by
AndréiaTechnology
by
Andréia
Are We Alone?
The Space Exploration is still a mistery
that scientists have been trying to understand...
Before people even knew that North and South America existed,
they were dreaming of traveling to the Moon. Human beings have
been exploring outer space for thousands of years. We cannot tell
exactly when the space exploration started, but already in
ancient times it was important and people needed to understand
the heavens for practical reasons, like knowing the seasons to
plant their crops at the right times. The knowledge of the
universe was also critical, like to some people who believed that
the stars and planets affected their lives, what we also call
Astrology.
Until the 1500's people used to believe that the Earth was
unmoving, the center of the universe, the stars and planets
revolved around us, while we stayed put. The revolution started
when Copernicus - European astronomer (1473 - 1643) - assumed
that all the planets went around the Sun.Then he was followed by
Kepler (1571 - 1630), who worked out the exact mathematics for
describing the planets orbits around the Sun. Kepler ended pu
correcting Copernicus major mistake, the planets did not go
around the Sun in a circle, they went around the Sun in a ellipse
or egg-shaped pattern. So, a Italian scientist and mathematician,
Galileo Galilei developed the astronomical telescope taking the
next step in 1609. His first telescope was made of two glasses
lenses held in line by a hollow tube. The first lens bent
incoming light from the planets and the second aimed the light
into his eye, with his telescopes, Galileo saw mountains on the
Moon, phases of the planet Venus, spots on the Sun and moons
circling Jupiter. As time went on, technology improved, larger
and larger telescopes were built and telescopes with mirrors were
invented.
In 1932 Karl Jansky of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories was trying to find the cause of a radio
noise interference that was affecting the radiotelephone
communications and he found out that the source of this noise was
the center of the Milky Way Galaxi.
On October 4, 1957 people heard the first sound from a vehicle
produced on Earth, it was the artificial satellite called Sputnik
(a Russian term that means "fellow traveler of Earth").
"...For the first time in history, human beings had put
something from Earth into space. The Space Age had begun..."
(unknown autor). A couple of years
later, during the 1960's, there was an intense competition in
space between the Soviet Union and the United States, the media
called this competition the "Space Race". It was the
race between two nations jockeying for political prestige and
military power.
Once again, however, the Soviet Union beat the United States to
the punch. On April 12, 1961, the Russian Air Force Major Yuri
Gagarin became the first human being to leave the planet Earth.
"I see Earth. It´s so beautiful." These were the first
words spoken from a man in space.
On July
16, 1969. The 363-foot tall Apollo 11 space vehicle is launched
from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its historic journey to
the Moon's surface, manned by astronauts Collins, Armstrong and
Aldrin. 
Thinking about future, there is no way to imagine where the
exploration of space might lead us. Scientists say that there are
about 200 billion stars in our own Milky Way Galaxi alone! They
also estimate that there are about 100 billion galaxies in the
universe! The nearest star is over four light years away. This
means that light, which travels at 186, 000 miles per second,
takes over four years to get from there to here. So, we ask if
there could be life somewhere else in a far away planet, where we
could not reach. Or what could happen to our planet in the
future.
Scientists found out recently another
solar system with the same characteristics of our solar system,
the only difference is that these planets are much bigger than
our planets; some of them are three times the size of Jupter.
They called this new system "55 Cancri System" it is a
yellow-orange star like our sun. So, space race continues leading
us to somewhere showing new facts and possibilities everyday. We
just hope that it is for the best for humankind.
Andréia Barbieri - 3o EMA