Most people think that this is the sun and 9 planets. At the same time, someone also remembers the Moon. There are, however, there are not so many of them, who want to settle all 12 zodiacal constellations and the Big Dipper in the Solar System. Let's figure out today what it is - "Solar System".
Many billions of years ago, these places looked a little different. There was a cloud of interstellar gas and dust (possibly the remnant of some already extinguished star), which was slowly compacted under the influence of its own gravity, compressed, a certain central clot was outlined in it, which began to heat up and once (for brevity, such processes are usually stretched for millions of years and the stars do not light up overnight) flashed a star. The gas and dust surrounding it continued to strive towards the young star under the action of gravitational forces, but the radiation emanating from the star prevented the concentration of the remnants of matter like a wind blowing in different directions. For a while, equilibrium was established and the remnants of dust and gas continued to gather in lumps at a respectful distance from their star - they did not fall on it, but did not fly away either. Moreover, the heavier fractions of this gas-dusty building material settled closer to the central star, and light gases (mainly Hydrogen and Helium) found their equilibrium at a distance. Over the next billion years, or over a period of time of the same order, planets were formed from matter stratified by molecular mass - small but dense near the Sun (the so-called "Terrestrial Planets"); and hydrogen-helium giants such as Jupiter and Saturn - a little further from the star. This is how, to put it in an extremely simplified way, what is called the Solar System was formed - the Sun and the planets revolving around it. Yes, only this is not all, there is still a lot of interesting things in this system, but first let us touch upon another aspect - the aspect of comprehension of all this by humanity.
Since the hot surfaces of the stone balls cooled down, another 4 or 5 billion years have passed and on one of these balls something unusual, not quite usual for celestial bodies, happened - creatures that consider themselves reasonable - oh, how they swung! But no matter how it was, and whoever considered himself to be who, and about 50 thousand years ago, people already competently peered into the sky and they began to worry a little about those of the luminous points that stubbornly did not want to stay in their places and wandered from the constellation Mammoth to the constellation Boar.
About 10 thousand years ago, and almost everywhere - in Egypt and Hellas, Babylon and Persia, in India and China (possibly on the American continent), they began to find an explanation for this. People agreed - these are Gods, immortal Gods, and who else can afford to move among the fixed stars? - only Gods! Almost everyone thought so, but there was, and was in each of the listed countries, a special kind of inhabitants - priests - these never just shared their true ideas about the structure of the Universe with a simple illiterate people, and with the nobility - kings, military leaders - they also did not shared. They easily predicted both the position in the sky of all then wandering luminaries, and Solar, Lunar eclipses, which gave them real power over the same kings and military leaders - everyone obeyed the priests. And who did not obey - he went to heaven to obey the great Gods, wandering the constellations.
How, on the basis of what theories and based on what picture of the world the ancient priests did their calculations, remained a mystery, which they took to their gods, but somewhere in 500 BC, the priests had a worthy competitor - a class of scientists - philosophers, mathematicians and metaphysicians - all of them tried to unravel the design of celestial mechanisms based on observations and logic, and by the beginning of our era in the world - again in many countries almost synchronously - a guess was born, revived a guess about limitless space, mega-clusters of galaxies, in one of which among billions and billions of similar luminaries flies with great speed that our daylight is surrounded by satellites-planets revolving around it in circular orbits and among them one - Gaia - our cosmic home - from her and we gaze into the endless distance,trying to figure out its purpose … And it inspired, lifted a person up, closer to the gods - having understood this, a person became a god …
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But there were also other points of view. The Geocentric Model of the World of Aristotle (as well as Hipparchus and Ptolemy), which existed in ancient Greece along with other models, in the Middle Ages turned out to be very ideologically convenient, and for many centuries astronomers and astrologers settled the planets known to them into trimmings and epicycles, in order to more pragmatically explain the loop-like the movements of the luminaries (planetary movements were modeled by large and small wheels mounted one on top of the other and rotating at different speeds), but most importantly - the Earth, as the creation of the Lord, and with it man were placed in the Center of the World - and this was of paramount importance for the reborn priests - there is nothing for mere mortals to know that we are not the navel of the Universe, but just a grain of sand in the endless cosmic ocean, which has no center at all …
Nevertheless, the pre-calculation of the position of the planets remained a practically important task - astrologers had to predetermine the beginning and end of wars in time, change the persons who sat on the throne in time, and all this was done with the help of heavenly signs. At the same time, the design of trims and epicycles no longer gave the required accuracy and it was necessary to introduce new levers and wheels to compensate for the discrepancy between the calculated and real positions of the wandering luminaries, and by the 16th century, up to seven dozen of the most different gears had accumulated in the heavenly office. It became incredibly difficult to handle such a complex machine - the world system collapsed, but did not give up for ideological reasons.
The Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus began to save the day. He did not come up with it himself, but after studying the numerous works of the students of the Pythagorean school, he came to the conclusion that all these complex mechanisms with dozens of wheels and swaying crossbars are a godless delusion, and after completing the theory of the students of Pythagoras put forward (1503) his hypothesis - the center of the world shines The sun, around it in circular orbits, without relying on anything, the planets move, including our Earth. And only one star obediently revolves around the Earth - the Moon is our only satellite.
Do you think all those rusted and rumbling gears collapsed into the abyss at once? No! For more than a century, trims and epicycles and other celestial mechanical parts were also in use. And not only because the church was then engaged in science, but also because even the realistic construction of Copernicus gave significant errors. They were corrected in many respects only by Johannes Kepler, who determined the orbits of the planets not by circles, but by ellipses, and also described the nature of the motion of the planets in their orbits with his three laws. But this happened only in 1618 and since then our basic understanding of the structure of the Solar System has not changed, but only supplemented with new points and details.
What did we have by the beginning of the 17th century? Roughly the same as throughout all previous centuries and millennia: the Sun is the brightest celestial body, bypassing the firmament in exactly a year (in fact, this is how the year appeared in our chronology), the Moon is the second brightest and changing its face from day to day. the day was shining, it closes its celestial circle in a month and it is thanks to the Moon that we have such a time unit in our calendar system. Further - five bright and wandering luminaries, which turned out to be huge balls glowing with reflected (like the Moon) sunlight, slowly made their movements at different speeds - Mercury - the God of trade and deception - this one was, as expected, the smartest of all; Venus is the goddess of Love and Beauty (and this is true - it is very difficult to take your eyes off the glow in the twilight skies of the "Evening Star"impossible) - although it lags behind Mercury, it is also very fast; Mars - the God of War - is distinguished by a noticeable bloody, defiant color and moves already slowly, and thank God - it is obvious that the ancients, who invented these parallels, ignited feelings of love faster than revenge and resentment. The last two of the then known planets - Jupiter and Saturn - frankly barely crawl and make only a few turns during a human life. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of its central cosmic position for quite a long time. Mars - the God of War - is distinguished by a noticeable bloody, defiant color and moves already slowly, and thank God - it is obvious that the ancients, who invented these parallels, ignited feelings of love faster than revenge and resentment. The last two of the then known planets - Jupiter and Saturn - frankly barely crawl and make only a few revolutions during a human life. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of its central cosmic position for quite a long time. Mars - the God of War - is distinguished by a noticeable bloody, defiant color and is already moving slowly, and thank God - it is obvious that the ancients who invented these parallels were quicker to ignite feelings of love than revenge and resentment. The last two of the then known planets - Jupiter and Saturn - frankly barely crawl and make only a few turns during a human life. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of their central cosmic position for quite a long time.who came up with these parallels, feelings of love were quicker ignited than revenge and resentment. The last two of the then known planets - Jupiter and Saturn - frankly barely crawl and make only a few turns during a human life. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of its central cosmic position for quite a long time.who came up with these parallels, feelings of love were ignited faster than revenge and resentment. The last two of the then known planets - Jupiter and Saturn - frankly barely crawl and make only a few turns during a human life. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of its central cosmic position for quite a long time. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of its central cosmic position for quite a long time. In the 17th century, only the Earth was added to this circle of celestial objects, but for mankind it was a very important event in the process of understanding its position in the Universe - it became ordinary, not distinguished by anything, However, as I have said more than once today, there is nothing in the world happens in one day and the public put up with the loss of its central cosmic position for quite a long time.
