LEARNING SCIENCE

Part 1
Universe, Solar System, Earth

Indumati Rao
C. N. R. Rao
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU CENTRE FOR
ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH,
BANGALORE

About the Authors

Mrs. Indumati Rao has received degrees from the Universities of Mysore,
Kanpur and Purdue (U.S.A.) and certificate in Education from Oxford University
(U.K.). She has worked for over four decades in the field of education. She has
contributed to developing new methods of teaching and teaching aids. Mrs.
Rao has worked as a geography expert in many institutions. She has participated
in several teacher orientation programs conducted by the Karnataka State. She
has authored books in Geography. At present, she is working as the Honorary
coordinator of the multimedia group at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced
Scientific Research.
C. N. R. Rao is Linus Pauling Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru
Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and honorary professor at the Indian
Institute of Science. He was at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and
has been a visiting professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a
member of many science academies including the Indian National Science
Academy, the Royal Society, London, U.S. National Academy of Sciences,
Russian Academy, French Academy, Pontifical Academy and Japan Academy.
He was President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry,
and is now President of the Third World Academy of Sciences.
He has received several medals and prizes which include the Marlow Medal of
the Faraday Society, Centenary Fellowship of the American Chemical Society,
Einstein Gold Medal of UNESCO, the Centenary Medal of the Royal Society
of Chemistry, London and the Hughes medal of the Royal Society. He has
published more than 1300 papers in the areas of Chemical Spectroscopy,
Molecular Spectra and Chemistry of Advanced materials. He has authored 38
books and has been active in science education. He was awarded the Karnataka
Ratna in 2001 by the Karnataka Government. He is the first recipient of the
India Science Prize, the highest scientific award recently instituted by the
Government of India and the Dan David International Prize for Science (2005).
He was recently awarded the Chevalier de la Legion dHonneur, the highest
civilian award of France (2005). He was also named the `Chemical Pioneer of
2005 by the American Institute of Chemists, USA.

LEARNING SCIENCE
Part 1

Universe, Solar System, Earth

Indumati Rao
C. N. R. Rao
With the assistance of
Jatinder Kaur
Sanjay S. R. Rao

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU CENTRE FOR

ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH,
BANGALORE - 560 064.

Preface
Science has become a part of our lives. Applications of science have
provided us many benefits, and a better quality of life. The world today
uses a language which has a lot of science in it. Without knowing, we use
many words and phrases derived from science. We are also becoming
conscious of our environment as well as our economy. Science has much
to do with both these aspects. It is, therefore, important to learn the language
of science. Children and adults alike have to know the rudiments of science
and must be able to use the language of science where necessary. They
must be able to apply the lessons learnt from science in daily life.
It is for this purpose that we have produced a book entitled Learning
Science in four parts. The book has the following four parts:
Part1:

Universe, Solar System, Earth

Part2:

The world of physics and energy - Learning physical principles

Part3:

The world of chemistry: Of molecules and materials,

Air around us, All about Water.

Part4:

Biology and life

It describes various aspects of science in simple language. It is hoped that

this will be useful to school children as supplementary reading material
and to all others who want to learn science and partake in the excitement
of this experience.
Bangalore
2005

Indumati Rao
C. N. R. Rao

CONTENTS
Preface

(iii)

1. Understanding the Universe

Objectives
What is the universe?
Light-Year
Stars

1
2
6
9

Constellations

14

2. Exploring the Solar System

18

Objectives
How did the solar family begin?
Getting to know the sun
Planets - chips of the old block

18
19
26
31

Special features of planets

38

3. Earth - the unique planet

49

Objectives
Our unique planet
The earth - our home planet

49
50
57

Motions of the earth and seasons

78

Learning Science

1
Understanding the Universe

Objectives
In this module, we get a brief introduction to the Universe.
The iron in our blood, the carbon in sugar and the oxygen in water are
all from the dust created in the explosion of stars millions of years ago.
In a sense, we are all children of the heavens.

Learning Science

What is the universe?

We will try to understand the meaning of universe
by taking an imaginary journey through space.
Your spaceship is now blasting off into space.
You are 1.6 million (1.6 x 106) kilometres into
space. The earth looks big and bright in the
darkness of space. The moon looks small.

You also see some familiar stars

and constellations. The stars,
however, remain unchanged.

Second stage of the journey, ~1.6 x 109 km into space.

Now you can see Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars close to
the sun. They look bigger than
they actually are. The stars do
not show any change in size or
position.

Learning Science

Deeper into space 1.6 x 1011 km into space.

You are 25 times farther from the
sun than Pluto, the planet
farthest from the sun. You can
see all the planets. The sun looks
prominent and the earth looks
small. You can see the Milky
Way clearly.

Now you are very far into space. The distance from the earth can no longer
be measured in kilometres. It has to be measured in light-years.
One light-year = 9.41 x 10 10
kilometres. You are 16 lightyears into space. The Milky Way
dominates your view. The sun
and the planets look tiny. You
can see some stars which are
close to the sun shining brightly.

1.6 million light-years into intergalactic space.

Our sun is just a speck. It is
almost lost in the group of
millions of other stars. You can
see many new clusters of stars
that you cannot see from the
earth.

Learning Science

As you continue on your

imaginary journey through inter
galactic space, the view from
your spacecraft may look like
this.
All things from microscopic
particles to the biggest galaxies
are part of the universe.

You are a citizen of the universe

Give your address in full;
Name
House number, Street,
Block number, City - pin code,
State,
Country,
Continent,
Planet,
Universe.

How was the universe formed?

In the beginning, there was just a point of infinite density and energy. Some
15 billion years ago, a fiery explosion now called the Big Bang occurred.
Immediately after the explosion, the universe expanded rapidly from the size
of a pin to about 2,000 times the size of the sun. When the universe was less
than a second old, it was dense as iron and it was also opaque. After 500,000
years, the universe gradually cooled to ~3,0000K. The elementary particles
fused to form hydrogen and helium gas - the life blood of the universe.

Learning Science

Hydrogen and helium formed gas pockets at random. In these pockets protogalaxies began to form. Between one and two billion years after the Big
Bang, the proto-galaxies gave birth to galaxies, stars and other members
of the universe.

Is the universe expanding?

The ever expanding universe
Till the early part of the twentieth century, astronomers believed that the
universe, was infinitely large, but did not change its size or shape.

However, towards the end of the 1920s, Edwin P. Hubble showed that, the
galaxies were moving away from each other and moving in all directions.
That is, the universe is expanding all the time in all directions.

Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953)

Hubble is considered to be the founder of extragalactic astronomy - the
branch of astronomy that studies the existence of other galaxies. He was
the first to observe the evidence of the expansion of the universe. He
discovered that all nebulae in the sky are not part of the Milky Way
galaxy. Until his observation in 1924, astronomers believed that all the
nebulae were part of our galaxy.

Learning Science

Hubble made his second major discovery - In 1927 - that the galaxies he
observed were moving away from our galaxy. In 1929 - the universe was
expanding. Hubble received many honours for his outstanding
contributions to astronomy. The most advanced telescope to study
intergalactic world is named after him.

After the Big Bang, Big crunch?

Will the universe expand forever? Or will it collapse at some point of
time to signify the end?
The density of the hydrogen atoms/m3 and the fate of the universe
Some, modern astronomers believe that: if the density of the universe is less
than 3 hydrogen atoms/m3, its gravity is not enough to hold the matter together;
i.e. the universe will expand forever. If its density is more than this, the gravity
will cause the collapse of the universe and the big crunch will occur.

Light-Year
Measuring distances between stars
When we look at the sky, the stars look close
enough to each other to form patterns in the
sky. Actually, some of them are millions of
kilometres apart. How can we measure the
distance between them, or for that matter,
their distance from the earth?

Measuring distances
A

We can measure the distance between A and B in

centimetres (or inches).
We can measure
the distance in
metres (or feet)
as in swimming
or athletics.

Learning Science

The distance between two cities or continents

is measured in kilometres (or in miles). Each
unit of measurement has a specific use.
For example, we do not measure the distance
between A and B in kilometres or the
distance between New Delhi and London in
centimetres.

The problem of measuring the distance between

stars
It is not possible to measure the distance of a star or any other object in the
sky from the earth by the usual methods because,
of the enormous distance of the stars from the earth.
it is not possible to use a physical scale.

To measure this distance, therefore, scientists have found a method of using

light rays that come from the stars or any celestial object in the sky.

Learning Science

The sun - our nearest star

The distance between the sun and the earth is ~ 150,000,000 km. So, the
light rays from the sun have to travel 150,000,000 km to reach the earth.
Astronomers have found that a ray of light from the sun covers this
distance in 8.3 minutes.

~ 150,000,000 km

What is the distance covered by the light

rays (from the sun) in a second?

What is a light-year?
A ray of light from any
celestial object covers
9.41 x 1010 km in a year.
This distance is called
the light-year. The lightyear is the unit used to
measure the distance
between
celestial
objects in the sky and
the earth. Proxima
Centauri is the next
nearest star from the
earth. It is 4.2 light-years
from us.

Learning Science

How old are the light rays from the stars?

The light from the sun that reaches our eye at any
instant will have left the sun 8.3 minutes earlier. If
you see the sunlight at 7 a.m., you are actually
seeing the sunlight of 6:52 a.m.
When we see the light
from the star Proxima
Centauri, they are
already 4.2 light-years
old. A light ray from the
Andromeda galaxy that
you see, is 2.2 million
years old.

Stars
This is how the night sky might
look on a clear moonless night.
Hundreds of stars twinkling in the
night sky. If you observe carefully,
you can see some bright objects not
twinkling at all. These are the
planets.
Our earth is also a part of the starlit sky. If we were to look at the
night sky from the moon or Mars,
the earth would not be twinkling.

