How to ask to a girl to marry You?

For a lot of men, asking a woman to marry them is one of the scariest things they'll ever have to do. They feel pressure to make the proposal perfect and stressed about what their girlfriend's response will be (even if they're fairly certain she'll say "yes.") The good news is that most women won't base their answer on whether or not the proposal is perfect, so you can breathe easy. As long as you put in an effort and try to make her feel special, then your proposal should be fine.

Her answer will be based on how she feels about you and your relationship. It is likely something she has been thinking about a long time. So if you "mess" it up, her answer is unlikely to change.

But here are some tips on how to make the moment special, so it's something the two of you will feel comfortable talking about for a long time afterwards.

Talk To Her About Marriage Ahead Of Time

Don't wait until you are asking her to marry you before discussing marriage with her the first time. If the two of you have never discussed the future with each other, then you're probably not ready to get married yet anyway.

The reason this is important is because an unwanted marriage proposal can destroy a relationship. There might still be things that the two of you haven't worked out or discussed before you're ready to get engaged. She might not feel like it's the right time in her life to get married yet, even if she thinks you're a great guy. That might change once you work out your differences.

You're investing a lot of money into her ring and trying to figure out the rest of your life, you should talk to her about it first. Timing of proposals are important. You also need to make sure that you want the same things in life.

I know it's a big subject, but you should try to bring up the possibility of marrying her casually a few times before you propose. You can ask if she sees the two of you married within the next five years or even just subtly point out a happy, married couple and say you'd like to be like them some day. See what her reaction is.

If it's consistently positive, then go forward with your plans.

It's especially important to know what her feelings are if you're going to do a public proposal of any kind or it might lead to an embarrassing situation if she's not ready.

Get Tips From Her Best Friend/Mother

If you do this, though, make sure the person you ask is good at keeping secrets or they might tell your girlfriend that you're thinking about proposing and ruin the surprise.

The reason this is important is because they know what your girlfriend likes. They have probably discussed, at one time or another, in what way your girlfriend would want you to propose to her if you were ever to propose. Even if they haven't discussed this before, they can get the information out of her for you, without tipping your girlfriend off about the truth of their inquiries.

Also, if you're not sure whether or not she'll like a certain ring or certain detail of the proposal, you can ask them for advice. Because they care for your girlfriend so much, they'll be just as excited about the proposal as you are, so they'll be more than likely excited about giving you advice.

This can also be helpful in double checking if your girlfriend is ready to get engaged. Her best friend or mother will likely know exactly how she feels about marrying you and can confirm or caution if this is the right step for you to take right now.

Ask Permission From Her Father

This is old-fashioned, so you might think about skipping it, but if you do, there's a chance that her family might get angry at you for skipping out on it.

If her father isn't around, then asking someone who is a substitute, like her mother or a man who acts like a father figure to her, is acceptable as well. If she has more than one father, like a biological father and a step-dad, you might want to approach them both, depending on how close she is to them.

The reason this is important is that starting a marriage is easier if you have the approval of both of your families.

Sometimes this is impossible and you may know this ahead of time. If her father doesn't like you, I still recommend you going to him and saying,"I am coming to you to tell you that I plan to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage. I am coming to you first out of respect for you. I don't know if I will have your blessing, but it would make things easier if you'd give it to me." Then see what he says. His answer may surprise you and even if he still doesn't approve, he'll likely respect you for coming to him first and talking to him about your intentions man-to-man.

Fathers do not make decisions for their daughters, so you don't have to give up on your proposal, even if her father disapproves. Just understand, it will be much easier on your future wife, if the two of you can agree on at least this much.

Choosing Between A Public And Private Proposal

You should make this decision based on both of your personalities.

Is she an introvert or extrovert? How about you?

If you guys both experience a lot of your life in front of other people, like having big celebrations during your big life milestones (like turning twenty-one or graduating college), then a public proposal makes sense. You do a lot of important things in your life in front of a ton of people, so she'll find it more romantic to be surrounded by those she loves (or even strangers.)

But if she only has one good friend and spends most of her time reading books or watching netflix on the weekend, then she'll be so worried about everyone staring at her, when you propose to her publicly, that she'll be unable to enjoy the moment. It's better, in that case, to either do it in private or in front of a small group of people, like just her parents and siblings or something.

If one of you is an extrovert and one is an introvert, then proposing in private (because that's the most intimate moment) and later having an engagement party would be a good compromise.

