These days, online search is synonymous to “Google”. Peers tell each other “to Google” a term or topic when they mean to search it online. Google has definitely played an important role in the life of every human being who is related to internet in some way. There are many other services provided by Google which have made researches and study even easier like Google Books, Google News, Google Scholar, Google Maps and Google Earth. The latter has gained great deal of importance in past few years as it is one-of-its-kind service. People all around the sphere gain help from this service of Google. Apart from information and study purposes, it is also used as entertainment tool e.g. locating your home on the globe, finding out the location of your high school, searching for the international landmarks like Great Wall of China or Pyramids etc.

In this article, I will discuss the usage of Google Earth, along with the detailed history and background of this grand service.

What is Google Earth?

This is a virtual world map that displays geographical information of the globe. You can locate your house and see the place in map form, terrain form, satellite or hybrid.

History of Google Earth:

We cannot give the whole credit of Google Earth to Google, as it was created by another company. This program was originally named EarthViewer 3D which was fashioned by a company called Keyhole, Inc. As EarthViewer 3D, it was released back in 2001. In 2004, the big daddy Google acquired Keyhole Inc. and obviously, the EarthViewer came under Google’s control. In 2005, this product was released once again, but with a new name; Google Earth. This is available for those systems that run on MS Windows 2100 and above, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above, Linux Kernel 2.4 and later and FreeBSD. As far as using Google Earth on mobile phones is concerned, it is available as free download both for iPhone OS and Android OS form their respective App Markets.

Overview of the Program:

Google Earth allows users to see images of the earth taken via satellites. These satellite images are of varying resolution; varying according to the significance and popularity of areas. Most of the times, land is covered in minimum 15m of resolution, but at popular places like Las Vegas, Melbourne and Cambridge, we find the highest resolution at fifteen cm. Basically, one will only get 2D image for most parts of the world. It is nothing like seeing something in front of you (or 3D), rather it is something like a huge snapshot of cities and colonies. There are but only few places on the earth that can be seen in 3D mode. These are the places which are considered more like the greatest landmarks like Grand Canyon and Mount Everest. With the help of NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and collected digital elevation model (DEM) data, Google Earth offers these 3 dimensional images. Though the service was unable to render 3D images of places, but now there are certain places of which 3D images can be viewed. Now, we have Street View option as well as exploring moon is also possible with new version of Google Earth. Google Earth is available in 37 languages, with two version of English and Chinese each.

Features of Google Earth:

Now, let us discuss the nice features of Google Earth.

1. Wikipedia and Panoramio

Back in 2006 December, Google added a new layer to the Google Earth called “Geographical Web”. This included integration with Wikipedia and Panoramio. In 2007, Google acquired Panoramio and in 2010 the Geographic Web Layer was removed. Now, Panoramio layer sits in between the main layers and Wikipedia layer is lying in the “More” layer.

2. Flight simulator

There is a flight simulator feature in the Google Earth where the aircrafts can be controlled via keyboard, mouse or joystick. In the beginning, this was a hidden feature, but now it is not. The featured airplanes include F-16 Fighting Falcon and Cirrus R-22.

3. Google sky

It was introduced in 2007. As the name suggests, this feature enables users to view bodies and stars in the space. Though it offers great experience, Google Sky has tough competitions in form of Microsoft WorldWide Telescope and Stellarium.

4. Google Street View

In year 2008, the Street View was fully and completely integrated into Google Earth. In this mode, viewers are able to view some selected parts of few chosen cities at ground level. A 360 degree panoramic street level image is provided. It began with 5 cities, and now it has expanded to a great number of cities worldwide. The street view shows such photographs that have been taken before via an automobile. While in the Street View mode, these photos can be seen in a variety of sizes and from different angles and directions.

5. Ocean

This feature was added in the Google Earth in 2009. It offers views of oceans and underwater 3D imagery. Information from great oceanographers and scientists is included in this mode.

6. Historical Imagery

This feature allows the users to know about historical development and background of a certain place. If you are a student and working on an assignment regarding historical background of a certain place, this feature of Google Earth is bound to aid you big time.

7. Google Moon

As the name suggests, this feature displays images of our beloved moon. Google introduced Google Moon as a feature of Google Moon in 2009, on 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 mission.

8. Google Mars

This feature displays images of planet Mars as well as 3D topographical exposé. Though good for entertainment purposes, this feature can be best used for research purposes and studies.

