About 30 man-made spacecraft in our solar system are currently collecting information about our planet and its surroundings. Every year, evidence is collected that supports some theories, pushing others to the sidelines. Here are some of the most curious facts that we managed to find out about our solar system in 2016.
Jupiter and Saturn throw comets at us
In 1994, the entire world watched as Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter and "left a trail the size of the Earth that lasted for a whole year." Then astronomers happily talked that Jupiter protects us from comets and asteroids.
Due to its massive gravitational field, Jupiter was believed to attract most of these threats before they reach Earth. But recent research has shown that the exact opposite may be true, and this whole "shield of Jupiter" idea is not true.
Simulations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena have shown that Jupiter and Saturn are likely to throw space debris into the inner solar system and into orbits that propel them onto Earth's path. It turns out that giant planets are throwing us with comets and asteroids.
The good news is that the comets that bombarded the Earth during its evolutionary stages could "bring in volatiles from the outer solar system necessary for the formation of life."
Promotional video:
Pluto has liquid water
On the outskirts of the famous solar system, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveals strange things about the distant dwarf planet Pluto. First of all, it's interesting that Pluto has a liquid ocean.
The presence of fracture lines and analysis of a large crater called Satellite Planum led researchers to a model that shows that Pluto has a liquid ocean 100 kilometers thick with a salt content of 30% under an ice shell 300 kilometers thick. It's about as salty as the Dead Sea.
If Pluto's ocean was in the process of freezing, then the planet should have been contracting. But it seems to be expanding. Scientists suspect there is enough radioactivity left in the core to generate even a little heat. Thick layers of exotic surface ice act as an insulator, and the likely ammonia present acts as an antifreeze.
The cores of Neptune and Uranus are wrapped in plastic
How do you know what lies beneath the clouds of distant gas giants, where atmospheric pressure is nine million times higher than on Earth? Maths! Scientists used the USPEX algorithm to provide a possible picture of what is happening under the clouds of these poorly understood planets.
Knowing that Neptune and Uranus are made up mostly of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, scientists have turned on calculations to determine the strange chemical processes that may be taking place there. The result is exotic polymers, organic plastics, crystalline carbon dioxide and ortho-carbonic acid (aka "Hitler's acid" because its atomic structure resembles a swastika) wrapped around a solid inner core.
While searching for extraterrestrial life on Titan and Europa, scientists hope that water could react with rocks with organic processes. But if the inner core is wrapped in exotic crystals and plastic, some things will have to be reconsidered.
Mercury has a huge Grand Canyon
If Venus and Mars had volcanic activity a few million years ago, it looks like little Mercury calmed down 3-4 billion years ago. The planet cooled down, began to shrink and crack.
In the process, a massive crack appeared, which scientists call the "great valley." According to scientists at the University of Maryland:
“The valley is 400 kilometers wide and 965 kilometers long, with steep slopes that penetrate 3 kilometers below the surrounding terrain. So you can compare, if the Great Valley of Mercury existed on Earth, it would be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and extend from Washington to New York and Detroit in the far west."
On a tiny planet with a circumference of only 4,800 kilometers, such a large valley looks more like a terrible scar on his face.
Venus was once livable
Venus is the only planet that spins backwards. At 460 degrees Celsius, its surface is hot enough to melt lead, and the planet itself is shrouded in clouds of sulfuric acid. But one day, Venus may have been able to sustain life.
More than four billion years ago, Venus had oceans. In fact, it is believed that water has been on the planet for over two billion years. Venus today is very dry and has no water vapor at all. The solar wind of the Sun blew it all away.
The atmosphere of Venus emits a large electric field five times stronger than Earth's. This field is also strong enough to overcome Venus's gravity and push hydrogen and oxygen into the upper atmosphere, where the solar winds will blow them away.
Scientists don't know why Venus's electric field is so strong, but it could be due to Venus being closer to the Sun.
The earth is powered by the moon
The earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that protects us from charged particles and harmful radiation. If not for it, we would be exposed to cosmic rays 1000 times stronger than those that are now. Our computers and electronics would be fried instantly. Therefore, it is great that a giant ball of molten iron is spinning in the center of our planet. Until recently, scientists weren't sure why it keeps spinning. Eventually, it must cool down and slow down.
But over the past 4.3 billion years, it has cooled by only 300 degrees Celsius. Thus, we lost very little heat, which did not play a special role for the magnetic field. Scientists now believe the Moon's orbit is supporting the Earth's incandescent core as it rotates, injecting about 1,000 billion watts of energy into the core. The moon may be much more important to us than we thought.
Saturn's Rings - New
Since the 1600s, there has been controversy about how long Saturn's rings exist and where they came from. In theory, Saturn once had more moons and some of them collided with each other. As a result, a cloud of debris appeared, which decomposed into rings and 62 satellites.
By observing Saturn squeezing geysers out of Enceladus, scientists were able to estimate the relative strength of the gas giant's tug. Since all the satellites were thrown into longer orbits, this allowed scientists to roughly estimate when there was a meeting among the moons.
The numbers showed that Saturn's rings had nothing to do with the formation of the planet four billion years ago. In fact, with the exception of the more distant moons of Titan and Iapetus, Saturn's large moons appear to have formed during the Cretaceous, the era of the dinosaurs.
There are 15,000 very large asteroids in our vicinity
In 2005, NASA was tasked with finding 90% of large objects in near-Earth space by 2020. So far, the agency has found 90% of objects measuring 915 meters or more, but only 25% - 140 meters or more.
In 2016, with 30 new discoveries a week, NASA discovered its 15,000 objects. For reference: in 1998, the agency found only 30 new properties per year. NASA is cataloging all the comets and asteroids around to make sure we know when something is about to hit us. Nevertheless, meteors sometimes erupt without warning, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013.
We smashed the device against a comet on purpose
The Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency has been orbiting comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko for two years. The device collected data and even placed the lander on the surface, although not entirely successfully.
This 12-year mission has led to a number of important discoveries. For example, Rosetta discovered the amino acid glycine, the basic building block of life. Although it has long been assumed that amino acids could have formed in space at the dawn of the solar system, they were found only thanks to the Rosetta.
Rosetta discovered 60 molecules, 34 of which had never been found on a comet before. The instruments of the apparatus also showed a significant difference in the composition of the comet's water and the water of the Earth. It turns out that it is unlikely that water on Earth appeared due to comets.
After a successful mission, ESA crashed the spacecraft on a comet.
Riddles of the Sun Solved
All planets and stars have magnetic fields that change over time. On Earth, these fields turn over every 200,000-300,000 years. But now they are late.
Everything happens faster on the sun. Every 11 years or so, the polarity of the Sun's magnetic field reverses. This is accompanied by a period of increased activity of the sun and sunspots.
Oddly enough, Venus, Earth, and Jupiter align at this time. Scientists believe that these planets can influence the sun. As the planets align, their gravity combined, the study found, causing a tidal effect on the sun's plasma, pulling it in and disrupting the sun's magnetic field.
ILYA KHEL