A lot of men want to propose publicly because they view it as a "grand gesture." This is true. It takes a lot to gather the right people together and make arrangements for the perfect proposal. But it might not be what she wants. All woman are different.

It's more important that you show that you know her through the way you propose to her, then that you have a grand gesture.

Picking Out The Ring

There's a lot of stress about picking out the perfect ring. This is part of the reason why you need the help of the best friend or mother. They likely know what your girlfriend likes and can help you pick it out.

The most important thing is getting your girlfriend's ring size. Nothing is as disappointing as a ring that doesn't fit. You'll need the help of the mother or girlfriend probably to figure this out.

Then you have to consider the personality of your girlfriend. Is she really into jewelry? Then you'll probably need to get her something expensive and the diamond in a very specific cut. Her best friend or mother will probably know exactly what she wants and be able to help you with it.

But not all girls need something expensive or have something specific picked out in their head. You also might be short on money.

So make it something special in a different way. I'm not too into jewelry and my husband got me an engagement ring that had both of our birthstones on it. He arranged them in a way, so they had a certain meaning to him, which he later explained to me. This meant way more to me than if I'd gotten an expensive ring. It was romantic.

So if you don't have a lot of money and/or she's not that into jewelry, then you might want to pick out something that symbolizes something special about her or her relationship. Like, maybe a sapphire instead of a diamond because she has beautiful, blue eyes. Or the symbol of eternity on the ring because you want to be with her forever. That can make it special.

But even if you don't do this and just get her a simple, diamond ring, she'll probably be happy with this,. Unless, she is the type who really cares about jewelry and who you regularly give jewelry to.

The Little Details

Just like with the ring, the little details can make the proposal important. You should make all the details either about her or the relationship you have with her.

Like, maybe you propose at a certain restaurant because that's where the two of you went on your first date or you propose to her while stargazing because you both love the outdoors. Make the little details and the location about the two of you and what makes your relationship special.

They're not important and they won't ruin your proposal if you don't have them, but having them is a way of showing her that you love her. That you pay attention and remember details of your relationship, that you care.

It also helps set the mood and gets her ready for you to pop the question.

Write Down And Practice Your Speech

Don't try to wing it, no matter what you do. You may think,"I tell my girlfriend every day that I love her, I'll just be spontaneous and say whatever pops into my head."

But when you're in the moment and about to propose, you'll probably be so nervous that your mind will go blank. It might even help to write down your speech and keep it handy just in case you panic too much and forget what you are going to say.

So you not only have to plan what you are going to say in your head, but also practice saying it to a stuffed animal or a pillow a few times, at the very least.

Like I said earlier, I've been proposed to twice. Both men thought they knew what they were going to say ahead of time, even planned it in their head (but did not practice it or write it down) and forgot the entire thing when it came to actually proposing to me. Their minds went blank and all they could think of saying was "Will you marry me?" and nothing else.

This is why I say that even if you "mess up", it's not going to change her answer. I am married to one of those men who "messed up" his proposal and forgot what he was going to say to me. I said,"yes" to him anyway and when he was more relaxed, he told me the romantic things he meant to say to me afterwards because he could finally think straight again.

So you need to practice, practice, practice, so much that you can say the words even when your mind goes blank. It's okay if they don't come out perfect or if you forget some of the things you were going to say, you can always tell her afterwards, like my husband told me.

But knowing them in the moment will make things easier for you.

Don't Kneel Until The End

The second you kneel, especially if you're holding a little box in your hand, she won't hear another word that you're saying. She'll be too busy freaking out in her head and going,"Oh my God! Is he about to propose to me?" So you might be reciting this amazing speech, but she won't hear a word of it.

It's not just men who get nervous during marriage proposals, women do as well. I've been proposed to twice. Both times, I had butterflies in my stomach and felt so nervous, even though I was happy.

So don't kneel or take the tiny box out until right before you are about to propose or she won't be able to think straight or hear anything that you have to say.

Breathe Slowly And Relax

Like I said before, having all these details in place is just to make the proposal that much more special. It's just to show that you love her.

She's not going to change her answer just because you couldn't afford the perfect ring or because you forgot your entire speech. If she loves you, she knew she was going to marry you way ahead of time. All she wants to see is that love in your eyes when you ask her to marry you and to know that you will cherish her.

So breathe slowly, in and out. Relax when you propose and try to enjoy this moment as well because it will be one of the biggest moments of your life.

