After man first went into space, many manned satellites and robotic research stations were launched, which brought a lot of new and useful knowledge to man. At the same time, among the huge number of space projects, there are those that are distinguished primarily by huge sums of money invested in them. The most expensive space projects will be discussed in our review.

1 Gaia Space Observatory

$1 billion
Given the cost of construction, ground infrastructure and launch, the Gaia space observatory cost $1 billion, 16% over the original budget. Also, this project was completed two years later than expected. The objective of the Gaia mission, which was funded by the European Space Agency, is to create a 3D map of approximately 1 billion stars and other space objects that make up about 1% of our galaxy - the Milky Way.

2. Juno spacecraft

$1.1 billion
The Juno project was originally expected to cost $700 million, but by June 2011 the cost had exceeded $1.1 billion. Juno was launched in August 2011 and is expected to reach Jupiter on October 18, 2016. After that, the spacecraft will be launched into the orbit of Jupiter to study the composition, gravitational field and magnetic field of the planet. The mission will end in 2017 after Juno has orbited Jupiter 33 times.

3. Herschel Space Observatory

$1.3 billion
Operating from 2009 to 2013, the Herschel Space Observatory was built by the European Space Agency and was, in fact, the largest infrared telescope ever launched into orbit. In 2010, the project cost was $1.3 billion. This figure includes spacecraft launch costs and scientific expenses. The observatory ceased operation on April 29, 2013, when the coolant ran out, although it was originally expected that it would only last until the end of 2012.

4. Galileo spacecraft

$1.4 billion
On October 18, 1989, the unmanned Galileo spacecraft was launched into orbit, and on December 7, 1995, it reached the planet Jupiter. The purpose of the Jupiter mission was to study Jupiter and its satellites. The study of the largest planet in the solar system was by no means cheap: the entire mission cost approximately $ 1.4 billion. By the early 2000s, Jupiter's intense radiation damaged Galileo, and the fuel was running out, so it was decided to crash the device on the surface of Jupiter to prevent contamination of the planet's satellites by terrestrial bacteria.

5. Magnetic alpha spectrometer

$2 billion
The AMS-02 alpha magnetic spectrometer is one of the most expensive pieces of equipment aboard the International Space Station. This device, which is capable of detecting antimatter in cosmic rays, was made in an attempt to prove the existence of dark matter. The AMS program was originally supposed to cost $33 million, but costs rose to a staggering $2 billion after a series of complications and technical problems. The ASM-02 was installed on the International Space Station in May 2011 and currently measures and records 1000 cosmic rays per second.

6 Curiosity Mars Rover

$2.5 billion
The Curiosity rover, which cost $2.5 billion (against an original budget of $650 million), successfully landed on the surface of Mars in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. His mission was to determine whether Mars is inhabited, as well as to study the planet's climate and its geological features.

7 Cassini Huygens

$3.26 billion
The Cassini-Huygens project was designed to study distant objects in the solar system and, first of all, the planet Saturn. This autonomous robotic spacecraft, which was launched in 1997 and reached Saturn's orbit in 2004, included not only an orbital facility but also an atmospheric lander that was brought down to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The $3.26 billion cost of the project was shared between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

8. Orbital station Mir

$4.2 billion
Orbital space station "Mir" served 15 years - from 1986 until 2001, when it deorbited and was sunk in the Pacific Ocean. Mir holds the record for the longest continuous stay in space: cosmonaut Valery Polyakov spent 437 days and 18 hours aboard the space station. "Mir" acted as a research laboratory for the study of microgravity, and experiments were carried out at the station in the field of physics, biology, meteorology and astronomy.

9. GLONASS

$4.7 billion
Just like the United States and the European Union, Russia has its own global positioning system. It is believed that during the period of GLONASS operation from 2001 to 2011, $ 4.7 billion was spent, and $ 10 billion was allocated for the operation of the system in 2012 - 2020. GLONASS currently consists of 24 satellites. The development of the project began in the Soviet Union in 1976 and was completed in 1995.

10. Satellite navigation system Galileo

$6.3 billion
The Galileo satellite navigation system is Europe's answer to the American GPS system. The $6.3 billion system currently acts as a back-up network in the event of a GPS outage, with all 30 satellites scheduled to be launched and fully operational by 2019.

11 James Webb Space Telescope

$8.8 billion
The development of the James Webb Space Telescope began in 1996, and the launch is scheduled for October 2018. NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency made major contributions to the $8.8 billion project. The project had already run into a lot of funding issues and was almost canceled in 2011.

12. GPS global positioning system

$12 billion
Global Positioning System (GPS) - a group of 24 satellites that allow anyone to determine their location anywhere in the world. The initial cost of sending satellites into space was approximately $12 billion, but the annual operating costs are estimated at a total of $750 million. Since it is now hard to imagine a world without GPS and Google Maps, the system has proven to be extremely useful not only for military purposes, but for everyday life .

13. Space projects of the Apollo series

$25.4 billion
In the entire history of space exploration, the Apollo project has become not only one of the most epoch-making, but also one of the most expensive. The final cost, as reported by the United States Congress in 1973, was $25.4 billion. NASA held a symposium in 2009 during which it was estimated that the cost of the Apollo project would have been $170 billion if converted to the 2005 course. President Kennedy was instrumental in shaping the Apollo program, famously promising that man would eventually set foot on the moon. His goal was achieved in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.

14. International Space Station

$160 billion
The International Space Station is one of the most expensive buildings in human history. As of 2010, its cost was a staggering $160 billion, but this figure continues to rise constantly due to operating costs and new additions to the station. From 1985 to 2015, NASA invested about $59 billion in the project, Russia contributed about $12 billion, and the European Space Agency and Japan each contributed $5 billion. Each flight of the Space Shuttle with equipment to build the International Space Station cost $1.4 billion. .

15. NASA Space Shuttle Program

$196 billion
In 1972, the Space Shuttle program was launched to develop reusable space shuttles. As part of the program, 135 flights took place on 6 shuttles or "reusable space orbital aircraft", two of which (Columbia and Challenger) exploded, killing 14 astronauts. The last shuttle launch took place on July 8, 2001, when the shuttle Atlantis was sent into space (it landed on July 21, 2011).

