-
Comet Catalina Shows that Comets Delivered Carbon to Rocky Planets
In early 2016, an “ice guest” from the outer Solar system passed by Earth. It was briefly observed in the sky as comet Catalina, after which it flew past the Sun to leave the Solar System forever. Using infrared instruments, the SOFIA Observatory was able to capture a characteristic spectral feature of carbon atoms inside…
-
How are the nuclei of galaxies formed?
According to one theory, the nuclei of galaxies are primary black holes, around which galaxies formed from the matter formed during the Big Bang. Just as planetary systems formed from a gas-dust disk around a star. Let me remind you. A primary black hole is a hypothetical type of black hole that was formed not…
-
Collisions between dwarf galaxies can lead to the loss of all dark matter by them
In 2018, astronomers discovered an unusual galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 in the vicinity of the Milky Way. With similar sizes to our galaxy, it contains 200 times fewer stars. At the same time, there is practically no dark matter in it. Its presence can be determined by the gravitational effect on visible matter. It is believed…
-
Who are the plutoids?
Some time after Pluto was “demoted” from planets to dwarf planets, the International Astronomical Union decided to sweeten this bitter pill for the poor man and introduced a new category of trans-Neptunian objects named after him. Plutoids now included all dwarf planets orbiting the Sun in an orbit with a radius greater than the radius…
-
How does a black hole differ from a white one?
A black hole differs from a white one not only in color, but also in the quality of the opposite. If a black hole is an entrance without an exit, then a white hole is an exit without an entrance. Thus, they can form one “space tunnel”. A white hole is a hypothetical physical object…
-
What will they do with the corpse of an astronaut on the ISS?
In the event of the death of any of the crew members, his body must be brought home: immediately or after the end of the mission, it is decided depending on the situation. This is a hypothetical answer – fortunately, such situations have not happened yet. The fact is that the health of astronauts is…
-
Moon dust
In 1972, Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan were so carried away by the role of the last people on the moon in history that they forgot to “wipe their feet” before entering their lander. Which, in general, is quite surprising, because they already knew how terrible this moon dust is. During the mission, she had…
-
How to defeat weightlessness in a spaceship? Is it possible to implement this?
If we discard all sorts of fantastic artificial gravity generators, then there is one way – to use centrifugal force, realizing the rotation of a segment of the ship, or even the entire ship. However, the gravity there will be somewhat strange – local at each point, i.e. crew members will be able to walk…
-
The winds emitted by supermassive black holes in the first billions of years of the universe’s existence were much stronger than modern ones
They were so powerful that they actually slowed down the growth of the black holes from which they emanated. Using the X-shooter receiver mounted on the ESO Very Large Telescope, astronomers studied 30 quasars observed in an era when the age of the Universe was from 500 million to 1 billion years. It turned out…
-
What alternative theories of the origin of the universe do you know?
In fact, there is only one alternative theory of the Big Bang – this is the theory of an eternal and infinite Universe in eternal cycles: gas-stars-gas-…, stars- white dwarfs, neutron stars – gas – …, hydrogen – helium – heavy elements – hydrogen-… . The theory of the divine creation of the Universe is…
