CHARLES SOBHRAJ.-RUTHLESS CRMINAL WITH NO FEELINGS.

 

A Police Officer from Mumbai who retired from service now Madhukar Zende caught Charles Sobhraj in Goa. There had been several gangsters in India who committed ruthless crimes not thinking twice about murder. However, among them Sobhraj is a class apart. When interviewed Zende told the media that he has met and talked to many gangsters in his life but he has never met anyone like Sobhraj for whom murder came naturally and as long as his task is accomplished he had no empathy at all for his victims, neither any remorse for what he had done. For him other humans are like any other object that served his wishes.

Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj was born to an Indian Sindhi father and Vietnamese mother at Saigon in 1944. Because Saigon was then a French territory Sobhraj got a French Passport later. His parents were never married and his father denied his paternity to Sobhraj.  He was taken in by his mother’s new husband who was a French Lieutenant, then stationed at Indo China. His name got entered into church records as Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj in 1959. As it happens in such families he was neglected compared to his adopted fathers children and he shuttled between France and Vietnam.  

Sobhraj was very proficient in using drugs and substances to control, rob & murder tourists. He is considered a master at disguise which earned him the nickname “The Serpent”. He is an expert conversationalist using, charm, intelligence, and manipulation to disarm his victims.

As a teenager he used to commit petty crimes and received his first prison sentence for burglary in 1963. While serving the sentence he used his personality to manipulate prison officials and also endeared himself to a wealthy Frenchman who was a prison volunteer. After coming out of jail he moved in with the Frenchman and shuttled between the high society of Paris and the criminal underworld.

He started accumulating riches through burglaries and scams and at that time Sobhraj had a romantic relationship with Chantal Compagnon of Paris. He proposed marriage to her but on the same day he was arrested in a stolen vehicle. He was sentenced to 8 months in prison and Chantal married him after he got released from prison. By 1970 he became a French citizen through his mother.

They left France in 1970 and travelled through Europe befriending and robbing tourists along the way and came to Bombay where Chantal gave birth to a baby girl and named her Usha. Sobhraj ran a car theft and smuggling racket. His money then went towards his addiction to gambling.

In 1973 Sobhraj was arrested after a robbery attempt of jewellery at the Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. Sobhraj borrowed money from his father for his bail and fled to Kabul. In Kabul, the couple robbed hippies and were caught again. Sobhraj feigned illness, drugged the guard at the hospital and escaped again. Sobhraj now fled to Iran leaving Chantal and the baby behind in Afghanistan. Chantal got fed up of their criminal activities and returned back to France and did not want to see Sobhraj again.

Sobhraj had 10 stolen passports and he spent the next 2 years on the run with them. He went to many countries in Eastern Europe in the Middle East. Sobhraj was joined by his half-brother Andre in Turkey. Together, they committed criminal activities in Turkey and Greece. They were caught in Athens and Sobhraj managed to escape leaving Andre behind. Andre served a 16 years jail sentence in Turkey.

Sobhraj financed his lifestyle by posing as a gem salesman or a drug dealer to defraud the tourists he met in India. He met Marie Andree Leclerk from Quebec who was a tourist. She was dominated by Sobhraj and became his ardent follower turning a blind eye to his illegal activities and flings with other women.

Sobhraj himself created problems for the guys whom he wanted to befriend and then bought their loyalty by removing the problems he himself created. He himself had stolen the passports of 2 French policemen and then recovered their missing passports.  Then he gave shelter to a Frenchman who seemed suffering from dysentery, but it was Sobhraj that poisoned him. So ingratiatyed himself to the very men he harmed. An Indian guy called Ajay Choudhary then joined Sobhraj in his crimes.

Sobhraj and Choudhary started their murder spree in 1975. Most of the victims comprised of those people who were recruited by Sobhraj to be a part of their crimes and they spent a good amount of time with Sobhraj & Co. Sobhraj murdered all those who threatened to expose his crimes by using temazepam and Heroin.

The first victim of his murders was Teresa Knowlton from Seattle. Her body was found in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand. The burnt body of the Turkish Jew Vitali Hakim was found burnt near to the Pattaya Resort where Sobhraj and his entourage stayed. Sobhraj had no problem in recruiting people as he was full of charm when required. A Dutch student aged 29 and his fiancé were invited to Thailand by Sobhraj when he met them at Hongkong. As usual they were poisoned by Sobhraj who nursed them back to health and made them obedient to his wishes.

