And it is precisely the collective, impersonal nature of science, its peculiarity that the procedures of cognition, which have developed over centuries, stand above any individual opinion, even the most authoritative, serve as a guarantee of the real objectivity of cognition, and nothing can be more reliable than this guarantee. This does not mean the absolute infallibility of science, but means something more important: science is wrong, but in its further movement it annuls its own erroneous statements. In other words, science as a whole is a system with a strong tendency to self-correction. And to accuse science of stupid, malicious, demagogic or dictated by any other extraneous considerations of denying the facts that are its blood and air means not understanding its fundamental functional principles.
No matter how intriguing the explanation of UFOs with the help of ghost and ball lightning sounds, these rare phenomena clearly do not "cover" all the relevant observation statistics. What other natural phenomenon can explain the flickering disks and ellipsoids rapidly moving in the stratosphere? Well, of course, the glow of the ionospheric layer of the Earth's magnetosphere! This amazing process has been extensively researched for over two centuries and is well known in our hemisphere as the flashes of the northern lights. As a matter of fact, the ingrained name "Northern Lights" is not entirely correct. Above the South Pole, you can also observe fantastic overflows of ionospheric light. Therefore, the term "polar lights" should be used. Auroras in the Northern Hemisphere usually move westward at a speed of about one kilometer per second.
In terms of brightness, the auroras are divided into four classes, differing from each other tenfold. The first class includes barely noticeable auroras, similar in brightness to the Milky Way. Auroras of the fourth class in terms of brightness can be compared with the full moon.
Despite the illusory nature of the subject of research, the attention of many scientists has been riveted on the distant sky-high heights for many decades. The point is that the auroral environment contains electrically charged particles - ions and electrons. This gives them their amazing light properties. If in the surface layer dry air is a good insulator, then in the ionosphere it is a good conductor.
The human biosphere is located on land, in the border area of the surface of the water ocean and the bottom of the air ocean. On all sides, it is surrounded by a fertile air-water environment that supports life. The density of the atmosphere drops sharply with distance from the Earth's surface. In its upper layers, the rarefied air is unsuitable for breathing, but on the other hand, it retains destructive radiation coming from the Sun and from outer space.
The upper atmosphere (stratosphere) of the Earth serves as a kind of air shield to reflect numerous meteorites. Such meteoric bodies, even small in size, due to their tremendous speed, have great destructive power. Colliding with gaseous particles of the atmosphere, they are very hot and evaporate, leaving characteristic traces of "shooting stars" in the sky.
The upper atmosphere (stratosphere) of the Earth serves as a kind of air shield to reflect numerous meteorites. Such meteoric bodies, even small in size, due to their high speed, have great destructive power. Colliding with gaseous particles of the atmosphere, they are very hot and evaporate, leaving characteristic traces of "shooting stars" in the sky.
Above fifty kilometers above the Earth's surface is that layer of the air envelope, which is called the ionosphere. The ionosphere extends to heights of several hundred kilometers, smoothly passing into the plasmasphere mantle. The air medium here significantly changes its composition, the relative concentration of light gases increases, the medium becomes billions of times more rarefied. At the surface of the Earth, air mainly consists of diatomic molecules of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, and at high altitudes - in the ionosphere - the molecules of these gases under the influence of the hard radiation of the Sun decay into individual atoms. At altitudes of thousands of kilometers, hydrogen and helium become the main elements of the exosphere (outer atmosphere).
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The environment of the ionosphere is constantly in rapid motion, developing into real hurricanes, although they are invisible on the earth's surface.
At one point, scientists even observed the mysterious cloud-like auroras, racing at a speed of over three thousand kilometers per hour.
Since the density of gases is negligible at the border of the exosphere, molecules and atoms can freely accelerate to the second cosmic velocity. At this speed, any body overcomes gravity and goes into space. The same happens with gas particles of hydrogen and helium. But, despite the leakage of light gases from the earth's atmosphere, its composition does not change, since there is a continuous process of replenishment due to gases of the earth's crust and evaporation of the oceans. In addition, some of the same atoms and molecules come from the interplanetary medium when flowing around the earth's exosphere.
The prominent radiophysicist F. I. Chestnov wrote in his popular science book In the Depths of the Ionosphere:
High sky. Transparent air. At first glance, it seems that peace and serenity reign at a high altitude. But if we acquired the magical ability to see molecules and atoms, we would be amazed at the sight of a world that truly never knows rest. Explosions and disasters often occur. Some particles are destroyed, others are born. And the Sun is the culprit of these incessant transformations. Scientists have spent a lot of effort to reveal the main features of the ionosphere and paint its "portrait". Each step in this direction required new experiments, ingenious hypotheses and complex calculations. Like ancient warriors, scientists persistently laid siege to sky-high heights. But instead of military weapons, they used physical devices, and the rules of military art were replaced by the strict logic of mathematics. The portrait of the ionosphere that appears before our eyes- not a frozen picture. It changes all the time, and not only because the ionosphere itself is changeable, but mainly because our knowledge becomes more and more rich and reliable.
