Category: Planets

Calculations of scientists unexpectedly showed that about 50% of the area of Mars solar panels in combination with hydrogen production systems will be more efficient, taking into account the cost of their delivery, than miniature nuclear reactors. First of all, this concerns the equatorial and tropical latitudes of the planet, which receive the maximum amount of light and heat.

These same regions of Mars are much easier and more convenient to colonize, including due to more favorable climatic conditions and the ease of take-off and landing of rockets and shuttles in the equatorial regions of the red planet. For this reason, engineers consider it more expedient to send solar panels to Mars, rather than compact nuclear power plants, to supply energy and heat to the first settlements on the surface of a neighboring planet.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks to images transmitted by the Juno satellite, oceanographers have been able to establish amazing similarities in the movement of water flows in the Earth’s oceans and dense gas flows in the vicinity of Jupiter’s poles.

A team of researchers from the University of California Institute of Oceanography were able to prove that moist convection (when hot, less dense air rises) is responsible for the formation of these atmospheric vortices.

Because clouds on Jupiter form when hot, less dense air rises, the researchers concluded that it is the source of energy to power larger-scale structures, up to polar atmospheric vortices.

The discovery will allow the authors to better understand the energy of our solar system.