Science Facts You Should Know About the Universe. What else did we not know about our universe
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Thanks to spaceships and probes, scientists receive daily new data about the Universe and Solar system.
Life on Mars, most likely, did exist.
The indefatigable Curiosity rover has discovered traces of boron in the rocks of the Gale crater on Mars. The presence of this element indicates that the water on the surface of our space neighbor was once habitable.
One of the sources of boron on Earth is warm subsurface waters with a neutral pH, which after drying out leave special streaks containing this chemical element... This fact gave scientists another compelling reason to search for traces of life that once existed on the Red Planet.
Stephen Hawking launched a program to search for extraterrestrial life
Within the framework of the project, it is planned to create a ship, on board of which there will be about a thousand miniature spacecraft that will explore the planets suitable for life. The goal of the project is to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to us.
However, it is too early to rejoice in interstellar flights. It will take more than a decade to create the spacecraft, since the project requires the improvement of many existing space technologies. According to the founders of the project Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner, the speed of the ship should reach 20% of the speed of light, which will make it possible to reach Alpha Centauri in just 24 years.
Jupiter and Neptune Attack Earth with Comets
For more than 20 years, scientists have believed that Jupiter, thanks to its powerful gravitational field, attracts comets and asteroids that end up in the solar system.
However, research carried out by NASA scientists made it possible to believe that Jupiter and Neptune, on the contrary, throw objects into the inner part of the solar system, where they can collide with the Earth. By the way, it is Jupiter who is suspected of "sending" the famous Chelyabinsk meteorite to our planet.
Pluto has liquid water
According to data obtained by NASA's New Horisont spacecraft, under 300 km of ice on Pluto is a liquid ocean at least 100 km deep.
Apparently, the salinity of the Pluto ocean reaches 30%, that is, about the same as that of the Earth's Dead Sea. However, scientists do not yet have information about whether someone can live in the "underground" ocean.
Venus was once inhabited
Today Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, which, of course, excludes the presence of liquid water... However, more than 4 billion years ago, the planet had liquid oceans that existed for about 2 billion years. This makes it possible to assume the existence of life on the second planet from the Sun.
Venus is currently generating such a powerful electric field that it literally pushes hydrogen and oxygen atoms from the planet, which are then swept away by the solar wind.
Saturn's rings and moons are younger than dinosaurs
As you know, 62 satellites and several rings, consisting mainly of water ice, revolve around Saturn. According to the theory, the planet once had more satellites, but they collided with each other, forming larger moons.
Data obtained in 2016 made it possible to assume that the rings did not form simultaneously with the planet about 4 billion years ago. With the help of computer simulations, it was found that the rings of Saturn, as well as all of its satellites, with the exception of Iapetus and Titan, appeared when dinosaurs lived on Earth.
The ninth planet may appear in the solar system again
In January 2016, using computer and mathematical modeling, it was determined that there may be another planet in the solar system. According to the assumption of Konstantin Batygin and Michael Brown (by the way, he is responsible for depriving Pluto of the planet's status), the alleged object is 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune.
Apparently, the diameter of the planet is 2–4 times larger than that of the Earth, and the mass is about 10 times greater than the mass of the Earth. The planet does not yet have a name - it will be able to acquire its own name only after its existence is proved.
There are at least 15,000 large asteroids in near-Earth space.
The planet revolves around a star in the so-called habitable zone, that is, it may well be suitable for life. Simply put, the distance from a planet to a star is such that water on it can exist in liquid form. If the planet is found to have a magnetic field and atmosphere, then we can well count on finding living organisms there. Which ones? Scientists have yet to answer this question.
Scientists have received evidence of the existence of black holes
On its 100th anniversary, Einstein's theory of relativity received a truly priceless gift - a discovery that confirmed one of its main postulates. In February 2016, scientists discovered gravitational waves predicted by the greatest physicist of the 20th century.
This event unambiguously confirms the presence of black holes for the first time. In addition, if scientists record the waves formed as a result of the Big Bang, they will be able to finally understand the mechanism of the birth of the universe.
