Jupiter's second largest moon, Europa may at first glance appear too far from the Sun to be a good candidate for life. But Europa has two special points: a lot of water - more than on Earth - and some internal heating, thanks to the tidal forces of Jupiter. Under the surface of the ice, Europa stores a huge ocean of liquid water, and the heating of its interior due to the force of gravity of Jupiter can create a situation that strongly resembles the life-giving hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Earth's oceans. It is unlikely that life on Europe will be similar to what we have on the surface of the Earth, but life that can survive, reproduce and evolve will still be life, whatever you call it.
One of the most intriguing - and least resource-intensive - ideas to search for life in the ocean of Enceladus is to launch a probe through a geyser eruption, collect samples and analyze them for organic matter.
Enceladus
The icy moon of Saturn is smaller than Europa, and has less water, but under its surface there is a unique liquid ocean (under a kilometer thick layer of ice). And it spews giant plumes of water into space. These geysers made us understand that there is liquid water, and in combination with other elements and molecules necessary for life, such as methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide, life could well be under the oceans of this world. Europe is warmer, it has more water, which means - as we think - more chances. But do not write off Enceladus from the accounts, because it has a thinner ice surface and eruptions are much more spectacular. Therefore, we will be able to find life with an orbital mission, and we won't even have to drill the surface.
Dry rivers signal water-rich Mars in the past
Mars
Once upon a time, the Red Planet was very, very similar to the Earth. In the solar system's first billion years of life, water flowed freely across the Martian surface, carving rivers out of it, accumulating in lakes and oceans, leaving clues that are helping us today. Features associated with a watery past, such as balls of hematite (which, incidentally, is often associated with life on Earth), are quite common. In addition, the Curiosity rover has found an active underground and variable source of methane, which may indicate life surviving today. Today, as we know, liquid water is still present on the surface of Mars, albeit in a very salty form. But is there life on Mars? Was there anyway? We have yet to find out.
Titan's surface under the clouds contained methane lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. How about life?
Titanium
Enceladus could become the most likely home for life in the Saturn system, if we did not admit that it could be of an unearthly type. Perhaps life is different from the biological systems we are used to on Earth? With an atmosphere denser than our planet, the second largest moon in our solar system - Titan - stores liquid methane on its surface: oceans, rivers, and even waterfalls. Could life use methane on another planet the same way it uses water on Earth? If the answer is yes, then organisms could live on Titan today.
Surface of Venus, captured by the only spacecraft that successfully landed and transmitted data from this world
Venus
Venus is a living hell. The surface temperature is approaching 482 degrees, so that no apparatus could survive more than a few hours, landing on this hot planet. However, it is not hot because of the surface, but because of the dense and carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere, covered with warm blankets of sulfuric acid. The surface of Venus is obviously completely unsuitable for life, but you can live not only on the surface. If you rise to a height of 100 kilometers, in the upper layers of Venus's clouds, the environment is surprisingly similar to Earth: the same temperatures, pressure, less acidity. It may well be that, with its own unique chemical history, this environment is filled with carbon-based life.
The Voyager 2 spacecraft captured this color photo of Neptune's moon Triton on August 24, 1989, from a distance of 550,000 kilometers. This image was compiled from images filtered through green, violet and ultraviolet filters.
Triton
You have probably heard almost nothing about the largest satellite of Neptune, but it is the most amazing and unique among all the worlds of the solar system. Black volcanoes "smoke" on it, it rotates completely incorrectly and appeared from the Kuiper belt. Larger and more massive than Pluto and Eris, it was once the king of all Kuiper belt objects, and now orbiting the last planet in our solar system, it exhibits a multitude of vital materials, including nitrogen, oxygen, frozen water and methane ice. Could some form of primitive life exist in these energetic wilds? Quite!
This world map shows the surface of Ceres in rich colors, covering infrared wavelengths beyond the human visible range.
Ceres
The very possibility of life on this asteroid may seem strange. But when asteroids hit Earth, we find not only 20 amino acids needed for life, but 100 others: the building blocks of life are everywhere. Could the largest asteroid of them all, showing white salt deposits at the bottom of its bright craters, actually boast of life? While the answer is “probably not,” keep in mind that it was the collisions between asteroids and Kuiper Belt objects that brought the raw material for primitive life on Earth. Although today we assume that active biology could have appeared even before the formation of the Earth. If so, life signatures could be trapped in worlds like Ceres, which is considered the best candidate for finding life. You just need to take a closer look.
Pluto's atmosphere captured by New Horizons
Pluto
Who could have expected that the planet farthest from us in our system - the temperature at which is close to absolute zero - would become a candidate for a haven for life? And yet Pluto has an atmosphere and extremely curious surface features. He has ice, like Triton, and something that resembles the earth's atmosphere and ocean. How about life? New Horizons provided us with a wealth of information, but to be sure, we need to plan a mission to Pluto that will descend to its surface.
We have always thought we were alone in both the solar system and the unimaginable universe, and yet this is just a side effect of looking for life like us. If we go and explore every possible place to live, we may not only find a familiar life, but an unfamiliar one. There is a probability, and it is not zero. Whenever we felt hopelessly alone, the universe had an incredible way to cheer us up.
But instead of extinguished, dead stars, new ones flare up ... Matter cannot be destroyed, it passes from one type to another. But from these general and, probably, correct reasoning, we, the people of the Earth, need to move on to reasoning about the inevitable death of the Sun, and hence the Earth.
According to modern concepts, the "life" of stars like our Sun is 10-12 billion years. It is believed that the Sun has already “worked out” half of this period, which means that half of the hydrogen fuel has already been burned in its bowels. As you can see, it is rightly said that everything in the world ends at some point. If we talk seriously about the end of the world, i.e. about the end of life on Earth, then this can happen much earlier than the moment when our Sun finally goes out or (at the stage of death) it will increase its size so much that the Earth's orbit becomes smaller than the diameter of the Sun with all the ensuing consequences, Reasons for this more than enough. So, today we will get acquainted with hypotheses about how our Sun will die.
