A star has been discovered in space that does not obey the laws of earthly physics. Recent space discoveries that have captured our imagination The Earth is a smooth ball

Humanity has been looking at the sky for thousands of years, and all we have learned during this time is that space is a crazy place. Every day, scientists discover a large number of strange things that give rise to new questions, inspire fear and cause incredible admiration.

1. The smell of rum and raspberries in the center of the galaxy

The Sagittarius B2 cloud is several million times the mass of the Sun and floats around our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists recently discovered that the cloud is basically a giant river of raspberry rum.

The fact is that Sagittarius B2 contains 10 billion billion billion liters of alcohol and molecules called ethyl formate. It is this substance that gives raspberries a sweet taste, and rum its distinctive smell. However, the origin of these molecules remains a mystery to scientists, so the opening of the intergalactic pub should be postponed.

2. Mickey Mouse

Astronomers from the USA, studying the surface of the planet Mercury, discovered 3 craters that in their shape resemble the silhouette of Mickey Mouse. Scientists have said that it was from space that Disney got his ideas.

Of course, serious scientists are just joking. And they can be understood: every day they receive thousands of letters from enthusiasts who have found another crater that looks like this or that object.

3. The truth about the shooting star

Everyone knows that shooting stars are meteorites that hit the atmosphere. But many people don't know that shooting stars actually exist.

When a supermassive black hole engulfs a binary star system, one star is swallowed up by the black hole and the other is shot out of the way like a giant slingshot. Just imagine a huge fireball of gas, 4 times the size of our Sun, traveling at millions of kilometers per hour. It doesn't sound so romantic anymore.

You've probably heard that it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn. But what about a planet that is itself a huge diamond?

Exoplanet PSR J1719-1438 b was discovered in 2009. It is located 3,900 light years away from us. And 1/3 of the planet’s mass is pure diamond, the rest is graphite. According to scientists, on such planets there may be areas completely covered with kilometers of diamonds (diamond fields).

5. Eye of Sauron

If you look up at night, you may see one of the brightest stars in the sky - Fomalhaut. It is located near our Milky Way galaxy and is 2.3 times heavier than the Sun.

Scientists studied the star for a long time, but the real magic happened when, using the latest equipment, they took pictures of it in an infrared filter. It turned out that Fomalhaut is similar to the famous eye of Sauron from the film “The Lord of the Rings”.

The black area in the center is the star itself, and the oval around it is space debris. It looks creepy, but beautiful.

No metaphors. Indeed, at a distance of 10 billion light years from us, the largest reservoir of water in the Universe is located. This rain cloud is 100 thousand times larger than the Sun, contains 140 trillion times more water than the world's oceans, and, as scientists suggest, it envelops a supermassive black hole.

“Now that we know about it, we can only hope that the wind will not blow in our direction,” astronomers joke.

7. Message

But this thing in space may be found by another alien civilization. Voyager was launched in 1977 and is still exploring space. Thanks to him, we have photographs of the Earth from a distance of 6 billion km, as well as photographs of Jupiter and Saturn. But the most interesting thing is what is attached to the device itself.

On the body of Voyager there is a golden record on which greetings are recorded in 55 languages, music of different nations, human voices, sounds of nature, 100 photographs and coordinates of planet Earth. This message was sent in the hope that the device will be noticed by some extraterrestrial civilization.

8. Huge lens

One of the most interesting discoveries is the gravitational lens. This is a formation in space, the mass of which is so great that with its gravitational field it bends the direction of electromagnetic radiation. Just like a regular magnifying glass bends a beam of light.

That is, when we look through a cosmic lens, we see an object outside our field of vision and slightly distorted. Thanks to such lenses, scientists can observe objects that are located in other galaxies.

9. Dark Stream

Scientists say that there is something huge beyond our visible Universe. We cannot see what it is, but we observe that it is something that is drawing in parts of neighboring Universes, like a drainage water.

Scientists called this thing the Dark Stream because it was the only name that sounded quite mysterious and ominous. Some astrophysicists believe that this is the edge of another large Universe, which is moving towards ours. But there is no exact answer yet, so we just have to wait until a more powerful telescope is invented.

