Thursday 13 October 2011

Universe

 
"The universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature. Scientific observation of earlier stages in the development of the universe, which can be seen at great distances, suggests that the universe has been governed by the same physical laws and constants throughout most of its extent and history. There are various multiverse theories, in which physicists have suggested the universe is one among many universes that likewise exist." (Wikipedia)
 


Universe is defined as, the whole system of existing things, including the earth and everything on it, outer space, and all heavenly bodies. Theories were developed to explain its origin. The Steady State, Plasma theory, Inflation Universe, Big Bounce, Cyclic Universe, Big Bang theory. Among them, the most widely known is the Big Bang Theory.
They say that everything was quiet until a cataclysmic explosion occurred hurling materials in all direction. this bang marked the birth of the universe. there were no galaxies and even atoms at that time except for a dense, very hot (estimated to be 10^32 degrees Celsius) and massive ball, the universe. As time passed, that ball started to expand. its rapid expansion caused it to cool and as it cooled its particles slowed down. The basic components of now began to form. For the next hours, it cooled up to ten million degrees Celsius and the protons and neutrons combined causing the formation of helium, the element that we can find now in the universe. The cooling didn't stopped and reached the temperature of 3000 degrees Celsius and electrons combined with nuclei to form neutral atoms. it took another billion of years for gravity to form the first stars and early galaxies.

Universe until now remains a mystery and man still seek for further information to answer the questions on their minds and they would not stop until they are contented.

Sun and Its Family


 
 
The development and acceptance of the heliocentric system (sun-centered/solar system), where the sun is considered as the center of the eight planets, helped the astronomers predict the position of the planets and its orbits. it has been indicated that the solar system consists of an ordinary star, the Sun, and around it revolved the planets and other heavenly bodies.




Planets were divided into two groups. First, the inner planets(Terrestrial planets). this consist of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Second, the outer planets(Jovian planets). Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are the planets that belong to this group. 
 
 
Below are the information about each planet:

Mercury- The smallest planet among the four inner planets. It makes one revolution around the sun in 88 earth's day. It is named after the messenger of the Greek gods. It is also considered as the hottest and coldest planet because there are no wind to carry heat from one region to another during night time due to very little atmosphere.
Inner Planets

Venus- the brightest star in the evening and in the morning sky. Because of its beauty, it is named after the goddess Venus. it is also considered as the twin sister of earth. its revolution is 225 earth days long. It has very dense atmosphere and opaque cloud cover and a green house that makes its atmosphere very hot.

Earth- the only planet that is capable for living organisms because of the atmosphere that enveloped it. It is also known as the Blue planet due to the abundance of its ocean. It revolves around the sun within 365 days.

Mars- this planet was named after the god of war. Its reddish color is due to the abundance of ferric oxide on its surface.It is smaller compared to earth and venus. It has low atmospheric pressure, lacks oxygen, scarcity of water and extreme change in temperature.



Outer Planets
 
Jupiter- the biggest among the planets. It was named after the ruler of Olympian gods due to its size. It is more liquid than gaseous and solid. Its atmospheres composition consist of hydrogen, helium, methane, ammonia and other molecules.

Saturn- A unique planet because of its rings. The slowest moving planet because of its slow pace. Its rings are composed of chunks of frozen water and rocks.  Its largest satellite is Titan.


Uranus- Discovered by William Herscbel in 1781. Its axis is tilted to 98 to the perpendicular of its Jupiter and Saturn because it has no internal source of heat.

Neptune- Its atmospheric composition is mainly hydrogen and methane with some helium and ammonia. Its largest satellite is Triton. It was named after the god of the sea.

Monday 12 September 2011

Weather and Climate in the Philippines


Weather and climate are two terms that differ from each other. In some books, they define weather as the present condition of the atmosphere while climate is the average of all weather conditions of an area over a long period of time.
Weather conditions vary from day today due to the constant movement of the air and moisture in the atmosphere.  During weather forecasts, we can always hear the terms fine, fair, rainy and stormy weather. Here in the Philippines, we can experience all those types of weather stated above though we those things do not happen at the same time. Every place has its own type of weather each day and it also changes from time to time.
Our weather here in our country is characterized by extremely high temperature which can be well illustrated by the fact that even during the coolest months of the year the temperature doesn't fall below 25 ° C. Another important factor that influences Weather Philippines is a high level of humidity which is again interrelated with the high temperature. The average annual humidity of Philippines remains in-between 71% to 85%. 
 
Philippines is located in between the Tropic Cancer and Capricorn. Areas within these tropics experience either tropical rainforest, tropical savanna or tropical monsoon, or humid subtropical (in higher-altitude areas) characterized by relatively high temperature, oppressive humidity and plenty of rainfall. There are four recognized climate types in the Philippines, and they are based on the distribution of rainfall. They are described as follows:
  • Type I. Two pronounced season: dry from November to April and wet during the rest of the year.
  • Type II. No dry season with a pronounced rainfall from November to January.
  • Type III. Seasons are not very pronounced, relatively dry from November to April, and wet during the rest of the year.
  • Type IV. Rainfall is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year.(Wikipedia)
Each county has its own weather and climate. There are times that these climate causes damage or gain to them but the most important is how they manage or adopt to these things for it to be useful.

Sunday 31 July 2011

Effects of Internal Geoprocesses

By just barely looking at the things around us, like the mountains, valleys, etc., it seems like earth’s crust is very stable. It seemed that there was no movement happened. That mountain appears by itself, so as with the other land forms. But, to those people who believe that there is a pressure strong enough to bend rocks and heat hot enough to melt rocks beneath the earth’ crust, everything happened for a reason. These processes tend not to end. In fact ever since the earth was born the crust has never been restless.


Theories were developed by scientists to explain these internal geologic processes. Among those theories, they accepted the Plate Tectonic Theory. This states that earth’s crust is consist of plates which are pulling away from one another, sliding or moving towards each other.


There were three types of plate boundaries based on the said movement. First is the convergent boundary, which plates move together and produce mountain ranges, like Himalayas, and trenches. Second is the divergent boundary where plates move away from each other and produces valleys. Last is the transform boundary where plates slide with one another and creates fault lines like the San Andreas Fault. Among these plate boundaries, earthquakes occur mostly.


Earth had been very amazing. Though we can’t see any actions or movements that happened beneath the crust we still believe that they really occur and results to the things that we can see around us.

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Significance of Science and Technology in Our Lives

Science and technology, we can always notice these words together though they both don’t have the same meaning but they are still connected with each other. Science and technology contributes good things in our lives but at the same time, they also do have disadvantages.

The great contribute of science in our lives is to explain how things came to existence. Just like how the universe started. Science could tell us how it came from nothing to something. The magic of science did not end yet. It can also explain to us how things behave and the characteristics and properties that they have.

On the other hand, science has its disadvantages. Due to science’ explanations, people lose faith in God. They don’t believe anymore on what was written on the Bible. They only focus themselves on finding ways to explain things scientifically. Most likely, scientists only believe in the things if they can see it.


Next is technology.  Nowadays, technology almost ruled everything in this world. People use technology to satisfy their needs. They use it to make things to easier for them. Like computer which can be used on office works to make the burdens of the employees be lighter.

Just like science, technology also has its disadvantages. Above all, technology causes people to be lazy. They just depend their works to technology. They just focus themselves on the saying, “technology could make things easier.” Lastly, is the misuse of technology which causes the destruction of our nature.

As time moves forward, the more the science and technology influenced our lives. As long as science can discover more things, technology also became more advance and find more ways to make life easier that we’ve ever expected.