Planets
Ancient sky-watchers or astronomers noticed that stars that did not
twinkle wandered through the sky. They called these stars, wanderers
or planets (Greek word).

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Learning Science

They named them after their gods - Venus, Jupiter, Mars. According to them,
the sun and the moon were also planets! Now we know better. Planets
shine steadily. They do not have light of their own. They merely reflect
suns light. They do not twinkle, because their flat discs reflect a lot of
light. We can view the surface of a planet through a telescope.
On a cloudless new moon
night, we can see a faint band
of white light glimmering
across the sky.
This band consists of millions
and millions of stars. The stars
appear in groups or clusters.
Group or clusters of stars
are called galaxies.
The white band of stars seen
across the sky is the Milky
Way galaxy.
Our sun is in its outer arm.

Galaxies
Galaxies are systems or families containing millions of stars. In addition
to stars, galaxies also contain cosmic dust and gases. Sir William Herschel,
the famous 18th century astronomer, called them islands in the sky. There
are millions of galaxies in the universe. Galaxies are millions of lightyears apart from each other. There is vast empty space between them.

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11

Milky Way galaxy

The Milky Way galaxy contains around 200
billion stars. The stars are too far away from us
to be seen individually or by the naked eye. The
light from these stars forms a glowing haze in
the sky as their light blends with the interstellar dust and gas.
This glow obviously has been seen by people
from the early times. The ancient Egyptians
called it the Road of Souls and the bushmen of
the Kalahari desert called it the Backbone of Night. In India, it is called
Akash Ganga. Astronomers call it the Milky Way galaxy, our home in
the vast universe.

There are millions of galaxies in the universe

All the galaxies do not have the same
shape,

size and

number of stars.

Depending on the shape, galaxies are classified as: Spiral galaxy, Elliptical
galaxy. The classification is called Hubble classification, named after the
famous astronomer Hubble. Have you heard of the Hubble telescope?

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Learning Science

What are the stars made of?

You must have wondered about the twinkling stars in the sky. Remember
the nursery rhyme, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Remember the story of
Dhruva?
It is now known that stars are actually made up of hot gases - mostly
hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen is being continuously changed to helium
in the stars. The stars glow due to enormous heat and light energy produced
by this reaction.

Why do stars twinkle?

Stars are far away from the earth. The light rays from
a star have to pass through the earths atmosphere.
In doing so, they undergo bending or refraction.
When there is a wind, the amount of bending of the
light rays changes. This makes the star twinkle.

Stars in the sky

There are stars of different sizes, brightness and even colour. Also, the stars
are not evenly distributed in the sky. They are not as close to each other as
they appear to us from the earth.

Learning Science

13

Brightness of stars
Strike a match and hold it close to your eye. It blinds you as if you are
looking at a powerful light. It is the same with the stars. The brightness of
a star depends on its shape, temperature and most importantly its distance
from the earth. The stars that appear merely as faint points of light may
be actually bright, but appear faint because of the distance.

Colours of stars
All stars do not have the same
colour. Some are reddish, some
yellowish and some are whitish
or bluish white. The colours
indicate the temperature of the
stars. When we heat a metal bar,
it first turns red, then orange,
then yellow and finally white.
The range of colours of stars
also follow the same pattern.
Red stars are the coolest and
bluish white stars are the hottest. Our sun is a yellow star.

How are stars born?

Stars are born out of a fast rotating cloud of gases and dust particles. The
cloud of gases and the cosmic dust particles constitute a nebula. A nebula is
a star nursery.

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Learning Science

Do stars die?
Anything that is born has to die after completing its life cycle. Some insects
die within a day of being born.

Redwood trees live for hundreds of years. An elephants average life span is
about 70 years. Human life span is
approximately 100 years.
A star too has its own life cycle, but it
spans billions of years. At the end of its
life cycle, the beautiful twinkling star
loses all its light and heat, and becomes
a cold black dwarf in the sky. Our sun
is a middle aged star.

Constellations
Some star groups form recognisable patterns. During the course of the night,
they appear to change their positions in the sky. But the stars forming the
pattern remain together. The star forming patterns in the sky are called
constellations. There are altogether 88 constellations.
Our ancestors were great sky-watchers. They
noticed patterns in the sky and gave names to
them.
There is a group of stars occupying a fairly large
patch of the sky. This is the well known
constellation Ursa Major or the Great Bear.
The Big Dipper is a part of this constellation.

Learning Science

15

There are seven prominent stars

forming the tail and the back of the
Great Bear. Join these stars with
imaginary lines. You can see the
shape of a pan with a handle.
This is called the Big dipper or the
Plough. It is also called the
Saptarishi or the Seven Sages. The
last two stars in the pan of the Big
Dipper are called the Pointers.

Constellations do not remain in the same position

The earth rotates from the west to
the east. Therefore, the stars and
constellations appear to move across
the sky from the east to the west.
Also, the earth revolves around the
sun. As a result, different constellations
are visible during
different seasons.

Ursa Minor or the little Bear

There is another well known group of stars
or constellation close to Ursa Major. This
constellation also has a group of seven
stars. The stars form a Dipper. The Little
Dipper is smaller and less bright than the
Big Dipper. The last star in the handle of the Little Dipper is the Polestar.
This constellation is also known as the polestar constellation.

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Learning Science

The polestar
The polestar always appears in the same position in the night sky.
Different stars have occupied the polestar position during different
periods of time. The change of stars takes place once in ~ 2,400 years!
The polestar now is Polaris. The next one will be Vega. The polestar is
also known as Dhruva Nakshatra.

Orion
The constellation Orion has also been known to
sky-watchers since prehistoric times. Orion has
some of the brightest stars. Orion is called the
Hunter with the unbreakable club.
Orion is easily recognised with its belt of three
bright stars and the bright stars of the Sword.
Orion is visible clearly during winter in the
Northern Hemisphere.

The largest constellation - Hydra, the Sea Serpent

This constellation is visible more clearly in the southern sky. It occupies

nearly one-fourth of the sky. It stretches from Gemini to the south of Virgo.

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17

It is long and winding. No wonder then, it looked like a serpent to our

ancestors. January to February is the best time to view this constellation.

Legend of Hydra
According to Greek mythology, Hydra was a nineheaded sea monster serpent (much like Kalinga in
the Hindu mythology?).
It was dreaded as it had the unique power to grow
back a severed head. In the end, Hercules killed
Hydra with the help of Iolas. Iolas cauterised the
neck of the severed head with a hot iron.

The smallest constellation- the southern cross

It cannot be seen by observers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Southern Cross nestles at the feet of Centaurus. Sailors used the position
of the Southern Cross to know their location.

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Learning Science

2
Exploring the Solar System

Objectives
In this module, we learn about the sun and the planets.
In the entire solar system, it is only on earth we find diversity in life.
The sun is responsible for the diversity and evolution of life.
We depend so much on the sun, that it is important that we know
something about the solar system.

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19

The sun is only one of the millions of stars moving through space. Yet, what
makes this average star special?

It is the only star known to have a family of its own. Wherever the sun goes
in the celestial sky, its family follows it.

How did the solar family begin?

About 5 billion years ago, there was no
sun. Therefore, there was no earth and
no moon.
Instead, only gases and cosmic dust
were drifting in the darkness of space.
There are two theories about the
birth of the solar system.

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Learning Science

According to an earlier theory, astronomers believed that long ago, a star

passed very close to our sun. The star and our sun nearly collided.

As a result, large quantities of various materials were thrown off into space.
After a long time, these materials formed the planets. The sun held the planets
in place. This theory has serious drawbacks.
According to modern astronomy, the solar system
was formed from a slowly spinning cloud of gas
and dust.
Gradually, the cloud began to spin faster and
faster. This formed a large spinning disk about
the size of the solar system - with a large spinning
whirl at the centre and smaller whirls surrounding
it at various distances.

The huge and heavy centre became hot enough to start the thermonuclear
reaction. As a result, the centre began to glow and became our sun.
Modern astronomers believe that everything in the solar system has the same
source material.

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21

Planets or wanderers
The smaller whirls attracted more and more
particles from the cloud of dust and gases and
grew in size. They were like snowballs rolling
down a snow-covered mountain. Finally, they
formed the nine planets at varying distances
from the sun.

The four planets - Mercury,

Venus, Earth and Mars are
closer to the sun. They are called
the inner planets and the other
five planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto are called the outer
planets.
The planets are independent of each other and
they move in their own respective paths or
orbits around the sun.

Solar family or the solar system

Apart from the nine planets, solar family includes
tiny sand-like objects as well as gigantic rocks.
moons.
thousands of asteroids.
millions of meteors.
millions of comets.
All the members of the solar system
revolve around the sun along their
respective paths at varying speeds.

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The Moons
The moons are the natural satellites revolving around the planets in the
solar system. Except Mercury and Venus, all the other planets have moons.
While the Earth and Pluto have one moon each, Uranus has 15, Jupiter
16, and Saturn 18. The size and composition of the moons vary. Some
moons are only a few kilometres in diameter, while others are larger than
the planet Mercury.
While the earths moon is rocky, Saturns Enceladus is ~ 50% ice. Satellites,
Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto of Jupiter are Galilean moons.
They were discovered by Galileo in 1610.

Asteroids - A ring of space rocks

What are asteroids?
Between the orbits of Mars (the last of
the inner planets) and Jupiter (the first
of the outer planets), asteroids orbit
around the sun.
Astronomers believe that
The asteroids are pieces of a planet that came too
close to Jupiter.
The enormous gravitational force of Jupiter broke up
this object into pieces of rock and metal.
And these pieces of varying sizes continued to
revolve around the sun.