The study of the properties and processes occurring in the upper air layers, in the ionosphere is one of the most important tasks of modern science. It is not for nothing that in recent years a new area of scientific knowledge has taken shape and is rapidly developing, dealing with this problem - aeronomy. Undoubtedly, she has a great future. It is quite possible that it was precisely the rapid development of the physics of the ionosphere that prompted the famous science fiction writer Frederick Brown to create the original story "The Waves". It tells about a new "field" form of life, which manifests itself in the form of electromagnetic waves in the radio range. This is how the author describes them on behalf of one of the main characters - Professor Helmetz:
- After all, space aliens are, in essence, real radio waves. Their only feature is that they have no radiation source. They represent the wave form of living nature, dependent on field fluctuations, just as our earthly life depends on the movement, vibration of matter.
- What size are they? Same or all different?
- They all have different sizes. Moreover, they can be measured in two ways. First, from crest to crest, which gives the so-called wavelength. The receiver catches waves of a certain length at one point in the range. As for the aliens, for them the scale of the radio receiver simply does not exist. Any wavelength is equally accessible to them. And this means that either by their very nature they can appear on any wave, or they can change the wavelength arbitrarily, at their own will. Secondly, we can talk about the wavelength determined by its total length. Assuming a radio station transmits for one second, then the corresponding signal has a length of one light second, which is approximately 187,000 miles. If the transmission lasts half an hour, then the length of the signal is half a light hour, etc., etc.
As for aliens, their length varies from individual to individual, ranging from several thousand miles - in this case we are talking about a length of a few tenths of a light second - to half a million miles, then the wavelength is equal to several light seconds. The longest recorded signal - a radio clip - was eight seconds long.
- And why, professor, do you think that these radio waves are living beings? Why not just radio waves?
- Because just radio waves, as you say, obey certain physical laws, like any inanimate matter. A stone cannot, like a hare, run up a mountain, it rolls down. Only the force applied to it can lift it up the mountain. Aliens are a special form of life, because they are able to exercise will, because they can arbitrarily change the direction of movement, and mainly because they retain their integrity under any circumstances. The radio has never transmitted two merged signals yet. They follow one after another, but do not overlap each other, as happens with radio signals transmitted on the same wavelength. So, as you can see, we are not dealing with "just radio waves" …
The finale of the work is built in a tragicomic key - it turns out that cosmic waveguides (this is the name of aliens from the ionosphere) are powered by artificial and atmospheric electricity. This quickly leads to the disappearance of household and industrial electricity, lightning disappears, but humanity is returning to the age of steam!
But is it really so easy to overcome cosmic electromagnetic oscillations through the thickness of the ionosphere? In the near-surface layer - the troposphere - air is a mixture of neutral molecules of various gases (mainly nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide). Therefore, if we are surrounded by dry air, then it can be considered a good insulator.
The situation is different in the depths of the ionosphere. There, the air environment is quite capable of conducting electric current, since it contains electrons and ions instead of neutral molecules and atoms. Let us remember that ions are positively or negatively charged particles formed from neutral atoms and molecules under the influence of any external factors. Due to the presence of ions, this part of the Earth's air ocean was called the ionosphere.
Scientists have long found that air molecules throughout the stratosphere are in constant complex motion. Its flow also captures ions with electrons. They continuously participate in opposite processes of ionization and neutralization - recombination, proceeding at different rates at different altitudes.
This is how Fyodor Ivanovich Chestnov describes it in his wonderful book:
Imagine a crowd in which each person is rushing in the direction they need. People will collide with each other at almost every turn. But then the crowd thinned, it became freer; now a collision is a rare occurrence. We will observe approximately the same in the world of molecules.
Here we go down and find ourselves in denser layers. Air particles are thicker here, which means that collisions occur more often and recombination is faster. We go higher, into rarefied layers: collisions of particles become less frequent, and the reunification of ions and electrons into neutral molecules is very slow.
What happens if the effect of ionizing radiation in the upper atmosphere ceases?
Obviously, the electrons will "return to their places" again, the ionized particles will eventually become neutral, free charges will gradually disappear, and the air will lose its electrical conductivity. If the ionizing radiation acts constantly and with constant strength, then the appearance of new free electrons will balance their loss - the saturation of the air with free charges will not change.
