More recently, our solar system appeared before astronomers in a single, so to speak, instance. Now the number of planets outside the sun reaches almost two hundred! It hardly means that as many “solar” planetary systems have been discovered. However, who knows? For the abundance of extrasolar planets (exoplanets), we somehow forgot about our own planets. And they, too, are fraught with many mysteries.
Classification
The nearest planets (terrestrial planets) - Mercury, Venus and Mars - can be called sisters of the Earth. Then there are the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn with a whole suite of satellites and smaller planets - Uranus, Neptune and the last of the planets known to us, the mass of five times less than Earth, Pluto with the satellite Charon. True, Pluto was recently officially stripped of the title of planet due to its smallness. Are there planets beyond Pluto? The candidates have already been found, but their existence requires confirmation.
Curious patterns
If you survey the solar system, so to speak, as a whole and look around it in your mind's eye, you can find curious patterns. One of them was identified back in the 18th century by I. D. Titius and I. E. Bode. Its essence boils down to the fact that the distances of the planets from the Sun, measured in segments equal to the distance from the Earth to it, represent a geometric progression. If Mercury, Venus, Mars, the hypothetical Phaethon (possibly located in the current asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are assigned the numbers minus one, zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight, then their distances from the Sun in units equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun will obey a strange formula (Titius-Bode rule): 0.4 plus 0.3 multiplied by two to the power of n, where n is the above-mentioned ordinal number of the planet! Figures,calculated according to the above formula, strikingly coincide with direct measurements of distances to planets (in parentheses - actual data): Mercury - 0.5 (0.4), Venus - 0.7 (0.7), Earth - 1.0 (1, 0), Mars - 1.6 (1.5), Phaethon - 2.8 (2.8), Jupiter - 5.2 (5.2), Saturn - 10.0 (9.5), Uranus - 19.6 (19.2), Neptune - 38.8 (30.1), Pluto - 77.2 (39.5). As you can see, only Neptune and Pluto fall out of the established rule!
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Mercury
The planet closest to the Sun is Mercury. True, it was once believed that there is a small planet even closer to the Sun. But this fact was not confirmed. Mercury is the speed record holder among the planets. Running around the Sun in 88 Earth days, it develops a speed of up to 54 kilometers per second! The earth flies at speeds up to 30 kilometers per second.
Until 1965, it was believed that Mercury is always facing the Sun with one side. But, as shown by radar studies, Mercury turns to the Sun in turn with one side or the other. But when approaching the Earth, he always turns to her with one side.
morning Star
Our closest neighbor Venus can rightfully be called the true twin of the Earth. Like Mercury, it has no satellite. Venus is similar to Earth in size and density of matter. Its dense atmosphere has caused a lot of trouble for astronomers, since it tightly closes the planet's surface from outside sight. A lot of the most important information about this planet was received by 16 Soviet interplanetary stations of the "Venus" type. Its surface temperature turned out to be almost 500 degrees, and the pressure reaches one hundred atmospheres (as in the earth's ocean at a kilometer depth!). Venus makes one revolution around its axis in as many as 243 Earth days! Moreover, in the opposite rotation relative to all other planets. But here's a mystery: Venusian clouds are accelerated by winds up to 130 kilometers per hour and run around their planet in just four Earth days!What forces are driving the clouds is unknown!
Red Planet
The famous Martian canals still live in the minds of curious people. Indeed, what was it?
But under the impression of the opening of the canals by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, Herbert Wells wrote the novel "War of the Worlds"! But here's what is curious: not only channels, but also geometric shapes were observed on the surface of Mars! Let us refer to the authority of the American scientific journal Scientific American No. 1, January 1926, which contained a letter from the then famous astronomer William Henry Pickering. The letter said: “When Mars approaches the Earth at a minimum distance, geometric shapes regularly appear on its surface! According to Schiaparelli, he observed the famous cross in 1879. In the following years, the cross disappeared.
In the approach to Mars in 1892, a regular pentagon with a size of about two thousand kilometers was visible in the Arequipa region! In opposition (closest approach to the Earth) in 1924, an absolutely regular five-pointed star appeared on the surface of the planet! Dr. Trumpler from Lick Observatory even sketched this figure and showed the channels from which it was "constructed" … I would like to wish the Martians to do these drawings more often than once every fifteen years."
The famous astrophysicist Iosif Shklovsky in his book "Universe, Life, Mind" writes: “On Mars, systematic and rather large changes are observed. For example, the Lake of the Sun almost completely disappeared from the surface of this planet, and Schiaparelli saw this formation as a sharp spot of almost circular shape.
Outbreaks
In the "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society" for December 1901, a strange message appeared by the famous American astronomer Perciwap Lovell. According to him, during the opposition of 1894, about four hundred (!) Outbreaks of unknown nature were registered on Mars for nine months! Since there has since been strong evidence of the movement of these luminous points, it remains "the only suspicion of something floating in the Martian atmosphere and reflecting light."
In modern times, only Japanese astronomers have reported on outbreaks on Mars. According to the testimony of the astronomer Tsuneo Saeki, he saw "a bright luminous point near Lake Titonus, shining with a flickering light for five minutes." In 1954, the Japanese observed two similar flares on Mars, and in 1958, four. From this fact, supporters of the habitability of Mars have drawn a conclusion about the connection of these "signals" with atomic explosions on Earth. In their opinion, the prohibition and, therefore, the cessation of nuclear tests on Earth prompted the Martians to stop "signaling".
Asteroids
The asteroid Hector puzzled the 20th century astronomers with its cylindrical shape 110 kilometers long and 20 kilometers in diameter (according to the latest data, its dimensions are three times larger!). It is not clear how it did not collapse from centrifugal forces during rotation? Astrophysicist L. V. Ksanfomality even suggested: "Is the asteroid Hector made of stainless steel?" The asteroid Vesta presented astronomers with a big surprise: it turned out that it was "composed" of materials formed at very high temperatures and pressures, which can only appear in the bowels of planets the size of the Earth!
At one time K. E. Tsiolkovsky wrote that people will control asteroids as "we control horses." Some steps in this direction have already been taken.
