Planets of the Solar System

According to the official position of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the organization that assigns names to astronomical objects, there are only 8 planets.

Pluto was removed from the planet category in 2006. because There are objects in the Kuiper belt that are larger/equal in size to Pluto. Therefore, even if we take it as a full-fledged celestial body, then it is necessary to add Eris to this category, which has almost the same size as Pluto.

By MAC definition, there are 8 known planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

All planets are divided into two categories depending on their physical characteristics: terrestrial planets and gas giants.

Schematic representation of the location of the planets

Terrestrial planets

Mercury

The smallest planet in the solar system has a radius of only 2440 km. The period of revolution around the Sun, equated to an earthly year for ease of understanding, is 88 days, while Mercury manages to rotate around its own axis only one and a half times. Thus, his day lasts approximately 59 Earth days. For a long time it was believed that this planet always turned the same side to the Sun, since periods of its visibility from Earth were repeated with a frequency approximately equal to four Mercury days. This misconception was dispelled with the advent of the ability to use radar research and conduct continuous observations using space stations. The orbit of Mercury is one of the most unstable; not only the speed of movement and its distance from the Sun change, but also the position itself. Anyone interested can observe this effect.

Mercury in color, image from the MESSENGER spacecraft

Its proximity to the Sun is the reason why Mercury is subject to the largest temperature changes among the planets in our system. The average daytime temperature is about 350 degrees Celsius, and the nighttime temperature is -170 °C. Sodium, oxygen, helium, potassium, hydrogen and argon were detected in the atmosphere. There is a theory that it was previously a satellite of Venus, but so far this remains unproven. It does not have its own satellites.

Venus

The second planet from the Sun, the atmosphere is almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide. It is often called the Morning Star and the Evening Star, because it is the first of the stars to become visible after sunset, just as before dawn it continues to be visible even when all the other stars have disappeared from view. The percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 96%, there is relatively little nitrogen in it - almost 4%, and water vapor and oxygen are present in very small quantities.

Venus in the UV spectrum

Such an atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect; the temperature on the surface is even higher than that of Mercury and reaches 475 °C. Considered the slowest, a Venusian day lasts 243 Earth days, which is almost equal to a year on Venus - 225 Earth days. Many call it Earth's sister because of its mass and radius, the values ​​of which are very close to those of Earth. The radius of Venus is 6052 km (0.85% of Earth's). Like Mercury, there are no satellites.

The third planet from the Sun and the only one in our system where there is liquid water on the surface, without which life on the planet could not have developed. At least life as we know it. The radius of the Earth is 6371 km and, unlike other celestial bodies in our system, more than 70% of its surface is covered with water. The rest of the space is occupied by continents. Another feature of the Earth is the tectonic plates hidden under the planet's mantle. At the same time, they are able to move, albeit at a very low speed, which over time causes changes in the landscape. The speed of the planet moving along it is 29-30 km/sec.

Our planet from space

One revolution around its axis takes almost 24 hours, and a complete passage through the orbit lasts 365 days, which is much longer in comparison with its closest neighboring planets. The Earth's day and year are also accepted as a standard, but this is done only for the convenience of perceiving time periods on other planets. The Earth has one natural satellite - the Moon.

Mars

The fourth planet from the Sun, known for its thin atmosphere. Since 1960, Mars has been actively explored by scientists from several countries, including the USSR and the USA. Not all exploration programs have been successful, but water found at some sites suggests that primitive life exists on Mars, or existed in the past.

The brightness of this planet allows it to be seen from Earth without any instruments. Moreover, once every 15-17 years, during the Confrontation, it becomes the brightest object in the sky, eclipsing even Jupiter and Venus.

The radius is almost half that of Earth and is 3390 km, but the year is much longer - 687 days. He has 2 satellites - Phobos and Deimos .

Visual model of the solar system

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• Sun

  The Sun is a star that is a hot ball of hot gases at the center of our Solar System. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. Without the Sun and its intense energy and heat, there would be no life on Earth. There are billions of stars like our Sun scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

• Mercury

  Sun-scorched Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's satellite the Moon. Like the Moon, Mercury is practically devoid of an atmosphere and cannot smooth out the traces of impact from falling meteorites, so it, like the Moon, is covered with craters. The day side of Mercury gets very hot from the Sun, while on the night side the temperature drops hundreds of degrees below zero. There is ice in the craters of Mercury, which are located at the poles. Mercury completes one revolution around the Sun every 88 days.

