The Story of Rossetta and Philae

So you are thinking who are these people and why should we be interested in their story. Well firstly, they are not people. Maybe that’s what makes this an interesting story.

Humans have always been fascinated by space. We have wondered about our own solar system, Galaxy, the Universe and are constantly looking to explore. With our curiosity and the technology that we now posses, we send missions to nearby objects.

Rossetta and Philae were sent on one such mission to the Comet 67P a.k.a Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta being the spacecraft that would make the journey to the comet and orbit around it; and Philae being the probe that would land on this comet. The plan was for Rosetta to carry Philae near the comet, and drop it such that it lands at the desired site on 67P. Then Philae could do some science on the surface of this comet and communicate with Rosetta, which in turn would communicate back to earth. This is the first mission to ever land a probe on a comet.

Smaller objects like comets and asteroids are interesting bodies, as they give us insight to the origins of our solar system; and possibly, even answer key questions to origins of life.

This mission started in 1996 and the launch spacecraft was on March 2004, and Philae was able to land on Comet 67P on November 2014. That’s right, this trip took a decade. It wasn’t a linear trip from Earth to 67P. On its way, Rosetta had to perform few gravity assist flyby’s; one with Mars and rest with couple of asteroids. Their journey itself is epic, and highlights the amount of effort it takes for space travel.

So on reaching closer to Comet 67P, Rosetta (carrying Philae with it) started orbiting the comet for few days to align it to make the drop. Keep in mind that, Comet 67P travels at 135,000 Km / hr. Eventually, Rosetta had to let go of Philae so it could land. However things do go wrong, and Philae was not able to secure itself to the original site as planned on the comet. In fact, due to 67P’s speed and the drop velocity of the probe, Philae bounced 4 times on the surface and landed on the side that was facing away from the Sun. Damaged by the landing impact and unable to charge its solar powered batteries, Philae did send back signals and data it could collect from 67P until its primary batteries lasted, and then went into silent-hibernation, unable to communicate with Rosetta.

Although they were just a spacecraft and a probe, but they had been together for a decade, making a journey into the unknown, and in the very next moment there was total silence, no contact whatsoever. Can imagine how that would feel if they were real people.
How would the scientists who worked on this mission have felt?

So there it was, Rosetta kept orbiting Comet 67P, searching for signs of Philae. Those working on this mission had concluded that Philae would never contact back, mainly due to its impact upon landing. However, few months later, in June 2015, Philae did make contact with Rosetta, as it faced the sun and charged its batteries. There were only 8 intermittent contacts though from June to July, before Philae finally stopped communicating.

And during its time of activity, Philae was able to do some science and found 16 organic compounds, few of them being acetamide, acetone, methyl isocyanate and proionaldehyde. Out of which the last one is a compound found in our DNA. There were also traces of molecular oxygen (which is very rare to find in space) and heavy water (has isotope of Hydrogen i.e Deuterium).

After sending all these interesting information Philae went silent and hasn’t spoken since.  Rosetta is still orbiting Comet 67P from a distance of 170 to 200 km from its surface. This is how the Comet 67 looks when viewed by Rosetta; or click here. 

Well the mission funding will be over soon, and the question is what should be done with Rosetta. The plan for now is, it will continue to orbit 67P and gather information. And soon, for its end of life, would be made to land on the comet; which wasn’t the original part of the plan. Things are being worked out as to how to make a soft landing and not crash it.

So the final resting place for Rosetta would be where Philae is, on the surface of Comet 67P. Who knows, how the re-union would be.

This is why I love Astronomy. There are stories, there is wonder and there are possibilities. It’s one kind of poetry.

That Tiny Spec !!!