Asteroids
Asteroids are too small and too far from the earth to be seen without a
telescope, Even through a telescope, they look like faint stars.
Guiseppe Piazzi, an Italian astronomer, discovered the first asteroid. He
called it Ceres after the Roman goddess of agriculture. It is the biggest
asteroid and yet it takes 5000 Cereses to balance the earth in a gigantic
balance!

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What are meteors?

Meteors are the stony or metallic pieces travelling around the
sun. There are billions of meteors in the solar system.
Meteors can be as small as sand grains or as big as
boulders.
They travel alone around
the sun or travel together in swarms of billions
of particles.
Meteors travel at great speeds around the sun.
Sometimes when a meteor comes close to the
earth, the meteor is pulled towards the earth by the gravitational force of the
earth. When a meteor enters the earths atmosphere, it streaks across the sky
as a shooting star. While most of the meteors burn out in the earths
atmosphere, some big ones land on earth. Those that land on earth are called
meteorites.

Comet - the mysterious member of the solar family

A comet streaking across the sky has
inspired awe and fear in people from
ancient times. The orbits of comets are very
large with the sun off centre. Comets come
closer to the sun at one end and go almost
to the edge of the solar system at the other
end.

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Learning Science

A comet has no light of its

own. Its light is entirely
reflected sunlight. Comets do
not streak across the sky. Even
though they travel at great
speed, they stay visible in the
sky for weeks as they are far
away from us.
Comets return to view at
regular intervals.
Edmund Halley,
of England was
the first to observe this phenomenon.
Halleys comet is the most famous comet. It visits the earth once
in 76 years. Its most recent visit was in 1986. Halleys comet
was first observed in 240 BC by Chinese astronomers.
Hale-Bopp is the brightest comet that was seen in the 20th century.
It was discovered in 1997 by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp of USA.

The shape and structure of a comet

A comet is shaped like a thin torpedo.
It has two distinct parts; a nucleus or
head and a tail.
The head of a comet is made up of
frozen gases, cosmic dust and ice. It
tail
looks like a dirty snow ball.
When a comet comes close to the sun,
the outer layers of the head begin to
evaporate. The winds from the sun
nucleus or head
blow the gas and dust particles away
from the sun. This looks like a bright tail. The comet develops a long tail
extending millions of kilometres into space.

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25

The revolving planets do not fly into space. Why?

The sun is a very powerful
master. He keeps all the
members in place. How does the
sun do it? We will try to
understand it by a simple
activity.
Take a string about 3 metres. Tie a small round object to one end. Stand in an
open place and rotate the string horizontally as fast as you can.

Let go of the string. What do you notice? The stone flies off. As long as you
were holding the string, the stone was moving in a circle.

This is how the sun holds his family together

Nearly 99% of the total mass of the
solar system is in the sun. This gives
the sun an enormous force of
attraction. The force produced by the
revolution of the planets is balanced

by the suns gravitational force.

This balance of forces keeps the
members of the solar family in
place. Sitting in the centre, the
sun perhaps keeps an eye on
them!

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Getting to know the sun

The sun is literally the star of the family. Like all stars,
the sun is a huge ball of hot gases.
Its temperature is
so high that all
the elements in
the sun are in the
gaseous state.
The sun consists mostly of hydrogen.
The other element present in large
quantities is helium.

How old and how many more years to go?

The sun is 4.6 billion years old and has ~ 10 billion years to go. The stages in
the life of our sun (or any other star) are:

Main sequence

Red giant stage

White dwarf stage

Black dwarf stage

Main sequence of a star

The main sequence stage is the longest and
perhaps the most important stage in the life cycle
of a star. The contracting nebula has a central
bulging core in which thermonuclear reactions
cause the nebula to shrink and finally end itself.
Then the hot centre begins to glow with its own
light and changes into a star that is stable. At
this stage, the star gives out its own heat and
light. Our sun is in its main sequence now.

The sun is in the main

sequence stage now.

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Based on the surface temperature of the sun, it is classified as a yellow star

which is in the middle of its main sequence.

The red giant stage

In this stage, the sun expands upto 100 times of its original size. Its surface
resembles a red hot burning charcoal due to the high temperature. Then the
sun emits enormous solar energy, as a result of which the planets close to the
sun could melt and turn into a liquid state.

On earth, all the water in the oceans could evaporate and form giant clouds
of vapour.

The white dwarf stage

The red giant stage cannot last forever. When the
fuel in the red giant, i.e. hydrogen, is exhausted the
red giant becomes unstable. Its outer layers begin
to separate and disappear in space. The centre of
the sun gradually cools and the light becomes dim.
Then the sun becomes a white dwarf.

The black dwarf stage

After a billion years, the white dwarf cools and gradually the light fades.
Lastly, the sun which gave heat and light to all the members of the solar
family and was responsible for the evolution and sustenance of life on earth,

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itself loses all the heat and light to become a black dwarf. This is the last
stage in the life cycle of the sun.

Layers of the sun

The sun we see day in and day out is only one layer of the sun. Let us find out
about the different layers of the sun.

Core, the engine room

All the energy of the sun is produced
here. It is deep inside the sun. The
energy released in the core travels to
the outer layers. The temperature in
the core is ~15,000,0000C

Photosphere - the sphere of light

Photosphere is what we see. Its surface temperature is around 60000C. It is a
thin layer. Its thickness is ~544 km. Sunspots were first discovered by Galileo
in the 16th century. Photosphere has dark patches. They are called sunspots.

Galileo
Galileo discovered
that the surface of the moon was not smooth.
that the Milky Way consisted of millions of stars.
that Venus also had phases.
the rotation of the sun.
the sunspots covering the face of the sun.
the moons of Jupiter.
Galileo was the first to actually see the moons of Jupiter
when he focussed his telescope on Jupiter in 1610. He also
saw the rings around Saturn. He discovered all these by
looking through his telescope night after night!!

Learning Science

Sunspots
Sunspots are the dark patches of different sizes and
shapes that are seen on the photosphere of the sun.
Galileo was one of the first to observe the sunspots
through his telescope in the 17th century. The sunspots
have two distinct parts the umbra or the dark core
and the surrounding penumbra.

Chromosphere - the sphere of colour

Chromosphere is a transparent layer. It is much
hotter than the photosphere. Chromosphere can
be seen only during total solar eclipse.
Chromosphere is seen as a thin red ring around
the dark disk of the sun.

Corona - the crown

Corona is the outermost layer of the sun.
It stretches millions
of kilometres into
space.
The temperature of
the corona is around
2,200,0000C. Corona
can be seen only
during total solar
eclipse.
Corona presents a
spectacular sight as
white streamers or
white petals around a
darkened sun.

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Suns motions
Ask your friend, `Does the sun have motion? Your friend is likely to laugh
and reply `Have you not seen the sun move across the sky from sunrise to
sunset?
The sun has two motions. They are:
Rotation on its axis and
Circular movement among its neighbouring stars
and constellations.
Its rotation period at its equator is 25 earth
days and at its poles, it is 35 earth days. (1
earth day = 24 hours)
The sun seems to be in a hurry to visit its
friends, for, it travels at 250 km per sec. The
sun does not move across the sky from
sunrise to sunset.

Vital statistics of the sun

Age

~4.6 billion years

Mass

330,000 (earth = 1)

Density

1.41(water = 1)

Waist (diameter at the equator)

1,400 million km.

Average distance from earth

~150 million km.

Surface temperature

60000C

Core Temperature

~15 million 0C

Rotation period
at the equator

25 Earth days

at the poles

35 Earth days

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Planets - chips of the old block

Planets are made of the same elements as the sun.
Planets have
solid rocks / gases.
varying amounts of water as
water / water vapour / frozen ice
(depending on their distance
from the sun),
and an atmosphere comprising of various gases.
It is only on earth that
water is found in all the
three states i.e. ice (solid
state), water (liquid state),
and water vapour
(gaseous state).

Same, yet different

The planets vary in size, their distance from the sun and in their structure.
Jupiter is the largest planet and Pluto is the smallest. The sun is ~600
times bigger than Pluto, but only ~10 times bigger than Jupiter.

Sun

Jupiter

Pluto

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Nearest and the farthest

Mercury is nearest to the
(57.9 million kms) sun and
Pluto is farthest from the sun
(5,900 million kms)
Pluto is a lonely planet. Its
closest neighbour Neptune is
nearly 1,414 million km
from it.

Mercury, Venus, Earth and

Mars are relatively close to the
sun. They are grouped together
as terrestrial planets.

Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is difficult to spot mercury in
the night sky as it is very close to the sun. Mercury is a small planet. Its
mass is 0.055 (Earth = 1). Its surface temperature ranges from very cold to
very hot (-1800C to 4300C). Mercury revolves fastest around the sun (47.9
km/s). It rotates slowly (58.65 earth days to complete one rotation). Its
surface is scarred by craters. It has a huge iron core.

Terrestrial planets
Terrestrial means earth-like. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - the
terrestrial planets, are also called inner planets. Venus and Earth are
about the same size. They are also called twin planets.

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Giant planets or the outer planets

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called the giant planets or the
gaseous planets. They
are massive.
rotate faster.
have many moons.

They are so far away from the sun that they retain most of the volatile elements
from the original cosmic cloud. Water seems to be frozen on their rocky
cores.

The moon - earths satellite

What is special about the earths satellite
(moon) in the solar system? According to our
present knowledge, in the entire solar system,
man has set foot only on the moon.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong of
USA was the first to set foot
on the moon. His foot prints
will remain for thousands of
years on the moons surface.
Why? (Clue: there is no
atmosphere on the moon)

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A day on a planet
A day is the time taken by a
planet to complete one rotation
Earth
on its axis. Duration of a day is
not the same on all planets.
A day is shortest on Jupiter.
It is a 10 hour day on Jupiter.
It is difficult to know the duration
Venus
of a day on Venus because of its
dense atmosphere.
The smaller
planets closer to the sun have
longer days.

