Planets of the solar galaxy. Location of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy

Universe (space)- this is the whole world around us, boundless in time and space and infinitely diverse in the forms that eternally moving matter takes. The boundlessness of the Universe can be partly imagined on a clear night with billions of different sizes of luminous flickering points in the sky, representing distant worlds. Rays of light at a speed of 300,000 km / s from the most distant parts of the universe reach the Earth in about 10 billion years.

According to scientists, the universe was formed as a result of the "Big Bang" 17 billion years ago.

It consists of clusters of stars, planets, cosmic dust and other cosmic bodies. These bodies form systems: planets with satellites (for example, the solar system), galaxies, metagalaxies (clusters of galaxies).

Galaxy(Late Greek galaktikos- milky, milky, from Greek gala- milk) is an extensive star system that consists of many stars, star clusters and associations, gas and dust nebulae, as well as individual atoms and particles scattered in interstellar space.

There are many galaxies in the universe of various sizes and shapes.

All stars visible from Earth are part of the Milky Way galaxy. It got its name due to the fact that most of the stars can be seen on a clear night in the form of the Milky Way - a whitish blurry band.

In total, the Milky Way Galaxy contains about 100 billion stars.

Our galaxy is in constant rotation. Its speed in the universe is 1.5 million km/h. If you look at our galaxy from its north pole, then the rotation occurs clockwise. The sun and the stars closest to it make a complete revolution around the center of the galaxy in 200 million years. This period is considered galactic year.

Similar in size and shape to the Milky Way galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, or the Andromeda Nebula, which is located at a distance of about 2 million light years from our galaxy. Light year- the distance traveled by light in a year, approximately equal to 10 13 km (the speed of light is 300,000 km / s).

To illustrate the study of the movement and location of stars, planets and other celestial bodies, the concept of the celestial sphere is used.

Rice. 1. The main lines of the celestial sphere

Celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere of arbitrarily large radius, in the center of which is the observer. Stars, the Sun, the Moon, planets are projected onto the celestial sphere.

The most important lines on the celestial sphere are: a plumb line, zenith, nadir, celestial equator, ecliptic, celestial meridian, etc. (Fig. 1).

plumb line- a straight line passing through the center of the celestial sphere and coinciding with the direction of the plumb line at the point of observation. For an observer on the surface of the Earth, a plumb line passes through the center of the Earth and the point of observation.

The plumb line intersects with the surface of the celestial sphere at two points - zenith, over the observer's head, and nadire - diametrically opposite point.

The great circle of the celestial sphere, the plane of which is perpendicular to the plumb line, is called mathematical horizon. It divides the surface of the celestial sphere into two halves: visible to the observer, with the apex at the zenith, and invisible, with the apex at the nadir.

The diameter around which the celestial sphere rotates is axis of the world. It intersects with the surface of the celestial sphere at two points - north pole of the world and south pole of the world. The North Pole is the one from which the rotation of the celestial sphere occurs clockwise, if you look at the sphere from the outside.

The great circle of the celestial sphere, whose plane is perpendicular to the axis of the world, is called celestial equator. It divides the surface of the celestial sphere into two hemispheres: northern, with a peak at the north celestial pole, and south, with a peak at the south celestial pole.

The great circle of the celestial sphere, the plane of which passes through the plumb line and the axis of the world, is the celestial meridian. It divides the surface of the celestial sphere into two hemispheres - eastern and western.

The line of intersection of the plane of the celestial meridian and the plane of the mathematical horizon - noon line.

Ecliptic(from Greek. ekieipsis- Eclipse) - a large circle of the celestial sphere, along which the apparent annual movement of the Sun, or rather, its center, occurs.

The plane of the ecliptic is inclined to the plane of the celestial equator at an angle of 23°26"21".

To make it easier to remember the location of the stars in the sky, people in antiquity came up with the idea of combining the brightest of them into constellations.

Currently, 88 constellations are known that bear the names of mythical characters (Hercules, Pegasus, etc.), zodiac signs (Taurus, Pisces, Cancer, etc.), objects (Libra, Lyra, etc.) (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Summer-autumn constellations

Origin of galaxies. The solar system and its individual planets still remains an unsolved mystery of nature. There are several hypotheses. It is currently believed that our galaxy formed from a gas cloud composed of hydrogen. At the initial stage of the evolution of the galaxy, the first stars formed from the interstellar gas-dust medium, and 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system.

