Human exploration of space began some 60 years ago, when the first satellites were launched and the first cosmonaut appeared. Today, the study of the vastness of the Universe is carried out using powerful telescopes, but direct study of nearby objects is limited to neighboring planets. Even the Moon is a big mystery for humanity, an object of study by scientists. What can we say about larger-scale cosmic phenomena. Let's talk about ten of the most unusual of them.
Galactic cannibalism. The phenomenon of eating their own kind is inherent, it turns out, not only in living beings, but also space objects. Galaxies are no exception. So, the neighbor of our Milky Way, Andromeda, is now absorbing smaller neighbors. And inside the “predator” itself there are more than a dozen neighbors that have already been eaten. The Milky Way itself is now interacting with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. According to astronomers' calculations, the satellite, now located at a distance of 19 kpc from our center, will be absorbed and destroyed in a billion years. By the way, this form of interaction is not the only one; often galaxies simply collide. After analyzing more than 20 thousand galaxies, scientists came to the conclusion that all of them have encountered others at some point.
Quasars. These objects are a kind of bright beacons that shine to us from the very edges of the Universe and testify to the times of the birth of the entire cosmos, turbulent and chaotic. The energy emitted by quasars is hundreds of times greater than the energy of hundreds of galaxies. Scientists hypothesize that these objects are giant black holes in the centers of galaxies distant from us. Initially, in the 60s, quasars were objects that had strong radio emission, but at the same time extremely small angular dimensions. However, it later turned out that only 10% of those who are considered to be quasars met this definition. The rest did not emit strong radio waves at all. Today, objects that have variable radiation are considered to be quasars. What quasars are is one of the biggest mysteries of the cosmos. One theory says that this is a nascent galaxy, in which there is a huge black hole that is absorbing surrounding matter.
Dark matter. Experts were unable to detect this substance, or even see it at all. It is only assumed that there are some huge accumulations dark matter in the Universe. To analyze it, the capabilities of modern astronomical technical means are not enough. There are several hypotheses about what these formations may consist of, ranging from light neutrinos to invisible black holes. According to some scientists, no dark matter exists at all; over time, people will be able to better understand all aspects of gravity, and then an explanation for these anomalies will come. Another name for these objects is hidden mass or dark matter. There are two problems that gave rise to the theory of the existence of unknown matter - the discrepancy between the observed mass of objects (galaxies and clusters) and the gravitational effects of them, as well as the contradiction in cosmological parameters medium density space.
Gravitational waves. This concept refers to distortions of the space-time continuum. This phenomenon was predicted by Einstein in his general theory relativity, as well as other theories of gravity. Gravitational waves travel at the speed of light and are extremely difficult to detect. We can only notice those that are formed as a result of global cosmic changes such as the merger of black holes. This can only be done using huge specialized gravitational-wave and laser interferometric observatories such as LISA and LIGO. A gravitational wave is emitted by any accelerated moving matter; in order for the amplitude of the wave to be significant, a large mass of the emitter is required. But this means that another object then acts on it. It turns out that gravitational waves are emitted by a pair of objects. For example, one of the most powerful sources of waves are colliding galaxies.
Vacuum energy. Scientists have found that the vacuum of space is not at all as empty as is commonly believed. A quantum physics states directly that the space between stars is filled with virtual subatomic particles that are constantly being destroyed and re-formed. It is they who fill all space with anti-gravity energy, causing space and its objects to move. Where and why is another big mystery. Nobel laureate R. Feynman believes that vacuum has such enormous energy potential that in a vacuum, the volume of a light bulb contains so much energy that it is enough to boil all the world's oceans. However, until now, humanity considers the only way to obtain energy from matter, ignoring the vacuum.