How much of the Earth can you see at once?

If you are of average height, the horizon is a little less than 3 miles away, so you can see that far in a circle around you.

Call it 27 square miles give or take.

Earth’s surface area is, per Wikipedia, 197 millon square miles. So you can see a little less than 1/7,450,000th of the earth’s surface. Or just about 0.0000134% of it.

What is a light-year and how is it used?

A light-year is a unit of distance. It is the distance that light can travel in one year. Light moves at a velocity of about 300,000 kilometers (km) each second. So in one year, it can travel about 10 trillion km. More p recisely, one light-year is equal to 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers.

Why would you want such a big unit of distance? Well, on Earth, a kilometer may be just fine. It is a few hundred kilometers from New York City to Washington, DC; it is a few thousand kilometers from California to Maine. In the universe, the kilometer is just too small to be useful. For example, the distance to the next nearest big galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is 21 quintillion km. That's 21,000,000,000,000,000,000 km. This is a number so large that it becomes hard to write and hard to interpret. So astronomers use other units of distance.

In our solar system, we tend to describe distances in terms of the Astronomical Unit (AU). The AU is defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. It is approximately 150 million km (93 million miles). Mercury can be said to be about 1/3 of an AU from the Sun and Pluto averages about 40 AU from the Sun. The AU, however, is not big enough of a unit when we start talking about distances to objects outside our solar system.

For distances to other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy (or even further), astronomers use units of the light-year or the parsec . The light-year we have already defined. The parsec is equal to 3.3 light-years. 

Using the light-year, we can say that :

• The Crab supernova remnant is about 4,000 light-years away.
• The Milky Way Galaxy is about 150,000 light-years across.
• The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.3 million light-years away.

Top 10 Things That Make Humans Special

Humans are unusual animals by any stretch of the imagination. Our special abilities, from big brains to opposable thumbs, have allowed us change our world dramatically and even leave the planet. There are also odd things about us that are, well, just special in relation to the rest of the animal kingdom. So what exactly makes us so special? Some things we take completely for granted might surprise you.

1. Speech

The larynx, or voice box, sits lower in the throat in humans than in chimps, one of several features that enable human speech. Human ancestors evolved a descended larynx roughly 350,000 years ago. We also possess a descended hyoid bone — this horseshoe-shaped bone below the tongue, unique in that it is not attached to any other bones in the body, allows us to articulate words when speaking.

2  Upright Posture

Humans are unique among the primates in how walking fully upright is our chief mode of locomotion. This frees our hands up for using tools. Unfortunately, the changes made in our pelvis for moving on two legs, in combination with babies with large brains, makes human childbirth unusually dangerous compared with the rest of the animal kingdom. A century ago, childbirth was a leading cause of death for women. The lumbar curve in the lower back, which helps us maintain our balance as we stand and walk, also leaves us vulnerable to lower back pain and strain.

3.      Nakedness

We look naked compared to our hairier ape cousins. Surprisingly, however, a square inch of human skin on average possesses as much hair-producing follicles as other primates, or more — humans often just have thinner, shorter, lighter hairs. Fun fact about hair: Even though we don't seem to have much, it apparently helps us detect parasites, according to one study.

4.      Clothing

Humans may be called "naked apes," but most of us wear clothing, a fact that makes us unique in the animal kingdom, save for the clothing we make for other animals. The development of clothing has even influenced the evolution of other species — the body louse, unlike all other kinds, clings to clothing, not hair.

5.      Extraordinary Brains

Without a doubt, the human trait that sets us apart the most from the animal kingdom is our extraordinary brain. Humans don't have the largest brains in the world — those belong to sperm whales. We don't even have the largest brains relative to body size — many birds have brains that make up more than 8 percent of their body weight, compared to only 2.5 percent for humans. Yet the human brain, weighing only about 3 pounds when fully grown, give us the ability to reason and think on our feet beyond the capabilities of the rest of the animal kingdom, and provided the works of Mozart, Einstein and many other geniuses.

6.      Hands

Contrary to popular misconceptions, humans are not the only animals to possess opposable thumbs — most primates do. (Unlike the rest of the great apes, we don't have opposable big toes on our feet.) What makes humans unique is how we can bring our thumbs all the way across the hand to our ring and little fingers. We can also flex the ring and little fingers toward the base of our thumb. This gives humans a powerful grip and exceptional dexterity to hold and manipulate tools with.

