All the most interesting about astronomy and space. Major astronomical discoveries: from the time of Galileo to the present day

Astrophysics - comparatively young science. But it was she who began to study interesting facts about the planets of the solar system, everything about their structure and composition. Distinguished from astronomy, she is engaged in physical composition celestial bodies .

The sky has always been the object of close attention and interest of mankind. The stars have been observed since the time of the mythical Atlantis. The structure of celestial bodies, the trajectories of their movement, the change of seasons on Earth - all this was attributed to the influence of stars. Many theories were confirmed, others were discarded. Over time, they discovered that the Earth not the only planet in our galaxy.

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List of celestial bodies

Going to description interesting features each, you need to list all the small and large solar system planets. A table indicating the position from the sun will be placed just below. Here we restrict ourselves to alphabetical enumeration:

• Venus;
• Earth;
• Mars;
• Mercury;
• Neptune;
• Saturn;
• Jupiter;
• Uranus.

Attention! It is noteworthy that the top three included bodies on which, according to science fiction writers, people will settle over time. Scientists doubt this option, but everything is subject to science fiction.

Curious facts

Everyone saw the film "Carnival Night", so there is no need to retell the plot. But even in terms of the celebration of the New Year, which is discussed in the film, there should be a report on the topic: "Is there life on Mars?"

What happened to the lecturer and the report itself is well known to the audience. The news often contains information about Mars.

Astronomical information also includes the fact that it rotates on the fourth, if you count the trajectory from the Sun, belongs to the terrestrial group etc.

Mars

Interestingly, all the names of the nearest planets are named after the ancient Roman gods. Mars is the god of war in ancient mythology. There is some confusion as many consider him to be a god of fertility. Both of them are right. The Romans considered him the god of fertility, who could both destroy and save the crop. Then, already in ancient Greek mythology, he received the name Ares (Mars) - the god of war.

Attention! The Red Planet - Mars acquired its unofficial name due to the high content of iron on the surface, which gives it a reddish tint. The god received his formidable name in the mythology of Greece for the same reason. The reddish hue resembled the color of blood.

Few people know that the first spring month is named after the god of fertility. It sounds the same in almost every language. Mars - March, Mars - March.

Mars is considered one of the most interesting planets in the solar system for children:

1. The highest point on earth three times lower than the highest point of Mars. Mount Everest is over 8 km high. Mount Olympus (Mars) - 27 km.
2. Due to weaker gravity on Mars you can jump three times higher.
3. Like Earth, Mars has 4 seasons. Each lasts 6 months, and the whole a year is 687 earth days(2 earth years -365x2=730).
4. He has his own bermuda triangle". Of every three satellites launched towards it, only one returns. Two disappear.
5. Moons of Mars (two of them) revolve around it at about the same speed towards each other. Because orbital radii are different, they never collide.

Venus

An inexperienced user will immediately answer that the hottest planet in the solar system is the first from the sun - Mercury. However our Earth's twin Venus will easily give him a head start. Mercury has no atmosphere, and although it 44 days heated by the Sun, the same number of days it spends on cooling (Year on Mercury - 88 days). Venus due to the presence of an atmosphere with a high content of carbon dioxide keeps the temperature constant.

Attention! Located between Mercury and the Earth, Venus is almost constantly under a "greenhouse" cap. Temperatures hover around 462 degrees. For comparison, lead melts at 327 degrees.

Venus Facts:

1. She has no satellites, but itself so bright that it can cast a shadow.
2. A day on it lasts more than a year - 243 Earth days(year - 225).
3. 3. All planets in the solar system rotate counterclockwise. . Only Venus spins the other way.
4. The wind speed can reach 360 km/h.

Mercury

Mercury - first planet from the sun. Consider interesting information about him:

1. Despite being dangerously close to a hot neighbor, he there are glaciers.
2. Mercury boasts geysers. Because there is no oxygen They are made up of pure hydrogen.
3. American research satellites spotted the presence of a small magnetic field.
4. Mercury is eccentric. Its trajectory has an ellipse, the maximum diameter of which is almost twice the minimum.
5. Mercury is wrinkled and, since it has a minimum thickness of the atmosphere. As a result inner core cools down, shrinking. Therefore, his robe was covered with wrinkles, the height of which can reach hundreds of meters.

Saturn

Saturn, despite the minimum amount of light and heat, not covered by glaciers, since its main components are gases: helium and hydrogen. It is one of the ringed planets in the solar system. Galileo, who first saw the planet, suggested that the rings are a trace of the movement of two satellites, but they rotate very quickly.

Curious information:

1. Shape of Saturn oblate ball. This is due to the rapid rotation of the celestial body around its axis. Its diameter in the widest part is 120 thousand km, in the narrowest - 108 thousand km.
2. It ranks second in the solar system in terms of the number of its satellites - 62 pieces. At the same time, there are giants larger than Mercury, and there are very little ones with a diameter of up to 5 km.
3. The main decoration of the gas giant are its rings.
4. Saturn 760 times more earth .
5. Its density is second only to water.

Researchers have proposed an interesting interpretation of the last two facts in teaching children:

• If you create a bag the size of Saturn, then it would fit exactly 760 balls, the diameter of which is equal to the globe.
• If a giant bathtub comparable to its size was filled with water, then Saturn would float on the surface.

Pluto

Of particular interest is Pluto.

Until the end of the twentieth century, it was considered the most farthest planet from the sun, but in connection with the discovery of the second asteroid belt beyond Neptune, in which fragments were found with a weight and diameter exceeding Pluto, since the beginning of the 21st century it has been transferred to the status of dwarf planets.

An official name for bodies of this size has yet to be invented. At the same time, this "fragment" has five of its satellites. One of them - Charon, in its parameters is almost equal to Pluto itself.

There is no blue sky planet in our system, except for Earth and… Pluto. In addition, it is noted that Pluto has a lot of ice. Unlike the ice sheets of Mercury, this ice is frozen water, since the planet is quite far from the main body.

Jupiter

But the most interesting planet is Jupiter:

1. He has rings. Five of them are fragments of meteorites approaching him. Unlike the rings of Saturn, they do not contain ice.
2. The moons of Jupiter were named after the mistresses of the ancient Greek god, after whom it is named.
3. It is the most dangerous for radio and magnetic devices. Its magnetic field can damage the instruments of a ship that tries to approach it.
4. The speed of Jupiter is also curious. The days on it are only 10 hours, and the year is the time during which the orbit around a star, 12 years.
5. The mass of Jupiter is several times greater than the weight of all the other planets revolving around the Sun.

Earth

Interesting facts.

1. The South Pole - Antarctica, contains almost 90% of all ice on the globe. Almost 70% of the world's fresh water is also located there.
2. longest mountain range is under water. Its length is more than 600,000 km.
3. The longest range on land is the Himalayas (over 2500 km),
4. The Dead Sea is the second deepest point in the world. its bottom located at 400 meters below ocean level.
5. Scientists suggest that our celestial body used to have two moons. After a collision with him, the second crumbled and became an asteroid belt.
6. Many years ago Earth was not green-blue, as in today's images from space, but purple, due to a large number bacteria.

These are not all interesting facts about the planet Earth. Scientists can tell more than one hundred curious, sometimes funny information.

gravity

The simplest interpretation of this term is attraction.

People walk on a horizontal surface because it attracts. The thrown stone sooner or later still falls - gravity action. If you are unsure of riding a bicycle, then you fall - gravity again.

solar system and gravity are interconnected. celestial bodies have their own orbits around the star.

Without gravity, there would be no orbits. All this swarm flying around our luminary would have scattered in different directions.

Attraction also manifests itself in the fact that all planets have round shape. Gravity depends on distance: several pieces of any substance are mutually attracted, resulting in a ball.

Table of length of day and years

It is clear from the table that the farther the object is from the main luminary, the shorter the day and the longer the years. Which planet has the shortest year? On Mercury it is only 3 earth months. Scientists have not yet been able to confirm or refute this figure, because not a single terrestrial telescope will be able to constantly observe it. The proximity of the main luminary will certainly disable the optics. The data are received by means of space research vehicles.