At the very beginning of the 17th century, another important event in astronomy took place - the Italian Galileo Galilei created the first telescope in history and used it in observations. The results were revolutionary - indeed, the planets turned out to be similar to the Earth - mountains were found on the Moon, Venus changed phases, and Jupiter was surrounded by a retinue of 4 satellites, which testified to the relativity of any and supposed centers in the Universe. Thus, new celestial inhabitants began to be added to the Solar System, in this case, these were the satellites of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto), but most importantly, humanity became keener, and this opened up new opportunities in studying the surrounding world, in particular,with the help of precise optical instruments, it became possible to measure parallaxes and get an idea of the distances to the planets - how far from us are they - earlier this could only be guessed at.
It will not be superfluous to mention the size of the planetary orbits. From the moment the Earth entered the third level in the order of calculation from the Sun, a very important and convenient unit for measuring distances appeared in astronomy - one astronomical unit - the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. The radii of other planetary orbits varied very significantly, for example, Mercury was on average two and a half times closer to the Sun than the Earth, and Saturn was 10 times farther away. And in this regard, it is simply necessary to remember one interesting mathematical observation. Since ancient times, humanity has tried not only to obtain information about the world around us, not only to find out what and how, but to understand why - to understand, to understand the reasons and patterns. So it is with the size of planetary orbits - many astronomers not only tried to measure their size, but also to understandaccording to what law and obeying what rules they developed exactly like that. In the second half of the 18th century, the task succumbed to two successive German Johans - Johann Titius and Johann Bode. The essence of the observation is this: Let's write out the following numbers in a row:
0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96
this (if we do not take into account the first cislo) is an ordinary geometric progression with the first term equal to three and coefficients equal to two (each next term of the progression, after this three, is twice as large as the previous one). Now add to each member of our progression the number 4. We get:
4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100
further, the Titius-Bode rule (it was named in what way by these two astronomer-mathematicians) suggests dividing each term of the progression by 10, but even without this it is already clear that the resulting series of numbers is a multiple of the radii of the planetary orbits. See for yourself:
4 (0.4) - radius of the orbit of Mercury
7 (0.7) - radius of the orbit of Venus
10 (1.0) - radius of the Earth's orbit
16 (1.6) - radius of the orbit of Mars
28 (2.8) - …
52 (5.2) - radius of Jupiter's orbit
100 (10.0) - radius of Saturn's orbit
The rule worked quite accurately, the distances coincided with an accuracy of 1/10 astronomical units, and only one link in the chain of numbers betrayed the imperial nature of this pattern, because there is no planet in an orbit with a radius of 2.8 astronomical units! And if so, and the rule turned out to be not absolute, at one time (1766-1772) they did not attach much importance to it.
In 1781, the English musician (by profession) and astronomer (by hobby) William Herschel explored the sky with a homemade telescope and discovered, as it seemed to him, a hitherto unknown nebula - a faint, slightly greenish spot looming somewhere among the stars of the constellation Taurus. From night to night, it shifted slightly and Herschel took it for a comet, which he reported to the Royal Society of England. Soon, according to the results of observations of other astronomers and the calculation of the orbit of the newly discovered celestial body, it turned out that Herschel had discovered a planet, distant and huge - comparable in size to Saturn or even Jupiter. This was a sensational discovery, because over the past several thousand years, there has been no increase in the number of known planets (unless, of course, we consider the proclamation of the Earth itself as a planet!), And then there was such a discovery.
It was then that the astronomers remembered the Titius-Bode rule, which seemed to them dubious, and decided to continue the series:
0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 192
4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100, 196 - Uranus (as the new planet was named) was exactly in the orbit predicted by the rule (19.22 AU is the modern value).
This circumstance forced astronomers to take the Titius-Bode rule more seriously and now think about an empty orbit with a radius of 2.8 astronomical units. Indeed, very soon the small planet Ceres (1801) was discovered, located only in this orbit. Titius and Bode received the recognition they deserved, while astronomers, on the contrary, lost the complex of feeling that all the planets in the Solar System have long been discovered.
