Unexplained phenomena in space. The most unusual space phenomena

Since the early days of space exploration, astronauts and scientists have discovered strange phenomena, from UFOs to mysterious lights. There are many stories about strange things happening in the cold vacuum of space. What is this, why does it happen and how can it be explained?

Scientists are trying to find comprehensive answers to many of these questions. Curious? We will tell you about strange things happening in space.

Unexplained knocking sound on a spaceship

Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut and spent 21 hours on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Liwei claims that he heard an incomprehensible noise, as if someone was knocking on the hull of the ship. He tried to find out what could have caused this sound, but found nothing. There was no convincing explanation for this, but some believe it could have been the ship's hull cracking.

Space moray eels

NASA astronaut Story Musgrave claims that when he was in space, he saw moray eel-like objects moving on their own. They say he saw them twice. Most people think it's space junk, but Musgrave stands by his opinion.

NASA started a fire on the ISS

Nobody wants to experience a fire on a spaceship. However, NASA decided to deliberately start a fire. It was an elaborate experiment to understand how fire behaves in space. As a result, it turned out that, firstly, the fire takes the shape of a ball, and secondly, the flame reaches out to the ventilation system, and does not just rise upward, as it happens on Earth. Scientists plan to continue experiments to learn how fire spreads, at what speed, and which materials pose the greatest threat to astronauts.

Bacteria flew into space

Living organisms change after being in space, and bacteria are no exception. Researcher Cheryl Nickerson sent salmonella bacteria into space for 11 days. After the bacteria returned to Earth, scientists infected a mouse with them to study the reaction. Typically, a mouse infected with salmonella dies after 7 days, but the individual infected with space salmonella died two days earlier and from a lower dose. Similar experiments were carried out with other bacteria, but the result was always unpredictable and did not allow a definite conclusion to be drawn. It is not yet possible to say exactly how microorganisms may change after a flight into space, and what impact these changes may have upon returning to Earth.

Strange moon music

While flying over the dark side of the Moon, the Apollo 10 astronauts heard what they called “space music.” At that moment they were just cut off from communication with the space center in Houston. The astronauts didn't talk about it before, but a few years later a low-frequency whistling noise was discovered in their audio recordings.

Aliens on the Moon

You may take this information with a grain of salt, but Neil Armstrong is said to have sent NASA a secret message claiming to have seen aliens. This message contained the text: “They are watching us from the dark side of the moon.” However, it must be said that the astronaut himself never mentioned this personally anywhere.

Unexplained mysterious flashes of light

In 2007, scientists discovered mysterious flashes of light in space that lasted only a few milliseconds, which they called “fast radio flashes.” Oddly enough, science doesn't really know what these outbreaks are or what causes them. A variety of theories have been put forward, including neutron stars, black holes and even aliens.

Astronauts are getting taller

One of the strange effects of being in space for a long time is that astronauts definitely become taller. Due to zero gravity, there is no such pressure on the spine, astronauts straighten up and become taller by an average of 3%.

The Milky Way - the eater of galaxies

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA discovered a strange fact of galactic cannibalism in our home galaxy. Researchers studied 13 stars located in the outer halo of the Milky Way to understand how it was formed. They believe that throughout its existence, the Milky Way has become larger, absorbing smaller galaxies.

Giant water tank in space

At a distance of 12 billion light years from us, there is a quasar containing a huge supply of water, exceeding the mass of water in the oceans of planet Earth by 140 trillion times. The fact of discovering water in space is not unique in itself; it is the amount of water produced by the quasar that is surprising and strange.

Deformation of the eyeballs

Astronauts who have been in space for more than a month often ask doctors to check their eyes. A new study has found that these people experience deformities in the eyeballs, optic nerves and tear glands. Problems arise due to intracranial hypertension or, in simple terms, due to increased intracranial pressure.

Ninth planet of the solar system

Astronomers have found new evidence that Planet Nine, the size of Neptune, was once in the planet-forming region of our solar system but was then thrown into a distant elliptical orbit. Now it is so far away that it will take 15 thousand years for it to complete one revolution around the sun.

