Venus shining above Ranchi city, India.

People confused it with flying object or a satellite.

By

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Venus planet near to Earth.

Few of my friends call me up to know about the bright object in the sky above Ranchi city. They confused it with some flying object or a satellite. It is Venus, I told them. It’s the planet which is easily visible at nightfall around the world in early November. Venus continues to draw all eyes to the western sky after sunset. Observers have been watching the bright planet for many weeks, although it seems that a fairly large percentage is not quite sure exactly what they have been looking at. Venus has increased noticeably in recent days. Venus beams mightily in the west at dusk, as seen from across the Earth. You can’t miss it. It sets roughly two-and-one-half-hours hours after sunset at mid-northern latitudes in early November and close to three hours after the sun by the month’s end. Venus! It’s the beautiful “evening star.”

The best time to observe Venus is actually in the early morning or early evening before the sky gets too dark. This is because Venus is so bright that it can actually be more difficult to see its features with the large contrast between it at the night sky, and it is best to catch it with some twilight behind it.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. It has no natural satellite. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky. Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). However, it has also been shown to be very different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide. Venus may have possessed oceans in the past, but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose due to a runaway greenhouse effect.

Sky of Ranchi city in India was covered with toxic fumes due to burning of firecrackers.

Air pollution likely to increase by 30 to 35%.

By

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Toxic fumes due to burning of firecrackers.

 

Such firecrackers generate more smokes.

Diwali was celebrated in Ranchi city of Jharkhand State in India with fun on Sunday. Firecrackers were used to celebrate this festival. Ranchi sky was covered with smokes due to burning of fire crackers. These smokes may contain toxic and heavy metals which can affect human health. Firecrackers contain elements like copper, cadmium, sulphur, aluminium, barium and various other such elements that help in releasing vibrant colours after it is ignited, causing a host of health problems. Once a cracker is burnt, it releases toxic chemicals that remain suspended for a long time causing serious health aliments.

As diwali is festival of lights, people consider it as festival of Firecrackers. Firecrackers come in different varieties from the delightfully visual ones to the ear deafening noisy ones.

Our tradition use firecrackers in diwali cause of reasons, possible reason and a more scientific one for lighting firecrackers is that the fumes produced by them kill insects and mosquitoes found after the rains. But now people use firecrackers in an amount that it harming the mankind, environment, increasing the pollution.

During Diwali, the air pollution in Ranchi level is likely to increase by 30 to 35 %, which will not only be dangerous for those suffering from pulmonary diseases, but also cause breathing problem to others.

Harmful effects of firecrackers

1) Health hazards: Burns, deafness, Nausea and mental impairment. Many people die in explosions in factories manufacturing fire-crackers.

Firecrackers can cause hearing loss, high blood pressure, sleeping disturbances and sudden exposure to loud noise can cause temporary or permanent deafness or even result in heart attack.

2) Sometimes, rocket-crackers set fire to huts, heap of dry grass etc. this happen mostly to country side

3) Noise pollution: firecrackers make noise more than the allowed decibel limit for human being.

4) Smog caused by firecrackers may be harmful to inhale.

5) It increases the Pollution in environment

The firework reaction products that are emitted are deposited and thus enter the soil, crops and, in the case of fireworks over water, standing waters.