Composition of the solar system

The set of celestial bodies moving around the Sun as a central body forms solar system. It is located almost on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy. The solar system is involved in rotation around the center of the galaxy. The speed of its movement is about 220 km / s. This movement occurs in the direction of the constellation Cygnus.

The composition of the solar system can be represented in the form of a simplified diagram shown in fig. 3.

Over 99.9% of the mass of the matter of the solar system falls on the Sun and only 0.1% - on all its other elements.

Hypothesis of I. Kant (1775) - P. Laplace (1796)	Hypothesis of D. Jeans (early 20th century)	Hypothesis of Academician O.P. Schmidt (40s of XX century)	Hypothesis of a Calemic V. G. Fesenkov (30s of XX century)
The planets were formed from gas-dust matter (in the form of a hot nebula). Cooling is accompanied by compression and an increase in the speed of rotation of some axis. Rings appeared at the equator of the nebula. The substance of the rings collected in red-hot bodies and gradually cooled down.	A larger star once passed by the Sun, and gravity pulled out a jet of hot substance (a prominence) from the Sun. Condensations formed, from which later - planets	The gas-dust cloud revolving around the Sun should have taken a solid shape as a result of the collision of particles and their movement. Particles coalesced into clusters. The attraction of smaller particles by clumps should have contributed to the growth of the surrounding matter. The orbits of the clumps should have become almost circular and lying almost in the same plane. Condensations were the embryos of the planets, absorbing almost all the matter from the gaps between their orbits.	The Sun itself arose from a rotating cloud, and the planets from secondary condensations in this cloud. Further, the Sun greatly decreased and cooled to its present state.

Rice. 3. Composition of the solar systems

Sun

Sun is a star, a giant hot ball. Its diameter is 109 times the diameter of the Earth, its mass is 330,000 times the mass of the Earth, but the average density is low - only 1.4 times the density of water. The sun is located at a distance of about 26,000 light years from the center of our galaxy and revolves around it, making one revolution in about 225-250 million years. The orbital speed of the Sun is 217 km/s, so it travels one light year in 1400 Earth years.

Rice. 4. The chemical composition of the Sun

The pressure on the Sun is 200 billion times higher than at the surface of the Earth. The density of solar matter and pressure rapidly increase in depth; the increase in pressure is explained by the weight of all overlying layers. The temperature on the surface of the Sun is 6000 K, and inside it is 13,500,000 K. The characteristic lifetime of a star like the Sun is 10 billion years.

Table 1. General information about the Sun

The chemical composition of the Sun is about the same as that of most other stars: about 75% is hydrogen, 25% is helium, and less than 1% is all other chemical elements (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) (Fig. 4 ).

The central part of the Sun with a radius of approximately 150,000 km is called solar core. This is a nuclear reaction zone. The density of matter here is about 150 times higher than the density of water. The temperature exceeds 10 million K (on the Kelvin scale, in terms of degrees Celsius 1 ° C \u003d K - 273.1) (Fig. 5).

Above the core, at distances of about 0.2-0.7 of the radius of the Sun from its center, there is radiant energy transfer zone. Energy transfer here is carried out by absorption and emission of photons by individual layers of particles (see Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. Structure of the Sun

Photon(from Greek. phos- light), an elementary particle that can exist only by moving at the speed of light.

Closer to the surface of the Sun, vortex mixing of the plasma occurs, and the energy transfer to the surface occurs

predominantly by the movements of the substance itself. This type of energy transfer is called convection and the layer of the Sun, where it occurs, - convective zone. The thickness of this layer is approximately 200,000 km.

Above the convective zone is the solar atmosphere, which is constantly fluctuating. Both vertical and horizontal waves with lengths of several thousand kilometers propagate here. The oscillations occur with a period of about five minutes.