This is how the auroras (auroras borealis in Latin), remarkable in their beauty, arise. If you observe them from the surface of the Earth, then it is better to do this at night and in clear weather, when the Sun and clouds do not interfere. These difficulties are easily avoided by observing the auroras from space, where, moreover, there is no distorting influence of the lower dense layers of the atmosphere. Observations from manned spacecraft and orbital stations provided rich material on the spatial arrangement of auroras, their change in time and on many features of this phenomenon. Moreover, spacecraft have made it possible to carry out measurements inside the aurora. It is equally convenient to study auroras in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and even on the daytime side of the Earth.
Interestingly, energetic protons, invading the upper atmosphere and causing proton auroras, move part of their path like neutral hydrogen atoms. In this case, they are not affected by the Earth's magnetic field. Such protons, having high (proton) velocities, can penetrate into areas inaccessible to charged particles. Outbreaks of the northern lights are usually observed a day or two after solar flares - the two phenomena are closely related to each other.
Auroras are not only "property" of the Earth. On the contrary, they are clearly observed in the plasmaspheres and other planets - the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, as well as on some of their satellites, surrounded by their own atmospheres.
The Jupiterian aurora is of the same nature as the terrestrial one: fast electrons, drifting in the planet's magnetosphere along the lines of force between the poles, spill out at the poles into the upper atmosphere and cause the gas to glow. The aurora on Jupiter is most intense in the ultraviolet, since the main spectral lines of hydrogen, which dominate in Jupiter's atmosphere, lie in this part of the spectrum.
Comprehensive observations of Jupiter's auroras from the interplanetary automated probe Cassini, passing Jupiter on its way to Saturn, allowed scientists to develop numerical models of the auroras, including the effects of interaction with the solar wind.
Investigations in recent decades, especially those carried out with the help of artificial earth satellites and rockets, have significantly enriched our knowledge of aurora borealis. Some of their secrets have been revealed, and in addition, a large amount of factual material has been accumulated about the space surrounding our planet, the state of the interplanetary medium and solar radiation, including flows of charged particles. And yet, not everything with the auroras is clear.
Today, we still cannot not only describe this phenomenon quantitatively, but even predict in advance many of its properties. The problem of auroras turned out to be too complex and multifaceted. For example, the relationship between auroras and weather is still not clear. Northerners are well aware that auroras are more often observed on frosty nights. There is no explanation for this yet.
However, today researchers of polar flashes have powerful assistants - geophysical rockets, artificial satellites of the Earth, equipped with the most modern equipment. The instruments installed on the satellites have already provided a lot of valuable information about the highest layers of the earth's atmosphere - their chemical composition, structure, density, and much more. All this made it possible to clarify something in the ideas about the nature of the aurora borealis, to reconsider something, and to completely abandon something.
Thus, the latest data obtained with the help of modern research tools lead some scientists to the assumption that auroras are a consequence of the interaction of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun with very rarefied air, which at high altitudes is in an atomic state. Air ionization occurs - the transformation of neutral atoms into charged ions. The existence in the upper atmosphere of the ionosphere, a region that conducts electricity well, has already been firmly proven.
The most convincing argument in favor of the fact that we understand any physical phenomenon is its reconstruction in laboratory conditions. This was also done for the aurora borealis - the experiment called "Araks" was carried out at one time jointly by Russian and French researchers.
Two magnetically conjugate points on the Earth's surface (that is, two points on the same magnetic field line) were selected as laboratories. They were - for the Southern Hemisphere - the French island of Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean, and for the North - the village of Sogra in the Arkhangelsk Region. A geophysical rocket was launched from Kerguelen Island with a small particle accelerator, which created a stream of electrons at a certain height. Moving along the magnetic field line from the Earth, these electrons penetrated into the Northern Hemisphere and caused an artificial aurora over Sogra. Unfortunately, the clouds did not allow us to see it from the surface of the Earth, but radar installations clearly registered it.
Experiments of the type described do not just allow us to understand the causes and mechanism of the aurora origin. They provide a unique opportunity to study the structure of the Earth's magnetic field, processes in its ionosphere and the influence of these processes on the weather near the earth's surface. It is especially convenient to perform such experiments not with electrons, but with barium ions. Once in the ionosphere, they are excited by sunlight and begin to emit crimson radiation.
