The most spectacular cosmic phenomenon of recent years. Photo

Ten most-most.

Space still remains an incomprehensible mystery to all mankind. It is incredibly beautiful, full of mysteries and dangers, and the more we study, the more open a new capture the imagination of phenomena. We have collected for you 10 of the most interesting phenomena that occurred in 2017.

Space still remains an incomprehensible mystery to all mankind. It is incredibly beautiful, full of mysteries and dangers, and the more we study, the more open a new capture the imagination of phenomena. We have collected for you 10 of the most interesting phenomena that occurred in 2017.

1. The sounds inside the rings of Saturn

The spacecraft “Cassini” recorded sounds in the rings of Saturn. The sounds were recorded through the device Audio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) that detects radio and plasma waves, then converted into sounds. As a result, scientists “heard” not what I expected.

The sounds were recorded through the device Audio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) that detects radio and plasma waves, which are then converted into sound. As a result, we can “hear” dust particles hitting the antenna of the instrument, sounds which contrast with the usual “creaks and whistles”, created in space the charged particles.

But as soon as Cassini plunged into the void between the rings, it suddenly became strangely quiet.

2. Ice planet very similar to Earth

The planet, representing a ball of ice was discovered using a special technique and was named OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb.

Using the microlensing managed to discover a new planet that approximates the Earth by mass, and even orbiting its star at the same distance as the Earth from the Sun. However, the similarity ends — the new planet is probably too cold to be habitable, because its star 12 times less than our Sun.

Microlensing is a method that facilitates the detection of remote objects by using background stars as a “backlight.” When studied star passes in front of a bigger and brighter star, a big star for a short time as if “highlights” smaller and simplifies the process of monitoring the system.

3. Unique images of Saturn’s rings from Cassini

The spacecraft Cassini has successfully completed its passage through the narrow gap between the planet Saturn and its rings 26 April 2017 and transmitted to Earth unique pictures. The distance between the rings and upper atmosphere of Saturn is about 2 000 km And through this “gap” Cassini was supposed to slip at a speed of 124 thousand km/h. At the same time as protection from the ring particles, which could damage, Cassini used a large antenna, expanding it away from the Earth and towards the obstacles. That’s why he couldn’t get in touch with the Earth within 20 hours.

4. Unexplained natural phenomenon named “Steve”

A group of independent researchers of the Aurora found yet not explored phenomenon in the night sky over Canada and called him “Steve”. More precisely, the name for the new phenomenon offered one of the users in the comments to the photo as yet unnamed phenomenon. And the scientists agreed. Given the fact that the official scientific community has not really responded to the opening, the name assigned to the phenomenon.

“Great” scientists do not yet know exactly how to characterize this phenomenon, although discovered Steve, a group of enthusiasts at first called his “proton arc”. They did not know that proton glow is not visible to the human eye. Preliminary tests showed that Steve turned out to be a hot stream of rapidly flowing gas in the upper atmosphere.

The European space Agency (ESA) have sent a special probe to explore Steve and found that the temperature of the air inside the gas flow rises above 3000 degrees Celsius. At first, scientists couldn’t even believe it. Data showed that at the time of measurement Steve with a width of 25 kilometers traveled at a speed of 10 kilometers per second.

5. A new planet suitable for life

The exoplanet, orbiting a red dwarf at a distance of 40 light years from Earth, may be the new owner of the title “the best place to search for signs of life outside the Solar system.” According to scientists, the system LHS 1140 in the constellation Cetus may be more suitable for the search of extraterrestrial life than Proxima b or TRAPPIST-1.

LHS 1140 (GJ 3053) — star, which is located in the constellation Cetus at a distance of about 40 light-years from the Sun. Its mass and radius are about 14% and 18% of solar, respectively. The surface temperature is approximately 3131 Kelvin, which is two times smaller than the figure in the Sun. The luminosity of the star is equal to 0.002 of the luminosity of the Sun. Age LHS 1140 is estimated at approximately 5 billion years.

6. The asteroid that almost reached the Ground

Asteroid 2014 JO25 with a diameter of about 650 meters closer to Earth in April 2017, and then flew away. This relatively large near-earth asteroid was only four times farther from Earth than the Moon. NASA has classified the asteroid as a “potentially dangerous”. This category automatically includes all the asteroids larger than 100 meters and approaching closer to the Earth than 19.5 distances from it to the moon.

7. Space “dumpling” in 3D

In the photo — pan, natural satellite of Saturn. Surround the photo was taken at the anaglyph method. To obtain a stereo effect by using special glasses with red and blue filters.

Pan opened on 16 July 1990. Researcher mark Solter analyzed the photos, which made the automatic interplanetary station “Voyager-2” in 1981. Experts are still not agreed on why pan has such a form.

8. The first photo of an inhabited system Trappist-1

The discovery of potentially habitable planetary system of star Trappist-1 was the event of the year in astronomy. Now NASA has published on its website the first pictures of the stars. This camera was one frame per minute for over an hour, and then photos collected into an animation:

The size of the animation — 11×11 pixels, and it covers an area of 44 square arcsecond. This is equivalent to a grain of sand at arm’s length.

Recall that the distance from the Earth to the stars Trappist-1 is 39 light years.

9. Date of collision of the Earth with Mars

American scientist-geophysicist Steven Myers of the University of Wisconsin suggested that Earth and Mars may face. This theory is not new, but scientists have recently received confirmation from her, finding evidence in an unexpected place. Blame — “the butterfly effect”.

This is the same phenomenon. Butterfly fluttering over the Indian ocean can affect weather conditions over North America in a week.

This idea is not new. But the Myers team found evidence in an unexpected place. Rock formation in Colorado consists of sedimentary layers, evidence of climatic changes that were caused by fluctuations in the amount of sunlight entering the planet. According to scientists, this is the result of changes in Earth’s orbit.

At least for the last 50 million years the Earth’s orbit every 2.4 million years cyclically changed shape from circular to elliptical. This created climate change. But 85 million years, this frequency was 1.2 million years, as Earth and Mars interacted slightly, as if “dragging” each other, then it is natural to expect in a chaotic system.

The discovery will help to understand the relationship between orbital changes and climate. But other potential impacts are somewhat more alarming: over billions of years there is a very small chance that Mars may crash into the Ground.

10. Giant gas vortex in the cluster of Perseus

A gigantic vortex of hot glowing gas extends over a distance of more than 1 million light-years from the center of the Perseus cluster. Matter in the center of Perseus cluster is formed from gas with a temperature of 10 million degrees, and causes it to fluoresce. Unique photo NASA allows us to consider the galactic vortex in detail. It extends for a distance of more than a million light years from the center of the Perseus cluster.

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