The inner layer of the sun's atmosphere is called photosphere. It consists of light bubbles. it granules. Their dimensions are small - 1000-2000 km, and the distance between them is 300-600 km. About a million granules can be simultaneously observed on the Sun, each of which exists for several minutes. The granules are surrounded by dark spaces. If the substance rises in the granules, then around them it falls. The granules create a general background against which one can observe such large-scale formations as torches, sunspots, prominences, etc.

sunspots- dark areas on the Sun, the temperature of which is lowered compared to the surrounding space.

solar torches called the bright fields surrounding sunspots.

prominences(from lat. protubero- I swell) - dense condensations of relatively cold (compared to the ambient temperature) matter that rise and are held above the surface of the Sun by a magnetic field. The origin of the magnetic field of the Sun can be caused by the fact that different layers of the Sun rotate at different speeds: the inner parts rotate faster; the core rotates especially fast.

Prominences, sunspots, and flares are not the only examples of solar activity. It also includes magnetic storms and explosions, which are called flashes.

Above the photosphere is chromosphere is the outer shell of the sun. The origin of the name of this part of the solar atmosphere is associated with its reddish color. The thickness of the chromosphere is 10-15 thousand km, and the density of matter is hundreds of thousands of times less than in the photosphere. The temperature in the chromosphere is growing rapidly, reaching tens of thousands of degrees in its upper layers. At the edge of the chromosphere are observed spicules, which are elongated columns of compacted luminous gas. The temperature of these jets is higher than the temperature of the photosphere. Spicules first rise from the lower chromosphere by 5000-10000 km, and then fall back, where they fade. All this happens at a speed of about 20,000 m/s. Spikula lives 5-10 minutes. The number of spicules existing on the Sun at the same time is about a million (Fig. 6).

Rice. 6. The structure of the outer layers of the Sun

The chromosphere surrounds solar corona is the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere.

The total amount of energy radiated by the Sun is 3.86. 1026 W, and only one two billionth of this energy is received by the Earth.

Solar radiation includes corpuscular and electromagnetic radiation.Corpuscular fundamental radiation- this is a plasma stream, which consists of protons and neutrons, or in other words - sunny wind, which reaches near-Earth space and flows around the entire Earth's magnetosphere. electromagnetic radiation is the radiant energy of the sun. It reaches the earth's surface in the form of direct and scattered radiation and provides a thermal regime on our planet.

In the middle of the XIX century. Swiss astronomer Rudolf Wolf(1816-1893) (Fig. 7) calculated a quantitative indicator of solar activity, known throughout the world as the Wolf number. Having processed the data on observations of sunspots accumulated by the middle of the last century, Wolf was able to establish the average 1-year cycle of solar activity. In fact, the time intervals between years of maximum or minimum Wolf numbers range from 7 to 17 years. Simultaneously with the 11-year cycle, a secular, more precisely 80-90-year cycle of solar activity takes place. Inconsistently superimposed on each other, they make noticeable changes in the processes taking place in the geographic envelope of the Earth.

A. L. Chizhevsky (1897-1964) (Fig. 8) pointed out the close connection of many terrestrial phenomena with solar activity back in 1936, who wrote that the vast majority of physical and chemical processes on Earth are the result of the influence of cosmic forces. He was also one of the founders of such a science as heliobiology(from Greek. helios- the sun), studying the influence of the Sun on the living substance of the geographic shell of the Earth.

Depending on solar activity, such physical phenomena occur on Earth, such as: magnetic storms, the frequency of auroras, the amount of ultraviolet radiation, the intensity of thunderstorm activity, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, the level of lakes, rivers, groundwater, salinity and efficiency of the seas and others

The life of plants and animals is associated with the periodic activity of the Sun (there is a correlation between the solar cycle and the period of the growing season in plants, the reproduction and migration of birds, rodents, etc.), as well as humans (diseases).

At present, the relationship between solar and terrestrial processes continues to be studied with the help of artificial Earth satellites.

terrestrial planets

In addition to the Sun, planets are distinguished in the Solar System (Fig. 9).

By size, geographical indicators and chemical composition, the planets are divided into two groups: terrestrial planets and giant planets. The terrestrial planets include, and. They will be discussed in this subsection.

Rice. 9. Planets of the solar system

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. A separate section will be devoted to it.