Vitali Hakim’s girlfriend came to investigate her murder and became pally with the Dutch student and his fiancé. Sobhraj first killed both of them and their burnt and strangled bodies were found in Dec 1975. Then Hakim’s girlfriend was also finished off by Sobhraj and her body was found dead wearing a swimsuit.

Sobhraj’s first victim Teresa Knowlton and Halims girlfriend were both found dead in a swimsuit because of which Sobhraj named the epithet Bikini killer. In Dec 1975 Andre Marie Leclerc and Sobhraj used the dead Dutch couples passports and entered Nepal. There they murdered a Canadian man and an American woman and returned back to Thailand using their fresh victims passports before their bodies were discovered.

On return from Thailand his 3 French companions in Thailand found some documents and suspected Sobhraj’s hand in the murder of their other friends who died, reported the matter to the authorities and fled to Paris.

Sobhraj next came to Varanasi or Calcutta where he murdered an Israeli scholar to obtain his passport. Sobhraj used that passport to travel along with Le Clerc and Choudhary to Singapore and then to India and returned back to Thailand in March 1976. Sobhraj returned back to Thailand despite fully knowing that the Thai police were investigating him. He could fool them easily.

Meanwhile a Dutch diplomat and his wife were investigating the murder of the Dutch student and his fiancé. He continued gathering evidence against Sobhraj with the help of Sobhraj’s neighbours and finally got permission to search Sobhraj’s residence. But Sobhraj had already fled the country a month before along with Le Clerc and Choudhary. The diplomat found evidence including passports, syringes and poisons.

The criminal trio fled to Malaysia where Choudhary was made to steal gems. He was observed delivering the gems to Sobhraj. After that Choudhary was never seen again nor was his body found. Sobhraj murdered him before leaving Malaysia and continue his and Le Clerc’s false identity as gem dealers in Geneva.

In 1976 Interpol issued an arrest warrant charging him with 4 murders in Thailand.

In India Sobhraj started a forming a new criminal group with Le Clerc along with Barabar Smith & Mary Ellen Eather in Bombay where a Frenchman was poisoned during a robbery and died.

In July 1976 Sobhraj and his 3 women gang tricked a tour group of French PG students into accepting them as tour guides. Sobhraj drugged them by giving them poison pills which he said were dysentery medicine. The students started falling unconscious one after the other but 3 students realized what Sobhraj and done and overpowered him and handed him over to the Police. Sobhraj’s 2 women accomplices other than Le Clerc confessed during interrogation and Sobhraj was charged with murder. All the 4 were sent to Tihar jail in New Delhi.

Sobhraj entered Tihar with gems concealed in his body and he bribed the jail guards and led a life of luxury at Tihar. He hired and fired his lawyers at will and eventually went on a hunger strike and made his trial into a spectacle. He was finally sentenced to 12 years in prison. He led a lifeof luxury in the prison with TV and gourmet food.

Sobhraj’s jail sentence was to end before the 20 year Thai statute of limitation was to expire, so it became certain that he would be handed over to the Thai authorities. In Thailand he would get executed for murder. Sobhraj planned to avoid that. In 1986 when he was in his 10^th year in prison he threw a big party to his guards and inmates, drugged them with sleeping pills and walked out of the prison free.  However, Inspector Madhukar Zende apprehended him in Goa and his prison sentence was extended for 10 years just as he planned.

In Feb 1997 he was released from prison aged 52years. By that time most warrants, evidence and witnesses against him was long last. With no country to extradite him to, he was sent back to France. Sobhraj retired to a comfortable life in Paris. He charged large sums fo money for his interviews and photos and the rights of a film based on his life was sold for USD 15 million.

After committing murders in Nepal earlier Sobhraj should have avoided the country like a plague. However, his overconfidence in himself and his intelligence made him careless and he arrived in Kathmandu in 2003 to set up a mineral water business.

In Sep 2003 a journalist published his photo in a newspaper. The Nepalese Police opened a murder case on him which happened in 1975. In August 2004. Sobhraj was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu court. Sobhraj appealed on this in the Supreme Court of Nepal and the SC confirmed the sentence by the Kathmandu court in 2010. His lawyer said that his wife Chantal was going to file a case in the European Human Rights Commission against the French government. 

In 2010 he married his Indian Nepali interpreter, the daughter of his lawyer who was just 20 years old and younger to him by 44 years. In 2014 he was convicted of his another murder in Nepal and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2018 he had many critical surgeries for his heart condition and finally in Dec 2022 he was released by the SC of Nepal after serving 19 years of the sentence and he was deported to France.