• Venus

  Venus is a world of monstrous heat (even more than on Mercury) and volcanic activity. Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus is covered by a thick and toxic atmosphere that creates a strong greenhouse effect. This scorched world is hot enough to melt lead. Radar images through the powerful atmosphere revealed volcanoes and deformed mountains. Venus rotates in the opposite direction from the rotation of most planets.

• Earth is an ocean planet. Our home, with its abundance of water and life, makes it unique in our solar system. Other planets, including several moons, also have ice deposits, atmospheres, seasons and even weather, but only on Earth did all these components come together in a way that made life possible.

• Mars

  Although details of the surface of Mars are difficult to see from Earth, observations through a telescope indicate that Mars has seasons and white spots at the poles. For decades, people believed that the bright and dark areas on Mars were patches of vegetation, that Mars might be a suitable place for life, and that water existed in the polar ice caps. When the Mariner 4 spacecraft arrived at Mars in 1965, many scientists were shocked to see photographs of the murky, cratered planet. Mars turned out to be a dead planet. More recent missions, however, have revealed that Mars holds many mysteries that remain to be solved.

• Jupiter

  Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system, with four large moons and many small moons. Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. To become a full-fledged star, Jupiter needed to become 80 times more massive.

• Saturn

  Saturn is the farthest of the five planets known before the invention of the telescope. Like Jupiter, Saturn is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Its volume is 755 times greater than that of the Earth. Winds in its atmosphere reach speeds of 500 meters per second. These fast winds, combined with heat rising from the planet's interior, cause the yellow and golden streaks we see in the atmosphere.

• Uranus

  The first planet found using a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel. The seventh planet is so far from the Sun that one revolution around the Sun takes 84 years.

• Neptune

  Distant Neptune rotates almost 4.5 billion kilometers from the Sun. It takes him 165 years to complete one revolution around the Sun. It is invisible to the naked eye due to its vast distance from Earth. Interestingly, its unusual elliptical orbit intersects with the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto, which is why Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune for about 20 years out of 248 during which it makes one revolution around the Sun.

• Pluto

  Tiny, cold and incredibly distant, Pluto was discovered in 1930 and was long considered the ninth planet. But after discoveries of Pluto-like worlds that were even further away, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Planets are giants

There are four gas giants located beyond the orbit of Mars: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. They are located in the outer solar system. They are distinguished by their massiveness and gas composition.

Planets of the solar system, not to scale

Jupiter

The fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in our system. Its radius is 69912 km, it is 19 times larger than the Earth and only 10 times smaller than the Sun. The year on Jupiter is not the longest in the solar system, lasting 4333 Earth days (less than 12 years). His own day has a duration of about 10 Earth hours. The exact composition of the planet's surface has not yet been determined, but it is known that krypton, argon and xenon are present on Jupiter in much larger quantities than on the Sun.

There is an opinion that one of the four gas giants is actually a failed star. This theory is also supported by the largest number of satellites, of which Jupiter has many - as many as 67. To imagine their behavior in the planet’s orbit, you need a fairly accurate and clear model of the solar system. The largest of them are Callisto, Ganymede, Io and Europa. Moreover, Ganymede is the largest satellite of the planets in the entire solar system, its radius is 2634 km, which is 8% greater than the size of Mercury, the smallest planet in our system. Io has the distinction of being one of only three moons with an atmosphere.

Saturn

The second largest planet and the sixth in the solar system. In comparison with other planets, it is most similar to the Sun in the composition of chemical elements. The radius of the surface is 57,350 km, the year is 10,759 days (almost 30 Earth years). A day here lasts a little longer than on Jupiter - 10.5 Earth hours. In terms of the number of satellites, it is not much behind its neighbor - 62 versus 67. The largest satellite of Saturn is Titan, just like Io, which is distinguished by the presence of an atmosphere. Slightly smaller in size, but no less famous are Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Iapetus and Mimas. It is these satellites that are the objects for the most frequent observation, and therefore we can say that they are the most studied in comparison with the others.

For a long time, the rings on Saturn were considered a unique phenomenon unique to it. Only recently it was established that all gas giants have rings, but in others they are not so clearly visible. Their origin has not yet been established, although there are several hypotheses about how they appeared. In addition, it was recently discovered that Rhea, one of the satellites of the sixth planet, also has some kind of rings.

Our daily column “History of Science” talks about the search for a planet that never existed, about the confusion with the word “asteroid” and about the musician’s contribution to astronomy.

