The universe was left without a phenomenon! "Dark energy", which was searched for 20 years, does not exist at all! Such sensational reports came from the congress of the American Astronomical Society. Not only the famous "dark energy" was rejected.
Much stronger was the statement that the universe does not run up at all with acceleration, as physicists claimed. By the way, in 2011, it was for this discovery that an Australian and two Americans were awarded the Nobel Prize. And now everything is turned upside down: it is necessary to revise the generally accepted model of the universe. This is the conclusion follows from the work of astronomers from the South Korean Yonsei University and the University of Lyon.
Recall that "dark energy" has a long history. The great Einstein stood at its origins, and supposedly this was the biggest mistake of his life.
In 1917, he tried to apply the General Theory of Relativity, which he had just created, to describe the Universe. And suddenly faced with an unsolvable problem. According to centuries-old ideas, the Universe was considered eternal and unchanging, in a word, static. But in Einstein's formulas, she suddenly came to life, moved. How can I restore her peace? The scientist introduced a new element into his equations, the so-called cosmological constant. And everything returned to its place. Peace reigned.
However, not for long. In 1929, the American astronomer Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding, and Einstein's constant is simply superfluous in it. She left the stage. It seemed like forever. Many years passed, and she suddenly returned almost from non-existence. Everything changed after observing supernovae, scientists made one of the most sensational discoveries of the 20th century: the Universe is accelerating. This phenomenon has been called universal anti-gravity.
He changed the picture of the scientific world. Until recently, she seemed so slim. The Big Bang gave birth to the Universe with many galaxies. Having received a powerful initial impulse, they scatter, but due to mutual attraction, this happens with a slowdown. And now, it turns out, everything is not at all like that, but exactly the opposite.
What drives them? Makes you fly with acceleration, overcome the force of gravity? Today, physicists believe that this is a phenomenon called "dark energy" associated with the same Einstein constant. The most amazing thing is that in the first 7-8 billion years of its existence, the Universe really expanded with a slowdown, and then, for more than 7 billion years, there is an acceleration. And then it will only increase, and indefinitely for a long time.
According to scientists, the share of "dark energy" accounts for about 67 percent of the total energy of the world, while the so-called dark or invisible matter - 30 percent and the usual visible - all stars and planets - only 3 percent. And now a team of astronomers from the University of Yonsei, together with colleagues from the University of Lyon and KASI, swung at the picture of the world. After analyzing large databases, scientists said that the conclusion about the expansion of the universe was made by astrophysicists on the basis of a serious measurement error. And, therefore, it is not required to introduce the concept of "dark energy". It turns out that science has been looking for a phenomenon for more than 20 years, which in fact does not exist at all. By the way, in this case, Einstein's constant still turns out to be superfluous.
Note that this is not the first attack on "dark energy". And earlier there were works where its existence was called into question. But the latest study, according to many experts, perhaps looks the most reasoned. "Our results show that the Nobel Prize-winning 'dark energy' hypothesis based on supernova cosmology may be based on an unreliable and downright erroneous assumption," said Yong Wook Lee, who led the study. However, critics of this work point to its weak point: a small database, on the basis of which revolutionary conclusions are drawn.
Today, there are several experimental installations in the world that are trying to catch "dark energy", but it has never fallen into the nets. However, the scientists themselves admit that they are looking almost blindly, because they still do not know exactly what to catch. What is the material carrier of this phenomenon. WIMP particles, which appeared in the formulas of theorists, are considered candidates. But so far the theory has not been confirmed by experiment.
The term "dark energy" originated at the end of the 20th century. It is associated with observations of supernovae, which from time to time flash brightly in the sky. These stars are used to determine cosmological distances. In 1998, scientists in the United States and Australia almost simultaneously discovered one oddity: the most distant supernovae do not shine as brightly as the formulas prescribed. This means that they are located farther from us than they should be if the Universe were expanding in the field of ordinary gravitational forces. Hence the sensational conclusion: with 99 percent certainty, it can be argued that there must be some additional energy in the Universe that opposes gravity. This is how "dark energy" was born.
The moon is a natural satellite of our planet. Its influence is so great that astronomers often speak of the Earth-Moon bond not as a planet and satellite, but as a double planet. Until now, disputes about its origin have not subsided. Let's try to figure them out.
The Moon influences almost every area of life on Earth, and the history of human civilization has been no exception. Even mammoth hunters counted days by the phases of the moon. For the first civilizations, the satellite of the Earth was a deity, in whose power was the most important thing - the agricultural cycle. In most ancient civilizations, the Moon was considered a powerful goddess, to whom temples were erected and sacrifices (sometimes human) were made. Eclipses of the Moon caused horror - the deity covered his face in anger, disasters are coming! In the Middle Ages, the Moon was considered the habitat of angels, in the Enlightenment, they indulged in dreams of a race of Selenites living on the night star. Scientific progress quickly destroyed these naive notions. The moon turned out to be a small planet, lifeless and unattractive (from a human point of view). But it also turned out that the influence of our satellite on the processes taking place on Earth is very large - probably, without the Moon, the biosphere could not exist on Earth, and our planet would look like Mars or Venus. After all, it is the presence of the Moon that determines the most important climatic parameter - the inclination of the planet's axis of rotation relative to the plane of its orbit, which determines the nature of the change of seasons.
It is known from the laws of celestial mechanics that the tilt of the axis of rotation of the planets is subject to fluctuations, an example of which is our neighbor Mars. As calculations performed by astronomers show, the angle between the equator of Mars and the plane of its orbit has changed significantly. But the surface of the Red Planet contains numerous signs of a different past - channels, channels, sedimentary rocks (traces of ancient seas!). In the distant past, the planet's climate was warmer, and liquid water, and possibly life, existed on its surface. But there was some kind of catastrophe, and Mars turned into an icy desert. Studies show that the most likely reason for the "freezing" of Mars was a change in the angle of the Martian axis. For the Earth, even an insignificant change in the angle of inclination of the axis to the plane of the ecliptic (by a value of the order of a degree) can provide an ice age. Meanwhile, Mars was turning tens of degrees, so grandiose climatic disasters on it were inevitable. But for the Earth, the angle of inclination of the axis relative to the plane of the orbit varied by no more than one or two degrees, which ensured amazing (by the standards of other planets) climate stability. A natural question arises - what is the reason for the unique stability of our planet?
Most scientists believe that we must thank the Moon for the stability of the earth's rotation (and, accordingly, climate) - it is thanks to her that chaotic fluctuations in the angle of inclination do not threaten the Earth. The hypothetical absence of a large satellite near the Earth would create conditions for very strong fluctuations in the angle between the equator and the orbit, which would make the climate on Earth unsuitable for life.
The beneficial role of the Moon was not limited to this, contributing to the emergence of life: it caused tides that contributed to the aeration of the seas. Perhaps even life itself first originated in the intertidal zone! The movement of the moon across the sky affects the life cycles of many organisms - horseshoe crabs (marine arthropods, distantly related to crayfish and crabs), which spawn only during a certain phase of the moon, are a prime example.
It undoubtedly influenced the history of mankind. As an ideal celestial chronometer, the Earth's satellite significantly accelerated the appearance of the first calendars. Observations of the Moon (the closest celestial body) played a huge role in the development of astronomy. From them, ancient scientists concluded that the planets were spherical, and the movement of the Moon and its connection with the sea tides made it possible in the 17th century to formulate the laws of universal gravitation.
Later, observations of the Moon contributed to the development of planetary science - after all, no other planet (except the Earth) has been studied in such detail! However, with the accumulation of knowledge about the moon, a number of questions arose. The origin of the Moon remained the biggest mystery - many hypotheses of the origin of the night star were put forward, but not one of them could explain all the facts. What are the main features of our satellite that caused such difficulties for scientists?
We list the main ones:
Among the numerous assumptions about the mechanism of the origin of our satellite, three hypotheses at different times gained the greatest popularity among scientists. Let's talk about them.
According to one of these hypotheses, our companion was once an "independent" small planet of the solar system, revolving around the sun. However, at some point, the free Moon came too close to the Earth - and the force of gravity captured it and transferred it to a new orbit, where the Moon was destined to revolve around our planet as a satellite.
Alas, the calculations showed that this hypothesis cannot explain the features of the lunar orbit, and the similarity of the elements of the earth and lunar crust discovered after flights to the moon put a fat cross on the “capture” version. Another popular hypothesis was the joint formation of the Earth and the Moon (this hypothesis was put forward by the great Immanuel Kant). In accordance with it, the Moon and the Earth were formed simultaneously - from one gas and dust cloud. The emerging proto-Earth gained such a mass that the particles of the cloud began to rotate already in their orbits around it, gradually forming the proto-Moon.