VEERAPPAN-A BRIGAND UNEQUALLED.

 

Can one man make a difference to his contemporaries? The history says an emphatic yes. In the contemporary times comes Koose Munisamy Veerappan who is such a man at least on a regional scale. After all Veerappan was a single man who neither had money, nor education nor an influential family whose reputation he can rely on, nor an organization to lean on for support.

Yet, there he was, looming larger than life in not one but two states of India; Tamilnadu & Karnataka. The battle to nab this man cost the governments of Karnataka & Tamilnadu some Rs 100 crores. And the respective CM’s of Karnataka and Tamilnadu who were more concerned at that time (Jayalalitha, SM Krishna & Veerappa Moily)  had a hell of a time stopping his activities. That both the states had to form STF’s (Special task Force) for just the sake of catching one man proves his menace and power.   

Verappan was born into a Tamil Vanniyar family at Gopinatham in Karnataka in 1952. He got married to Muthulakshmi in 1990. Now the political party Pattadi Makkal Katchi or the PMK represents the Vanniyar caste in Tamilnadu.

Despite not having any backing from any side, he did have a mentor in his uncle Sevi Gounder whom he assisted in poaching and sandalwood smuggling. After learning the trade he broke away from his uncle and set out on his own.

Over the next 25 years Veerappan and his gang killed 500 elephants for ivory. He was first arrested in 1972. He committed his first murder at the age of 17 and started killing those who resisted his illegal activities. Most who killed were forest officials and informants. He did not kill any unrelated people to his trade and he was hugely popular in his community and in the area.  

Following are the major criminal activities of Veerappan: 

July 1987- Veerappan kidnapped and lynched a Forest Officer named Chidambaram who hailed from Tamilnadu.

Jan 1989- 5 members of a rival gang were kidnapped and killed.

Aug 1989-3 forest personnel of Tamilnadu were killed. Their mutilated bodies were recovered 19 days later.

Jan 1990-Following the Tamilnadu police attacking his gang and gunning down 2 members, a Sub Inspector & a Head Constable of Tamilnadu Police were shot by the Veerappan gang.

Apr 1990- Veerappan ambushed and killed 3 Sub Inspectors and 1 constable. One of the SI’s killed Dinesh was hot on Veerappans trail.

May 1990-A Special Task Force (STF) has been constituted by the Karnataka Government to nab Veerappan. Perhaps it is the only time in Indian history where an STF had been formed to nab a single individual. 

Nov 1990-Shot and beheaded Dy Conservator of Forests R.Srinivas as Veerappan suspected that his sister Mari (Mariyamma) died because of Srinivas. Srinivas’s head was found only 3 years later.

Feb 1992-Granite quarry owner’s son kidnapped and freed on payment of ransom money.

May 1992- Attacked Ramapura Police station in Karnataka and carried away a cache of arms.

Jun   1992-STF killed 4 of Veerappan’s gang and he sent a note to them saying “I will finish all of you”.

Aug 1992- Veerappan trapped STF SP Harikrishna (IPS), SI Ahmed and 4 others, bombed and killed them.

Apr 1993- A bus carrying TN Police Personnel along with informers was blown up when 22 persons were killed. In this another SP from Tamilnadu Rambo Gopalakrishnan was critically injured and was disabled for years.

May 1993- Attacked Karnataka STF SP Gopal Hosur in Mudumalai Hills and wounded him critically. Hosur had to be hospitalized for 6 months. 6 policemen were killed in the attack.

July 1993- BSF started operations in the forest to nab Veerappan and caught 19 members of his gang.

Aug 1993-series of encounters in which 3 BSF men and 18 gang members were killed. He sends an audi cassette seeking amnesty.

Dec 1994-DSP Chidambaranathan & 2 companions kidnapped. They escaped after 27 days under cover of the STF onslaught.

Veerappan’s brother, Arjunan and 2 gang members surrender. 3 Forest officials kidanpped in Erode and Rs 5 crore ransom sought. Freed after paying Rs 3.5 lacs.

Dec 1995-Veerappan attacks Tamilnadu STF in revenge as his brother Arjunan and a member Rangaswamy died in custody consuming poison.  

Jan 1996- Attackl on Tamilnadu STF SP, Tamilselvan injuring the SP and killing a constable.

Apr 1997-Bullet ridden body of “Baby Veerappan” who was to succeed Verappan was found in a forest.