Modern science believes that the Sun can exist for another 5-6 billion years, and for hundreds of millions of years it will remain stable as it looks at the present time. But changes, of course, will occur and gradually affect the Earth and humanity. Assumptions about what kind of changes will occur with our Sun and how they can end are made by scientists based on the results of observations of similar stars passing through various stages of their development. Some hypotheses have been born recently as a result of computer simulations of numerous variants of the possible behavior of our Sun at the stage when it gradually runs out of its nuclear fuel reserves.
Observations of the star, designated by astronomers as object NEG 7027, have shown that it is in the final stages of its existence. Not all the processes taking place on this "dying, dying" star can be explained with confidence. But what is observed is as follows. The star began to pulsate, causing the outer layers of the star's atmosphere to scatter and create an envelope around it that spreads over millions of kilometers. If this happens to our Sun, then the border of its gas shell will go much further than Pluto (!). The mass of the star decreases rapidly during this period. The gas in the envelope of a star consists mainly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules. Complex hydrocarbon molecules are also present.
In parallel with the formation of the outer shell, processes are taking place in the central part of the star: the surface temperature rises above 200,000 ° C, and radiation of enormous power comes from the star's core, including ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the atoms of the shell and destroys its molecules. This phase of the star's existence is very short, perhaps only about 1000 years, i.e. just one instant by galactic standards, after which the star will disappear, turning into a gas cloud. The star NEG 7027 currently observed appears to be in the middle of this phase of final demise. Probably, the processes on our Sun will follow the same pattern in the future.
Astrophysicists believe that in 1.1 billion years, the surface temperature of the Sun and its brightness will increase by more than 10%. This can cause an increase in the concentration of water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere, to the emergence of such a rapid greenhouse effect, to which humanity and the animal world simply will not have time and will not be able to adapt. Our planet with such a development of events will become very similar to Venus.
Since the intensity of ultraviolet radiation increases with the aging of the Sun, this will lead to an increase in the ozone content in the earth's atmosphere. It is known how this can threaten humanity and the animal world.
An increase in the brightness of the Sun will lead to the melting of ice in the polar regions of the Earth and an increase in the level of the World Ocean, and an increase in water evaporation will cause an acceleration of the water cycle. Winds will intensify, soil erosion will increase. Scientists' calculations show that as a result of these processes, the content of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere will decrease in 900 million years to such an extent that the flora may die or degenerate to such an extent that it will be of little use for human and animal nutrition, and this will probably create insurmountable difficulties for earthly civilization. In a few more billion years, ultraviolet radiation will gradually erode the stratosphere and evaporate the oceans. The Earth will turn into a bare silent desert, and the Sun will still shine over it, heating the lifeless surface on which life once flourished, born of the same Sun.
What will happen next to the Sun? It is known that the source of energy of a star is the processes of thermonuclear fusion taking place in the core of the star. When the hydrogen fuel runs out, the core shrinks a lot. According to the theory, after the contraction of the core of solar-type stars, the outer layers expand in two stages. The first stage occurs when the core shrinks and its temperature becomes higher than during a stable period. An increase in the core temperature ensures the synthesis of helium, and at the same time stability is restored for some time. The stellar core becomes less compressed, and the outer layers become less wide.
The reserves of helium fuel are quickly consumed by the star, and after they are completely used up, the core contracts again, and the outer layers expand again. The star becomes a supergiant with a luminosity much higher than that of the original star.
One of the hypotheses assumes the ability of the Earth, through self-regulation, to maintain the parameters of the environment on its surface for a sufficiently long period and in conditions of increased brightness of the Sun. But upon closer examination, this hypothesis is unlikely to be consistent. Indeed, what properties does living matter need to have in order to exist in conditions when the luminosity of the Sun will be several thousand times greater than in our time? Namely, such a maximum luminosity is assumed for the Sun in about 7.5 billion years. Calculations of astrophysicists show that at the last stages of development the Sun will lose its mass in large quantities and its radius will increase to 168 million km, which is much greater than the distance of 150 million km, in which the Earth's orbit is currently located. The orbits of the planets Mercury, Venus and the Earth will change under these conditions, and the planets, moving in a spiral, will fall on the Sun and will be destroyed. This will happen, as already mentioned, in 7.5 billion years.
As a consolation, some scientists report that new calculations show that this will happen with Earth about 200 million years later than with Mercury and Venus. But eventually the surface of the Earth will heat up to such an extent that life on it becomes impossible.
New calculations show the following development of events:
The sun loses its mass, its gravity decreases. As a result, the orbit of Venus will increase from 108 to 134 million km, but this will not save Venus. The trajectory of its movement will be quickly distorted due to the proximity of the Sun, and Venus will fall into the center of the Sun and scatter across the disk of the star.
The orbit of the Earth will slowly increase and as the gravity of the Sun, which has turned into a red giant, weakened, the Earth will go beyond its outer atmosphere. The distance from the Sun to the Earth will increase to 185 million km. This will save her from falling into the sun. But the Earth by this moment will look like Mercury, i.e. it will be a scorched, scarred block with a dry bottom of the former oceans. The sky of the Earth will be 70% occupied by the red Sun, because the Earth's orbit will be spaced from the surface of the Sun at a distance not exceeding 1/10 of the solar radius.
Avoid falling to the Sun and Mars, which will move in an expanded orbit. Further, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will rotate along expanded orbits. The substance released by the Sun during its death forms the so-called planetary nebula, the density of which will be negligible. Therefore, this nebula will not have an impact on the planets remaining in their new orbits.
All these processes will occur in the very distant future, Humanity or what it is transforming into during an unimaginably huge period of time, will leave the planet long ago or die out. Probably, in the future, our planetary system will be deprived of life. But it cannot be ruled out that evolution will lead to the emergence of new, inhuman forms of intelligent life after the departure or change of our species. In this case, scientific hypotheses may well be combined with fantasy, the boundaries of which do not exist.
What is life? There are hundreds of descriptions of the concept of life, the essence is the presence of metabolism, growth, reproduction, adaptation, and so on. On Earth, it is found in almost all places, from radioactive adits to deep-sea volcanoes. We have proteins and nucleic acids (simplified) that make up the basis of life, so in our search we will look for similar conditions and the signs of the existence of life known to us.