This hypothesis is partly confirmed by the similarity of the isotopes of the Earth and the Moon, but this model does not explain the features of the lunar orbit at all.
To explain these contradictions, the American astronomers Bill Hartmann and Donald Davis put forward in 1975 the impact (i.e., “impact”) hypothesis, which is currently considered the main one. According to it, when the solar system was just emerging, from a gas and dust cloud revolving around the sun, two protoplanets formed at once in the orbit of the future Earth - one of them was the young Earth, and the other (it was smaller, about the size of Mars) received the name Theia. Under the influence of gravity, the planets began to converge, and 4.4 billion years ago, a grandiose catastrophe finally occurred - a collision of the planets. The blow, fortunately, fell on a tangent. Theia was destroyed, and the molten bowels of the earth from the impact splashed out into near-Earth orbit. The Moon was formed from this substance in about a hundred years. The impact spun the Earth - that's where the quick (in comparison, for example, with Venus) change of days and nights comes from. This hypothesis well explains both the inclination of the lunar orbit, and the similarity of oxygen isotopes on Earth and on the Moon, and the strange internal structure of the Moon. However, new research published in the journal Nature deals a death blow to these views.
After conducting a detailed study of samples of lunar rocks mined by expeditions of the Apollo series spacecraft in the 70s of the 20th century, specialists from the University of Washington issued a negative verdict on the impact hypothesis: “If the old theory were correct, then more than half of the lunar rocks would consist of material from the impactor planetoid earth. But instead, we see that the isotopic composition of the moon's fragments is very specific. The heavy isotopes of potassium found in the samples could only have formed when exposed to incredibly high temperatures. Only a very powerful collision, in which the planetoid and most of the Earth would evaporate on contact, can cause a similar effect.
As a result, scientists proposed a new theory: instead of a colossal collision of planets, there were multiple collisions with smaller asteroids. The asteroid bombardment threw enough debris into the Earth's orbit to form several small satellites, which eventually merged into one large one. This "Protoluna" continued to absorb objects in orbit until it was left in splendid isolation.
The authors of the study argue that their hypothesis best fits the findings. However, there were immediately skeptics who pointed out that the new hypothesis of the origin of the moon does not explain all the oddities of the night star. So it’s too early to put an end to the debate about the Moon - the Earth’s satellite still retains its secret ...
In astronomy, a satellite is a body that revolves around a larger body and is held by its force of attraction. The Moon is the Earth's satellite. Earth is a satellite of the Sun. All planets in the solar system, with the exception of Mercury and Venus, have satellites.
Artificial satellites are man-made spacecraft that orbit the Earth or another planet. They are launched for various purposes: for scientific research, for studying the weather, for communication.
The Earth-Moon system is unique in the solar system, since no planet has such a large satellite. The moon is the only satellite of the Earth, but it is so big and close!
It is better visible to the naked eye than any planet through a telescope. Telescopic observations and close-up photographs show that its beautiful surface is uneven and extremely complex. Active study of the natural satellite of the Earth began in 1959, when space probes, automatic interplanetary stations that delivered samples of lunar rocks were launched in our country and in the USA towards the Moon for its comprehensive study. And up to the present time, spacecraft bring a lot of information for the work of selenologists (scientists who study the moon). Our satellite is fraught with many mysteries. For a long time, people did not see its reverse side until 1959, when the Luna-3 automatic station photographed the invisible side of the lunar surface. Later, on the basis of images obtained with the help of the domestic station Zond-3 and the American spacecraft Lunar Orbiter, maps of the surface of the Moon were compiled. Flights of automatic lunar stations and landings of lunar expeditions helped to answer a number of unclear questions that worried astronomers. But, in turn, they set new challenges for astronomers.
The sun, moon, large planets, their rather large satellites and the vast majority of distant stars are spherical in shape. In all cases, the reason for this is gravity. Gravitational forces act on all bodies in the universe. Any mass attracts another mass to itself the stronger, the smaller the distance between them, and in no way can this attraction be changed (strengthened or weakened) ....
