10 Mysteries of the solar system, which are confusing our best scientists

Even if we have already told you about the mysteries of our solar system, here , here and here , they are innumerable, and we are back, taking in his arms even more mysterious sights and features that confuse our scientists. Sometimes they even incite conspiracy theories, and it adds even more fuel to the fire.

Mysterious "sounds" in space

The video above presents five mysterious "sounds" of the cosmos, three of which, of course, occurred in our solar system.
 
All these sounds are radio waves or plasma waves translated into sound, so people can hear them.

First we hear eerie sounds spacecraft NASA “Cassini" registered as a radio bursts from the poles of Saturn in April 2002. Fluctuations in the frequency and time correspond to the Saturn auroral activity, like our own radio bursts from the northern and southern lights. Scientists believe that this complex and growing band of flowing tones came from a variety of radio sets, which moved along the magnetic field near the polar regions of Saturn. Conspiracy theorists believe that these sounds resemble aliens negotiations.

The second we hear input "Voyager-1" into interstellar space (not counting the Oort cloud) in 2012. This unit is the most distant stranger outside our Earth. It took him 35 years to hear the sound of a dense plasma (ionized gas), vibrating in a collision with a blast eruptions of the sun.

Third, we hear "music xylophone" comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko, the spacecraft recorded "Rosetta" in August 2014. Scientists believe that this music is born in the process of "fluctuations in the magnetic field environment of a comet." "To do this music audible to the human ear, frequencies were amplified approximately 10 000 times." But even now it remains a mystery exactly how these fluctuations.

Then we hear a whistling sound (electromagnetic "whistling" radiation) Lightning Jupiter recorded "Voyager." When the emitted waves get into the plasma above the planet, higher frequencies travel faster than low along the magnetic field of Jupiter. So we hear the whistle otherworldly effects.

Finally, we hear the "heartbeat" Kushan black hole in a binary system of stars GRS 1915 + 105, recorded NASA Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer in 1996 and converted into sound by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. NASA also records the heartbeat of a black hole in the IGR J17091-3624 in 2003.

Hidden magnetic portals around the Earth

If you are familiar sci-fi concept wormholes - short passages connecting two distant points in space - then you have to understand what the magnetic portal. The only difference is that the magnetic portals really exist. They are hidden around the earth opened and closed dozens of times a day. Also, they are unstable, short-lived and are not visible. During the short time that we know them, we found out that predict their behavior is extremely difficult. But that may change.

Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, the invisible magnetic field produced by the molten core of our planet. In the upper atmosphere lines of the magnetic forces of our planet and the Sun sometimes meet to form a point X, leading to these hidden magnetic portals. Each portal forms the indestructible path is 150 million kilometers from the Earth's atmosphere to the sun's atmosphere, allowing a huge number of solar particles penetrate rapidly into our magnetosphere, if the portal will remain open long enough. When this happens, these solar particles can produce geomagnetic storms, causing auroras and disruption in our mains.

Plasma physicist Jack Scudder discovered that we may be able to predict the point X. "We found five simple combinations of measurements of the magnetic field and energetic particles that tell us when we come to the point X or electron diffusion region - said Scudder. - A device with the right tools can perform such measurements. "

Mission NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission was launched in early 2015 in order to study these magnetic portals and gather more information about them.

Dark Lightning

Although the risk of this is quite high, perhaps you already dark lightning fell - and its beams of antimatter - even though you did not even notice.

Dark Lightning is also known as "terrestrial gamma-ray bursts." Thunderstorms are not only producing electricity with the help of visible lightning - they also produce powerful bursts of radiation through the quiet dark lightning, which is almost invisible. Gamma radiation is usually associated with nuclear explosions, supermassive black holes and supernovas. Therefore, you may be surprised by the presence of such outbreaks in thunderstorms.

While the visible lightning goes from cloud to cloud or between the cloud and the ground, forming an arrow, dark zipper goes up in all directions in space, including the airspace where commercial jets fly. If you fly often, you get radiation more often than you think. We also know that the dark space zipper shells positrons, antimatter equivalent of an electron.

Scientists believe that your dose of radiation from hitting the dark lightning, probably equivalent to scanning with CT, but not one hundred percent sure. If you get enough radiation at one time or in the aggregate, your body may suffer from the impact of dark lightning. But you do not get such damage, which could be at direct lightning strike normal.

The risk of being struck by lightning the dark is quite low because the pilots did not try to fly under the rain. "Apparently, the dose will never achieve a truly dangerous levels, - says physicist Joseph Dwyer. - Radiation from the dark lightning - not something to be afraid of people, and it is certainly not a reason to throw flights. You can easily get on the plane with the children. "

We do not know much about the dark lightning. Although we believe that they are born, when high-energy electrons collide with air molecules during a thunderstorm, we do not know how to relate the visible lightning and dark. We also do not know how often born dark and lightning, in general, they fall in love with someone.

Mysterious bright spot Ceres Solar system

Not so long ago we told you that "The peculiarity of 5", a bright spot on the surface of Ceres can be kriovulkanom, water spewing volcano, which indicates the presence of an underground ocean. New images taken by the spacecraft Dawn, add enigma charm.

First, we saw another bright spot, "Feature 1" on the surface of Ceres. But two of these spots look different when they are viewed in the thermal image. "Feature 1" was a dark spot in the infrared image, which means that it is colder than the surrounding terrain. "The peculiarity of 5" does not manifest in the thermal images, hence its temperature corresponds to the ambient. We do not know yet what it could mean. Perhaps spots consist of different materials or the land surrounding them is different.

The next round of shots has further aggravated the riddle. Instead of the two spots we discovered that they actually consist of multiple individual dots of different sizes to the central cluster. The brightest spot contained a crater 90 kilometers wide.

“Bright spots of this nature made?  Ceres unique compared to everything that we've seen before in the solar system, - said Christopher Russell, managing mission Dawn. - A team of scientists is working, trying to understand the source of stains. Reflection on the ice is the leading candidate, in my opinion, but scientists are looking for other explanations, for example, associated with salt.”

Ceres also lacks large craters on the surface of which there should be. "When we compare the size of craters Ceres with those that we see in the Proto-planet Vesta, we are missing a few large craters, - says Russell. - This is what we, too, would like to know more. "

Nevertheless Ceres shows more evidence of activity such as landslides and debris flows on the surface than the West. Also, Ceres has a pretty steep mountains, towering over a relatively smooth surface.

Senseless Mercury

For four years, NASA MESSENGER spacecraft flew over Mercury by sending us pictures of rocks that look like giant stairs. The greatest length of around 1,000 kilometers and tall - more than 3000 meters.

These benches are created when rocks ejected in this order through cracks in the crust of the planet. In the case of Mercury, many scientists believe that these scarps are "wrinkled" surface that were created when the planet has decreased by almost 14 kilometers in diameter due to the fact that its core was transformed from molten to solid. Yet these scarps look wrong. If they were formed due to the reduction, they should be uniform on the entire surface of Mercury. Instead, most of the benches are along two broad bands from north to south on each side of the planet. In the northern hemisphere, losing in two times less than in the south.

And that's not all the strangeness of Mercury. Yet it is too far from the sun. As determined according to the scientists of the spacecraft "Kepler", only one planetary system similar to ours. As a rule, many stars are surrounded by systems with densely packed inner planets (STIP). Over time, as a result of clashes between the inner planets are only a few survivors. If scientists make the correct model of our solar system lacks the four planets that have been rotated to Venus in the old days. When all the clashes ended, survived only Mercury.

This may explain why Mercury has too many heavy elements, and lacks elements easier. Perhaps collision with other space objects are easy to clean off the outside crust of the planet, revealing a dense layer. It may also explain why the model of our solar system show that revolves around our sun is too much material to form only one close to the planet Mercury.

"If each star once had a system of STIP, this would mean that the drafters of the model are wrong for a long time looked at the formation of the planets - he says Kevin Walsh. - We have always tried to build a model to get four of our rocky planet, and though it is true in fact, we do not admit the possibility of the formation of three or five planets larger than the Earth inside the orbit of Mercury. That would be very cool. "

Mysterious feathers clouds over Mars

In early 2012, an amateur astronomer Wayne Dzheshke noticed a strange cloud over Mars. Unlike slender thin clouds, which are usually formed on this planet, these stretched monstrous feathers from the surface to an altitude of 240 kilometers, being twice as long as any previous clouds. They were also incredibly wide, up to 500-1000 kilometers across.

The first feathers lasted just over a week in March 2012. Similar feathers appeared briefly in April 2012. Even after consultations with other astronomers amateurs, Dzheshke could not explain what he saw. So he went to the professionals, but they were at an impasse.

Prosherstit historical data, professional astronomers have found images from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997, when he recorded a similar cloud on Mars. Businesses have found that strange feathers are composed of ice crystals because the Martian atmosphere is too warm for it. Nor was it seems that these feathers were shining, like the aurora on our planet. Type of solar activity needed to create the aurora was absent on days when apparent Martian feathers. However, they were 1000 times brighter than anything in principle, observed from the earth.

Not all planetary scientists believe in the reality of these feather clouds. But the others have to believe 19 different observers who records the strange eruption.

Apart from this, Mars Orbiter has detected an "impact glass" in some of the craters of Mars. As dark as barely cooled down lava, impact glass formed when a comet or an asteroid crashes into the planet's surface and melt a large plot of stones and soil, which quickly solidify.

This material can store traces of life that lived before and after the collision, like a time capsule. Shock glass may also store the atmospheric gases have been in a collision. A good way to reconstruct the atmosphere and environment of ancient Mars.

The origin of the Chelyabinsk meteorite

In February 2013 invisible meteor exploded 20 meters wide with a force of 30 bombs dropped on Hiroshima at Chelyabinsk in Russia east of the Ural Mountains. Fortunately, no one was killed. But a moment later, the shock wave has covered the town and led to the 1200 case of damage from flying glass from broken windows.