If we consider the nearest planets to, and, then it is unlikely that protein life will exist there. So far, we are considering only it because we do not know other forms. Mercury, heated by more than 500 degrees and devoid of an atmosphere, falls away immediately. Venus, after being explored by our Soviet probes, also appeared to us in the form of a small hell. A monstrous greenhouse effect, the atmospheric pressure is 90 times higher than ours, the temperature is higher than on Mercury (550-590C) and sulfuric acid vapor in the atmosphere from carbon dioxide.
Mars
The problem of the existence of extraterrestrial life on the bodies of the solar system has been of acute interest for many generations, not only professionals, but also many inhabitants of the Earth. First of all, it is necessary to understand which bodies, according to the conditions of the natural environment, can claim the role of the abode of extraterrestrial life. After the opinion was finally established that a significant part of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere (about 21%) is the result of biomass activity, the presence of oxygen in the environment of other bodies became one of the indications of the existence of at least primitive forms of living organisms.
In the summer of 1995, using a high-resolution spectrograph installed at the Space Telescope. Hubble, in the ultraviolet part of Europa's spectrum, features characteristic of molecular oxygen were discovered. On this basis, it was concluded that Europe has an oxygen atmosphere extending to heights of about 200 km. Of course, the total mass of this gas envelope is negligible. The atmospheric pressure at Europa's surface is estimated to be only 10 -11 times the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere. Oxygen in Europe is most likely of non-biological origin. Apparently, there is a process of evaporation of a small amount of water ice, which, as mentioned above, covers the surface of Europa. A probable cause may be, for example, micrometeorite bombardment with the subsequent decomposition of water vapor molecules and the loss of lighter hydrogen. At a surface temperature of Europa of about 130 K, the thermal velocities of oxygen molecules are not so high as to lead to rapid dissipation of the gas, and the constant replenishment of water vapor helps to maintain a constant, albeit highly rarefied, atmosphere of the Jupiter satellite.
Ozone, discovered at about the same time and with the same equipment on another satellite of Jupiter, Ganymede, most likely has a similar origin. The total mass of ozone in the supposed oxygen atmosphere of Ganymede is no more than 10% of the mass of this gas annually lost over the earth's south pole in the region of the Antarctic ozone hole.
The example of Jupiter's icy satellites shows that an essential condition for the development of organisms is the appropriate temperature of the environment. On this basis, of all the major planets, only Mars can be distinguished (Fig. 14). The temperature regime near the equator of this planet is almost approaching the conditions of the polar or high mountain regions of the Earth. The pressure of the Martian atmosphere at the surface is almost the same as at an altitude of 30 km above the Earth. Numerous structures that resemble dried-up river beds or ravine systems may indicate the existence of open bodies of water on the planet's surface in the past. Finally, the specific forms of emissions around some impact craters strongly suggest the existence of the cryolithosphere, that is, rather thick subsurface ice layers (Fig. 15).
Figure: 14. Pictures of Mars, taken by the Space Telescope. Hubble. Against the light background of the northern polar cap, one can see the origin and development of a dust vortex (dark detail).
Figure: 15. Region of the Martian surface with impact craters of various ages. In the region of the crater with elongated outlines, characteristic "influxes" are visible, which appear when the shock melting of subsurface ice occurs.
The conclusion about the possible existence of life on Mars, as you know, is far from new and was widely promoted back in the days of J. Skaiparelli and P. Lowell. But such obvious evidence as fossilized bacteria has appeared for the first time.
If a visit to the vicinity of the Earth by hypothetical trans-Neptunian bodies still requires additional confirmation, then the exchange of matter between the Moon and the Earth, as well as between Mars and the Earth, is already a fait accompli. In addition to samples of lunar rocks delivered to Earth from the lunar surface by automatic stations and spacecraft, there are 15 fragments of lunar matter with a total mass of 2074 that fell on our planet naturally in the form of meteorites. Their lunar origin is confirmed by the fact that in terms of structural, mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic characteristics, these meteorites are identical to the lunar rocks well studied in terrestrial laboratories. Unbelievable, but it is a fact.
Even more incredible is the presence of 78.3 kg of Martian matter on Earth, also in the form of separate fragments that fell to the Earth. Some of these 12 meteorites were found in different parts of the world in the last century. According to their unusual characteristics, some fragments - shergottites, naklites and chassignites, named after the places of the first finds, were assigned to a special group. In particular, they all have an unusually late age of crystallization - from 0.65 to 1.4 billion years. However, these space aliens acquired real fame relatively recently, when it was found that the isotopic composition of rare gases typical only for them most likely indicates their Martian origin. Isotopic ratios are a very stable characteristic of a substance and a reliable indicator of its origin. And in August 1996, a sensation became the property of the scientific world, which received an unprecedentedly strong public response: D. McKay with a group of employees of the Space Center. Johnson announced the presence in one of the Martian meteorites of the fossilized remains of ancient microorganisms of extraterrestrial origin.
The meteorite ALH84001 weighing 1930.9 g was found in Antarctica in 1984. According to preliminary studies, this fragment underwent a strong impact 16 million years ago. Apparently, this time mark corresponds to the time when the stone was thrown out of Mars and the beginning of its space travel. The meteorite hit the Earth's environment 13,000 years ago.
With the help of a scanning electron microscope, it was possible to obtain images of the internal structure of the meteorite, on which details of a characteristic shape with dimensions from 2x10 -6 to 10x10 -6 cm were found. 16 shows an image of a single fossil, and fig. 17 - a whole "colony" of ancient Martian bacteria.
Figure: 16. Image of the alleged fossil of a Martian microorganism, obtained using a scanning electron microscope.
Figure: 17. A group of micro-fossils found inside a Martian meteorite.