Whether in connection with this or for other reasons, the discoveries of minor planets fell like snow in winter in Russia beyond the Urals. They began to open them in packs and, accordingly, began to treat them a little differently - what kind of planets are these, which were discovered in 4 years - then there was nothing new for centuries, then - a year around the planet. The status of such objects had to be revised and all this "stony trifle" was generalized into the class of minor planets. And this class was just arriving by the "population". Rarely have astronomers not discovered a new minor planet for a year.
True, it must be admitted that not all small planets (or, in other words, asteroids) corresponded to the Titius-Bode rule. Objects began to appear (and more and more often) in which the orbits do not obey any rule at all and are more similar not to planetary, but to cometary orbits. However, we will still get to comets. What is important now is that the discovery of the asteroid belt (a significant part of whose bodies revolve in classical asteroid orbits within the framework of the Titius-Bode rule) simultaneously confirmed this rule and immediately put an end to it.
When the numerous discoveries of minor planets had already set the teeth on edge for astronomers, they turned their gaze to the recently discovered Uranus. Something was wrong with him. Uranus is a distant and slow planet. It takes time to calculate the exact orbit of such a planet. And now it passed, the most accurate measurements were obtained and the necessary calculations were made. And then it turned out that Uranus goes a little "off schedule."
How was this expressed? - Well, imagine that, according to the measured parameters of the orbit and certain calculations, astronomers claim that, say, in a month the planet Uranus will be in such and such a constellation, at a point with such and such coordinates. This month passes, observers again measure the position of Uranus in the celestial sphere and, much to the surprise of pundits all over the world, discover that Uranus is for some reason located in a slightly different place.
I hope that you understand that in science all sorts of "a little" and "a little" are not allowed. Either everything is in order in theory and the position of the planet is calculated within the limits of measurement accuracy, or the theory must be changed. And the second "either" was terrible, because it unequivocally hinted at the incorrectness of the main law of the Universe - the Law of Universal Gravitation - after all, everything is calculated on the basis of it in astronomy, and if the formula deduced by Newton back in 1687 is not absolute, then all the works of astronomers for the last a century and a half, you can safely throw in the basket and start all the research from the beginning, but I really didn't want to.
What can you say here? “Uranus has given astronomers a very unexpected surprise. If at first the deviations of its position from the calculated values could somehow be attributed to the inaccuracy of determining the orbit, then there was nothing further to explain the discrepancy between theory and practice … unless there was some other massive celestial body deflecting nearby (or as astronomers say - “disturbing ) by its gravitation, the motion of Uranus from its lawful orbit.
It was a bold idea for the 9th century. The author of the idea, Alex Bouvard, did not dare to calculate and determine the position of such a body, believing that the problem is very difficult, if not solvable at all. Nevertheless, two astronomers, John Adams (Englishman) and Urbain Joseph Le Verrier (Frenchman), took up the same task independently. Adams started the calculations earlier and worked on them for several years, and in 1843 presented them to George Airy, the Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, who did not take the calculations seriously. Obviously, English conservatism did not allow the most important of the country's astronomers to admit that the planets can be discovered at a writing desk. And Adams' work was rejected. John Adams himself, being a humble man, did not insist and seek verification of his calculations. Parallel to this, but two years later,Le Verrier performed his calculations and for some reason also sent them to England - to the Cambridge Observatory - with a request to look for a faint star-shaped object in the supposed region of the sky. For a couple of months in Cambridge they looked for something there, but found nothing, but mostly because they simply postponed the processing of observations for an indefinite period. And Le Verrier had to turn to Berlin, where, by order of the director of the observatory, Johann Halle, a new planet was discovered after just one hour of searching by a student, Heinrich d'Arre. And Le Verrier had to turn to Berlin, where, by order of the director of the observatory, Johann Halle, a new planet was discovered after just one hour of searching by a student, Heinrich d'Arre. And Le Verrier had to turn to Berlin, where, by order of the director of the observatory, Johann Halle, a new planet was discovered after just one hour of searching by a student, Heinrich d'Arre.
