Solar system

Sun

• The effect of the sun on humans

​​Na a picture of the Sun in March 2019, two large active regions are observed, clearly visible in magnetic loop systems and bright radiation formed by hot plasma.

Animation showing the solar flash played in the new model. Purple shows plasma with temperatures less than 1 million degrees, red between 1 and 10 million degrees, and green above 10 million degrees.

Planets

Planet tilt axes

Earth

Main article: Earth (planet)

Floodlight

A view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the turbulent southern hemisphere.

Saturn

Photo of Saturn taken by Voyager 1, 1980

Saturn's Satellite System

Pluto

On February 18, 1930, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet of the solar system, Pluto, at Lowell Observatory.

Moon

• Moon - formed 4.425 billion years ago as a result of the collision of the Earth with Teya.

Asteroids

The asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, has an almost incomprehensible amount of resources waiting to be used. Asteroid "David," which is 326 kilometers in diameter, in 2019 was identified as the most valuable asteroid, and its cost is estimated at about 27 quintillions (26 990 000 000 000 000 000) $. It is a carbonaceous chondrite asteroid containing water, nickel, iron, cobalt, nitrogen, ammonia and hydrogen.

Asteroids estimated at the cost of their resources, 2019

Center of gravity

Contrary to popular belief that the planets of the solar system orbit the stationary Sun, the position of its center changes slightly. Accordingly, its center of gravity also shifts and is located behind the surface of the Sun visible to astronomers. The displacement is due to gravitational effects on the Sun from planets, especially Jupiter.

However, it is important for astronomers to know the exact coordinates of the center of gravity of the solar system - accurate information about its location is required to search for gravitational waves. A team of American scientists found out its location with an accuracy of 100 meters. The work is published in The Astrophysical Journal in 2020.

The so-called space-time ripples are a relatively new field mastered in astronomy, although the existence of gravitational waves was predicted by Einstein. Gravitational waves, in fact, are fluctuations of the space-time metric, manifested in the form of vibrations of the gravitational field. They are created by events such as mergers of black holes, pulsars, etc. Scientists have been looking for gravitational waves for a long time and have already been experimentally discovered several times. Now there is a search for new ways to identify them.

Specialists from the NANOGrav project observatory were engaged in the detection of gravitational waves, studying the behavior of neutron stars - pulsars. These stars rotate very quickly and at certain stages of rotation emit powerful radiation towards the Earth. Astronomers see them as bright periodically flashing points. A team of scientists at NANOGrav observed their signals and tried to find deviations in the periodicity of stellar flares -- researchers speculated that these deviations could be caused by the passage of gravitational waves.

To measure the frequency of pulsar flares as accurately as possible, scientists needed to determine with high accuracy the position of the Earth relative to the center of mass of the solar system. Image: NASA

Usually estimates of the location of the barycenter were based on Doppler tracking - the change in the wavelength of radiation during the movement of the planets relative to the Earth was determined. But this is not an accurate method, and any errors in it could lead to miscalculations that would look like gravitational waves without being them. Experts from NANOGrav have developed a software algorithm BayesEphem, which allows you to correct these measurements and simulate errors in calculations.

When the algorithm was applied to the data obtained by the observatory, scientists were able to set a new upper limit for the background of gravitational waves, as well as calculate a new, more accurate location of the center of mass of the solar system with an error of up to 100 meters. According to the scientists themselves, this error is comparable to the thickness of a human hair, if you imagine that the size of the Sun is equal to the football field.

Knowing the exact location of the solar system's barycenter will provide much more accurate detection of low-frequency gravitational waves. This will help astronomers gain a more holistic view of all kinds of black holes in the universe and resolve other open questions of theoretical physics and cosmology, such as getting closer to the Big Bang moment. And measuring these waves will allow you to move to a new stage in the development of wireless communication due to their ability to pass through any medium almost without absorption.

Chronicle

2023: China develops roadmap for entire solar system resource use

In early September 2023, it became known that a comprehensive plan for the use of the resources of the solar system was developed in China. This program, called Tiangong Kaiwu, is designed for the period up to 2100. Read more here.