Since childhood, we have been learning elementary truths about the structure of the Universe: all planets are round, there is nothing in space, the sun is burning. Meanwhile, this is all untrue. It is not for nothing that the new Minister of Education and Science Olga Vasilyeva recently announced that it is necessary to return astronomy lessons to school. Editorial Medialeaks fully supports this initiative and invites readers to update their ideas about planets and stars.

1. The earth is a smooth ball

The real shape of the Earth is slightly different from the globe from the store. Many people know that our planet is slightly flattened at the poles. But besides this, different points on the earth’s surface are located at different distances from the center of the core. It's not just the relief, it's just that the whole Earth is uneven. For clarity, use this slightly exaggerated illustration.

Closer to the equator, the planet generally has a kind of protrusion. Therefore, for example, the most distant point on the earth’s surface from the center of the planet is not Everest (8848 m), but the Chimborazo volcano (6268 m) - its peak is 2.5 km further. This is not visible in photographs from space, since the deviation from the ideal ball is no more than 0.5% of the radius, in addition, the imperfections in the appearance of our beloved planet are smoothed out by the atmosphere. The correct name for the shape of the Earth is geoid.

2. The sun is burning

We are used to thinking that the Sun is a huge ball of fire, so it seems to us that it is burning, there is a flame on its surface. In fact, combustion is a chemical reaction that requires an oxidizer and fuel, and an atmosphere. (By the way, this is why explosions in outer space are practically impossible).

The sun is a huge piece of plasma in a state of thermonuclear reaction; it does not burn, but glows, emitting a stream of photons and charged particles. That is, the Sun is not fire, it is a large and very, very warm light.

3. The Earth rotates on its axis in exactly 24 hours

It often seems that some days pass faster, others slower. Oddly enough, this is true. A solar day, that is, the time it takes for the Sun to return to the same position in the sky, varies by plus or minus about 8 minutes at different times of the year in different parts of the planet. This is due to the fact that the linear speed of motion and the angular speed of rotation of the Earth around the Sun are constantly changing as it moves along an elliptical orbit. The day either increases slightly or decreases slightly.

In addition to the solar day, there is also a sidereal day - the time during which the Earth makes one revolution around its axis in relation to distant stars. They are more constant, their duration is 23 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds.

4. Complete weightlessness in orbit

It is commonly believed that an astronaut on a space station is in a state of complete weightlessness and his weight is zero. Yes, the influence of the Earth’s gravity at an altitude of 100-200 km from its surface is less noticeable, but remains just as powerful: that is why the ISS and the people in it remain in orbit, and do not fly in a straight line into outer space.

In simple terms, both the station and the astronauts in it are in endless free fall (only they fall forward, not down), and the station’s very rotation around the planet maintains the soaring. It would be more correct to call it microgravity. A state close to complete weightlessness can only be experienced outside the Earth's gravitational field.

5. Instant death in space without a spacesuit

Oddly enough, for a person who falls out of a spaceship hatch without a spacesuit, death is not so inevitable. It will not turn into an icicle: yes, the temperature in outer space is -270 °C, but heat exchange in a vacuum is impossible, so the body, on the contrary, will begin to heat up. Internal pressure is also not enough to explode a person from the inside.

The main danger is explosive decompression: gas bubbles in the blood will begin to expand, but theoretically this can be survived. In addition, in space conditions there is not enough pressure to maintain the liquid state of the substance, so water will begin to evaporate very quickly from the mucous membranes of the body (tongue, eyes, lungs). In earth's orbit under direct sunlight, instant burns to unprotected areas of the skin are inevitable (by the way, the temperature here will be like in a sauna - about 100 °C). All this is very unpleasant, but not fatal. It is very important to be in space while exhaling (air retention will lead to barotrauma).

As a result, according to NASA scientists, under certain conditions there is a chance that 30-60 seconds of being in outer space will not cause damage to the human body that is incompatible with life. Death will ultimately come from suffocation.