Micro black holes. Some scientists have questioned the entire Big Bang theory; according to their assumptions, our entire Universe is filled with microscopic black holes, each of which is no larger than the size of an atom. This theory by physicist Hawking arose in 1971. However, babies behave differently than their older sisters. Such black holes have some unclear connections with the fifth dimension, influencing space-time in a mysterious way. It is planned to further study this phenomenon using the Large Hadron Collider. For now, it will be extremely difficult to even test their existence experimentally, and studying their properties is out of the question; these objects exist in complex formulas and in the minds of scientists.
Neutrino. This is what they call neutrals. elementary particles, having practically no specific gravity of their own. However, their neutrality helps, for example, to overcome a thick layer of lead, since these particles interact weakly with the substance. They pierce everything around, even our food and ourselves. Without visible consequences for people, 10^14 neutrinos released by the sun pass through the body every second. Such particles are born in ordinary stars, inside of which there is a kind of thermonuclear furnace, and during the explosions of dying stars. Neutrinos can be seen using huge neutrino detectors located deep in the ice or at the bottom of the sea. The existence of this particle was discovered by theoretical physicists; at first the law of conservation of energy itself was even disputed, until in 1930 Pauli suggested that the missing energy belonged to a new particle, which in 1933 received its current name.
Exoplanet. It turns out that planets do not necessarily exist near our star. Such objects are called exoplanets. It is interesting that until the early 90s, humanity generally believed that planets outside our Sun could not exist. By 2010, more than 452 exoplanets were known in 385 planetary systems. The objects range in size from gas giants, which are comparable in size to stars, to small rocky objects that orbit small red dwarfs. The search for a planet similar to Earth has not yet been successful. It is expected that the introduction of new means for space exploration will increase man's chances of finding brothers in mind. Existing observation methods are precisely aimed at detecting massive planets like Jupiter. The first planet, more or less similar to Earth, was discovered only in 2004 in the Altar star system. It makes a full revolution around the star in 9.55 days, and its mass is 14 times greater than the mass of our planet. The closest to us in terms of characteristics is Gliese 581c, discovered in 2007, with a mass of 5 Earth's. It is believed that the temperature there is in the range of 0 - 40 degrees, theoretically there may be water reserves there, which implies life. The year there lasts only 19 days, and the star, much colder than the Sun, appears 20 times larger in the sky. The discovery of exoplanets allowed astronomers to make an unambiguous conclusion that the presence of planetary systems in space is a fairly common phenomenon. So far, most of the detected systems are different from solar ones, this is explained by the selectivity of detection methods.
Microwave space background. This phenomenon, called CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), was discovered in the 60s of the last century, it turned out that from everywhere in interstellar space weak radiation is emitted. She was also called cosmic microwave background radiation. It is believed that this may be a residual phenomenon from the Big Bang, which started everything around. It is CMB that is one of the most compelling arguments in favor of this theory. Precise instruments were even able to measure the temperature of the CMB, which is a cosmic -270 degrees. The Americans Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for their accurate measurement of radiation temperature.
Antimatter. In nature, much is built on opposition, just as good opposes evil, and particles of antimatter are in opposition to the ordinary world. The well-known negatively charged electron has its negative twin brother in antimatter - the positively charged positron. When two antipodes collide, they annihilate and release pure energy, which is equal to their total mass and is described well-known formula Einstein E=mc^2. Futurists, science fiction writers and simply dreamers suggest that in the distant future spaceships will be driven by engines that will use precisely the energy of the collision of antiparticles with ordinary ones. It is estimated that the annihilation of 1 kg of antimatter from 1 kg of ordinary matter will release an amount of energy only 25% less than in the largest explosion to date atomic bomb on the planet. Today it is believed that the forces that determine the structure of both matter and antimatter are the same. Accordingly, the structure of antimatter should be the same as that of ordinary matter. One of the biggest mysteries of the Universe is the question - why does the observable part of it consist almost of matter; perhaps there are places that are completely composed of the opposite matter? It is believed that such a significant asymmetry arose in the first seconds after Big Bang. In 1965, an anti-deuteron was synthesized, and later even an antihydrogen atom, consisting of a positron and an antiproton, was obtained. Today, enough of this substance has been obtained to study its properties. This substance, by the way, is the most expensive on earth; 1 gram of anti-hydrogen costs 62.5 trillion dollars.
From stars that suck the life out of their own kind to giant black holes that are billions of times larger and more massive than our Sun.
1. Ghost Planet
Many astronomers said that the huge planet Fomalhaut B had sunk into oblivion, but it appears to be alive again.
In 2008, astronomers, using space telescope NASA Hubble announced the discovery of a huge planet orbiting the very bright star Fomalhaut, located just 25 light-years from Earth. Other researchers later questioned this discovery, saying that scientists had actually discovered a giant cloud of dust.
However, according to the latest data obtained from Hubble, the planet is being discovered again and again. Other experts are carefully studying the system surrounding the star, so the zombie planet may be buried more than once before a final verdict is made on this issue.
2. Zombie stars
Some stars literally come back to life in brutal and dramatic ways. Astronomers classify these zombie stars as Type Ia supernovae, which produce huge and powerful explosions that send the "guts" of the stars out into the universe.
Type Ia supernovae explode from binary systems that consist of at least one white dwarf—a tiny, superdense star that has stopped undergoing fusion. nuclear reaction. White dwarfs are "dead", but in this form they cannot remain in the binary system.
They can return to life, albeit briefly, in a giant supernova explosion, sucking the life out of their companion star or by merging with it.
3. Vampire stars
Just like the vampires from fiction, some stars manage to stay young by sucking the life force out of unfortunate victims. These vampire stars are known as “blue stragglers,” and they “look” much younger than the neighbors with whom they were formed.
When they explode, the temperature is much higher and the color is “much bluer.” Scientists believe this is the case because they are sucking huge amounts of hydrogen from nearby stars.
4. Giant black holes
Black holes may seem like the stuff of science fiction - they are extremely dense, and their gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape if it gets close enough.
But these are very real objects that are quite common throughout the Universe. In fact, astronomers believe that supermassive black holes are at the center of most (if not all) galaxies, including our own. Milky Way. Supermassive black holes are mind-boggling in size.
5. Killer asteroids
The phenomena listed in the previous paragraph may be creepy or take an abstract form, but they do not pose a threat to humanity. The same cannot be said about large asteroids that fly close to Earth.
And even an asteroid only 40 m in size can cause serious harm if it hits locality. Probably the influence of the asteroid is one of the factors that changed life on Earth. It is assumed that 65 million years ago it was an asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs. Fortunately, there are ways to redirect dangerous space rocks away from Earth, if, of course, the danger is detected in time.
6. Active sun
The sun gives us life, but our star is not always so good. From time to time, serious storms occur on it, which can have a potentially destructive effect on radio communications, satellite navigation and the operation of electrical networks.
Recently, such solar flares have been observed especially often, because the sun has entered its particularly active phase of the 11-year cycle. Researchers expect solar activity to peak in May 2013.
The largest scientific discoveries 2014
10 main questions about the Universe that scientists are looking for answers to right now Have Americans been on the moon?
Space is full of bizarre and even scary phenomena, from stars that suck the life out of their own kind to giant black holes that are billions of times larger and more massive than our Sun.
1. Ghost Planet
Many astronomers said that the huge planet Fomalhaut B had sunk into oblivion, but it appears to be alive again. In 2008, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope announced the discovery of a huge planet orbiting the very bright star Fomalhaut, located just 25 light-years from Earth. Other researchers later questioned this discovery, saying that scientists had actually discovered a giant cloud of dust.
However, according to the latest data obtained from Hubble, the planet is being discovered again and again. Other experts are carefully studying the system surrounding the star, so the zombie planet may be buried more than once before a final verdict is made on this issue.
2. Zombie stars
Some stars literally come back to life in brutal and dramatic ways. Astronomers classify these zombie stars as Type Ia supernovae, which produce huge and powerful explosions that send the "guts" of the stars out into the universe.
Type Ia supernovae explode from binary systems that consist of at least one white dwarf—a tiny, superdense star that has stopped undergoing nuclear fusion. White dwarfs are "dead", but in this form they cannot remain in the binary system.
They can return to life, albeit briefly, in a giant supernova explosion, sucking the life out of their companion star or by merging with it.
3. Vampire stars
Just like vampires in fiction, some stars manage to stay young by sucking the life force out of hapless victims. These vampire stars are known as “blue stragglers,” and they “look” much younger than the neighbors with whom they were formed.
When they explode, the temperature is much higher and the color is “much bluer.” Scientists believe this is the case because they are sucking huge amounts of hydrogen from nearby stars.
4. Giant black holes
Black holes may seem like the stuff of science fiction - they are extremely dense, and their gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape if it gets close enough.
But these are very real objects that are quite common throughout the Universe. In fact, astronomers believe that supermassive black holes are at the center of most (if not all) galaxies, including our Milky Way. Supermassive black holes are mind-boggling in size.
5. Killer asteroids
The phenomena listed in the previous paragraph may be creepy or take an abstract form, but they do not pose a threat to humanity. The same cannot be said about large asteroids that fly close to Earth.
And even an asteroid only 40 m in size can cause serious harm if it hits a populated area. Probably the influence of the asteroid is one of the factors that changed life on Earth. It is assumed that 65 million years ago it was an asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs. Fortunately, there are ways to redirect dangerous space rocks away from Earth, if, of course, the danger is detected in time.
6. Active sun
The sun gives us life, but our star is not always so good. From time to time, serious storms occur on it, which can have a potentially destructive effect on radio communications, satellite navigation and the operation of electrical networks.
Recently, such solar flares have been observed especially often, because the sun has entered its particularly active phase of the 11-year cycle. Researchers expect solar activity to peak in May 2013.
Although in last decades Science is moving forward by leaps and bounds, people's knowledge about space is still tending to zero. And it is not surprising that scientists are constantly discovering new, sometimes seemingly fantastic, phenomena in the Universe. The “hottest” ten such discoveries made recently will be discussed in this review.
1. “Cosmic shield” of humanity
NASA researchers have discovered a surprising and beneficial byproduct of radio transmissions: a man-made "VLF (low frequency) bubble" around the Earth that protects people from certain types of radiation. Earth also has naturally occurring Van Allen radiation belts, in which the sun's energetic particles become "trapped" in the Earth's magnetic field.
But now scientists believe that the accumulated electromagnetic radiation The Earth has inadvertently created a kind of radioactive barrier that deflects some of the high-energy cosmic particles that continually cause damage to the Earth.
2.Galaxy PGC 1000714
Galaxy PGC 1000714 may be the "most unique" ever observed by scientists. This is a Hoag-type object with 2 rings around it (in some ways it is similar to Saturn, but only the size of a galaxy). Only 0.1% of galaxies have one ring, but PGC 1000714 is unique in that it boasts two. The 5.5-billion-year-old galaxy's core consists mostly of old red stars. Surrounding it is a large, much younger (0.13 billion years) outer ring, in which hotter, younger blue stars shine.
When scientists looked at the galaxy at several wavelengths, they discovered a completely unexpected imprint of a second, inner ring, which is much closer to the core in terms of age and is also not connected to the outer ring at all.
3. Exoplanet Kelt-9b
The hottest exoplanet discovered so far is hotter than many stars. The newly described Kelt-9b's surface temperature rises to 3,777 degrees Celsius, and that's on its dark side. And on the side facing the star, the temperature is approximately 4,327 degrees Celsius - almost the same as on the surface of the Sun. The star in which the planet is located, Kelt-9, is an A-type star located 650 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
Type A stars are among the hottest, and this particular individual is a "baby" by galactic standards, being only 300 million years old. But as the star grows and expands, its surface will eventually engulf Kelt-9b.
4. Collapse inward
It turns out that black holes can form without titanic supernova explosions or the collision of two incredibly dense objects such as neutron stars. Apparently, stars can “collapse in on themselves,” turning into black holes, relatively quietly. The Large Binocular Telescope study found thousands of potential "failed supernovae."
For example, the star N6946-BH1 had enough mass to go supernova (about 25 times more than the Sun). But the images show that she is only short term glowed a little brighter and then simply disappeared into the darkness.
5. Magnetic fields of the Universe
Many celestial bodies produce magnetic fields, but the largest fields ever discovered are due to gravitationally bound galaxy clusters. A typical cluster spans about 10 million light years (by comparison, the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across). And these gravitational titans create incredibly powerful magnetic fields. Clusters are essentially collections of charged particles, gas clouds, stars and dark matter, and their chaotic interactions create real “electromagnetic witchcraft.”
When the galaxies themselves pass too close to each other and touch, the flammable gases at their boundaries are compressed, eventually shooting out arcing "relics" that extend out to distances of up to six million light years, potentially even larger than the cluster that gave birth to them.
6. Accelerated development of galaxies
The early Universe is full of mysteries, one of which is the existence of a bunch of mysteriously "fattened" galaxies that should not have existed long enough to gain such size. These galaxies contained hundreds of billions of stars (a decent number even by today's standards) when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old. And if we look even further into space-time, astronomers have discovered a new type of hyperactive galaxies, which “fed” these early anomalously developed galaxies.
When the Universe was a billion years old, these progenitor galaxies were already producing an insane amount of stars at a rate 100 times faster than the star formation rate of the Milky Way. Researchers have found evidence that even in the sparsely populated young Universe, galaxies merged.
7. A new type of catastrophic event
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered something strange while peering into the early universe. Chandra astronomers observed a mysterious source x-rays at a distance of 10.7 billion light years. It suddenly became 1000 times brighter and then disappeared into darkness over the course of about a day. Astronomers had detected similar bizarre X-ray bursts before, but this one was 100,000 times brighter in the X-ray range.
Giant supernovae, neutron stars or white dwarfs have been tentatively listed as possible culprits, but evidence does not support any of these events. The galaxy where the explosion occurred is much smaller and far from previously discovered sources, so astronomers hope they have found "an entirely new type of catastrophic event."
8. Orbit X9
Black holes are generally thought to destroy anything that dares to get close to them, but the recently discovered white dwarf X9 is the closest orbital body ever to approach a black hole. X9 is three times closer to the black hole than the Moon is to Earth, so it makes full turn in just 28 minutes. This means the black hole is spinning the white dwarf around itself faster than the average pizza delivery.
X9 lies 15,000 light-years from Earth in the globular star cluster 47 Tucanae, part of the constellation Tucana. Astronomers think X9 was likely a large red star before a black hole pulled it towards itself and sucked out all its outer layers.
9. Cepheids
Cepheids are cosmic “children” ranging in age from 10 to 300 million years. They pulsate and their regular changes in brightness make them ideal landmarks in space. Researchers found them in the Milky Way, but they weren't sure what they were (after all, Cepheids are located near the galactic core, and are almost invisible behind huge clouds of interstellar dust).
Astronomers observing the core in infrared light discovered a surprisingly barren "desert" devoid of young stars. Several Cepheids lie near the center of the galaxy, and just outside this region a huge dead zone extends 8,000 light-years in all directions.
10. "Planetary Trinity"
So-called "hot Jupiters" are balls of gas like Jupiter, but they are closer in structure to stars than they should be and orbit their stars in closer orbits than even Mercury. Scientists have studied these strange celestial bodies over the past 20 years, having detected about 300 such “hot Jupiters,” all of them orbiting their stars alone.