UFO caught on video

In March 1991, Russian cosmonaut Musa Manarov, while on the Mir space station, filmed a strange flying object. The capsule was very close, and a strange white object in the distance was clearly visible in the frame. The astronaut himself does not believe that it is space debris, as others say.

UFO live

During a live broadcast from the International Space Station on January 15, 2015, a strange flying object appeared in the frame. Just at the moment of his appearance, NASA unexpectedly cut off the broadcast. What was this object, and why is NASA trying to hide it?

Astronauts lose bone mass

When talking about the consequences of a long stay in space, you don’t immediately think about bones. However, astronauts who spend long periods of time in space actually lose bone mass. Bones are active living tissue and regenerate with physical activity such as walking or running. In conditions of weightlessness, such activity is impossible, and the bones begin to weaken.

Live bacteria found outside the ISS

It was commonly believed that living organisms were unable to survive in the cold vacuum of space. However, astronauts recently discovered living bacteria outside the International Space Station. Bacteria were on the surface of the ISS; there were no such bacteria there at launch. Some have argued that this is the first evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life, but astronauts believe that there is a more plausible explanation. Rising air currents could carry bacteria into the upper layer of the Earth's atmosphere, where they “stick” to the surface of the ship.

Ecology

Space is full of bizarre and even scary phenomena, from stars that suck the life out of their own kind to giant black holes that are billions of times larger and more massive than our Sun. Below are the scariest things in outer space.

The planet is a ghost

Many astronomers said that the huge planet Fomalhaut B had sunk into oblivion, but apparently it is alive again.

Back in 2008, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope announced the discovery of a huge planet orbiting the very bright star Fomalhaut, located just 25 light-years from Earth. Other researchers later questioned this discovery, saying that the scientists had actually discovered the giant dust cloud being imaged.

However, according to the latest data obtained from Hubble, the planet is being discovered again and again. Other experts are carefully studying the system surrounding the star, so the zombie planet may be buried more than once before a final verdict is made on this issue.

Zombie stars

Some stars literally come back to life in brutal and dramatic ways. Astronomers classify these zombie stars as Type Ia supernovae, which produce huge and powerful explosions that send the stars' "innards" out into the universe.

Type Ia supernovae explode from binary systems that consist of at least one white dwarf—a tiny, superdense star that has stopped undergoing nuclear fusion. White dwarfs are "dead", but in this form they cannot remain in the binary system.

They can return to life, albeit briefly, in a giant supernova explosion, sucking the life out of their companion star or by merging with it.

Stars are vampires

Just like vampires in fiction, some stars manage to stay young by sucking the life force out of hapless victims. These vampire stars are known as "blue stragglers," and they "look" much younger than the neighbors with whom they were formed.

When they explode, the temperature is much higher and the color is “much bluer.” Scientists believe this is the case because they are sucking huge amounts of hydrogen from nearby stars.

Giant black holes

Black holes may seem like the stuff of science fiction - they are extremely dense, and their gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape if it gets close enough to them.

But these are very real objects that are quite common throughout the Universe. In fact, astronomers believe that supermassive black holes are at the center of most, if not all galaxies, including our Milky Way. Supermassive black holes are mind-boggling in size. Scientists recently discovered two black holes, each with the mass of 10 billion of our Suns.

Incomprehensible cosmic blackness

If you are afraid of the dark, then being in deep space is definitely not for you. It is a place of “utter blackness,” far removed from the comforting lights of home. Outer space is black, according to scientists, because it is empty.

Despite trillions of stars scattered throughout space, many molecules are at great distances from each other to interact and scatter.

Spiders and witch's brooms

The skies are populated with witches, glowing skulls and all-seeing eyes, in fact you can imagine any object. We see all of these forms in a diffuse collection of glowing gas and dust called nebulae that are scattered throughout the Universe.

The visual images that appear before us are examples of a special phenomenon in which the human brain recognizes the shapes of random images.