Two years later, we still do not know anything about the origin of the meteorite. At first we thought it was a piece of 1999 NC43, near-Earth asteroid 2 km in width. But the only thing in common is that they have, it's orbit around the Earth. "The composition of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that was discovered after the event, similar to the common type of meteorites called LL-chondrites - he says Vishnu Reddy. - Near-Earth asteroids has a composition that is very different from them. " Ultimately, the scientists had to admit that they can not associate with a specific asteroid meteorite, because most of the asteroids are very small and have chaotic orbits.

We were lucky that the Chelyabinsk meteorite exploded close to the ground and did not result in casualties. But it serves as a reminder and a warning that we need to track asteroids, and proactively identify hazards in advance. In 2018 a nonprofit organization B612 should launch a space telescope "Guardian» (Sentinel), which will search for such asteroids. If we find them fairly quickly, we will have time to prepare for the meeting.

Miniature solar system, Pluto

Unlike anything we've seen before, Pluto and its five satellites resemble a miniature solar system. Scientists believe that Charon, Pluto's largest moon, was created by the collision of Pluto and an unknown large object. Other moons - Hydra, Cerberus, the Knicks and the Styx - may have formed as a result of the collision. If so, all of the moon should be similar. But no.

On photographs taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have determined that Kerber darker Hydra, Nix and Styx. If they were formed as a result of the collision, where the roots of this distinction? Where did then Kerber?

Perhaps Pluto captured Kerber in a collision with another object. However, if Kerber formed from the same collision that gave rise to other moons, it just might be a darker piece of kernel object collision. But this does not explain the difference in color. Scientists believe that the color of satellites should be the same as those materials exchanged with each other for billions of years of its existence.

According to another theory, the moon all the same inside, but Kerber is a little different from the outside. However, we are too far away to clarify this point. There is also a theory that different Kerber rather its form - a donut, or potato - as compared with other moons.

Another surprise for the scientists was that Hydra and Nix Stix are Laplace resonance, that is, have a gravitational influence on each other so as to close its orbit in the cosmic dance around Pluto. In our solar system, only the moons of Jupiter Europa, Ganymede and Io are in such an orbital resonance.

In general, the orbital resonance means that the gravitational effects of at least two objects closes their orbiting parent body in a certain ratio. For example, Pluto and Neptune are in resonance of 2: 3. Pluto makes two orbits around the Sun (its parent body) for every three orbits that makes Neptune.

The X-Files with a space border

It has been almost 50 years since we recorded the atmospheric infrasound, sound waves with a frequency below 20 Hz. These frequencies lie below the capacity of the human ear, so the sounds are played on the video above 1000 times faster, so they can be heard. Daniel Baumann, from the University of North Carolina, wrote them down, he says the eerie hiss, crackle and whistle sounds like a secret message. Others hear them interference.

Scientists are intrigued by these sounds, because they can not explain their origin. As part of the platform in 2014, HASP Bowman was flying for nine hours on a high-altitude balloon at an altitude above 37,500 meters above the Earth's surface. This region of the atmosphere called "near space", it lies below the area where the satellites are flying, but flying above the commercial aircraft. With the equipment, which he made himself, Baumann became the first person to record infrasound at this altitude.

Although scientists in the 1960s believed that the atmospheric infrasound would be a good way to identify nuclear explosions, their interest ebbed, when the ground-based sensors that can do the job. Therefore, the complexity of the records of the Bauman New Mexico caught scientists by surprise modernity. They want to send another ball HASP, to explore unusual infrasound. "I think this work will open the way for other studies - said geophysicist Omar Marchillo. - It is important for the entire community. "

Serious scientists do not believe that the source of these waves lies in the hands of aliens. Weather events such as storms can generate infrasound waves. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteors - too. Scientists will have to cut off all possible sources, including air turbulence, wind, ocean waves, gravitational waves, signals from a nearby wind farm and vibration Cable balloon.

Planet X, Mercury

More recently, in 2014, scientists announced that Planet X, hypothetical planet, lying outside of Pluto in our solar system does not exist. But in early 2015 the scientific course changed again. After analyzing the 13 extreme orbits of trans-Neptunian objects (ETNO) - distant bodies like the dwarf planets Sedna and 2012 VP113, which orbit around the Sun lie beyond Pluto - some scientists have concluded that at least two planets are larger than Earth, Planet X and Y planet may be there.

Theoretically ETNO orbit should be on average 150 a. e. from the sun. The astronomical unit is equal to 150 million kilometers, the distance from Earth to the sun. The inclination of their orbits must be within zero degrees. But the theory is not consistent with reality. 13 sites have ETNO orbits at an average distance of 150 to 525 a. e., and the slope is about 20 degrees.

"The excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters suggests to us that there are some unseen forces that alter the distribution of orbital elements of ETNO, and we believe that the most likely explanation is the presence of unknown planets beyond Neptune and Pluto - says lead researcher Carlos de la Fuente -Markos. - The exact number is not known, but our calculations suggest at least two planets within our solar system. "

Of course, there may be other explanations for these unexpected orbit. But given the fact that we did not know that beyond Pluto in our solar system may be something prior to 1992 and most recently discovered 2012 VP113, no one can say with certainty that there is nothing there. Perhaps our technologies are not sufficiently developed to direct all to see.