Jul 1997-10 forest personnel kidnapped. One sent back to Chennai with a surrender offer. Another was released when Nakkeeran Gopal mediated. The remaining hostages were also freed.

Dec 1998-Verappan attacked the Vellitiruppur Police station and escaped with 9 guns and ammunition. This reduced the gang strength and they negotiated for an amnesty with the TN Government.

Apr 1999-3 Forest Officials were kidnapped at Hogenekkal in Dharmapuri district. Veerappan sent letters and audio cassettes to the District Collector.

Jul 30, 2000-Kidnapping of Kannada Matinee idol Rajkumar and 4 others from Doddagajanur guest house. One of the hostages Nagappa escapes. Rajkumar was held for 108 days in the forest by Veerappan. He demanded a Rs 1000 crore ranson for Rajkumar. It was said that he was paid Rs 10 crores by the government to release Rajkumar.

Aug 2002- Former Karnataka minister H Nagappa kidnapped and body was found after some day.

October 2004-Veerappan was killed in an encounter. Ultimately some 20 years after both Tamilnadu and Karnataka forming STF's to nab the man, Veerappan was betrayed by his health more than any policeman despite the Karnataka STF  taking the credit. He was only 52 years old but developed cataracts in both the eyes and had to be operated on. When he came for the operation, the STF got him.

How di he endure for so long in the jungles defying the Police forces of not one but 2 states? Veerappan knew his forest like the back of his hand and no one could ever catch him in a forest. And, an IPS officer from Karnataka who was in the STF when asked why said that Veerappan despite not undergoing any guerrilla training whatsoever is most perfect and unequalled in guerrilla tactics. 

In this connection the person who crippled the Veerappan gang and reduced its strength drastically was  Shankar Mahadev Bidari a 1978 batch IPS officer who was posted as the Commander of the STF in 1993 and stayed for 3 and half years. . This fellow got villages sympathetic towards Veerappan burnt down, imprisoned and tortured his relations and any person who is considered sympathetic towards Verappan. Even rapes were committed by his men on Veerappan’s sympathizers.

The Karnataka High Court had held the Special Task Force under Bidari’s  command was responsible for rape and torture of women. The Karnataka High Court dubbed him to be worse than Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi for his role as the leader of the Task Force that was responsible for fake encounters, gang-rapes and harassment of tribals. He was extremely lucky that this verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court. This man is in fact far worse than Veerappan 

Read what Veerappan’s wife had to say about Bidari in the following URL. She did not make such allegations against any other cop which means these have to be true. Otherwise selectively why would she only blame Bidari’s men. 

https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2012/Apr/07/bidari-stf-men-raped-women-in-custody-356226.html

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.

 

Now, why do we call it Our Solar system? That is because our Sun is one of the huge number of stars in the Universe which have planets orbiting them. Our Solar system is but one of them, so we have to categorise it as our solar system.  

The centre of our Solar system on the very basis of which it exists is the Sun, which accounts for 99.86% of the mass of the solar system.

Our solar system comprises of planets, their moons, Comets and Asteroids.

The weight of our Sun is 1.99*10 raised to the power of 27 tons. It has 8 planets orbiting it as you all know. At one time the number of planets was considered to be 9, but later Pluto was downgraded as a dwarf planet and has thus gone out of the list of Planets brining their number down to 8. 

Earths average distance from the Sun is equivalent to about 150 million Km. This distance is known as the Astronomical Unit or AU.

Apart from the Planets and their Moons, the solar system also consists of the Asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars & Jupiter. The Asteroid belt consists of millions of asteroids which are irregular in diameter. There are 1 million asteroids in the belt that have a diameter of 1 Km or over along with Ceres the dwarf planet which has a diameter of about 950 Km. and accounts for 35% of the mass of the asteroid belt. Ceres weighs app. 9.4* 10 raised to the power of 17 tons which is large, but nowhere compared to our moon, Ceres only has about 1.5% of the our moons mass. It is called a dwarf planet because it has enough gravity to have a round shape unlike the other asteroids whose shape is irregular.

The ASTEROID BELT is a remnant from the formation of the solar system which got formed 4.6 billion years ago. The gravity of Jupiter has prevented the belt of asteroids from forming into a planet. Although there are millions of asteroids in this region, most of it is empty space and spaceships can easily travel through it without any harm.  