6. The asteroid belt is a dangerous place for starships

Science-fiction films have taught us that asteroid clusters are piles of space debris that fly in close proximity to each other. On maps of the Solar System, the Asteroid Belt also usually looks like a serious obstacle. Yes, in this place there is a very high density of celestial bodies, but only by cosmic standards: half-kilometer blocks fly at a distance of hundreds of thousands of kilometers from each other.

Humanity has launched about a dozen probes that went beyond the orbit of Mars and flew to the orbit of Jupiter without the slightest problem. Impenetrable clusters of space rocks and rocks, like those seen in Star Wars, may be the result of the collision of two massive celestial bodies. And then - not for long.

7. We see millions of stars

Until recently, the expression “myriad stars” was nothing more than a rhetorical exaggeration. With the naked eye from Earth in the clearest weather, no more than 2-3 thousand celestial bodies can be seen at the same time. In total in both hemispheres - about 6 thousand. But in the photographs of modern telescopes you can actually find hundreds of millions, if not billions of stars (no one has counted yet).

The newly acquired Hubble Ultra Deep Field image captures about 10,000 galaxies, the most distant of which are approximately 13.5 billion light-years away. According to scientists' calculations, these ultra-distant star clusters appeared “only” 400-800 million years after the Big Bang.

8. The stars are motionless

It is not the stars that move across the sky, but the Earth that rotates - until the 18th century, scientists were sure that, with the exception of planets and comets, most of the celestial bodies remained motionless. However, over time it was proven that all stars and galaxies without exception are in motion. If we went back several tens of thousands of years ago, we would not recognize the starry sky above our heads (as well as the moral law, by the way).

Of course, this happens slowly, but individual stars change their position in outer space in such a way that this becomes noticeable after just a few years of observations. Bernard's star "flies" the fastest - its speed is 110 km/s. Galaxies also shift.

For example, the Andromeda Nebula, visible to the naked eye from Earth, is approaching the Milky Way at a speed of about 140 km/s. In about 5 billion years we will collide.

9. The Moon Has a Dark Side

The Moon always faces the Earth with one side, because its rotation around its own axis and around our planet is synchronized. However, this does not mean that the rays of the Sun never fall on the half invisible to us.

During the new moon, when the side facing the Earth is completely in shadow, the opposite side is completely illuminated. However, on the Earth's natural satellite, day gives way to night somewhat more slowly. A full lunar day lasts approximately two weeks.

10. Mercury is the hottest planet in the solar system

It is quite logical to assume that the planet closest to the Sun is also the hottest in our system. That's also not true. The maximum temperature on the surface of Mercury is 427 °C. This is less than on Venus, where a temperature of 477 °C is recorded. The second planet is almost 50 million km further from the Sun than the first, but Venus has a dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which, due to the greenhouse effect, retains and accumulates temperature, while Mercury has practically no atmosphere.

There is one more point. Mercury completes a full revolution around its axis in 58 Earth days. A two-month night cools the surface to -173 °C, meaning the average temperature at Mercury's equator is about 300 °C. And at the planet’s poles, which always remain in the shadows, there is even ice.

11. The solar system consists of nine planets

Since childhood, we are accustomed to thinking that the solar system has nine planets. Pluto was discovered in 1930, and for more than 70 years it remained a full member of the planetary pantheon. However, after much debate, in 2006, Pluto was demoted to the rank of the largest dwarf planet in our system. The fact is that this celestial body does not correspond to one of the three definitions of a planet, according to which such an object must clear the surroundings of its orbit with its mass. Pluto's mass is only 7% of the total weight of all Kuiper Belt objects. For example, another planetoid from this region, Eris, is only 40 km smaller in diameter than Pluto, but noticeably heavier. For comparison, the Earth's mass is 1.7 million times greater than that of all other bodies in the vicinity of its orbit. That is, there are still eight full-fledged planets in the solar system.