To prove the biological origin of the discovered relics, the researchers built a whole system of accompanying arguments. In particular, they drew attention to the fact that all these structures are located inside carbonate globules (deposits of carbonates, oxides, sulfides and iron sulfates), whose age is 3.6 billion years, that is, undoubtedly refers to the time of the meteorite's stay in the Martian environment. In addition, the isotopic composition of oxygen and carbon, forming the minerals of the globules, unambiguously corresponds to the isotopic characteristics of the Martian analogs of these gases, determined directly on Mars by the instruments of the Viking spacecraft in 1976. Finally, in terrestrial conditions, organic compounds similar to those found around microfossils, are the products of vital activity and subsequent decomposition of dead ancient bacteria. A striking difference between terrestrial and Martian bacteria is their relative size. Earth's bacteria are 100 to 1000 times larger than their Martian counterparts. This circumstance is essential from the point of view of microbiology, since in such a small volume all the cellular mechanisms necessary from the earthly point of view for normal life, in particular, the structure of DNA, cannot fit. A satisfactory explanation for this has not been found, and so far we have to be content with the consideration that ancient Martian bacteria could have their own concepts of normal life activity.
Thus, at the present moment, the extraterrestrial life we \u200b\u200bactually know is represented by only one piece of evidence - fossilized relics of bacteria with an age of more than 3 billion years.
Planetary systems in the universe
In this case, we will not talk about the problem of the existence of life outside the solar system. The question implies the possibility of the existence of planetary systems like ours around other stars. Of course, the general interest in the origin and development of life in the Universe stimulates the search for planets around other stars. But there is another side to the problem. Having only one, moreover, poorly studied example - our solar system, it is impossible to sufficiently understand the general laws of the origin and evolution of planetary systems as a whole, including our own.
The search for planets near other stars is complicated by natural circumstances: it is necessary to detect a faint, non-self-luminous object near a bright star. The first hints of the real existence of dusty matter near stars were obtained using infrared observations. A high-sensitivity infrared telescope onboard the IRAS satellite has detected faint excesses of infrared radiation from a number of stars that could be interpreted as emissions from protoplanetary disks.
The first image of a cloud of circumstellar dust was obtained using a kind of "extra-eclipse coronagraph" on the 2.5-meter ESO telescope B. Smith and R. Terrill in 1984. The dimensions of the disk surrounding the Star Painter turned out to be much larger than the diameter of the solar system - about 400 A ... e.
Extra-atmospheric observations have greatly expanded search capabilities. Images were obtained of the initial stage of formation of planetary systems from gas-dust circumstellar nebulae. In fig. 18 shows an image of a small part (only about 0.14 light years across) of the Orion Nebula, taken by the Space Telescope. Hubble in 1993. Five young stars appeared in the field of view, around four of which protoplanetary disks were discovered. Formations that are located close to the parent star look bright. If the bulk of the dusty matter is removed to a greater distance, the protoplanetary disk appears dark (on the right side of the image). A large-scale image of such a structure is shown in Fig. 19.
Figure: 18. Protoplanetary disks discovered near young stars in the Orion Nebula. The image was taken by the Space Telescope. Hubble.
Figure: 19. Image of one of the protoplanetary disks, obtained by the Space Telescope. Hubble.
It is still difficult to see the next stage in the evolution of planetary systems - the formation of individual planets. To detect satellites of stars, it is necessary to use mainly indirect methods. Small periodic variations in the brightness of the parent star can be measured, assuming that at these times it is partially obscured by a large satellite planet. If it is possible to confidently measure the insignificant variations in the speed of the proper motion of a star, this may serve as an indication of its motion around the center of mass common with the large planets. Such data allow us to estimate the parameters of the alleged satellites.
At present, there are about ten cases of detection of individual satellites near the stars, the parameters of which have been estimated. But a live image was obtained in only one case. In fig. 20 shows a snapshot of a satellite orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 229.
Figure: 20. Image of the satellite of the star Gliese 229. The image was obtained by the Space Telescope. Hubble.
The picture was taken by the Space Telescope. Hubble in November 1995. The image of the star itself is missing in the image. The light halo on the left side of the frame is only an illumination of a part of the telescope receiver area. The star's companion, designated Gliese 229 B, revolves at an average distance of 44 AU. e. Its mass is estimated at 20 - 60 masses of Jupiter. This object cannot be called a planet - it belongs to brown dwarfs and, therefore, it would be more correct to call it a companion star. But at the same time, brown dwarfs are objects formed in the same way as stars, but with a low mass, which cannot ensure the normal course of nuclear reactions in their depths. The boundary separating typical stars and brown dwarfs is considered to be a mass equal to 75 - 80 masses of Jupiter. In this connection, a new problem arose. Some of the detected objects are presumably larger in mass than Jupiter, and where the border between the planets - gas giants and brown dwarfs - has not yet been reliably established, because in this case the main criterion is not the mass of the object, but the mechanism of its formation. Calculations have established that the lower limit of body mass, at which the mechanism of formation of a star, and not a gas giant, works, is a value equal to 10 - 20 masses of Jupiter. But there are no more precise criteria by which it would be possible to correctly separate a satellite-planet from a satellite - a brown dwarf. And can we talk about the presence of a planetary system if the star has only one satellite?
Model calculations and the example of our own solar system show one thing: it is possible to recognize the existence of a planetary system only when a star has more than two satellites that are certainly not brown dwarfs, that is, they do not significantly exceed Jupiter in mass. Of the currently known systems, only one meets this condition - the satellite system of the pulsar PSR 1257 + 12 in the constellation Virgo, distant from us at a distance of about 1000 light years. Three reliably established satellites of the pulsar form a system that is almost no larger than the orbit of Mercury around the Sun, with orbital semiaxes, respectively: 0.19, 0.36 and 0.47 AU. The orbital periods of the satellites are also close to the Mercurian: 23, 66 and 95 Earth days. In terms of mass, the satellite closest to the pulsar is supposedly equal to Pluto. The average satellite is 3 times more massive than the Earth. The most distant object exceeds the mass of our planet by 1.6 times. Thus, the planetary system of the pulsar PSR 1257 + 12 - the only one reliably known at the present time - differs sharply from our own by the nature of the central star (neutron star) and the characteristics of satellites and, therefore, cannot report anything about the typical mechanisms of the formation of planets and satellites. ... As long as we still remain alone in the universe.
THE SUN
Weight \u003d 1.99 10 30 kg. Diameter \u003d 1.392.000 km. Absolute stellar magnitude \u003d +4.8. Spectral class \u003d G2. Surface temperature \u003d 5800 ° K.