The length of the day also depends on body diameter and its rotation speed. The white planets of the Solar System (terrestrial type), whose names are presented in the first four cells of the table, have a rocky structure and a rather slow speed.

10 interesting facts about the solar system

Our solar system: The planet Uranus

Conclusion

The giant planets located beyond the asteroid belt are mostly gaseous, due to which they rotate faster. At the same time, the entire quadruple has poles and an equator revolve with different speed . On the other hand, since they are located at a greater distance from the star, they take quite a long time to complete the orbit.

All space objects are interesting in their own way, and each of them contains some kind of mystery. Their study is a long and very entertaining process, which every year reveals new secrets of the Universe to us.

It would seem that a lot is known about the solar system to everyone who at least sometimes opened an astronomy textbook at school. But in fact, our galaxy is fraught with a huge number of mysteries and secrets, and new facts about the solar system that become known to scientists can surprise even the most sophisticated experts in astronomy.

1. Rotation speed 220-240 km/s

Everything moves in space. The solar system revolves around the center of the Galaxy at a speed of 220-240 km / s, and it takes about 240 million years to complete one period of revolution.

2. Solar eclipses

solar eclipses can be observed from anywhere in the solar system. But Earth is the only place where you can see a total solar eclipse.

3. The mass of the Sun is 99.86% of the mass of Cs

As you know, the Sun is much larger than any planet in our system. Few people think about this, but in fact, the mass of the Sun is about 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system.

4. Wind speed up to 2100 km/h

On Earth, the maximum wind speed was recorded on the Australian island of Barrow and was 408 km / h. And the most strong winds in the solar system they blow on Neptune: up to 2100 km / h.

5. Chemical composition

Recently, scientists have developed a new model chemical composition early solar system. According to this theory, about half of the water currently on Earth came from interstellar ice during the formation of the Sun.

6. Water in Ss

Over the past couple of decades, scientists have found that some planets and their satellites in the solar system have water in different states. However, Earth is the only place in the solar system where water can be present in all three states: solid, liquid and vapor.

7. Dead Twin

Of all the planets in the solar system, Venus is considered Earth's twin. Despite the fact that conditions on its surface are generally unsuitable for human life (for example, only the temperature is 464 ° C), it has approximately the same size and orbit with the Earth.

8. Neutrino

In the 20th century, a stable neutral elementary particle neutrino. To figuratively describe its size, let's make the following comparison: if an atom were the size of the solar system, then the neutrino would be the size of a golf ball.

9. Up to -224 °C

The coldest planetary atmosphere in the solar system is on Uranus. Here the temperature drops to -224°C.

10. The highest mountain in Ss

The tallest Mountain peak on Earth - Everest (Chomolungma), whose height is 8,848 m. And the most high mountain in the solar system - on Mars. Here the height of Mount Olympus is about 22 km.

11. The largest model

Sweden has the largest solar system model in the world. It is made on a scale of 1:20 million and stretches for 950 km.

12. Top three

Uranus is the third largest planet in the solar system. The first largest is Jupiter, and the second is Saturn.

13. The biggest storms

Mars also has some of the largest dust storms in the solar system. They often last for several months and can cover the entire planet.

14. Orbital speed of the Earth

The earth moves in orbit at a speed of about 108,000 km/h.

15. Volcanoes of Venus

According to various estimates, there are between 1,000 and 1,500 volcanoes on Earth. And most of them in the solar system on Venus - more than 1,600.

so necessary and interesting subject, as astronomy, unfortunately, is not taught in some schools and colleges, and completely in vain. This science allows us to look around, examine the Galaxy around us and learn more about the universe in which we live. Astronomical discoveries can rightfully be ranked among the most important and outstanding, and one can only hope that our world will not be left without astronomers.

1. The theory of channels on Mars arose due to a translator's error. The Italian astronomer Schiaparelli, who discovered them, used the word "canali" in his report, which in his mother tongue can mean, among other things, natural channels, for example, river channels or canyons. However, in the translation of his work into English, the word "canals" was used, which means only man-made channels. By the way, the name Schiaparelli now bears a huge Martian crater, about 400 by 460 km in size ().
2. Despite the fact that in different time year the Earth is removed from the Sun at different distances, this has almost no effect on our climate. The change of seasons is largely due to the tilt of the earth's axis. That is why summer comes in the Southern Hemisphere when winter comes to the Northern Hemisphere, and vice versa. Interestingly, astronomy did not immediately find out about this.
3. The Big Bang Theory got its name from the fact that it was first used in a speech by one of its critics. However, the sonorous name has taken root among all lovers of astronomy, including among supporters of the theory.
4. Even ancient people were interested in astronomy. This is evidenced by relics that are many thousands of years old. They are even older Egyptian pyramids. Among them is, for example, the famous English Stonehenge.
5. Thanks to the huge number of amateur astronomers around the world, they still make a really significant contribution to the development of this science.
6. Of all the sciences, it is interesting that astronomy, more than any other, was attacked by the Vatican. Officially, the printing of books on the mechanics of celestial bodies was allowed by the Inquisition only in 1822, and the Vatican officially recognized that the Earth is round only in 1992 ().
7. Only at the beginning of the 20th century, astronomers discovered that our solar system is part of a huge galaxy, which, in turn, is one of many like it. This is how extragalactic astronomy was born.
8. The oldest astronomy is optical. However, modern science pays more attention to the study of space in the ultraviolet, infrared and other spectra.
9. The famous Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 560 km at a speed of about 7.5 km per second.
10. The entire observable universe is the absolute past relative to us. Many stars, located billions of light years away, have long crumbled into dust, but their light has only just reached us. Despite the fact that astronomy is interesting as a science, it becomes a little sad that we are looking at something that has not existed for millions and billions of years.

When you look at the Andromeda galaxy (which is 2.3 million light-years away), the light you see took 2.3 million years to reach you. Thus, you see the galaxy as it was 2.3 million years ago.

The light from the sun takes 8 minutes to get to you, so you see the sun as it was 8 minutes ago. Perhaps the sun was blown up 4 minutes ago, but you don't know about it, and you won't know for another 4 minutes!

The earth is not a ball! In fact, the earth is an oblate spheroid, slightly crushed at the poles and sticking out at the equator due to its rotation.

When Galileo viewed Saturn for the first time with a telescope, he described the planet as having "ears". That was until 1655, when Huygens came up with the crazy theory that the planet might have a set of huge rings around it.

Even on a clear night, the human eye can only see 3,000 stars. And according to estimates, 100,000,000,000 of them are located only in our galaxy! Approximately, the number of stars in the universe is greater than the number of grains of sand on all the beaches of the world! But on a clear night, you can see its equivalent - just like a handful of sand.

The highest mountain in the solar system is Mount Olympus, on Mars, about 15 miles high. This is three times higher than the height of Everest on Earth. The mountain covers an area about half the size of Spain.

If the Sun is the size of a dot, then the nearest star to us will be 10 miles away. Today the sky is conditionally divided into 88 areas - constellations. The mass of the Sun is 333 thousand times greater than the mass of the Earth.

According to estimates, in the region of our Sun, the fourth space velocity is about 550 km / s. The fourth cosmic speed is the minimum necessary speed of the body, which allows to overcome the attraction of the galaxy.

Amazing facts. Astronomy approves!

• The Sun revolves around the center of our Galaxy at a speed of approximately 250 km/s. If it moved three times faster, then over time it would leave.
• The Sun needs 200 million years to fly around the center of the Galaxy.
• Every year, tons of interplanetary dust reach the Earth.
• Half a billionth of the energy released by the Sun reaches the Earth.
• Temperatures on the surface of Venus are hot enough to melt lead. On Venus, a day is longer than a year.
• If you could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take you 100,000 years to cross our Galaxy!
• Only one side of the Moon is visible from Earth. The moon's rotation period is exactly the same as the orbit period.
• The lowest temperature on the Moon is -164 degrees Celsius. The highest temperature on the Moon is +117 degrees Celsius. The highest mountain on the moon has a height of 11,500 meters.