Killer asteroids

The phenomena listed in the previous paragraph may be creepy or take an abstract form, but they do not pose a threat to humanity. The same cannot be said about large asteroids that fly close to Earth.

Experts say that an asteroid 1 kilometer wide has the power to destroy our planet upon impact. And even an asteroid as small as 40 meters in size can cause serious harm if it hits a populated area.

The influence of an asteroid is one of the factors that affects life on Earth. It is likely that 65 million years ago it was an asteroid 10 kilometers in size that destroyed the dinosaurs. Fortunately for us, scientists are scanning celestial rocks, and there are ways to redirect dangerous space rocks away from Earth, if, of course, the danger is detected in time.

Active sun

The sun gives us life, but our star is not always so good. It experiences serious storms from time to time, which can have a potentially destructive effect on radio communications, satellite navigation and power grids.

Recently, such solar flares have been observed especially often, because the sun has entered its particularly active phase of the 11-year cycle. Researchers expect solar activity to peak in 2013.

Human exploration of space began some 60 years ago, when the first satellites were launched and the first cosmonaut appeared. Today, the study of the vastness of the Universe is carried out using powerful telescopes, but direct study of nearby objects is limited to neighboring planets. Even the Moon is a big mystery for humanity, an object of study by scientists. What can we say about larger-scale cosmic phenomena. Let's talk about ten of the most unusual of them.

Galactic cannibalism. The phenomenon of eating their own kind is inherent, it turns out, not only in living beings, but also in cosmic objects. Galaxies are no exception. So, the neighbor of our Milky Way, Andromeda, is now absorbing smaller neighbors. And inside the “predator” itself there are more than a dozen neighbors that have already been eaten. The Milky Way itself is now interacting with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. According to astronomers' calculations, the satellite, now located at a distance of 19 kpc from our center, will be absorbed and destroyed in a billion years. By the way, this form of interaction is not the only one; often galaxies simply collide. After analyzing more than 20 thousand galaxies, scientists came to the conclusion that all of them have encountered others at some point.

Quasars. These objects are a kind of bright beacons that shine to us from the very edges of the Universe and testify to the times of the birth of the entire cosmos, turbulent and chaotic. The energy emitted by quasars is hundreds of times greater than the energy of hundreds of galaxies. Scientists hypothesize that these objects are giant black holes in the centers of galaxies distant from us. Initially, in the 60s, quasars were objects that had strong radio emission, but at the same time extremely small angular dimensions. However, it later turned out that only 10% of those who are considered to be quasars met this definition. The rest did not emit strong radio waves at all. Today, objects that have variable radiation are considered to be quasars. What quasars are is one of the biggest mysteries of the cosmos. One theory says that this is a nascent galaxy, in which there is a huge black hole that is absorbing surrounding matter.

Dark matter. Experts were unable to detect this substance, or even see it at all. It is only assumed that there are some huge accumulations of dark matter in the Universe. To analyze it, the capabilities of modern astronomical technical means are not enough. There are several hypotheses about what these formations may consist of, ranging from light neutrinos to invisible black holes. According to some scientists, no dark matter exists at all; over time, people will be able to better understand all aspects of gravity, and then an explanation for these anomalies will come. Another name for these objects is hidden mass or dark matter. There are two problems that gave rise to the theory of the existence of unknown matter - the discrepancy between the observed mass of objects (galaxies and clusters) and the gravitational effects of them, as well as the contradiction in the cosmological parameters of the average density of space.

Gravitational waves. This concept refers to distortions of the space-time continuum. This phenomenon was predicted by Einstein in his general theory of relativity, as well as other theories of gravity. Gravitational waves travel at the speed of light and are extremely difficult to detect. We can only notice those that are formed as a result of global cosmic changes such as the merger of black holes. This can only be done using huge specialized gravitational-wave and laser interferometric observatories such as LISA and LIGO. A gravitational wave is emitted by any accelerated moving matter; in order for the amplitude of the wave to be significant, a large mass of the emitter is required. But this means that another object then acts on it. It turns out that gravitational waves are emitted by a pair of objects. For example, one of the most powerful sources of waves are colliding galaxies.

