The South Asian Life & Times - SALT   
  January - March 2013          
   

 

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 January - March 2013

 

 
Editor's Note

 

 Cover Story
 Ravi Shankar - A Life
 Truly Lived


 Feature
 50 Years of Solar
 System Exploration

 
 Heritage
 Makli - Cru mbling &
 Forgotten


 
 Real Issues
 
Women on Sexual
 Violence

 Kiran Bedi

 Suman Nalwa 

 Richa Anirudh 

 
 Pages from the Past
 
Chakwal
 Remembered

 Maldives - Back in
 Time


 Health
 Ashwagandha
 -The Wonder Herb


 Culture
 Mahakumbh 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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50 Years of Solar System Exploration


Hemispheric view of Venus
Image Courtesy NASA

The five-decade-old planetary exploration first began in December 1962 when Mariner 2 flew past Venus, the first successful mission to another planet. These missions were conducted by robotic spacecraft that were able to venture deep into the cosmos, where no human dared.

Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 – and more than thirty years later are still up there, at the very fringe of our solar system,  studying Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune, sightseeing their moons, sending close-ups of their rings and discovering solar winds – typical tourist activities! This is the farthest a human-made object has gone to. It is over 9 billion miles away, travelling 1 million miles a day, and may very soon, waltz its way beyond the frontier of the sun’s heliosphere and enter interstellar space. On December 4, 2012, Voyager 1 was busy exploring a new region in our solar system called the ‘Magnetic Highway'  - a fast-lane highway of sorts, where instead of fast cars there are particles from inside the heliosphere zipping away and particles from interstellar space zooming in.

Mars already has a couple of vehicles from Earth on its surface – inching their way forward every day, having fun diving within craters and then climbing up again. Sounds like fun!

There is a lot that is happening elsewhere in our solar system.

SALT zooms up to the planets to observe some of the Earthly activities there.

 

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