• Betelgeuse, the brightest star on Orion's upper left arm, is so big that if placed where the sun is, it would swallow Earth, Mars and Jupiter!
• If you are standing at the equator, you are spinning at about 1,000 miles per hour. It turns out that this is the speed of rotation of the Earth. And the speed of movement along the disk around the Sun is 67,000 miles per hour.
• At the equator you are about 3% lighter than at the poles due to the Earth's centrifugal gravity.
• The atmosphere on Earth is (proportionately) thinner than the skin on an apple.
• On Mercury, a day is 59 Earth days. Its year (time, period around the orbit of the Sun) is 88 days.
• There is a planet (scientists call it “hellish” or “hot Jupiter”) in the constellation Chanterelle, where the year is 2 days! And the air temperature on this planet is three thousand degrees.
• If a piece of the sun the size of a pinhead is placed on Earth, you will not be able to stand still even at a distance of 90 miles (145 km) from it!
• Every year the sun evaporates 100,000 cubic miles of water from the Earth (the water cycle weighs 400000000000000 tons!)
• Jupiter acts like a huge vacuum cleaner, attracting and absorbing comets and meteors. Some estimates say that without the gravitational influence of Jupiter, the number of massive projectiles hitting the Earth would be 10,000 times greater.

Astronomers believe that space is not a complete vacuum. At least there are always three atoms per cubic meter.

*Note: centrifugal force is not a "real" force, it is only an effect experienced by an object in a circular motion.

READ: Amazing Fact

Even in ancient times, people noticed that Sun, Moon, planets , stars move across the sky with a certain regularity, and began to study these phenomena.

This is how astronomy was born - the science of the laws that celestial bodies obey in their movement and development (from the Greek words "astron" - "star", "nomos" - "law").

It took many centuries to find out which of the movements of celestial bodies are real, and which create the illusion of movement. For example, it seems to us that the Sun rises, moves through the sky and sets, but our Earth actually revolves around the Sun. Until the 16th century, almost everyone was convinced that the Earth was at the center of the universe and that the heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth.

The great 16th-century Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and his followers proved that the universe is actually much more complex. When the telescope was invented in the early 17th century ( optical instrument, which made it possible to examine and study celestial bodies in detail), it turned out that the Sun is a million times larger in volume than the Earth, and the stars are just as hot and bullet-like as the Sun. They seem small and dim to us because they are immeasurably far away from us than the Sun. If a space rocket can reach the Sun in two months, then the flight of such a rocket to the nearest stars will take millions of years.

Except Earth around sun other stars rotate.

Month in volume, nearly 50 times smaller than Earth. The moon revolves around our planet and is therefore called the Earth's natural satellite. There are satellites and most other planets.

They observe celestial bodies, and then process and analyze them in astronomical observatories and institutes. Soviet observatories are equipped with sophisticated instruments and instruments, powerful telescopes and radio telescopes.

Many spacecraft are equipped with astronomical instruments that make it possible to study the Universe beyond earth's atmosphere. Air, which blocks many rays from celestial bodies, does not interfere with observation here, in space orbits. That is why the data about the universe obtained with the help of spacecraft especially valuable.

- short interesting facts:

• One morning, for 2 hours, the Chinese were able to observe a unique picture - as many as 3 suns appeared in the sky. Scientists immediately found the answer to this strange phenomenon. The fact is that in autumn at an altitude of 6000 kilometers a cloud appeared, which consists of small ice crystals. The rays that fall on such a cloud begin to bend, as a result of which we see this phenomenon.

• More than 150,000 meteorites fall to earth every day;
• The sun is only one of 200 billion stars;
• The largest asteroid is Ceres, which has 940 km. in diameter, also this asteroid was the first one discovered by astronaut scientists;
• The moon has very high temperature fluctuations from -164 to +117 degrees Celsius;
• Astronomers have divided the sky into 88 conditional parts;
• 95% of carbon dioxide is the atmosphere of the planet Mars;
• The highest point on Earth is 8848 meters, and peaks of 20-25 km occur on Mars.