There are space projects among.

space observatories play an important role in the development of astronomy. The greatest scientific achievements of recent decades are based on the knowledge obtained with the help of spacecraft.

A large amount of information about celestial bodies does not reach the earth. it interferes with the atmosphere we breathe. Most of the infrared and ultraviolet range, as well as x-rays and gamma rays of cosmic origin, are inaccessible to observations from the surface of our planet. To study space in these ranges, it is necessary to take the telescope out of the atmosphere. Research results obtained using space observatories revolutionized man's view of the universe.

The first space observatories did not exist in orbit for long, but the development of technology has made it possible to create new tools for exploring the universe. Modern space telescope- a unique complex that has been developed and operated jointly by scientists from many countries for several decades. Observations obtained with the help of many space telescopes are available for free use by scientists and amateur astronomers from all over the world.

infrared telescopes

Designed for conducting space observations in the infrared range of the spectrum. The disadvantage of these observatories is their heavy weight. In addition to the telescope, a cooler has to be put into orbit, which should protect the telescope's IR receiver from background radiation - infrared quanta emitted by the telescope itself. This has resulted in very few infrared telescopes operating in orbit in the history of spaceflight.

Hubble space telescope

ESO Image

On April 24, 1990, with the help of the American Discovery shuttle STS-31, the largest near-Earth observatory, the Hubble space telescope weighing more than 12 tons, was launched into orbit. This telescope is the result of a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency. The work of the Hubble Space Telescope is designed for a long period of time. the data obtained with its help are available on the telescope website for free use by astronomers around the world.

Ultraviolet telescopes

The ozone layer surrounding our atmosphere almost completely absorbs the ultraviolet radiation of the Sun and stars, so UV quanta can only be recorded outside it. The interest of astronomers in UV radiation is due to the fact that the most common molecule in the Universe, the hydrogen molecule, emits in this range of the spectrum. The first ultraviolet reflecting telescope with a mirror diameter of 80 cm was launched into orbit in August 1972 on the joint US-European Copernicus satellite.

X-ray telescopes

X-rays convey to us from space information about the powerful processes associated with the birth of stars. The high energy of X-ray and gamma quanta allows you to register them one by one, with an accurate indication of the time of registration. Due to the fact that X-ray detectors are relatively easy to manufacture and have a small weight, X-ray telescopes have been installed on many orbital stations and even interplanetary spacecraft. In total, more than a hundred such instruments have been in space.

Gamma-ray telescopes

Gamma radiation has a similar nature to X-ray healing. To register gamma rays, methods similar to those used for X-ray studies are used. Therefore, space telescopes often study both x-rays and gamma rays simultaneously. Gamma radiation received by these telescopes conveys to us information about the processes occurring inside atomic nuclei, as well as about the transformations of elementary particles in space.

Electromagnetic spectrum studied in astrophysics

Wavelengths	Spectrum region	Passage through the earth's atmosphere	Radiation receivers	Research methods
<=0,01 нм	Gamma radiation	Strong absorption
0.01-10 nm	x-ray radiation	Strong absorption O, N2, O2, O3 and other air molecules	Photon counters, ionization chambers, photographic emulsions, phosphors	Mainly extra-atmospheric (space rockets, artificial satellites)
10-310 nm	far ultraviolet	Strong absorption O, N2, O2, O3 and other air molecules		Extraatmospheric
310-390 nm	close ultraviolet	Weak absorption	Photomultipliers, photographic emulsions	From the surface of the earth
390-760 nm	Visible radiation	Weak absorption	Eye, photographic emulsions, photocathodes, semiconductor devices	From the surface of the earth
0.76-15 µm	Infrared radiation	Frequent absorption bands of H2O, CO2, etc.		Partially from the surface of the Earth
15 µm - 1 mm	Infrared radiation	Strong molecular absorption	Bolometers, thermocouples, photoresistors, special photocathodes and emulsions	From balloons
> 1 mm	radio waves	Radiation with a wavelength of about 1 mm, 4.5 mm, 8 mm and from 1 cm to 20 m is transmitted	radio telescopes	From the surface of the earth

space observatories

Agency, country	observatory name	Spectrum region	Year of launch
CNES & ESA, France, European Union	COROT	Visible radiation	2006
CSA, Canada	MOST	Visible radiation	2003
ESA & NASA, European Union, USA	Herschel Space Observatory	infrared	2009
ESA, European Union	Darwin Mission	infrared	2015
ESA, European Union	Gaia mission	Visible radiation	2011
ESA, European Union	International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)	Gamma radiation, X-ray	2002
ESA, European Union	Planck satellite	microwave	2009
ESA, European Union	XMM Newton	x-ray	1999
IKI & NASA, Russia, USA	Spectrum-X-Gamma	x-ray	2010
IKI, Russia	RadioAstron	Radio	2008
INTA, Spain	Low Energy Gamma Ray Imager (LEGRI)	Gamma radiation	1997
ISA, INFN, RSA, DLR & SNSB	Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA)	Particle detection	2006
ISA, Israel	AGILE	x-ray	2007
ISA, Israel	Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini LEggero (AGILE)	Gamma radiation	2007
ISA, Israel	Tel Aviv University Ultraviolet Explorer (TAUVEX)	Ultraviolet	2009
ISRO, India	Astrosat	X-ray, Ultraviolet, Visible radiation	2009
JAXA & NASA, Japan, USA	Suzaku (ASTRO-E2)	x-ray	2005
KARI, Korea	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Satellite 4 (Kaistsat 4)	Ultraviolet	2003
NASA & DOE, USA	Dark Energy Space Telescope	Visible radiation
NASA, USA	Astromag Free-Flyer	Elementary particles	2005
NASA, USA	Chandra X-ray Observatory	x-ray	1999
NASA, USA	Constellation-X Observatory	x-ray
NASA, USA	Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer (CHIPS)	Ultraviolet	2003
NASA, USA	Dark Universe Observatory	x-ray
NASA, USA	Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope	Gamma radiation	2008
NASA, USA	Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)	Ultraviolet	2003
NASA, USA	High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE 2)	Gamma radiation, X-ray	2000
NASA, USA	Hubble Space Telescope	Ultraviolet, Visible radiation	1990
NASA, USA	James Webb Space Telescope	infrared	2013
NASA, USA	Kepler Mission	Visible radiation	2009
NASA, USA	Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)	gravitational	2018
NASA, USA	Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)	x-ray	2010
NASA, USA	Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer	x-ray	1995
NASA, USA	SIM Lite Astrometric Observatory	Visible radiation	2015
NASA, USA	Spitzer Space Telescope	infrared	2003
NASA, USA	Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)	infrared	1998
NASA, USA	Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer	Gamma radiation, X-ray, Ultraviolet, Visible radiation	2004
NASA, USA	Terrestrial Planet Finder	Visible radiation, Infrared
NASA, USA	Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE)	infrared	1999
NASA, USA	Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)	infrared	2009
NASA, USA	WMAP	microwave	2001

