The universe is so vast that, statistically, it just have to be very similar to each other. Many of the stars, planets and other bodies, at least in part, or otherwise have similar characteristics. However, there are many of these unique objects, not like anything else. Today about a dozen such objects, we’ll talk.
Hot Jupiter with three Suns
Astronomers have found many “hot Jupiters”, or gas giants extremely close to their stars, but the planet KELT-4Ab definitely stands out among all detected. The fact that this planet has three suns. It is in the so-called three star system.
The giant KELT-4Ab approximately 1.7 times the size of Jupiter and revolves around the primary star of the system KELT-A, which is about 40 times more than our Sun. Company KELT-A consists of two more compact star, KELT-KELT B and-C, which is from KELT-A so far, that one revolution around the main star takes them 4000 years.
Despite the huge distance, which is 328 times more than the distance from the earth to the Sun, these two stars have a very strong brightness comparable to the brightness of the full moon. However, through telescopes from Earth they look like two ordinary points.
A small asteroid, which could
Most objects within the Solar system move around the Sun in a clockwise direction, keeping the direction of movement according to the direction of the huge disk of dust and gas that gave rise to them. However, a small asteroid 2015 BZ509 sharing the same orbit with Jupiter, moving in the opposite direction. This is the only known asteroid, which simultaneously divides the planet one orbit and thus has the opposite direction of traffic on it.
In fact this asteroid had to be ejected from the Solar system long ago. Because of its retrograde motion it is necessary to go towards Jupiter, whose gravitational force twice the impact on the asteroid in one orbital flight. However, BZ has a tiny diameter of only 3 kilometers, and its orbital path runs such that within one rotation of the asteroid outside the orbit of Jupiter, and the other inside. This allows you to compensate for the gravitational pull of the planet and to maintain a relatively stable trajectory over several million years.
Little companion with lots of features
Charon, satellite of Pluto, has a very unusual features for a space body of this size. According to astronomers, with a diameter of only 1,200 kilometers (which is approximately equal to half the size of Pluto) you can expect to see, though covered with craters, but is otherwise empty world. However, the spacecraft “New horizons” showed that Charon has a complex system of canyons and mountains. Moreover, there is also evidence of the presence of landslides. But that’s not all. Some areas of the satellite turned out to be unexpectedly smooth, which may hint at the fact that this tiny moon has a cryovolcano – volcanoes that spew ice, not lava, which eventually covers the surface of the satellite, forming its landscape.
Also, Charon is covered by a network of cracks up to a length of 1600 kilometers, extending over the entire surface of the satellite. Also on the Charon, there is a canyon that is four times longer and in some of its parts can be up to 5 times deeper than the Grand canyon in the United States (American canyon depth can reach up to 1800 meters).
The galaxy, who died too young
The age of the stars easy to identify by their color. More young, hot, and large glowing blue. Older, dying getting redder. With the active star forming galaxy, where it happens, also lights up bright red.
To date, astronomers have discovered many dead galaxies, but recent observations of ZF-COSMOS-20115 showed that this galaxy is not only the oldest found, but also conflicts with our models of galactic evolution. Scientists have found that the galaxy has unexpectedly ceased the production of new stars, when she was only 1.65 billion years old. In this age of the galaxy is usually “spit out” new stars at nearly the speed of machine-gun belts.
Another strange thing that has interested scientists, is that the ZF galaxy has three times more stars than the milky Way. The puzzle is that, according to our models, galaxies of this age should not be so massive. Trying to explain this anomaly, scientists came to the assumption that ZF-COSMOS-20115 spawned all of their stars in the literal sense for once, in just 100 million years.
White dwarf pulsar
White dwarfs, as a rule, represent the dead remnants of a once sun-like stars. However, AR system Scorpion can be made into a unique exception. Here the white dwarf emits streams of hot radioactive rays and the behaviour is rather similar to the more powerful pulsar.
The system itself is the AR Scorpion is a double star system with a red dwarf, about a third more massive than our Sun. From its stellar companion, he is about 1.4 million kilometers. The orbital period of both stellar objects is only 3.6 hours.
Compared to its companion star in red dwarf, the AR Scorpion is a monster. It is approximately the size of the Earth but of matter it contains 200 000 times more. Dwarf generates a magnetic field that is 100 million times stronger than the earth, so they sent a rays sweep over the star-companion, driving the electrons of its outer layers almost to light speed, creating a dazzling light show every two minutes.
