From year to year, new inventions appear that allow us to study and accumulate knowledge about space. But much still remains unknown and unexplored. Therefore, it would be naive to believe that we have the answers to all the questions that interest us
Meet 10 of the most incredible mysteries of the solar system:
10. Inconsistency of temperatures at the poles of the Sun
Why is the Sun's South Pole colder than the North? In 1990, the Ulysses spacecraft was launched into space. This is the first apparatus that studies the Sun not only from the plane of the ecliptic (equatorial), but also from the side of the poles. "Ulysses" passed at an altitude of six radii above Jupiter, left the plane of the ecliptic (the plane in which the planets revolve around the Sun) and headed first to the regions of interplanetary plasma from the south pole of the Sun, and then to the regions from the north pole.
The device worked for over 17 years, transmitting information about the Sun, about the solar wind and about the poles to the Earth. Since the estimated service life of the device has long expired, there is almost no connection with it.
Among the scientific results, an interesting fact was discovered that the South Pole is colder than the North. Using the on-board SWICS spectrometer, the spacecraft analyzed the composition of the solar wind, recording the relative content of oxygen ions O6 + and O7 +, which indirectly indicates the temperature of the gas.
At the same time, Ulysses remains at a completely safe distance of 300 million km from the surface of the star. So the temperature of the poles of the Sun was established: about a million degrees Celsius. The temperature difference at the poles is 7-8%, which equals 80 thousand degrees.
Scientists are most surprised that the temperature difference does not depend on the magnetic field of the Sun (even when its poles are shifted during the 11-year solar cycle). Physicists assume that the structure of the "atmosphere" above the solar poles is different. But the question remains open.
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9. Secrets of Mars
Why are the southern and northern hemispheres of Mars so different?
The southern hemisphere is dotted with craters. The surface of the northern hemisphere, on the other hand, has few craters and is largely composed of vast volcanic plains.
Scientists attribute such a strong difference in the hemispheres of Mars to the consequences of a collision of the planet with an asteroid the size of Pluto. According to another version, at an early geological stage, the lithospheric plates "collapsed" (possibly by accident) into one hemisphere and then "froze" in this position. One way or another, such a difference in the hemispheres is still a subject of discussion.
Does the curse of Mars really exist? According to many sources, something paranormal is incapacitating all our ships in the vicinity of the planet. Statistics show that about 2/3 of all space missions have failed. Russian rockets throwing spaceships on Mars were out of order.
US satellites broke down halfway. After landing on the Red Planet, British descent vehicles did not give a single signal. Maybe it's all just folk tales. Or banal luck escaping from hands. One way or another, most of the spacecraft sent to Mars have been lost.
8. Tunguska phenomenon
What happened near the Tunguska river? Forget Fox Mulder wading through the Russian woods: this time it's not an X-Files episode. On June 30, 1908, at about seven o'clock in the morning local time, a large fiery spherical space body flew over the vast territory of Eastern Siberia between the Lena and Podkamennaya Tunguska rivers from southeast to northwest from the direction of the Sun.
Eyewitnesses described a blinding light that could be seen several hundred miles away. In a matter of seconds, a blast wave within a radius of about 40 kilometers felled the forest, destroyed animals, and suffered people. At the same time, under the influence of light radiation, the taiga flared up for tens of kilometers around.
The fire that broke out destroyed what little remained after the explosion. A total felling of 80 million trees occurred on an area of 2,150 sq km. A cosmic hurricane for many years turned the taiga, once rich in vegetation and game, into a dull cemetery of a dead forest. It was a real disaster. But from the impact of a space body, no crater was formed. What actually fell on us from the sky?
There are many hypotheses explaining the Tunguska phenomenon. Some scientists believe that the explosion was due to the detonation of natural gas, set on fire by a meteorite that flew into the atmosphere. There are even strange hypotheses such as a UFO explosion. The solution to the problem is complicated by the fact that none of the numerous expeditions ended with the discovery of a meteorite.
7. Inclination of the axis of rotation of Uranus
Why does Uranus rotate "lying on its side"? If other planets can be compared to spinning tops, then Uranus is more like a rolling ball: the plane of the equator of Uranus is inclined to the plane of its orbit at an angle of 97.86 degrees. This gives a completely different process of changing the seasons from other planets in the solar system.