Orbital period \u003d 25 h (pole) -35 h (equator) Orbital period around the galactic center \u003d 200,000,000 years
Distance to the center of the galaxy 25,000 light. years Speed \u200b\u200bof motion around the center of the galaxy \u003d 230 km / sec.
The sun. The star that gave rise to all living things in our system is approximately 750 times the mass of all other bodies in the solar system, so everything in our system can be considered revolving around the sun, as a common center of mass.
The sun is a spherically symmetric incandescent plasma ball in equilibrium. It probably arose together with other bodies of the solar system from a gas and dust nebula about 5 billion years ago. At the beginning of its life, the sun was about 3/4 hydrogen. Then, due to gravitational compression, the temperature and pressure in the bowels increased so much that a thermonuclear reaction spontaneously began to occur, during which hydrogen was converted into helium. As a result, the temperature in the center of the Sun rose very strongly (about 15,000,000 K), and the pressure in its interior increased so much (1.5. 10 5 kg / m 3) that it was able to balance the force of gravity and stop the gravitational compression. This is how the modern structure of the Sun arose. During the existence of the Sun, about half of the hydrogen in its central region has turned into helium, and probably in another 5 billion years, when the hydrogen is running out in the center of the sun, the Sun (a yellow dwarf at present) will increase in size and become a red giant.
In general, the mass of a star unambiguously determines its future fate. Our sun will end its life as a white dwarf, delighting unknown to us extraterrestrial astronomers of the future with a new planetary nebula, the shape of which may turn out to be very bizarre due to the influence of planets.
The radiation power of the Sun is 3.8. 10 20 MW. 48% of the radiation is in the visible region of the spectrum, 45% in the infrared, and the remaining 8% is distributed among the rest (radio, ultraviolet, etc.). Only about a half of a billionth part falls to the Earth, 8 minutes and 20 seconds after radiation. However, it maintains the earth's atmosphere in a gaseous state, constantly heats up land and water bodies, gives energy to winds and waterfalls, and ensures the vital activity of animals and plants.
Almost all of the Sun's energy is generated in the central region with a radius of about 1/3 solar. Through the layers surrounding the central part, this energy is transferred outward. The convective zone is located throughout the last third of the radius. The reason for the occurrence of mixing (convection) in the outer layers of the Sun is the same as in a boiling kettle: the amount of energy coming from the heater is much greater than that which is removed by thermal conductivity. Therefore, the substance is forced to move and begins to transfer heat by itself. Directly observable layers of the Sun, called its atmosphere, are located above the convective zone.
The solar atmosphere also has several different layers. The deepest and thinnest of these is the photosphere, directly observable in the visible continuous spectrum. The photosphere is only about 300 km thick. The deeper the layers of the photosphere, the hotter they are. In the outer colder layers of the photosphere, Fraunhofer absorption lines are formed against the background of the continuous spectrum.
During the most calm atmosphere of the earth's atmosphere, the characteristic granular structure of the photosphere can be observed through the telescope. The alternation of small light specks - granules - about 1000 km in size, surrounded by dark gaps, creates the impression of a cellular structure - granulation. The onset of granulation is associated with convection under the photosphere. Individual granules are several hundred degrees hotter than the surrounding gas, and within a few minutes their distribution over the solar disk changes. Spectral measurements indicate the movement of gas in granules, similar to convective ones: in the granules, the gas rises, and between them it falls.
These movements of gases generate acoustic waves in the solar atmosphere, similar to sound waves in air.
Propagating into the upper layers of the solar atmosphere, the waves that have arisen in the convective zone and in the photosphere, transfer to them a part of the mechanical energy of convective motions and produce heating of gases of the subsequent layers of the atmosphere - the chromosphere and corona. As a result, the upper layers of the photosphere, with a temperature of about 4500K, are the "coldest" on the Sun. Both inward and upward from them, the temperature of the gases rises rapidly.
The layer above the photosphere, called the chromosphere, during total solar eclipses in the minutes when the Moon completely covers the photosphere, is visible as a pink ring surrounding a dark disk. At the edge of the chromosphere, protruding like tongues of flame are observed - chromospheric spicules, which are elongated columns of compacted gas. At the same time, one can observe the spectrum of the chromosphere, the so-called flare spectrum. It consists of bright emission lines of hydrogen, ionized calcium helium, and other elements that flash suddenly during the total eclipse phase. By highlighting the radiation of the Sun in these lines, it is possible to obtain its image in them.
The chromosphere differs from the photosphere in a much more irregular inhomogeneous structure. Two types of inhomogeneities are noticeable - bright and dark. They are larger than photospheric granules in size. On the whole, the distribution of inhomogeneities forms the so-called chromospheric network, which is especially clearly visible in the line of ionized calcium. Like granulation, it is a consequence of gas movements in the sub-photospheric convective zone, only occurring on a larger scale. The temperature in the chromosphere rises rapidly, reaching tens of thousands of degrees in its upper layers.
The outermost and most rarefied part of the solar atmosphere is the corona, which is traced from the solar limb to distances of tens of solar radii and has a temperature of about a million degrees. The corona can only be seen during a total solar eclipse or with a coronagraph.
The solar atmosphere is constantly fluctuating. It propagates both vertical and horizontal waves with lengths of several thousand kilometers. Oscillations are resonant in nature and occur with a period of about 5 minutes.
In the occurrence of phenomena occurring on the Sun, a large role is played by the magnetic field, which is 6000 times stronger than the Earth's. Matter on the Sun is everywhere a magnetized plasma, a mixture of electrons and nuclei of hydrogen and helium. Sometimes, in some areas, the magnetic field strength increases rapidly and strongly. This process is accompanied by the appearance of a whole complex of solar activity phenomena in various layers of the solar atmosphere. These include torches and spots in the photosphere, floccules in the chromosphere, solar flares originating in the chromosphere, and prominences (ejections of matter) in the corona.