Jupiter

Each planet has its own day i.e. the time taken to complete one rotation.
Still `a day of any planet is expressed in terms of the earth day (24 hour
period).
A day in a planet
Planet

Duration of a day

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

88 earth days
around 30 earth days
24 hours 15 m
less than 10 hrs
10 hours 15 m
11 hours
16 hours
6 days and 9 hours

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Is life possible on other planets?

The sun provides light and heat energy to all other planets. Why is
development of life not possible on other planets? Some planets are too hot
(Mercury) while some are too cold (Pluto).

Some lack an atmosphere while others are covered

by an atmosphere that has little life-supporting gases.
Life supporting
soil and water
(in liquid state)
are not available
in other planets.

What are the criteria for

evolution of life on a planet?
The two important criteria for evolution of life on a planet are: (i) the distance
of a planet from the sun and (ii) the size of the planet.

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The distance of a planet from the sun:

If the planet is too close to the sun, chemical compounds cannot remain
stable. If it is too far from the sun, water will be frozen and chemical
reactions cannot take place there.
The size of a planet:
If the planet is too small, its gravitational pull
will not be enough to hold the atmosphere.

If the planet is too big, its gravitational

pull holds a very thick layer of
atmosphere. This dense atmosphere
will not let solar energy reach the planet.
Only the earth is at the ideal distance
from the sun and has the ideal size to
support life.

Is there life on Mars?

Why do scientists believe that Mars is the only other planet
which can support life? Detailed studies of Mars have revealed
that
the length of a day on Mars is almost the
same as an earth day.
the martian year and its seasons are twice
as long as ours.
it is green during its spring and brown
during its autumn.
its polar caps grow larger during its
winter and shrink during its summer.
But its atmosphere is thinner, seems to have very little
oxygen and water vapour.

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Is there life elsewhere in the Universe?

There are billions of stars in the universe. Astronomers strongly believe that
there are many stars similar to our sun in
the universe and these stars are likely to
have planetary systems.
if even one planet is at the ideal distance
from its star, and has the right size, there
can be living organisms on the planet.

How can we find out if there

is anyone else in the universe?
In principle, every television
programme or radio broadcast can be
heard - many light-years later of
course - on the other stars.
Carl Sagan
the famous
radio astronomer was convinced that we were not
alone in the universe. His group sent an image signal
in 1974 towards the Great Cluster of stars 25,000
light-years away.
The reply will arrive 50,000 lightyears later if our friends reply as
soon as they receive the greetings.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence

Radio signals or clapping hands? How
do you catch your friends attention in a
crowded room?

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You can either shout or clap your hands. As these sounds do

not blend with the other sounds in the crowded room, you
can catch your friends attention.
Likewise, a signal from an alien from another world may be
a sound that is different from any other earth sound or may
be, he/she will send a photo image! digital of course.

Special features of planets

Distance of the planets from the sun

The nine planets are arranged at varying distances from the sun. Earth is
~150,000,000 km from the sun. This is taken as the astronomical unit (AU).
Bodes law:
In 1770, Bode of Germany, put forward a strange law to calculate the distance
of a planet from the sun. He allotted numbers at random to the planets. Mercury
= 0, Venus = 3, Earth = 6, Mars = 12, ..........
He added 4 to these numbers and divided the sum by 10. The resulting value
gave the distance in astronomical unit.
Planet
Distance of the planet
Actual distance
(According to Bode)
of the planet
Mercury
0.4
0.39
Venus
0.7
0.72
Earth
1.0
1.0
Mars
1.6
1.52
Jupiter
5.2
5.22
Saturn
10.0
9.59
Uranus
19.6
19.36
Neptune
38.8
30.10
Pluto
77.2
39.78

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But according to knowledge available then, there was no planet in the position
of 24 and 192. Later, astronomers found asteroids in the position of 24 and in
1781, they discovered Uranus in the position of 192.
Only Neptune and Plutos distances did not conform to Bodes law. Even
though modern astronomers may consider Bodes law as a coincidence, this
law is one of the profound statements about the laws of nature.

Inclination of the axes of planets

The planets (except Pluto)
revolve around the sun in
approximately the same
plane. Their axes point to the
celestial north. However,
their axes are tilted in
varying degrees. Only the
axis of Mercury is almost
perpendicular to the plane of
its orbit or its inclination is 00.
Planets and the inclination of their axes
Jupiter
30 07
Mercury
00
Saturn
26044
Venus
2042
Uranus
82008
Earth
23027
Neptune
29034
Mars
25021

Orbits of all the planets are not the same

Orbits of the planets are not circular.
They are elliptical or eccentric in
varying degrees. As the eccentricity
increases, the orbit becomes more
elliptical. Eccentricity of a circle is
zero.
The eccentricity of the orbit of Venus is
the least. (Its orbit is almost circular.)

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The eccentricity of the orbit of Pluto is the

greatest. (It is elliptical.) In the solar system,
the orbits of comets are most eccentric.

Density of planets
The main difference between the gaseous giant
planets and the inner planets is in their
densities.
Density of a substance tells us how tightly the
matter in a body is packed.

mass of the substance

volume of the substance
Density of water is taken as the standard to measure the density of a substance.
Density of a substance =

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars

5.4
5.2
5.5
3.9

Density of planets
Jupiter
1.3 (mass = 318e)
Saturn
0.7 (mass = 95e)
Uranus
1.3 (mass = 14.5e)
Neptune 1.8 (mass = 17.2e)
Density of Pluto = 2.1(?)

The individual special characteristic of planets: a

brief look
Mercury - the planet that is hurtling around
the sun.
Mercury is closest to the sun. Naturally, it is the
hottest planet. Why does it hurtle at ~170,000
km around the sun?

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If it did not move at this great speed, the tremendous gravitational attraction
of the sun would have pulled the planet towards its centre. What would have
happened?

Venus, the earths twin

Earlier, astronomers believed that there
was an abundance of life on Venus. But,
the reality is different. Venus is a violent
planet with violent storms and acid rain.
Venus is the brightest planet.
It shines as the morning star in the
constellation Taurus and as the
evening star in Libra. The highest
mountain in the solar system, Maxel mounts, is on this planet. This planet
rotates from east to west. The Mayans based their calendar on the revolution
of the planet Venus.

Venus, the greenhouse planet

The atmosphere here
consists mainly of carbon
dioxide and clouds of
sulfuric acid. As a result,
incoming solar insolation
is trapped. The dense layer
of CO 2 and clouds of
sulfuric acid in the
atmosphere of Venus
absorb and trap enough
incoming solar radiation
to keep Venus hot even
through its 4 month long
night. As a result, this
planet has the greatest
greenhouse effect.

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It gives this warning to us: If we do not mend our irresponsible ways,

our planet also will hurtle towards the same fate.

Earth, the home of lifeforms

In the entire solar system,
life as we know it, exists
only on earth. This is due,
among other factors, to
the water cycle.
the rock cycle.
the carbon
dioxide cycle.
the oxygen
cycle.

Oxygen

CO2

The solar rays and

earths atmosphere
The sun provides heat and light to all the members
of the solar system. But the suns radiation
includes harmful gamma rays, x-rays and ultraviolet rays. The earths atmosphere protects the
earth from the harmful gamma rays radiation.

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Gift of the earths atmosphere

At a height of approximately 50 km, the ozone layer
protects all life on earth from the harmful ultra-violet
rays. Clouds and
dust
particles
absorb the infrared radiation to a
large extent and
reflect it.
A small portion of
the white light
coming through the atmosphere is
scattered by clouds and dust particles. This scattering
of white light makes the sky appear blue during the day
and orange at sunrise and sunset.
In 1930, Professor C.V. Raman received the Nobel Prize
in physics for his work on the scattering of light. This is
also known as the Raman effect.

Jupiter - the planet with the red spot

Astronomers had observed the red spot
on Jupiters surface around 300 years ago.
But, its nature and cause have been
understood only recently.
In the lower
atmosphere
of Jupiter,
there are
alternate
belts
of
rising and falling gases. They circulate in
opposite directions.

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The red spot is actually a huge storm

between two rising belts. It gets its red
colour from a chemical in the lower
atmosphere. This chemical rises with the
rising air currents and turns red in
sunlight. The red spot rotates in an
anticlockwise direction. Its period of
rotation is six earth days. How many
hours does it take to complete one rotation?

Could Jupiter have become a star?

The mass of the sun is 99% of the total
mass of the solar system. The mass of
Jupiter is 99% of the remaining 1%. This
is the only reason why the sun became a
star and Jupiter remained a planet.
Astronomers believe that if the mass of
Jupiter had been 100 times more than its
actual mass, the temperature in its core
would have been high enough to start
nuclear fusion.
About 4.6 billion years ago, when
the solar system began to form,
Jupiter was a huge ball of cosmic
cloud and dust. But, its mass was not
sufficient to exert great pressure on
its core. As a result, the heat
generated there was not enough to
start nuclear fusion.
Gradually, Jupiter cooled and
became a planet. Jupiter is cooling
down even today. It is the only planet that radiates more heat than the isolation
it receives from the sun.

Learning Science

Comparison between Jupiter and the Sun

Sun
Mass

Jupiter

3,30,000

318

1,304,000

1,316

1,50,00,0000K
200 billion earth
atmospheres

30,0000K
100 million earth
atmospheres

(Earth as standard)

Volume
(Earth as standard)

Core temperature
Pressure

Miniature models of solar system within the

solar system
The
gas
g i a n t s
Jupiter and
Saturn have
16 and 18
satellites.
These two
planets have
held their satellites in place by their
gravitational force just as the sun holds
them in their place in the solar system.