Vacuum energy. Scientists have found that the vacuum of space is not at all as empty as is commonly believed. And quantum physics directly states that the space between stars is filled with virtual subatomic particles that are constantly being destroyed and formed again. It is they who fill all space with anti-gravity energy, causing space and its objects to move. Where and why is another big mystery. Nobel laureate R. Feynman believes that vacuum has such enormous energy potential that in a vacuum the volume of a light bulb contains so much energy that it is enough to boil all the world's oceans. However, until now, humanity considers the only way to obtain energy from matter, ignoring the vacuum.

Micro black holes. Some scientists have questioned the entire Big Bang theory; according to their assumptions, our entire Universe is filled with microscopic black holes, each of which is no larger than the size of an atom. This theory by physicist Hawking arose in 1971. However, babies behave differently than their older sisters. Such black holes have some unclear connections with the fifth dimension, influencing space-time in a mysterious way. It is planned to further study this phenomenon using the Large Hadron Collider. For now, it will be extremely difficult to even test their existence experimentally, and studying their properties is out of the question; these objects exist in complex formulas and in the minds of scientists.

Neutrino. This is the name given to neutral elementary particles that have virtually no specific gravity of their own. However, their neutrality helps, for example, to overcome a thick layer of lead, since these particles interact weakly with the substance. They pierce everything around, even our food and ourselves. Without visible consequences for people, 10^14 neutrinos released by the sun pass through the body every second. Such particles are born in ordinary stars, inside of which there is a kind of thermonuclear furnace, and during the explosions of dying stars. Neutrinos can be seen using huge neutrino detectors located deep in the ice or at the bottom of the sea. The existence of this particle was discovered by theoretical physicists; at first the law of conservation of energy itself was even disputed, until in 1930 Pauli suggested that the missing energy belonged to a new particle, which in 1933 received its current name.

Exoplanet. It turns out that planets do not necessarily exist near our star. Such objects are called exoplanets. It is interesting that until the early 90s, humanity generally believed that planets outside our Sun could not exist. By 2010, more than 452 exoplanets were known in 385 planetary systems. The objects range in size from gas giants, which are comparable in size to stars, to small rocky objects that orbit small red dwarfs. The search for a planet similar to Earth has not yet been successful. It is expected that the introduction of new means for space exploration will increase man's chances of finding brothers in mind. Existing observation methods are precisely aimed at detecting massive planets like Jupiter. The first planet, more or less similar to Earth, was discovered only in 2004 in the Altar star system. It makes a full revolution around the star in 9.55 days, and its mass is 14 times greater than the mass of our planet. The closest to us in terms of characteristics is Gliese 581c, discovered in 2007, with a mass of 5 Earth's. It is believed that the temperature there is in the range of 0 - 40 degrees, theoretically there may be water reserves there, which implies life. The year there lasts only 19 days, and the star, much colder than the Sun, appears 20 times larger in the sky. The discovery of exoplanets allowed astronomers to make an unambiguous conclusion that the presence of planetary systems in space is a fairly common phenomenon. So far, most of the detected systems are different from solar ones, this is explained by the selectivity of detection methods.

Microwave space background. This phenomenon, called CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), was discovered in the 60s of the last century, and it turned out that weak radiation is emitted from everywhere in interstellar space. It is also called cosmic microwave background radiation. It is believed that this may be a residual phenomenon from the Big Bang, which started everything around. It is CMB that is one of the most compelling arguments in favor of this theory. Precision instruments were even able to measure the temperature of the CMB, which is a cosmic -270 degrees. The Americans Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for their accurate measurement of radiation temperature.