Usually the first of January is not the most fertile time for scientific discoveries. At least since the tradition of celebrating the New Year on this day was established. Nevertheless, one of the most important observational discoveries in astronomy of the 19th century happened not just on the first of January, but on the very first evening of the new century.

However, the history of this discovery began back in 1766, when the German physicist and mathematician Johann Daniel Titius proposed a rule that seemed to govern the distances of the planets of the solar system to the Sun. Six years later, Johann Bode refined and popularized it, and nine years later it became widely known because Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in 1781, fit perfectly into the rule. And this is where the fun began.

The Titius-Bode rule perfectly described all existing planets, but left room for one more - at a distance of about 2.8 astronomical units from the Sun, between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers began the hunt. In 1800, a group of 24 astronomers, the “Sky Guard,” was even created, led by the German Hungarian Franz von Zach. They combed the sky every day with the most powerful telescopes of that time, but luck did not smile on them.

A member of the priestly order of Theatines, Giuseppe Piazzi, an astronomer with a theological education, worked at the Palermo Observatory. And he was not looking for a new planet, he was going to observe the 87th star from Lacaille's catalog of zodiac stars. But I saw that next to it there was another star, which Piazzi initially mistook for a comet. This happened on the evening of January 1, 1801.

A storm of excitement began among astronomers: a new planet has been found! Piazzi was immediately included in the "Sky Guard". True, it took exactly a year for the final confirmation of the discovery. Piazzi told his friend Bode about the discovery back in January; publication happened only in September. By the way, we had to involve the later famous Carl Gauss. The 24-year-old mathematician, especially for the case of Ceres Ferdinand (Piazzi named his planet in honor of the King of Sicily Ferdinand III), developed a universal method for calculating the orbit of a celestial body from just three observations. On December 31, 1801, Franz von Zach and another future famous asteroid hunter, Heinrich Olbers, finally confirmed the discovery.

The question is closed? Nothing like this. Already in March 1802, the “Heavenly Guard” in the person of Olbers discovered another planet - Pallas. There, in the same “Titius-Bode gap”. And it became clear that the planets were obviously very small: through a telescope they were visible as stars, in contrast to the hazy spots of comets or planetary disks. At Herschel's request, his friend, English astronomer Charles Burney, came up with a new term - asteroid (that is, similar to stars).

Thus a new type of celestial body appeared. However, the question of whether Ceres can be called an asteroid is again being debated. The fact is that, as you know, in 2006 the International Astronomical Union deprived Pluto of its planet status, introducing a new term “dwarf planet”. These are considered to be celestial bodies revolving around the Sun, having sufficient mass to become a ball, but not enough to clear the vicinity of their orbit from other celestial bodies. But it's not just Pluto that has become a dwarf planet. Ceres also received such a “title” (quickly enough the addition of “Ferdinand” was dropped, the German name “Hera” was dropped too, and only in Greece is she called Demeter).

Asteroids are relatively small celestial bodies moving in orbit around the Sun. They are significantly smaller in size and mass than planets, have an irregular shape and do not have an atmosphere.

In this section of the site, everyone can learn many interesting facts about asteroids. You may already be familiar with some, others will be new to you. Asteroids are an interesting spectrum of the Cosmos, and we invite you to familiarize yourself with them in as much detail as possible.

The term "asteroid" was first coined by the famous composer Charles Burney and used by William Herschel based on the fact that these objects, when viewed through a telescope, appear as points of stars, while planets appear as disks.

There is still no precise definition of the term “asteroid”. Until 2006, asteroids were usually called minor planets.

The main parameter by which they are classified is body size. Asteroids include bodies with a diameter greater than 30 m, and bodies with a smaller size are called meteorites.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union classified most asteroids as small bodies in our solar system.

To date, hundreds of thousands of asteroids have been identified in the Solar System. As of January 11, 2015, the database included 670,474 objects, of which 422,636 had orbits determined, they had an official number, more than 19 thousand of them had official names. According to scientists, there may be from 1.1 to 1.9 million objects in the solar system larger than 1 km. Most of the asteroids currently known are located within the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.

The largest asteroid in the Solar System is Ceres, measuring approximately 975x909 km, but since August 24, 2006 it has been classified as a dwarf planet. The remaining two large asteroids (4) Vesta and (2) Pallas have a diameter of about 500 km. Moreover, (4) Vesta is the only object in the asteroid belt that is visible to the naked eye. All asteroids that move in other orbits can be tracked during their passage near our planet.