Let's summarize. The density of the matter of the planet depends on the location of the planet in the solar system, and, taking into account its size, the mass. How
The closer the planet is to the Sun, the higher its average density of matter. For example, for Mercury it is 5.42 g/cm2, Venus - 5.25, Earth - 5.25, Mars - 3.97 g/cm 3 .

The general characteristics of the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are primarily: 1) relatively small sizes; 2) high temperatures on the surface; and 3) high density of planet matter. These planets rotate relatively slowly on their axis and have few or no satellites. In the structure of the planets of the terrestrial group, four main shells are distinguished: 1) a dense core; 2) the mantle covering it; 3) bark; 4) light gas-water shell (excluding Mercury). Traces of tectonic activity have been found on the surface of these planets.

giant planets

Now let's get acquainted with the giant planets, which are also included in our solar system. It , .

Giant planets have the following general characteristics: 1) large size and mass; 2) quickly rotate around an axis; 3) have rings, many satellites; 4) the atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium; 5) have a hot core of metals and silicates in the center.

They are also distinguished by: 1) low surface temperatures; 2) low density of matter of the planets.

For those who want to arrange a space adventure for their son for his birthday http://prazdnik-servis.ru/ will always come to the rescue. They will turn any holiday into a fairy tale.

The universe is full of unexplained mysteries. In it, for example, there are hypervelocity stars, which, by the way, do not emit light, and clouds of dust that taste like raspberries and smell like rum. There are phenomena in the universe, the understanding of which is clearly beyond the scope of our world (pun intended here). There are also mysterious planets outside our solar system. These planets outside our solar system were discovered in the last decade of this century, after Alexander Volshchan discovered the first three in 1994. Let's take a closer look at the ten most mystical of them.

10. Planet Osiris (HD 209458 b)

HD 209458 b is located 150 light-years from planet Earth in the constellation Pegasus, and is the first exoplanet to be discovered when the planet transits the star's disk. It is 30% larger than Jupiter, and its orbit is 1/8 of the distance between Mercury and the Sun. Naturally, the temperature on the planet is very high: about 1000 Celsius. It is a gas planet, which, under the influence of extreme heat and enormous pressure, is faced with the evaporation of various gases, which leads to the loss of its gravitational field, including the loss of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Surprised scientists created a completely new classification for this planet and called it chthonic.

9. Stone Showers (CoRoT-7b)

CoRoT-7b is a strange and mysterious planet outside the solar system, and the first rocky planet discovered outside the solar orbit. It is assumed that it was originally a gigantic gas giant, like Jupiter or Saturn, but due to its proximity to the star, it gradually lost all layers of its atmosphere.

Since the planet always faces the star with only one side, on the illuminated side the temperature reaches 2204 Celsius, while on the dark side the temperature is 176 Celsius. Such conditions lead to precipitation from hard rock: evaporating stones fall out in the form of liquid stone rain and freeze on the surface.

8. Planet Methuselah (PSR 1620-26 b)

PSR 1620-26 b is probably the oldest planet in the universe, and it is old enough to be the prototype of many astrophysical phenomena. It is three times older than the Earth and is considered only a billion years younger than the Universe itself, although it is traditionally believed that the planets cannot be the same age as the Universe, since at the time of the Big Bang there were no favorable conditions and the necessary materials for the formation of planets. Methuselah revolves around a double star: a white dwarf and a pulsar, located in a cluster of stars in the constellation Scorpio.

7. Planet from Hell (Gliese 581c)

Gliese 581c is the most suitable for subsequent colonization, except that the conditions on it are truly hellish. It is always turned on one side to the red dwarf it rotates around, and the temperature difference on the light and dark side is such that if you stand on one side, you will immediately evaporate, but as soon as you take a step to the other side, you will immediately freeze . In the narrow more or less habitable strip between these two extremes, there are other problems. The sky of this planet is infernal red, since the planet is at the very bottom of the light spectrum that we see, so if there are photosynthetic plants on the planet, then because of this they are all black.

