than that. Like what is a star made of, Which star is nearest to Earth after the Sun and so on. So let's discuss the fantastic existence of the Stars. Stars are one of the most common celestial objects in a child's sketch What are Stars? When we look up at the night sky...

The multiverse theory   suggests that our universe is just one of many in an infinite multiverse where new universes are constantly being born. It seems likely that baby universes are produced with a wide range of physical laws and fundamental constants, but that only a tiny fraction of these are hospitable for life. It would therefore make sense that there is a universe with the strange fundamental constants we see, finely tuned to be hospitable for life. But now our new discovery, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, complicates things by suggesting that life may actually be a lot more common in parallel universes than we had thought. Atoms vibrating in different frequencies occupy respective vibration dimensions in space and time While there is no physical evidence that parallel universes exist (at the moment), the theories that explain how our universe came to be seem to suggest that they are inevitable. Our universe started with a Big Bang, follo...

Given the size of the universe - there are at least 100 billion stars in our home galaxy alone and perhaps 100 billion galaxies of much the same size scattered throughout deep space - few scientists believe that the Earth is the only home of life. But until quite recently, the field of exobiology - the study of extraterrestrial life also known as astro-biology - was almost moribund. It could come up with some interesting speculations but that was about all. The most vital 'exobiology' discoveries, though, were made right here on Earth. Biologists have learned that life is much more robust that most scientists believed 30 years ago. Earth micro-organisms have been found thriving in astonishingly hostile environments. Deep beneath the oceans, for example, near the volcanic vents known as black smokers, some microbes grow and multiply at temperatures above 110 degrees - according to some scientists, perhaps as high as 170 degrees. The concept of alien-life forms has always intrigu...