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Astronomy

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 By Toral Parasiya [Xth Abhinav Vidyalay]

Pc- Brian Koberlein


What is Astronomy?

It is a study of the matter outside our Earth’s surface and atmosphere such as planets, stars, comets, galaxies, black holes, etc. It is one of the oldest branches of sciences. It tries to find the answer to our existence in this universe.It is based on proven theories and not on any beliefs or assumptions.

Importance of Astronomy

  • It is used to measure the time, navigate the oceans and mark the seasons.

  • Inventions in astronomy have made possible mobile technology, internet, weather systems, etc possible.

  • To answer the big questions like “How was the universe created?”, “Where do we come from?”, etc.

  • To know about the celestial dangers which can destroy humanity on Earth.

Why I like Astronomy

I still remember I was in 3rd std when we had our first chapter related to astronomy in science textbook which was ‘Our Solar System’, I already loved science as a subject so before the teacher started teaching the the lesson I took a overview of the chapter and I remember I was very fascinated by the pictures of different planets in the chapter.

My interest gradually grew when the teacher started teaching us the chapter. After that day I went  home and forced my mom to buy me some encyclopedias related to space, even though I didn't understand much of the information I would always take my encyclopedia and stare at the pictures of stars, planets, comets, etc.

Till this time I had decided that I wanted to become an astronaut, but as I went to higher classes I started giving less attention to learning about astronomy and gradually I lost my interest in it.


But in 8th std I took part in a science exhibition which was held at GMRT [Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope] with one of my classmates and sir. There I saw many other projects explaining what is dark matter, how it affects our universe and many more topics at that day I again started gaining a bit interest and liking in astronomy.

While were coming home we stopped at place to gaze at stars, it was a beautiful moment I was really enjoying it sir were telling us about the stars by pointing them with a laser light and at that moment I realized how much I loved learning about them, how much I am fascinated by them. I really don’t know the exact reason why I love learning about astronomy, it just attracts me very much. The fact that the universe is very large and is a mystery in itself attracts me to learn about them. Questions such as ‘what is inside a black hole?’, ‘Do aliens exist?’, ‘how did it all start?’ attracts me more than anything and I love reading about them.

Fun Facts!







  1. We can see about 6000 stars and five planets of the solar system which are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn by naked eyes.

  2. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Earth than the Sun is 252,960 times farther away. It's approximately 4 light year away from the Sun. 

  3. The colors of stars are based on their temperature, the hottest stars are blue in color not red or orange. Blue is followed by  white, yellow, orange and red.

  4. The sun is just an ordinary star which moves among the other stars with its planets in the Milky Way.

  5. There are more than 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.


Thank You For Reading.


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