Kid Blog

All of we know the name of the famous scientist Otto Hahn. 8th March is his happy birthday. He was born on 8th March in 1879 and died on 28th July in 1968.

The famous German chemist was a pioneer in the fields of radiochemistry and radioactivity. In 1945 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Otto Hahn had been awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the nuclear fission of heavy nuclei.  In 1946 he served as a president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and from 1948 to 1960 he was the president of Max Planck Society.

8th March is called International Women's Day (IWD). International Women's Day has been celebrated since the early 1900's. The focus of the celebrations is general celebration of respect, love towards women and for women's achievements in social, economic, political life. In every year thousands of event occur throughout March to celebrate women's achievements in different aspects of life. Different organisations choose different themes to celebrate the day. The first National Women's Day was observed on 28th February, 1909 in United State of America in accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. In 1910 an international conference on working women was held in Copenhagen. In that conference the idea of International Women's Day in every year was proposed Clara Zetkin (a leader of Social Democratic Party in Germany). The above decision was agreed in Copenhagen in 1911 and International Women's Day was first observed in 19th of March in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In 1913 International Women's Day (IWD) was transferred to 8th March and since this year this date has remained the global date to celebrate International Women's Day (IWD).

Let's call 15th of February, 2013 a space eventful day. On that day A large asteroid passed from south very close to the earth. The name of the asteroid was 2012 DA14. The closest distance between the Earth and the asteroid was around 27500kms. The size of the asteroid was around 45m. All of we were quite lucky that the asteroid did not hit our Earth.

But the Russians were a little bit unlucky on that day. On the very that day another space event happened. At around 9.30 a.m. local time a huge meteor hit Chelyabinsk near Ural mountains shattering glasses of buildings and injuring many people. More than 1200 people including 200 children were reported to be injured due to shattered glass pieces. No death and no injuries due to fragments of meteor were reported till now.

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Today is Nicolaus Copernicus' 540th Birth day.Copernicus is considered the founder of modern astronomy.

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and mathematician. Copernicus first formulated a comprehensive heliocentric model which placed the Sun at the center of the universe. Before him, scietist usually believed the Earth to be in the center of Universe.

A huge Asteroid is approaching towards Earth and on 15th February 2013 it will come as close as 27,680 km from Earth which is less than 3.5 Earth radius. The size of the rocky asteroid is approximately of a football ground (about 45m) and it will go at a speed of 8km/s near Earth. The name of the asteroid is 2012 DA14.

The distance 27,680 km is closer than geosynchronous satellite ring, located about 35,800 km above the equator which means the distance from Earth to the asteroid, at its closest approach, is less than many communication and weather satellites.

Scientists confirmed that the Earth is safe as there is no chance of an impact by this incoming asteroid.

The Asteroid will make its close approach from Earth at 19:26 UTC. It will NOT be visible by naked eye but it should be visible in the sky to amateur telescopes. The brightness of the asteroid should be as high as 7th or 8th magnitude star.

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