Tag: science & technology

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, established in 1958 to oversee the United States' civilian space program and aeronautics research. Option D matches the correct expansion.

Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar probe, was successfully launched on October 22, 2008. The mission included an orbiter and a Moon Impact Probe that deliberately crashed into the lunar surface near the south pole.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a multinational collaborative project and the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and serves as a microgravity research laboratory.

Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to travel to space in 1984 aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 as part of the Intercosmos program. He spent nearly 8 days in space and conducted scientific experiments on the Salyut 7 space station.

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, with a diameter of about 4,880 kilometers. It is the innermost planet and the first smallest - meaning it is ranked 1st in order from smallest to largest. Pluto is no longer classified as a planet.

Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Mercury, conducting three flybys in 1974-1975. MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) was a NASA mission that orbited Mercury from 2011-2015. Columbia and Challenger were Space Shuttle orbiters, not planetary missions.

Mercury completes one orbit around the Sun in approximately 88 Earth days. The precise value is about 87.969 Earth days. This is the shortest orbital period of any planet in our solar system, which is why Mercury is the fastest-moving planet.

Mercury is one of the four terrestrial planets in our solar system, meaning it has a solid, rocky surface like Earth. The other terrestrial planets are Venus, Earth, and Mars. Gas giants like Jupiter have no solid surface.

Mercury's mean surface temperature is approximately 442.5 K (169°C) due to its proximity to the Sun despite having extreme variations between day and night. Option B is the correct factual value.