Sunspots appear in pairs where lines of distorted magnetic field emerge from and enter the surface. At the same time, a pair of spots forms a pair of field poles - south and north. In the years of increased solar activity, the magnetic field is more distorted and there are more sunspots on the Sun. In the years of the "calm" Sun, there may be no spots at all. The period of solar activity change is considered to be approximately equal to 11.2 years. After the appearance of the spots, they can last from several hours to several months. The shape and size of the spots vary. Their temperature is 1000-1500 ° lower than that of the rest of the Sun's surface, and only because of this they appear dark. Cold spots can be considered only relative to other parts of the Sun's surface.
The sun is a powerful source of radio emission. Radio waves penetrate into interplanetary space, which are emitted by the chromosphere (centimeter waves) and the corona (decimeter and meter waves).
Radio emission from the Sun has two components - constant and variable (bursts, "noise storms"). During strong solar flares, the radio emission from the Sun increases thousands and even millions of times compared to the radio emission from the quiet Sun. This radio emission is of a non-thermal nature.
X-rays come mainly from the upper layers of the chromosphere and corona. Radiation is especially strong during the years of maximum solar activity.
The sun emits not only light, heat and all other types of electromagnetic radiation. It is also a source of a constant stream of particles - corpuscles. Neutrinos, electrons, protons, alpha particles, as well as heavier atomic nuclei, all together make up the corpuscular radiation of the Sun. A significant part of this radiation is a more or less continuous outflow of plasma - the solar wind, which is a continuation of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere - the solar corona. Against the background of this constantly blowing plasma wind, individual regions on the Sun are sources of more directed, intensified, so-called corpuscular streams. Most likely they are associated with special regions of the solar corona - coronary holes, and also, possibly, with long-lived active regions on the Sun. Finally, solar flares are associated with the most powerful short-term fluxes of particles, mainly electrons and protons. As a result of the most powerful flares, particles can acquire speeds that make up an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. Particles with such high energies are called solar cosmic rays.
Solar corpuscular radiation has a strong effect on the Earth, and above all on the upper layers of its atmosphere and the magnetic field, causing many geophysical phenomena.
Specialists NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration), observing the behavior of the sun, recorded the reversal of the magnetic poles. They note that the Sun's magnetic north pole, which was in the northern hemisphere only a few months ago, is now in the southern one.
However, such an inverted location of the magnetic poles is not unique. The full 22-year magnetic cycle is associated with an 11-year solar cycle, and the pole reversal occurs during the passage of the maximum.
The Sun's magnetic poles will now remain in their new places until the next transition, which happens with the regularity of the clockwork. The secret of this phenomenon is enigmatic, and the cyclical nature of solar activity is still a mystery. The Earth's geomagnetic field also reversed its direction, but the last such reversal happened 740 thousand years ago. Some researchers believe that our planet is past its due date for the reversal of the magnetic poles, but no one can accurately predict when the next reversal will happen.
Although the magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth behave differently, they also have similarities. During the minimum solar activity, the magnetic field of our star, like the geomagnetic field of our planet, is directed along the meridian. The lines of force are located in space in the same way as magnetic arrows are located around a magnetized iron rod. Magnetic lines are concentrated at the poles and are rarefied at the equator. Scientists call such a field "dipole", even emphasizing the existence of two poles in the name. The Sun's magnetic field is about 50 Gauss, and the Earth's geomagnetic field is 100 times weaker.
As solar activity increases and the number of sunspots on the sun's surface increases, our star's magnetic field begins to change. Sunspots are places where fluxes of magnetic induction are closed, and the magnitude of the magnetic field in these regions can be hundreds of times higher than the values \u200b\u200bof the main dipole field. As David Hathaway, a solar physicist at the Marshall Space Flight Center, notes, "meridional currents on the surface of the Sun capture and carry magnetic fluxes of sunspots from mid-latitudes to the poles, and the dipole field is steadily weakening." Using data collected by astronomers at the US National Observatory at Keith Peak, Hathaway recorded the average magnetic field of the Sun as a function of latitude and time every day from 1975 to the present. The result is a kind of route map that records the behavior of magnetic fluxes on the surface of the Sun.
In the solar dynamo model, it is assumed that our star works as a direct current generator and that the main actions take place in the convection zone. Magnetic fields are generated by electric currents, which are generated by the movement of streams of hot, ionized gases. We observe a number of streams relative to the Sun's surface, and all of these streams can create high intensity magnetic fields. The magnetic flux in this model is similar to rubber bands. They consist of continuous lines of force that are stretched and compressed. Like rubber strips, under external influence, the tension in magnetic fluxes can be increased by stretching or twisting. This stretching, twisting and compression is carried out by the fusion reaction going on inside the Sun.
The meridional current of streams on the surface of the Sun carries huge masses of matter from the equator to the poles (75% of the Sun's mass is hydrogen, about 25% is helium, and the share of other elements is less than 0.1%). At the poles, these flows go into the luminary and form an internal countercurrent of matter. Due to this circulation of charged plasma, the solar magnetic direct current generator works. On the Sun's surface, the stream travels along the meridian at about 20 meters per second (40 miles per hour). The reverse flow to the equator occurs in the depths of the Sun, where the density of matter is much higher, and therefore its speed decreases to 1-2 meters per second (2 to 4 miles per hour). This slow countercurrent carries material from the polar regions to the equator for about 20 years.
The theory is in development and requires new experimental data. Until now, researchers have never directly observed the moment of the Sun's magnetic polarity reversal. In this situation, the Ulysses spacecraft could allow scientists to test theoretical models and obtain unique information. This spacecraft is the fruit of international collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA. It was launched in 1990 to observe the solar system above the orbital plane of the planets. "Ulysses" flew over the South Pole of the Sun and is now returning to fall to the North Pole and get new information.
Ulysses flew over the poles of the Sun in 1994 and 1996 during low solar activity and made several important discoveries about cosmic rays and the solar wind. The end of the mission of this scout is to study the Sun during the period of maximum activity, which will provide data on the complete solar cycle.
The ongoing changes are not limited to the region of space near our star. The Sun's magnetic field limits our solar system to a giant “bubble” that forms the “heliosphere”. The heliosphere extends from 50 to 100 astronomical units (1 AU \u003d 149,597,871 km) beyond Pluto's orbit. Everything inside this sphere is the solar system, and then - interstellar space.