Finally had clear skies after the on and off grey monsoon clouds. Got my telescope pointing towards the sky and well, even though there were no clouds, could hardly see any distant objects. Guess its the city pollution. After tens of minutes of rigorous sky searching, was able to see this. (check the image below)

Yup, just a tiny spec ! Rather a tiny dot. And oh yeah, thought I need to mention this here, that its not a star :D

Its the galaxy M-13, also known as NGC 6205. Read that again. It is not a star, but a Galaxy ! Compared to our own Milky Way galaxy, it is very small. M-13 has only 300,000 stars (thats 300 thousand.......and yes i said only) within it. Milky way has more than 100 Billion stars, so yeah hardly a comparison. But the wonder and excitement for me was to see what appears a tiny dot in the night sky, is actually a galaxy with about 300,000 stars inside it :). M-13 is 145 light years wide. So light takes about 145 years to travel from its one side to the other. And it is just 25,000 light years away from our Earth :D. So that image I just clicked of M-13 is of the light it emitted 25,000 years ago, which means how it looked that many years ago. And how it is right now, shall know after 25,000 years. ...... too complicated?? or interesting?? :) Universe is vast, can make one truly wonder !

So when we look at the sky everything that shines need not be a star or a planet. Who knows how far that object is, and how many magnificent worlds it has within it.

There was one more dot in the image attached, to the right of M-13, but was so faint that could not be captured with my camera. That too was a galaxy 'M-91', which is about 63 million light years away from Earth. So technically, if we could travel there right now and look back at earth, we would see the extinction of Dinosaurs !!!

Identity Crisis !

Note - Wanted to write tonnes of material in this post, however due to time constraints have managed to use minimum words to convey the topic. I am sure many will not understand it. All i can say is Happy reading and hope it makes sense.

It all starts with Male and Female. That’s the first level of separation or identity of our kind, the Homo Sapiens.  Over the years, we humans have evolved in a manner where we like to identify, label and categorize everything.

We identify ourselves based on our religion. I am a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew ….endless

For centuries we were rigid about our religious beliefs that every other religion apart from ours was considered wrong and evil. There’s a gradual shift in most of our ( when I say ‘our’, it represents we as a whole, the entire human race) mindset where in we are now tolerant to other faiths. Some are still not. And until those ‘some’ feel theirs is the only right religion or path in life; hate will remain, shootings will take place, bombs will explode, and innocent people will die.

And bombs will explode also due to another identity of ours that we dearly hold on to. Our patriotism; which makes us ( when I say ‘us’, it represents we as a whole, the entire human race) so arrogant that every person feels  their nation is always right with respect to other. Do we need this? Do we want to be associated with a small piece of land, or do we rather prefer being associated with this magnificent planet called Earth. Are we not Earth citizens rather than country citizens? All of us, including you and me, are part of this ever expanding, seemingly infinite Universe. So to think about it at such a grand scale, the Earth itself is an insignificant spec.

Let us take a look. This picture is of our Galaxy, the Milky Way (and i hope those reading do understand what a Galaxy is).

I know; its impossible to even spot our Solar System in here, let alone Earth. And this is just one galaxy. Let us look further.

Each dot is a Galaxy (yup, those are Not stars! ). Real Beauty........isn't it! Sigh!

Such is our Universe. Its so huge, that the word 'huge' itself is insignificant in this context. Now where are you, me and we in it?

And here we are, until 2013, with our identities of religion, organizations, nations; and fighting over issues that are insignificant when compared to the nature of our universe. This Identity Crisis will however remain for a long time, but we as the most intelligent beings around (i hope so), can raise our consciousness, to be universal citizens and; be good do good. 

PS: Wishing everyone a Happy 2014 :)

Chickened ......... Out !!!

Monsoon 2013 behaved like a good student isn’t it? Started exactly in June and was not one day late for schoolJ. Rains in Mumbai invoke the tourist in us to get out of the city and explore nature. Few weeks back went out of for a short road trip. Awesome scenery, serene landscapes, pleasant winds were all part of it as usual, but this post has nothing to do with the trip; more about it maybe some other time.

Well after that candid introduction; let me jump in straight to the topic. We left Mumbai at early morning to avoid the weekend rush, but got stuck for awhile at the Mumbai – Pune express way. Not a packed traffic jam, but good enough for an expressway. Ten minutes later, realized that a chicken truck (the one that carries chickens J ), had stopped in the middle of the road and few Express way cops were investigating it.  The cops and few local villagers pushed the vehicle to the side and started clearing the traffic. 

