Category: Mysteries of Space

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 the dust-rich luminous tail of the comet. Now this “one-time visitor” to the inner Solar system is helping astronomers explain the origin of life on Earth, because its study has shown that comets like Comet Catalina could be an important source of carbon, and then life on planets such as Earth or Mars, in the early years of the formation of the Solar System.

Although carbon is the basis of the carbon skeletons of biological molecules of all life forms, however, the early Earth and other terrestrial planets of the Solar System were too hot during the formation period, so elements such as carbon were eventually lost by them into space.

“Carbon is the key to understanding the origin of life, we are not sure that the Earth itself could capture the necessary amount of carbon during formation, so carbon—rich comets could be an important source of this element required for the formation of life” – the main author of the study, Charles Woodward.

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 due to the gravitational collapse of a large star, but in superdense matter at the time of the initial expansion of the Universe.

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 that dark matter is a key component necessary for the formation of galaxies. Without it, the primary gas would not have sufficient gravitational attraction to begin to contract and form the first “star islands”. A year later, astronomers discovered another “empty” galaxy NGC 1052-DF4, containing almost no dark matter.

In an attempt to explain the existence of galaxies without dark matter, scientists have conducted a number of studies and concluded that in the event of a galactic collision, it can “fly out” beyond its galaxy and continue moving through space.

The probability of such a scenario confirms that NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4 are moving away from each other and there are several other dwarf galaxies next to them that can be lined up in a single line. This suggests that they may have the same origin.

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 of the orbit of Neptune, which are in hydrostatic equilibrium and have not cleared the space around their orbit. At first, the honor of becoming plutoids was awarded to as many as two celestial bodies — Pluto itself and Eris. A little later, Makemake and Haumea joined them. Quavar, Sedna, and some other objects are candidates for plutoids.

Even with very large telescopes, Pluto is difficult to detect among the surrounding stars. Therefore, to observe this object, you need to choose zones with a minimum level of illumination and very powerful observation tools.

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 of the universe, into which nothing can get. From white holes, matter only comes out — unlike real-life black holes, which pull everything into themselves, including light. According to some scientists, if there are black holes in the universe, then there must be their antipodes — white holes into which nothing can enter.

Most theories about white holes explain their properties through the concept of a black hole, because black holes really exist and are actively studied. White holes have been discovered so far only in theory: this is a mathematical concept that has no real confirmation.

The argument for the existence of white holes is Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity (GRT). It has equations relating to wormholes or “wormholes” — tunnels in space-time. The general theory of relativity allows for the existence of such tunnels. In 1916, German scientist Karl Schwarzschild was the first in the world to use GRT to solve a specific astrophysical problem. One of the consequences of Schwarzschild’s decision is a wormhole named after him, which consists of a black hole, a white hole and two separate universes connected through them. His mathematical equations that predicted the existence of black holes also predict white holes.

*A white hole is a hypothetical physical object in the universe, their existence has not been proven.

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 very, very monitored. Several times a week, astronauts get in direct contact with their doctors, in conversation with whom they can discuss all the existing health problems.

In addition, astronauts undergo a very serious medical examination before the flight and at the slightest suspicion they are excommunicated from the mission.

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 already managed to forget all the joints of their spacesuits. So much so that they couldn’t move normally. At the same time, the dust was so sharp that it rubbed three layers of Kevlar-like fabric on their shoes!

Because of such inattention, this very moon dust got inside their ship, and they had to fly with it all the way home. Constantly making sure she doesn’t kill them.

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 freely on the walls and ceiling (from the point of view of other crew members), and this gravity will spread only to the rotating part. Well, in order for it to work, you need a person to start rotating with this section.

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 that they are the source of extremely powerful winds. Their speed reaches 17% of the speed of light and they are 20 times more powerful than the winds in quasars observed in the epoch 4 billion years after the Big Bang.

At the dawn of the universe, black holes grew much faster than their host galaxies. Then some kind of restrictive mechanism began to operate, bringing their growth in line with the growth rate of galaxies. It was the winds that became this mechanism. The energy released by them was so great that it interfered with the accretion of matter into black holes, slowing their rapid growth.

Thus, they entered a phase of “coevolution” with their galaxies, which continues to this day.

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 the sister of the Big Bang theory, because, after all, it does not matter whether the universe was created by divine providence or physical fantasy.

Another alternative to the Big Bang was put forward – the Bondi-Gold-Hoyle theory of continuous creation, which tried to combine the expansion of the Universe with its apparent immutability.