7.      Fire

The human ability to control fire would have brought a semblance of day to night, helping our ancestors to see in an otherwise dark world and keep nocturnal predators at bay. The warmth of the flames also helped people stay warm in cold weather, enabling us to live in cooler areas. And of course it gave us cooking, which some researchers suggest influenced human evolution — cooked foods are easier to chew and digest, perhaps contributing to human reductions in tooth and gut size.

8.      Blushing

Humans are the only species known to blush, a behavior Darwin called "the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions." It remains uncertain why people blush, involuntarily revealing our innermost emotions. The most common idea is that blushing helps keep people honest, benefiting the group as a whole.

9.      Long Childhoods

Humans must remain in the care of their parents for much longer than other living primates. The question then becomes why, when it might make more evolutionary sense to grow as fast as possible to have more offspring. The explanation may be our large brains, which presumably require a long time to grow and learn.

10.  Life after Children

Most animals reproduce until they die, but in humans, females can survive long after ceasing reproduction. This might be due to the social bonds seen in humans — in extended families, grandparents can help ensure the success of their families long after they themselves can have children.

Discovery and naming of Helium

Sir William Ramsay,
the discoverer of terrestrial helium

The first evidence of helium was observed on August 18, 1868, as a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun. The line was detected by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India. This line was initially assumed to be sodium. On October 20 of the same year, English astronomer Norman Lockyer observed a yellow line in the solar spectrum, which he named the D₃ Fraunhofer line because it was near the known D₁ and D₂ lines of sodium. He concluded that it was caused by an element in the Sun unknown on Earth. Lockyer and English chemist Edward Frankland named the element with the Greek word for the Sun, (helios). In 1881, Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri detected helium on Earth for the first time through its D₃ spectral line, when he analyzed a material that had been sublimated during a recent eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

On March 26, 1895, Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay isolated helium on Earth by treating the mineral cleveite (a variety of uraninite with at least 10% rare earth elements) with mineral acids. Ramsay was looking for argon but, after separating nitrogen and oxygen from the gas liberated by sulfuric acid, he noticed a bright yellow line that matched the D₃ line observed in the spectrum of the Sun. These samples were identified as helium by Lockyer and British physicist William Crookes. It was independently isolated from cleveite in the same year by chemists Per Teodor Cleve and Abraham Langlet in Uppsala, Sweden, who collected enough of the gas to accurately determine its atomic weight. Helium was also isolated by the American geochemist William Francis Hillebrand prior to Ramsay's discovery when he noticed unusual spectral lines while testing a sample of the mineral uraninite. Hillebrand, however, attributed the lines to nitrogen. His letter of congratulations to Ramsay offers an interesting case of discovery and near-discovery in science.

What is Fraunhofer Spectram?

Fraunhofer Spectrum also called as Fraunhofer lines are a set of spectral lines named after the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer. The lines were originally observed as dark features (absorption lines) in the optical spectrum of the Sun.

In 1802, a scientist called W.H. Wollaston noticed that the visible spectrum from the Sun had several dark lines in it. Not long afterwards, Joseph von Fraunhofer built the first spectrometer. This focused sunlight from a small telescope onto a narrow slit. The light then passed through a prism, which produced the spectrum. Fraunhofer later invented the diffraction grating, which is used in most spectrometers today. Fraunhofer not only confirmed Wollaston's results, but also found that there were far more dark lines in the spectrum than Wollaston had suspected. Fraunhofer showed that these were a feature of sunlight and not an illusion nor an optical effect, and he labelled them with letters of the alphabet (A,B,C etc.). We now call these dark lines Fraunhofer lines.

What is Plato Telescope?

PLATO is a European Space Agency telescope also called as  Europe's Planet-Hunting Telescope. It is expected to launch in 2024. The name stands for "PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars." The goal of this mission is to figure out under what conditions planets form and whether those conditions are favorable for life. 

To do this, PLATO will seek out and investigate Earth-size exoplanets, especially planets that orbit in the habitable zone around sun-like stars. (The habitable zone is usually defined as the area around a star where there is enough energy for liquid water on a planet's surface, although habitability also depends on other factors such as star variability.) It will determine how big their radii are; verify the mass of the planets from ground-based observatories; use astroseismology or "starquakes" to learn about a star's mass, radius and age; and identify bright targets for atmospheric spectroscopy along with other telescopes. If all goes to plan, the mission should be able to provide detailed information on hundreds of rocky and giant planets, providing more information about how solar systems form generally.

