The first Episode is: The Space and Space-Time

Just stop yourself doing anything and imagine that there is nothing around you, there are
no people, no plants, no buildings, no earth, no stars, no galaxies along with the tiny things like
dust particles and atoms. Is anything left around you? Most of us would say nothing. Yes, we
are right and at the same time we are wrong too. Space is not nothing, it’s something with
hidden characteristics. Space forms the fabric of universe. Space is not the what outside the
atmosphere of earth, but in fact, earth is in the space. The space is everywhere, it is most
abundant thing in the universe, even atoms are also having almost empty space. Space is the
biggest mystery in the science. So, the very interesting thing we are going to discuss over here.
We are going to explore the space and the amazing things in the space.
Have you ever thought in deep about Newtons first law of motion? The law is very
simple states that every object will remain in state of rest or in uniform motion unless and until
external force acts on it. Now according to this law, is it possible to keep a ball at rest in free air
at the height of 10 feet above the ground? Is it possible to a vehicle on road to keep in uniform
motion without burning fuel? Answer of both questions are no. Reasons are Earth’s gravitation
and Earth’s atmosphere. Earth’s gravitation pull things towards it and atmosphere offers air
resistance to objects in motion. Newtons first law is accurately applicable for the objects space.
The satellites are revolving around the Earth with the speeds of thousands of kilometres per
hour without burning any fuel. Fuel is required to take them out of Earths gravitational
influence and to make them move in Earth’s orbit that’s it. No more fuel is required to satellites
to move in the orbit of the Earth. Satellites will remain orbiting the Earth until anything stops
them. Generally, we call anything is in space when that thing is outside the Earth’s gravitational
field and Earth’s atmosphere.
Russian astronomer Yuri Gagarin is the first human to travel in space in 1961. Rakesh
Sharma was the first Indian to travel in space in 1984. While looking at space have you ever felt
like sun, moon, planets and other stars are at the same distance from you? At actual the moon is
nearest space object to us which is at 3,84,400 km distance from us. The nearest planet is Venus
which is 261 million km average distance from us. The sun is at 149.6 million km average
distance from us and the closest star to us after sun is alfa centaury which is at 4.3 light years.
Light year is measure of distance. Light travels 3,00000 km distance in one second. The
distance travelled by light in one year is called one light year. Our galaxy milky way is made up
of billions of stars like sun and alpha centaury. The diameter of milky way is 1,05,700 light
years. And the closest galaxy to Milky Way is andromeda galaxy which is at distance of 2.5
million light years. Diameter of observable universe is 93 billion light years. Did you aware of
the thing that the sun you see is of past and it is of 8.2 minutes before. The alpha centaury star
we see is of 4.3 years before. The andromeda galaxy we can see which is of 2.5 million years
before. And the light we observed from farthest source is of 93 billion years before. One of the
brightest objects we see in the night sky is polar star right above north pole, if it gets dead now,
we will come to know after 375 years.
 The space cannot be separated from time. They both together forms a fabric of universe
like a bedsheet. Heavy objects like black holes, stars, planets even a person bend the fabric.
Heavier the object more is the bend in fabric. The space-time is four dimensional. The fourth
dimension is time. It is impossible to imagine four-dimensional space-time. To understand how
complicated it is, think on this, the mass of the sun curves space-time in such a way that,
although the earth follows a straight-line path in four-dimensional space-time, it appears to us
moving along a circular orbit in three-dimensional space. Newton told that gravity is the force
of attraction between any two bodies. This force acts without a medium. Newtonian theory was
unable to tell why this force acts between two bodies even if there is nothing to bind those two
bodies to each other. As there is nothing between Sun and Earth, how Sun pull Earth towards it?
Can you pull door without touching it? Einstein resolved this problem after puzzling on this
mystery over 10 years. He stated that secret of gravity is flexible fabric of space-time. Gravity
doesn’t act because of any force between two bodies but because of how they placed on space-
time fabric and how they bend space-time fabric.
Newton’s laws of motion put an end to the idea of absolute position in space. Einstein’s
theory of relativity found solution on problem of absolute time. Consider a pair of twins.
Suppose that one twin goes to trip of space at speed nearly equal to speed of light while the
other stays on Earth. After some years on Earth first twin returns from space trip. When he
returned, he would be much younger than the one who stayed on earth. This is known as the
twin’s paradox and the difference in time passed for twins is time dilation. It is a paradox only
if one has the idea of absolute time at the back of one’s mind. In the theory of relativity there is
no unique absolute time, but instead everyone has his own personal measure of time that
depends on where he is and how he is moving. This is what the relativity of time.