Several decades have passed since Albert Einstein formulated the famous general theory relativity, but only recently have astronomers come to understand one amazing fact. What we see and perceive as matter is only a small part of what actually makes up the Universe in all its diversity. Approximately 25% of it comes from the so-called dark matter, and 68−75% from yu. It sounds like a good premise for a dark fantasy, but in reality these phenomena are of keen interest to the most pragmatic part of the scientific community.
The reality is that dark matter and dark energy make up a significant part of the cosmos, although in the past some astronomers were skeptical about their existence. a large share skepticism. They are invisible to the human eye, but manifest themselves when interacting with gravity. The theory of relativity states that gravity occurs when mass and energy bend space and time. Dark energy, as scientists believe, is the very force that forces the Universe to expand every second, and therefore, according to Einstein, is a cosmological constant - the so-called “ vacuum energy».
A team of astronomers from various scientific institutions, including the Institute of Cosmology and Gravity at the University of Portsmouth (UoP), has found evidence that dark energy may be dynamic in nature. “Since its discovery at the end of the last century, dark energy has been a mystery shrouded in even greater mystery,” jokes UoP director Bob Nicol in an official press release. “We have been desperately trying time and time again to gain a clearer understanding of the characteristics and origins of this phenomenon, and the new work appears to have made some progress in this direction.”
According to the results of a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, evidence of the dynamic nature of dark energy is provided by high-precision measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs)—periodic fluctuations of matter consisting of protons and neutrons—over several cosmic epochs. The necessary measurements were made in 2016 by a team that included the lead author new job, Gong-Bo Zhao of ICG and National Astronomical Observatory of China. Thanks to a new technique developed by Zhao himself, astronomers have discovered evidence of the dynamic nature of dark energy.
Speaking in simple language: if earlier this phenomenon was perceived as a semblance of a static vacuum, now scientists are confident that it rather represents a certain form dynamic field. To confirm their findings, the team still has a number of astronomical studies to do in the future, which will be carried out using next-generation instruments. One such instrument is the Dark Energy Spectrometer (DESI), which is due to begin work on a 3D map of outer space in 2018. Of course, it will not be possible without such a fantastic achievement of modern space technology How, exactly, he will help make observations that will shed light on the mysterious nature of dark energy.
In 1959, NASA, the US space agency, began a project to search for intelligent life in the depths of space. Subsequently, the project received the name SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).
Soviet analogue of SETI
Soon similar work began to be carried out in the Soviet Union. Thus, in the first half of the 60s of the twentieth century, a program to detect signals from extraterrestrial civilizations was launched at the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute. Outstanding physicists, academicians and doctors of science took part in it: V.A. Ambartsumyan, Ya.B. Zeldovich, V.A. Kotelnikov, I.E. Tamm, S.E. Haykin. The program that became the Soviet version of SETI was called Project Au.
It developed against the backdrop of the events that our country was experiencing - from the launch of the first space satellites to the political upheavals of the late twentieth century. Nevertheless, a lot has been accomplished in 50 years. Several all-Union and international conferences and symposia were held with the participation of Nobel laureates: the Englishman F. Crick, the American J. Townes and the Russian V.L. Ginsburg. In parallel with the discussion of the problem of searching for “brothers in mind,” astrophysicists conducted observations of space, exploring more and more of its spaces.
“But you can’t treat extraterrestrial civilizations like that,” says Alexander Zaitsev, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics. – If everyone in the Universe is looking for other people’s messages, but they don’t send anything themselves, then what’s the point of looking?
Therefore, Zaitsev sent three “letters” from the radar telescope in Yevpatoria - in 1999, 2001 and 2003. The “correspondence” contained both digital (texts) and analogue (music) international information and went to several solar-type stars. It will take more than 30 years for the message to reach its destination, but there is still a chance to get an answer in the 70s of this century.
Long before this, in 1962, the USSR “launched” three words into space: “Peace, Lenin, USSR,” and in 1974, an American signal flew from the radar telescope in Arecibo (Puerto Rico) into the depths of the Universe. The world never heard anything about the answers to these “epistles”.
The Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Astronomical Institute compiled a list of the 100 star systems closest to Earth. Of these hundred, 58 could clearly be SETI objects.
“But all of this is an attempt to find a civilization similar to ours,” says Anatoly Cherepashchuk, director of the Astronomical Institute, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – What if other civilizations are millions of years older than ours, and they communicate with each other using dark matter? What if it is the presence of dark matter and dark energy that explains the silence of the Universe?
I think that the efforts of astrophysicists and physicists today should be focused on unraveling the nature of dark matter and dark energy. And then we ourselves will be able to “twist” the fields, create tunnels in space-time, and send signals through them to other civilizations. Our messages will be delivered instantly, this is fundamental new connection, which will allow us to explore the Galaxy and finally understand who we are.
"Product" of intelligent beings
According to Academician N.S. Kardashev, it is possible to encounter three types of civilizations in the Universe.
The first type is civilizations similar to the earth’s, the second type is those that have mastered the energy of their star, the third is those that have mastered the gigantic energy of the Galaxy. Representatives of the latter must be able to artificially create tunnels in space-time, analogues of the so-called “wormholes,” and move through them instantly, at speeds greater than the speed of light.
The academician believes that the existence of mirror worlds, built from particles mirror-symmetrical with respect to ordinary particles, is not excluded.
However, scientists have not yet received confirmation that there is extraterrestrial life in the solar system and in its immediate vicinity. In particular, Yuri Gnedin, deputy director of the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, spoke about this.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the search for alien intelligence through SETI projects will continue.
According to the astronomer, the program to detect extraterrestrial civilizations, uniting hundreds of researchers around the world, mainly relies on radio observation data.
Scientists are looking for signals of artificial origin. Such signals could be messages from aliens or even negotiations between them.
The task is not to understand the message.
The main thing is to receive a signal that will be reliably recognized as the “product” of intelligent beings.
And the head of the department of celestial mechanics of the Astronomical Institute, Konstantin Kholshevnikov, adds:
– A planet where a technological civilization exists must have powerful radio emission. It is the constancy of the signal that may be a symptom of its artificial origin. However, so far we have not found a single serious sign of intelligent life.
But extraterrestrial civilizations are capable of sending signals using ultraviolet waves or even X-rays, since alien “humanity” is probably fundamentally different from us, and therefore the methods of transmitting information are fundamentally different.
The answer is in 200 years?
Considering that it takes almost five years for light to travel to the closest star to us, Proxima Centauri, and from nine to 60 years to the rest of the “top ten” stars, communication with brothers in mind can drag on for centuries.
Light travels the entire plane of our Galaxy in 35 million years, which means it is quite possible that the civilization sending the signal has long disappeared.
“We are thus studying the evolution of the Galaxy over the last million years, like a historian who is exploring the history of some long-vanished people,” Kholshevnikov clarifies.
Terrestrial astronomers themselves regularly send messages into space, although they consider this activity almost useless. After all, if the nearest intelligent civilization lives at a distance of 100 light years from Earth, the answer will come only after 200 years.
One of the attempts to contact extraterrestrials was made in 2003, when a 70-meter transmitter at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Yevpatoria sent letters from 90 thousand residents of different countries into space.
It should be added that in 2003, the intention to significantly increase the intensity of SETI searches was announced. To achieve this, the project organizers launched a new program, the Allen Telescope Array - ATA (Allen Composite Telescope).
It received its name in honor of one of the founders of Microsoft Corporation, Paul Allen, who allocated 11 and a half million dollars from his own funds for ATA.
The program has an array of 350 parabolic satellite dishes each about six meters in diameter. Moreover, the viewing area of a composite telescope exceeds the viewing area of a radio telescope, which would have a single antenna with a diameter of 100 meters.
The transition to using ATA allows us to survey about 100 thousand, or even up to a million star systems.
The search speed will increase approximately 100 times. As a result, the researchers believe, intelligent life beyond Earth could be discovered within the next 25 years.
“We don’t know what to look for...”
At the end of 2005, leading astrophysicists, biologists and humanists of Russia, who firmly believe that life in the Universe arose not only on Earth, held a conference at the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Karachay-Cherkessia entitled “Astronomy Horizons: the search for extraterrestrial civilizations” .