As for the total weight of all main belt asteroids, it is estimated at 3.0 - 3.6 1021 kg, which is approximately 4% of the weight of the Moon. However, the mass of Ceres accounts for about 32% of the total mass (9.5 1020 kg), and together with three other large asteroids - (10) Hygiea, (2) Pallas, (4) Vesta - 51%, that is, most asteroids are different an insignificant mass by astronomical standards.

Asteroid exploration

After William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, the first discoveries of asteroids began. The average heliocentric distance of asteroids follows the Titius-Bode rule.

Franz Xaver created a group of twenty-four astronomers at the end of the 18th century. Beginning in 1789, this group specialized in searching for a planet that, according to the Titius-Bode rule, should be located at a distance of approximately 2.8 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, namely between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. The main task was to describe the coordinates of stars located in the area of ​​zodiacal constellations at a specific moment. The coordinates were checked on subsequent nights, and objects moving over long distances were identified. According to their assumption, the displacement of the desired planet should be about thirty arcseconds per hour, which would be very noticeable.

The first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered by the Italian Piazii, who was not involved in this project, completely by accident, on the first night of the century - 1801. The three others—(2) Pallas, (4) Vesta, and (3) Juno—were discovered over the next few years. The most recent (in 1807) was Vesta. After another eight years of pointless searching, many astronomers decided that there was nothing more to look for there and abandoned all attempts.

But Karl Ludwig Henke showed persistence and in 1830 he again began searching for new asteroids. 15 years later he discovered Astraea, which was the first asteroid in 38 years. And after 2 years he discovered Hebe. After this, other astronomers joined the work, and then at least one new asteroid was discovered per year (except 1945).

The astrophotography method for searching for asteroids was first used by Max Wolf in 1891, according to which asteroids left short light lines in photographs with a long exposure period. This method significantly accelerated the identification of new asteroids compared to visual observation methods used previously. Alone, Max Wolf managed to discover 248 asteroids, while few before him managed to find more than 300. Nowadays, 385,000 asteroids have an official number, and 18,000 of them also have a name.

Five years ago, two independent teams of astronomers from Brazil, Spain and the United States announced that they had simultaneously identified water ice on the surface of Themis, one of the largest asteroids. Their discovery made it possible to find out the origin of water on our planet. At the beginning of its existence, it was too hot, unable to hold large amounts of water. This substance appeared later. Scientists have suggested that comets brought water to Earth, but the isotopic compositions of water in comets and terrestrial water do not match. Therefore, we can assume that it fell on Earth during its collision with asteroids. At the same time, scientists discovered complex hydrocarbons on Themis, incl. molecules are the precursors of life.

Name of asteroids

Initially, asteroids were given the names of heroes of Greek and Roman mythology; later discoverers could call them whatever they wanted, even their own name. At first, asteroids were almost always given female names, while only those asteroids that had unusual orbits received male names. Over time, this rule was no longer observed.

It is also worth noting that not any asteroid can receive a name, but only one whose orbit has been reliably calculated. There have often been cases when an asteroid was named many years after its discovery. Until the orbit was calculated, the asteroid was given only a temporary designation reflecting the date of its discovery, for example, 1950 DA. The first letter means the number of the crescent in the year (in the example, as you can see, this is the second half of February), respectively, the second indicates its serial number in the specified crescent (as you can see, this asteroid was discovered first). The numbers, as you might guess, indicate the year. Since there are 26 English letters, and 24 crescents, two letters have never been used in the designation: Z and I. In the event that the number of asteroids discovered during a crescent is more than 24, scientists returned to the beginning of the alphabet, namely, writing the second letter - 2, respectively, on the next return - 3, etc.

The name of the asteroid after receiving the name consists of a serial number (number) and name - (8) Flora, (1) Ceres, etc.

Determining the size and shape of asteroids

The first attempts to measure the diameters of asteroids using the method of directly measuring visible disks with a filament micrometer were made by Johann Schröter and William Herschel in 1805. Then, in the 19th century, other astronomers used exactly the same method to measure the brightest asteroids. The main disadvantage of this method is significant discrepancies in the results (for example, the maximum and minimum sizes of Ceres, which were obtained by astronomers, differed by 10 times).

Modern methods for determining the size of asteroids consist of polarimetry, thermal and transit radiometry, speckle interferometry, and radar methods.

One of the highest quality and simplest is the transit method. When an asteroid moves relative to the Earth, it can pass against the background of a separated star. This phenomenon is called “coating of stars by asteroids.” By measuring the duration of the star's brightness decline and having data on the distance to the asteroid, it is possible to accurately determine its size. Thanks to this method, it is possible to accurately calculate the sizes of large asteroids, like Pallas.