"Space Life" - THE FIRST WOMAN COSMONAUT Valentina Tereshkova. Our Universe. The first Soviet cosmonauts. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. Solar system. Belka and Strelka. Baikonur Cosmodrome. Spacewalk. The Moon is the Earth's satellite. Space pioneers LIKA. Spaceship "VOSTOK". PROJECT "Space world or Life in space".

"Space Forces" - Designed to deploy a communications system and provide command and control. Engineering. Military educational institutions (9). Research Institute (1). The first elements of the rear of the troops were permanent military carts, which appeared in the 70s. The ability to simultaneously strike at many strategic targets.

"Space Man" - Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907-1966). Man must at all costs fly to the stars and other planets. Few of the prisoners managed to survive. Then comes weightlessness. But few people were interested in the work of a self-taught scientist. Korolev made more and more aircraft. The idea of ​​launching rockets into space for research purposes began to be realized.

"Space travel" - Space travel. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin - the first cosmonaut of the Earth. Space pioneers.

"Space Exploration" - It would be great. Am I happy going into space? The ticket price is $100,000. Flight to the Sun: Mission Possible. The journey to Mars begins. Hotels of the future: lodging in space. In 1 hour 48 minutes, Yuri Gagarin circled the globe and landed safely. Deep space exploration.

"Space riddles" - According to experts, an asteroid with a diameter of three kilometers is approaching the Earth. Dark energy. Last time, for example, dinosaurs became extinct. The horses, feeling the unsteady hand of the driver, carried on. Explore cosmic phenomena and mysteries of nature. God Zeus the Thunderer, in order to save the Earth, threw lightning into the chariot.

Chandra, one of NASA's "great observatories" along with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, is specifically designed to detect X-rays from hot and energetic regions of the universe.

Thanks to its high resolution and sensitivity, Chandra observes various objects from the nearest planets and comets to the most distant known quasars. The telescope displays traces of exploded stars and supernova remnants, observes the region near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and detects other black holes in the universe.

Chandra contributed to the study of the nature of dark energy, made it possible to take a step forward on the path to its study, traces the separation of dark matter from normal matter in collisions between clusters of galaxies.

The telescope rotates in an orbit remote from the Earth's surface up to 139,000 km. This height allows you to avoid the shadow of the Earth during observations. When Chandra was launched into space, it was the largest of all the satellites previously launched using the shuttle.

In honor of the 15th anniversary of the space observatory, we publish a selection of 15 photographs taken by the Chandra telescope. Full image gallery from Chandra X-ray Observatory on Flickr.

This spiral galaxy in the constellation Canis Hounds is about 23 million light-years distant from us. It is known as NGC 4258 or M106.

A cluster of stars in an optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey of the center of the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024. The images from the Chandra and Spitzer telescopes are juxtaposed and shown as an overlay, demonstrating how powerful X-ray and infrared images help in studying star-forming regions.

This composite image shows the star cluster at the center of what is known as NGC 2024, or the Flame Nebula, about 1,400 light-years from Earth.

Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky, so it often attracts the attention of amateur astronomers. It is located only 12 million light years from Earth.

The Fireworks Galaxy or NGC 6946 is a medium-sized spiral galaxy about 22 million light-years from Earth. In the last century, an explosion of eight supernovae was observed within its limits, because of the brightness it was called Fireworks.

A region of glowing gas in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way galaxy is NGC 3576, a nebula about 9,000 light-years from Earth.

Stars like the Sun can become amazingly photogenic in the twilight of life. A good example is the Eskimo planetary nebula NGC 2392, which lies about 4,200 light-years from Earth.

The remnants of supernova W49B, about a thousand years old, lie about 26,000 light-years away. Supernova explosions that destroy massive stars tend to be symmetrical, with a more or less even distribution of stellar material in all directions. In W49B we see an exception.

This is a stunning image of four planetary nebulae in the vicinity of the Sun: NGC 6543 or the Cat's Eye Nebula, as well as NGC 7662, NGC 7009 and NGC 6826.

This composite image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way about 160,000 light-years from Earth.

When radiative winds from massive young stars impact clouds of cold gas, they can form new stellar generations. Perhaps just this process is captured in the Elephant Trunk Nebula (official name IC 1396A).

Image of the central region of the galaxy, outwardly resembling the Milky Way. But it contains a much more active supermassive black hole in the white region. The distance between the galaxy NGC 4945 and the Earth is about 13 million light years.

This composite image provides a beautiful X-ray and optical view of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), located in our galaxy about 11,000 light-years from Earth. These are the remains of a massive star that exploded about 330 years ago.

Astronomers on Earth observed a supernova explosion in the constellation Taurus in 1054. Nearly a thousand years later, we see a super-dense object called a neutron star left over from the explosion, which is constantly spewing a huge stream of radiation into the expanding region of the Crab Nebula. X-ray data from the Chandra telescope give an idea of ​​the work of this mighty cosmic "generator" that produces energy in the amount of 100,000 suns.