– You cannot expect quick results in this area of science. We are taking only the first tentative steps here, understanding the problem,” says Lev Gindilis, one of the founders of SETI in Russia. – There are several programs for searching for extraterrestrial civilizations. Some scientists look for their traces through radio and optical telescopes, others themselves send messages to the most promising stars, and others send spacecraft with information about our planet into the depths of the Galaxy.
– the main problem– we don’t know what to look for. Our radio telescope, one of the most powerful in the world, has received many signals, which we are not yet able to explain,” says Grigory Beskin, leading researcher at the SAO, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. – Perhaps their source is unknown natural phenomena, but it is possible that this is the result of the activities of another civilization. The age of the Universe is 15 billion years, age solar system– 4.5-5 billion. Most stars are much older than our Sun. And if there are civilizations somewhere, then it seems that they are much more “mature” than us. If they are also looking for contacts, they can use different methods, to which we have not yet matured. We, earthlings, are “small”, almost undeveloped, we do not yet understand at what level we should look for reasonable signals,” the scientist sums up the situation.
No related links found
Ring in the mountains
It lies in the spurs of the Greater Caucasus Range, in the two rivers of Bolshoy Zelenchuk and Khusa. Huge, white. From a bird's eye view, it looks like a fragment of the mysterious “Nazca paintings” on the coast of Peru. And like those drawings left ancient civilization, it seems that this ring is a sign for aliens. Identical straight lines diverge radially from the center of the ring. From time to time, “ships” with metal square sails move along them. There is complete calm in the valley, but the sails are bent, a ray of the sun beats in them, as if not an earthly wind, but a cosmic wind fills them.
And so I stand in the middle of the ring and see it from the inside. All around is a wall of metal plates pressed almost tightly against each other, the height of two-storey house. Some of them face the sky. Suddenly, somewhere overhead, as if from the skies, a voice is heard, amplified many times over by a loudspeaker: “Attention! You can practice the following program on a flat one.” A minute passes, then another... In ringing silence, the thrown back edge of the metal ring slowly aligns itself and at the same time its other edge bends upward, towards the heavens.
The barely noticeable movement of the huge planes creates the impression that all this is not happening in reality, but in a fantastic dream. So one of the “ships” swayed and floated towards the center of the ring... it slides along the rails - these are the same radial straight lines emanating from the center of the ring. And the “solar sail” is the same metal plate as those that make up the ring.
All this is RATAN-600 - the world's largest ring radio telescope with a variable profile antenna, commissioned in 1974. RATAN is an abbreviation of the words Radio Telescope of the Academy of Sciences, the number 600 is the diameter of its ring mirror in meters. An incredible device, the size of a stadium stand, is located in a high mountain valley, almost a kilometer above sea level. The mountains framing the valley reliably protect RATAN from extraneous interference and atmospheric instability.
Second window
Exactly 80 years ago, in 1932, radio engineer Karl Jansky, while studying the source of radio interference, discovered an unknown noise. In his publications, he noted that “... the direction of arrival of the hissing interference changes gradually throughout the day, making a complete revolution in 24 hours.” In the course of his further experiments, Karl Jansky gradually came to the conclusion that the source of unknown interference was the noise of the sky - the radio emission of our Galaxy. That's how, in the course of the fight against radio interference, it was born new science radio astronomy.
The first diagram of the starry sky based on radio telescope data
Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors
To examine the ring in detail, you have to walk hundreds of meters along mown grass past odorous haystacks. In general, RATAN is truly an amazing object: the familiar earthly world and messages from the distant depths of Space intersect here. And while scientists go about their cosmic affairs, among the gigantic parts of their instrument, the valley continues to live its normal life.