The polarimetry method itself consists of determining the size based on the brightness of the asteroid. The amount of sunlight it reflects depends on the size of the asteroid. But in many ways, the brightness of an asteroid depends on the albedo of the asteroid, which is determined by the composition of which the asteroid's surface is made. For example, due to its high albedo, the asteroid Vesta reflects four times more light compared to Ceres and is considered the most visible asteroid, which can often be seen even with the naked eye.

However, the albedo itself is also very easy to determine. The lower the brightness of an asteroid, that is, the less it reflects solar radiation in the visible range, the more it absorbs it, and after it heats up, it emits it as heat in the infrared range.

It can also be used to calculate the shape of an asteroid by recording changes in its brightness during rotation, and to determine the period of this rotation, as well as to identify the largest structures on the surface. In addition, the results obtained from infrared telescopes are used for sizing through thermal radiometry.

Asteroids and their classification

The general classification of asteroids is based on the characteristics of their orbits, as well as a description of the visible spectrum of sunlight that is reflected by their surface.

Asteroids are usually grouped into groups and families based on the characteristics of their orbits. Most often, a group of asteroids is named after the very first asteroid discovered in a given orbit. Groups are a relatively loose formation, while families are denser, formed in the past during the destruction of large asteroids as a result of collisions with other objects.

Spectral classes

Ben Zellner, David Morrison, and Clark R. Champaign developed a general system for classifying asteroids in 1975, which was based on albedo, color, and characteristics of the spectrum of reflected sunlight. At the very beginning, this classification defined exclusively 3 types of asteroids, namely:

Class C – carbon (most known asteroids).

Class S – silicate (about 17% of known asteroids).

Class M - metal.

This list was expanded as more and more asteroids were studied. The following classes have appeared:

Class A - characterized by a high albedo and a reddish color in the visible part of the spectrum.

Class B - belong to class C asteroids, but they do not absorb waves below 0.5 microns, and their spectrum is slightly bluish. In general, the albedo is higher compared to other carbon asteroids.

Class D - have a low albedo and a smooth reddish spectrum.

Class E - the surface of these asteroids contains enstatite and is similar to achondrites.

Class F - similar to Class B asteroids, but do not have traces of “water”.

Class G - have a low albedo and an almost flat reflectance spectrum in the visible range, which indicates strong UV absorption.

Class P - just like D-class asteroids, they are distinguished by a low albedo and a smooth reddish spectrum that does not have clear absorption lines.

Class Q - have broad and bright lines of pyroxene and olivine at a wavelength of 1 micron and features indicating the presence of metal.

Class R - characterized by a relatively high albedo and at a length of 0.7 microns have a reddish reflection spectrum.

Class T - characterized by a reddish spectrum and low albedo. The spectrum is similar to D and P class asteroids, but is intermediate in inclination.

Class V - characterized by moderate brightness and similar to the more general S-class, which are also largely composed of silicates, stone and iron, but are characterized by a high pyroxene content.

Class J is a class of asteroids that are believed to have formed from the interior of Vesta. Despite the fact that their spectra are close to those of class V asteroids, at a wavelength of 1 micron they are distinguished by strong absorption lines.

It is worth considering that the number of known asteroids that belong to a certain type does not necessarily correspond to reality. Many types are difficult to determine; the type of an asteroid may change with more detailed studies.

Asteroid size distribution

As the size of asteroids grew, their number noticeably decreased. Although this generally follows a power law, there are peaks at 5 and 100 kilometers where there are more asteroids than predicted by the logarithmic distribution.

How asteroids were formed

Scientists believe that planetesimals in the asteroid belt evolved in the same way as in other regions of the solar nebula until the planet Jupiter reached its current mass, after which, as a result of orbital resonances with Jupiter, 99% of the planetesimals were thrown out of the belt. Modeling and jumps in spectral properties and rotation rate distributions indicate that asteroids larger than 120 kilometers in diameter formed by accretion during this early era, while smaller bodies represent debris from collisions between different asteroids after or during the dispersal of the primordial belt by Jupiter's gravity . Vesti and Ceres acquired an overall size for gravitational differentiation, during which heavy metals sank to the core, and a crust formed from relatively rocky rocks. As for the Nice model, many Kuiper belt objects formed in the outer asteroid belt, at a distance of more than 2.6 astronomical units. Moreover, later most of them were thrown out by Jupiter’s gravity, but those that survived may belong to class D asteroids, including Ceres.