I wonder when astronomy originated? No one can answer this question exactly. Rather, astronomy has always accompanied man. Sunrise and sunset determine the rhythm of life, which is the biological rhythm of man. The order of life of pastoral peoples was determined by the change of the phases of the moon, agricultural - by the change of seasons. The night sky, the position of the stars on it, the change in positions - all this was noticed back in those days, from which there was no written evidence left. Nevertheless, it was precisely the tasks of practice - primarily orientation in time and orientation in space - that were the stimulus for the emergence of astronomical knowledge.

I was interested in the question: where and how did the ancient scientists get this knowledge, did they build special structures for observing the starry sky? It turned out that they were building. It was also interesting to learn about the famous observatories of the world, about the history of their creation and about the scientists who worked in them.

For example, in ancient Egypt, scientists for astronomical observations were located on the tops or steps of high pyramids. These observations were caused by practical necessity. The population of Ancient Egypt is an agricultural people whose standard of living depended on the harvest. Usually in March, a period of drought began, lasting about four months. At the end of June, far to the south, in the area of ​​​​Lake Victoria, heavy rains began. Streams of water rushed into the Nile River, the width of which at that time reached 20 km. Then the Egyptians left the Nile valley for the nearby hills, and when the Nile entered its usual course, sowing began in its fertile, moistened valley.

Another four months passed, and the inhabitants gathered a bountiful harvest. It was very important to know in time when the Nile flood would begin. History tells us that even 6,000 years ago, Egyptian priests knew how to do this. From the pyramids or other high places they endeavored to observe in the morning in the east in the rays of dawn the first appearance of the brightest star, Sothis, which we now call Sirius. Prior to this, for about seventy days, Sirius - the decoration of the night sky - was invisible. The very first morning appearance of Sirius for the Egyptians was a signal that the time was coming for the Nile to flood and it was necessary to move away from its banks.

But not only the pyramids served for astronomical observations. In the city of Luxor is the famous ancient fortress of Karnak. There, not far from the large temple of Amon - Ra, there is a small sanctuary of Ra - Gorakhte, which translates as "The sun shining over the edge of the sky." This name is not given by chance. If on the day of the winter solstice the observer stands at the altar in the hall, which bears the name "Superior rest of the Sun", and looks in the direction of the entrance to the building, he sees the sunrise on this one day of the year.

There is another Karnak - a seaside town in France, on the southern coast of Brittany. Coincident or not, the coincidence of the Egyptian and French names, but in the vicinity of Karnak Brittany, several ancient observatories were also discovered. These observatories are built of huge stones. One of them - the Fairy Stone - has been towering above the earth for thousands of years. Its length is 22.5 meters and its weight is 330 tons. The Karnak stones indicate the directions to the points in the sky where the sunset can be seen on the winter solstice.

The oldest astronomical observatories of the prehistoric period are considered to be some mysterious structures in the British Isles. The most impressive and most detailed observatory is Stonehenge in England. This structure consists of four large stone circles. In the center is that called "altar stone" five - meters long. It is surrounded by a whole system of circular and arched fences and arches up to 7.2 meters high and weighing up to 25 tons. Inside the ring there were five stone arches in the form of a horseshoe, with a concavity facing the northeast. Each of the blocks weighed about 50 tons. Each arch consisted of two stones that served as supports, and a stone that covered them from above. This design was called "trilith". Only three such triliths have now survived. The entrance to Stonehenge is in the northeast. In the direction of the entrance there is a stone pillar, inclined towards the center of the circle - the Heel Stone. It is believed that it served as a landmark corresponding to the sunrise on the day of the summer solstice.

Stonehenge was both a temple and a prototype of an astronomical observatory. The slots of the stone arches served as sights that strictly fixed the directions from the center of the structure to various points on the horizon. Ancient observers fixed the points of sunrise and sunset of the Sun and Moon, determined and predicted the onset of the days of the summer and winter solstices, spring and autumn equinoxes, and, possibly, tried to predict lunar and solar eclipses. Like a temple, Stonehenge served as a majestic symbol, a place of religious ceremonies, as an astronomical instrument - like a giant computing machine that allowed the priests - servants of the temple to predict the change of seasons. In general, Stonehenge is a majestic and, apparently, beautiful building in antiquity.

Now let's fast forward in our minds to the 15th century AD. e. Around 1425, the construction of the world's greatest observatory was completed in the vicinity of Samarkand. It was created according to the plan of the ruler of a vast region of Central Asia, the astronomer - Mohammed - Taragay Ulugbek. Ulugbek dreamed of checking the old star catalogs and making his own corrections to them.

The Ulugbek observatory is unique. The cylindrical three-story building with many rooms had a height of about 50 meters. Its plinth was decorated with bright mosaics, and images of the celestial spheres could be seen on the inner walls of the building. From the roof of the observatory one could see the open horizon.

A colossal Farhi sextant was placed in a specially dug shaft - a sixty-degree arc lined with marble slabs, having a radius of about 40 meters. The history of astronomy has never known such an instrument. With the help of a unique device oriented along the meridian, Ulugbek and his assistants made observations of the Sun, planets and some stars. In those days, Samarkand became the astronomical capital of the world, and the glory of Ulugbek stepped far beyond the borders of Asia.

Ulugbek's observations gave results. In 1437, he completed the main work of compiling a star catalog, including information about 1019 stars. In the observatory of Ulugbek, for the first time, the most important astronomical quantity was measured - the inclination of the ecliptic to the equator, astronomical tables for stars and planets were compiled, geographical coordinates of various places in Central Asia were determined. Ulugbek wrote the theory of eclipses.

Many astronomers and mathematicians worked together with the scientist at the Samarkand Observatory. In fact, a real scientific society was formed at this institution. And it is difficult to say what ideas would be born in it if it had the opportunity to develop further. But as a result of one of the conspiracies, Ulugbek was killed, and the observatory was destroyed. The scientist's students saved only the manuscripts. They said about him that he “stretched his hand to the sciences and achieved a lot. Before his eyes, the sky became close and fell down.

Only in 1908, the archaeologist V.M. Vyatkin found the remains of the observatory, and in 1948, thanks to the efforts of V.A. Shishkin, it was excavated and partially restored. The surviving part of the observatory is a unique architectural and historical monument and is carefully guarded. A museum of Ulugbek was created next to the observatory.