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However, unlike the sun, Jupiter and

Saturn do not give heat and light to their
satellites. The sun is the source of heat
and light of these satellites also.

Why does Uranus rotate

almost on its side?

Astronomers give many explanations to the strange inclination of Uranuss

axis. According to one of the explanations, when Uranus was being formed,
a round object, an intruder from space, hit the young planet near one of its
poles. The force of this collision turned Uranus on its side and the intruding
object broke into pieces of rock and ice. The pieces of rocks, clouds of steam
and gases began to orbit around the plane of Uranuss equator. Gradually,
these became the planets, rings and satellites.

Neptune - the stormiest planet in the solar system

For a long time, astronomers believed
that Neptune was a calm blue planet.
But Neptune is the windiest planet,
with winds blowing upto 2,400 km per
hour. The width of some of the storms
is wider than the earth.

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47

How were the moons formed?

The mental picture we get of the moon is the beautiful milky white object in
the night sky. But moon actually is the satellite of a planet.

Astronomers believe that after the main planets were formed, the remaining
small bits came together and became moons. They became the satellite of
the planets which held them by their gravitational attraction. All moons
are not the same. Let us look at some unusual moons.

Io, the moon with active volcanoes

Io

Europa

Callisto

Gyanmede

The Galilean moons of Jupiter are Io, Europa, Callisto and Gyanmede.
There are at least 10 volcanoes on Io. The volcanoes on Io spew out
liquid sulfur and silicate rocks.
What is the difference between volcanic eruption on the earth and on Io?

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Triton - the satellite with cold volcanoes

Cold volcano may sound like
a contradictory term. We are
used to hot lava pouring out of
the volcanoes here on earth but
the volcano on Triton spews
out liquid nitrogen.
As its temperature is very low,
liquid nitrogen gets frozen.

Titan - the sole satellite with atmosphere

Titan is the biggest satellite of Saturn. There is atmosphere only in this

satellite in the entire solar system. Its atmosphere consists mostly of nitrogen
and traces of methane. As the satellite is far away from the sun, methane is in
liquid form.

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3
Earth - the unique planet

Objectives
What is unique about our planet? forms the theme of this module.
The rock and minerals, the motions of the earth and the seasons are
explored in this module.

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Our unique planet

Our earth is just a minor planet revolving around an average star. Looking
from the vastness of space, our planet may be no more than a speck.

Yet, this is the only member of the vast universe to have life.

Seeing is not believing - shape of the earth

For a long, long time, people believed in only what they could see, and they
did not see the round shape of the earth.

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51

The ancient Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Indians and the
Chinese had their own ideas about the shape of the earth.

The turtle, the elephants and the serpent:

The Indian idea of the earth
According to one idea, the earth was held
up by elephants. The elephants stood on
a turtle. The turtle was one of the ten
incarnations of Vishnu, the supreme God.
The turtle rested on a cobra with its tail
in its mouth.
As the cobra symbolised water, the earth
was surrounded by water. Whenever the
elephants shifted their legs, earthquakes
took place.

The circular disc, the mountain and the

travelling sun - the Chinese idea
The earth was a circular disc with the ocean surrounding it. There was a
great mountain in the centre of the circular disc (the earth). Once a day,
the sun went round the mountain going behind the western side of the
mountain in the evening. After travelling behind the mountain throughout
the night, the sun came out on the eastern side in the morning.

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Changing shape of the earth

If you look at the earth from the top of a mountain, it will look conical. If you
go down a wide valley and look at the earth, it will look like the inside of a
bowl. Ordinarily, if you look at it from where you are the earth will look flat.

The round earth - early Greek idea

Pythagoras, the renowned Greek mathematician suggested that the earth
was round. Around 350 BC, Aristotle taught his pupils
that the earth was round.
Around 250 BC, Eratosthenes
calculated the circumference of
the earth for the first time by using
the idea of a round earth.
Astronomers of ancient and medieval India were also aware
of the true shape of the earth.

Pythagoras 580 BC - 500 BC

Pythagoras was perhaps one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He
contributed to the development of mathematics and western philosophy.
He started a school or brotherhood. He believed that reality was mathematical
in nature, and that it was possible for the soul to achieve union with the divine.
Why did Pythagoras conclude that the earth was round?
According to mathematicians, a sphere is the most perfect shape. Like all
Greek philosophers and mathematicians, Pythagoras believed that the earth
was a perfect body.
He concluded, therefore, that the earth was round. He was nearly correct
in his conclusion about the shape of the earth.

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How did Eratosthenes calculate the

circumference of the earth?
Eratosthenes was the first to actually calculate the circumference of the
earth. Eratosthenes lived in Alexandria, an Egyptian town. There was a
deep and dry well in Syene, a town ~5000 stadia ( 800 km) to the south of
Alexandria. Eratosthenes came to know that on summer solstice day
(June 21), one could see the bottom of the well as there was no shadow at
noon on that day.
On the same day, he noticed that the sun at noon time was not vertical but
cast a shadow at Alexandria. Using Pythagoras idea of a round earth he
calculated the circumference of the earth.

Actual shape of the earth

The earth is not a perfect sphere.
It bulges at the equator and is slightly flattened
at the poles. This shape is called an oblate
spheroid.
This is the result of the earth
spinning or rotating very
fast on its axis,
and
rotating faster at its
equator than at its poles.
Isaac Newton was the first to suggest
this. The earths shape is also called
geoid.

Picture of the exact shape of the earth

The model suggested by Newton was not completely correct. Information
from space gave the exact shape of the earth.

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Vanguard I in 1958 confirmed that the earths bulge

is:
not uniform.
not exactly at the
equator.
slightly more at
some places in the
southern hemisphere and at the north pole
Nearly 4.6 billion years after the earth was
formed, we finally know the shape of the earth.

If the earth is round, why do we see it as a flat earth?

We will find the answer to this question through a simple activity.
Take a sheet of foolscap paper, a pencil and a piece
of string at least 120 cm long.
Tie the string to the sharpened end
of the pencil. Fix the paper to the
top of a drawing board or a flat
table. Draw arcs of circles of

radius 5 cm, 35 cm and

110 cm on the paper.
Compare the curvatures of
the arcs of the three circles.
What can you conclude?
The biggest arc is curved least.
It is for the same reason that the
round earth appears flat. If you
want to draw the arc of the earths
surface, you will need a string ~6400 km long!

Learning Science

Why is the earth round?

Even the smallest particle of dust in the
vast universe has the power to attract
other things. At the time the earth was
being formed, particles of dust etc.,
attracted each other to form the tightest
possible shape - a sphere. This force of attraction is called
gravity or gravitational force.

Gravitational force
Do you know the story of Newton and falling apple?
London was hit by the plague
epidemic. So, Newton went to a quiet
village. While sitting under a apple
tree, an apple fell on his head. He
wondered why the apple fell down?
Working on this problem, Newton
gave the Law of gravitation.
Gravitational force is the force of
attraction between objects.
All things big and small, including the
tiniest dust particle or atom in the
universe, experience this force. The
strength of this force depends upon
the weight of the object- the heavier
the object, the stronger is the force.

Centre of the earth and gravity

As in a sphere, the particles of matter of the earth are
crowded at its centre. Therefore, the force of attraction or
gravity is strongest at the centre of the earth.

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Why dont we fall off the sides and bottom of a

round earth?
The reasons for us not falling off the round earth into space are:
there is no top or bottom or sides of the earth.
Everything that we see on earth is on its
outside, or the surface.
all objects on the surface are attracted
towards the inside or the centre of the earth.
this force, or the earths gravity, holds
all things on the outside or on the surface of
the earth, and prevents them from falling off.

Why do things weigh a little more at the poles than

at the equator?
Gravitational force decreases as the distance from the centre of gravity
increases. Remember! Weight of a body = mass x acceleration due to gravity;
W=mxg
The earth is not a perfect sphere. It
is slightly flattened at the poles.
Therefore, the poles are slightly
closer to the centre of the earth. As
a result, a person weighs slightly
more at the poles.
Armstrong, the first man to land on the moon, weighed
on the moon 1/6th his weight on earth. Why?
Can we escape from the grip of earths gravity?
We can do this, provided we are prepared to live in
a spaceship beyond the reach of earths gravity.
Why are the astronauts attached to the spaceship
by a long rope when they carry out repairs outside
the spaceship?

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Escape from earths gravity

To escape the pull of the earths gravity, we must reach the limits of the
atmosphere. Then, we have to enter into space. To do this, the spacecraft
with you in it has to travel at a speed of ~40,000 km per hour or 11.2 km
per second! This speed is called the escape velocity.

The earth - our home planet

We have explored space successfully. We have gathered evidence of what
lies beneath the waves.

It is strange but true that we know little about what lies beneath our feet.

Getting to know our planet

It is now known that the radius of the earth
is ~6400 km. The deepest mine, the
Champion Reef mine in Kolar Gold
Fields, (Karnataka) is
only ~2 km deep. One of
the deepest oil wells in
Pecos Oil Field in Texas
(USA) is only 8 km deep.
They are merely like
scratches on the earths
surface.

Kolar

How can we get evidence about the earths interior?

We cannot take a pickaxe and dig through the layers of the earth. We do not
have any instruments to look through the layers. We cannot drill through the

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layers of the earth to its centre and get samples. It is, therefore, not possible
to get direct evidence. We can only have indirect evidence.

Earthquake waves and the indirect evidence of the

earths interior
An earthquake is always associated with destruction. But the earthquake
waves have unlocked some secrets of the interior of the earth. By the manner
in which they travel through the different depths, they provide evidence of
the nature of the earths interior.

