Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Astronomical Satellite


A space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects. This category is distinct from other observatories located in space that are pointed toward the earth for the purpose of reconnaissance and other types of information gathering.
A large number of observatories have been launched into orbit, and most of them have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the Cosmos. Performing astronomy from the Earth's surface is limited by the filtering and distortion of electromagnetic radiation due to the Earth's atmosphere. This makes it desirable to place astronomical observation devices into space. As a telescope orbits the Earth outside the atmosphere it is subject neither to twinkling (distortion due to thermal turbulences of the air) nor to light pollution from artificial light sources on the Earth. Some terrestrial telescopes (such as the Very Large Telescope) can counter turbulences with the help of their novel adaptive optics.
But space-based astronomy is even more important for frequency ranges which are outside of the optic window and the radio window, the only two wavelength ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum that are not severely attenuated by the atmosphere. For example, X-ray astronomy is nearly impossible when done from the Earth, and has reached its current important stand within astronomy only due to orbiting satellites with X-ray telescopes such as the Chandra observatory or XMM-Newton observatory. Infrared and ultraviolet are also greatly blocked.

MY FAVOURITE SPORTSMAN


Rafael Nadal Parera (IPA: (born June 3, 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 since August 18, 2008. He has won six Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles. He has captured the last four French Open singles titles, joining Björn Borg in 2008 as the only men to have won four consecutive singles titles there. In 2008, Nadal became the second Spanish man to win Wimbledon. Nadal is only the third male player in the open era to have won the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. In 2009, Nadal became the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open, the fourth male tennis player—behind Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, and Andre Agassi—to win Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces, and the first male tennis player to hold simultaneously Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces (2008 French Open, 2008 Wimbledon Championships, and 2009 Australian Open).
Since 2004, Nadal has had a rivalry with Roger Federer, which many consider to be among the greatest in tennis history. They are the only men in the open era who have played each other in seven Grand Slam finals, with Nadal winning five of those matches. Nadal was ranked World No. 2 behind Federer for a record 160 weeks before earning the top spot.Nadal has won 13 of their 19 singles matches, as well as all five of their most recent encounters.
Nadal has been especially successful on clay courts. He has a 22–1 record in clay court tournament finals and is undefeated in 45 best-of-five-set matches on clay.In each of the last four years, he has won both the French Open and two clay court Masters Series tournaments. He also owns the longest single-surface winning streak by a man in the open era, having won 81 consecutive matches on clay from April 2005 to May 2007.As a result, some tennis critics and top players already regard him as the greatest clay-court player of all time.

MY FAVOURITE HEROINE

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan or Aishwarya Bachchan (Birthname: Aishwarya Rai, born 1 November 1973 is an Indian actress and former miss world. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model and gained fame after winning the Miss World title in 1994.

Rai, who made her movie debut in Mani rathnam's Tamil film Iruvar(1997), had her first commercial success in the Tamil movie Jeans(1998), which earned her a Filmfare Best Actress South.She came to the attention of Bollywood in theHum Dil De Chupke Sanam (1999), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her performance in the film won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. In 2002 she appeared in Bhansali's next project, Devdas (2002), for which she won her second Best Actress Award at the Filmfare. After a low phase in her career during 2003-2005, she appeared in the blockbuster Dhoom 2 (2006), which turned out to be her biggest commercial success. She later appeared in films like Guru (2007) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008), which were commercially successful and got her critical acclaim. Rai has thus established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses in the Indian film industry.


Saturday, February 21, 2009