The measurement accuracy achieved by Ulugbek remained unsurpassed for more than a century. But in 1546, a boy was born in Denmark who was destined to reach even higher heights in pre-telescopic astronomy. His name was Tycho Brahe. He believed astrologers and even tried to predict the future by the stars. However, scientific interests have triumphed over delusions. In 1563, Tycho began his first independent astronomical observations. He became widely known for his treatise on the New Star of 1572, which he discovered in the constellation Cassiopeia.

In 1576, the Danish king took the island of Ven off the coast of Sweden to Tycho to build a large astronomical observatory there. With the funds allocated by the king, Tycho built two observatories in 1584, outwardly similar to luxurious castles. Tycho called one of them Uraniborg, that is, the castle of Urania, the muse of astronomy, the second was named Stjerneborg - “star castle”. On the island of Ven, there were workshops where, under the direction of Tycho, amazingly accurate goniometric astronomical instruments were made.

For twenty-one years, Tycho's activity on the island continued. He managed to discover new, previously unknown inequalities in the motion of the Moon. He compiled tables of the apparent motion of the sun and planets, more accurate than before. The star catalog is remarkable, the creation of which the Danish astronomer spent 7 years. In terms of the number of stars (777), Tycho's catalog is inferior to the catalogs of Hipparchus and Ulugbek. But Tycho measured the coordinates of the stars with greater accuracy than his predecessors. This work marked the beginning of a new era in astrology - the era of accuracy. He did not live only a few years before the moment when the telescope was invented, which greatly expanded the possibilities of astronomy. They say that his last words before his death were: "It seems that my life was not aimless." Happy is the person who can sum up his life path with such words.

In the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries, scientific observatories began to appear one after another in Europe. Outstanding geographical discoveries, sea and land travel required a more accurate determination of the size of the globe, new ways of determining time and coordinates on land and at sea.

And from the second half of the 17th century in Europe, mainly on the initiative of outstanding scientists, state astronomical observatories began to be created. The first of these was the observatory in Copenhagen. It was built from 1637 to 1656, but burned down in 1728.

On the initiative of J. Picard, the French king Louis XIV, the king - "The Sun", a lover of balls and wars, allocated funds for the construction of the Paris Observatory. Its construction began in 1667 and continued until 1671. The result was a majestic building resembling a castle, with observation platforms on top. At the suggestion of Picard, Jean Dominique Cassini, who had already established himself as an experienced observer and talented practitioner, was invited to the post of director of the observatory. Such qualities of the director of the Paris Observatory played a huge role in its formation and development. The astronomer discovered 4 satellites of Saturn: Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. The skill of the observer allowed Cassini to reveal that the ring of Saturn consists of 2 parts, separated by a dark stripe. This division is called the Cassini gap.

Jean Dominique Cassini and astronomer Jean Picard produced the first modern map of France between 1672 and 1674. The obtained values ​​were highly accurate. As a result, the west coast of France was almost 100 km closer to Paris than on the old maps. They say that on this occasion, King Louis XIV jokingly complained - "They say, by the grace of topographers, the country's territory has decreased to a greater extent than its royal army has increased."

The history of the Paris Observatory is inextricably linked with the name of the great Dane - Ole Christensen Römer, who was invited by J. Picard to work at the Paris Observatory. The astronomer proved by observing the eclipses of the satellite of Jupiter, the finiteness of the speed of light and measured its value - 210,000 km / s. This discovery, made in 1675, brought Roemer world fame and allowed him to become a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

The Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens actively participated in the creation of the observatory. This scientist is known for many achievements. In particular, he discovered Saturn's moon Titan, one of the largest satellites in the solar system; discovered polar caps on Mars and bands on Jupiter. In addition, Huygens invented the eyepiece, which now bears his name, and created an accurate clock - a chronometer.

The astronomer and cartographer Joseph Nicolas Delisle worked at the Paris Observatory as an assistant to Jean Dominique Cassini. He was mainly engaged in the study of comets, supervised the observations of the passage of Venus across the solar disk. Such observations helped to learn about the existence of an atmosphere around this planet, and most importantly, to clarify the astronomical unit - the distance to the Sun. In 1761, Delisle was invited by Tsar Peter I to Russia.

Charles Monsieur received only a primary education in his youth. He later studied mathematics and astronomy on his own and became an accomplished observer. Since 1755, working at the Paris Observatory, Monsieur systematically searched for new comets. The astronomer's work was crowned with success: from 1763 to 1802, he discovered 14 comets, and observed 41 in total.

Monsieur compiled the first catalog of nebulae and star clusters in the history of astronomy - the type names he introduced are still in use today.

Dominique François Arago has been director of the Paris Observatory since 1830. This astronomer was the first to study the polarization of radiation from the solar corona and cometary tails.

Arago was a talented popularizer of science and from 1813 to 1846 he regularly lectured at the Paris Observatory to the general public.

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, an employee of this observatory since 1736, organized an expedition to South Africa. There, at the Cape of Good Hope, observations were made of the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, the names of more than 10 thousand new luminaries appeared on the star map. Lacaille completed the division of the southern sky, highlighting 14 constellations, which he gave names. In 1763, the first catalog of the stars of the Southern Hemisphere was published, the author of which is considered Lacaille.

The units of mass (kilogram) and length (meter) were defined at the Paris Observatory.

At present, the observatory has three scientific bases: Paris, the astrophysical department in Meudon (Alpes) and the radio astronomy base in Nancy. More than 700 scientists and technicians work here.

The Royal Greenwich Observatory in the UK is the most famous in the world. It owes this fact to the fact that the “Greenwich meridian” passes through the axis of the transit instrument installed on it - the zero meridian of the reference of longitudes on earth.

The foundation of the Greenwich Observatory was laid in 1675 by a decree of King Charles II, who ordered it to be built in the royal park near the castle in Greenwich "on the highest hill." England in the 17th century became the "queen of the seas", expanded its possessions, the basis for the development of the country was the conquest of distant colonies and trade, and therefore - navigation. Therefore, the construction of the Greenwich Observatory was justified primarily by the need to determine the longitude of a place during navigation.