The discovery of Neptune "at the tip of the pen" was a triumph of science and another confirmation of the validity of the Law of Universal Gravity. I will add that justice was also restored in relation to John Adams, and after the discovery of Neptune his calculations were published, and Urbain Joseph Le Verrier was forced to recognize them as more accurate and shared with Adams the glory of the co-discoverer.
If that were all …
From that first night, when Neptune was discovered in the form of a faint star of magnitude 8 (the name of the planet changed several times in the widest range, up to attempts to give it the name "Le Verrier" in honor of whom it is clear) astronomers began to calculate the orbital elements and soon - Oh God! - it was found that even Neptune does not fully explain the deviations in the motion of Uranus and itself also deviates from the calculated trajectory in an incomprehensible way.
Whether these deviations were so significant in fact, or simply astronomers wanted to discover another planet at the tip of their pen - it is difficult to comment now, but this idea was picked up by several observatories at once and, after the grandiose calculations, an equally grandiose search for a new, trans-Neptunian planet began. For a long time, such searches did not bring discoveries and were soon curtailed - they looked more and more like a search for a needle in a haystack - try to find a faint (much weaker than Neptune) star-like planet among millions of stars of the same brightness.
With noticeable consistency, only Percival Lowell, a Boston rich man, who had invested a lot of money in the construction of his own observatory and in the work to discover Planet X, continued the search. The position in the sky of this supposed planet was predicted by William Henry Pickering in 1909, but until the death of Percival Lowell in 1916, nothing resembling a distant planet was discovered, and the hour the sponsor of the project died, his widow decided to sell it Observatory and 10 years litigation lasted as a result of which the grieving Constance Lowell never received anything.
The observatory resumed its work only in 1929, and here, for good luck, there was a young laboratory assistant - Clyde Tombaugh, who, like Lowell, raved about Planet X. It was he who was entrusted with all this routine work by the new director of the observatory, Vesto Slifer. Clyde had to photograph the regions of the sky suggested by Pickering on photographic plates every clear night, repeat photographing the same areas after 2 weeks (letting the supposed planet shift a little among the stars), and then engage in a thorough comparison of the images. Labranth exacerbated an already painstaking and difficult task - he expanded the boundaries of the search, so that he would certainly find the "Planet X", and began photographic searches from the areas farthest from the proposed area.
About a year later, having sorted out the outskirts and reaching the recommended sky region, in the immediate vicinity of the calculated point, Clyde Tombaugh discovered a star-like object with similar characteristics - suitable brightness, expected displacement rate. Further measurements showed that the object is moving in a close to the calculated orbit and thus the discovery of the 9th planet of the Solar System was confirmed.
True, it was not clear at all whether this body produced gravitational disturbances in the motion of Uranus and Neptune? It was not possible to understand this until the mass of the planet that had already received the name Pluto became known (in honor of the Roman god of the underworld similar to the Greek Hades and very symbolically and successfully combined with the position of the farthest known planet - on the edge of the Solar domain). In 1975, astronomers were lucky enough to discover Pluto's satellite and, thanks to this, find out the mass of the Pluto + Charon (satellite) system, and with it - the terrible truth - the mass of Pluto, together with the satellite, turned out to be extremely small in terms of planetary scales, which he could not indignant with his gravitational presence, neither Uranus, nor Neptune, and Pluto did not pull on a full-fledged planet in its parameters - all new studies and measurements spoke ofthat we have a typical small planet.
By this time, astronomers managed to discover several Pluto-like objects on the outskirts of the Solar System, and they all moved in orbits similar to Pluto, and Pluto was only the largest among them (after all, everything is relatively and tiny Pluto is also larger than some asteroids) and a well-known object of the so-called Belt Kuiper - another asteroid belt, but outside the orbit of Neptune.
In 2003, Palomar Observatory researchers discovered an object in the Kuiper Belt larger than Pluto. The planet was named Eris and for some time it was considered the 10th planet of the Solar System. But - not for long, because the accumulated contradictions in the astronomical nomenclature led to a revision of the concept of "Planet" and in 2006, at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union, Pluto and Eris were honorably expelled from the class of planets. For such objects, a new class was approved - a dwarf planet or Plutoid. This class now includes Pluto, Eris and Ceres - the first of the discovered asteroids (if you still remember). And everything that is even smaller than them is still referred to as asteroids. Thus, in recent years, the number of large planets in the Solar System has not increased, but even decreased, and now there are only 8 of them!