The "polarity reversal" of the Sun's magnetic field will be transmitted through the heliosphere by the solar wind, ”explains Steve Suess, another astrophysicist at the Marshall Space Flight Center. “It takes about a year for this message to travel from the Sun to the outer heliosphere. Since the sun rotates, making a revolution every 27 days, the magnetic fields outside the star are in the form of an Archimedes spiral. Because of all the twists and turns, it is difficult to estimate in advance in detail the effect of reversing the magnetic field on the behavior of the heliosphere. "
The Earth's magnetosphere protects the planet's inhabitants from the solar wind. But there are other, less obvious, connections between solar activity and processes on our planet. In particular, it was noted that the seismicity of the Earth increases with the passage of the maximum of the Sun's activity, and a connection between strong earthquakes and the characteristics of the solar wind was established. Perhaps these circumstances explain the series of catastrophic earthquakes that happened in India, Indonesia and El Salvador after the onset of the new Millennium.
It would seem that we know about the Sun and its "life" everything that can be known from visual observations. Multiple sources seemed to provide comprehensive information. Everything is built on the hypotheses proposed earlier.
It describes its birth, the processes taking place today on the Sun and its decline of "life". If we consider the existing theories about the origin, life and the end of the existence of the Sun, then multiple irrationalities, artificialities and simply inconsistencies with objective realities and logic are revealed.
The first is the birth of a STAR.
The main hypotheses about the origin of stars argue that a dust and gas cloud is needed in the initial stage of star formation. One can agree with the word "dust", but gas, as an aggregate state of matter, cannot exist. At low temperatures, and in space it is -273 degrees, any gas can only be in a solid state and it will no longer be a gas, but the same dust, or a solid of any form. In fact, cosmic dust is not the source of the formation of planets and stars.
The appearance of dust in space is associated with cosmic catastrophes that occur during grandiose collisions of two or more cooled, cosmic bodies. The result of such a collision may be a cloud of dust and small fragments, about the collision of a clay plate and a bullet during trap shooting.
Further, it is assumed that over time there is a concentration of cosmic matter at one point, due to the ever increasing gravity of the newly formed body. Further, with an increase in its volume and mass, the pressure inside increases. As you know, all planets and stars are spherical, i.e. the most rational geometric shape.
And if the body, as the existing theory says, is formed from fragments of the environment, then only a shapeless object can turn out, and not a ball. Only a body in a liquid state can acquire this form. At the same time, inside the body, according to the theory, there should be a rise in temperature due to the increasing pressure to such an extent that this should provoke the occurrence of a thermonuclear reaction inside the arisen body and, thereby, ignite a new star.
A similar process cannot take place in space, because our universe is in constant dynamic equilibrium. In order for the process of mass concentration to begin at one point, additional resistance to the movement of space objects, which does not exist in space, or external influence of other bodies participating in the general movement, is necessary.
Dynamic balance in space is due to the mutual, established in time, interaction of all participants in the movement. It is hard to imagine that, for example, the asteroid belt could ever turn into a large object like a planet.
Or the solar system will change its established parameters, unless some troublemaker comes from the depths of space and collides with one of the planets. But even after that, everything will be balanced, and peace will reign again.
Artificial satellites in orbit do not change their parameters of motion, which is due to the equality of the Earth's gravity and the centrifugal force arising from the speed of their movement in orbit. Further, the pressure inside the body can increase, provided that this body is liquid. Therefore, if this body is solid, then it must certainly be cold.
With the concentration of mass arising from the surrounding particles of matter, which are at a low temperature of space, no increase in pressure inside the body occurs, because the body is solid, and, as a result, there can be no temperature rise. This is also confirmed by deep mines.
The rock does not heat up in them. As a conclusion, such a way of the birth of a star has no justification and is false.
The second is the life of a star as a star.
The hypothesis claims that the source of life of a star as a luminary is a thermonuclear reaction.
Today science knows two sources that can release huge amounts of heat and which could support the life of a star as a star. This is a nuclear fission reaction and a fusion reaction. The first is the atomic bomb, and the second is the hydrogen. A hydrogen bomb, with the same parameters as a nuclear bomb, is much more powerful than it and it uses a thermonuclear fusion reaction.
The working fluid of a hydrogen bomb is hydrogen, mainly in the form of deuterium (heavy hydrogen, denoted by the symbols D and 2H, a stable isotope of hydrogen with an atomic mass of 2.) or tritium (superheavy hydrogen, denoted by the symbols T and 3H).
Spectral analysis of solar radiation shows that the Sun consists of hydrogen (~ 73% of the mass and ~ 92% of the volume), as well as other elements. This is about the photosphere. Therefore, it was concluded that a thermonuclear reaction is taking place there, with the participation of hydrogen and the Sun will cease to exist when all the hydrogen "burns out".
This is where discrepancies and inconsistencies begin. The sun has the following temperatures: at the surface of the sun - 5726 degrees Celsius C °. Corona temperature ~ 1 500 000 C °. Core temperature ~ 13,500,000 C °.
As practice has shown, for the implementation of a thermonuclear explosion, it is necessary to heat deuterium to a temperature of 50,000,000 C ° and create a huge pressure. Such parameters are provided by an additional nuclear charge, which serves as a detonator in a hydrogen bomb, including a thermonuclear reaction. Only under such conditions will the reaction of fusion of hydrogen nuclei begin.
But the above temperatures on the Sun in no way can create such conditions. And it turns out that thermonuclear fusion on the Sun is impossible. And now the phase of the life of the Sun, predicted by official sources, should come when all hydrogen will burn out (hydrogen on the Sun does not burn, but undergoes transformation into helium) and our star will turn into a "red giant" that will absorb and destroy most of the solar system.
It seems that the author of such a hypothesis is a big fan of sitting by a dying fire, when in the night a red glow, visible far away, forms from the burning coals. But what can burn out after the thermonuclear reaction, which supported the life of the Sun as a body, stops?
Naturally, the Sun will not have any organic matter and oxygen that can cause such a red glow, and even more so grow to colossal volumes. Further, after the cooling of the "red giant", a planetary nebula with a "White Dwarf" inside (the remnant of the Sun's core) is formed.