What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is the shaking of the ground under
your feet. This is caused by the sudden release of
energy stored in the rocks. This energy is released
in the form of waves. They are called seismic waves.
The place where an earthquake originates is called
the focus and the point directly above the focus (on
the earths surface) is called the epicentre. An
earthquake can be felt when it occurs just a few
kilometres below the earths surface.

Ground surface
Epicentre

Focus

Earthquake waves or seismic waves

There are three types of seismic or earthquake waves. They are;
The P wave or the primary wave - This wave can travel through both the
solid and liquid forms of the material in the earths interior. These waves
reach the earths surface first.

Learning Science

S wave or the secondary wave - This

wave can travel only through solids.
Their speed is approximately half the
speed of the P waves.
L waves or the surface waves - These
waves move only on the surface. They
are slower than the P and S waves.
The earthquake waves start from the
focus of the earthquake and reach the
earths surface.

L - waves

59

S - waves

P - waves

S - waves

What do the earthquake waves reveal?

By studying the way earthquake waves travel through the earths interior, we
now know that:
the materials of the crust and the upper mantle are in the solid state.
there is a soft zone in the mantle.
the iron and nickel outer core is in the liquid state (This is due to the
melting of the substances at high temperatures).
the iron-nickel inner core is in the solid state due to the tremendous
pressure there.

Tsunami
Tsunami literally means harbour wave in
Japanese language. It is also called seismic sea
wave. This is one of the most catastrophic natural
disasters. It is caused by an underwater
earthquake occurring less than 50 kilometres
below the seafloor. This takes place due to two
tectonic plates either converging or one plate
slipping under another plate. The magnitude of
the earthquake has to be greater than 5.5 on the
Richter scale for the tsunami waves to be generated.
Coastal or underwater landslide or underwater
volcanic eruption may also cause a tsunami.

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Tsunami is a more catastrophic disaster

as its destructive force can be felt in
coastal regions thousands of
kilometres away from the epicentre of
the underwater earthquake or volcanic
eruption. Immediately after the
earthquake, a train of waves travel over
great distances at the ocean surface in
ever- widening circles. This can be compared to the waves produced by a
pebble thrown into a shallow pool of water.
As the tsunami waves approach the continental coasts or coasts of islands,
increasingly shallow seafloor reduces the velocity of the waves. This in turn
makes the coastal water rise as high as 30 m in 10 to 15 minutes and giant
waves come crashing inland. The effects of the tsunami waves depends upon
the bottom topography near the shore and nature of the coast. As result, their
effects vary widely from place to place.
Often, the first sign of the arrival of a tsunami at a coast is the water receding
and exposing the shallow seafloor. Lisbon, Portugal witnessed such a
phenomenon on November 1, 1755. This unusual event attracted many curious
people to the bay; many were swept away by the tsunami wave that arrived
only minutes later. Tsunami that struck Awa in Japan killed more than 100,000.
As tsunamis are common in the Pacific Ocean, a tsunami early warning system
has been put in place there.
The most catastrophic tsunami occurred on the morning of
26 December 2004. This was caused by an underwater
earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale off the coast
of Sumatra, Indonesia. Within minutes it devastated Aceh,
Sumatra, and moved with great speed and hit Thailand, Car
Nicobar, Nicobar and Andaman Islands, India in the Bay
of Bengal, southern part of the Tamil Nadu coast on the
mainland and eastern and southern coasts of Sri Lanka.
More than 220,000 people died in Indonesia alone. India
and Sri Lanka also suffered casualties in tens of thousands. Tsunami was not
known to strike the coasts in the Indian Ocean and The Bay of Bengal. Here

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also, as in Lisbon, many paid with their lives when curiosity drew them to the
beaches. The tsunami of 26 December 2004 is perhaps the greatest human
tragedy as it killed nearly 300,000 people and destroyed the coastal regions
of the affected countries.

The layers of the earth

The Crust
The Mantle

The earth has four layers.

The crust is the topmost layer. It is found
both under the continents and the oceans.
The mantle is found between the crust
Outer core
and the core. It stretches from ~40 km to
Inner core
~2900 km.
The outer core is in a molten state. This contains mostly iron and nickel.
The inner core stretches from a depth of ~5200 km to ~6400 km.

From a molten rocky mass to a layered planet

How did this happen? We have to look into the
earths distant past to understand its present layered
interior. Earth scientists have established that in
the beginning, primitive earth was a mixture of
molten rocky material. There were no continents
or oceans. As the earth cooled, the densest materials
(iron and nickel) sank to the centre of the earth.
This formed the core of the earth.
It begins at a depth of ~2900 km and stretches to the centre of the earth. The
lighter materials floated to the top and on further cooling formed the crust.
The residual material formed a layer, called the mantle, in the middle.

Comparative distribution of the elements in the earth as

a whole and in the earths crust
Percentage of minerals in the whole of the solid earth
Iron
Oxygen
Silicon Magnesium Nickel *
13% 2.4% Others
35%
30%
15%
* Sulfur 1.9%
Calcium 1.1% Aluminium 1.1% Rest < 1%

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Percentage of minerals in the earths crust

Al Iron Mg *
Oxygen
Silicon
8% 6% 4% Others
46%
28%
* Calcium 2.4%
Potassium 2.3%
Sodium 2.1%
Rest < 1%
~ 82 % of the crust is made up of just three elements - oxygen, silicon and
aluminium. Oxygen occurs only in combination with other elements in
the solid part of the earth. Most of the 35% of iron is found in the core.
Evolution of the earth is the result of the internal and the external heat
engines simultaneously driving the earth.

Role of internal heat

The internal heat
melts rocks.
throws out magma.
supplies energy to build and move
continents around.
pushes up the mountains.

Role of the external heat engine

In the beginning, the earths external heat was the result of meteorites hitting
the earth with tremendous force. This heat contributed to the melting of the
young earth. Once the earth cooled, the earths external heat engine is driven
by the solar energy received by the earths surface. Now, external heat is
responsible for:
erosion by wind and rain.
weathering.
Wind and rain
weather and climate.
water cycle.

Water cycle

Weather and climate

Weathering

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Earths atmosphere, oceans and the continents evolved as result of the effects
of the external heat and the internal heat acting upon the primitive earth.

Atmosphere
Most earth scientists believe that the atmosphere was also formed when
the primitive earth began to cool. As the molten rocky mass of the infant
earth cooled, the lightest and the most volatile substances escaped as gases
from the earths interior. These gases formed the atmosphere.
The composition of the early or primitive atmosphere was very different
from the composition of the atmosphere now. Sunlight and plants were
mainly responsible for the change in the composition of gases in the earths
atmosphere.

Formation of continents
Scientists believe that the formation
of the continents started when the
magma started coming to the earths
surface. On reaching the earths
surface, the molten rock material
slowly cooled and solidified and
formed the earths crust.
Here also, the heavier materials sank to the bottom and lighter materials
floated to the top. The lighter crust was decomposed and broken into
fragments by forces of nature. These fragments were deposited in layers
at various sites to form different landforms of the primitive continents.

Birth of the ocean

It is hard to believe that in the
beginning, there was no water on our
planet. As the rock pieces from space
hit the young earth with great force,
many huge basins were formed on the
earths surface.

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As the earth cooled, steam escaped from the interior and entered the
atmosphere. Gradually, it cooled and formed clouds. At first, the clouds
brought incessant rains. The rain water filled the basins for tens of
thousands of years and eventually a super ocean was formed.

Lithosphere - the outer shell of the earth

Lithosphere is composed of the crust and the solid part of the upper mantle.
It is not an unbroken and continuous shell. It is made up of rock slabs
called crustal plates. The plates are in constant motion. The change in the
shape of continents and oceans are the result of the motion of these plates.

Crustal plates
Earths crust is made up of many smaller pieces called crustal plates.
These are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The crustal plates ride or float
over the soft layer of the mantle. The crustal plates are in constant motion.
They come together (convergent movement), move apart (divergent
movement) and slide under (subsidence). Movement of the crustal plates
(or plate tectonics) result in many natural phenomena.

How hot is the interior of the earth?

We know for certain that the temperatures in the borewells and the mines
increase by about 20 or 30C per 100 m depth. How can we know about the
temperatures below a depth of 8 km? You can imagine the difficulty when
we compare the depth of the deepest oil well (8 km) to the depth from the
crust to the centre of the earth (~6400 km). To find out about the earths fever
chart, the earth scientists have studied
the temperature of the lava as it emerges from the
interior of the earth.
the speed changes in the seismic waves
as they travel through the different
layers.
the melting points of various metals and
minerals.

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The earths fever chart

The temperature increase is not uniform throughout the interior of the
earth.
The temperature increases by ~120C
per km in the first 100 km and by
~20C between 100 km and 300 km.
The temperature increases to ~20000C
from 2900 km. This temperature is
higher than the melting point of
iron. (Hence the outer iron core is in a
liquid state).
The temperature of the inner core or
the centre of the earth is ~22000C to 27500C.
But the inner core is a solid because of the tremendous pressure there.
Many believe that the temperature of the core is as high as 50000C.
Atmospheric pressure at the core is ~ 4 million times greater than it is at
sea level.

Minerals: the gift of the lithosphere

What are minerals? Where are they found?
Minerals
are naturally occurring, non-living substances.
can be made up of elements or
of chemical compounds.
are found in the thin uppermost layer of the crust.
are sources of energy.
can be metallic or non-metallic.
are the source of soil.
In fact, rocks are made up of minerals.

How many minerals are known to us?

Mineralogists have identified more than 2000 minerals which are distinct
from one another. All these minerals do not form rocks of the earths crust.

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The main rock-forming minerals are the silicates, carbonates and sulfides.
There may be only one mineral in some rocks (Limestone often consists only
of calcite). There may be more than one mineral in some other rocks. (Granite
contains quartz, feldspar and at least one other mineral.)