Threat and danger from asteroids

Despite the fact that our planet is significantly larger than all asteroids, a collision with a body larger than 3 kilometers in size could cause the destruction of civilization. If the size is smaller, but more than 50 m in diameter, then it can lead to enormous economic damage, including numerous casualties.

The heavier and larger the asteroid, the more dangerous it poses, but in this case it is much easier to identify it. At the moment, the most dangerous asteroid is Apophis, whose diameter is about 300 meters; a collision with it can destroy an entire city. But, according to scientists, in general it does not pose any threat to humanity in a collision with the Earth.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 approached the planet on June 1, 2013 at its closest distance (5.8 million km) in the last two hundred years.

On June 9, 2002, specialists from the American town of Socorro working at the observatory discovered a huge space object that was heading towards Earth. After discovery, the object was named NT 7 and the danger level was coefficient. 0.025. Such a meteorite will travel more than 61 million km from Earth.

Of course, we will only know about the end of the world on February 1 if we survive the one that was planned by scientists for the Old New Year. Another asteroid is flying towards the earth and, as NASA says, it may well collide with our planet. Will the world end on February 1, 2019 or is this just another media horror story?

It is at least ridiculous to talk about a collision of such an object with our planet, given that the prediction scheduled for January 13 has not yet happened. But still, many conspiracy theorists say that an asteroid is flying towards the planet and will collide with it at 11:47.

According to the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences B. Shustov, in fact, there is no need to worry about NT 7. If this asteroid posed some kind of danger to our planet, it would have a name, for example, as the most dangerous asteroid Pallas.

This object was discovered in June 2002. This was done by specialists from the observatory in the American city of Socorro. This body received its name in the form of markings - NT7. It moves quite specifically and crosses the orbit of Earth and Mars.

According to scientists, the collision will occur on February 1 of this year. So the danger rating of the asteroid, as already mentioned, is 0.025.

If we look at the situation more closely, the chance of a collision is equal to 1 in a million. Therefore, already on August 1, 2002, experts removed this asteroid from the list of those that could harm the planet.

The diameter of such a celestial body is 1.407 km. It moves at a speed of approximately 30 km per second. The orbital speed is 20.927 m/sec. or 75.3372 km/h. The magnitude is 17.22 m. And the distance at which it must travel from the earth is 61 million km.

It is believed that the most dangerous asteroid for our planet is Pallas, which will intersect its orbit in 2020, namely on January 30. It will pass at a record distance – only 4 million km. At least that's what NASA thinks.

NASA initially said there would be a collision on February 1st. But then the information changed. The latest data suggests that the asteroid will bypass our planet at a distance safe for humanity. Calculations were carried out that eliminated the danger.

But events can develop completely differently. They may not tell us exact data for obvious reasons - to avoid panic. During this time, the top officials of the state will have time to go deep into the bunkers and save their lives. Well, on the other hand, the military power of large states can destroy it even before it reaches the Earth.

The force of a collision with such an asteroid will be enormous. It has been compared to the 30 million nuclear weapons that were once dropped on Hiroshima. Or with 450 tons of TNT. This could have the following consequences for us:

• The magnetic poles will shift;
• Several continents may disappear;
• Volcanoes will awaken;
• There will be global cooling due to rising dirt;
• The MO level will change;
• Many living beings and plants will die;
• Vast areas will flood or dry up.

Each problem can trigger the next one and this will cause more global violations.

There are always a mass of meteorites near the Earth, which can be small or large, reaching several kilometers. Today, scientists are monitoring more than seven thousand objects near the planet. Of course, this does not mean that some of them will fall to Earth today, but such a possibility cannot be ruled out either.

As you know, in all legends or prophecies telling about the end of the world, there are references to some prerequisites that necessarily arise before the onset of a global catastrophe.

So, for example, in the Bible these are the harbingers of the apocalypse bringing natural disasters to humanity, and in Nostradamus there is a series of tragic facts leading to the destruction of the planet. What they all have in common is that they are large-scale, destructive and practically irreversible.

In our time, there are dozens of examples of such cataclysms, each of which can easily serve as a sign of the coming end of the world.

Take, for example, the constantly emerging wars in the Middle East, the increasing frequency of natural disasters or the growing tension in the world political arena, where after analyzing the facts, it becomes clear to everyone that the world is on the brink of a major catastrophe.

How and when it will overtake us is not yet clear, although some famous clairvoyants have several versions on this matter.