Each pole is in darkness for 42 Earth years - and another 42 years under the light of the Sun. It is also known that almost all planets rotate counterclockwise (when viewed from the side of the North Pole of the Earth). And only Venus rotates clockwise. This is how the theory is born that the reverse rotation occurred as a result of the collision of a planet with a huge cosmic body. Maybe the same thing happened with Uranus?
Some scholars agree with this version as well. And some see the reason in the influence of Saturn and Jupiter on Uranus. Further study required.
6. The atmosphere on Titan
Why does Titan have an atmosphere? Titan is a satellite of Saturn, the second largest satellite in the solar system (after Ganymede, the satellite of Jupiter). In addition, it is the only satellite in the solar system with a dense atmosphere, and the only satellite whose surface cannot be observed in the visible range due to cloud cover. Titan is similar to Earth, although smaller in size.
The pressure on the surface of Mars is 160 times less than that of the Earth. On the surface of Venus - about 100 times more. The pressure at the surface of Titan is only 1.6 times higher than the pressure of the earth's atmosphere. In addition, Titan's atmosphere is composed primarily of gaseous nitrogen (approximately 95%) and is the closest in composition to the atmosphere of the Earth (compared to other bodies in the solar system). But where did this nitrogen come from, both on Earth and on Titan? This remains unknown.
5. Solar corona
Why is the corona hotter than the surface of the sun? The outermost, thinnest, and hottest part of the solar atmosphere is the corona. It can be traced from the solar limb to distances of tens of solar radii. Despite the strong gravitational field of the Sun, this is possible due to the tremendous speeds of motion of the particles that make up the corona.
The corona has a temperature of about a million degrees, while the photosphere has a temperature of about 6,000 degrees. But how does that happen? If you turn on a conventional incandescent light bulb, the air around it will still not get hotter than the bulb itself.
The closer you are to the light source, the hotter it gets, not colder. In the case of the Sun, we are faced with exactly the opposite phenomenon, which contradicts all physical laws.
4. Comet dust
How do ice comets form dust at high temperatures? Comets are small, hazy celestial bodies of ice that revolve around the Sun, usually in elongated orbits. When approaching the Sun, the ice begins to evaporate and comets form a coma and sometimes a tail of gas and dust. Presumably, long-period comets fly to us from the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, which contains millions of cometary nuclei.
On January 15, 2006, a Stardust capsule containing invaluable samples of Comet Wild 2 made a soft landing at a test site in Utah. The material of the comet has undergone a comprehensive analysis. The main takeaway is that comets have a much more complex composition than anticipated.
The real surprise was the discovery that most of the material is clearly cold material from the outskirts of the solar system, but about 10% was formed in high temperatures. It is not known where this 10% came from if the comet did not enter the inner region of the solar system.
3. Kuiper belt
How did the Kuiper belt form? The region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. This area is home to a large number of space objects, the most famous (but not the largest) of which is Pluto.
The Kuiper Belt is not well understood. The American spacecraft will only reach the belt in 2015. In the meantime, it remains to be wondered why, contrary to theories, the number of objects in the Kuiper belt suddenly decreases at a distance of 50 AU.
One of the assumptions is that beyond the 50 AU mark. there are many space objects, but they are not grouped, so they are not visible. There is another even stranger version: a huge cosmic body, the size of Earth or Mars, flew past the Kuiper belt, which actually "swept away" all the objects that were there. This version has no evidence and only serves to spread rumors about the existence of Planet X. And the mystery about the existence of the Kuiper belt has not been solved yet.
2. Anomaly of the Pioneer program
Why are the Pioneer ships veering off course? The Pioneer-10 (launched in March 1972) and Pioneer-11 (launched in April 1973) are the most famous devices in the series. They were the first to reach the third space speed and the first to explore deep space.
On both occasions, scientists noted a strange fact: the ships for some reason deviated from the course. The deviation was small by astronomical standards (about 386 thousand km after a trip of 10 million km). Both the first and the second time it was the same. Scientists find it difficult to explain this. \
1. Oort cloud
Is there an Oort cloud? This is the biggest mystery. If in the Kuiper belt we can still observe large space objects, then the Oort cloud is too far away (more than 50 thousand AU from the Sun).
The Oort cloud is a hypothetical region of the solar system that is the source of comets with a long orbital period. Instrumentally, the existence of the Oort cloud has not been confirmed, however, many indirect facts indicate its existence.
The world never ceases to amaze and puzzle us with new riddles. But for scientists there is a lot of work!