How much we still do not know about our universe. But it is insanely interesting to learn something new about the place that we call the limitless universe. Therefore, I suggest further reading the most interesting facts that you have not yet heard about our universe.
Milky Way
Let's start not with a fact, but with an introduction to our galaxy. Look up tonight when the sun is over the horizon. Depending on how dark it gets, you may be able to see a cluster of stars, each of which belongs to our own galaxy. Milky way... But if you look more closely, you will be able to identify the stars of galaxies other than our own, some of which are visible to the naked eye.
Other Galaxies
This fact will certainly make you feel small. Scientists estimate that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, none of which you will see without a telescope. In addition, each of these galaxies has billions of stars, and the total number of stars in the universe leads to 10 billion trillion. The number of stars is greater than the number of grains of sand on all the beaches of the Earth.
Dark matter
All stars, galaxies and black holes in the universe only account for about 5% of its mass. As crazy as it sounds, the remaining 95% are simply left out. Scientists decided to label this mysterious material with dark matter, and to this day they are still not sure what it is and what it looks like.
Cosmic alcohol cloud
For those dreaming of opening their own bar, there is no better place than Cloud Sagittarius B. Although located 26,000 light years away, this interstellar cloud of gas and dust contains billions of liters of vinyl alcohol. Although it is not in a drinkable condition, it is very important. organic compound, without which the existence of life is impossible
The moon smells like gunpowder
After sending lunar astronauts on Apollo missions, they described moon dust as extremely soft and smelling of gunpowder. Scientists, however, are still not exactly sure why this is happening. Gunpowder has extremely different compositions with moon dust consisting of most of the small particles of silicon glass dioxide.
Nuclear strike on the moon
In the late 1950s, something labeled Project A119 was born. The United States has decided that it will good idea- launch a nuclear missile by hitting the moon. What for? Apparently they felt it would give them a head start in the Space Race? Fortunately, this plan never came to fruition.
Ponzo illusion
Have you ever noticed that when the moon is directly on the horizon, it appears much closer and larger? In fact, this is a feature of the work of the human brain, to interpret objects at a distance. Although objects in the distance are really small, your brain does not actually interpret them as tiny. The effect is known as the ponzo illusion, in which the brain inflates the size of the moon to make it appear larger. Don't believe me? Next time you see an oiled moon, put your watch or hand in front of it and watch it shrink.
Largest diamond
In 2004, scientists discovered the largest diamond ever recorded. In fact, it is a shattered star. About 4,000 kilometers in diameter, with billions of carats, it is about 50 light-years from Earth.
Venus's day is longer than her year
Oddly enough, Venus travels its entire orbit around the sun before it can orbit around its own axis. This means that the day is actually longer than a full year in Venus's time. Thus, the Second World War on a Venus scale ended less than 100 days ago.
Floating saturn
If you had to put Saturn in a glass of water, it would float. The reason for this lies in its density. 687 grams per cm, cubed, while water is 998 grams per cubic centimeter. Unfortunately, you would need a glass that is over 120,000 km in diameter to witness this.
Cold welding
This is a phenomenon used to describe the fact that whenever two pieces of metal in space come into contact with each other, they stick together very tightly. While welding usually requires high temperature, in this case the cosmic vacuum plays its role. The question arises, how do space shuttles resist this factor? Typically, metals on earth have a layer of oxidized material that covers their surface, which prevents cold welding in space. Thus, on missions, the risk of accidental welding of the shuttle with other objects is negligible.
Earth has multiple moons
Although they look more like lunar imitators, scientists have discovered several asteroids that more or less follow the Earth as it moves around the sun.
Space debris
The Earth does have over 8,000 objects orbiting in orbit. Most of them are classified as "space debris", or debris from spaceships and missions in the past. We have already mentioned that the Earth's orbit can be attributed to the most polluted places on Earth.
Lunar drift
Scientists have calculated that the moon moves 3.8 cm further from Earth every year. As a result, the Earth's rotation has slowed down by about 002 seconds every day for the past century.
The sun's rays on Earth are 30,000 years old
Most of us know that the sun's rays make their way to Earth in 8 minutes, crossing 93 million miles between the Earth and the surface of the Sun. But did you know that the energy in these rays began life more than 30,000 years ago deep in the core of the sun? They were formed by an intense fusion reaction and have spent most of the thousands of years making their way to the surface of the Sun.
Big Dipper is not a constellation
In fact, the Big Dipper is an asterism. There are only 88 official constellations, and all others, including the Bucket, fall into the category of asterisms. However, it consists of 7 of the most bright stars constellation Ursa, or Ursa Major
Constant movement
We live on a planet that revolves on its own axis, while revolving around a star that revolves around the center of the galaxy, which also moves through space. It seems like a rather complex system where we are all in constant motion and interaction.
Galileo's spatial relativity
How do you know that the bus you take to get to work is actually moving? What if you are sitting in the only stationary object in the known universe and everything else, including the road, moves? The truth is, there is no way to prove what moves relative to what. For you, the person outside the window will be static, because your frame of reference is a bus. For the person looking from the sidewalk, however, both you and the bus will move because their frame of reference is earth.
Light Speed
The speed of light is constant and does not depend on any accompanying factors. The speed of light is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second.
Universal speed limit
As a result of the aforementioned fact that the speed of light cannot exceed 300,000 kilometers per second, the conclusion might follow that nothing can, because this mark is considered as a universal speed limit. This, there are some interesting consequences leading directly to the following fact.
Einstein's theory of relativity
Explaining in understandable terms, Einstein essentially came up with the revolutionary idea that not only motion is relative, but time, too. An example can be taken by taking a person who is on the bus and who is standing on the sidewalk. Now we take a beam of light, reflected from a surface, and directed towards these two participants in the experiment. During the same period of time, a person on a bus will cover a much greater distance towards the beam of light than a pedestrian on the sidewalk, and accordingly will meet with him some time earlier. Thus, it can be assumed that for each of the participants the time was different, slower or faster.
Moving clock
Everything we have just talked about refers to modern technologies... In fact, clocks in on-board computers and navigation equipment must take into account the effects of relativity. For example, if you measured the time that elapsed for wrist watch fighter pilots, you would find that it lagged behind your clock by a few nanoseconds.
Time relativity
Remember high school physics? As gravity increases near the Earth's surface, so does acceleration. Following this theory, the clocks tick at different speeds at different heights. Also, while the Earth is spinning, someone near the equator is moving faster than someone at the North Pole. This is because their clock is ticking more slowly.
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Ecology of cognition. There are two options: either the universe is finite and has a size, or infinite and stretches forever
There are two options: either the universe is finite and has a size, or infinite and stretches forever. Both options are thought provoking. How big is our universe? It all depends on the answer to the above questions. Have astronomers tried to figure this out? Of course we tried. We can say that they are obsessed with finding answers to these questions, and through their search we build sensitive space telescopes and satellites. Astronomers peer into the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation left over from the Big Bang. How can you test this idea just by observing the sky?
Scientists have tried to find evidence that features at one end of the palate are associated with features at the other, such as the way the edges of a bottle wrap fit together. So far, no evidence has been found that the edges of the sky can be connected.
Humanly speaking, this means that for 13.8 billion light years in all directions, the universe does not repeat itself. Light travels back and forth through the entire 13.8 billion light-years and only then leaves the universe. The expansion of the Universe has pushed the boundaries of light escaping the Universe by 47.5 billion years. You could say our universe is 93 billion light-years across. And this is the minimum. Perhaps it's a number of 100 billion light years, or even a trillion. We do not know. Perhaps we will not find out. Also, the universe may well be infinite.
If the universe is truly infinite, then we will get an extremely interesting result that will make you seriously puzzle.
So, imagine. In one cubic meter of space (just spread your arms wider) there is a finite number of particles that can exist in this region, and these particles can have a finite number of configurations, taking into account their spin, charge, position, speed, etc.
Tony Padilla of Numberphile calculated that this number should be ten to the tenth to the seventieth power. This is so big number that it cannot be written down with all the pencils in the universe. Assuming, of course, that other lifeforms have not invented eternal pencils or that there is no extra dimension filled entirely with pencils. And all the same, there probably won't be enough pencils.
There are only 10 ^ 80 particles in the observable universe. And this is much less than the possible configurations of matter in one cubic meter. If the Universe is truly infinite, then moving away from the Earth you will eventually find a place with an exact duplicate of our cubic meter of space. And the further, the more duplicates.
Just think, you say. One hydrogen cloud looks the same as the other. But you should know that as you walk through places that look more and more familiar, you will eventually come to a place where you find yourself. And finding a copy of yourself is perhaps the strangest thing that can happen in an infinite universe.
As you continue, you will find entire duplicates of the observable universe, with exact and inaccurate copies of you. What's next? Possibly an infinite number of duplicates of the observable universe. You don't even have to drag in the multiverse to find them. They are repeating universes within our own infinite universe.
It is extremely important to answer the question whether the universe is finite or infinite, because any of the answers will be mind-boggling. So far, astronomers do not know the answer. But do not lose hope.
Completed by a student of group PI-05-1: Tsaaeva D.B.
Grozny State Oil Institute
named after academician M.D. Millionshchikova
This work gives a description of what the scientific picture of the world is, it is also given short description concept of the Universe (Our concept of the Universe, the Birth of the Universe, etc.).
This work includes 10 pages.
The scientific picture of the world is an integral system of ideas about general properties and the laws of reality, built as a result of the generalization and synthesis of fundamental scientific concepts and principles.
The scientific picture of the world differs significantly from religious ideas about the world, which are based not so much on proven facts as on the authority of the prophets and religious tradition. Religious interpretations of the concept of the universe are constantly changing in order to bring them closer to modern scientific interpretations. So, even a few hundred years ago, Christians, literally interpreting the Bible, believed that the sky was solid ("firmament"), and Muslims, according to the Koran, believed that the Sun was setting into a "muddy well." The dogmas of different religions, as a rule, contradict each other, and these contradictions are very difficult to overcome (in contrast to scientific contradictions, which are overcome experimentally).
Once a famous scientist (they say it was Bertrand Russell) read public lecture about astronomy. He told how the Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Sun, in turn, revolves around the center of a huge cluster of stars, which is called our Galaxy. As the lecture drew to a close, a small elderly lady stood up from the back rows of the hall and said, "Everything you told us is nonsense. In fact, our world is a flat plate that sits on the back of a giant turtle." Smiling condescendingly, the scientist asked: "And what does the turtle rest on?" “You are very smart, young man,” the elderly lady replied. “The turtle is on another turtle, that one is also on the turtle, and so it goes lower and lower.”
This idea of the universe as an endless tower of turtles will seem ridiculous to most of us, but why do we think we know better ourselves? What do we know about the Universe, and how did we know it? Where did the universe come from, and what will become of it? Did the universe have a beginning, and if so, what happened before the beginning? What is the essence of time? Will it ever end? Physics achievements recent years which we owe in part to the fantastic new technology, allow you to finally get answers to at least some of these long-standing questions. As time passes, these answers will perhaps become as obvious as the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and maybe as ridiculous as a tower of turtles. Only time (whatever it is) will decide this.
According to cosmological data, the universe emerged as a result of an explosive process called the Big Bang, which took place about 14 billion years ago. The Big Bang theory is in good agreement with the observed facts (for example, the expansion of the Universe and the predominance of hydrogen) and made it possible to make correct predictions, in particular, about the existence and parameters of the CMB.
At the time of the Big Bang, the universe occupied microscopic, quantum dimensions.
In accordance with the inflationary model, at the initial stage of its evolution, the Universe experienced a period of accelerated expansion (inflation). It is assumed that at this moment the Universe was "empty and cold" (there was only a high-energy scalar field), and then filled with hot matter, which continued to expand.