Identification of minerals
Minerals are generally identified on the basis of the following properties.

Colour

Transparency

Crystal form

Lustre

Streak

Cleavage

Hardness

From salt to transistors

Importance of materials from the earth.
Some commonly used materials are:
stones for buildings.
chemical salts for fertilizers.
limestone for making cement.
sand (silica) for transistors and optical fibres.
clays for ceramics.
gemstones
Can you imagine life without
common salt at home?

Uses of minerals
Man has used minerals in a variety of ways throughout history and in all
civilizations. Minerals have been used in the following ways:

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for making rock shelters.

for making weapons.
as mineral fuels.
as gemstones.

Gems - the beautiful minerals

Gems are beautiful, durable and rare. There are about 80 known gems.
The most precious and sought after ones are diamond, ruby, sapphire
and emerald. These beautiful gems are actually drab elements or
compounds. Diamond is carbon, ruby and sapphire are both forms of
aluminium oxide (corundum (Al2O3)).
Ruby and sapphire are transformed to beautiful gems by certain impurities
in corundum (Al2O3). Ruby is red because of chromium, sapphire is
cornflower blue because of iron and titanium.

How are gems useful?

Artificial diamond, ruby and sapphire have been made in the laboratory
by imitating the conditions under which they are formed in nature.
Gems are useful in industry as well. Ruby and sapphire are used in
grinding tools in industry. Large ruby crystals are used in lasers. Sapphires
are used in watches. Diamonds are used as tips in cutting tools.

Mineral wealth of India

Distribution of some of the important mineral ores in India
Haematite
Fe2O3
Bauxite
Al2O3. 2H2O

Ilmenite
FeTiO3
Monazite sands
(rare earth elements)

Pyrolusite
MnO2

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Rocks
What are rocks?
Rocks make up the crust of the earth we live in,
are aggregates of minerals, are generally porous
but all porous rocks are not permeable.
They are necessary for soil formation and are
the key for understanding the evolution of the
physical earth through geologic time.

Rock dating or measuring geological time

At first geologic time was measured using
rate of deposition: It takes 4,000 to 10,000 years for a layer of ~1
foot thick sedimentary rock to be formed.
rate of erosion and salt in the ocean.
Modern methods of measuring geologic time are based on more reliable
radioactive clocks. These radioactive clocks measure the decay of
radioactive elements and the amount of radiocarbon present.
Radiocarbon dating: All plants and animals have a tiny amount of
radiocarbon. The radiocarbon content begins to decrease as soon as the
plant or animal dies.

Same minerals but different rocks!

Rocks are like cakes which may be made of
the same ingredients and minerals are like
nuts and dried fruits. Just as two pieces of a
cake may have different amounts of nuts, raisins and other
goodies, two different
samples of the same
rock may have
different proportions
of the minerals
making up the rock.

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Classification of rocks
Just as we can prepare different things using the same ingredients but by
using different processes, rocks differ when they are formed by different
processes. Rocks are classified into three major groups. They are: Igneous
rocks, sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks.
Type of rock

What is it made up of?

What is the process?

Igneous rock

Melted rocks in the earths

hot and deep crust and
upper mantle.

Solidification of the rock

melt and crystallization.

Sedimentary rock

Material from weathering

and erosion of the earths
surface.

Transportation,
sedimentation
and lithification

Metamorphic rock

Solid rocks in the earths

deep crust and mantle.

Re-crystallization and
formation of a new class
of rocks.

How are the three types of rocks distributed?

Rocks are not distributed with fixed and known boundaries, each in a separate
enclosure as it were. They occur together without any fixed boundaries.
Sedimentary rocks cover a greater percentage of land surface and ocean
floors. Igneous and metamorphic rocks make up most of the crustal volume.

Surface Sedimentary
rock
area

Metamorphic
Crustal Volume
rock

Sedimentary
rock
Sedimentary
rock

Meta
morphic
rock
Metamorphic
rock

Igneous
rock

Igneous
rock

Igneous
rock

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Distribution of the three groups of rocks is different in the horizontal

and vertical planes of the earths lithosphere.
Horizontal
Crust
plane of the
Upper mantle
earths crust
and the upper
Continental
mantle.
crust
Oceanic
crust

Vertical plane of the

earths crust and the
upper mantle.

On the horizontal plane of the crust and the upper

mantle sedimentary rocks make up 75% of the rocks
found. The continents and the ocean floors are made up
of sedimentary rocks upto 75%.

Sedimentary
rocks

Distribution of rocks in the vertical plane

Sedimentary rocks

In the vertical plane, as one goes down from the crust to

the upper mantle, igneous and metamorphic rocks make
up 95% of the volume of the rocks.

Decoding the information in the rocks

Rocks may provide the key to unlock the geological secrets
of the earth, buried deep within it and strewn all around us
on the surface. In order to decode the information hidden
in the rocks, we need
to know when, where and how a rock is made and
to remember that the individual characteristics of a
rock is the result of its process of formation.

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Igneous and
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metamorphic
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rocks
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Earth as a rock factory

In this factory, rocks are made and unmade at all times without a break. The
raw materials are never in short supply here. There is never any power shut
down and the work force never quits.
weathering
deposition
uplift

burial and
lithification
uplift
uplift

Rock cycle
heat and
pressure

heat &
pressure
cooling
melting

I rock - Igneous rock

S rock - Sedimentary rock
M rock - Metamorphic rock

Like most natural phenomena in our physical world, the formation of different
types of rocks also follows a cyclic pattern. Rock cycle is the result of certain
geological processes that have been going on for millions of years on our
planet. As result of these processes, the three types of rocks are continuously
changing from one type of rock to either of the other two types of rocks.
In the rock cycle, igneous rock is considered as the primary rock or the
starting block.

Process of formation of igneous rock

The origin of igneous rocks is as
ancient as the origin of the earth
itself! It is believed that during the
early part of the earths history, hot
and sticky rock melt called magma was the parent
rock material of all the rocks that were formed in due
course of time. This molten rock melt is found in the
magma chambers present in the earths crust or the upper mantle .

> 7000C

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All igneous rocks are formed by the cooling of magma or rock melt whether
the rocks are formed inside the lithosphere (intrusive igneous rocks) or on
the outer surface of the earth (extrusive igneous rocks).
Intrusive igneous rocks are formed when the magma is squeezed into the
subsurface space, cools slowly and eventually solidifies. Intrusive rocks form
typical structures called plutons. Intrusive igneous rocks have granular
structures with larger crystals. Granite is a typical example of intrusive
igneous rock.
Extrusive igneous rocks are formed when molten magma is squeezed onto
the surface of the earth through a vent and the molten magma or lava spreads
and cools rapidly. Extrusive igneous rocks have smooth texture and very fine
crystals. Basalt is a typical extrusive igneous rock.

Process of formation of sedimentary rocks

Sedimentary rocks occupy an important stage in the rock cycle. They are
placed between the rocks that are uplifted to the earths surface and the rocks
that are formed deep inside the
Weathering
earths crust. Formation of
Transportation
Sedimentation
sedimentary rocks goes through
B
definite stages; each stage is
u
dependent upon its previous stage.
r
i
However, these stages occur
a
Weathering
concurrently and continuously.
l
The stages are: weathering,
Lithification
transportation, sedimentation,
burial and lithification.
Different types of sedimentary rocks
Sedimentary rocks are classified on the basis of their
formation. The three main types of sedimentary rocks
are: mechanically formed
sedimentary rocks (example:
sandstone), chemically formed sedimentary rocks
(example: gypsum) and organically formed sedimentary
rocks (example: limestone).

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Environments of mechanically formed sedimentary rocks

Sedimentation

Glacier
Lake
River
Desert

B
u
r
i
a

Beach
Delta
Deep sea

l
Lithification

These environments also provide dissolved chemical salts for the formation
of chemically formed sedimentary rocks.
Sorting of the raw materials of mechanically formed sedimentary rocks
Pebbles, sand and silt form the raw
Sorting in the ocean
materials of mechanically formed
sedimentary rocks. They get sorted out
continental shelf
and are buried in layers on land and at
pebbles
the bottom of water bodies. Typically,
sands
pebbles get deposited first. This is
silt and clay
followed by sand. Finally silt and clay
settle down as sediments.
Sedimentary rocks are the only rocks that are formed by the raw materials
from the earths surface and the geological processes taking place there.

Change from sediment to sedimentary rock

Sediment
Gravel
Clay
Sand
Lime

Sedimentary rock
Conglomerate
Shale
Sandstone
Limestone

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Process of formation of metamorphic rocks

When igneous and sedimentary rocks
are subjected to intense pressure and
extremely high temperature deep
inside the earths crust or the upper
mantle, their composition and texture
undergo change. As result, rocks with
entirely different composition and
texture are formed. These rocks are
called metamorphic rocks. (Here, meta means form and morphic means
change).
What are the causes of metamorphism?
The two main causes of metamorphism of rocks are high temperature and
extreme pressure. Extreme pressure and high temperature are the results of
the earths internal
heat.
High temperature
Extreme pressure
the weight of layers
from overlying rocks
of rocks.
the pressure
developed when
rocks are deformed.
Where does metamorphism occur?
Metamorphism can occur wherever conditions of extreme pressure and
extremely high temperature are found in the earths crust or the upper mantle.
Metamorphic rocks, therefore, are found at various depths in the earths crust
and the mantle. It is also found sometimes close to the earths surface.

How do rocks change?