Well, what about - you ask - the same gravitational disturbances that Uranus and Neptune underwent from the side of an unknown massive body? - No way! Undoubtedly, astronomers have repeatedly made attempts to find the same massive body that is guilty of deviations (and, I tell you, to many of them Pluto long ago seemed extremely untenable in this respect). But, nothing was found suitable. Of course, in the course of such searches and studies, many asteroids, comets, variable stars were discovered, but something claiming the proud title of "Great Planet of the Solar System" was never found. This is despite the fact that our entire multi-star sky was photographed by the fastest cameras up and down, many times and carefully.
On the other hand, over the past few years, the methods for calculating the positions of the planets, taking into account gravitational perturbations on each other, have been slightly revised and it turned out that everything seems to be in order and there are no more unaccounted for disturbances - both Uranus and Neptune are now moving according to their calculated orbits without delays and advances. And if so, then this whole story with Pluto is a pure misunderstanding, and for a long 75 years we called the cosmic rock a planet by mistake in calculations … Well … it happens …
But the planets are far from all that inhabits the Solar System.
I have already mentioned the discovery by Galileo Galilei of 4 satellites of the planet Jupiter (1608) with the help of his first telescope in history. Such discoveries soon became systematic and Mars was discovered 2 satellites (by the way, they - Phobos and Deimos - were largely predicted by scientists - according to the principle: “since the Earth has one satellite (the Moon), and Jupiter has four, then Mars they simply have to find two satellites. And they did, but this prediction has nothing to do with real science "), Saturn very soon found more satellites than Jupiter, and the newly discovered Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have satellites, although not so soon and there are many, but also found without fail. The history of planetary satellites has found a second wind in the era of exploration of giant planets with the help of spacecraft, and now it's even scary to think how many dozen "satellites" each of these gaseous-liquid planets has. In addition, all the giant planets had rings open - also a kind of satellites, but extremely numerous, small and evenly distributed within a certain space.
In the process of studying the motion and evolution of planetary satellites, it turned out that some of them were captured by giants, and in the past they were typical representatives of the asteroid belt. There were also examples of the loss of satellites, and apparently Pluto was once a satellite of Neptune, but over time "escaped" and became an independent object of the Solar System. This is evidenced by the orbital resonance of the orbital periods of Neptune and Pluto. A similar situation is assumed in the mutual past of Venus and Mercury - there is an assumption that Mercury is a satellite lost by Venus.
Astronomers also predict in the distant future the release of the Moon from the gravitational connection with the Earth - the Moon moves away from our planet by 1 cm every year. And the speed of removal only increases. But the Moon will not "escape" from the Earth very soon - it will definitely not happen in our presence.
For a long time and already in the telescopic era of the heavens, there was a whole class of objects that astronomers did not know how to approach. They were comets. Of course, comets were visible mainly at night and among the stars, but it was far from immediately possible to rank them as space objects - comets behaved very unpredictably, they looked like nothing else and in many ways looked like atmospheric phenomena - well, maybe these are clouds such, after all, we did not study the entire atmosphere of the Earth at once - who knows …
Suddenly flaring up in the night, spreading a peacock's tail, comets vividly demonstrated their non-planetary nature, both in terms of appearance and - the nature of movement. In those distant years, when astronomers were looking for a place for them in their science, it was unthinkable to admit that some celestial bodies can move along such - not at all circular trajectories. And since the appearance of comets was short-lived, then scientists did not have time to study at least one of them - as soon as it appears, it is no longer there.
The first to suggest that comets are full members of the Solar System was the English astronomer and mathematician Edmund Halley. Halley analyzed the references to the appearance of all comets known at that time (including in other legends and legends of different peoples) and found that among the heterogeneous and non-recurring examples there is one stable repetition with a period of 75-76 years. The scientist suggested that this is the same comet, periodically returning to the Sun. He dared to predict her next return in 1758. Edmund Halley himself did not live up to the confirmation of his prophecy - he died in 1742 - 16 years before the return of the comet later named after him. His calculations were correctthe comet's orbit calculated by Halley was significantly different from all the then known orbits of celestial bodies - it turned out to be a very, very elongated ellipse, in one of the foci of which was the Sun, and the second focus was far beyond the orbit of Saturn.