The KUIPER BELT is an icy region consisting of many millions of icy fragments and stretches from the end of the orbit of Neptune the last planet about 30 AU from the Sun to 50 AU. It is more like the Asteroid belt but it is far larger. While most asteroids are composed of rock and metal, the Kuiper belt objects are highly frozen containing Methane, Ammonia and Water. The Kuiper belt consists of the dwarf planets like Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar and Makemake.

The OORT CLOUD is a theoretical vast spherical shell surrounding the solar system containing billions of icy objects (comets) and is located between 2000 and 200,000 AU from the Sun. It marks the outermost boundary of the solar system. All the Comets come in from either the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud. Like the Asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt, this too originated at the time of formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. The Oort cloud is home to long period comets which have orbits varying from decades to thousands of years.

The 8 planets of the solar system can be classified into 2 distinct groups: 1. Terrestrial & 2. Giants (Also known as Jovian)

TERRESTRIAL PLANETS are much smaller and have rocky hard surfaces, while the Jovian planets have gases and ices with a low density but with Giant sizes. They lack a solid surface, have extensive ring systems and have many moons.  

TERRESTRIAL PLANETS 

JOVIAN PLANETS are comprised of Hydrogen and Helium with traces of methane, ammonia, water and other gases in their atmospheres. Although to us only Saturn appears to have rings but all the Jovian planets have them but their rings are less brighter than those of Saturn which is the reason why we don’t see them. All of them have numerous moons with Jupiter and Saturn have more than 60 moons each, Uranus more than 20 and Neptune more than 10.

JOVIAN PLANETS 

All the 4 Jovian planets are massive in size but are very low on density. Jupiter is the largest of them all with a 1,43,000 Km diameter. Neptune is the smallest with a 49.500 Km diameter compared to earth’s 12,750 Km.

MERCURY.

Mercury is the smallest and the closest planet to the Sun. It is only slightly larger than our Moon. It has a very minor atmosphere as most of the gases on its surface have escaped due to its extreme heat as well as Suns gravitation. It has a bare atmospheric layer and it does not have any moons at all. Its temperature ranges from 430 degrees Celsius to -180 degrees Celsius and it is a barren and rocky world like our moon.

Mercury orbits the Sun in just 88 days, but it is very slow on its rotation and takes 59 days to complete one rotation. 

Mercury’s thin exosphere consists of Oxygen, Sodium, Hydrogen, Helium and Potassium. It has a diameter of 4880 km compared to about 3500 km for our moon. It is at a distance of 58 million Km from the Sun.

Two spacecraft “Mariner 10” and “Messenger” have gone to Mercury. Messenger mapped Mercury by taking pictures of its surface. 

MERCURY

VENUS.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is almost like a twin to Earth in size. It has a diameter of about 12100 Km compared to Earth’s 12750 Km. It is at a distance of about 108 million Km from the Sun.

Surprisingly despite being the 2^nd planet in the solar system and being almost double the distance of Mercury from the Sun, it is much hotter than Mercury and is the hottest planet in the Solar system. The heat is because of its thick atmospheric layer consisting of Carbon Dioxide and clouds of Sulphuric acid.

Venus has an atmosphere that is far thicker than any other planet in our solar system. It has an average temperature of 465-470 degrees Centigrade. There is hardly any variation between its day and night temperatures because of its thick atmospheric cloud.  

Venus is earth’s closest planetary neighbour and it is only about 40 million Km away from the earth on average. Apart from the sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object visible to us in the sky.

Venus has a retrograde spin that is it spins in the opposite direction than most other planets. Venus is the only planet named after a female God Venus. Venus has valleys and high mountains filled with volcanoes.   

Venus does not have any Moon, but it has a quasi-satellite known as “Zoozve”. Quasi satellites, sometimes called Quasi moons are actually asteroids that orbit the Sun while staying close to a planet. Zoozve ranges in size from 200 to 500 mtrs across.

VENUS

 

MARS THE RED PLANET.

Mars had fascinated many an astronomer and there had been many science fiction novels about Martians visiting us. The HG Wells “War of the Worlds” is a classic work creating a fascinating tale about the Martians despite it not being a nice one. 

I always fondly remember the Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs which I read a long time ago and found them fascinating. It used the low gravitation of Mars which is about one third of the earth and gives higher muscle power to a guy named John Carter from Earth who accidentally gets transferred to Mars. 

That transfer is certainly impossible but that was a fantasy. Edgar Rice Burroughs really gives rein to his full imagination in that first Mars series novel named “Princess of Mars”.   

Mars is a desert like planet with a thin layer of atmosphere, that too consisting of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen. This is the only planet in the solar system where we sent rovers to roam the landscape. We have found strong evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer with a thicker atmosphere billions of years ago.