But in 2015, researchers from the University of Michigan finally confirmed what seemed impossible - a hot Jupiter with a companion. In the WASP-47 system, the star is orbited by hot Jupiter and two other completely different planets - a larger Neptune-shaped one, and a smaller, much denser, rocky "super-Earth".
Ecology
Space is full of bizarre and even scary phenomena, from stars that suck the life out of their own kind to giant black holes that are billions of times larger and more massive than our Sun. Below are the scariest things in outer space.
The planet is a ghost
Many astronomers said that the huge planet Fomalhaut B had sunk into oblivion, but apparently it is alive again.
Back in 2008, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope announced the discovery of a huge planet orbiting the very bright star Fomalhaut, located just 25 light-years from Earth. Other researchers later questioned this discovery, saying that the scientists had actually discovered the giant dust cloud being imaged.
However, according to the latest data obtained from Hubble, the planet is being discovered again and again. Other experts are carefully studying the system surrounding the star, so the zombie planet may be buried more than once before a final verdict is made on this issue.
Zombie stars
Some stars literally come back to life in brutal and dramatic ways. Astronomers classify these zombie stars as Type Ia supernovae, which produce huge and powerful explosions that send the stars' "innards" out into the universe.
Type Ia supernovae explode from binary systems that consist of at least one white dwarf—a tiny, superdense star that has stopped undergoing nuclear fusion. White dwarfs are "dead", but in this form they cannot remain in the binary system.
They can return to life, albeit briefly, in a giant supernova explosion, sucking the life out of their companion star or by merging with it.
Stars are vampires
Just like vampires in fiction, some stars manage to stay young by sucking the life force out of hapless victims. These vampire stars are known as "blue stragglers," and they "look" much younger than the neighbors with whom they were formed.
When they explode, the temperature is much higher and the color is “much bluer.” Scientists believe this is the case because they are sucking huge amounts of hydrogen from nearby stars.
Giant black holes
Black holes may seem like the stuff of science fiction - they are extremely dense, and their gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape if it gets close enough to them.
But these are very real objects that are quite common throughout the Universe. In fact, astronomers believe that supermassive black holes are at the center of most, if not all galaxies, including our Milky Way. Supermassive black holes are mind-boggling in size. Scientists recently discovered two black holes, each with the mass of 10 billion of our Suns.
Incomprehensible cosmic blackness
If you are afraid of the dark, then being in deep space is definitely not for you. It is a place of “utter blackness,” far removed from the comforting lights of home. Outer space is black, according to scientists, because it is empty.
Despite trillions of stars scattered throughout space, many molecules are at great distances from each other to interact and scatter.
Spiders and witch's brooms
The skies are populated with witches, glowing skulls and all-seeing eyes, in fact you can imagine any object. We see all of these forms in a diffuse collection of glowing gas and dust called nebulae that are scattered throughout the Universe.
The visual images that appear before us are examples of a special phenomenon in which the human brain recognizes the shapes of random images.
Killer asteroids
The phenomena listed in the previous paragraph may be creepy or take an abstract form, but they do not pose a threat to humanity. The same cannot be said about large asteroids that fly close to Earth.
Experts say that an asteroid 1 kilometer wide has the power to destroy our planet upon impact. And even an asteroid as small as 40 meters in size can cause serious harm if it hits a populated area.
The influence of an asteroid is one of the factors that affects life on Earth. It is likely that 65 million years ago it was an asteroid 10 kilometers in size that destroyed the dinosaurs. Fortunately for us, scientists are scanning celestial rocks, and there are ways to redirect dangerous space rocks away from Earth, if, of course, the danger is detected in time.
Active sun
The sun gives us life, but our star is not always so good. It experiences serious storms from time to time, which can have a potentially destructive effect on radio communications, satellite navigation and power grids.
Recently, such solar flares have been observed especially often, because the sun has entered its particularly active phase of the 11-year cycle. Researchers expect solar activity to peak in 2013.
