Ever since the first man looked through a telescope and discovered that the stars are not holes in the black tissue of the heavens, he has never left the desire to know if we are alone in the universe. While scientists could not offer any specifics, science fiction writers came up with various theories. For example, about the fact that our brothers in mind live in caves on Mars. In the 1960s, after the first manned flight into space, the excitement was unprecedented. No one doubted - literally a few years will pass and we will find life outside the Earth. But that did not happen. The last hope of humanity is exoplanets. What are they and why is their study so important for science?
The beginning of time
With the exploration of near space, it gradually became clear that all the planets of the solar system, both belonging to the terrestrial group (Mercury, Venus and Mars) and the giants orbiting in the outer region (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), are deserted. And some are uninhabited in principle, because they consist of hot gas or are regularly watered with acid rain.
And when the hope for the Martian option did not come true, even the most stubborn enthusiasts wither. All over the world, sales of telescopes fell to a critical minimum - people are tired of looking at the stars and waiting for a miracle. In the late 1980s, a light dawned at the end of the tunnel: the first planets outside the solar system were discovered. The search for the so-called Earth 2.0 entered a new round. And as it seemed then - to the home stretch. The new objects are collectively referred to as "exoplanets".
Cautious optimism
First of all, we note that when they say "exoplanet", scientists do not mean at all an object on which there is life. Absolutely any planet that is outside (in fact, is translated from the Greek prefix "exo") of the solar system falls under this definition. Over the past two decades, a great many of them have been discovered, mainly with the help of NASA's Kepler space telescope. At the beginning of July 2018, the existence of 3798 exoplanets in 2841 planetary systems was reliably confirmed. As they say, study it - I don't want to. But scientists are looking for very specific objects with numerous given and very specific characteristics.
Promotional video:
If we omit the purely specific and incomprehensible parameters for an ordinary person, then we can say that they need an exoplanet, similar to the Earth, which revolves around a star similar to the Sun, and at the same time, like our planet, is located in the habitable zone (distance from stars, at which the temperature of the planet allows the existence of liquid water, which is critical for the origin and development of life). So there are no more than 216 such planets at the moment. There is also a special list of potentially viable exoplanets - there are only eight of them. It would seem that the issue has been resolved. But the catch is that it is not possible to find out specifically whether there is biological (not to mention intelligent) life there, at this stage of human development. The nearest exoplanet, Ross 128 b in the constellation Virgo, is 11 light years away. And the top of the list of potentially habitable exoplanets Kepler-438 b (it is considered one of the most promising) in the constellation Lyra hangs somewhere at a distance of 470 light years from the Sun. Agree, far away.
Who knows what is blinking there
From the point of view of an ordinary person, it turns out to be absurd. If objects are somewhere in the middle of nowhere, how can scientists generally draw conclusions or suggest anything there? However, the research process is in full swing. Dozens of ground-based observatories and several extraterrestrial ones - the Kepler, COROT, TESS space telescopes, as well as the Gaia observatory, whose task, in addition to searching for habitable worlds, includes the task of building a three-dimensional map of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, - has been and is engaged in "catching" exoplanets.
At the moment, there are six methods for searching for exoplanets, the simplest of which is the direct observation method. The rest, for example, the method of gravitational microlensing, cannot be explained “on the fingers”. But they are, without a doubt, effective. Space exploration is an area where a lot of money is involved. After all, among other things, the new planets are minerals, and therefore future profits. After all, if it rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter, it is possible that there are trees of gold growing somewhere. One thing is certain - before the extraction of all these benefits, as well as before the resettlement of people to the viable planets of distant constellations, a lot of water will still leak. The prospect is distant, but not fantastic. Tell someone to our ancestor in the 18th century about the fact that people will fly through the air on iron birds,he would surely be considered a madman. However, the planes are here.
In the image and likeness
The most likely candidates for the presence of extraterrestrial life (these very coveted humanoids) are exoplanets bearing the title of "super-earth". We are talking here mainly about size - these giants reach a mass ten times the earth's. At the moment, several dozen have been found. There is a hypothesis that one of these objects exists in the solar system. Only he is invisible.
They say that the mysterious Planet X, or the Ninth Planet (and this is not Pluto), was predicted by ancient astronomers. However, the reliability of such sources inspires understandable skepticism. In the middle of the 19th century, it was believed that somewhere behind Neptune another planet was hiding, since there were inconsistencies between the calculated and actual orbits of the gas giants - it and Uranus. This means that they are influenced by a celestial body with a very large mass - some kind of large planet. After the discovery of Neptune, astronomers calmed down for a while. However, the current trans-Neptunian object (in 2006, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of its planetary status) was too small to shift the orbits of the “big brothers”. At the moment, the mysterious planet has not been discovered. Some astronomers generally believe that their predecessors were simply mistaken in their calculations.
Specialist comment
Viktor Malishchits, assistant at the Department of Atomic and Molecular Physics, BSU, astronomer:
- Unfortunately, most of the news circulating on the Internet concerning the exploration of outer space (and especially celestial bodies and objects) is a fusion of reality and fiction. Specialists identify such nuances at once, but ordinary people easily believe in "sensations". The most fertile ground for fantasy is exoplanets.
There are a lot of such objects in the vastness of the Universe, but they are all remote from us at great distances. Yes, on the basis of observations (both with the help of a telescope and guided by data from spacecraft such as "Kepler") it is quite realistic to calculate the size of an exoplanet, its mass and distance from the star around which it revolves. However, everything else - the presence of a certain composition of the atmosphere, water, and so on - is nothing more than a hypothesis of specialists. Nobody forbids to nominate them. In the end, they may not be unfounded.
CURIOUS
In 2012, humanity was quite seriously waiting for the end of the world due to the fact that the “Death Star”, the huge planet Nibiru, should have flown near the Earth. It all started with the Sumerian chronicles, which allegedly described an object created by the god Marduk. In fact, the texts, as was customary at that time, are full of allegories. And what Marduk really did there is not clear. But the popularizer of the theory of paleocontacts, Zecharia Sitchin, hypothesized that Nibiru is nothing more than that same mysterious Planet X.
There is information that Nibiru crosses the solar system between Mars and Jupiter every 3600 years. Sitchin argued that highly developed intelligent beings, the Anunnaki, live there. Needless to say, nothing happened, no "Death Star" even flew close to the Earth.
Olga BABENINA