Antimatter. In nature, much is built on opposition, just as good opposes evil, and particles of antimatter are in opposition to the ordinary world. The well-known negatively charged electron has its negative twin brother in antimatter - the positively charged positron. When two antipodes collide, they annihilate and release pure energy, which is equal to their total mass and is described by the famous Einstein formula E=mc^2. Futurists, science fiction writers and just dreamers suggest that in the distant future, spaceships will be powered by engines that will use precisely the energy of collisions of antiparticles with ordinary ones. It is estimated that the annihilation of 1 kg of antimatter from 1 kg of ordinary matter will release an amount of energy only 25% less than the explosion of the largest atomic bomb on the planet today. Today it is believed that the forces that determine the structure of both matter and antimatter are the same. Accordingly, the structure of antimatter should be the same as that of ordinary matter. One of the biggest mysteries of the Universe is the question - why does the observable part of it consist almost of matter; perhaps there are places that are completely composed of the opposite matter? It is believed that such a significant asymmetry arose in the first seconds after the Big Bang. In 1965, an anti-deuteron was synthesized, and later even an antihydrogen atom, consisting of a positron and an antiproton, was obtained. Today, enough of this substance has been obtained to study its properties. This substance, by the way, is the most expensive on earth; 1 gram of anti-hydrogen costs 62.5 trillion dollars.

Galactic cannibalism

The phenomenon of eating their own kind is inherent, it turns out, not only in living beings, but also in cosmic objects. Galaxies are no exception. So, the neighbor of our Milky Way, Andromeda, is now absorbing smaller neighbors. And inside the “predator” itself there are more than a dozen neighbors that have already been eaten.

The Milky Way itself is now interacting with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. According to astronomers' calculations, the satellite, now located at a distance of 19 kpc from our center, will be absorbed and destroyed in a billion years. By the way, this form of interaction is not the only one; often galaxies simply collide. After analyzing more than 20 thousand galaxies, scientists came to the conclusion that all of them have encountered others at some point.

Quasars

These objects are a kind of bright beacons that shine to us from the very edges of the Universe and testify to the times of the birth of the entire cosmos, turbulent and chaotic. The energy emitted by quasars is hundreds of times greater than the energy of hundreds of galaxies. Scientists hypothesize that these objects are giant black holes in the centers of galaxies distant from us.

Initially, in the 60s, quasars were objects that had strong radio emission, but at the same time extremely small angular dimensions. However, it later turned out that only 10% of those who are considered to be quasars met this definition. The rest did not emit strong radio waves at all.

Today, objects that have variable radiation are considered to be quasars. What quasars are is one of the biggest mysteries of the cosmos. One theory says that this is a nascent galaxy, in which there is a huge black hole that is absorbing surrounding matter.

Dark matter

Experts were unable to detect this substance, or even see it at all. It is only assumed that there are some huge accumulations of dark matter in the Universe. To analyze it, the capabilities of modern astronomical technical means are not enough. There are several hypotheses about what these formations may consist of - ranging from light neutrinos to invisible black holes.

According to some scientists, no dark matter exists at all; over time, people will be able to better understand all aspects of gravity, and then an explanation for these anomalies will come. Another name for these objects is hidden mass or dark matter.

There are two problems that gave rise to the theory of the existence of unknown matter - the discrepancy between the observed mass of objects (galaxies and clusters) and the gravitational effects of them, as well as the contradiction in the cosmological parameters of the average density of space.

Gravitational waves

This concept refers to distortions of the space-time continuum. This phenomenon was predicted by Einstein in his general theory of relativity, as well as other theories of gravity. Gravitational waves travel at the speed of light and are extremely difficult to detect. We can only notice those that are formed as a result of global cosmic changes such as the merger of black holes.

This can only be done using huge specialized gravitational-wave and laser interferometric observatories such as LISA and LIGO. A gravitational wave is emitted by any accelerated moving matter; in order for the amplitude of the wave to be significant, a large mass of the emitter is required. But this means that another object then acts on it.

It turns out that gravitational waves are emitted by a pair of objects. For example, one of the most powerful sources of waves are colliding galaxies.

Vacuum energy

Scientists have found that the vacuum of space is not at all as empty as is commonly believed. And quantum physics directly states that the space between stars is filled with virtual subatomic particles that are constantly being destroyed and formed again. It is they who fill all space with anti-gravity energy, causing space and its objects to move.

