The Young Chronicle: For 2nd Graders October 8th, 2014

YOUNG CHRONICLE

October 10th, 2014

THE YOUNG CHRONICLE
Finding Mars!
Rohan (a.k.a Rambo) and
Priyanka (a.k.a Pranks), the Acha
Bacha twins, were very excited
that the Mangalyaan had joined the
mars orbit. It sounded so cool! But
they didn’t quite know what all of
this meant.

What was the Mangalyaan,
launched for? What purpose
did it serve? How far was
Mars? Why did it take
months to reach Mars? Are
there Aliens on Mars?

Rambo started getting impatient, and asked papa, “do
aliens actually exist?” To this papa replied, that there is
no proof that they exist.

What would a
Martian look like?

What’s Mangalyaan? Why is everyone
talking about it?
!

So if there were no Aliens on Mars, then why did we
bother exploring Mars at
all?” Wondered Pranks and
Rambo.
Mumma then pitched in,
she told them that the
Mangalyaan, had gone to
explore if there was water

How and Why is Mars
a Red Planet?
on Mars, many years back.
The Mars Story!
“Everyone knows mars as the Red planet, but why is it
red?”, exclaimed Rambo! It was then that Papa told
him, that Mars had a huge amount of Iron Oxide
present on its surface.
What is Iron
Oxide now?
Well, Iron Oxide is the reddish Rust you see on
metal objects, when they are exposed to moisture.
Rohan was amazed, “So Mars has Rust on it? How
do people live there?”. Pranks, then interrupted him,
and told him that the presence of aliens was still not
confirmed.
Papa then exclaimed, let’s not call it Rust, it’s Iron
Oxide. He went on to explain that Mars is not always at
the same distance from Earth (Mangalyaan), and its
orbit is different, and it takes 687 days to
complete a round of the sun, which is way
longer than 365 days taken by the earth.
687 days in a year?
That is really long.

Rambo: But how will scientists know, if there was water
before? And if Mars had water, where could it
disappear?
Mumma: Planets also evolve, Rambo. A lot of
properties change. You know, even earth was a cold
planet once? It had only ice. Similarly, Mars may have
had water, and some form of life. The Scientists will
study the Mars surface closely and look for substances
that could have only been formed in the presence of
water.
So what is Mangalyaan?
Is it a rocket or a
spaceship?
Papa: It’s actually a
satellite. A satellite is an object that goes round and
round a planet. The Mangalyaan will go around Mars,
and take pictures which the scientists will study.
Oh, and the rocket you see in the picture, is only
needed to launch the satellite.
The rocket part, falls off when
the satellite leaves the Earth’s
atmosphere.