The king entrusted such a responsible task to the remarkable amateur architect and astronomer Christopher Wren, who was actively involved in the rebuilding of London after the fire of 1666. Wren had to interrupt work on the reconstruction of the famous St. Paul's Cathedral, and in just a year he designed and built an observatory.

According to the king's decree, the director of the observatory was to bear the title of Royal Astronomer, and this tradition has survived to this day. The first Astronomer Royal was John Flamsteed. From 1675, he supervised the equipment of the observatory and also carried out astronomical observations. The latter was a more pleasant occupation, since Flamsteed was not allocated money for the purchase of tools, and he spent the inheritance received from his father. The observatory was helped by patrons - wealthy friends of the director and lovers of astronomy. Wren's friend, the great scientist and inventor Robert Hooke, did a great service to Flamsteed - he made and donated several instruments to the observatory. Flamsteed was a born observer - stubborn, purposeful and accurate. After the opening of the observatory, he began regular observations of objects in the solar system. The observations begun by Flamsteed in the year of the opening of the observatory lasted more than 12 years, and in subsequent years he worked on compiling a star catalog. About 20 thousand measurements were taken and processed with an unprecedented accuracy of 10 arc seconds. In addition to the alphabetic designations available at that time, Flamsteed also introduced digital ones: all the stars in the catalog were assigned numbers in ascending order of their right ascensions. This notation has survived to our time, it is used in star atlases, helping to find the objects necessary for observations.

Flamsteed's catalog was published in 1725, after the death of the remarkable astronomer. It contained 2935 stars and completely filled the third volume of Flamsteed's British History of the Sky, where the author collected and described all the observations made before him and throughout his life.

Edmund Halley became the second Astronomer Royal. In "An Outline of Cometary Astronomy" (1705), Halley told how he was struck by the similarity of the orbits of comets that shone in the sky in 1531, 1607 and 1682. Calculating that these celestial bodies appear with an enviably accurate frequency - after 75-76 years, the scientist concluded: the three "space guests" are actually the same comet. Halley explained the slight difference in the time intervals between its appearances by disturbances from the large planets that the comet passed by, and even ventured to predict the next appearance of the "tailed star": the end of 1758 - the beginning of 1759. The astronomer died 16 years before this date, never knowing how brilliantly his calculations were confirmed. The comet shone on Christmas Day 1758 and has since been observed many more times. Astronomers rightly named this space object the name of the scientist - it is called "Halley's comet."

Already in the late XIX - early XX century. English astronomers realized that the country's climatic conditions would not allow them to maintain a high level of observations at the Greenwich Observatory. The search began for other places where the latest powerful and high-precision telescopes could be installed. The observatory near the Cape of Good Hope in Africa worked perfectly, but only the southern sky could be observed there. Therefore, in 1954, under the tenth Astronomer Royal - and he became a remarkable scientist and popularizer of science Harold Spencer-Jones - the observatory was transferred to Herstmonceau and construction began on a new observatory in the Canary Islands, on the island of La Palma.

With the transfer to Herstmonso, the glorious history of the Greenwich Royal Observatory ended. At present, it has been transferred to Oxford University, with which it has been closely connected for all 300 years of its existence, and is a museum of the history of world astronomy.

After the creation of the Paris and Greenwich Observatories, state observatories began to be built in many European countries. One of the first was built a well-equipped observatory of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The example of these observatories is characteristic in that it clearly shows how the tasks of the observatories and their very appearance were due to the practical needs of society.

The starry sky was full of unrevealed secrets, and it gradually revealed them to patient and attentive observers. There was a process of cognition of the Universe surrounding the Earth.

The beginning of the 18th century is a turning point in Russian history. At this time, interest in natural science issues was growing, due to the economic development of the state and the growing need for scientific and technical knowledge. Trade relations between Russia and other states are intensively developing, agriculture is being strengthened, and there is a need to develop new lands. Travels of Russian explorers contribute to the rise of geographical science, cartography, and, consequently, practical astronomy. All this, together with the ongoing reforms, prepared for the intensive development of astronomical knowledge in Russia already in the first quarter of the 8th century, even before the establishment of the Academy of Sciences by Peter I.

Peter's desire to turn the country into a strong maritime power, to increase its military power became an additional incentive for the development of astronomy. It should be noted that Europe has never faced such grandiose tasks as Russia. The territories of France, England and Germany could not be compared with the spaces of Europe and Asia, which were to be mastered and “put on the map” by Russian researchers.

In 1690, in Kholmogory on the Northern Dvina, near Arkhangelsk, the first astronomical observatory in Russia was founded, founded by Archbishop Athanasius (in the world Alexei Artemyevich Lyubimov). Alexey Artemyevich was one of the most educated people of his time, knew 24 foreign languages ​​and had great power in his patrimony. The observatory had spotting scopes and goniometric instruments. The archbishop personally made astronomical and meteorological observations.

Peter I, who did a lot for the development of science and art in Russia, was also interested in astronomy. Already at the age of 16, the Russian Tsar practically mastered the skills of measuring with the help of such an instrument as the astrolabe, and well understood the importance of astronomy for navigation. Even during his trip to Europe, Peter visited the Greenwich and Copenhagen observatories. Flamsteed's "History of the Sky" contains records of two visits by Peter I to the Greenwich Observatory. Information has been preserved that Peter I, while in England, had lengthy conversations with Edmund Halley and even invited him to Russia to organize a special school and teach astronomy.

A faithful companion of Peter I, who accompanied the tsar on many military campaigns, was one of the most educated people of his time, Jacob Bruce. He founded the first educational institution in Russia, where they began to teach astronomy - "navigation school". There was a school in the Sukharev tower, which, unfortunately, was mercilessly demolished in the 30s of the XX century.

In 1712, 517 people studied at the school. The first Russian geodesists, who comprehended the secrets of science in the "navigational school", faced a huge task. It was necessary to indicate on the map the exact position of settlements, rivers and mountains, not only in the space of central Russia, but also in the vast territories annexed to it in the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. This difficult work, carried out over several decades, has become a significant contribution to world science.

The beginning of a new period in the development of astronomical science is closely connected with the establishment of the Academy of Sciences. It was created on the initiative of Peter I, but opened only in 1725, after his death.

