Ever since man has been aware of worlds beyond our own, he has begun to wonder whether he is alone in the Universe. Do other races of creatures very different or perhaps quite similar to ourselves exist on distant planets? This desire to explore beyond the confines of our world and to imagine what possible life forms could exist on …

In a way, this is true of the north and south polar regions, and is caused by the tilt of the earth in relation to the sun. In fact, summer at the north pole is a time when the sun never actually sets from March to September, because the earth does not tilt enough for it to disappear below the …

Since the discovery of the outermost planet Pluto, in 1930, astronomers have wondered whether another planet might exist unseen in the outer darkness. They have looked, but nothing has been found. Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto, photographed the entire sky in search of extra planets. He concluded that if any other planets existed they must either be very …

In 1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the galaxies are moving apart from each other at high speed. The Universe is expanding like a balloon being inflated. The further apart the galaxies are, the faster they move. For instance, a galaxy 10 million light years away gets 300 km (187 miles) further from us every second. A galaxy …

It is confusing fact that there is both an air breathing mammal called dolphin that lives in the sea, and also a true fish of the same name. There are two kinds of dolphin fish. One is quite large and grows to about 5 feet in length, and the other is similar in looks but grows to only 2 feet. …

Rain water is considered the purest form of water. Impurities and salts present in water on earth are left behind during vaporisation by the sun. However, the rain water we receive on earth is not necessarily pure, as it brings down impurities and particles present in the atmosphere along with it.

Yes, it is. The theory of relativity treats time as the fourth dimension, which has a barrier as any other force. It is also stated that the time barrier can be broken if the speed of light is achieved. But there is a catch. According to the theory, to achieve the speed of light you need to have an infinite …

Wireless electric power transfer is theoretically possible and it’s in the R&D phase of many leading research labs in the world. Nasa hopes to power its Mars Rover wirelessly in future missions. The basic technology is simple: rectify the received microwave signal using a microwave low-pass filter and a diode. This structure is called rectenna (rectifier + antenna). Many Radio …

Theoretically, no, as the plane of orbit of each planet is tilted slightly in relation to other planets. However, if we ignore the intra-orbital plane tilt, then the chance of all planets (eight now excluding Pluto) to be at the right ascension with respect to sun at same time would be once in 180 trillion years. For an exact alignment, …

How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I think I’ll go out for a breathe of fresh air’? Have you ever stopped to think what this means in our industrialized world? Of course, if you happen to be living high up among the mountains where there is little or no industry and few people, your chances of finding fresh …