Where and why is another big mystery. Nobel laureate R. Feynman believes that vacuum has such enormous energy potential that in a vacuum the volume of a light bulb contains so much energy that it is enough to boil all the world's oceans. However, until now, humanity considers the only way to obtain energy from matter, ignoring the vacuum.

Micro black holes

Some scientists have questioned the entire Big Bang theory; according to their assumptions, our entire Universe is filled with microscopic black holes, each of which is no larger than the size of an atom. This theory by physicist Hawking arose in 1971. However, babies behave differently than their older sisters.

Such black holes have some unclear connections with the fifth dimension, influencing space-time in a mysterious way. It is planned to further study this phenomenon using the Large Hadron Collider.

For now, it will be extremely difficult to even test their existence experimentally, and studying their properties is out of the question; these objects exist in complex formulas and in the minds of scientists.

Neutrino

This is the name given to neutral elementary particles that have virtually no specific gravity of their own. However, their neutrality helps, for example, to overcome a thick layer of lead, since these particles interact weakly with the substance. They pierce everything around, even our food and ourselves.

Without visible consequences for people, 10^14 neutrinos released by the sun pass through the body every second. Such particles are born in ordinary stars, inside of which there is a kind of thermonuclear furnace, and during the explosions of dying stars. Neutrinos can be seen using huge neutrino detectors located deep in the ice or at the bottom of the sea.

The existence of this particle was discovered by theoretical physicists; at first the law of conservation of energy itself was even disputed, until in 1930 Pauli suggested that the missing energy belonged to a new particle, which in 1933 received its current name.

Exoplanet

It turns out that planets do not necessarily exist near our star. Such objects are called exoplanets. It is interesting that until the early 90s, humanity generally believed that planets outside our Sun could not exist. By 2010, more than 452 exoplanets were known in 385 planetary systems.

The objects range in size from gas giants, which are comparable in size to stars, to small rocky objects that orbit small red dwarfs. The search for a planet similar to Earth has not yet been successful. It is expected that the introduction of new means for space exploration will increase man's chances of finding brothers in mind. Existing observation methods are precisely aimed at detecting massive planets like Jupiter.

The first planet, more or less similar to Earth, was discovered only in 2004 in the Altar star system. It makes a full revolution around the star in 9.55 days, and its mass is 14 times greater than the mass of our planet. The closest to us in terms of characteristics is Gliese 581c, discovered in 2007, with a mass of 5 Earth's.

It is believed that the temperature there is in the range of 0 - 40 degrees, theoretically there may be water reserves there, which implies life. The year there lasts only 19 days, and the star, much colder than the Sun, appears 20 times larger in the sky.

The discovery of exoplanets allowed astronomers to make an unambiguous conclusion that the presence of planetary systems in space is a fairly common phenomenon. So far, most of the detected systems are different from solar ones, this is explained by the selectivity of detection methods.

Microwave space background

This phenomenon, called CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), was discovered in the 60s of the last century, and it turned out that weak radiation is emitted from everywhere in interstellar space. It is also called cosmic microwave background radiation. It is believed that this may be a residual phenomenon from the Big Bang, which started everything around.

It is CMB that is one of the most compelling arguments in favor of this theory. Precision instruments were even able to measure the temperature of the CMB, which is a cosmic -270 degrees. The Americans Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for their accurate measurement of radiation temperature.

Antimatter

In nature, much is built on opposition, just as good opposes evil, and particles of antimatter are in opposition to the ordinary world. The well-known negatively charged electron has its negative twin brother in antimatter - the positively charged positron.

When two antipodes collide, they annihilate and release pure energy, which is equal to their total mass and is described by the famous Einstein formula E=mc^2. Futurists, science fiction writers and just dreamers suggest that in the distant future, spaceships will be powered by engines that will use precisely the energy of collisions of antiparticles with ordinary ones.

It is estimated that the annihilation of 1 kg of antimatter from 1 kg of ordinary matter will release an amount of energy only 25% less than the explosion of the largest atomic bomb on the planet today. Today it is believed that the forces that determine the structure of both matter and antimatter are the same. Accordingly, the structure of antimatter should be the same as that of ordinary matter.

