Transcripts
EPISODE 016: SOLAR SYSTEM – PART 1
[0.01] {Background Music}
[0.08] Siyona: Hello everyone, welcome to the first episode in space series in my podcast, Little Mind Chats. Minds are little, not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona.
[0.19] Today, we’ll start our series with a discussion on Solar system.
[0.25] We’ve all learnt from school and so many other sources that we have 8 planets in our solar system and we’ve even heard about comets and asteroids. We’ve heard of the Kuiper belt, seen enough of visuals of our solar system. We’ve learnt how seasons are caused and the natural satellites like our moon exist. But in this episode, I’m even more curious than that!! I’d like to use this opportunity and understand some more things about our solar system.
[0.58] Where would you go looking for answers then? How about knocking the doors of ISRO? (Indian Space Research Organization). An eminent organisation that’s the Rockstar in Space exploration. Yes, Today, I’m feeling very happy, proud and blessed to be talking to Dr B R Guruprasad, Ex- Employee of ISRO who guides the Encyclopaedias and teaches the teachers about space and Astronomy. He has worked as a Scientist and Science Communicator in ISRO for about 37 years!! During his time, He was part of 25 Indian Satellite missions. And of course, he has written 12 books and 500 articles on Astronomy and Space and was invited by various other countries to guide their ‘Space Education for young people”. There’s so much to talk about him but we’ll jump straight into the questions.
[2.09] Siyona: Hello Dr Guruprasad, how are you doing today?
[2.13] Dr Guruprasad: Hello Siyona, very nice to be in this podcast. I am doing fine and how about you?
[2.20] Siyona: Yeah, I’m doing great too! Thank you.
[2.24] Siyona: Here’s my first question. “What is the most fascinating fact about our Solar System?”
[2.31] Dr Guruprasad: You are asking about a really fascinating thing called the Solar System. Let me give a brief introduction. All of us know the Solar System consists of the Sun, which is our central star, as well as 8 large bodies which we call as planets and more than 170 satellites that revolve around those 8 planets. Not all of them, only two of them doesn’t have any satellites but, the other 6 do have. We have other bodies, minor bodies in the Solar System which are like large mountains or even much larger than they are known as asteroids, which are the left-over things from the time of the formation of the Solar System.
[3.19] Dr Guruprasad: And we have more interesting and awe-inspiring bodies called comets. Even now, one is visible. And of course, still smaller bits and pieces of comets and asteroids called meteorites, okay which circle the sun like the planets. The Sun, the Planets, their Satellites, the Asteroids, the Comets as well as the Meteorites, all these constitute the Solar System.
[3.52] Dr Guruprasad: Now, let us come to your question specifically. What is this fascinating fact of our Solar System? See the fact that this Solar System contains a planet called “Earth”, on which life is there as well as the intelligent life. Which is this intelligent life? We ourselves, human beings. We are there on this and this is one of the most fascinating facts in the Solar System. Because, other than the Earth, we have not found life for sure on any other planet or satellite or anywhere else for sure. See, there have been speculations about life is there, intelligent life is there, extra-terrestrial intelligence is there, like that lot of people will talk. But one has to have solid proof. The second thing is, there are planets which are worlds onto themselves. They are very very interesting worlds compared to out Earth. They look very bizarre. Look at Mercury, look at Venus, look at Mars, look at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. They are quite different worlds. There are similarities but there are lots and lots of differences. Well, this is the most fascinating fact about our Solar System. Different planets with different environments and different worlds, and amongst them, we have a unique planet called Earth, which holds intelligent life that is the most fascinating thing about the Solar System.
[5.44] Siyona: Yeah. Well, I just wanna ask you, because as I said in one of the news episodes NASA has discovered some UFO’s and I said they look like it was straight out of a sci-fi movie and it was.