Terrestrial planets with a steam atmosphere
Veneroidea planet GJ 1132b, located about 39 light years from us, at the moment, is the most remote planet of the terrestrial group, which scientists have discovered the presence of the atmosphere.
With a mass about 1.6 times the mass of Earth, GJ 1132b revolves around a very bright red dwarf star in size 1/5 of the size of the Sun. A complete revolution around the planet makes a star every 1.6 per day. Astronomers tracked the orbit of the planet GJ 1132b and found that spectral analysis in the infrared range indicates the presence of water-rich and methane atmosphere.
More important in this discovery is a big step in the search for extraterrestrial life, which was made by scientists. Although it is planet GJ 1132b enough for this suitable, with a temperature-370 degrees Celsius on the surface, but the discovery that the planet’s atmosphere means that with the help of more powerful telescopes in the future we will be able to focus on the study of the worlds also has the atmosphere, which indirectly raises the possibility of opening life. Still find it on planets with an atmosphere more chances than usual scorched the cobblestones.
Rectangular galaxy
The power of gravity – it is not a joke. This thing is capable of forming entire galaxies. Sometimes very bizarre forms. An example of this is the newly discovered galaxy LEDA 074886, having the shape of the cut emerald.
With an amazing rectangular shape, a thick layer of dust and gas hides a huge disk of stars. Astronomers estimate that the disk speed is 33 kilometers per second, but the exact form of a disk it is impossible to determine due to the particular location of the galaxy relative to the Earth.
LEDA is 70 million light years from us and shares a neighborhood with 250 other galaxies, which also may hint at the reasons its such a special shape. It is quite possible it is the result of a merger of two smaller galaxies, formerly satellites of the galaxy NGC 1407 is the brightest in the local group and perhaps is a direct relative of LEDA.
Appearing and disappearing atmosphere of IO
As a rule, this behavior of the atmosphere is not typical. But the atmosphere of IO the other case. Closest to the planet Jupiter is subject to strong influence of the radiation belts of a gas giant, but somehow remains thin, but rich in sulfur dioxide atmosphere.
We can say that the whole IO – one big volcano. So the lack of sulphur is not here. Her delivery is provided by constant emissions and the eruptions which, settling quickly turn to ice once the satellite goes into the shadow of the planet. It happens quite often. The orbital period of IO around Jupiter is 1.7 earth days, two hours of which he is in complete darkness. At this time, the temperature on its surface drops to -168 degrees Celsius.
When the satellite again to get the sun’s rays, IO is heated to -148 degrees Celsius, which is enough to ensure that sulfur dioxide are passed into a gaseous state, along the way restoring leaky atmosphere.
Chaos also gives rise to the stars
Black holes can not only destroy, but create. Scientists first became direct witnesses of the birth of a star as a result of powerful ejection created by the supermassive black hole located about 600 million light-years from us. Before science it was believed that the stars can only come from a relatively stable clouds of gas and dust found in the so-called stellar nurseries, however, recently it was confirmed that stars can be born in a more chaotic environment surrounded by black holes.
The above mentioned black hole located right in the middle of two merging galaxies, generally referred to as IRAS F23128-5919. It is known that black holes can drive with great speed the gas of galaxies, thereby effectively sterilizing them from the material needed for the emergence of new stars. But in our case, these powerful streams played into the hands of a nearby stellar nursery, freeing up space for the emergence of a very hot, very bright stars, whose mass is 30 times greater than the mass of our Sun.
Ancient galaxy
The first few hundred million years of the universe, according to astronomers, was a giant cloud of hydrogen is opaque, not transparent to UV radiation from the first stars to travel freely in space. That’s why scientists are very difficult to observe the light of the objects that existed in the era of reionization.
However, several such objects known to astronomers. And recently even discovered the oldest known. Conducting the observation of the most ancient galaxies, scientists have discovered MACS1423-z7p64. Researchers report that this galaxy is the smallest, faintest and oldest ever discovered. She appeared within 700 million years after the Big Bang and the size is much smaller and fainter than other known.
To see the light so dim and distant object failed due to the effect of gravitational lensing: before MACS1423-z7p64 is a cluster of 155 galaxies, which bends the path of light bends around him. This led to the fact that the apparent brightness of the MACS1423-z7p64 increased about one order of magnitude, which was enough to detect it by a space telescope “Hubble”.
10 amazing anomalous space objects
Nikolai Khizhnyak