10th anniversary of Kargil war

Tears rolled down the faces of family members of the soldiers at the sight of memorials unveiled on Saturday for their loved ones who laid down their lives to regain control of the rugged mountainous territory lost to insurgents backed by Pakistan 10 years ago.
“It was a dream for us to visit the place and pray for our son,” Neiselie Kenguriise, father of Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguriise who sacrificed his life when he led a platoon to re-capture Tololing, said.
As they took a glimpse of Tololing ridgeline, tears welled in the eyes of Neiselie, his wife Dinuo and daughter.
Praising his junior Captain Vikram Batra for his bravery in the battle front in Drass sector where he laid down his life, Colonel Gurpreet Singh, Commanding Officer of 13 Jammu and Kashmir (JAK) rifles, said his unit won many awards.
“Our unit 13 JAK rifles achieved the title of brave among the bravest as it won two PVCs in Kargil battle”, Col Singh, who was then a Major, said.
Captain Batra and Lance Naik Sanjay Kumar had won PVCs for their gallantry and both belonged to 13 JAK rifles.
As many as 533 jawans and army officers laid down their lives while re-capturing 13 hill points.
During the two-day “Operation Vijay” celebrations, all re-captured heights would be lit up. Photo exhibition, beating retreat and felicitation of war awardees will be the other highlights of the programme to be held in Drass and Kargil areas of the Ladakh region.
Though Defence Minister A K Antony is not scheduled to take part in the events, Army Chief Deepak Kapoor will be in Kargil on Sunday. Agencies

Solar eclipse

The moon will hide the face of the sun again this month (Wednesday, July 22, 2009) in the longest solar eclipse in this 21st century. “It will be a monster, with a totality lasting more than 6.6 minutes at maximum,” say Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson, writers for Sky & Telescope magazine.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses.^[1] Total solar eclipses are nevertheless rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the Moon’s umbra.

A total solar eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon and many people travel to remote locations to observe one. The 1999 total eclipse in Europe helped to increase public awareness of the phenomenon, as illustrated by the number of journeys made specifically to witness the 2005 annular eclipse and the 2006 total eclipse. The recent solar eclipse of January 26, 2009 was an annular eclipse (see below), while the solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 was a total solar eclipse.

In ancient times, and in some cultures today, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes. Total solar eclipses can be frightening for people who are unaware of their astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear in the middle of the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.

Space, man’s greatest challenge, 40 years after moon walk

Forty year ago, on July 20, in 1969, Neil Armstrong, Commander of Apollo 11 Mission and Edwin Aldrin Jr., Commander of its lunar module ‘ Eagle’ became the first cosmonauts to land on the moon. As Armstrong set his foot on the celestial body he said, “ One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was indeed an astonishing feat! If one were to cover the distance of nearly 4 lakh kilometers between Moon and Earth by car it would take him 130 days to reach the lunar surface. The Apollo Mission journey was covered in a little over three days from 16th to 20th July that year. While Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, Michael Collins continued to orbit Earth in his command module. After spending 21 hours exploring the moon’s surface, Armstrong and Aldrin returned to Earth. Millions of people across the world watched the video broadcast of the Moon landing.

Yet in the decades since the historic July 20, 1969 moon landing, few have followed in Armstrong’s footsteps.

Only 12 men have ever walked on the moon, all of them Americans, with the last lunar walks in 1972.

The Apollo program, launched during slain president John F. Kennedy’s administration, has long since been axed after six successful lunar landings.

CRASH OF SATELLITES IN OUTER SPACE

High over Siberia – but not too high to be seen with the naked eye – two satellites have crashed into each other, creating debris clouds that could take decades to fall out of orbit and will pose an increased risk of more space accidents as they do.

The collision took place on Tuesday night 485 miles above the Russian Arctic. A defunct Russian military satellite falling out of orbit defied odds of “millions or maybe billions to one” to hit a civilian American satellite travelling at more than 17,000mph.

Scientists said that at least 600 new pieces of space debris are now orbiting the Earth in two expanding clouds that could eventually ring the planet.

The space world is a buzz today after news leaked of 2 huge satellites crashing in outer space.

How is it possible for satellites to run into one and other you may ask?

Well this is a very good question, one that NASA is trying to figure out.

The satellites, one belonging to America and the other to Russia crashed into one and other on Tuesday, spuing debris into space and nearly hitting multiple unmanned spacecrafts in nearby orbits.

This incident is just the latest one to occur, but by far the most serious, when it comes to traffic congestion in outer space.

Russia is blaming NASA for the crash, and of course, NASA is putting the blame on the Russians.

Both agencies are tracking debris caused by the crash, that is said to be travelling at more than 200 meters per second.

Currently there are more than 800 satellites orbiting earth, and this number does not include the vast number of dead satellites and debris that are also floating around up there

VPYTHON

VPython is a package that includes:

*     The Python programming language
*     The IDLE interactive development environment
*     “Visual”, a Python module that offers real-time 3D output, and is  easily usable by novice programmers
*     “Numeric”, a Python module for fast processing of arrays

 

  VPython was created in 2000 as the result of an independent project undertaken by David Scherer, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University.                                                          

                                                                    VPython is the Python programming language plus a 3D graphics module called Visual. VPython allows users to create objects such as spheres and cones in 3D space and displays these objects in a window. Real-time, navigable 3D animations are generated as a side effect of computations. This makes it easy to create simple visualizations, allowing programmers to focus more on the computational aspect of their programs. The simplicity of VPython has made it a tool for the illustration of simple physics, especially in the educational environment