The transition of energy to mass does not contradict physical laws, for example, the creation of a particle-antiparticle pair from a vacuum can be observed even now in some scientific experiments.
One of the most important properties of the Universe is that it expands, and at an accelerated rate. The further an object is from our galaxy, the faster it moves away from us (but this does not mean that we are in the center of the world: the same is true for any point in space).
The visible matter in the Universe is structured into star clusters - galaxies. Galaxies form groups, which, in turn, are included in superclusters of galaxies. Superclusters are concentrated mainly inside flat layers, between which there is a space that is practically free of galaxies. Thus, on a very large scale, the Universe has a cellular structure, reminiscent of the "spongy" structure of bread. However, at even greater distances (over 1 billion light years), matter in the Universe is uniformly distributed.
If you look at the sky on a clear moonless night, then, most likely, the brightest objects that you will see will be the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In addition, you will see a huge number of stars similar to our Sun, but much further from us. When the Earth revolves around the Sun, some of these "fixed" stars slightly change their position relative to each other, that is, in fact, they are not at all motionless!
The fact is that they are somewhat closer to us than others. Since the Earth revolves around the Sun, nearby stars are visible all the time at different points in the background of more distant stars. Thanks to this, it is possible to directly measure the distance from us to these stars: the closer they are, the more noticeable their movement.
It is interesting what the general state of scientific thought was before the beginning of the 20th century: it never occurred to anyone that the Universe could expand or contract. Everyone believed that the universe either existed always in an unchanging state, or was created at some point in time in the past approximately the same as it is now. This is partly due to the tendency of people to believe in eternal truths, as well as the special attraction of the idea that, even if they themselves grow old and die, the Universe will remain eternal and unchanged.
A.A. Gorelov Concepts modern natural science... - M .: Center, 2002 .-- 208s.
Kanke V.A. Concepts of modern natural science. Textbook for universities. Ed. 2nd, rev. - M .: Logos, 2003 .-- 368s.
Karpenkov S.Kh. Concepts of modern natural science. State Unitary Enterprise "Publishing House", "Higher School", 2001.
You know, in the life of many of us there was one impression that from childhood and for a long time determined the way of thinking. This impression can be called like this: "space is awesome." But time passes, exuberant delight is replaced by reasonable interest, erudition - by the scientific method, and the stars no longer fall (after all, these are fireballs). Therefore, you are reading this article, and I am happy to write it. Let's discuss what we don't know about the universe. And by saying "we" I mean, of course, us, stuffed with scientific articles and discoveries. When we try to imagine incredible short life a person against the background of billions of years of life in the Universe before and after us, we feel like grains of sand on the tablecloth of space-time. Or if we try to imagine billions, trillions of other worlds, of which there seem to be an infinite number in the real and parallel universes, our existence seems to be nothing. But shock, excitement, or the prospect of something we don't know is still a childish delight.
We don't know why the universe exists
This is completely unfair, especially when the cosmos knows exactly what it is doing. From a physics point of view, there are some very attractive, promising theories that start the answer to the question above, but we do not know and may not know which one is right. Perhaps she was born out of an inherently unstable "nothing". You should know that emptiness is not really empty; matter and energy spontaneously arise and die in it, at least in the form of quantum fluctuations. Perhaps our universe is not the only one of its kind, but one of an almost infinite number. Perhaps all this is just. Much of our ignorance comes down to the fact that we are still waiting for the next generation of cosmic dimensions, which will confirm or deny the latest theories, and we also need more flexible and comprehensive theories, and not just mathematical elegance. In general, we do not know why all this exists and in general happens. Usually the "why" always exists.
We don't know what dark matter and dark energy are
Big problems talk about more big problems... The common matter that we, planets, stars and sausage sandwiches are made of, is about 4.9% of all the matter that fills the universe. 26.8% of matter is "dark", and we know this because on large scales, cosmic material moves faster than it should, and galaxies behave as if they are controlled by a huge mass of particles invisible to us. And we have no idea what these particles are. This is bad, but even worse is the case with dark energy. Something is causing the universe to expand faster and faster. It doesn't have to be that way. Until 5 or 6 billion years ago after the Big Bang, the expansion of the universe was stable, but something intervened, some invisible component, perhaps something like dense vacuum energy that fills space as it grows. What is it? We do not know. We have a lot of guesses that, in principle, it's a good idea to assume something about 68.3% of the universe.
We don't know if there is life anywhere else
This question is incredibly interesting already in that events can be assumed and located regardless of the answer. Here we are, creatures on a planet full of blooming life, carefully adapting to physical and chemical conditions life for the last 5 billion years. We also know that there are an awful lot of planets in the universe, and many of them could also shelter life. However, we don't know for sure if we are alone. And no clues. This is problem. This is a good problem, as I said, regardless of the answer, but few people move around trying to find the answer to this question. Although too much may depend on its resolution.
We probably don't quite understand the quantum world
Indeed, our current quantum physics in theory (and in practice) works wonders, describing atoms and molecules on a par with the bizarre nature of entanglement and qubits. But this does not mean that we are guru of quantum mech. Rather, the opposite is true. It is enough to read summaries on quantum issues to understand that the most fundamental aspects of the quantum nature of the universe still cause headaches and disagreements. People keep coming up with formulations of how quantum mechanics defines us, or doesn't. The problem is compounded when quantum physics plunges into the realm of soft, warm and moist biology. Not to mention black holes and.
We don't understand our own biology
It's no exaggeration to say that we don't understand how every detail of ours works. If we understood (and we are moving in this direction), we would cope with illness, death, begin to grow limbs and restore memory. We could master genetic engineering at the level of demigods and understand how to make the brain work hundreds of times faster. If you need good example our ignorance, let there be microflora. There is a joke that if aliens find us, they will not understand with whom to start a conversation: with the bacteria that inhabit us, or with us? Ten trillion human cells are supplemented, used, saturated with hundreds of trillions of microbes - we carry a kilogram of bacteria and archaea with us and cannot live without them. They are in our guts, lungs, noses, everywhere. We're just cruise ships for germs.
We don't know how the Earth works
Let's dive deeper. Neither man, nor robot, no one went deeper into the Earth more than a few kilometers, all the rest are in charge of probes and physical tests that are far from the essence of the matter. It took us a ridiculously long time to figure out that our planet's skin is constantly moving: plate tectonics was not generally accepted until the mid-20th century. We are still not sure how the inner dynamo works, how the rolls of convective magma generate the magnetic field of our planet. At the same time, so many events have happened in geophysics over 4.5 billion years that some sources of our best information about the origin of the planet arrive with meteorites and hide in craters of other worlds. We don't even know for sure where the moon came from. Maybe there was a giant collision, maybe not. For supposedly intelligent creatures on a small rocky planet, this is a complete failure.
We cannot prove or solve many of our own mathematical hypotheses and problems.
If mathematicians think they can avoid this festival of ignorance, just remind ourselves that we have a long list of unproven, unsolved problems and unconfirmed hypotheses. With all this, they still have not decided exactly how accurately mathematics describes the world and whether mathematics is at the very core of the universe.
We don't know how to do artificial intelligence
Let us mention this because it is a perennial problem. Also, because we often write about the development of artificial intelligence (or about its pathetic attempts to get on its feet). After all, trying to create artificial intelligence is trying to understand ourselves. Because in order to create something artificial, you need to know how the original works. While our machines have come a long way, it's still unclear if services like YouTube or some other big name can work the same way as ideas pop into our heads. Whether the machine can think at all is the question. Conclusions? There are tons of things we don't know (much more than the examples in this article). But it is not worth falling into despondency, and ignorance is not strength. In the end, the desire to discover and the desire to think launched the flywheel of science, and the Universe - the most complex riddle in the history of mankind. Perhaps hundreds of years will pass, and we will not know anything.