MARS

Mars was named by the ancient Romans in the name of their God of war as the Planet appeared red which reminded them of blood. Iron minerals in the Martian dirt oxidize (rust) to give it its red colour.  

MARTIAN LANDSCAPE 

Although Mars is unlikely to have any life forms today, there are strong indications that life exited once on Mars.

Mars has a diameter of 3390 km which is about half the size of Earth. Mars is 228 million Km from the Sun (average). The distance of Mars from the earth varies from just 54 million Km to 225 million Km as both the earth and Mars are orbiting the Sun.  

Mars rotates on its axis in about 1 day just like the earth, but the year on Mars is a little over double that of ours. Surprisingly even the axis of rotation of Mars is tilted somewhat similar to earth giving it seasons. 

Mars has 2 moons: Phobos (20 odd Km across) and Deimos (13 odd Km across), both of which are too small and were probably captured asteroids unlike our moon. They are uneven in shape with Deimos being more distorted.

Mars has a very large canyon which is 4800 Km across and is 320 Km at the widest, and 7 Km at the deepest.

Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system named Olympus Mons. It is 3 times taller than Mount Everest.

     OLYMPUS MONS-TALLEST VOLCANO IN THE SOLAR  SYSTEM

There are a number of evidences that water existed in plenty on Mars at about 1 billion years ago. There is water on Mars today but it is only found as ice under the surface in the Polar Regions.

Mars has very thin atmosphere which mostly consist of Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen and Argon. It does not offer any protection against the hits of asteroids, comets and meteorites not to speak of Cosmic rays.

                                   MARTIAN LANDSCAPE

The Martian temperature varies between 20 degrees Celsius and -153 degrees Celsius where nothing can survive.

In one billion years, Earth too would become as uninhabitable as Mars but for different reasons. The Suns luminosity would increase by 10% by then, causing global temperature to increase, the oceans would start to evaporate and our atmosphere would lose Oxygen which would wipe out most complex life forms and leave a dead desert planet which Mars is today but only much hotter. Anyway 100 crore years are far too many to be worried about, because the human species was born only 300,000 years ago.

Look at the terrain of Mars in the following video filmed by one of the Rovers, it is almost similar to the Earth but the difference is it is barren and is without water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_RPd0rblI

JUPITER 

THE BIG BROTHER OF PLANETS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.

Jupiter is the first of the Jovian planets and it is also by far the biggest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter alone has a mass that is equal to more than 2.5 times of all the other planets combined. Like all other Jovian planets it is full of gases and lacks a solid surface. It weighs 318 times the weight of the earth.

Jupiter has a diameter of about 139,800 Km. If Jupiter is hollow it can take 1000 Earths into it. It is also the oldest planet of all. It rotates the fastest of all planets and completes a rotation in just 9.9 hours despite its huge frame. So it has the shortest day in the solar system. Jupiter’s average distance from the Sun is 778 million Km. Jupiter spins almost upright with very little tilt in its axis and hence does not have any seasons.

JUPITER

Jupiter is full of Hydrogen and Helium and it has swirling clouds of Ammonia and water. It has an extreme climate that cannot support life. But one of its moons “Europa” is a most likely candidate to have life in the ocean underneath the ice sheets. The cloud tops of Jupiter have a temperature of -110 degrees centigrade. However as one descends into Jupiter’s gaseous atmosphere temperature starts increasing drastically and reaches tens of thousands of degrees at its core.

Jupiter has some 95 moons and those include “Io”, “Europa”, “Ganymede” & “Calisto” all of which were discovered by Galileo with a Telescope made by him in 1610. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and is bigger than Mercury.

In our solar system, Europa is the best candidate to have life after the earth. It has seas of frozen water and beneath the ice sheets life is likely to exist.

Jupiter too has 4 main rings around it even though we cannot see them from the earth. The composition of Jupiter is more like the Sun full of Hydrogen and Helium. Deep down the atmosphere the temperature and pressure increase compressing Hydrogen into a liquid. This gives Jupiter the largest ocean in the solar system but made of Hydrogen and not water.

There is no surface on Jupiter for the landing of any craft. It is filled with swirling hot gases under tremendous pressure and temperature so no craft can land on Jupiter. Not only that, it cannot fly through its atmosphere either because it would be crushed, melted and vaporized.

Jupiter has colourful stripes and spots on its surface when seen by us through telescopes. Winds on Jupiter reach over 500 km an hour and the stripes may be swirling gases of sulphur and phosphorous.

