In ancient times, Nubra Valley, located in Ladakh, served as a navigational reference. Travelers used its prominent geographic features and landmarks, including mountains and rivers, to determine directions while traversing the rugged terrain of the Himalayas.
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Rohini is a significant asterism in Indian astronomy, part of the Taurus constellation. It consists of the bright star Aldebaran and represents a celestial cow. Rohini is associated with fertility and agriculture in Hindu mythology.
The Big Dipper is an asterism within the Ursa Major constellation, consisting of seven bright stars. It is easily recognizable in the northern sky and serves as a guide to locating other celestial objects.
Methods of observing the night sky include using the naked eye, binoculars, and telescopes. Additionally, astrophotography and smartphone apps can enhance observations, while observatories provide advanced equipment for detailed studies of celestial objects.
The Sun is approximately 1.39 million kilometers (about 864,000 miles) in diameter. It is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away from Earth, making it the center of our Solar System.
Innermost planets, or terrestrial planets, like Mercury and Venus, are rocky and smaller. In contrast, outermost planets, or gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn, are larger, composed mainly of gases and have thick atmospheres.
Venus is hotter than Mercury due to its thick atmosphere, which is rich in carbon dioxide. This atmosphere traps heat through the greenhouse effect, causing surface temperatures to soar despite being farther from the Sun.
The Sun and the Moon are not the same size. The Sun is about 400 times larger in diameter than the Moon. However, due to their distances from Earth, they appear similar in size during a solar eclipse.
The Sun shines during the day because it is the primary source of light for Earth. The Moon shines at night by reflecting sunlight, which makes it visible when the Sun is not illuminating the sky.
Stars appear to twinkle due to atmospheric turbulence. As starlight passes through layers of Earth’s atmosphere, varying air densities cause refraction, leading to fluctuations in brightness and position, creating the twinkling effect known as “stellar scintillation.”