In 1725, the French astronomer Joseph Nicolas Delisle arrived from Paris in St. Petersburg, invited as an academician in astronomy. In the tower of the building of the Academy of Sciences, located on the Neva embankment, Delil set up an observatory, which he equipped with instruments ordered by Peter I. Quadrants, a sextant, as well as reflecting telescopes with mirrors, spotting scopes for observing the Moon, planets and the Sun were used to observe celestial bodies. At that time, the observatory was considered one of the best in Europe.

Delisle laid the foundation for systematic observations and precise geodetic work in Russia. For 6 years, under his leadership, 19 large maps of European Russia and Siberia were compiled, based on 62 points with astronomically determined coordinates.

A well-known amateur of astronomy of the Petrine era was the vice-president of the Synod, Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich. He had his own instruments, a 3-foot radius quadrant and a 7-foot sextant. And also, taking advantage of his high position, in 1736 he borrowed a telescope from the observatory of the Academy of Sciences. Prokopovich made observations not only at his estate, but also at the observatory built by AD Menshikov in Oranienbaum.

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an invaluable contribution to science was made by an amateur astronomer Vasily Pavlovich Engelhardt, a native of Smolensk, a lawyer by education. From childhood he was fond of astronomy, and in 1850 he began to study it on his own. In the 70s of the 19th century, Engelhardt left for Dresden, where he not only promoted the music of the great Russian composer Glinka in every possible way and published scores of his operas, but in 1879 he built an observatory. He had one of the largest - the third in the world at that time - a refractor with a diameter of 12 "(31 cm) and in 18 years alone, without assistants, made a huge number of observations. These observations were processed in Russia at his own expense and were published in three volumes in 1886-95 The list of his interests is very extensive - these are 50 comets, 70 asteroids, 400 nebulae, 829 stars from the Bradley catalog.

Engelhardt was awarded the titles of Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (in St. Petersburg), Doctor of Astronomy and Honorary Member of Kazan University, Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Rome, etc. At the end of his life, when he was already under 70, Engelhardt decided to transfer all the instruments to his homeland, to Russia - Kazan University. The observatory near Kazan was built with his active participation and was opened in 1901. It still bears the name of this amateur, who stood on a par with professional astronomers of his time.

The beginning of the 19th century was marked in Russia by the founding of a number of universities. If before that there was only one university in the country, Moscow, then already in the first half of the century Derpt, Kazan, Kharkov, St. Petersburg and Kyiv were opened. It was the universities that played a decisive role in the development of Russian astronomy. But this ancient science took the most honorable place at the University of Dorpat.

Here began the glorious activity of the outstanding astronomer of the XIX century Vasily Yakovlevich Struve. The pinnacle of his activity is the creation of the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1832, Struve was made a full member of the Academy of Sciences, and a year later he became the director of the planned but not yet created observatory. Struve chose Pulkovo Hill as a place for the future observatory, a hill located in the immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg, a little south of the city. According to the requirements for the conditions of astronomical observations in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth, the southern side must be "clean" - not illuminated by city lights. The construction of the observatory began in 1834, and 5 years later, in 1839, in the presence of prominent scientists and foreign ambassadors, its grand opening took place.

A little time passed, and the Pulkovo Observatory became a model among similar astronomical institutions in Europe. The prophecy of the great Lomonosov came true that "the most glorious of

muses Urania will establish primarily his dwelling in our Fatherland.

The main task that the staff of the Pulkovo observatory set themselves was to significantly improve the accuracy of determining the position of stars, that is, the new observatory was conceived as an astrometric one.

The implementation of the observation program was entrusted to the director of the observatory, Struve, and four astronomers, including the son of Vasily Yakovlevich, Otto Struve.

Already 30 years after its founding, the Pulkovo Observatory gained worldwide fame as the "astronomical capital of the world."

The Pulkovo Observatory possessed the richest library, one of the best in the world, a true treasure trove of world astronomical literature. By the end of the first 25 years of the observatory's existence, the library's catalog contained about 20,000 titles.

At the end of the last century, the location of observatories near large cities created great difficulties for astronomical observations. They are especially inconvenient for astrophysical research. At the beginning of the 20th century, Pulkovo astronomers came to the decision to create an astrophysical department somewhere in the south, preferably in the Crimea, where climatic conditions would allow observations to be made throughout the year. In 1906, employees of the Pulkovo Observatory A.P. Gansky, an outstanding researcher of the Sun, and G.A. Tikhov, an outstanding explorer of Mars in the future, were sent to the Crimea. On Mount Koshka, a little higher than Simeiz, they unexpectedly discovered two ready-made astronomical towers with domes, although without telescopes. It turned out that this small observatory belongs to N. S. Maltsov, an amateur astronomer. After the necessary correspondence, N. S. Maltsov offered his observatory as a gift to the Pulkovo Observatory for the creation of its southern astrophysical department there, and in addition he bought out nearby plots of land so that astronomers would not experience any difficulties in the future. The official registration of the Simeiz Observatory as a branch of the Pulkovo Observatory took place in 1912. Maltsov himself lived in France after the revolution. In 1929, the director of the Simeiz Observatory, Neuimin, turned to Maltsov with a request to write an autobiography, to which he refused: “I don’t see anything remarkable in my life, except for one episode - the acceptance of my gift by the Pulkovo Observatory. I consider this event a great honor for myself.”

In 1908, with the help of an installed astrograph, regular observations of minor planets and variable stars began. By 1925, minor planets, a comet, and a large number of variable stars had been discovered.

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Simeiz Observatory began to expand rapidly. The number of scientific employees has increased; Among them, in 1925, G. A. Shain and his wife P. F. Shain arrived at the observatory. In those years, Soviet diplomats, including the outstanding Bolshevik L. B. Krasin, secured from the capitalist states the fulfillment of the supply of scientific equipment ordered by the Academy of Sciences before the revolution, and concluded new agreements. Among other equipment, a 102-cm telescope, the largest reflector of its time in the USSR, arrived from England. Under the leadership of G. A. Shain, it was installed at the Simeiz Observatory.