PLATO's primary mission is expected to last four years. However, the telescope is designed to last 6.5 years and its consumables, such as fuel, are expected to last about eight years. This means that the telescope could continue operations if its science mission was extended.

PLATO history

PLATO, which is named after the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato, was first proposed in 2007 after ESA put out a call for its Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 program. Cosmic Vision is the name of the current phase of ESA's long-term space science missions. 

ESA, like NASA, solicits opinions from the science community (ahead of selecting missions) to see what areas of space should be studied next. ESA then puts out calls for missions for a launch opportunity, attracting competitors that must present their science case.

PLATO was first proposed in 2007 as a part of Cosmic Visions, finishing assessment and definition phases in 2009 and 2010, respectively. ESA then put out a call in 2010 for a medium-class mission launch opportunity. 

PLATO, as well as two other missions — Solar Orbiter and Euclid (a mission to investigate dark energy and dark matter) —were selected as the finalists for this competition. Subsequently, Solar Orbiter was chosen for a 2017 launch date and Euclid for a 2020 launch date.

In February 2011, PLATO went up against four other medium-class mission candidates for a 2024 launch date. The others were EChO (the Exoplanet CHaracterization Observatory), LOFT (the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing), MarcoPolo-R (to collect and return a sample from a near-Earth asteroid) and STE-Quest (Space-Time Explorer and QUantum Equivalence principle Space Test). 

PLATO was selected in 2014 for the launch opportunity, which is also called M3 (for the third medium-class mission under Cosmic Visions.) The spacecraft is now in its design phase, which will take several years before it is finalized for construction.

PLATO science

The spacecraft will be launched from Earth on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket bound for a location called a Lagrange point. A Lagrange point is a relatively stable gravitational zone in space. PLATO will specifically be targeted for the L2 Lagrange point, a spot in space on the "dark" side of the Earth (meaning that the sun is always in the opposite direction.) 

L2 has been used before for the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck spacecraft, and is also the region where the James Webb Space Telescope will operate. Since L2 is relatively unstable, the spacecraft will follow a Lissajous orbit, which is a path around the Lagrange point, and periodically use fuel to stay in a consistent orbit.

The payload and science are contributed by a PLATO mission consortium (funded by European national funding agencies) while ESA provides the spacecraft, the CCDs, mission operations and part of the science operations.

PLATO's goal is to watch a large sample of bright stars for months or years, and measure them to high precision. By watching the stars for long periods, PLATO will be able to discern the light curve of the star, or the variations in its light transmitted over time. 

Since PLATO will last four years (at the least), the primary science mission will have it observe two regions of the sky for two years each. It's possible, however, that the telescope could instead do one long-duration observation of three years, and then move around in the sky for the fourth year of its primary science mission. 

"In view of the exceptionally fast development of exoplanet science, the final observing strategy will be investigated throughout the mission development and decided two years before launch," ESA said.

The long-term goal of many planetary observers is to find planets like Earth, and to seek signs of habitability on those other planets. While examining the atmospheres of these tiny planets will require a more advanced observatory, knowing where they are is a first step. 

Other space observatories looking for Earth-like planets include Kepler Space Telescope (in operation since 2009), the forthcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and to a lesser extent, the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Both TESS and JWST should launch in 2018.

PLATO instruments

PLATO has 24 normal cameras on board, arranged in four groups of six. Each of these groups has the same field of view, ESA said, but they are offset by a 9.2-degree-angle from the vertical axis of the spacecraft. Additionally, the spacecraft will have two "fast" cameras that will be used for brighter stars.

If an exoplanet passes in front of a star from the telescope's perspective, it can cause the light from the star to diminish, affecting its light curve. Other things can appear like planets, however, such as sunspots on the star that are darker than the surrounding surface and which also block the light. 

To verify any planets, PLATO will rely on backup observations from ground-based observatories. These observatories can measure the radial velocity of the star, or the velocity of the star along the line of sight from the observer. If slight tugs or movements are seen in the star, this would imply the presence of a planet due to the effect of the planet's gravity on the star.

"The key scientific requirement [is] to detect and characterize a large number of terrestrial planets around bright stars," ESA wrote in a statement. Terrestrial planets, being small, are tough to see around stars because they don't dim the star's light as much. The hope is that by observing closer and brighter stars, the planets will be a little larger and easier to spot.