What will you find here?

You may know it or not; that you are standing on a sphere mostly of molten rock and metal; 13,000 kilometres wide, with a fuzzy atmosphere 100 kilometres high, surrounded by a magnetic field that protects us from the onslaught of the subatomic particles from the Sun. You must be knowing that our Solar System has 8 planets and 169 moons in total. You will be knowing that our neighbour planet Venus is a fierce ball of fire. You might be knowing that Uranus and Neptune too have rings around them. You must be knowing that there are many craters on the moon’s surface. And that’s for sure that the footprints there are not fading away for an eternity (of ours).

How do we know all this? Thanks to Astronomy. Astronomy, from centuries coming by the strides of human population; has given a lot to us, to study the Cosmos. Astronomers (people who observe and study the universe) since then have made guesses and predictions of what’s happening in the night sky. By evolution of time, Technology has also given its way to improve the studies of the Cosmos by producing great machines like the Telescope, the most important tool used these days to observe the night sky. But there are people who have kept interest on a particular side in Astronomy. Since then, Astronomy is divided into four main branches:

Astrophysics: Astrophysics studies the objects or phenomena in the Cosmos by the methods and principles of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.

Astrobiology: Astrobiology studies and questions if extraterrestrial life exists and if it exists how can humans detect it.

Planetary Geology: Planetary Geology mainly focuses on the geography of a planet or an extrasolar planet ( planets that are situated in other solar systems) over a period of time.

Astrochemistry: Astrochemistry studies the abundance and reactions of molecules in the universe.

Cosmology: Cosmology is the study of the origin, fate and the evolution of the Universe, from the Big Bang to today and to the future.

Then what exactly is Astronomy?

Astronomy is a basic term we use for the ‘study of the universe’. It is mostly based on observations made by Astronomers with some special machines like some advanced telescopes and try to prove the theories that come out with Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.

So, to the main question. What will you find here?

I know, from the overall perspective, you will feel that the universe is complicated or just hard, it’s full of Mathematics and Physics. But if you look closely and grab the curiosity, it’s just your imagination. Imagining is the work of Astronomers! Just imagine and you will get half of the answers to all the puzzling questions. Proving your thoughts is the very last stage. For this, you will need to use Math and Physics, but Amateur Astronomers just think and imagine to find some rough edges of the answers, they don’t prove it.

So, it is my job to increase the curiosity in you so that you can imagine from different perspectives. You will find interesting posts on Physics and Astronomy; New Quizzes every fortnight; And drift into the vacuum with some breathtaking pictures of the most beautiful place: the Cosmos.

!¡TRIVIA TIMEOUT¡!

Can Astrology ever be called as a branch of Astronomy (or even Science)?

Initially, Astrology was defined as ‘the study of the stars’. But by time, Astrology went more into the religious path than the scientific. During ‘Falsification’, a theory proving test where even if a single test is failed for proving the theory is considered the theory to be wrong, many theories from Astrology were proven not be scientific and not being true because they were following by misconceptions. Hence, Astrology became a part of ‘Pseudoscience’ and became a major example of it.

So if you are a one like me, who likes to go out to gaze the stars in the night sky and study about them; I think you are the right person to be called as an (‘Observational’) Astronomer, because they too do the same ;).

Well then, see you in the next post Astronomer! 🙂