This reflector was equipped with a spectrograph, with the help of which spectral observations began in order to study the physical nature of stars, their chemical composition and the processes occurring in them.

In 1932, the observatory received a photoheliograph for photographing the Sun. A few years later, a spectrohelioscope was installed - an instrument for studying the surface of the Sun in the line of a certain chemical element. Thus, the Simeiz Observatory was involved in a large work on the study of the Sun, the phenomena occurring on its surface.

Modern instruments, the relevance of scientific topics and the enthusiasm of scientists have brought international recognition to the Simeiz observatory. But the war began. The scientists managed to evacuate, but the Nazi occupation caused great damage to the observatory. The buildings of the observatory were burned, and the equipment was plundered or destroyed, a significant part of the unique library perished. After the war, parts of a 1-meter telescope were found in the form of scrap metal in Germany, and the mirror was so damaged that it was not possible to restore it.

In 1944, the Simeiz observatory began to be restored, and in 1946 regular observations were resumed at it. The observatory still exists and belongs to the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

The staff of the observatory again faced the question, which had already been raised before the war, about the need to find a new place for the observatory, since a small platform on Mount Koshka, where the observatory was located, limited the possibility of its further expansion.

Based on the results of a number of astroclimatic expeditions, a new place for the observatory was chosen in the mountains, 12 km east of Bakhchisarai, away from the illuminated cities of the southern coast of Crimea, from Sevastopol and Simferopol. It was also taken into account that the peaks of Yayla would protect the observatory from unfavorable southerly winds. Here on a small flat top, at an altitude of 600 m above the level of m

At present, the scientific activity of the Pulkovo Observatory is carried out in six areas: celestial mechanics and stellar dynamics; astrometry; Sun and solar-terrestrial relations; physics and evolution of stars; radio astronomy; equipment and methods of astronomical observations.

The Moscow Observatory was built in 1831 on the outskirts of Moscow.

At the beginning of the 20th century, it was a well-equipped astronomical institution. The observatory had a meridian circle, a long focus astrograph (D = 38 cm, F = 6.4 m), a wide-angle equatorial camera (D = 16 cm, F = 0.82 m), a transit instrument, and several small instruments. It carried out meridian and photographic determinations of the positions of stars, searches and studies of variable stars, and the study of binary stars; the variability of latitude and the technique of astrophotometric observations were studied.

Outstanding scientists worked at the observatory: F. A. Bredikhin (1831-1904), V. K. Tserasky (1849-1925), P. K. Sternberg (1865-1920).

Fedor Alexandrovich Bredikhin (1831-1904), after graduating from Moscow University, was sent abroad and turned into an astronomer in 2 years. The main scientific activity is the study of comets, and on this topic he defends his doctoral dissertation.

Bredikhin was the first to organize spectral observations at the Moscow Observatory. At first - only the Sun. And then all the work of the observatory went along the astrophysical channel.

Russian astronomer Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky (1854-1934). He was born in Moscow, in 1877 he graduated from Moscow University.

At the end of his course at Moscow University, the director of the Moscow Astronomical Observatory, F.A. Bredikhin, suggested to Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky (1854-1934) that he systematically take photographs of the solar surface using a photoheliograph for the summer. And he agreed. Thus, A. A. Belopolsky accidentally became an astronomer. In the fall, he was submitted to leave at the university to prepare for a professorship in the department of astronomy. In 1879, Belopolsky received a position as a supernumerary assistant at the astronomical observatory. Classes at the observatory were devoted to systematic studies of processes on the solar surface (spots, prominences) and astrometry (meridian circle).

In 1886, he defended his thesis for a master's degree in astronomy ("Spots on the Sun and their movement").

The entire Moscow period of scientific work of Aristarkh Apollonovich proceeded under the guidance of one of the founders of Russian and world astrophysics F. A. Bredikhin.

While working at the Moscow Observatory, A. A. Belopolsky observed the positions of a selected group of stars using a meridian circle. On the same instrument, he made observations of large (Mars, Uranus) and small (Victoria, Sappho) planets, as well as comets (1881b, 1881c). There, after graduating from the university, from 1877 to 1888, he systematically photographed the Sun. The instrument was a four-inch Dahlmeier photoheliograph. In this work, he was greatly assisted by V. K. Tserasky, who at that time was an assistant at the Moscow Observatory.

By that time, observations of sunspots had established a decrease in the angular velocity of the Sun's rotation from the equator to the poles and during the transition from deep to outer layers.

In 1884, with the help of a heliograph, A. A. Belopolsky photographed a lunar eclipse. Photo processing allowed him to determine the radius of the earth's shadow.

Already in 1883, Aristarkh Apollonovich at the Moscow Observatory made the first experiments in Russia on direct photography of stars. With a modest lens with a diameter of 46 mm (relative aperture 1:4), he obtained images of stars up to 8 m 5 on a plate in two and a half hours.

Pavel Karlovich Shternberg - Professor, was the director of the Moscow Observatory since 1916.

In 1931, on the basis of the Moscow Astronomical Observatory, three astronomical institutions were merged: the State Astrophysical Institute established after the revolution, the Astronomical and Geodetic Research Institute, and the Moscow Astronomical Observatory. Since 1932, the joint institute, which is part of the Moscow State University, became known as the State Astronomical Institute. P. K. Sternberg, abbreviated SAI.

D. Ya. Martynov was the director of the Institute from 1956 to 1976. At present, after 10 years of directorship of E. P. Aksenov, A. M. Cherepashchuk has been appointed director of the SAI.

Currently, SAI staff members conduct research in almost all areas of modern astronomy, from classical fundamental astrometry and celestial mechanics to theoretical astrophysics and cosmology. In many of the scientific fields, for example, in extragalactic astronomy, the study of non-stationary objects and the structure of our Galaxy, SAI takes a leading place among the astronomical institutions of our country.

While doing the essay, I learned a lot of interesting things about astronomical observatories, about the history of their creation. But I was more interested in the scientists who worked in them, because observatories are not just structures for observations. The most important thing about observatories is the people who work in them. It was their knowledge and observations that gradually accumulated and now constitute such a science as astronomy.