Space has always attracted and beckoned man. His secrets fascinated, excited the imagination, forced him to penetrate deeper into the unknown
However, the more a person studied space, the more secrets he threw to him. At the moment, scientists have counted seven main mysteries of space, which can be solved within the next ten years.
Riddle one: is there life on Mars?
The red planet has long been a stumbling block for scientists. It seems that it is not a black hole or the Andromeda nebula, it is literally close by, but there are so many questions … The main one is whether there is life on Mars? - has not yet been solved. It is clear that there is no intelligent life form there, at least for now. But it is possible that it used to be. In the earlier stages of its existence, Mars, like the Earth, could be surrounded by an atmosphere, and if there is an atmosphere, then there may be life.
But the Red Planet is half the size of Earth, which is where size matters. The core of Mars is much smaller than the Earth's core, which means that it cooled down much faster. And as soon as the core cools down, the magnetic field of the planet weakens, and then asteroids begin to attack it from all sides. A collision with them turned the once prosperous Mars into a lifeless desert.
But is she so lifeless? Soil samples taken by reentry spacecraft indicate the presence of colossal amounts of hydrogen trapped in ice. And if there is ice, life is also possible, the whole question is in what form it is …
Riddle two: deviation from the norm
In 1972, the Americans launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft designed to study Jupiter. In 1983, the ship left the solar system. On board was a 15 x 23 cm plate made of gold-plated aluminum with an engraved pictogram. It depicts a man, a woman, the Pioneer apparatus itself, as well as a diagram of the location of the Earth in space.
As conceived by the creators, with its help, aliens will be able to obtain all the necessary information about the Earth and its inhabitants. After "Pioneer-10", the twin apparatus "Pioneer-11" went into space. He, too, reached the vicinity of Jupiter, and then went beyond the solar system. And then something happened that no one expected. The devices behaved more than strange: they deviated from the course and reduced their speed. As a result, the "Pioneers" went aside for … 400 000 km!
In December 1990, a similar trouble happened with the Galileo spacecraft, and in 1998 with the satellite that flew to the Shoemaker-Levy comet. The system is there. But the designers calculated the trajectory and flight speed of the ships with maximum accuracy. What caused the deviation from the course? Nobody knows. Conservative scientists blamed the solar wind, gravitational field, dark matter and much more, alternative scientists saw in everything the intrigues of extraterrestrial intelligence. But there is still no exact answer to the question of what happened to the satellites.
Riddle three: cosmic invisibility
Dark matter is a phenomenon that the best minds have been wrestling with for decades. It cannot be seen through a telescope, it does not reflect rays of light, but, according to preliminary calculations, it makes up 70% of the matter in the Universe. For the first time, the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky spoke about him in the 1930s. Even then, he suggested that the real mass of galaxies is much greater than the mass of what can be observed with telescopes.
Later, scientists were convinced of his correctness. Dark matter was still not visible, but it affected visible objects in such a way that its existence was not in doubt. In the next ten years, experts hope to "grab her by the tail," but so far this dark story has not been clarified; which only plays into the hands of representatives of alternative science, who see the intrigues of aliens in everything. Say, it is they who are so "encrypted" and surreptitiously rule in space.
Riddle four: the tenth planet
At the very edge of the solar system, beyond Pluto, is the Oort cloud - millions of ice blocks and comets. Under the influence of solar attraction, they sometimes change their orbits and "drop" into our planetary system. So Pluto - either a planet, or a huge asteroid - "turns" towards us to the light. But it's not about him. Behind the Oort cloud lies the Kuiper belt, home to billions of asteroids.
But behind the Kuiper belt is a completely empty space. Only a planet like Earth or Mars is able to "clear" its way to such an extent that nothing dangles under its "feet". So experts and thought about the presence of the tenth planet, but so far no one has been able to see the mysterious stranger.
Riddle five: hot Jupiters
These are giant planets orbiting their stars in close proximity to them. "What a marvelous thing!" - the reader will say. And it will be wrong. Surprisingly, these planets move in their orbits in the opposite direction to the direction of rotation of the stars themselves. This is contrary to all the laws of physics, and nevertheless the fact is obvious. Such a somersault suggests that the laws we are used to do not apply everywhere. Or maybe just our solar system is an exception to the rule?
Riddle six: islands of life
The biggest question of recent times: how many planets like Earth are in space? Astrophysicists no longer doubt that they exist. As of October 2013, 992 exoplanets have been confirmed in 756 planetary systems. Their variety is amazing.