Subsequently, such a characteristic feature of cometary orbits was confirmed in relation to most comets, but there were also exceptions - some comets move in almost circular orbits, and there are those whose orbits represent an open curve and their path lies in infinity - making a sharp turn near the sun, they leave from the Solar System forever, never again return and can accidentally unfold their tail only in the planetary system of another star …
Where do these bodies of the solar system come from? The origin of comets is an unresolved question to this day, and there is an opinion according to which comets fly into the Solar System from interstellar spaces (just like some fly there). But nevertheless, the hypothesis is now considered more plausible that on the farthest outskirts of the Solar System, far beyond the orbits of Pluto and Eris, there is the so-called Oort Cloud (the Dutch astrophysicist Jan Oort developed the hypothesis about the existence of this formation of the Solar System) - there, in the cool of the absolute zero Kelvin ice nuclei of potential comets slowly drift. They would drift there forever, but,possibly close stars (after all, we are already talking about truly interstellar distances - the size of the Oort Cloud is estimated at a couple of light years) by their (already known to you) gravitational perturbation upset the balance in the movement of these ice blocks and the blocks break off from circular distant orbits, rushing into the central parts Solar System, in other words, fall on the Sun. But when falling, they develop speeds to fall with which it is impossible on the Sun - comets miss, make a reversal bend along the all-elongated ellipse and return back to their cloud in order to slow down in it for hundreds or thousands of years to start their fall to the Sun again …But when falling, they develop speeds to fall with which it is impossible on the Sun - comets miss, make a reversal bend along the all-elongated ellipse and return back to their cloud in order to slow down in it for hundreds or thousands of years to start their fall to the Sun again …But when falling, they develop speeds to fall with which it is impossible on the Sun - comets miss, make a reversal bend along the all-elongated ellipse and return back to their cloud in order to slow down in it for hundreds or thousands of years to start their fall to the Sun again …
Some of these icy cometary nuclei, during short visits to the inner part of the Solar System, fly past Jupiter, Saturn and other giant planets, and they, with their attraction, change the cometary orbit - it becomes less elongated, and the period of revolution along it is shorter. So, in all likelihood, all the short-period comets that we know of were born here.
Approaching the Sun, the cometary nucleus heats up, boils and from it in the form of a tail rush away, driven by the solar wind (this is the name in a broad sense of solar radiation, solar radiation, including light), the smallest and numerous particles-dust particles that once froze into it core. And when moving away from the Sun, the flow of particles stops - the core cools down. And so every time, with every return to the Sun. Needless to say, for a certain number of such returns, the comet "fizzles out", collapses, and loses the ability to grow its tail. It is for this reason that the comets that we have known for a long time (and Halley among them) no longer represent the former fireworks. But sometimes new guests are gladdened by suddenly falling on us from the Oort Cloud.
The orbits of old, "shabby" comets are filled with cometary dust, and if our planet happens to pass near such a dusty cometary orbit, then we see a meteor shower - periodically flashing, flying among the stars and extinguishing sparks - a comet particle flew into the Earth's atmosphere. The size of such a particle is usually the size of a bead or a pinhead and it does not reach the surface - it burns up in the upper atmosphere. It happens, of course, that something larger falls off the comet. Then, if it is a pebble with a fist, this debris can fall to the surface of the Earth in the form of a meteorite. The Tunguska meteorite, too, apparently was just a large fragment of one of the crumbling comets, but such meteorites are rare.
To complete the enumeration of the modern actual population of the Solar System, it is imperative to remember about objects of artificial origin - spacecraft, the count of which has already gone to tens of thousands and this is not the limit. For half a century of the space age, mankind has brought tons and even hundreds of tons of spent space debris into near-earth and interplanetary orbits, and it is no longer possible to ignore this. That is why now all space services keep records and monitor everything that dangles in space - without this, safe new launches are hardly possible - after all, it is not even an hour, you can run into some satellite or station that has worked its way out, does not give signals, but it poses a danger to manned spacecraft. Some of the earth robotic stations have left the Solar System in passive interstellar voyage and can be detected by the inhabitants of planetary systems of other stars. And although such a detection is unlikely, these devices at one time were equipped with special pictures telling about the Earth and its inhabitants.