Receiver-feeder
305 meter antenna of the Arecibo Observatory, o. Puerto Rico. The fixed antenna of the radio telescope is built on the site of a natural depression; only the feed unit, suspended on cables, moves. The only drawback is the limited field of view. Arecibo cannot observe objects below 20 degrees above the horizon
In fact, the “curved” RATAN antenna has enviable accuracy and is capable of finding the coordinates of celestial objects with an accuracy of one arcsecond. In the process of creating large radio telescopes, it became clear that the size of the mirrors cannot be increased indefinitely - the accuracy of their actual surface gradually decreases. Scientists and engineers were faced with an insurmountable technological problem, until a proposal was made to split the reflector mirror into individual elements and using geodetic and radio methods to create ideally smooth surfaces of any size from them.
RATAN-600 was created based on the developments of N.L. Kaidanovsky. Soviet astronomer proposed original design, when instead of building a solid round antenna, a ring of reflectors is used. The ring itself is the primary reflector; it is the first to collect the energy of cosmic radio signals. Taking a given part of the sky into the “sight”, the reflecting elements of each sector are aligned along a parabola, forming a reflective and focusing strip of the antenna, without disturbing the ideal smoothness of the ring reflector. Feeders are located at the focus of such a strip; they collect and record radio waves collected by a giant antenna. The ring-shaped shape of the antenna provides an overview of the entire visible part of the sky, and the presence of several feeds allows you to simultaneously observe several space objects.
I hope this diagram will allow readers to understand the ingenious, and at the same time so simple, principle of operation of the RATAN-600
Perhaps we will not bore the reader with a list of stingy scientific characteristics like “brightness temperature limit” or “flux density limit.” We only note that the true diameter of the “ring” is 576 meters, and the effective antenna area is 3500 square meters. meters. The radio telescope is capable of receiving instantaneous spectra of celestial objects in the range (0.6÷30 GHz). Other information about RATAN can be easily found on the official website of the Russian Astrophysical Observatory http://w0.sao.ru/ratan/
Operation "Cold" or At the End of the Universe
RATAN was the first to receive radio emissions from Jupiter’s large satellites, Io and Europa, which are thousands of times weaker than the radiation. giant planet. Distinguishing them is the same as hearing the breathing of a KAMAZ driver at the other end of the street through the roar of the engine.
For almost 40 years, the radio telescope has been continuously observing the Sun, studying the state of our star, determining the nature of its excitations, and has even learned to diagnose “solar disturbances.” Systematic research is underway Milky Way and extragalactic objects of deep space.
The unique astronomical instrument RATAN-600, “listed in the Guinness Book of Records,” is now in the department of the Russian Astrophysical Observatory and continues to explore the Universe. 20% of RATAN's working time is allocated to international researchers, the rest of the time the radio telescope works at the request of Russian astronomers. We receive a lot of applications - the average competition is 1:3. The grandiose Soviet project was appreciated by scientists from all over the world.
Earth is a planet of amazing beauty, captivating with its incredible landscapes. But if you look into the depths of space using powerful telescopes, you understand: there is also something to admire in space. And photographs taken by NASA satellites are therefore confirmation.
The Sunflower Galaxy is one of the most beautiful cosmic structures, known to man, in the Universe. Its sweeping spiral arms are composed of new blue-white giant stars.
Although many people think this image is photoshopped, it is actually a real photo of the Carina Nebula. Giant accumulations of gas and dust stretch over more than 300 light years. This region of active star formation is located at a distance of 6,500 - 10,000 light years from Earth.
This infrared image of Jupiter shows clouds in the planet's atmosphere, colored differently depending on their height. Because the a large number of methane in the atmosphere limits the penetration of sunlight, yellow areas are clouds located at the very high altitude, red ones are in the middle level, and blue ones are the lowest clouds.
What's really amazing about this image is that it shows the shadows of all three of Jupiter's largest moons - Io, Ganymede and Callisto. An event like this occurs approximately once every ten years.
Zwicky 18's shot of Galaxy I looks more like a scene from Doctor Who, which adds a special cosmic beauty to the image. The dwarf irregular galaxy puzzles scientists because some of its star formation processes are typical of the formation of galaxies in the earliest years. early days Universe. Despite this, the galaxy is relatively young: its age is only about a billion years.
The faintest planet that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye, Saturn is generally considered the favorite planet for all budding astronomers. Its remarkable ring structure is the most famous in our Universe. The photo was taken in infrared radiation to show the subtle nuances of Saturn's gaseous atmosphere.