At the same time, unexpected correlations emerge, awaiting their future researchers, in rather unusual processes. In the past, the appearance of auroras was associated with tragic phenomena in nature and society, with the prediction of various misfortunes. Was it only fear of incomprehensible natural phenomena that underlay these superstitions? It is now well known that solar rhythms with different periods (27 days, 11 years, etc.) affect various aspects of life on Earth. Solar and magnetic storms (and associated auroras) can cause an increase in various diseases, including diseases of the human cardiovascular system. Solar cycles are associated with climate change on Earth, the occurrence of droughts and floods, earthquakes, etc. All this makes us once again seriously think about old superstitions - or maybedo they have a grain of rationality?
Auroras signal the place and time of the impact of space on earth processes. The invasion of charged particles that causes them affects many aspects of our life. The ozone content and the electric potential of the ionosphere change, the heating of the ionospheric plasma excites waves in the atmosphere. All this affects the weather. Due to additional ionization, significant electric currents begin to flow in the ionosphere, the magnetic fields of which distort the Earth's magnetic field, which directly affects the health of many people. Thus, through the aurora borealis and the processes associated with them, space affects the nature around us and its inhabitants.
In his essay "Celestial Objects" A. Clarke wrote:
There is no doubt that Nature is able to create "spaceships" that meet the most stringent requirements - when she really wants it.
As proof of this, I will cite the May 1916 issue of The Observatory, a journal published by the world's leading astronomical organization, the Royal Astronomical Society. The date - 1916 - is important for understanding the nuances of what was written, but the event in question happened more than three decades earlier, on the night of November 17, 1882.
The author is the famous British astronomer Walter Maunder, then working at the Greenwich Observatory. He was asked to describe the most wonderful sight he had seen in many years of observing the sky, and he recalled being on the roof of the observatory on that November night of 1882, looking out at night London, when “an enormous round disc of greenish color suddenly appeared low above horizon in the direction of east-north-east; it ascended and moved across the sky as smoothly and evenly as the sun, moon, stars and planets, but a thousand times faster. Its round shape was obviously due to the effect of perspective, for as it moved it lengthened, and when it crossed the meridian and passed just above the moon, its shape was close to a very elongated ellipse, and various observers described it as cigar-shaped.similar to a torpedo … if it happened a third of a century later, everyone, no doubt, would find the same image - the object would be exactly like an airship.
Let me remind you that Maunder wrote this in 1916, when airships occupied an even more honorable place in news reports than spaceships are now.
Hundreds of observers throughout England and Europe observed this object, which made it possible to obtain fairly accurate estimates of its height, size and speed. It flew 133 miles above the Earth, moved at 10 miles per second - and was at least 50 miles long.
Here the great English science fiction writer pauses, as it were, and finally asks the question: "What was that?" In 1882, no one yet knew the answer to this question. The key to unraveling such phenomena was obtained only in the late forties of the past century by Soviet meteorologists, who repeatedly observed similar objects during ionospheric storms in the Arctic sky, accompanied by the strongest aurora borealis. In his essay, Clarke actually repeats the explanation received by Soviet scientists:
Nature uses its 93,000,000 miles of cathode ray tube to create symmetrical, well-defined objects that move evenly across the sky. In my opinion, this sight was more impressive than some kind of spaceship, but the facts leave no room for controversy. Spectroscopic observations confirmed that this was only the aurora, and as it flew over Europa, the object began to slowly disintegrate into pieces. Focusing has disappeared in the space tube.
What about UFOs and aliens? Clark ponders this further.
Someone may argue that this rare, perhaps unique event can hardly explain a number of UFO sightings, many of which were made during the day, when the faint glow of the aurora is completely invisible. Yet I suspect that there is some kind of distant connection, and this suspicion is based on one new science that has been around for only a few years and arose in connection with rocket and nuclear research.
This science is called - take a deep breath - magnetohydrodynamics. You will probably hear more about it in the future, because, along with nuclear power, it is one of the keys to space exploration. But now it interests us only because it deals with the movement of ionized gases in magnetic fields - that is, phenomena of the same nature as the one that struck Mr. Maunder and several thousand other people in 1882.
Today we call such objects "plasmoids". (A charming word! This is how the headline in the magazine appears: "I was chased by plasmoids from Pluto." her. During a thunderstorm, brightly glowing balls are sometimes observed that roll on the ground or slowly float through the air. Sometimes they explode with great force - just as the theories that were proposed to explain them burst. But now we are able to get smaller copies - crumbs of plasmoids - in the laboratory, and there are terrible rumors that the military is trying to use them as weapons.
Since all possibilities cannot be ruled out, there will always be a faint chance that some UFOs are alien ships from other worlds, although the evidence against this is so vast that a much longer article would be required to detail them. If this verdict disappoints you, I can offer in return quite adequate, in my opinion, compensation.
If you look into the sky, sooner or later you will see a spaceship.
But he will be one of ours.