A photo from open sources
Alexei Navalny once admitted that he had not seen a UFO, but he it would be very disappointing if in the Universe there was no other form life besides us. Astronomers cannot please the candidate Moscow mayors by the discovery of a different life. However, they have already found several planets on which there is a chance to discover life, and therefore – and UFO. This year is generally rich in studies that are turning our view of the universe
1. Inhabited planets
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Specially designed to search for exoplanets (i.e., planets, rotating not around the Sun, but around other stars) and launched NASA in 2009, the Kepler satellite discovered in two stellar three super-earths (i.e., planets are heavier than Earth, but lighter gas giants). In the Kepler-62 system with a dim dwarf like K2 in Five exoplanets were discovered at the center. Three of them are on too close to the star distance, and therefore on their surface cannot water, and the other two – Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f – are located in a potentially habitable zone and, according to researchers, may be covered by oceans. The radius of both planets is larger than the earth, and the full they make a revolution around the star in 267 and 122 earth days respectively.
Another super-earth discovered by scientists in the Kepler-69 system, which consists of a double star of the Sun and two exoplanets, one of which – Kepler-69c – is in the potential zone habitability. The radius of the planet is 70% larger than the earth, and a full revolution she does around the star in 242 days.
2. Giant geysers
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Scientists have discovered huge emissions of charged particles coming from from the core of our galaxy. Gigantic “geysers” reach in length about 50 thousand light years, which is about half diameter of the galaxy.
These powerful fluxes are electromagnetic radiation. and charged particles ejected as a result of nucleation processes stars in the center of the galaxy over the past hundreds of millions of years. The particle velocity is about 1000 km / s. This news is good. Firstly, fortunately for us, the flow does not move in the direction Of the earth. And secondly, astronomers finally got the opportunity to study the secret of the formation and maintenance of a common magnetic field of our Galaxy, after all, supposedly “geysers” play a large role in its formation.
Two images are summarized in the picture above – the geysers themselves light blue (in fact, they do not glow in the visible range and painted on the computer) and our Milky Way, which in everyone can see a moonless night outside the city. Streams really bend a little – this is not “photoshop.”
3. Oceans on Mars
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Water on Mars has been discovered for a long time, and, moreover, its reserves only in the ice of the polar caps were so huge that they would be enough for the formation of oceans of colossal size and great depth.
In February of this year, the Curiosity rover drilled the ground for the first time. Red planet and took the first ever deep sample of stone rocks of another planet. At NASA, these manipulations were considered the largest achievement since the landing of the device on the surface of Mars, but already in March, in some rock samples obtained by the rover, were traces of hydrogenated calcium sulfate found gypsum, which means that the rocks were in contact with water.
One of its pens is the DAN neutron scanner (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons), which is made in Russia, is the Curiosity rover digging through the surface of the Red Planet and found traces of groundwater at a depth of 60 cm. Moreover, the latest data from the MRO satellite showed that water on Mars existed more than 3 billion years ago in favorable period for the birth of life.
4. The speed of rotation of the black hole
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Astronomers using the NuSTAR satellite for the first time carried out an accurate measuring the rotation speed of a supermassive black hole. It turned out that she is very close to the speed of light.
Supermassive black holes are present in each of the known galaxies today. As a result of research by scientists from Harvard-Smithsonian Center also managed to determine the size supermassive black hole. The diameter of such a colossus is about three million kilometers. High black hole rotation speed, according to researchers, suggests that she formed as a result of one or more large-scale processes of absorption of matter.
Understanding the development of supermassive black holes should help to study the nature of the evolution of galaxies. Scientists believe that in some cases the energy that is generated when a black hole grows, can completely stop the subsequent expansion of the galaxy.
5. The third closest star
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At a distance of 6.5 light-years from Earth, a third proximity to a star. Closer to the solar system, only the Alpha system Centauri, 4.3 light-years away, in the second the spot is the star of Barnard, about 6 light years from us.
The system discovered by Kevin Lumann is a pair brown dwarfs spinning around each other and wears name WISE 1049-5319. Brown dwarfs are stars, masses which are not enough to start thermonuclear processes in the nucleus. Objects emit much less light, so their hard to detect.
During the study, the astronomer found out that these dwarfs were noticed back in 1978, but because of the proximity of their location was not visible, that there are two of them.
6. The universe is older
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The universe is older than expected – about 100 million years.
A team from the European Space Agency introduced a new relict radiation map in the Universe. As a result of research it turned out to be 13.8 billion years old, and it is expanding a little slower. It turned out that it contains more ordinary matter (4.9%), which we we can see dark matter (68.3%), which we do not see. But there is less dark energy in it than expected.
Relic radiation – radio waves emitted by our The universe in the first time of its existence, a peculiar the afterglow that contains the history of the universe from the beginning its existence.
7. The new satellite of Neptune
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SETI Californian Institute Mark Showalter July 1 2013 when studying the segments of the rings of Neptune in photographs, made by NASA’s Hubble telescope, accidentally peered far behind them limits and noticed a previously unknown spot. July 15th at NASA confirmed that the spot detected is a new open Neptune’s companion – he was given the temporary name S / 2004 N 1. S / 2004 N 1 – the 14th discovered satellite of Neptune and the smallest in size: in diameter, the satellite is about 19 kilometers. Orbit The satellite is located at 105,251 kilometers from the planet and lies between orbits of other satellites of Neptune – Larissa and Proteus. Full turn around Neptune S / 2004 N 1 commits in 23 hours.
8. It is dangerous on Mars!
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Last year, NASA upset everyone – a manned flight to Mars associated with huge risks to life due to the high level radiation.
Earth from cosmic radiation is protected by a magnetic field, which deflects most of the particles. The second filter of this kind should be considered the atmosphere. But for being outside the earth Magnetosphere, scientists should seriously think about protection.
Radiation data obtained during flight Curiosity rover from Earth to Mars. Special radiometer RAD, installed on the device, is designed to assess the level of radiation as in flight time and on the surface of the planet. Scientists suggest that the radiation situation on the Red Planet is comparable to the background aboard the ISS. But during the flight of the rover, the RAD device recorded level twice as high.
Well, in April 2013, the director of the Moscow Institute Space Research Leo Green said that, in his opinion, people without genetic changes due to radiation further Mars fly will not be able to.
9. The largest spiral galaxy
A photo from open sources Astronomers discovered spiral the galaxy NGC 6872 in the constellation Peacock turned out to be much larger than previously thought, and is now considered the largest among spiral galaxies. The authors of the discovery managed to find near the edge of the sleeve NGC 6872 is a small area that is supposedly satellite galaxy. NGC 6872 is five times as long the length of our native Milky Way and is 522 thousand light years.
10. The most powerful hurricanes on Saturn
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Cassini’s probe photographed a hurricane on Saturn, the size of which 20 times more than any earthly in the history of observations.
Saturn is one of the five planets of the solar system visible to the naked eye from the Earth. Scientists have long noticed that Saturn a fairly windy planet – the speed of air flow is 500 m / s The main difference between a recorded hurricane and terrestrial ones is huge size and incredibly high speed of rotation. According to researchers, it began a few years ago. Hurricane diameter about 2000 km, which is approximately equal to half of Australia. A speed wind exceeds 500 km per hour. But in the center of the vortex is calm and quiet – this is the only resemblance to earthly elements.
Water Time Galaxy Universe Life Mars Milky Way NASA Neptune Russia Saturn Sun Solar System Black Hole Exoplanets Mars rover Curiosity