True, no one now undertakes to unequivocally and affirmatively answer such a question: "Is it good that the inhabitants of other worlds learn about us?" - who can say exactly what a new cosmic acquaintance can threaten us with …
It's time to summarize our brief introduction to our cosmic habitat - the Solar System.
What have we learned about her?
There are 8 major planets in the Solar System today. Four of them belong to the palanets of the Terrestrial group, four more - to the Giant Planets. Some planets have moons and rings around them. In addition to the large planets, the Solar System has minor planets and dwarf planets - the latter are in a ligically-middle position between the major and minor planets. The number of small and dwarf planets known today is in the hundreds of thousands, and most of them have not yet been discovered. Comets are counted among the small bodies of the Solar System together with small and dwarf planets. Most of them revolve in very elongated elliptical orbits, but there are also those that move almost in a circle and also along hyperbolas - open trajectories. Comets collapse and become a source of meteoric matterwith which the entire space of the Solar System is filled to one degree or another. Meter matter can also be formed by collisions of small planets, but so far science has not observed one such collision, but the fallout of comets and small planets onto the surface of large planets occurs, not so long ago astronomers observed the fall of comets on Jupiter. The Earth in this sense is no worse than Jupiter, especially since there are enough comets in the Oort Cloud for everyone. For the last 50 years, man-made cosmic bodies have been plowing across the expanses of the Solar System - there are more and more of them. This is both good (from the point of view of understanding the Universe, because many spacecraft have a research purpose) and bad (from the point of view of space pollution) at the same time.but until science has not observed one such collision, but the fallout of comets and small planets on the surface of large planets does occur, not so long ago astronomers observed the fall of comets on Jupiter. The Earth in this sense is no worse than Jupiter, especially since there are enough comets in the Oort Cloud for everyone. For the last 50 years, man-made cosmic bodies have been plowing across the expanses of the Solar System - there are more and more of them. This is both good (from the point of view of understanding the Universe, because many spacecraft have a research purpose) and bad (from the point of view of space pollution) at the same time.but until science has not observed one such collision, but the fallout of comets and small planets on the surface of large planets does occur, not so long ago astronomers observed the fall of comets on Jupiter. The Earth in this sense is no worse than Jupiter, especially since there are enough comets in the Oort Cloud for everyone. For the past 50 years, man-made cosmic bodies have been plowing across the vastness of the Solar System - there are more and more of them. This is both good (from the point of view of understanding the Universe, because many spacecraft have a research purpose) and bad (from the point of view of space pollution) at the same time.that there are enough comets in the Oort Cloud for everyone. For the past 50 years, man-made cosmic bodies have been plowing across the vastness of the Solar System - there are more and more of them. This is both good (from the point of view of understanding the Universe, because many spacecraft have a research purpose) and bad (from the point of view of space pollution) at the same time.that there are enough comets in the Oort Cloud for everyone. For the last 50 years, man-made cosmic bodies have been plowing across the expanses of the Solar System - there are more and more of them. This is both good (from the point of view of understanding the Universe, because many spacecraft have a research purpose) and bad (from the point of view of space pollution) at the same time.
And my last words in this article will be devoted to what is not in the solar system or has not yet been discovered.
There are no planets such as Vulcan, Proserpine (so actively exploited by astrologers in their forecasts of the future), as well as the mythical planet Nibiru, known only from the annals of the Mayan Indians (freely interpreted by journalists and amateur ufologists) - this is despite the fact that science has spent more than one century in search of at least something like this. But - no - I didn't.
There are also no other stars, constellations, galaxies, quasars and black holes in the Solar System - all these are objects of such deep space that they will not find a place in the Solar System. Or there would be no place for us in it, but since we are alive and have not sucked us into a black hole, we should not worry about Nibiru again.
Author: Andrey Klimkovsky