At the end of the 19th century, it seemed that, on the whole, everything was already clear both with the structure of nature and with its laws. It remained to deal with small details and annoying problems such as an open electron for some reason and small discrepancies between the real and calculated orbits of Mercury. Nobody imagined that a scientific revolution was coming and that the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and atomic physics would appear. At the beginning of the 21st century, history seems to be repeating itself.
Over the past 10 years, science has already accumulated a sufficient number of riddles, the solution of which can lead to another scientific revolution. The phenomena discovered by astronomy, physics and earth sciences, as well as some that have not yet been found (such as a monopole), so do not fit into modern ideas about nature that, if they do not find any acceptable explanation within the framework of existing theories, they will require changes to these theories.
“Chaskor” decided to start by choosing seven phenomena, the search for an explanation of which could become fateful for the sciences of the Universe - astrophysics and cosmology.
1. Axis of evil
In the middle of the last century, cosmologists (one of the first who came up with this idea was Georgy Gamow) suggested that after the Big Bang, which gave birth to our Universe, weak residual radiation should remain. It was he who was discovered in 1965 by the American scientists Penzias and Wilson (and in 1978 they received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this). And in general, there were no special problems with this relic radiation, until the accuracy of the instruments reached a certain threshold, beyond which in 2005 British astrophysicists discovered an amazing phenomenon. The pattern of the CMB distribution, instead of the expected random distribution of slightly more or slightly less "hot" regions scattered in an arbitrary order across the Universe, turned out to be ordered in a certain direction. This picture received the resounding nickname "axis of evil", although, of course,if it caused something trouble, it was only the fundamental principle of the isotropy of space, or, more simply, the idea that the Universe is, in essence, the same, in whatever direction you look at it. If the cosmic radiation has some orientation, then along with this principle it will be necessary to get rid of the ideas about the history of the Universe that modern cosmology has.
Perhaps it's not all that bad. It is possible that some cluster of galaxies, not very far from us, is interfering with the homogeneity of radiation. In the end, we can observe the Universe so far exclusively from the vicinity of the Solar System, that is, from inside our own Galaxy. Perhaps the data that astrophysicists will receive by the end of 2012 from the instruments of the Planck satellite launched by NASA will bring clarity to the picture of the background radiation.
Promotional video:
2. Galactic bubbles
Even in our Galaxy there are many more interesting and incomprehensible things. The latest data from another NASA satellite, Fermi, has thoroughly puzzled astronomers. The X-ray telescope has discovered two giant (no, not so, - GIANT) spherical formations adjacent to the center of our Galaxy. Their diameter is about 25 thousand light years, that is, their two diameters are approximately equal to half or a third of the diameter of the Milky Way. Both of these "bubbles" actively emit in the range of hard gamma radiation. If we could see in this range, the “bubbles” would occupy half of the sky. The radiation energy of each of the "bubbles" is approximately equal to the explosion of 100 thousand supernovae at once.
Where these "bubbles" come from, astrophysicists cannot say, cautiously assuming so far that they were formed as a result of super-powerful emissions from a huge black hole located in the center of the Galaxy. True, astronomers have never seen anything like this before. And to imagine what kind of cataclysm could leave behind such vivid consequences, they still really cannot.
3. Dark stream
If we were able to detect some strange bubbles in our own Galaxy, then what can we expect from those places in the Universe that we still do not see and in the next several billion years will not see - simply because they are located too far from us. If we rely on the same principle of isotropy, then nothing too surprising seems to be expected. But you have to.
In 2008, a group of researchers led by Alexander Kashlinsky working at the NASA Research Center. Goddard, discovered that several galaxy clusters are moving at an unusually high (about 1000 km / s) speed towards a small area of the starry sky between the constellations Centaurus and Parus. This galactic stream Kashlinsky called "dark", in honor of the mysterious dark matter and dark energy.
What is unusual about this movement is that there is nothing in the indicated region of space that could attract these giant clusters of stars. Or not visible. It is possible that what attracts them is located beyond the horizon of the visible universe. But what? Obviously something very big. The only problem is that this "something very big" has to be VERY BIG. So large that it should exceed in size everything that modern astronomy has been able to discern in space until now.
But even if it is still unknown what it is, cosmology already has a problem. If such a cosmic Leviathan exists somewhere out there, then such Leviathans must come across somewhere else. But I can't see them.
There were even suspicions that maybe this incredible something is not from our universe at all. Maybe this is a confirmation of one of the alternative cosmological theories, according to which our Universe is not at all alone, but next to it (although it is not very clear in what sense - next to it) there are others, and some kind of neighbor attracts thousands metagalaxy?