The world of stone is diverse and amazing. In deserts, on mountain ranges, in caves, under water and on plains, stones worked by the forces of nature resemble Gothic temples and outlandish animals, harsh warriors and fantastic landscapes. Nature everywhere and in everything shows its wild imagination. The stone chronicle of the planet was written over billions of years. It was created by hot lava flows, dunes…
Throughout our planet among fields and meadows, forests and mountain ranges, blue spots of various sizes and shapes are scattered. These are lakes. Lakes appeared for various reasons. The wind blew out a deepening, the water washed out the hollow, the glacier plowed out a hollow or a mountain landslide dammed up the river valley - and a reservoir was formed in such a decrease in the relief. In total, around the world…
From time immemorial in Russia they knew that there are dead places in which it is impossible to settle. In the role of inspectors-eyergoecologists were "knowledgeable people" - monks, schemniki, dowsers. Of course, they did not know anything about geological faults or underground drains, but they had their own professional signs. The benefits of civilization have gradually weaned us from being sensitive to changes in the environment, ...
The custom of measuring time in a seven-day week came to us from Ancient Babylon and was associated with a change in the phases of the moon. The number "seven" was considered exceptional, sacred. At one time, ancient Babylonian astronomers discovered that, in addition to fixed stars, seven wandering luminaries are visible in the sky, which were called planets. Ancient Babylonian astronomers believed that every hour of the day is under the auspices of a certain planet ....
The signs of the zodiac are counted along the ecliptic from the vernal equinox - March 22. The ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect at two points of the equinoxes: spring and autumn. On these days, all over the globe, the day is equal in duration to the night. Strictly speaking, this is not entirely correct, because due to the displacements of the earth's axis (precession), the constellations and signs of the zodiac do not ...
I'm dying because I want to. Scatter, executioner, scatter my despicable ashes! Hello Universe, Sun! To the executioner He will scatter my thought throughout the universe! I. Bunin The Renaissance was marked not only by the flourishing of sciences and art, but also by the emergence of powerful creative personalities. One of them is a scientist and philosopher, a master of logical proofs, who won disputes between professors from England, Germany, ...
Solar and lunar eclipses have been familiar to man since ancient times. When a person did not yet know why these phenomena occur, the extinction of the Sun in broad daylight caused him panic fear. It is truly a mysterious and majestic sight. The bright Sun shines on the blue sky and gradually the sunlight begins to weaken. Damage appears on the right edge of the Sun. It is slowly increasing...
But what if our star - the Sun - suddenly bursts into a supernova? Will it disappear itself and erase us from the universe forever? As scientists say, although this event is possible, its probability is very small. The star receives its energy by gradually converting hydrogen into helium, then into heavier elements (carbon, oxygen, neon, and others) using a chain ...
The largest planet is named after the supreme god Olympus. Jupiter is 1310 times larger in volume than Earth and 318 times larger in mass. In terms of distance from the Sun, Jupiter is in fifth place, and in terms of brightness it ranks fourth in the sky after the Sun, Moon and Venus. The telescope shows a planet compressed at the poles with a noticeable row ...
The moon is hardly surprising for most people, because we have the opportunity to observe it in the sky almost every day, and have long been accustomed to such a phenomenon. Many do not even know whether it is a planet, a satellite or a star, and why the moon is called the moon. But today we will bring these questions out of the shadows by giving them the right answers.
As you know, the natural satellite of the earth is not called the moon in all languages and peoples, this is not an international name. And the name that we used to call the luminous cosmic body above our heads came from the Proto-Slavic word "luna". As for the origin of this Old Slavonic word, it is the root of the word “louksna”, which is translated into Russian as “bright”. Perhaps this answer is quite rational and explains why the moon is called the moon.
As you know, the moon is a satellite of the Earth, and not artificial, but natural. But why was she called that? We will also consider the answer to this question below.
The Moon is called the satellite of the Earth for the reason that, in comparison with other planets in our solar system, it primarily revolves around the Earth, using its orbit for rotation, and not around the Sun. Of course, the Moon also revolves around our natural luminary, but it does this along the same trajectory as the Earth, revolving around the Sun along with it.
This is what prompted scientists to call the Moon a natural satellite of the Earth. The characteristic “natural” is present here for the reason that since the beginning of space exploration, many artificial devices, which are also satellites, have been put into orbit by people.
We all know what a month is. This is what is called the incomplete moon. However, the history of the origin of this name is not known to everyone.
The thing is that earlier time was calculated according to the lunar calendar, because in the absence of watches and various technologies available to us today, it was quite simple to calculate time using data on the position of the moon. In this calendar there was such a thing as a month, which meant 1/12 of the moon. Over time, people transformed this concept, and began to use it to name the incomplete moon.
