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• Duttada, an amateur scientist, can’t stay away from the keen eyed
Dibya Chakshu ( his telescope) for long.
• Duttada's secret ambition was to discover a new Comet
• One night, Duttada detects a new comet.
• Thereafter it is named after the discoverer as the ‘’Comet Dutta’’.
• Indian Institute of Astrophysics conforms his findings.
• His wife Indrani Debi, wishes he hadn’t found the comet.
• A British scientist writes a paper based on Duttada’s discovery.
• A conference of international experts is convened to yield a clue to
the cosmic puzzle.
• Duttada and the British defence Science Advisor have a meeting
over the impending calamity.
• The problem was that the Comet Dutta was to collide with the earth.
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The experts calculated that the bulk of destructive nuclear power
available on earth would be needed to achieve this mammoth task.
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The project ‘’LIGTH BRIGADE’’ was the name of the space mission
to stop Comet Dutta from collision with the earth.
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Duttada returns home to a warm welcome and a ceremony.
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On November 18 Duttada receives a secret message, indicating the
success of the mission and then he rushes to the sweet shop.
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On 15 December the Comet Dutta passes the earth at a distance of
80,000 km.
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Duttada believed in scientific logic but there are many people who
believe in superstition.
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His wife believed in superstition and concluded the collision was
avoided because of the ‘yagna’ perfomed by her grandson.
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An Indian astrophysicist
A proponent of steady state cosmology
He developed with Sir Fred Hoyle the conformal gravity theory,
commonly known as Hoyle–Narlikar theory
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Born: July 19, 1938, Kolhapur
Education: Banaras Hindu University,
University of Cambridge
Awards: Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan
In 1966 joined Institute of Theoretical
Astronomy in Cambridge University
In 1972 joined as professor of Theoretical
physics at the Tata institute of Fundamental
Research, Mumbai
In 1989 took charge as Founder-Director of
Inter university centre for astronomy &
astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune
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Comets are small icy bodies
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Travel past the Sun
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Give off gas and dust as they pass by
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Comets have a nucleus, coma and tail
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Nucleus (very small, about 10 km across) rock & ices (mostly
H2O and CO2 [dry ice], some methane CH4 & ammonia NH3)
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Coma (103 to 105 km in diameter) is gaseous & is a cloud of
evaporated ices and ions. As comet approaches Sun ices
sublime, change from solid to gas, dust grains loosen and
move away
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Tails (105 km to 1 AU long), always points away from the Sun.
Solar wind (steady stream of solar particles) pushes gas away;
dust continues to orbit Sun.
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Small bodies
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Believed to be left over from the beginning of the solar system
billions of years ago
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100,000 asteroids lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
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Largest asteroids have been given names
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Asteroids show up as streaks on photos
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Since they orbit the Sun, they are observed to move with respect to
the stars
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Asteroids are typically cratered and irregularly shaped
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Composition of Asteriods are:
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Carbonaceous—containing carbon
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Rocky—mostly silicates
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Metallic—iron and nickel rich
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Asteroids show up as streaks on photos
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Meteors burn up in the atmosphere; meteorites don’t; impacts can
and do happen
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Meteor Crater, Arizona
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50,000 years old
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Projectile was 50 meter diameter, metallic asteroid
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Crater diameter is 1.2 km, 200 m deep
Stony-Irons
Irons
Carbonaceous
Chondrite
Chondrites
Achondrite
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An iron meteorite 100 feet across and 70,000 tons slammed into the
Earth at about 43,000mph in the Arizona desert near Flagstaff 40,000
years ago.
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Barringer Crater is 4,100 feet wide and 571 feet deep.
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Our Galaxy is a collection of
stellar and interstellar matter –
stars, gas, dust, neutron stars,
black holes – held together by
gravity.
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1610 -Galileo discovered the
Milky Way is comprised of many
stars
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Our solar system is made up of:
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Sun
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Nine planets
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Their moons
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Asteroids
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Comets
The inner four rocky planets at the
center of the solar system are:
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Mercury
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Venus
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Earth
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Mars
The outer planets composed of gas
are :
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Jupiter
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Saturn
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Uranus
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Neptune
• The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried
into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation
• Orbit height: 569 km
• Launch date: April 24,
1990
• Speed on orbit: 7.5 km/s
• Power: 2,800 watts