12. Exoplanets are similar to Earth

Almost every month, astronomers delight us with reports that they have discovered another exoplanet on which life could theoretically exist. The imagination immediately pictures a green-blue ball somewhere near Proxima Centauri, where it will be possible to dump it when our Earth finally breaks. In fact, scientists have no idea what exoplanets look like or what their conditions are like. The fact is that they are so far away that with modern methods we cannot yet calculate their actual sizes, atmospheric composition and surface temperature.

As a rule, only the estimated distance between such a planet and its star is known. Of the hundreds of exoplanets found that are located inside the habitable zone, potentially suitable for supporting Earth-like life, only a few could potentially be similar to our home planet.

13. Jupiter and Saturn are balls of gas

We all know that the largest planets in the solar system are gas giants, but this does not mean that, once in the gravitational zone of these planets, the body will fall through them until it reaches the solid core.

Jupiter and Saturn are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Under the clouds, at a depth of several thousand km, a layer begins in which hydrogen, under the influence of monstrous pressure, gradually transforms from gaseous to the state of liquid boiling metal. The temperature of this substance reaches 6 thousand °C. Interestingly, Saturn emits into space 2.5 times more energy that the planet receives from the Sun, but it is not yet entirely clear why.

14. In the solar system, life can only exist on Earth

If something similar to terrestrial life existed anywhere else in the solar system, we would notice it... Right? For example, on Earth, the first organic matter appeared more than 4 billion years ago, but for another hundreds of millions of years, not a single external observer would have seen any obvious signs of life, and the first multicellular organisms appeared only after 3 billion years. In fact, besides Mars, there are at least two more places in our system where life could well exist: these are the satellites of Saturn - Titan and Enceladus.

Titan has a dense atmosphere, as well as seas, lakes and rivers - although not made of water, but of liquid methane. But in 2010, scientists from NASA announced that they had discovered on this satellite of Saturn signs of the possible existence of the simplest forms of life, using methane and hydrogen instead of water and oxygen.

Enceladus is covered with a thick layer of ice, it would seem, what kind of life is there? However, below the surface at a depth of 30-40 km, as planetary scientists are sure, there is an ocean of liquid water approximately 10 km thick. The core of Enceladus is hot and this ocean may contain hydrothermal vents similar to Earth's “black smokers.” According to one hypothesis, life on Earth appeared precisely thanks to this phenomenon, so why not the same thing happen on Enceladus. By the way, in some places the water breaks through the ice and erupts out into fountains up to 250 km high. Recent evidence confirms that this water contains organic compounds.

15. Space is empty

There is nothing in interplanetary and interstellar space, many are sure from childhood. In fact, the vacuum of space is not absolute: in microscopic quantities there are atoms and molecules, relic radiation that remains from the Big Bang, and cosmic rays, which contain ionized atomic nuclei and various subatomic particles.

Moreover, scientists have recently suggested that the void of space is actually made of matter that we cannot yet detect. Physicists called this hypothetical phenomenon dark energy and dark matter. Presumably, our Universe consists of 76% dark energy, 22% dark matter, and 3.6% interstellar gas. Our ordinary baryonic matter: stars, planets, etc. is only 0.4% of the total mass of the universe.

There is an assumption that it is the increase in the amount of dark energy that causes the Universe to expand. Sooner or later, this alternative entity, in theory, will tear the atoms of our reality into shreds of individual bosons and quarks. However, by that time, neither Olga Vasilyeva, nor astronomy lessons, nor humanity, nor the Earth, nor the Sun will exist for several billion years.

Humanity has reached great heights in space exploration. It is in a tireless search for undiscovered wonders, incredible riches and terrible secrets hiding in the depths of extraterrestrial canyons. The main goal was achieved in the 20th century: the first man flew into space.

In fact, space has even more secrets than one might think. There are planets that look almost like Earth. There are also supermassive black holes that absorb galaxies and radio waves. They may contain ice and dirt. It seems that scientists will never be able to say with certainty that they really know and understand space. After all, much still remains unexplained.

The article presents 11 new interesting discoveries that prove that space remains unknown.

Two-headed flatworms

Scientists are passionate about solving a very exciting question: does the cosmos contain life? That's why they sent flatworms there. Flatworms are known for their regenerative abilities, and it was interesting to see how they would behave in space.