Now you know why people call the moon and the month that way.
The Moon is the only natural satellite in Earth's orbit and the most studied extraterrestrial body. It is unique in many ways: its brightness in the sky, tidal effect on our planet, little-studied reverse side and the possibility of colonization of its surface. In this article, we will describe in detail and tell you many interesting facts about the nearest neighbor of our planet.
Our neighbor
The definition of the concept says that it is a natural or artificial object that moves in outer space in a certain orbit around another object under the influence of gravitational forces.
The fact that the Moon is a satellite was also proved by the ancient Greeks. Famous ancient astronomers and physicists such as Aristarchus, Hipparchus, Archimedes calculated the size of the brightest object in the night sky. Can calculate its orbit and distance to our planet. The invention of the telescope, and later of the spacecraft, helped to verify the correctness of the judgments and calculations of the ancient Greek researchers.
In addition to circulation around our planet, the Moon has a direct impact on the waters of the oceans. This phenomenon is called tidal interaction, and it once again confirms the fact that the Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth.
The movements of the Moon in the sky were observed by the astronomers of the Ancient World. In the 2nd century BC, its size and distance from the Earth were already calculated. Medieval researchers with the help of a telescope were able to identify individual sections of the relief and compile the first lunar map. In the 19th century, the first photographs of the lunar surface appeared, from which a photographic atlas was compiled.
The invention of spacecraft helped expand knowledge of the moon. Beginning in 1958, Soviet and American researchers launched several dozens of automatic and manned vehicles, artificial satellites and lunar rovers to it, which got its name in history, known as the Moon Race. One of the most important events in the history of human civilization was the landing of the first people on its surface - American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It happened on July 20, 1969. Five more moon landings took place between November 1969 and December 1972.
Currently, the Moon is being explored by American and Chinese stations in lunar orbit, as well as by those that have descended to the surface of the far side of the Earth satellite.
Main physical parameters:
The Moon has a typical structure for solid objects in the solar system: crust, mantle and core. Its surface is represented by regolith - a mixture of dust particles of various diameters and fragments of lunar rocks, minerals and meteorites. The thickness of the lunar soil ranges from a couple of centimeters to several tens of meters. Further, a crust containing a high percentage of iron, aluminum and silicon lies at a depth of 50 km. The mantle, which has a three-layer structure, is represented by various types of silicates. Under it is an iron-nickel core, which occupies 20% of the entire mass of the Earth's satellite.
The moon has virtually no atmosphere. It contains only residual traces of hydrogen and some inert gases. Due to the extreme rarefaction of the gas envelope, the surface of the satellite is constantly exposed to sharp temperature changes: from + 117 ° C during the day to -173 ° C at night.
The average radius of the Moon's orbit is 1.73 thousand km. Moving at a speed of 1.023 km / s, the satellite makes a complete revolution around the Earth in 27 days and 7 hours. This period is called the sidereal or lunar month. The orbital path has an elliptical shape (eccentricity - 0.055), and the trajectory of the earth satellite itself resembles an unwinding spiral. The angle of inclination of the axis to the plane of the orbit varies from 4.5° to 5°.
The Moon and Earth have a strong gravitational influence on each other. The changes generated by the gravity of a satellite in the world's oceans are called tidal forces. Depending on the relative position of the Earth and its satellite, the height of the sea level changes, which is called high tide and low tide. The maximum amplitude of tidal waves is observed in the Canadian Bay of Fundy, where they reach a height of 18 meters.
The moon is one of the main contenders for the foundation of a human colony. It is considered as a transshipment base on the way from the Earth to other space objects. From its surface, due to the weak force of gravity and rarefied atmosphere, it is much easier to launch interplanetary ships, and in the subsurface layers there are large deposits of minerals considered as a fuel resource. Roscosmos plans to launch a mission to explore the lunar surface between 2021 and 2040.
The distant future of the Moon as a satellite of our planet is not so rosy. Due to tidal acceleration, it annually moves away from the Earth by 0.38 cm. This slows down the rotation of the blue planet, lengthening the day on it. However, after a gradual and long process of removal, the satellite will begin to return quite quickly, approaching the Earth at the minimum possible distance of 12 thousand km. Gravitational forces will break it into tiny fragments, which form a whole ring system around the Earth, similar to the rings of other planets in the solar system.