Michelle Nostradamus

Astrologers most often express their theories about the possible end of the world by analyzing the position of the heavenly bodies in relation to our planet. The most famous and authoritative member of this cohort of prophets is Michel Nostradamus, who described events several centuries in advance in his works.

His followers are confident that this man, who lived in the Middle Ages, was able to see the future, and each of his quatrains carries a lot of useful information for those who can understand it correctly.

People who deciphered the seer's books claim that they describe dozens of cataclysms that are about to happen at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

So in 2019, a global war could occur with almost all continents involved in hostilities. It will not last long, but the wounds after it will remain for many millennia. And no one will emerge victorious from this conflict - there will only be losers.

Despite such sad predictions, Nostradamus also speaks of the flourishing of humanity on the ruins of fallen empires. That only when faced with the threat of complete extinction will people be able to reconsider their views on life and direct all their energy to creation.

Seraphim Vyritsky

Father Seraphim is one of those predictors whose words come true in the vast majority of cases. In particular, he predicted the persecution of Christians during the period of communism in our country and the death of the great red empire at the end of the 20th century.

Regarding 2019, he said that there would be big changes in the global balance of power. The countries of America and Europe will lose their power and cede primacy to Asia. China will become the main geopolitical player and financial center.

Russia will strengthen itself spiritually, but at the same time it will lose some of its territories; they will be assimilated by people who came from neighboring countries. Wars will break out everywhere and dozens of states will suffer until the people understand where the world's evil actually lurks and destroy it with their own hands.

The prerequisites for such events can be easily discerned today. The centers of world production have long been located in Asian countries, and major innovations are developed here. Very soon, financial centers will be in China, India and Singapore, which only confirms the words of the great prophet.

Matrona of Moscow

Every year hundreds of pilgrims flock to the places where this great healer and clairvoyant lived. Despite such a difficult fate that befell the Matrona of Moscow, she had the incredible gift of looking into the future not only of a specific person, but also of entire states. She made her predictions quite rarely, but they all certainly came true.

Regarding the coming 2019, the fortuneteller spoke about a great clash between the two worlds of true and false, where evil will strive to take possession of the souls of humanity by all means. At this time, everything will be mixed up and people, like blind people, will follow sweet speeches, trampling on righteousness.

After such a fall, the bowls of heavenly wrath will be poured onto the earth and the judgment that has been awaited for more than two thousand years will take place.

If you look at the current political situation, it is not difficult to see that in fact today the world is on the brink of a global catastrophe. There has not been such an aggravation as now since the Cuban missile crisis, when the USSR and the USA entered into open confrontation off the coast of Cuba.

Every day, the contradictions between our state and Western countries are only getting worse and no one can say for sure what this threatens people with, and whether this conflict can be resolved peacefully. Therefore, we can only hope for the prudence of those in power, because the third big war will be the last.

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Asteroids are celestial bodies that were formed by the mutual attraction of dense gas and dust orbiting our Sun early in its formation. Some of these objects, like an asteroid, have reached enough mass to form a molten core. At the moment Jupiter reached its mass, most of the planetesimals (future protoplanets) were split and ejected from the original asteroid belt between Mars and. During this era, some asteroids were formed due to the collision of massive bodies within the influence of Jupiter's gravitational field.

Classification by orbits

Asteroids are classified based on features such as visible reflections of sunlight and orbital characteristics.

According to the characteristics of their orbits, asteroids are grouped into groups, among which families can be distinguished. A group of asteroids is considered to be a number of such bodies whose orbital characteristics are similar, that is: semi-axis, eccentricity and orbital inclination. An asteroid family should be considered a group of asteroids that not only move in close orbits, but are probably fragments of one large body, and were formed as a result of its split.

The largest of the known families can number several hundred asteroids, while the most compact - within ten. Approximately 34% of asteroid bodies are members of asteroid families.

As a result of the formation of most groups of asteroids in the Solar System, their parent body was destroyed, but there are also groups whose parent body survived (for example).