The famous great red spot of Jupiter, a swirling accretion of clouds is twice as wide as the Earth and has been seen for the past 300 years.

Jupiter has a magnetic field is 20,000 times as powerful as that of the Earth.

SATURN.

Saturn is the 2^nd largest planet in the solar system and the special thing about it is that it is surrounded by beautiful rings which are visible through small telescopes. Although all Jovian planets have rings, those of Saturn are much more thicker and more visible. Saturn has a set of 7 main rings with spaces between them. The ringlets are made of ice and rock.

Like Jupiter, Saturn too is full of Hydrogen and Helium. Saturn rotates on its axis in about 11 hours but its year is fairly long and is equal to 29 earth years. Saturn is the farthest planet that can be discovered with the naked eye.

                                             SATURN

Saturn has a shocking number of 274 moons. 4 Robotic spacecraft visited Saturn and they are Pioneer 11, Cassini, and Voyager 1 & 2. Saturn’s moons are very varied and many of them present a different terrain.

Saturn has a diameter of about 120,000 Km. It is at an average distance of 1.4 billion Km from the Sun.

There are a number of mysteries in Saturn that are yet to be uncovered. Its moon Enceladus has jets of water that spray from it and its another moon Titan has lakes of Methane.

The major moons of Saturn are Titan which is the largest, Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, Dione, Rhea, Hyperion and Lapetus.

There is absolutely no chance of life on Saturn but there is promise of life on its moons Enceladus & Titan which have oceans.

Saturn’s ring system extends up to 282,000 Km from it but the vertical height is just 10 meters.

Saturn is the only planet in the solar system whose density is less than that of water, so it would float in a gigantic ocean of water if there is one.

Like Jupiter, there is no surface on Saturn for the landing of any craft. It is filled with swirling hot gases under tremendous pressure and temperature so no craft can land on Saturn. Not only that, it cannot fly through its atmosphere either because it would be crushed, melted and vaporized.

Saturn’s magnetic field is 578 times as powerful as that of the earth.

URANUS.

Saturn is a gas giant. Most of the planet is made up of water, ammonia & methane. It has a thick atmosphere consisting of Hydrogen & Helium with traces of carbon dioxide and Carbon Monoxide and has a temperature of -224 Degrees Centigrade. Uranus’s atmosphere winds have a peak wind speed of 900 Kmph. and it remains unexplained as to why that is so. The planet also has very less internal heat compared to other planets and why that is so is not clear. The blue green colour of Uranus comes from methane in its atmosphere.

URANUS

Like all the Jovian planets Uranus too has a ring system, a magnetosphere and many moons. Uranus has 29 moons of which 5 are major and are known as Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania & Oberon.  It has 13 faint rings around it.

 Uranus can be barely seen with the naked eye. It has a sideways 98 degree tilt in its axis that causes extremely long 42 yearlong seasons. Uranus has a Cyan colour (between blue and green) because of the presence of Methane in its atmosphere.

NEPTUNE.

Neptune is the last planet of the Solar System now as Pluto has now been classified as a dwarf planet. It is at a distance of 4.5 billion Km from the Sun and has a diameter of 49500 km. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 earth years.

 

NEPTUNE

It has an intense blue colour on account of its atmospheric methane absorbing red light. It is an ice giant with thick and windy atmosphere of Hydrogen, Helium and Methane. It has a mantle of water, ammonia and methane ices.

Neptune has atmospheric winds of extremely high speeds of up to 2000-2100 km per hour.

Neptune has 16 moons and is surrounded by 5 main rings. Triton is the only major moon of Neptune. Voyager 2 spacecraft is the only one that visited Neptune. It is the only planet to be discovered by mathematical prediction rather than by observation.

Neptune is the only planet in the solar system that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

IMPORTANT MOONS OF THE PLANETS WHICH HAVE CHANCES OF SOME FORM OF LIFE

Technically none of the far off planets from the Sun in our Solar system should be able to have any sort of life forms due to their extremely cold conditions. However, although they themselves do not have any chance of having any life, they exert tidal forces on account of large gravitational forces on their moons on account of which some heat is generated and that enables water to be present on some of the bigger moons which have atmosphere. There is also a phenomenon called orbital resonance when multiple moons are there for a planet. In this, when their orbital periods are separated by small round integers they exert gravitational tidal forces on each other. 