The sun, having lost most of its mass, will no longer be able to hold the surrounding planets of the current solar system by its gravity, and the entire system will "sink into oblivion."
But there, in the Sun, after all, indeed, something "burns". But what?
I will try to present my vision of the "Life Cycle" of the Sun, like any other star.
Stars in space belong to one galaxy or another and are not an individual creation. The origin of galaxies, in my opinion, is not a consequence of the initial explosion, according to the theory of singularity. This theory itself is more like a fairy tale, only its authors are not only dreamers, but also scientists.
The science of the origin of the universe today follows the path of searching for the basis of the foundations of the universe - the Higgs Boson. To this end, on October 21, 2008, a solemn ceremony of the official opening (inauguration) of the Large Hadron Collider took place, on the border of Switzerland and France, conceived as a tool with which the Boson will be opened.
In fact, the world's largest particle accelerator was built. But the idea of \u200b\u200bsearching, as they say, "a particle of God", still fails, although it has already been announced that it has been received.
Nobel prizes were received, presentations were made, but, in fact, the collider produced another particle, unknown to today's science. The collider, along two opposite contours, can accelerate elementary particles to the speed of light in each contour. The energy released as a result of the collision of particles will be the result of the addition of their two velocities.
But this result contradicts Einstein's famous formula - E \u003d mc2 , although this formula itself is not a phenomenon, but a special case of the definition of centrifugal force, F \u003d mv2 / r , provided that there is a radius of rotation equal to infinity (i.e., a straight line).
As can be seen from the above, to obtain the mass (m), that is, the "Higgs Boson", you need the square of the velocity of elementary particles, and not the amount of them that the collider can provide.
And so back to the main topic. How, after all, could galaxies consisting of stars or any nebula be formed? It is possible, with a sufficient degree of reality, to assume that in space, at super giant distances, there are galaxies that are not visible in the currently existing space observation devices.
The world's largest and smallest do not exist, i.e. two opposite infinities. As a result of some cataclysms from two (or several) distant galaxies, there were emissions of large masses of matter that met in a certain part of the universe. Imagine, for clarity, two mobs of guys playing snowballs opposing each other.
Snowballs flying in opposite directions often collide with each other and mutually destroy. The traces of such destruction will depend on the speed of oncoming snowballs, their mass, the hardness of the material (for our story, these are molten bodies or cooled objects) and the method of collision: head-on, with displaced centers, tangentially to varying degrees.
In the wake of the collisions, one can judge the nature of the colliding bodies. If two cooled bodies collided, then, depending on the displacement of the center of mass during the impact, various forms of nebula will be formed. If two liquid (molten) masses collided, in which thermonuclear processes took place, then galaxies are formed, consisting of "splashes" of colliding bodies, which became stars that filled these galaxies.
At the same time, galaxies of completely unlikely types were obtained, which took a certain shape depending on the type of collision. All this variety of galaxies is presented in pictures on the Internet on this topic. If liquid and solid (cooled) masses collided, then galaxies are formed with mixed compositions of substances included in the colliding masses.
In this case, depending on the size of the colliding masses, systems can be formed in which the cooled mass significantly exceeds the liquid one. Naturally, the solid mass will be destroyed less than the liquid and liquid fractions will begin to rotate around the solid mass. Such systems are today identified as galaxies with "Black holes".
"Black holes", in all likelihood, are galaxies orbiting a giant cooled body in which the nuclear fission reaction has stopped. "Black holes" is another near-scientific tale. This theory was abandoned by its creator, Stephen Hawking.
Now let's go directly to the Sun.
Some sources on the origin of stars mention the presence of a large amount of uranium in the composition of stars (in the region of 26%). In a liquid medium, this also applies to the molten mass of the Sun, the process of stratification of the substance of the mass into fractions by specific gravity is constantly going on. You can put the following experiment to confirm this idea.
Take a tall, transparent vessel and fill it with a clear liquid (for example, a highly viscous mineral oil). Let's make for the experiment several balls of the same size from different materials. The main difference between the balls is their atomic weight (carbon - 12, aluminum - 26, iron - 55, silver - 107, lead - 207, uranium - 238).
We will throw all these balls at the same time into a vessel with oil. The heaviest ball will reach the bottom of the vessel first, and the lightest ball last. A similar layering process is used in iron smelting. Slag from above, cast iron from below.
In the molten mass of the Sun there is a constant process of mixing of matter, due to convection flows.
Uranus, falling down, begins to concentrate in a certain place in the volume of the Sun. When the critical mass is reached (somewhere in the region of 50 kg), a chain reaction starts in this place and an atomic explosion occurs. Such explosions occur constantly and in large quantities, which leads to the heating of the Sun's matter, and a "boiling" process is observed on its surface.
A decrease in the intensity of atomic explosions in some place are identified as sunspots.
The sun periodically experiences powerful emissions, which are called prominences. Their origin can be explained by the fact that conditions periodically appear on the Sun under which the reaction of fusion of hydrogen nuclei (thermonuclear reaction) occurs and an explosion occurs, similar to the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. The flux of the ejected plasma, in turn, bends under the influence of the magnetic field lines of the Sun.
Each star has a certain luminosity, that is, the amount of energy released per unit of time. Science does not yet explain the reason for such a large difference in the luminosity of stars (yellow star, white, blue, etc.) The luminosity of a star is due to the temperature on the surface of the star. According to my hypothesis, this can be easily explained.
The degree of luminosity depends on the amount of uranium in the composition of the mass of the star and, as a consequence, on the intensity of atomic explosions in its interior. The theory of stratification of matter in a liquid medium can be confirmed by an example, which is not explained today, of such a phenomenon as the deep hypocenter of an earthquake, which is sometimes recorded at depths of more than 700 km.
At this depth there is a liquid medium, and there is no way to explain this phenomenon by some kind of friction of solid masses. The limiting thickness of the earth's crust is 75 km. Sometimes deep earthquakes occur in the oceans, where the thickness of the earth's crust is only 6 - 9 km. Using my theory, deep earthquakes can be easily explained.
There is the same concentration of uranium at a certain depth and when its critical mass is reached in one place, an atomic explosion occurs, identified as the place of the hypocenter.