4. Variable constant
Apparently, we really do not know something about nature. Indirect confirmation that the universe is not uniformly ordered is the latest data obtained by Australian astrophysicists, who came up with the idea of comparing spectral analysis data obtained by telescopes that observe different regions of space. If their calculations are correct (and in the 10 years that have passed since the first publication, no one has been able to refute their conclusions), then one of the fundamental physical constants - the fine structure constant responsible for one of the three main types of interaction of matter (electroweak) - is not at all is constant and the ratio of electric charge to the speed of light changes depending on the place in the Universe. Moreover, the map of the location of the "axis" of changes in the constant indicates about the same direction as the metagalaxies in the "dark stream" of Kashlinsky.
Astrophysicists are already demanding clarification of the calculations of the Australians, and physicists are indignant, because agreeing with the variability of the constants is like forcing to invent modern physics anew. And at the same time to admit that humanity really appeared in some strange place in the Universe (or in some strange Universe), where there were the most suitable conditions for this.
5. Asymmetrical gravity
For the anomalies of the constants, however, it is also not necessary to travel to the end of the world (however, not everything is clear with the light, but more on that below). Several years ago, employees of the same American NASA drew attention to the fact that their spacecraft do not fly in the solar system exactly as planned.
Engineers who plan to launch spacecraft to distant planets have long realized that it is possible to help their engines work if they take advantage of the attraction of nearby planets or the Sun: flying past them along the correct trajectory can give the spacecraft additional acceleration and significantly reduce the duration of space expeditions and save fuel.
An accurate comparison of the calculated and real trajectories, however, showed that the vehicles can receive unplanned acceleration. In December 1990, the Galileo spacecraft used the Earth itself to accelerate before going to Jupiter. And as a result, he received an additional acceleration, not foreseen by the schedule, which was 3.9 mm / s. Another device, sent in 1998 to the Shoemaker comet, received an even greater acceleration - 13.5 mm / s.
These deviations are small and, fortunately, did not affect the results of the expeditions, but the researchers still cannot explain them, at least from the point of view of ordinary physics. Alternative explanations, however, are enough - from the possible asymmetry of the gravitational field and the influence of dark matter to the need to amend the theory of relativity or even change the point of view on the constancy of the speed of light.
6. Slow light
In 2005, astronomers working with the MAGIC X-ray telescope at an observatory in the Canary Islands and observing a burst of X-rays coming from the center of the Markarian 501 galaxy, located 500 million light years away, drew attention to an incomprehensible anomaly. High energy gamma quanta were detected by the telescope 4 minutes later than lower energy quanta. In this case, these photons appeared simultaneously.
If we follow the special theory of relativity, then this cannot be. Because electromagnetic radiation must propagate in a vacuum at the same speed - the speed of light. Regardless of the energy of this radiation. If you believe the results of observations, then the speed of light is not a constant at all and depends on the energy of photons of light.
Observations from Earth also confirmed the data from the Fermi X-ray telescope, which recorded a 20-minute lag of hard gamma rays, which were emitted simultaneously with photons of lower energy as a result of some kind of cosmic cataclysm that occurred at a distance of 12 billion light years.
Most of all, the developers of the theory of quantum gravity were delighted with these results, which, unlike Einstein's general theory of relativity, provides for such shifts. However, maybe, again, it was not without dark energy. Or without holography.
7. Gravitational noise
One of the consequences of the general theory of relativity (which is also the modern theory of gravity) is the presence of gravitational waves, which should bend the space-time continuum, for example, as a result of the collision of some large (ok, VERY LARGE) space objects, for example, massive black holes.
So far, however, no one has registered these waves. Maybe it just failed: after all, the detectors of these waves must simply be very large. One of these detectors - GEO600 - was built several years ago for joint experiments by scientists from Great Britain and Germany near Hanover. This detector, too, has not yet detected gravitational waves. But, it is possible that he accidentally received a proof of another theory of gravity.
In 2008, physicist Craig Hogan of the National Laboratory. Fermi (USA) formulated the concept that our physical reality is the result of the projection of the boundaries of the universe. He called it the holographic principle. The information that is focused on the boundaries of the Universe is not continuously distributed over it, but consists of "bits", the sizes of which correspond to the so-called quanta of space. Hogan did not stop at theoretical developments, but tried to predict how his theory can be confirmed by experiment: detectors of gravitational waves should record the "noise" of space-time. And he sent these calculations to the GEO600 team.
By coincidence (or not so much), a team of scientists in Hanover was just trying to deal with the noise that the detector constantly recorded. Surprisingly, the parameters of this noise matched those predicted by Hogan. It will be possible to check whether the noise in the detector is really caused by the space-time itself, or its cause is some more prosaic, it will be possible only after the completion of the equipment fine-tuning, which should be completed in 2011. In the meantime, the noise has not gone anywhere and scientists have no intelligible explanation - apart from the holographic principle.
PS If you paid attention, riddles of large scales are often associated with the phenomena of the smallest scales - the level of elementary particles. About what modern elementary particle physics is trying to figure out in the next article.
Author: Vladimir Kharitonov