 

1.      GANYMEDE.

Jupiter’s Moon, Ganymede is special because it is the largest and most massive moon in the Solar System. In fact, it is bigger than the planet Mercury. It has a diameter of 5270 Km and a mass of 1.48*10 tons.

GANYMEDE.

Ganymede is composed of silicate rock and water in equal proportions. It has a liquid metallic core. Its underground ocean contains more water than all the water on the earth combined. Ganymede has a thin Oxygen atmosphere consisting of Oxygen, O₂ and O_3. The Hubble Space Telescope discovered the presence of a thin oxygen atmosphere on Ganymede.

Several spacecraft have explored Ganymede. The probe Galileo discovered its underground ocean and magnetic field. Ganymede is tidally locked to Jupiter with its one side always facing Jupiter.

Ganymede is in resonance with Jupiter’s other moons, Io and Europa and for every orbit of Ganymede Europa orbits the Jupiter 2 times and IO 4 times.

Although the weather on Ganymede is too cold, its sub surface ocean may be much warmer. The ocean exists inside 150 Km of icy crust and may be able to sustain some sort of life just like in the case of Europa.

Another moon of Jupiter Callisto is also considered to Europa and Ganymede and some form of life may be present in its oceans which are warm to tidal forces by Jupiter.

2.      EUROPA

One of the Moons of Jupiter known as Europa is something special for us because it is a most probable candidate for finding life in another planet. It can be viewed from the earth by way of small binoculars.

EUROPA.

Europa is an icy moon and is the closest Moon orbiting Jupiter. In size Europa is only slightly smaller than our own Moon. It consists mainly of Silica rock and has a molten core at its centre. It has a thin atmosphere consisting of Oxygen.

It has a smooth surface and lacks any sort of substantial craters or mountains which are rather surprising. Europa is the smoothest object known in the Solar system. Europa has salty liquid oceans of water on its surface whose extent is more than the oceans on earth.

Its closeness to Jupiter gives rise to tidal heating that keeps water from forming into ice. There is every chance that there is life in those seas if not on its other surface. However, in March 2024, scientists have reported that Europa has much less Oxygen than what was previously thought.

The Hubble space telescope took an image of Europa in 2012 which had a jet of water erupting near its South pole. The image suggests that the plume may be some 200 km high.  In 2018 there was supporting evidence for these water plumes in the data from the Galileo space probe.

3.      CALLISTO.

Calisto is the 2^nd largest moon of Jupiter next to Ganymede and is as big as Planet Mercury. It is the outermost moon of the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter.

CALLISTO

The surface of Calisto is the most cratered in the Solar System with its surface mostly covered with impact craters.  It is formed with 50% rock and 50% ice. Compounds detected on the surface of Calisto include water ice, carbon dioxide, silicates and organic compounds. Calisto has a small silicate core. The Galileo space mission has indicated that the moon may have an ocean of sub surface water at a depth greater than 100 km.

It is not in orbital resonance with Jupiter like the other 3 major moons Io, Europa and Ganymede and is therefore not tidally heated and therefore has fewer chances for life to evolve.

4.      TITAN.

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the 2^nd largest moon in the solar system after Ganymede. It is larger than planet Mercury, and is the only moon that has a dense atmosphere in the solar system. While Mercury has mainly iron and rock while Titan has mostly ice and water. When viewed from Saturn it would take up as much as 11 times space than our own moon does from earth. Of course that is from above its thick atmosphere.

TITAN.

In fact Titan is the only body in the entire solar system with water on its surface (and not beneath an ice sheet) excluding our own planet Earth.  Titan has a rocky core surrounded by layers of ice and sub-surface ammonia rich liquid water.

Its thick atmosphere prevented us from knowing about it till the CASSINI HUYGENS mission of 2004 provided much information about it. It was discovered that Titan had lakes of Hydrocarbon at its polar regions. It was also discovered that Titans atmosphere had Super Rotation i.e. its atmosphere rotated much faster than the planet. The surface of Titan is generally smooth with only some impact craters.

The atmosphere of Titan is mainly Nitrogen & Methane. There are hydrocarbon clouds and heavy organo-nitrogen haze. Its wind and rain creates surface features similar to earth like dunes, rivers, lakes, seas (probably of liquid ethane and methane). Titans Methane cycle resembles Earths water cycle but at a much lower temperature at -179 Degrees Celsius. Due to these features Titan is called the most Earth like object in the Solar System albeit with a different chemical composition of its atmosphere. Its surface pressure is also similar to earth at 1.45 times that of earth.