For 76 years, official astronomy believed that there were 9 full-fledged planets in the solar system, among which Pluto is the most distant from the Sun. But since 2006, it has been classified as “minor planets and asteroids.” The discovery of Ceres and Eris forced the scientists to revise the classification. They, like Pluto, have not yet cleared their orbit of foreign celestial bodies. In addition, Pluto cannot be considered the most massive body in its area. Therefore, despite the presence of an atmosphere and its own satellite, it is still not considered the ninth planet.
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India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission to land on the Moon in August
Chandrayaan 3 will be India’s second attempt to land a rover on the lunar surface. The apparatus consists of a flight module and a descent platform with a lunar rover. The southern circumpolar region of the Moon was chosen as the landing site for the mission. The first attempt to land an Indian spacecraft on the Moon took place in September 2019. This task was assigned to the Vikram descent platform. She successfully separated from the Chandrayaan-2 orbital module and began to descend. But when the platform was at an altitude of only a few kilometers from the lunar surface, there was a failure in the braking engine. As a result, Vikram crashed. After this failure, the Indian Space Research Organization decided to retry the landing. Initially, Chandrayaan-3 was planned to be sent to the Moon back in 2020. But due to the pandemic, the launch eventually shifted by 2 years.
NASA plans to land astronauts on Mars by 2040
“Our plan is to have humans walk on Mars by 2040,” Chief Executive Bill Nelson said in a statement following the release of the US government’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal. Nelson says an inflatable heat shield is being developed that could slow a spacecraft as it enters the Martian atmosphere and help it land safely on the planet’s surface. Also, according to the head of the department, NASA specialists are dealing with the issue of maintaining life on the Moon and Mars. Including NASA is considering options to provide continuous power supply to machinery and equipment with electricity, for these purposes it is planned to allocate funds from the state budget, which will be used to create the necessary infrastructure. Among other things, the US space agency is developing new engines that will speed up the transportation of astronauts to Mars.
Saturn’s rings are gradually disappearing due to the influence of the planet’s magnetic field
The rings of Saturn formed about 100 million years ago. They are made up of tiny particles of dust and ice. For one reason, the rings formed after the collision of the planet with the satellite. Scientists have reported a process of gradual depletion of the rings, which occurs due to the attraction of particles by Saturn’s magnetic field. The particles may finally evaporate after 300 million years.
An interesting fact: the direction of the ion tail of comet NEOWISE changed due to the movement of the Earth.
Like all comets, the blue ion tail always points AWAY from the Sun. Between July 17 and July 25, 2020 (when these images were taken), the Earth moved in its orbit around the Sun, and because of this, the position of the Sun in the sky also changed. Therefore, the tail has shifted.
Astronomers have discovered the cradle of an emerging exoplanet like Jupiter
The protoplanet AB Aur b is formed in the star system AB Aurigae, which is only 2 million years old. It is removed from the Earth at 531 St. year in the direction of the constellation Auriga. AB Aur b is about 9 times as massive as Jupiter. It orbits its star at a distance of 13.9 billion km, which is 3 times the distance between the Sun and Neptune.
The formation of such a massive protoplanet remote from the star cannot be explained by the generally accepted core accretion model. It implies that the gas giant begins as a rocky core and then accumulates gas.
Astronomers believe that the formation of AB Aur b can be explained by a competing theory – the instability of the protoplanetary disk. This is a process in which a massive gaseous protoplanetary disk, as it cools, breaks up into one or more collapsing fragments of a planetary mass, in which exoworlds are formed.
On April 1, a dangerous asteroid 2007 FF1 from the time of the dinosaurs will fly to Earth. And this is not a joke
The asteroid will pass by our planet at a minimum distance. According to various researchers, the diameter of the asteroid ranges from 110 to 260 meters. It belongs to the class “Apollo” and its orbit intersects with the orbit of the Earth.
This is a very ancient celestial body that has been in the universe since the time of the dinosaurs. 2007 FF1 was discovered in 2007 and will fly by our planet on April 1 at approximately 04:35.
However, there is no cause for concern. Scientists have calculated that the celestial body will fly past the Earth at a distance of 7.4 million km, which is 30 times greater than the distance between our planet and the Moon.
NASA discovers 50-year-old sealed sample of lunar soil
Fifty years ago, the Apollo 17 crew drove 12-inch tubes into the lunar soil to collect subsurface samples. The vacuum-sealed tubes were brought to Earth and placed in a protective container, also under vacuum, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Intact rocks and soil in two of these test tubes were stored with other selected samples, awaiting analysis by future scientists using more advanced instruments. The program is managed by the NASA ANGSA department.
Now, half a century later, NASA is in the process of opening up one of those Apollo 17 tubes – the ANGSA 73001 sample cache – to study the material inside with state-of-the-art equipment. But first, the researchers want to collect all the volatiles that might have been present in the once ultra-cold soil, materials that would immediately evaporate at room temperature.
Scientists have confirmed the existence of 5,005 potentially habitable planets outside our solar system
Scientists have confirmed the existence of 5,005 potentially habitable planets outside our solar system, NASA said.
According to NASA, the confirmed exoplanets are not alike. It is noted that approximately 30% of them are gas giants comparable in size to Saturn or Jupiter or much larger than them, 35% are comparable in size to Uranus or Neptune and may be ice giants, 31% belong to the Super-Earth group – they are much larger. larger than our planet and may be similar in composition to Earth. Only 4% are rocky planets about the same size as Earth or slightly smaller.
Scientists have discovered traces of extraterrestrial life inside a meteorite
Inside the Orgay meteorite that fell in 1864 in France, scientists have found traces of extraterrestrial life – ancient microorganisms that presumably existed before the Earth formed.
When Orgei fell to Earth, scientists who studied the meteorite began to find traces of organic matter in it, but then few people believed in it. Many felt that the luminaries of science, to put it mildly, wishful thinking.
Many researchers believe that it was meteorites that brought life to our planet.