More than 200 very hot stars make up the nebula NGC 604. The Hubble Space Telescope was able to capture the nebula's impressive fluorescence caused by ionized hydrogen.
Compiled from 24 individual images, this photograph of the Crab Nebula shows a supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus.
The red ball in the center of this image is the star V838 Mon, surrounded by many dust clouds. This incredible photo was made after a star flare caused a so-called "light echo" that pushed dust further away from the star into space.
The Westerlund 2 cluster was photographed in infrared and visible light. It was published in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Hubble telescope in Earth orbit.
One of the creepy images (in fact, the only one of its kind) that NASA captured is the Hourglass Nebula. It was named so because of the gas cloud unusual shape, which was formed under the influence of stellar wind. It all looks like a creepy eye that looks from the depths of space to Earth.
The image of part of the Veil Nebula, which is 2,100 light-years from Earth, shows all the colors of the rainbow. Thanks to its elongated and thin form, this nebula is often called the Witch's Broom.
In the constellation Orion you can see a real giant lightsaber. It is actually a jet of gas under enormous pressure that creates a shock wave upon contact with surrounding dust.
This image shows the explosion of a supermassive star that looks more like a birthday cake than a supernova. Two loops of star remnants extend unevenly, while a ring in the center surrounds the dying star. Scientists are still searching neutron star or a black hole at the center of a former giant star.
Although the Whirlpool Galaxy looks magnificent, it hides a dark secret (literally) - the galaxy is full of ravenous black holes. On the left, the Maelstrom is shown in visible light (i.e., its stars), and on the right, in infrared light (its dust cloud structures).
In this image, the Orion Nebula looks like the open mouth of a Phoenix bird. The image was taken in infrared, ultraviolet and visible light to create an incredibly colorful and detailed image. The bright spot where the bird's heart used to be is four giant stars, about 100,000 times brighter than the Sun.
As a result of the explosion of a star similar to our Sun, the Ring Nebula was formed - beautiful hot layers of gas and remnants of the atmosphere. All that remains of the star is a small white dot in the center of the picture.
If anyone needed to describe what hell looks like, they could use this infrared image of the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Hot, ionized gas swirls at its center in a giant whirlpool, and in different places massive stars are born.
Stunning Nebula cat's eye consists of eleven rings of gas that appeared before the formation of the nebula itself. The irregular internal structure is believed to be the result of a fast-moving stellar wind that "torn" the bubble shell at both ends.
More than 100,000 stars cluster together in the Omega Centauri globular cluster. The yellow dots are middle-aged stars, like our Sun. The orange dots are older stars, and the large red dots are stars in the red giant phase. After these stars shed their outer layer of hydrogen gas, they turn bright blue.
One of NASA's most popular photographs of all time is the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. These giant formations of gas and dust were captured in visible light. The pillars change over time as they are "weathered" by stellar winds from nearby stars.
Five galaxies, known as Stephen's Quintet, are constantly fighting with each other. Although the blue galaxy in the upper left corner is much closer to Earth than the others, the other four are constantly "stretching" each other apart, distorting their shapes and tearing their arms.
Informally known as the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302 is actually the remnants of a dying star. Her ultraviolet radiation causes the gases ejected by the star to glow brightly. The butterfly's wings extend over two light years, or half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star.
Quasars are the result of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. Quasar SDSS J1106 is the most energetic quasar ever found. About 1,000 light-years from Earth, SDSS J1106's emission is roughly equal to 2 trillion Suns, or 100 times that of the entire Milky Way.
The nebula NGC 6357 is one of the most dramatic works in the sky and it is not surprising that it has been unofficially dubbed "War and Peace". Its dense network of gas forms a bubble around the bright star cluster Pismis 24, then uses its ultraviolet radiation to heat the gas and push it out into the Universe.
One of the most breathtaking images of space is the Carina Nebula. The interstellar cloud, composed of dust and ionized gases, is one of the largest nebulae visible in Earth's sky. The nebula consists of countless star clusters and even the brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy.