Things change and technology keeps on developing. It is an ever growing thing, thus these features do not complete Google Earth. The service will keep on growing and we hope to see new and more exciting features and layers in the upcoming

Astronomers did not directly see the ocean but they told that observations done by the Cassini spacecraft suggests the existence of an ocean, maybe 60 miles beneath titan’s surface.

Titan is the 2nd largest moon in the solar system only behind Ganymede, the moon of Jupiter and it is also the largest moon of Saturn. Titan has a diameter of around three thousand two hundred miles, which is greater than that of the dwarf planet Pluto and the planet Mercury.

The Cassini spacecraft, which is on an U.S.-European mission to explore the planet Saturn and its moons, gathered measurements by means of radar that penetrated the thick clouds of Titan during nineteen passes above titan between Oct 2005 and May 2007.

Information from previous observations permitted researchers to determine the positions of fifty landmarks, which includes mountains, canyons and lakes on the surface of Titan. The scientists then examined the data from the later radar and found out that important surface features had moved up to nineteen miles.

Titan’s crust spin is associated to winds that blow through its atmosphere, the researchers said. But it would be difficult to explain the kind of wide displacement of titan’s surface features except for its crust to be separated from its core by an ocean lying below, making the crust to float.

“As Titan’s crust appears to be so mobile, we suppose there is an ocean beneath,” said Ralph Lorenz of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in a telephone interview.

Lorenz, who directed the research published in the journal Science, said that the internal ocean was perhaps mostly water with a small percent of ammonia.”Titan is without doubt one of the most Earth-like landscapes in the solar system and possibly possesses the most Earth-like climate,” he added.

Its atmosphere is by and large formed of nitrogen; in addition to other hydrocarbon elements that give the Saturn’s moon its color i.e. orange.The atmosphere of Titan contains compounds that might have existed in the Earth’s prehistoric atmosphere. The Saturn’s moon may also possess some chemicals such as ethane and methane in greater quantities.

Researchers have also found proof that suggests such internal oceans on other moons in the solar system, which includes Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa of Jupiter and Enceladus of Saturn.

This article is the property of http://www.ElegantDirectory.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed

An artist’s imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
Credits: Steven Hobbs

The immense reserve is detected at a location which is 1.2 billion kilometers i.e., approximately 750 million miles away from Earth, where average temperature itself will be minus 179 degrees Celsius.

Titan has several hundreds times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the available oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, said the European Space Agency (ESA).

In Titan, the ethane and methane falls from the sky in the form of rain, forming massive lakes and seas. It is believed that complex organic molecules called tholins are responsible for Titan’s oily dunes, said the ESA.

“Titan is just enclosed in a carbon covered material. It is a giant factory of organic chemicals,” said scientist Ralph Lorenz.

Revealing the mystery of Titan’s carbon-chemistry may help to find out the answer for how Earth’s carbon-based life began, said the researchers.

The fall of hydrocarbons from the sky, in the form of rain and get stored in massive deposits that form lakes and dunes. But now scientists are quantifying the material using observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Titan has long been considered as a place that might be somewhat like Earth. “The inventory of immense oil resource is an important break through into the geology and climate history of Titan.” said scientist Ralph Lorenz.

The 20 percent of Titan’s surface has been mapped by Cassini with the help of its radar. According to the statement of NASA, scientists have observed several hundreds of lakes and seas; each of it is estimated to have more hydrocarbon than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.

The total availability of natural gas on Earth is 130 billion tons. But the Titan’s lakes and seas individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane.

“This estimation is made based on the pictures of the lakes located in the North Polar Region,” Lorenz said. “We assumed that the southern polar region might also be similar, but we really don’t yet know how much liquid is there.”

The radar of Cassini has observed the southern polar region only once, and only two small lakes were identified.

Scientists also estimated the depth of Titan’s lakes by making some general assumptions based on the lakes on Earth.

“We know that the depth of some lakes are more than 10 meters or much deeper because they appear factually pitch-black to the radar,” said Ralph.

The volume of liquid present on the Titan’s surface is important because methane is a strong greenhouse gas. Titan will become much colder if the methane present on its surface gets expired. Scientists assume that the presence of methane in the Titan’s atmosphere might be due to the expulsion from volcanic eruptions.

Relevant Links: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMCSUUHJCF_index_0.html

This article is the property of http://www.ElegantDirectory.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed