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New space research. Pluto is no longer a planet.

In scientific research of the planets of the Solar System, the most striking event is the recent passage of the space station past Pluto, which lost its planetary status.

Having flown just 12,500 km from the surface of this celestial body on July 14, 2015, the spacecraft was able to collect a huge amount of diverse data, including about the climate and geology of this dwarf planet. Now there is a phase of active transfer of collected data to Earth and gradually the features of the topography of Pluto’s surface are revealed to us in that place called its heart. There are already suggestions that there may be an ocean under the surface of the celestial body.

On the surface of Pluto, moving ice floes and entire mountains of water ice, reaching a height of 3 km, were discovered, as well as a young surface, almost free of craters and shaped like a heart. This may indicate the presence of an ocean beneath its surface, which could cause increased geological activity in the celestial body.

Recent scientific research on the planets of the solar system does not yet allow us to accurately confirm or refute the hypotheses put forward, but scientists hope that as new, more detailed information becomes available, it will be possible to bring greater clarity to this issue.

Perhaps everyone knows that the piece of the Universe that shelters us is called the Solar System. The hot star, together with its surrounding planets, began its formation about 4.6 billion years ago. Then a part of the molecular interstellar cloud occurred. The center of the collapse, where most of the matter accumulated, subsequently became the Sun, and the protoplanetary cloud surrounding it gave birth to all other objects.

Information about the solar system was initially collected only by observing the night sky. As telescopes and other instruments improved, scientists learned more and more about the space around us. However, all the most interesting facts about the solar system were obtained only later - in the 60s of the last century.

Compound

The central object of our piece of the Universe is the Sun. Eight planets revolve around it: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Further beyond the latter are the so-called Trans-Neptunian objects, which include Pluto, which was deprived of its planetary status in 2006. It and several other cosmic bodies were classified as minor planets. The eight main objects after the Sun are divided into two categories: the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) and the huge planets of the Solar System, interesting facts about which begin with the fact that they consist almost entirely of gas. These include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid Belt, where many asteroids and small planets of irregular shape are located. Beyond Neptune's orbit lies the Kuiper Belt and its associated scattered disk. The asteroid belt mainly contains objects made of rocks and metals, while the Kuiper Belt is filled with bodies of ice of various origins. Scattered disk objects also have a mostly icy composition.

Sun

Interesting facts about the solar system should start from its center. A giant hot ball with an internal temperature of over 15 million degrees concentrated more than 99% of the mass of the entire system. The Sun is a third generation star and is approximately halfway through its life cycle. Its core is the site of continuous processes that result in hydrogen being converted into helium. The same process leads to the formation of a huge amount of energy, which then ends up on the Earth.

Future

In about 1.1 billion years, the Sun will have used up most of its hydrogen fuel and its surface will heat up to its maximum. At this time, most likely, almost all life on Earth will disappear. Conditions will allow only organisms in the depths of the ocean to survive. When the age of the Sun is 12.2 billion years, it will turn into the outer layers of the star and reach the orbit of the Earth. At this time, our planet will either move to a more distant orbit or be absorbed.

At the next stage of development, the Sun will lose its outer shell, which will turn into a white dwarf, which is the core of the Sun - the size of the Earth - in the center.

Mercury

As long as the Sun is relatively stable, exploration of the planets of the solar system will continue. The first cosmic body of sufficiently large size that can be encountered if you move away from our star to the outskirts of the system is Mercury. The closest planet to the Sun and at the same time the smallest planet was explored by the Mariner 10 apparatus, which managed to photograph its surface. The study of Mercury is hampered by its proximity to the star, so for many years it remained poorly studied. After Mariner 10, launched in 1973, Mercury was visited by Messenger. The spacecraft began its mission in 2003. It flew close to the planet several times, and in 2011 it became its satellite. Thanks to these studies, information about the solar system has expanded significantly.

Today we know that although Mercury is closest to the Sun, it is not the hottest planet. Venus is far ahead of him in this regard. Mercury has no real atmosphere; it is blown away by the solar wind. The planet is characterized by a gas shell with extremely low pressure. A day on Mercury is equal to almost two Earth months, while a year lasts 88 days on our planet, that is, less than two Mercury days.

Venus

Thanks to the flight of Mariner 2, interesting facts about the solar system, on the one hand, became scarcer, and on the other, enriched. Before receiving information from this spacecraft, Venus was considered to have a temperate climate and, possibly, an ocean, and the possibility of discovering life on it was considered. Mariner 2 dispelled these dreams. Studies of this device, as well as several others, painted a rather bleak picture. Under a layer of atmosphere, mostly consisting of carbon dioxide, and clouds of sulfuric acid, there is a surface heated to almost 500 ºС. There is no water here and there cannot be any forms of life known to us. On Venus, even spacecraft cannot survive: they melt and burn.

Mars

The 4th planet of the solar system and the last of the earth-like ones is Mars. The Red Planet has always attracted the attention of scientists, and it remains a center of research today. Mars has been studied by numerous Mariners, two Vikings, and Soviet Mars. For a long time, astronomers believed that they would find water on the surface of the Red Planet. Today it is known that once upon a time Mars looked completely different than it does now, perhaps there was water on it. There is an assumption that the change in the nature of the surface was facilitated by the collision of Mars with a huge asteroid, which left a mark in the form of five craters. The result of the disaster was a displacement of the planet's poles by almost 90º, a significant increase in volcanic activity and the movement of lithospheric plates. At the same time, climate change occurred. Mars lost its water, the atmospheric pressure on the planet decreased significantly, and the surface began to resemble a desert.

Jupiter

The large planets of the Solar System, or gas giants, are separated from the Earth-like planets by the Asteroid Belt. The closest of them to the Sun is Jupiter. In size it surpasses all other planets in our system. The gas giant was studied using Voyager 1 and 2, as well as Galileo. The latter recorded the fall of fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 onto the surface of Jupiter. Both the event itself and the opportunity to observe it were unique. As a result, scientists were able to obtain not only a number of interesting images, but also some data about the comet and the composition of the planet.

The fall itself on Jupiter differs from that on cosmic bodies of the terrestrial group. Even huge fragments cannot leave a crater on the surface: Jupiter consists almost entirely of gas. The comet was absorbed by the upper layers of the atmosphere, leaving dark marks on the surface that soon disappeared. It is interesting that Jupiter, due to its size and mass, acts as a kind of protector of the Earth, protecting it from various space debris. It is believed that the gas giant played an important role in the emergence of life: any of the fragments that fell on Jupiter could lead to a mass extinction on Earth. And if such falls occurred frequently in the early stages of life, perhaps people would not still exist.

Signal to brothers in mind

The study of the planets of the solar system and space in general is carried out, not least of all, with the aim of searching for conditions where life can arise or has already appeared. However, they are such that humanity may not be able to cope with the task in all the time allotted to it. Therefore, the Voyager spacecraft were equipped with a round aluminum box containing a video disc. It contains information that, according to scientists, can explain to representatives of other civilizations, perhaps existing in space, where the Earth is and who inhabits it. The images depict landscapes, the anatomical structure of a person, the structure of DNA, scenes from the lives of people and animals, sounds are recorded: birds singing, a child crying, the sound of rain and many others. The disk is provided with the coordinates of the Solar system relative to 14 powerful pulsars. The explanations are written using the binary year.

Voyager 1 will leave the solar system around 2020 and will roam the cosmos for many centuries to come. Scientists believe that the discovery of the message of earthlings by other civilizations may not happen very soon, at a time when our planet will cease to exist. In this case, a disk with information about people and the Earth is all that will remain of humanity in the Universe.

New round

At the beginning of the 21st century, interest in it increased greatly. Interesting facts about the solar system continue to accumulate. Data on the gas giants is being updated. Every year the equipment is being improved, in particular, new types of engines are being developed that will allow flights to more remote areas of space with less fuel consumption. The movement of scientific progress allows us to hope that all the most interesting things about the solar system will soon become part of our knowledge: we will be able to find evidence of existence, understand exactly what led to climate change on Mars and what it was like before, study Mercury scorched by the Sun, and finally build a base on Moon. The wildest dreams of modern astronomers are even bigger than some science fiction films. It is interesting that advances in technology and physics indicate the real possibility of implementing grandiose plans in the future.

Study of the Planets of the Solar System

Until the end of the 20th century, it was generally accepted that there were nine planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. But recently, many objects have been discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune, some of them similar to Pluto, and others even larger in size. Therefore, in 2006, astronomers clarified the classification: the 8 largest bodies - from Mercury to Neptune - are considered classical planets, and Pluto became the prototype of a new class of objects - dwarf planets. The 4 planets closest to the Sun are usually called terrestrial planets, and the next 4 massive gas bodies are called giant planets. Dwarf planets mainly inhabit the region beyond Neptune's orbit - the Kuiper Belt.

Moon

The Moon is the Earth's natural satellite and the brightest object in the night sky. Formally, the Moon is not a planet, but it is significantly larger than all dwarf planets, most satellites of planets, and is not much inferior in size to Mercury. On the Moon there is no atmosphere familiar to us, there are no rivers and lakes, vegetation and living organisms. The gravity on the Moon is six times less than on Earth. Day and night with temperature changes of up to 300 degrees last for two weeks. And yet, the Moon is increasingly attracting earthlings with the opportunity to use its unique conditions and resources. Therefore, the Moon is our first step in getting to know the objects of the Solar System.

The Moon has been well explored both with the help of ground-based telescopes and thanks to the flights of more than 50 spacecraft and ships with astronauts. The Soviet automatic stations Luna-3 (1959) and Zond-3 (1965) were the first to photograph the eastern and western parts of the lunar hemisphere, invisible from Earth. Artificial satellites of the Moon studied its gravitational field and relief. Self-propelled vehicles "Lunokhod-1 and -2" transmitted to Earth many images and information about the physical and mechanical properties of the soil. Twelve American astronauts with the help of the Apollo spacecraft in 1969-1972. visited the Moon, where they conducted surface studies at six different landing sites on the visible side, installed scientific equipment there and brought about 400 kg of lunar rocks to Earth. The Luna-16, -20 and -24 probes automatically drilled and delivered lunar soil to Earth. The new generation spacecraft Clementine (1994), Lunar Prospector (1998-99) and Smart-1 (2003-06) received more accurate information about the relief and gravitational field of the Moon, as well as discovered deposits of hydrogen-containing materials, possibly water ice, on the surface. In particular, increased concentrations of these materials are found in permanently shadowed depressions near the poles.

The Chinese Chang'e-1 spacecraft, launched on October 24, 2007, photographed the lunar surface and collected data to compile a digital model of its relief. On March 1, 2009, the device was dropped onto the surface of the Moon. On November 8, 2008, the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan 1 was launched into selenocentric orbit. On November 14, the probe separated from it and made a hard landing near the south pole of the Moon. The device operated for 312 days and transmitted data on the distribution of chemical elements on the surface and on relief heights. The Japanese Kaguya satellite and two additional microsatellites Okina and Oyuna, which operated in 2007-2009, completed the scientific program of lunar research and transmitted data on the heights of the relief and the distribution of gravity on its surface with high accuracy.

A new important stage in the study of the Moon was the launch on June 18, 2009 of two American satellites “Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter” (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and “LCROSS” (lunar crater observation and detection satellite). On October 9, 2009, the LCROSS probe was sent to the Cabeo crater. The spent stage of the Atlas-V rocket, weighing 2.2 tons, first fell to the bottom of the crater. About four minutes later, the LCROSS spacecraft (weighing 891 kg) fell there, which, before falling, rushed through the cloud of dust raised by the stage, having managed to do the necessary research until the device dies. American researchers believe that they still managed to find some water in a cloud of lunar dust. Lunar Orbiter continues to explore the Moon from polar lunar orbit. The Russian LEND (Lunar Research Neutron Detector) instrument, designed to search for frozen water, is installed on board the spacecraft. In the area of ​​the South Pole, he discovered a large amount of hydrogen, which may be a sign of the presence of water there in a bound state.

In the near future, exploration of the Moon will begin. Already today, projects are being developed in detail to create a permanent inhabited base on its surface. The long-term or permanent presence on the Moon of replacement crews of such a base will make it possible to solve more complex scientific and applied problems.

The Moon moves under the influence of gravity, mainly from two celestial bodies - the Earth and the Sun at an average distance of 384,400 km from the Earth. At apogee this distance increases to 405,500 km, at perigee it decreases to 363,300 km. The period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth in relation to distant stars is about 27.3 days (sidereal month), but since the Moon revolves around the Sun together with the Earth, its position relative to the Sun-Earth line is repeated after a slightly longer period of time - about 29.5 days (synodic month). During this period, a complete change of lunar phases takes place: from the new moon to the first quarter, then to the full moon, to the last quarter and again to the new moon. The Moon rotates around its axis at a constant angular velocity in the same direction in which it revolves around the Earth, and with the same period of 27.3 days. That is why from the Earth we see only one hemisphere of the Moon, which we call visible; and the other hemisphere is always hidden from our eyes. This hemisphere, not visible from Earth, is called the far side of the Moon. The figure formed by the physical surface of the Moon is very close to a regular sphere with an average radius of 1737.5 km. The surface area of ​​the lunar globe is about 38 million km 2, which is only 7.4% of the earth's surface area, or about a quarter of the area of ​​the earth's continents. The mass ratio of the Moon and Earth is 1:81.3. The average density of the Moon (3.34 g/cm3) is significantly less than the average density of the Earth (5.52 g/cm3). The gravity on the Moon is six times less than on Earth. On a summer afternoon near the equator, the surface heats up to +130° C, in some places even higher; and at night the temperature drops to -170 °C. Rapid cooling of the surface is also observed during lunar eclipses. There are two types of areas on the Moon: light - continental, occupying 83% of the entire surface (including the far side), and dark areas called seas. This division arose in the middle of the 17th century, when it was assumed that there was actually water on the Moon. In terms of mineralogical composition and the content of individual chemical elements, lunar rocks on dark areas of the surface (seas) are very close to terrestrial rocks such as basalts, and on light areas (continents) - to anorthosites.

The question of the origin of the Moon is not yet completely clear. The chemical composition of lunar rocks suggests that the Moon and Earth were formed in the same region of the solar system. But the difference in their composition and internal structure makes us think that both of these bodies were not a single whole in the past. Most of the large craters and huge depressions (multi-ring basins) appeared on the surface of the lunar ball during a period of heavy bombardment of the surface. About 3.5 billion years ago, as a result of internal heating, basaltic lavas poured out onto the surface from the depths of the Moon, filling the lowlands and round depressions. This is how the lunar seas were formed. On the reverse side, due to the thicker bark, there were significantly fewer outpourings. On the visible hemisphere, seas occupy 30% of the surface, and on the opposite hemisphere - only 3%. Thus, the evolution of the lunar surface basically ended about 3 billion years ago. The meteorite bombardment continued, but with less intensity. As a result of prolonged processing of the surface, the upper loose layer of rocks of the Moon was formed - regolith, several meters thick.

Mercury

The planet closest to the Sun is named after the ancient god Hermes (to the Romans Mercury) - the messenger of the gods and the god of dawn. Mercury is at an average distance of 58 million km or 0.39 AU. from the sun. Moving along a highly elongated orbit, at perihelion it approaches the Sun at a distance of 0.31 AU, and at its maximum distance it is at a distance of 0.47 AU, making a full revolution in 88 Earth days. In 1965, using radar methods from the Earth, it was established that the rotation period of this planet is 58.6 days, that is, in 2/3 of its year it completes a full rotation around its axis. The addition of axial and orbital motions leads to the fact that, being on the Sun-Earth line, Mercury is always turned with the same side towards us. A solar day (the period of time between the upper or lower culminations of the Sun) lasts 176 Earth days on the planet.

At the end of the 19th century, astronomers tried to sketch the dark and light features observed on the surface of Mercury. The best known are the works of Schiaparelli (1881-1889) and the American astronomer Percival Lovell (1896-1897). Interestingly, astronomer T. J. C. even announced in 1901 that he had seen craters on Mercury. Few believed it, but subsequently the 625-kilometer crater (Beethoven) ended up in the place marked by Xi. French astronomer Eugene Antoniadi compiled a map of the “visible hemisphere” of Mercury in 1934, since it was then believed that only one hemisphere was always illuminated. Antoniadi gave names to individual details on this map, which are partially used on modern maps.

It was possible for the first time to compile truly reliable maps of the planet and see the fine details of the surface relief thanks to the American space probe Mariner 10, launched in 1973. It approached Mercury three times and transmitted television images of various parts of its surface to Earth. In total, 45% of the planet's surface was removed, mainly the western hemisphere. As it turned out, its entire surface is covered with many craters of different sizes. It was possible to clarify the value of the planet’s radius (2439 km) and its mass. Temperature sensors made it possible to establish that during the day the surface temperature of the planet rises to 510° C, and at night drops to -210° C. The strength of its magnetic field is about 1% of the strength of the earth's magnetic field. More than 3 thousand photographs taken during the third approach had a resolution of up to 50 m.

The acceleration of gravity on Mercury is 3.68 m/s 2 . An astronaut on this planet will weigh almost three times less than on Earth. Since it turned out that the average density of Mercury is almost the same as that of the Earth, it is assumed that Mercury has an iron core, occupying approximately half the volume of the planet, above which there is a mantle and a silicate shell. Mercury receives 6 times more sunlight per unit area than Earth. Moreover, most of the solar energy is absorbed, since the surface of the planet is dark, reflecting only 12-18 percent of the incident light. The surface layer of the planet (regolith) is highly crushed and serves as excellent thermal insulation, so that at a depth of several tens of centimeters from the surface the temperature is constant - about 350 degrees K. Mercury has an extremely rarefied helium atmosphere created by the “solar wind” that blows across the planet. The pressure of such an atmosphere at the surface is 500 billion times less than at the surface of the Earth. In addition to helium, an insignificant amount of hydrogen, traces of argon and neon were detected.

The American spacecraft Messenger (Messenger - from the English Courier), launched on August 3, 2004, made its first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008 at a distance of 200 km from the surface of the planet. She photographed the eastern half of the planet's previously unphotographed hemisphere. The studies of Mercury were carried out in two stages: first, surveys from the flight path during two encounters with the planet (2008), and then (September 30, 2009) - detailed ones. The entire surface of the planet was photographed in various spectral ranges and color images of the terrain were obtained, the chemical and mineralogical composition of the rocks was determined, and the content of volatile elements in the near-surface soil layer was measured. The laser altimeter measured the heights of the surface relief of Mercury. It turned out that the difference in relief heights on this planet is less than 7 km. At the fourth approach, on March 18, 2011, the Messenger satellite should enter the orbit of the artificial satellite of Mercury.

According to the decision of the International Astronomical Union, craters on Mercury are named after figures: writers, poets, artists, sculptors, composers. For example, the largest craters with a diameter of 300 to 600 km were named Beethoven, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and others. There are exceptions to this rule - one crater with a diameter of 60 km with a ray system is named after the famous astronomer Kuiper, and another crater with a diameter of 1.5 km near the equator, taken as the origin of longitude on Mercury, is named Hun Kal, which is in the language of the ancient Mayans means "twenty". It was agreed to draw a meridian through this crater with a longitude of 20°.

The plains are given the names of the planet Mercury in different languages, such as Sobkou Plain or Odin Plain. There are two plains named for their location: the Northern Plain and the Heat Plain, located in the region of maximum temperatures at 180° longitude. The mountains bordering this plain were called the Heat Mountains. A distinctive feature of Mercury's topography is its extended ledges, which are named after marine research vessels. The valleys are named after radio astronomy observatories. The two ridges are named Antoniadi and Schiaparelli, in honor of the astronomers who compiled the first maps of this planet.

Venus

Venus is the planet closest to Earth; it is closer to us than the Sun and is therefore illuminated more brightly by it; Finally, it reflects sunlight very well. The fact is that the surface of Venus is covered under a powerful cover of the atmosphere, completely hiding the surface of the planet from our view. In the visible range it cannot be seen even from the orbit of the artificial satellite of Venus, and, nevertheless, we have “images” of the surface that were obtained by radar.

The second planet from the Sun is named after the ancient goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite (for the Romans - Venus). The average radius of Venus is 6051.8 km, and its mass is 81% of the mass of the Earth. Venus revolves around the Sun in the same direction as the other planets, completing a full revolution in 225 days. The period of its rotation around its axis (243 days) was determined only in the early 1960s, when radar methods began to be used to measure the rotation speeds of the planets. Thus, Venus's daily rotation is the slowest among all the planets. In addition, it occurs in the opposite direction: unlike most planets, for which the directions of orbit and rotation around the axis coincide, Venus rotates around its axis in the direction opposite to the orbital motion. If you look at it formally, this is not a unique property of Venus. For example, Uranus and Pluto also rotate in the opposite direction. But they rotate practically “lying on their side,” and Venus’s axis is almost perpendicular to the orbital plane, so it is the only one that “really” rotates in the opposite direction. That is why the solar day on Venus is shorter than the time it takes to rotate around its axis and is 117 Earth days (for other planets, the solar day is longer than the rotation period). And a year on Venus is only twice as long as a solar day.

The atmosphere of Venus consists of 96.5% carbon dioxide and almost 3.5% nitrogen. Other gases - water vapor, oxygen, sulfur oxide and dioxide, argon, neon, helium and krypton - add up to less than 0.1%. But it should be kept in mind that the Venusian atmosphere is about 100 times more massive than ours, so there is, for example, five times more nitrogen there than in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The foggy haze in the atmosphere of Venus extends upward to an altitude of 48-49 km. Further up to an altitude of 70 km there is a cloud layer containing droplets of concentrated sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids are also present in the uppermost layers. The clouds of Venus reflect 77% of the sunlight that hits them. At the top of the highest mountains of Venus - the Maxwell Mountains (altitude about 11 km) - the atmospheric pressure is 45 bar, and at the bottom of the Diana Canyon - 119 bar. As you know, the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere at the surface of the planet is only 1 bar. Venus's thick carbon dioxide atmosphere absorbs and partially transmits about 23% of solar radiation to the surface. This radiation heats the planet's surface, but thermal infrared radiation from the surface passes through the atmosphere back into space with great difficulty. And only when the surface heats up to approximately 460-470 °C, the outgoing energy flow turns out to be equal to the incoming energy flow. It is because of this greenhouse effect that the surface of Venus remains hot, regardless of latitude. But in the mountains, over which the atmosphere is thinner, the temperature is several tens of degrees lower. Venus was explored by more than 20 spacecraft: Venus, Mariners, Pioneer-Venus, Vega and Magellan. In 2006, the Venus Express probe operated in orbit around it. Scientists were able to see the global features of the surface topography of Venus thanks to radar sounding from the Pioneer-Venera orbiters (1978), Venera-15 and -16 (1983-84) and Magellan (1990-94). .). Ground-based radar allows you to “see” only 25% of the surface, and with much lower detail resolution than spacecraft are capable of. For example, Magellan received images of the entire surface with a resolution of 300 m. It turned out that most of the surface of Venus is occupied by hilly plains.

Uplands account for only 8% of the surface. All noticeable details of the relief received their names. In the first ground-based radar images of individual areas of the surface of Venus, researchers used various names, of which now remain on the maps - Maxwell Mountains (the name reflects the role of radio physics in the study of Venus), the Alpha and Beta regions (the two brightest parts of the relief of Venus in radar images are named after the first letters of the Greek alphabet). But these names are exceptions to the naming rules adopted by the International Astronomical Union: astronomers decided to name the surface features of Venus with female names. Large elevated areas were named: the Land of Aphrodite, the Land of Ishtar (in honor of the Assyrian goddess of love and beauty) and the Land of Lada (the Slavic goddess of love and beauty). Large craters are named in honor of outstanding women of all times and peoples, and small craters bear personal female names. On the maps of Venus you can find such names as Cleopatra (the last queen of Egypt), Dashkova (director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences), Akhmatova (Russian poetess) and other famous names. Russian names include Antonina, Galina, Zina, Zoya, Lena, Masha, Tatyana and others.

Mars

The fourth planet from the Sun, named after the god of war Mars, is 1.5 times farther from the Earth. One orbital revolution takes Mars 687 Earth days. The orbit of Mars has a noticeable eccentricity (0.09), so its distance from the Sun varies from 207 million km at perihelion to 250 million km at aphelion. The orbits of Mars and Earth lie almost in the same plane: the angle between them is only 2°. Every 780 days, Earth and Mars find themselves at a minimum distance from each other, which can range from 56 to 101 million km. Such rapprochements of planets are called oppositions. If at this moment the distance between the planets is less than 60 million km, then the opposition is called great. Great confrontations occur every 15-17 years.

The equatorial radius of Mars is 3394 km, 20 km more than the polar one. Mars is ten times smaller in mass than Earth, and in surface area it is 3.5 times smaller. The axial rotation period of Mars was determined by ground-based telescopic observations of contrasting surface features: it is 24 hours 39 minutes and 36 seconds. The rotation axis of Mars is tilted at an angle of 25.2° from the perpendicular to the orbital plane. Therefore, on Mars there is also a change of seasons, but the duration of the seasons is almost twice as long as on Earth. Due to the elongation of the orbit, the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres have different durations: summer in the northern hemisphere lasts 177 Martian days, and in the southern it is 21 days shorter, but warmer than summer in the northern hemisphere.

Due to its greater distance from the Sun, Mars receives only 43% of the energy that falls on the same area of ​​the earth's surface. The average annual temperature on the surface of Mars is about -60 °C. The maximum temperature there does not exceed a few degrees above zero, and the minimum was recorded on the northern polar cap and is -138 °C. During the day, the surface temperature changes significantly. For example, in the southern hemisphere at a latitude of 50°, the characteristic temperature in mid-autumn varies from -18 °C at noon to -63 °C at night. However, already at a depth of 25 cm below the surface, the temperature is almost constant (about -60 ° C), regardless of the time of day and season. Large changes in temperature on the surface are explained by the fact that the atmosphere of Mars is very rarefied, and the surface quickly cools at night and is quickly heated by the Sun during the day. The atmosphere of Mars consists of 95% carbon dioxide. Its other components: 2.5% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, less than 0.4% oxygen. The average atmospheric pressure at the surface is 6.1 mbar, i.e. 160 times less than the pressure of the earth's air at sea level (1 bar). In the deepest depressions on Mars it can reach 12 millibars. The atmosphere of the planet is dry, there is practically no water vapor in it.

The polar caps of Mars are multi-layered. The lower, main layer, several kilometers thick, is formed by ordinary water ice mixed with dust; this layer remains in the summer, forming permanent caps. And the observed seasonal changes in the polar caps occur due to the upper layer less than 1 meter thick, consisting of solid carbon dioxide, the so-called “dry ice”. The area covered by this layer grows rapidly in winter, reaching a parallel of 50°, and sometimes even crossing this line. In spring, as the temperature rises, the top layer evaporates, leaving only a permanent cap. The “wave of darkening” of surface areas observed with the change of seasons is explained by a change in the direction of the winds, constantly blowing in the direction from one pole to the other. The wind carries away the top layer of loose material - light dust, exposing areas of darker rocks. During periods when Mars passes perihelion, the heating of the surface and atmosphere increases, and the balance of the Martian environment is disrupted. The wind speed increases to 70 km/h, whirlwinds and storms begin. Sometimes more than a billion tons of dust rises and is held in suspension, while the climate conditions on the entire Martian globe change dramatically. The duration of dust storms can reach 50 - 100 days. Exploration of Mars by spacecraft began in 1962 with the launch of the Mars-1 probe. The first images of parts of the surface of Mars were transmitted by Mariner 4 in 1965, and then by Mariner 6 and 7 in 1969. The Mars 3 lander managed to make a soft landing. Based on the images of Mariner 9 (1971), detailed maps of the planet were compiled. He transmitted to Earth 7329 photographs of Mars with a resolution of up to 100 m, as well as photographs of its satellites - Phobos and Deimos. A whole flotilla of four spacecraft Mars-4, -5, -6, -7, launched in 1973, reached the vicinity of Mars in early 1974. Due to a malfunction of the on-board braking system, Mars-4 passed at a distance about 2200 km from the surface of the planet, having only photographed it. Mars-5 carried out remote sensing of the surface and atmosphere from the orbit of an artificial satellite. The Mars 6 lander made a soft landing in the southern hemisphere. Data on the chemical composition, pressure and temperature of the atmosphere were transmitted to Earth. Mars 7 passed at a distance of 1,300 km from the surface without completing its program.

The most effective flights were the two American Vikings launched in 1975. On board the devices were television cameras, infrared spectrometers for recording water vapor in the atmosphere, and radiometers for obtaining temperature data. The Viking 1 landing unit made a soft landing on Chrys Planitia on July 20, 1976, and the Viking 2 landing unit on Utopia Planitia on September 3, 1976. Unique experiments were carried out at the landing sites in order to detect signs of life in the Martian soil. A special device captured a soil sample and placed it in one of the containers containing a supply of water or nutrients. Since any living organisms change their habitat, the instruments had to record this. Although some changes in the environment in a tightly closed container were observed, the presence of a strong oxidizing agent in the soil could lead to the same results. That is why scientists could not confidently attribute these changes to the activity of bacteria. Detailed photographs of the surface of Mars and its satellites were taken from orbital stations. Based on the data obtained, detailed maps of the planet’s surface, geological, thermal and other special maps were compiled.

The task of the Soviet stations “Phobos-1, -2”, launched after a 13-year break, was to study Mars and its satellite Phobos. As a result of an incorrect command from Earth, Phobos-1 lost orientation, and communication with it could not be restored. “Phobos-2” entered the orbit of the artificial satellite of Mars in January 1989. Data on temperature changes on the surface of Mars and new information about the properties of the rocks that make up Phobos were obtained using remote methods. 38 images with a resolution of up to 40 m were obtained, and the temperature of its surface was measured, which was 30 °C in the hottest spots. Unfortunately, it was not possible to implement the main program to study Phobos. Contact with the device was lost on March 27, 1989. This did not end the series of failures. The American Mars Observer spacecraft, launched in 1992, also failed to complete its mission. Contact with him was lost on August 21, 1993. It was not possible to place the Russian station “Mars-96” on the flight path to Mars.

One of NASA's most successful projects is the Mars Global Surveyor station, launched on November 7, 1996 to provide detailed mapping of the surface of Mars. The device also serves as a telecommunications satellite for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which were delivered in 2003 and continue to operate to this day. In July 1997, Mars Pathfinder delivered the first automatic rover, Sogerner, to the planet, weighing less than 11 kg, which successfully studied the chemical composition of the surface and meteorological conditions. The rover maintained contact with Earth through a landing module. NASA's automatic interplanetary station "Mars Reconnaissance Satellite" began its work in orbit in March 2006. Using a high-resolution camera on the surface of Mars, it was possible to distinguish features measuring 30 cm. "Mars Odyssey", "Mars Express" and "Mars Reconnaissance Satellite" “Research from orbit continues. The Phoenix apparatus operated in the polar region from May 25 to November 2, 2008. He drilled the surface for the first time and discovered ice. Phoenix delivered a digital library of science fiction to the planet. Programs are being developed to fly astronauts to Mars. Such an expedition will take more than two years, since in order to return they will have to wait for a convenient relative position of Earth and Mars.

On modern maps of Mars, along with the names assigned to landforms identified from space images, old geographical and mythological names proposed by Schiaparelli are also used. The largest elevated area, about 6,000 km in diameter and up to 9 km in height, was called Tharsis (as Iran was called on ancient maps), and a huge ring depression in the south with a diameter of more than 2,000 km was called Hellas (Greece). Areas of the surface densely covered with craters were called lands: Prometheus Land, Noah Land, and others. The valleys are given the names of the planet Mars from the languages ​​of different peoples. Large craters are named after scientists, and small craters are named after populated areas of the Earth. Four giant extinct volcanoes rise above the surrounding area to a height of 26 m. The largest of them, Mount Olympus, located on the western edge of the Arsida Mountains, has a base with a diameter of 600 km and a caldera (crater) at the top with a diameter of 60 km. Three volcanoes - Mount Askrian, Mount Pavolina and Mount Arsia - are located on one straight line at the top of the Tharsis Mountains. The volcanoes themselves rise another 17 km above Tharsis. In addition to these four, more than 70 extinct volcanoes have been found on Mars, but they are much smaller in area and height.

South of the equator there is a giant valley up to 6 km deep and more than 4000 km long. It was called the Valles Marineris. Many smaller valleys, as well as grooves and cracks, have also been identified, indicating that in ancient times there was water on Mars and, therefore, the atmosphere was denser. Under the surface of Mars in some areas there should be a layer of permafrost several kilometers thick. In such areas, frozen streams, unusual for terrestrial planets, are visible on the surface near the craters, from which one can judge the presence of subsurface ice.

With the exception of the plains, the surface of Mars is heavily cratered. The craters tend to appear more destroyed than those on Mercury and the Moon. Traces of wind erosion can be seen everywhere.

Phobos and Deimos - natural satellites of Mars

The moons of Mars were discovered during the great opposition of 1877 by American astronomer A. Hall. They were called Phobos (translated from Greek Fear) and Deimos (Horror), since in ancient myths the god of war was always accompanied by his children - Fear and Horror. The satellites are very small in size and have irregular shapes. The semi-major axis of Phobos is 13.5 km, and the minor axis is 9.4 km; Deimos has 7.5 and 5.5 km, respectively. The Mariner 7 probe photographed Phobos against the backdrop of Mars in 1969, and Mariner 9 sent back numerous images of both moons, which show their surfaces to be uneven and heavily cratered. The Viking and Phobos-2 probes made several close approaches to the satellites. The best photographs of Phobos show relief details up to 5 meters in size.

The orbits of the satellites are circular. Phobos orbits Mars at a distance of 6000 km from the surface with a period of 7 hours 39 minutes. Deimos is 20 thousand km away from the surface of the planet, and its orbital period is 30 hours 18 minutes. The periods of rotation of satellites around their axis coincide with the periods of their revolution around Mars. The major axes of satellite figures are always directed towards the center of the planet. Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east 3 times per Martian day. The average density of Phobos is less than 2 g/cm 3 , and the acceleration of free fall on its surface is 0.5 cm/s 2 . A person on Phobos would weigh only a few tens of grams and could, by throwing a stone with his hand, make it fly off into space forever (the take-off speed on the surface of Phobos is about 13 m/s). The largest crater on Phobos has a diameter of 8 km, comparable to the smallest diameter of the satellite itself. On Deimos, the largest depression has a diameter of 2 km. The surfaces of the satellites are dotted with small craters in much the same way as the Moon. Despite the general similarity, the abundance of finely crushed material covering the surfaces of the satellites, Phobos looks more “torn”, and Deimos has a smoother, dust-covered surface. Mysterious grooves have been discovered on Phobos, crossing almost the entire satellite. The furrows are 100-200 m wide and stretch for tens of kilometers. Their depth is from 20 to 90 meters. There are several ideas about the origin of these grooves, but so far there is no sufficiently convincing explanation, as well as an explanation of the origin of the satellites themselves. Most likely, these are asteroids captured by Mars.

Jupiter

It’s not for nothing that Jupiter is called the “king of the planets.” It is the largest planet in the solar system, exceeding Earth by 11.2 times in diameter and 318 times in mass. Jupiter has a low average density (1.33 g/cm3) because it consists almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. It is located at an average distance of 779 million km from the Sun and spends about 12 years on one orbital revolution. Despite its gigantic size, this planet rotates very quickly - faster than Earth or Mars. The most surprising thing is that Jupiter does not have a solid surface in the generally accepted sense - it is a gas giant. Jupiter leads the group of giant planets. Named after the supreme god of ancient mythology (the ancient Greeks - Zeus, the Romans - Jupiter), it is five times farther from the Sun than the Earth. Due to its rapid rotation, Jupiter is greatly flattened: its equatorial radius (71,492 km) is 7% larger than its polar radius, which is easy to notice when observed through a telescope. The force of gravity at the planet's equator is 2.6 times greater than on Earth. Jupiter's equator is inclined only 3° to its orbit, so the planet does not experience a change of seasons. The inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic plane is even less - only 1°. Every 399 days, oppositions between the Earth and Jupiter are repeated.

Hydrogen and helium are the main components of this planet: by volume, the ratio of these gases is 89% hydrogen and 11% helium, and by mass 80% and 20%, respectively. The entire visible surface of Jupiter is dense clouds, forming a system of dark belts and light zones north and south of the equator to the parallels of 40° north and south latitude. The clouds form layers of brownish, red and bluish hues. The rotation periods of these cloud layers turned out to be not the same: the closer they are to the equator, the shorter their rotation period. So, near the equator they complete a revolution around the planet’s axis in 9 hours 50 minutes, and at middle latitudes - in 9 hours 55 minutes. Belts and zones are areas of downward and upward flows in the atmosphere. Atmospheric currents parallel to the equator are maintained by heat flows from the depths of the planet, as well as by the rapid rotation of Jupiter and energy from the Sun. The visible surface of the zones is located approximately 20 km above the belts. Strong turbulent gas movements are observed at the boundaries of belts and zones. Jupiter's hydrogen-helium atmosphere is enormous. The cloud cover is located at an altitude of about 1000 km above the "surface", where the gaseous state changes to liquid due to high pressure.

Even before the flights of spacecraft to Jupiter, it was established that the heat flow from the depths of Jupiter is twice the influx of solar heat received by the planet. This may be due to the slow sinking of heavier substances towards the center of the planet and the ascent of lighter ones. Meteorites falling on the planet can also be a source of energy. The color of the belts is explained by the presence of various chemical compounds. Closer to the poles of the planet, at high latitudes, clouds form a continuous field with brown and bluish spots up to 1000 km across. Jupiter's most famous feature is the Great Red Spot, an oval feature of varying sizes located in the southern tropical zone. Currently, it has dimensions of 15,000 × 30,000 km (that is, two globes can easily fit in it), and a hundred years ago observers noted that the size of the Spot was twice as large. Sometimes it is not visible very clearly. The Great Red Spot is a long-lived vortex in the atmosphere of Jupiter, making a full revolution around its center in 6 Earth days. The first study of Jupiter at close range (130 thousand km) took place in December 1973 using the Pioneer 10 probe. Observations carried out by this apparatus in ultraviolet rays showed that the planet has extensive hydrogen and helium coronas. The cloud top appears to be composed of cirrus clouds of ammonia, while below is a mixture of hydrogen, methane and frozen ammonia crystals. An infrared radiometer showed that the temperature of the outer cloud cover was about -133 °C. A powerful magnetic field was discovered and the zone of the most intense radiation was recorded at a distance of 177 thousand km from the planet. The plume of Jupiter's magnetosphere is visible even beyond the orbit of Saturn.

The route of Pioneer 11, which flew at a distance of 43 thousand km from Jupiter in December 1974, was calculated differently. He passed between the radiation belts and the planet itself, avoiding a dangerous dose of radiation for electronic equipment. Analysis of color images of the cloud layer obtained with a photopolarimeter made it possible to identify the features and structure of the clouds. The height of the clouds turned out to be different in belts and zones. Even before the flights of Pioneer 10 and 11 from Earth, with the help of an astronomical observatory flying on an airplane, it was possible to determine the content of other gases in the atmosphere of Jupiter. As expected, the presence of phosphine was discovered - a gaseous compound of phosphorus with hydrogen (PH 3), which gives color to the cloud cover. When heated, it decomposes to release red phosphorus. The unique relative position in the orbits of the Earth and the giant planets, which occurred from 1976 to 1978, was used to successively study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune using the Voyager 1 and 2 probes. Their routes were calculated in such a way that it was possible to use the gravity of the planets themselves to accelerate and rotate the flight path from one planet to another. As a result, the flight to Uranus took 9 years, not 16, as it would have been according to the traditional scheme, and the flight to Neptune took 12 years instead of 20. Such a relative arrangement of the planets will be repeated only after 179 years.

Based on data obtained by space probes and theoretical calculations, mathematical models of Jupiter's cloud cover were constructed and ideas about its internal structure were refined. In a somewhat simplified form, Jupiter can be represented as shells with density increasing towards the center of the planet. At the bottom of the atmosphere, 1500 km thick, the density of which increases rapidly with depth, there is a layer of gas-liquid hydrogen about 7000 km thick. At a level of 0.9 radius of the planet, where the pressure is 0.7 Mbar and the temperature is about 6500 K, hydrogen passes into the liquid molecular state, and after another 8000 km - into the liquid metallic state. Along with hydrogen and helium, the layers contain a small amount of heavy elements. The inner core, 25,000 km in diameter, is metallosilicate, including water, ammonia and methane. The temperature in the center is 23,000 K and the pressure is 50 Mbar. Saturn has a similar structure.

There are 63 known satellites orbiting Jupiter, which can be divided into two groups - inner and outer, or regular and irregular; the first group includes 8 satellites, the second - 55. The satellites of the inner group orbit in almost circular orbits, practically lying in the plane of the planet’s equator. The four closest satellites to the planet - Adrastea, Metis, Amalthea and Theba - have diameters from 40 to 270 km and are located within 2-3 radii of Jupiter from the center of the planet. They differ sharply from the four satellites that follow them, located at a distance of 6 to 26 radii of Jupiter and having significantly larger sizes, close to the size of the Moon. These large satellites - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto were discovered at the beginning of the 17th century. almost simultaneously by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius. They are usually called the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, although the first tables of the motion of these satellites were compiled by Marius.

The outer group consists of small satellites with a diameter ranging from 1 to 170 km, moving in elongated orbits strongly inclined towards Jupiter's equator. At the same time, five satellites closer to Jupiter move in their orbits in the direction of Jupiter’s rotation, and almost all of the more distant satellites move in the opposite direction. Detailed information about the nature of the surfaces of satellites was obtained by spacecraft. Let us dwell in more detail on the Galilean satellites. The diameter of the satellite Io closest to Jupiter is 3640 km, and its average density is 3.55 g/cm 3 . Io's interior is heated due to the tidal influence of Jupiter and disturbances introduced into Io's motion by its neighbors - Europa and Ganymede. Tidal forces deform Io's outer layers and heat them up. In this case, the accumulated energy breaks out to the surface in the form of volcanic eruptions. From the craters of volcanoes, sulfur dioxide and sulfur vapor are emitted at a speed of about 1 km/s to a height of hundreds of kilometers above the surface of the satellite. Although Io's surface temperature averages around -140 °C near the equator, there are hot spots ranging from 75 to 250 km in size where temperatures reach 100-300 °C. Io's surface is covered with eruption products and is orange in color. The average age of the parts on it is small - about 1 million years. Io's topography is mostly flat, but there are several mountains ranging in height from 1 to 10 km. Io’s atmosphere is very rarefied (it’s practically a vacuum), but a gas tail stretches behind the satellite: radiation of oxygen, sodium vapor and sulfur - products of volcanic eruptions - was detected along Io’s orbit.

The second of the Galilean satellites, Europa, is slightly smaller in size than the Moon, its diameter is 3130 km, and the average density of matter is about 3 g/cm3. The surface of the satellite is dotted with a network of light and dark lines: apparently, these are cracks in the ice crust resulting from tectonic processes. The width of these faults varies from several kilometers to hundreds of kilometers, and their length reaches thousands of kilometers. Estimates of crustal thickness range from a few kilometers to tens of kilometers. In the depths of Europa, the energy of tidal interaction is also released, which maintains the mantle in liquid form - a subglacial ocean, possibly even a warm one. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is an assumption about the possibility of the existence of the simplest forms of life in this ocean. Based on the average density of the satellite, there should be silicate rocks under the ocean. Since there are very few craters on Europa, which has a fairly smooth surface, the age of the features of this orange-brown surface is estimated at hundreds of thousands and millions of years. High-resolution images obtained by Galileo show individual irregularly shaped fields with elongated parallel ridges and valleys reminiscent of highways. In a number of places, dark spots stand out, most likely these are deposits of substance carried out from under the ice layer.

According to the American scientist Richard Greenberg, conditions for life on Europa should be sought not in the deep subglacial ocean, but in numerous cracks. Due to the tidal effect, the cracks periodically narrow and widen to a width of 1 m. When the crack narrows, the ocean water goes down, and when it begins to expand, the water rises along it almost to the surface. The sun's rays penetrate through the ice plug that prevents water from reaching the surface, carrying the energy necessary for living organisms.

The largest satellite in the Jupiter system, Ganymede, has a diameter of 5268 km, but its average density is only twice that of water; this suggests that about 50% of the satellite's mass is ice. Many craters covering dark brown areas indicate the ancient age of this surface, about 3-4 billion years. Younger areas are covered with systems of parallel grooves formed by lighter material during the process of stretching of the ice crust. The depth of these furrows is several hundred meters, the width is tens of kilometers, and the length can reach several thousand kilometers. Some craters of Ganymede contain not only light ray systems (similar to the lunar ones), but sometimes dark ones as well.

The diameter of Callisto is 4800 km. Based on the average density of the satellite (1.83 g/cm3), it is assumed that water ice makes up about 60% of its mass. The thickness of the ice crust, like that of Ganymede, is estimated at tens of kilometers. The entire surface of this satellite is completely dotted with craters of various sizes. There are no extended plains or furrow systems. The craters on Callisto have a poorly defined shaft and shallow depth. A unique feature of the relief is a multi-ring structure with a diameter of 2600 km, consisting of ten concentric rings. The surface temperature at Callisto's equator reaches -120 °C at noon. The satellite has been discovered to have its own magnetic field.

On December 30, 2000, the Cassini probe passed near Jupiter on its way to Saturn. At the same time, a number of experiments were carried out in the vicinity of the “king of the planets”. One of them was aimed at detecting the very rarefied atmospheres of the Galilean satellites during their eclipse by Jupiter. Another experiment consisted of recording the radiation from Jupiter's radiation belts. Interestingly, in parallel with the work of Cassini, the same radiation was recorded using ground-based telescopes by schoolchildren and students in the USA. The results of their research were used along with Cassini data.

As a result of the study of the Galilean satellites, an interesting hypothesis was put forward that in the early stages of their evolution, the giant planets emitted huge flows of heat into space. Radiation from Jupiter could melt ice on the surface of three Galilean moons. On the fourth - Callisto - this should not have happened, since it is 2 million km away from Jupiter. That is why its surface is so different from the surfaces of satellites closer to the planet.

Saturn

Among the giant planets, Saturn stands out for its remarkable ring system. Like Jupiter, it is a huge, rapidly spinning ball of mostly liquid hydrogen and helium. Orbiting the Sun at a distance 10 times further than Earth, Saturn completes a complete orbit in a nearly circular orbit every 29.5 years. The angle of inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic plane is only 2°, while the equatorial plane of Saturn is inclined by 27° to the plane of its orbit, so the change of seasons is inherent in this planet.

The name of Saturn goes back to the Roman counterpart of the ancient titan Kronos, the son of Uranus and Gaia. This second-largest planet is 800 times larger than Earth in volume and 95 times larger in mass. It is easy to calculate that its average density (0.7 g/cm3) is less than the density of water - uniquely low for the planets of the Solar System. The equatorial radius of Saturn along the upper boundary of the cloud layer is 60,270 km, and the polar radius is several thousand kilometers less. The rotation period of Saturn is 10 hours 40 minutes. Saturn's atmosphere contains 94% hydrogen and 6% helium (by volume).

Neptune

Neptune was discovered in 1846 as a result of an accurate theoretical prediction. Having studied the movement of Uranus, the French astronomer Le Verrier determined that the seventh planet is influenced by the attraction of an equally massive unknown body, and calculated its position. Guided by this forecast, the German astronomers Halle and D'Arrest discovered Neptune. It later turned out that, starting with Galileo, astronomers noted the position of Neptune on maps, but mistook it for a star.

Neptune is the fourth of the giant planets, named after the god of the seas in ancient mythology. Neptune's equatorial radius (24,764 km) is almost 4 times the radius of the Earth, and Neptune's mass is 17 times greater than our planet. The average density of Neptune is 1.64 g/cm3. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.5 billion km (30 AU), completing a full cycle in almost 165 Earth years. The planet's orbital plane is inclined by 1.8° to the ecliptic plane. The inclination of the equator to the orbital plane is 29.6°. Due to its great distance from the Sun, the illumination on Neptune is 900 times less than on Earth.

Data transmitted by Voyager 2, which passed within 5,000 km of Neptune's cloud layer in 1989, revealed details of the planet's cloud cover. The stripes on Neptune are weakly expressed. A large dark spot the size of our planet, discovered in Neptune's southern hemisphere, is a giant anticyclone that completes a revolution every 16 Earth days. This is an area of ​​high pressure and temperature. Unlike the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, which drifts at a speed of 3 m/s, the Great Dark Spot on Neptune moves west at a speed of 325 m/s. A dark spot of smaller size located at 74° south. sh., in a week it shifted 2000 km to the north. A light formation in the atmosphere, the so-called “scooter,” was also distinguished by its rather fast movement. In some places, the wind speed in Neptune's atmosphere reaches 400-700 m/s.

Like other giant planets, Neptune's atmosphere is mostly hydrogen. Helium accounts for about 15%, and methane accounts for 1%. The visible cloud layer corresponds to a pressure of 1.2 bar. It is assumed that at the bottom of the Neptunian atmosphere there is an ocean of water saturated with various ions. Significant amounts of methane appear to be contained deeper in the planet's icy mantle. Even at temperatures of thousands of degrees, at a pressure of 1 Mbar, a mixture of water, methane and ammonia can form solid ice. The hot, icy mantle probably accounts for 70% of the planet's mass. About 25% of Neptune's mass should, according to calculations, belong to the planet's core, consisting of oxides of silicon, magnesium, iron and its compounds, as well as rocks. A model of the internal structure of the planet shows that the pressure at its center is about 7 Mbar, and the temperature is about 7000 K. Unlike Uranus, the heat flow from the depths of Neptune is almost three times greater than the heat received from the Sun. This phenomenon is associated with the release of heat during the radioactive decay of substances with high atomic weight.

Neptune's magnetic field is half that of Uranus. The angle between the axis of the magnetic dipole and the axis of rotation of Neptune is 47°. The center of the dipole is shifted 6000 km to the southern hemisphere, so the magnetic induction at the south magnetic pole is 10 times higher than at the north.

The rings of Neptune are generally similar to the rings of Uranus, with the only difference being that the total area of ​​matter in the rings of Neptune is 100 times less than in the rings of Uranus. Individual arcs of the rings surrounding Neptune were discovered during occultations of stars by the planet. Voyager 2 images around Neptune show open formations called arches. They are located on a continuous outermost ring of low density. The diameter of the outer ring is 69.2 thousand km, and the width of the arches is approximately 50 km. Other rings, located at distances from 61.9 thousand km to 62.9 thousand km, are closed. During observations from Earth, by the middle of the twentieth century, 2 satellites of Neptune were found - Triton and Nereid. Voyager 2 discovered 6 more satellites ranging in size from 50 to 400 km and clarified the diameters of Triton (2705 km) and Nereid (340 km). In 2002-03 During observations from Earth, 5 more distant satellites of Neptune were discovered.

Neptune's largest satellite, Triton, orbits the planet at a distance of 355 thousand km with a period of about 6 days in a circular orbit inclined at 23° to the equator of the planet. Moreover, it is the only one of Neptune’s inner satellites moving in orbit in the opposite direction. Triton's axial rotation period coincides with its orbital period. The average density of Triton is 2.1 g/cm3. The surface temperature is very low (38 K). In satellite images, most of Triton's surface appears as a plain with many cracks, making it resemble a melon crust. The South Pole is surrounded by a light polar cap. Several depressions with a diameter of 150 - 250 km were discovered on the plain. It is likely that the icy crust of the satellite was reworked many times as a result of tectonic activity and meteorite falls. Triton appears to have a rocky core with a radius of about 1000 km. It is assumed that an ice crust about 180 km thick covers a water ocean about 150 km deep, saturated with ammonia, methane, salts and ions. Triton's thin atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, with small amounts of methane and hydrogen. The snow on Triton's surface is nitrogen frost. The polar cap is also formed by nitrogen frost. Amazing formations identified on the polar cap are dark spots extended to the northeast (about fifty of them were found). They turned out to be gas geysers, rising to a height of up to 8 km, and then turning into plumes stretching for about 150 km.

Unlike the other inner satellites, Nereid moves in a very elongated orbit, with its eccentricity (0.75) more similar to the orbit of comets.

Pluto

Pluto, after its discovery in 1930, was considered the smallest planet in the solar system. In 2006, by decision of the International Astronomical Union, it was deprived of the status of a classical planet and became the prototype of a new class of objects - dwarf planets. So far, the group of dwarf planets also includes the asteroid Ceres and several recently discovered objects in the Kuiper belt, beyond the orbit of Neptune; one of them is even larger than Pluto. There is no doubt that other similar objects will be found in the Kuiper Belt; so there may be quite a lot of dwarf planets in the solar system.

Pluto orbits the Sun every 245.7 years. At the time of its discovery, it was quite far from the Sun, occupying the place of the ninth planet in the solar system. But Pluto's orbit, as it turns out, has a significant eccentricity, so in each orbital cycle it is closer to the Sun than Neptune for 20 years. At the end of the twentieth century there was just such a period: on January 23, 1979, Pluto crossed the orbit of Neptune, so that it was closer to the Sun and formally turned into the eighth planet. It remained in this status until March 15, 1999. Having passed through the perihelion of its orbit (29.6 AU) in September 1989, Pluto is now moving away towards the aphelion (48.8 AU), which it will reach in 2112, and will complete the first full revolution around the Sun after its discovery only in 2176.

To understand astronomers' interest in Pluto, we need to remember the history of its discovery. At the beginning of the twentieth century, observing the movement of Uranus and Neptune, astronomers noticed some strangeness in their behavior and suggested that beyond the orbits of these planets there is another, undiscovered one, the gravitational influence of which affects the movement of the known giant planets. Astronomers have even calculated the supposed location of this planet - “Planet X” - although not very confidently. After a long search, in 1930, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet, named after the god of the underworld - Pluto. However, the discovery was apparently accidental: subsequent measurements showed that Pluto's mass is too small for its gravity to significantly affect the movement of Neptune and, especially, Uranus. Pluto's orbit turned out to be significantly more elongated than that of other planets, and noticeably inclined (17°) to the ecliptic, which is also not typical for planets. Some astronomers tend to consider Pluto a "wrong" planet, more like a steroid or a lost moon of Neptune. However, Pluto has its own satellites, and sometimes there is an atmosphere when the ice covering its surface evaporates in the perihelion region of the orbit. In general, Pluto has been studied very poorly, since not a single probe has reached it yet; Until recently, even such attempts had not been made. But in January 2006, the New Horizons spacecraft (NASA) launched towards Pluto, which should fly past the planet in July 2015.

By measuring the intensity of sunlight reflected by Pluto, astronomers have determined that the planet's apparent brightness varies periodically. This period (6.4 days) was taken to be the period of Pluto's axial rotation. In 1978, the American astronomer J. Christie drew attention to the irregular shape of the image of Pluto in photographs taken with the best angular resolution: a blurry speck of the image often blurred the protrusion on one side; its position also changed with a period of 6.4 days. Christie concluded that Pluto has a fairly large satellite, which was called Charon after the mythical boatman who transported the souls of the dead along the rivers in the underground kingdom of the dead (the ruler of this kingdom, as is known, was Pluto). Charon appears either from the north or from the south of Pluto, so it became clear that the satellite’s orbit, like the axis of rotation of the planet itself, is strongly inclined to the plane of its orbit. Measurements showed that the angle between Pluto's rotation axis and the plane of its orbit is about 32°, and the rotation is reverse. Charon's orbit lies in the equatorial plane of Pluto. In 2005, two more small satellites were discovered - Hydra and Nix, orbiting further than Charon, but in the same plane. Thus, Pluto and its satellites resemble Uranus, which rotates “lying on its side.”

Charon's rotation period of 6.4 days coincides with the period of its movement around Pluto. Like the Moon, Charon always faces the planet with one side. This is typical for all satellites moving close to the planet. Another thing is surprising - Pluto is also always facing Charon with the same side; in this sense they are equal. Pluto and Charon are a unique binary system, very compact and having an unprecedentedly high satellite-to-planet mass ratio (1:8). The ratio of the masses of the Moon and the Earth, for example, is 1:81, and other planets have similar ratios that are much smaller. Essentially, Pluto and Charon are a double dwarf planet.

The best images of the Pluto-Charon system were obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. From them it was possible to determine the distance between the satellite and the planet, which turned out to be only about 19,400 km. Using eclipses of stars by Pluto, as well as mutual eclipses of the planet by its satellite, it was possible to clarify their sizes: the diameter of Pluto, according to recent estimates, is 2300 km, and the diameter of Charon is 1200 km. The average density of Pluto ranges from 1.8 to 2.1 g/cm 3 , and that of Charon ranges from 1.2 to 1.3 g/cm 3 . Apparently, the internal structure of Pluto, consisting of rocks and water ice, differs from the structure of Charon, which is more like the icy satellites of the giant planets. Charon's surface is 30% darker than Pluto's. The color of the planet and satellite are also different. Apparently, they formed independently of each other. Observations have shown that Pluto's brightness increases noticeably at perihelion of its orbit. This gave reason to assume the appearance of a temporary atmosphere at Pluto. During the occultation of the star by Pluto in 1988, the brightness of this star decreased gradually over several seconds, from which it was finally established that Pluto had an atmosphere. Its main component is most likely nitrogen, and other components may include methane, argon and neon. The thickness of the haze layer is estimated at 45 km, and the thickness of the atmosphere itself is 270 km. Methane content should vary depending on Pluto's position in orbit. Pluto passed perihelion in 1989. Calculations show that part of the deposits of frozen methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide present on its surface in the form of ice and frost, when the planet approaches the Sun, passes into the atmosphere. Pluto's maximum surface temperature is 62 K. Charon's surface appears to be formed by water ice.

So, Pluto is the only planet (albeit a dwarf one) whose atmosphere appears and disappears, like that of a comet during its movement around the Sun. Using the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2005, two new satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto were discovered, named Nikta and Hydra. The orbits of these satellites are located beyond the orbit of Charon. Nyx is about 50,000 km from Pluto, and Hydra is about 65,000 km. The New Horizons mission, launched in January 2006, is designed to study the environs of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

There were times when it was possible to divide science into broad and fairly understandable disciplines - astronomy, chemistry, biology, physics. But today, each of these areas is becoming more specialized and connected with other disciplines, which leads to the emergence of completely new branches of science.

We present to your attention a selection of eleven new areas of science that are actively developing at the present time.

Physical scientists have known for more than a century about quantum effects, such as the ability of quanta to disappear in one place and appear in another, or to be present in several places at the same time. However, the amazing properties of quantum mechanics are used not only in physics, but also in biology.

The best example of quantum biology is photosynthesis: plants, as well as some bacteria, use solar energy to build the molecules they need. It turns out that in fact photosynthesis is based on an amazing phenomenon - small energy masses “study” all sorts of ways for self-use, and then “select” the most effective of them. Perhaps the navigational abilities of birds, DNA mutations, and even our sense of smell, one way or another, have contact with quantum effects. Although this scientific field is still quite speculative and controversial, scientists believe that a list of ideas once taken from quantum biology could lead to the creation of new drugs and biomimicry systems (biomimetrics is another new scientific field where biological systems and structures are used directly to create new materials and devices).

Along with exoceanographers and exogeologists, exometeorologists are interested in studying the natural processes that occur on other planets. Now that, thanks to high-power telescopes, it has become possible to study the internal processes on nearby planets and satellites, exometeorologists can observe their atmospheric and weather conditions. The planets Jupiter and Saturn, with their enormous scale of weather phenomena, are candidates for research, as is the planet Mars, with dust storms characterized by their regularity.
Exometeorologists undertake the study of planets that are outside the solar system. And what is very interesting is that it is they who can ultimately find signs of the extraterrestrial existence of life on exoplanets in such a way as by detecting traces of organic matter or increased levels of CO 2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere - a sign of an industrial civilization.

Nutrigenomics is the science of studying the complex relationships between food and genome expression. Scientists in this field are seeking to understand the underlying role of genetic variation, as well as dietary responses, in influencing the effects of nutrients on the human genome.
Food truly has a major impact on human health - and it all literally starts at the microscopic molecular level. This science is working to study exactly how the human genome influences gastronomic preferences, and vice versa. The main goal of the discipline is the creation of personalized nutrition, which is necessary to ensure that our foods are ideally suited to our unique genetic makeup.

Cliodynamics is a discipline that combines historical macrosociology, cliometrics, modeling of long-term social processes based on mathematical methods, as well as systematization of historical data and their analysis.
The name of the science comes from the name of Clio, the Greek inspiration of history and poetry. Simply put, this science is an attempt to predict and describe broad social historical connections, the study of the past, and also a potential way to predict the future, for example, to forecast social unrest.

Synthetic biology is the science of designing and constructing novel biological parts, devices and systems. It also includes the modernization of currently existing biological systems for a colossal number of applications.

Craig Venter, one of the best specialists in this field, made a statement in 2008 that he was able to recreate the entire genetic chain of a bacterium by gluing it together with chemicals. components. After 2 years, his team was able to create “synthetic life” - molecules of a DNA chain created using a digital code, then printed on a special 3D printer and immersed in a living bacterium.

In the future, biologists intend to analyze various types of genetic code to create the necessary organisms specifically for the introduction into the bodies of biorobots, for which it will be possible to produce chemicals. substances - biofuel - absolutely from scratch. There is also the idea of ​​creating an artificial bacterium to combat environmental pollution or a vaccine to treat dangerous diseases. The potential of this discipline is simply colossal.

This scientific field is in its infancy, but at the moment it is clear that it is only a matter of time - sooner or later scientists will be able to gain a better understanding of the entire noosphere of humanity (the totality of absolutely all known information) and how information dissemination affects almost all aspects human life.

Similar to recombinant DNA, in which different sequences of genomes are brought together to create something new, recombinant memetics is the study of how some memes - ideas that are passed from person to person - are adjusted and combined with other memes - well-established various complexes of interconnected memes. This can be a very useful aspect for “social therapeutic” purposes, for example, in the fight against the spread of extremist ideologies.

Just like cliodynamics, this science studies social phenomena and trends. The main place in it is occupied by the use of personal computers and related information technologies. Of course, this discipline only developed with the advent of computers and the spread of the Internet.

Particular attention is paid to the colossal information flows from our everyday life, for example, emails, phone calls, comments on social media. networks, credit card purchases, queries in search engines, etc. Examples of work can be taken from a study of the structure of social networks. networks and the dissemination of information through them, or studying the emergence of intimate relationships on the Internet.

Basically, economics does not have direct contacts with conventional scientific disciplines, but everything can change due to the close interaction of absolutely all branches of science. The discipline is often mistaken for behavioral economics (the study of human behavior in economic decisions). Cognitive economics is the science of the direction of our thoughts.

“Cognitive economics... turns its attention to what is actually going on in a person's head when he makes his choice. What is the internal structure of a person’s decision-making, what influences it, what information does our mind use at this moment and how is it processed, what internal forms of preference does a person have and, ultimately, how are all these processes related to behavior?”

In other words, scientists begin their research at a low, rather simplified level, and create micromodels of decision-making principles specifically for developing a large-scale model of economic behavior. Very often, this scientific discipline has relationships with related fields, for example, computational economics or cognitive science.

Basically, electronics have a direct connection with inert and inorganic electrical conductors and semiconductors like copper and silicon. However, a new branch of electronics uses conducting polymers and small conducting molecules that are carbon-based. Organic electronics includes the design, synthesis and processing of organic and inorganic functional materials together with the development of advanced micro- and nano-technologies.

To be honest, this is not a completely new scientific field; the first developments were carried out back in the 70s of the 20th century. However, it was only recently possible to combine all the data accumulated during the existence of this science, partly thanks to the nanotechnological revolution. Thanks to organic electronics, the first organic solar cells, monolayers in electronic devices with self-organizing functions, and organic prostheses that will serve people as replacements for damaged limbs may soon appear: in the future, the so-called cyborg robots will quite possibly contain a greater degree of organics than synthetics.

If you are equally attracted to mathematics and biology, then this discipline is for you. Computational biology is a science that seeks to understand biological processes through mathematical languages. All this applies equally to other quantitative systems, for example, physics and computer science. Canadian scientists from the University of Ottawa explain how this became possible:

“With the development of biological instrumentation and fairly easy access to computing power, biological sciences have to manage an increasing amount of data, and the speed of acquired knowledge is only increasing. Thus, understanding data now requires a strictly computational approach. At the same time, from the point of view of physicists and mathematicians, biology has matured to such a level where experimental implementation has become possible for theoretical models of biological mechanisms. This has led to the rise of computational biology.”

Scientists who work in this field analyze and measure everything from molecules to ecosystems.

In January 2016, scientists announced that there may be another planet in the solar system. Many astronomers are looking for it; research so far has led to ambiguous conclusions. Nevertheless, the discoverers of Planet X are confident of its existence. talks about the latest results of work in this direction.

About the possible detection of Planet X beyond the orbit of Pluto, astronomers and Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology (USA). The ninth planet of the solar system, if it exists, is about 10 times heavier than the Earth, and its properties resemble Neptune - a gas giant, the most distant of the known planets orbiting our star.

According to the authors' estimates, the period of Planet X's revolution around the Sun is 15 thousand years, its orbit is highly elongated and inclined relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit. The maximum distance from the Sun of Planet X is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units, which takes its orbit beyond the Kuiper belt, in which Pluto is located. The origin of Planet X is unknown, but Brown and Batygin believe that this cosmic object was knocked out of a protoplanetary disk near the Sun 4.5 billion years ago.

Astronomers discovered this planet theoretically by analyzing the gravitational disturbance it exerts on other celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt - the trajectories of six large trans-Neptunian objects (that is, located beyond the orbit of Neptune) were combined into one cluster (with similar perihelion arguments, longitude of the ascending node and inclination). Brown and Batygin initially estimated the probability of error in their calculations at 0.007 percent.

Where exactly Planet X is located is unknown, what part of the celestial sphere should be tracked by telescopes is unclear. The celestial body is located so far from the Sun that it is extremely difficult to notice its radiation with modern means. And the evidence for the existence of Planet X, based on the gravitational influence it exerts on celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt, is only indirect.

Video: caltech / YouTube

In June 2017, astronomers from Canada, Great Britain, Taiwan, Slovakia, the USA and France searched for Planet X using the OSSOS (Outer Solar System Origins Survey) catalog of trans-Neptunian objects. The orbital elements of eight trans-Neptunian objects were studied, the movement of which would have been influenced by Planet X - the objects would have been grouped in a certain way (clustered) according to their inclinations. Among the eight objects, four were examined for the first time; all of them are located at a distance of more than 250 astronomical units from the Sun. It turned out that the parameters of one object, 2015 GT50, did not fit into clustering, which cast doubt on the existence of Planet X.

However, the discoverers of Planet X believe that the 2015 GT50 does not contradict their calculations. As Batygin noted, numerical simulations of the dynamics of the Solar System, including Planet X, show that beyond the semi-major axis of 250 astronomical units there should be two clusters of celestial bodies whose orbits are aligned with Planet X: one stable, the other metastable. Although the 2015 GT50 is not included in any of these clusters, it is still reproduced by the simulation.

Batygin believes that there may be several such objects. The position of the minor semi-axis of Planet X is probably connected with them. The astronomer emphasizes that since the publication of data about Planet X, not six, but 13 trans-Neptunian objects indicate its existence, of which 10 celestial bodies belong to the stable cluster.

While some astronomers doubt Planet X, others are finding new evidence in its favor. Spanish scientists Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos studied the parameters of the orbits of comets and asteroids in the Kuiper belt. The detected anomalies in the movement of objects (correlations between the longitude of the ascending node and inclination) are easily explained, according to the authors, by the presence in the Solar System of a massive body whose orbital semi-major axis is 300-400 astronomical units.

Moreover, there may be not nine, but ten planets in the solar system. Recently, astronomers from the University of Arizona (USA) discovered the existence of another celestial body in the Kuiper belt, with a size and mass close to Mars. Calculations show that the hypothetical tenth planet is distant from the star at a distance of 50 astronomical units, and its orbit is inclined to the ecliptic plane by eight degrees. The celestial body disturbs known objects from the Kuiper belt and, most likely, was closer to the Sun in ancient times. Experts note that the observed effects are not explained by the influence of Planet X, located much further than the “second Mars.”

Currently, about two thousand trans-Neptunian objects are known. With the introduction of new observatories, in particular LSST (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) and JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), scientists plan to increase the number of known objects in the Kuiper belt and beyond to 40 thousand. This will make it possible not only to determine the exact parameters of the trajectories of trans-Neptunian objects and, as a result, to indirectly prove (or disprove) the existence of Planet X and the “second Mars”, but also to directly detect them.