When cut into pieces, flatworms can fully regenerate into functional organisms. But they didn’t just grow in space: some of them were reborn with not one head, but two. This is an anomaly that many of us have never even heard of.

We live in a space desert

It doesn’t look strange at all that everything interesting is located at a great distance from us. The galaxy is too vast and far away to explore! There seems to be reason to believe that there is a void in space, and our Milky Way is part of it.

The universe is like Swiss cheese. It has dense regions filled with galaxies and holes that are relatively empty. The KBC void, named after the three astronauts Keenan, Barger and Cowie who discovered it in 2013, is the largest ever observed. Its radius is more than 1 billion light years.

Gravitational waves have existed for centuries, but no one has been able to prove that they are real. Finally, in February, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) announced that they had finally been discovered. They contribute to the expansion and compression of space. Gravitational waves carry unique information about the space, objects and events that create them. This information cannot be obtained in any other way!

LIGO has detected gravitational waves twice this year. They came from two colliding black holes that circle each other. These processes have been invisible for many years.

The Earth supplies oxygen to the Moon

Yes, we are losing air. Its quantity is no more than 90 metric tons, so there is nothing to worry about. It turns out that the small satellite Moon receives most of this oxygen.

Some atoms and molecules at the top of our atmosphere are lost and released into space. Some of them end up on the lunar surface, and ultimately in the particles of lunar soil that the Apollo astronauts brought to Earth. Scientists were baffled by the fact that the isotopes oxygen-18 and oxygen-17 found on Earth were found on the moon. Now the secret is revealed!

"Planet Nine" is hidden behind Pluto

Researchers seriously believe that there is a planet the size of Neptune. It is really very large and is hidden somewhere behind Pluto. Its orbit is probably quite distorted because it is almost impossible to observe. However, the so-called "Planet Nine" definitely influences the movement of other bodies in the outer part of our solar system. There is a massive celestial body hiding out there somewhere, and scientists will soon discover it!

The Sun has a lost twin

Recent research shows that most stars are born with at least one companion. The sun's closest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, harbors not one, but three stars! Scientists are now more confident than ever that our own sun once had a twin. Conventionally, he is called Nemesis.

Most likely, it was not a huge twin, it simply dissipated into the Milky Way, leaving no trace. Scientists believe that this is the fate of most double stars, which simply take different paths.

NASA's Juno spacecraft recently reached Jupiter. This flight provided humanity with some of the most surreal and breathtaking images of the planet's giant formations. Although no major scientific discoveries have been made so far, the photographs taken by JunoCam prove that humans don't have to fly too far to enjoy the beauty of the Universe. The footage taken from the Juno spacecraft is simply stunning!

Huge ice sheet on Mars

Mars hides one of the largest ice deposits known to mankind. It is roughly the size of New Mexico and contains up to 85% water, with the rest mostly mud. The volume of this ice sheet is truly amazing - it surpasses Lake Superior, which contains more than 12,000 cubic kilometers of water.

The building block of life

Methyl isocyanate molecules have been discovered in the dust and gas that surrounds protostars. They are very similar to our sun at the beginning of its existence. It is believed that the Earth and other planets were formed from material left behind after the formation of our sun. Thus, by studying young stars, scientists are getting closer to understanding how life began on our planet! This is not the first time that the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array) community has noticed something interesting. Not long ago, a group of astronomers made an interesting discovery: the gas surrounding the young star contains real sugar molecules.

Proxima b - new Earth

Proxima Centauri is a star that lies just a stone's throw away from Earth's sunlight. It will take 4.2 light years to reach it. Scientists have discovered a planet in the so-called habitable zone. Liquid water may exist on Proxima Centauri, which increases the chances of life developing on it.

Dubbed Proxima b is this newly discovered planet. It has a mass similar to that of the Earth. Breakthrough Foundation board members Mark Zuckerberg, Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner announced they would build a spacecraft the size of a microchip to explore habitable worlds. The project was called Breakthrough Starshot.

With the discovery of Proxima b, it is likely that the planet will become a target for a new type of spacecraft.