Conglomerate
Sandstone
Shale
Shale
Slate

Schist
Quartzite
Slate
Schist

Coal
Limestone
Granite

Anthracite
Marble
Gneiss

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Soil
What is soil? Soil is the uppermost thin
layer on the earths surface. It takes
hundreds of years to form a centimetre of
soil! Most importantly, it is the
layer that supports plant life.
Some interesting facts about soil:
soil is carried by wind.
takes a long, long time to form.
goes with the flowing water.
has many colours and textures.
Also, the sun dries it, rain makes it slushy and
children and some animals love to play in it.

When was soil formed on our planet?

There was no soil on our planet when it was formed.
In the beginning, billions of years ago, there were
only rocks on the earths surface.
The rocks were exposed to the heat from the sun,
force of the wind and rain. Gradually, the rocks
developed cracks and broke into smaller pieces.
When the plants appeared on the earth, they grew
in the small cracks in the rocks pieces. Some plants
grew on the rock pieces.
Gradually, the rock pieces grew finer and the tiny
dead plants got mixed in the fine rock pieces and
soil was formed.

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Rock, climate and soil

Just like we share the characteristics of our parents, soil shares the
characteristics of its parent rock and the climate of the place. Climate plays
an important role in the formation of soil.
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to form

breaks up the rocks

sand

clay
silt

Climate

determines the natural

vegetation of the place

The dead plants on

decaying form

humus

All soils are not the same

The three main types of soil based on texture are:
Sandy soil: This has more sand and no humus. It cannot
retain water. Water melons and
pumpkins grow well in it. So
do cacti.
Clayey soil: This soil has more clay
than sand. It retains moisture for long periods.
It becomes hard when it is dry. Cotton and
wheat grow well in it.
Loamy soil: This has humus, silt and clay. It retains
moisture for a long time and
does not become hard even
when it is dry. It is a plantfriendly soil.

soil

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Can soil become useless?

Soil becomes useless when plants cannot grow in it. This happens when the
top soil is removed by rain, wind
and flowing water. This is called
soil erosion. There are many
types of soil erosion.

Soil is a precious natural resource. Conserve it.

Soil erosion and depletion of its fertility can be prevented by
growing grass and trees wherever possible.
fencing the fields with trees.
rotation of crops.
strip cropping.
growing crops that can fix nitrogen to the soil.
preventing overgrazing.
contour ploughing in hilly regions.
not cutting down trees excessively.

Time has come to green the deserts

Soil used to be called an inexhaustible natural
resource. It is no longer so. By our indiscriminate
use, soil is fast becoming an
exhausted resource. Due to
thoughtless deforestation and
overgrazing, creeping deserts are
consuming the once fertile soil in
many countries.
Time has come for us to reverse this
trend and start to green our deserts.
Or our planet will soon return to
its original state when there was no
soil on it. Do your bit by
spreading this awareness.

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Motions of the earth and seasons

The earth and its motions
Rotation of the earth
on its axis and its
revolution around the
sun affect our daily
lives. Yet, we go
about our daily lives unaware of the eternal
motions of our home planet.

Earths rotation on its axis

Have you seen a top rotate? Perpendicular to the plane
It rotates better if the nail is
Axis of the earth
exactly in the centre. The 0
earth also rotates on an
Plane
imaginary
line passing
0
through its
Equator
north pole
and the south pole.
This imaginary line is called the axis of the earth. The earths axis is tilted
making the earth face the sun at 23.5 degree. We often forget how important
this tilt is for life on earth.

Tilt of the earths axis

The earths axis is tilted at a fixed angle. The angle does not change either
during rotation or during revolution. The axis is tilted at 66.50 to the plane
of the earths orbit or 23.50 to the perpendicular to the plane of the earths
orbit. This tilt can be shown either to the right or to the left. But the axis is
always perpendicular to the earths equator.

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Rotating earth and stationary us

The earth is rotating at ~1600 km per hour at the equator and yet, we do not
feel it. This is because we are rotating along with the rotating earth. Remember!
When we are travelling in a train or a car or an aeroplane, we feel that we are
stationary and the things outside are moving. In which direction do things
appear to move? The earth rotates fastest at the equator. The speed of rotation
goes on decreasing as the distance from the equator increases.

Rotation of the earth and sunrise and sunset

In reality, there is no sunrise or sunset. As the earth
rotates on its axis, different parts of the earth face
the sun. This happens gradually, resulting in sunrise
when it faces the sun and sunset when it moves away
from the sun.
The sun appears to rise in
the east and set in the west.
In which direction does the
earth rotate?

The earths journey around the sun or

the apparent annual migration of the sun
The earth like all the others planets, does not rotate at
the same place in space. It must pay its respects to the
sun by going round it not once
or any fixed number of times
but eternally. The revolution
of the earth around the sun
is commonly expressed as the annual journey of
Earths orbit
the sun! The path along which the earth goes around
the sun is called the orbit. The orbit or the path is like an ellipse. The sun is
slightly off centre.

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How long does the earth take to go around the sun?

The earth revolves around the sun in the same direction
as it rotates on its axis. The earth takes 365.25 days or
a year to complete one revolution. This
is also called the Earth Year. You are
also revolving around the sun along with
the earth. How many times have you gone around the sun?
Clue: count your birthdays.

Earth Year
The earth travels around the sun along a fixed track or orbit. The track is
960,000,000 km long (600,000,000 miles). It always runs from west to east.
The earth completes one lap around the sun in 365.25 days or approximately
105,600 km a day (66,000 miles)! This lap of the earth is called a Year.

Revolution and its importance

As the earth goes around the sun, it receives different
amounts of energy from the sun. The sun sends out
rays in all directions into space.

~ 150,000,000 km

The rays reach the

earth as parallel rays
because of the
enormous distance
between the sun and
the earth and the
small size of the
earth (compared to
that of the sun).
Direct rays

Some rays from the sun reach the

earths surface as direct rays and
some as slanting rays. The direct
rays provide more heat than the slanting rays.

Slanting rays

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Seasons - the cyclic change

Seasons are the direct result of the amount of energy
the earth receives from the sun. When the earth is tilted
towards the sun, it receives more energy from the sun.
What will be the season? When
the earth is tilted away from the sun, it receives less
energy from the sun. What will be the season?
All places on earth do not receive the same amount
of energy all the time.

Why do seasons occur?

The tilt of the axis, the axis always pointing
to the North Star and the revolution of the
earth cause a cyclic
change in the amount
of heat
energy
received by the two hemispheres of the
earth. As a result, seasons occur.

Season in the two hemispheres

In December, the southern hemisphere is tilted
towards the sun and the northern hemisphere is tilted
away from the sun. As a result, the southern
hemisphere receives more heat energy from the sun.
Countries in the southern hemisphere
experience summer season. During the
same period, what is the position of the
northern hemisphere with
respect to the sun? What will be the season here? Make a list of
the continents which are completely in the southern hemisphere
and of the continents completely in the northern hemisphere.

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Learning Science

Spring and autumn seasons

As the earth moves from its December position to its
March position, there is a change in the amount of heat
and light received by the two hemispheres.
In which hemisphere
will it be the beginning
of spring season in
March? Spring is more noticeable in countries
in North America and Europe. Why?
Summer season gives way
to the autumn season in
September. This is the
season of mellow sun and
fruits. In hot countries,
these two seasons are not very noticeable. They can be
experienced only in the mountains. Where can we experience spring and
autumn in India?

Summer in India and winter in Australia

India is in the northern hemisphere. Australia
is in the southern hemisphere. When the
northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun,
the southern hemisphere is tilted away from
the sun.
Therefore,
India and
Australia
have opposite
seasons during
the same months.
Why dont they have a white Christmas in the
southern hemisphere? Seasons are mirror images in the two hemispheres.

Learning Science

Duration of seasons
Each of the seasons, winter, spring,
summer and autumn last for three
months. The calender months of the
four seasons in the northern
hemisphere are as shown in the
picture. What are the calendar
months for the four seasons in
Australia?

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March
April
May
June
July
August

December
January
February
September
October
November

Seasons in India
In most parts of India, we have only a mild
winter season, a hot summer season and the
rainy season.
Importance of seasons
Seasons greatly determine the way we dress and
perhaps what we eat. It is said seasons affect
even the moods of people.
Seasons and plants
Even the plants respond to seasons. Some plants
flower only in summer and some in the cool
winter. The trees in hot countries shed their
leaves in summer and the trees in cooler climates
shed their leaves in winter.

Why do trees shed leaves?

Trees shed leaves either to conserve moisture or heat. In the tropical
regions, summers are very hot. The trees, therefore, shed their leaves to
minimise loss of water through transpiration. In the cold countries, it is
very cold during winter. The trees in these countries shed their leaves in
autumn to conserve heat. Trees which shed their leaves according to season
are called deciduous trees.

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Learning Science

Seasons and body - clock of animals

The behaviour of animals during different seasons
is truly one of the wonders of life on earth. To
avoid the bitter cold of the polar region, the polar
bear hibernates.
The whales swim from the frozen
Arctic along the coast of North
America to the warm waters of the
California Bay during winter, and
start their return journey from
California Bay to the Arctic once
the winter is over.
Birds from Siberia visit sanctuaries in India during winter. The annual seasonal
migration of birds is truly fascinating.

Hibernation
Hibernate means pass the winter in sleep! As winter approaches, days
become shorter and colder. During winter, in Sweden, for some days there
is no sun for 24 hours! Animals know that winter is approaching and food
will become scarce. Squirrels, bears and other animals eat a lot so that
they can get layers of fat. In winter, they go into deep sleep to save energy
(hibernation). Bears hide in caves, squirrels in nests. They are woken up
by the arrival of spring season.

Same season yet different climate

Seasons are the same in all the countries in a particular
hemisphere. For example, during the months of June,
July and August, in all the countries in the northern
hemisphere, it is summer and in all the countries in
the southern hemisphere, it is winter. However, even
when the season is the same, temperature and rainfall
are not the same in the entire hemisphere.