Meanwhile, the driver walked towards back of that truck and opened the cage; and whhhooooossssssshhhhhh. Like a pack of cards, all the chickens fell out. Yes, you read it right, its ‘fell out’ and not ‘flew out’; since they were all dead…….khalaaasss. The truck driver, owner or whoever; too was surprised to see all of them dead. There were maybe 200 – 300 approx. How did they die? Maybe because of the heavy rains, being cramped in cages, some flue, infection or who knows what. He started panicking and explaining the cops that they were alive when he last checked. He then handed over few dead chickens to the cops and villagers [chicken bribe ;)] and asked them to help load back the truck.

The villagers were happy to get free chickens. You could tell from their excitement. They were holding them by their legs and waving in the air like a prized achievement. But I wonder what would happen of the remaining dead bodies…………I mean the dead chickens. Probably they would still end up at their destination – some slaughter house or a hotel. And still be served to the end consumer; that is we humans.

The sight of the dead chickens lying on the road and then being loaded in the truck was pretty awful. I am a veggie and it does not bother me much. But I had others with me who love eating chicken and were disgusted by the sight of it. It was a short moment of realization for all of us that we enjoy eating chicken when cooked and fried; but for it to get on to our plate, we don’t even bother or care to know how much suffering That life has to undergo to entice our taste buds.

Like the famous magicians Penn and Teller (total respect for their magic) would say……..it’s only a god dam chicken!!! (no respect for this statement of theirs). Some may also counter argue saying:

1.       Even plants have life, so what about their suffering when the vegetarians eat them?

2.       Its survival of the fittest buddy.

3.       There are so many chicken in this world, why not make use of them by eating them.

Case 1: Let’s take a situation where no one is going to serve us food for one day. We have to get and cook our food all by ourselves. There is a living chicken in front of us and potato plant (or any other veggie plant). Would you kill the chicken, cut its throat, pluck its feather, chop it into pieces and cook it OR pluck the vegetable, cut it into pieces and cook it?

My choice would be to pluck the veggie and cook it. If I cannot harm or kill a life myself, I prefer not eating it as well. Your choice may differ and you have the right to stick by it.

Case 2: Question of Survival arises only when there is a threat. What threat do chickens have for humans? In fact it’s we humans who are a threat to these species …maybe they should fight back J.

Case 3: True, so many chickens. Most of them we have forcefully grown. But if that’s the argument, then why stop at chicken? There are so many crows around. Why not consume the crows as well and make use of them? J

I haven’t posted any pictures in this post; did not want you all to feel disgusted by it. But next time you eat food, would be wise to spend a moment to ponder on what has it taken to prepare that meal for you.

This post is not to debate about veg or non-veg food. What we put into our mouth is entirely our choiceJ…………food is anyways a personal choice. 

Ship of Theseus

Had never heard about this movie until couple of days back, and was unsure if I would be watching ‘Ship of Theseus” on a big screen. I checked its trailer and teasers on YouTube, and then was absolutely sure that I’ll not be missing this one :)

The intention of this movie is revealed by three stories that appear disconnected until the last 2 min’s or so. Three different stories have three different characters that mesmerize the audience with their almost real to life performances. First story is about a young intuitive photographer who gets back her eye sight but has to deal with its aftermath. The second is about a monk who lives life by his principles but later faces a choice that challenge the very ideology he believes in. The third is about a young stock broker who offers to help a poor stranger; but later realizes how intricate morality and ethics could be. Each story gets connected in the end, like a poetic thriller; and you only realize that the movie is finished when the audience starts clapping :)

I couldn't pick a favorite story or character. All were superb! This movie follows the life events of these characters but at the same time, paints a bigger picture about morality, beauty, purpose of existence, and our beliefs.  At some point, it appears as if the makers are trying to convey that everything in this existence is interconnected; no matter however diverse and different it seems. Maybe that’s why the poster of the movie is depicted as:

This is definitely not main stream Bollywood cinema, where there is loud entertainment, boy loves girl, item numbers, cars flying all over the place. This is high quality world cinema. The cinematography, background score, dialogues, acting by entire cast is refreshingly different for an Indian film. Also it’s even surprising to know that the entire film was shot with a Canon DSLR!!!