Classification by spectrum

Spectral classification is based on the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, which is the result of the asteroid reflecting sunlight. Registration and processing of this spectrum makes it possible to study the composition of the celestial body and identify the asteroid in one of the following classes:

• A group of carbon asteroids or C-group. Representatives of this group consist mostly of carbon, as well as elements that were part of the protoplanetary disk of our Solar System in the early stages of its formation. Hydrogen and helium, as well as other volatile elements, are virtually absent from carbon asteroids, but various minerals may be present. Another distinctive feature of such bodies is their low albedo - reflectivity, which requires the use of more powerful observation tools than when studying asteroids of other groups. More than 75% of asteroids in the Solar System are representatives of the C-group. The most famous bodies of this group are Hygeia, Pallas, and once - Ceres.
• A group of silicon asteroids or S-group. These types of asteroids are composed primarily of iron, magnesium and some other rocky minerals. For this reason, silicon asteroids are also called rocky asteroids. Such bodies have a fairly high albedo, which makes it possible to observe some of them (for example, Iris) simply with the help of binoculars. The number of silicon asteroids in the Solar System is 17% of the total, and they are most common at a distance of up to 3 astronomical units from the Sun. The largest representatives of the S-group: Juno, Amphitrite and Herculina.

Representative of S class asteroids

• Group of iron asteroids or X-group. The least studied group of asteroids, the prevalence of which in the Solar System is inferior to the other two spectral classes. The composition of such celestial bodies is not yet well understood, but it is known that most of them contain a high percentage of metals, sometimes nickel and iron. It is assumed that these asteroids are fragments of the nuclei of some protoplanets that formed in the early stages of the formation of the Solar System. They can have both high and low albedo.

Asteroid Ceres- the largest in the asteroid belt. Since 2006, it has been considered a dwarf planet. It has a spherical shape, the crust is made of water ice and minerals, and the core is made of rock.

Asteroid Pallas- rich in silicon, its diameter is 532 km.

Asteroid Vesta— the heaviest asteroid has a diameter of 530 km. Heavy metal core, rocky crust.

Asteroid Hygea- the most common type of asteroid with carbonaceous content. Diameter 407 km.

Asteroid Interamnia- belongs to asteroids of rare spectral class F. Diameter 326 km.

Asteroid Europa- has an elongated orbit, diameter is 302.5 km. Has a porous surface.

Asteroid David— diameter from 270 to 326 km.

Asteroid Sylvia- has at least two satellites. Its diameter is 232 km.

Asteroid Hector- size is 370 × 195 × 205 km with a shape similar to a peanut. Consists of rock and ice.

Asteroid Euphrosyne- size from 248 to 270 km.

History of asteroid discoveries

In 1766, the German mathematician Johann Titius developed a formula that allows one to calculate the approximate radii of the orbits of the planets in the solar system. The functionality of this formula was confirmed after the discovery in 1781, the radius of the orbit coincides with the predicted value. Later, a group of astronomers was formed to search for a planet whose orbit lay between Jupiter and Mars.

Thus, astronomers stumbled upon a large number of different celestial bodies, which, however, could not be classified as planets. Among them were such asteroids as Pallas, Juno and Vesta. It is noteworthy that the first discovered asteroid was Ceres, which was also discovered by the Italian scientist Giuseppe Piazzi, who was not included in the above-mentioned group of astronomers.

Having failed to find a planet between Jupiter and Mars, astronomers have given up. However, after some time, the asteroid belt began to attract more and more scientists, thanks to whom today more than 670,000 asteroids are known, 422,00 of which have their own number, and 19,000 have names.

Asteroid exploration today

Generally speaking, there are only two reasons for conducting asteroid research. The first is a significant contribution to basic science. Thanks to such research, humanity is developing an understanding of the structure of the solar system, as well as its formation and structure; understanding the behavior of the Universe and its components. Astronomers are actively studying the composition of asteroids to understand their nature. All of the above does not give a definite understanding of the benefits of studying these celestial bodies, so we will give the following example.

The model for the formation of modern terrestrial natural conditions provides for the emergence of water on the surface of our planet. However, as is known, in the first stages of its evolution it was too hot to retain water reserves after cooling. It was assumed that the water was later brought in by comets, but thanks to recent studies of the composition of their water, it turned out that the water in comets is too different from that on Earth. In 2010, scientists discovered ice on one of the largest asteroids in the main belt, Themis. This suggests that water was brought to Earth by asteroids. In addition, hydrocarbons and some molecules that could serve as the origin of life on Earth were also found on Themis.

The second reason for studying asteroids is more relevant for ordinary residents of planet Earth - this is a possible threat from these cosmic bodies. You can learn about what can happen when an asteroid falls on Earth from many disaster films. Therefore, to avoid such situations, astronomers closely monitor asteroids that are dangerous to earthlings. One of these objects is Apophis, whose diameter is approximately 325 m. For comparison, the diameter is 17 meters. In 2029, the trajectory of Apophis will pass close to the Earth (at an altitude of 35,000 km); in 2036, the possibility of a collision cannot be ruled out.