One of the biggest mysteries of the Universe is the question - why does the observable part of it consist practically of matter; perhaps there are places that are completely composed of the opposite matter? It is believed that such a significant asymmetry arose in the first seconds after the Big Bang.

In 1965, an anti-deuteron was synthesized, and later even an antihydrogen atom, consisting of a positron and an antiproton, was obtained. Today, enough of this substance has been obtained to study its properties. This substance, by the way, is the most expensive on earth; 1 gram of anti-hydrogen costs 62.5 trillion dollars.

Even though we have been studying space for quite a long time, phenomena occur periodically that do not fit into the equation. Or they fit, but are unusual in themselves..

Sounds inside Saturn's rings

Scientists have created a rather interesting algorithm that converts radio and flame waves into an audio format that is easy to understand. And a device with a similar algorithm was equipped with the Cassini spacecraft. While he was flying peacefully in outer space, everything was fine. Standard noise, occasional predictable bursts. But when Cassini reached the space between the rings, all sounds disappeared. At all. That is, due to some physical phenomena, space was completely shielded from certain types of waves.

Ice planet

No, not in our solar system. But scientists have long found methods that allow not only to identify exoplanets, but also to judge their chemical composition. And somewhere in space there is definitely a ball of ice flying, almost the size of the Earth. This means that water is not so rare. And where there is water, there is life. Moreover, it is not known whether there is geothermal activity there, as on one of the moons of Jupiter - the first candidate for the presence of extraterrestrial life.

Rings of Saturn

Still, perhaps, one of the most interesting phenomena in our solar system. The most interesting thing is that the already mentioned Cassini managed to slip between these rings without even harming itself. True, it was impossible to get in touch at this time, so we had to rely only on programs. But then the connection was restored and we received unique photographs.

"Steve"

This unusual natural phenomenon was discovered by space exploration enthusiasts. Essentially, this is something like a super-hot (3000 degrees Celsius) air flow in the upper layers of the atmosphere. It moves at a speed of 10 km per second and it is completely unclear why this happens. But scientists have already begun to slowly study this phenomenon.

Habitable planet

Just 40 light-years away, LHS 1140 is a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life. Everything coincides - the location of the planet, the size of the sun (15 percent more in total), and general conditions. So, purely theoretically, the same processes could take place there as in our country.

Dangerous asteroids

A huge boulder with a diameter of 650 meters flew extremely close to the Earth. By astronomical standards, of course. In fact, it was located from us at a distance 4 times greater than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. But this is already considered dangerous. Just a little more... And I don’t even want to think where all this could lead.

Space "dumpling"

Everyone knows that planetoids have a roughly spherical shape. Very roughly, but still. But Saturn's natural satellite called Pan has a strange shape, to put it mildly. Sort of like a “space dumpling”. The images were taken by Voyager 2 in 1981, but the peculiarity of this planetoid was noticed only recently.

Photos of a habitable star system

Trappist-1 is another candidate for the search for life. Only 39 light years. Several planets orbit in the “life zone,” although the star is much less powerful than the Sun. So you need to pay attention to this system.

Date of collision between Earth and Mars

Let's just say that there is practically nothing behind the loud headline. We are talking about an insignificant chance in billions of years. Simply because, purely theoretically, due to a change in the Earth’s orbit and a weakening of the Sun’s gravity (a billion years is no joke). And Mars and the Earth have already interacted in the past - more than 85 million years ago, the Earth’s orbit changed from circular to elliptical with a frequency of once every 1.2 million years. Now it’s less common - only once every 2.4 million. It will probably be even less common in the future.

Gas vortex in the Perseus cluster

Let's just say that galaxies are formed under approximately these conditions. A huge accumulation of stellar gas, heated to 10 million degrees, which occupies a space of more than a million light years. Honestly, a fascinating sight.

The site team and journalist Artyom Kostin follow new news from the world of science with interest. After all, every new discovery brings us one step closer to understanding. And, hopefully, to the use of these laws.