Naham Janami is one song that plays in the background during the monk story with beautiful lyrics that captures the essence of life.

Do yourself a favor and watch it on a big screen if possible.

Oh and by the way, just because the name suggests Ship of Theseus does not mean there are any Ships in the movie. At the most you may see a plane and few cars :)…….. Jokes apart! Ship of Theseus refers to the Theseus Paradox. That if a Ship (or any object for that matter), has all its parts replaced, is it fundamentally the same Ship (or object)!................. Thinking already?

Heaven and Hell

Does it really exist?

Well, “Who all want to go to heaven after death?” ask this question to a group of people and I bet almost all will raise their hands J. Change the question just a little and ask “Who all want to go to hell?”, be assured not one hand will come up.

Heaven and Hell! Interesting this concept is………..ever realized that?

Religions have always portrayed Heaven to be filled with happiness, peace, joy, bliss. Where every wish will be fulfilled, all the angels and fairies will take care of you, everything will be available in abundance, and you will be with Gods and Goddesses.

And in contrast, Religion says Hell is where the Devil greets youJ. It’s a place filled with fire, where you will be fried and punished, and dragged and beaten and left to rot. It’s the place where all sinners are sent to.

Christians, Judaism call it ………Heaven and Hell

Muslims ……….. Jannat and Jahaanum

Hindus ………. Swarg and Narak

Zoroastrians ……… Paradise and Hell

Every child is taught about someplace distant up in the skies, where all the good guys go. And someplace underground where all the bad guys go. (ahem ahem....thinking which one you are? ;) )

People from different religions even fight and argue with each other as to whose Heaven is better.  Isn’t it?

I’ve met people from different walks of life and many times they ask me if I believe in Heaven and Hell? And my blunt answer is ……. NO !!! J. I see this concept from a different perspective.  I feel all Religions teach this concept of Heaven and Hell just to induce fear in minds of people and to control them. It is just a carrot.

Heaven is not some place above; neither Hell is some place below. They both are…..Here and…..Now!

Whenever we are calm and peaceful, happy, making others around us happy, sharing and doing some good, spreading smiles………..then Heaven is right there.

And whenever we are miserable or spread misery, when we get angry, when our words and actions hurt others……….. then Hell is right there.

To understand the deeper meaning about Heaven and Hell as taught in various Religions worldwide , a Spiritual outlook is necessary in life.

Forget dreaming about going to Heaven or Hell after you die. Who cares anyways where you go! We have a choice, and capability to live either in Heaven or in Hell……………..right NOW! J.

Let us choose wisely!

Just a Thought

Before they came, I was free.
From stone age to bronze age to the Vedic period, Peace and Knowledge prevailed on all.
There were saints, sages, scholars...........and Human Values.
Those who lived had all the wealth - health and happiness. More importantly, I was safe ..... I was free.
I was in my prime and it was my golden time.
And then they came, one by one, disguised as friends.....but only to loot.
Persians were the first, sometime in 550 BC. Then it was the Greeks who followed.
And a race began.....
Romans......Mughals......Portuguese......Dutch......British......French, they all arrived in their own style.
I was captured, abused, raped, cut into pieces, looted, cheated, vandalized by everyone.....one by one.
And soon the wealth was gone, the saints and scholars diminished, my safety at risk, and my freedom no more.
When they took all they could, their greed satisfied, they left me and I became happy for a while. They said I was free.
But that was not to be!
They are gone, but now its my very own, my dear ones who loot, cheat, kill, abuse, misuse power, become corrupt, rape me.....over and over......again and again!
I am your Mother, your Daughter, your Sister, your Guardian......your Country!
"Can we have better Human Values this year?" ....... is what I ask myself every year!

Judge Not !!!

Hey guys........... its been almost a year and now im back. This blog is not an original one. Got this poem through a mail.......and just thought of posting it here. So enjoy !!! :-)

Heart Of Repentance

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

'And why is everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.'
'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.'

JUDGE NOT!!