6. Planet - black hole (TrES-2b)

TrES-2b is very similar to Jupiter: they are both almost the same size and it orbits a sun-like star - only it is 760 light-years away from us. This Jupiter-class gas giant reflects about 1% of the light that hits it. In other words, it absorbs the light falling on it so much that it is considered the darkest planet. It is darker than the blackest acrylic paint or charcoal. It is believed that the atmosphere contains special chemicals or compounds. Interestingly, at an atmospheric temperature of 982 Celsius, the planet is hot enough to emit a dim, reddish glow, which in all likelihood is visible because it completely absorbs all other light.

HD 106906 b is the "alone guy" because it dangles in the outskirts of the constellation of the Southern Cross, orbiting its star at a distance of 60,000,000,000 kilometers, which is 20 times the distance between Neptune and the Sun. Located almost 300 light-years from Earth, this "super-Jupiter"-class planet, 11 times the size of Jupiter itself, is so far from its star that it simply cannot form the solid enough material needed for it to fully form. Astrophysicists assume that this is an unformed star, thus casting doubt on the binary system, as it is too small for binary formations.

4. Swollen gas planet (Hat P 1 Hat p 1 o kepler est operando)

HAT-P-1 is a very mysterious planet outside the solar system, located at a distance of 450 light years from us. It was recently discovered by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. This giant gas planet is about half the size of Jupiter, but the amazing fact is that, despite its size, it is so small that its mass is comparable to the mass of cork. It is classified as a "hot Jupiter" even though it is 25% larger than the allowable models for that classification, which scares astrophysicists who are trying to figure out why it is so "swollen". Scientists suspect that she can swim in the water, and it is curious to check how true this fact is.

3. Planet with an incredible number of rings (J1407 b)

J1407 b was discovered in 2012 and has only recently been processed and reported. It is located 400 light years from Earth. The most amazing fact about this planet is that it has a ring system like Saturn, but these rings are 200 times larger than those around Saturn. The rings are so large that if they belonged to Saturn, they would dominate the earth's sky, surpassing the Moon in size, and scientists would also observe a 56-day solar eclipse. The gaps between the rings are thought to represent rotating exomoons around this exoplanet.

2. Burning Ice Planet (Gliese 436 b)

Gliese 436 b is another planet from the Gliese system. It is 20 times the size of Earth, about the size of Neptune. The planet is at a distance of 6.9 million kilometers from its star, compared to the Earth, which is 150 million kilometers from the Sun. The temperature on the planet is 438 Celsius and its surface is covered in burning ice. The planet's enormous gravitational force keeps the water molecules too close together to evaporate, so they don't leave the planet. The hot ice is called ice-ten, after a substance in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle.

1. Diamond planet (55 Cancer e)

Discovered in 2014, 55 Cancer e is twice the size of Earth and 8 times its mass. This planet is also called "super-Earth". In addition to graphite and other silicates, the composition of the planet mainly includes diamond. One day, a star from the binary system began to “eat up” this planet, leaving in the end only the stone core. Its temperature is around 2148 degrees Celsius. The cost of the subsoil of the diamond planet is 26.9 nonillion (1054) dollars, which is 384 quintillion (1018) times the Earth's GDP, which is 74 trillion dollars. Extraction of only 0.187% of its subsoil would cover the external debt of all governments on Earth, amounting to 50 trillion dollars. They only have to cover a distance of 40 light years.

There are about 200 already discovered exoplanets in the Universe. The often striking characteristics of these mysterious and amazing planets outside the solar system completely baffle the entire world of science, especially when the scientific facts about these exoplanets sound much more extraordinary than stories from science fiction.

The material was prepared by Aziris - website

P.S. My name is Alexander. This is my personal, independent project. I am very glad if you liked the article. Want to help the site? Just look below for an ad for what you've recently been looking for.

Copyright site © - This news belongs to the site, and are the intellectual property of the blog, protected by copyright law and cannot be used anywhere without an active link to the source. Read more - "About Authorship"

Are you looking for this? Perhaps this is what you could not find for so long?

Those who have little understanding of the universe know well that the cosmos is constantly in motion. The universe is expanding every second, getting bigger and bigger. Another thing is that on the scale of human perception of the world, it is quite difficult to realize the dimensions of what is happening and imagine the structure of the Universe. In addition to our galaxy, in which the Sun is located and we are, there are dozens, hundreds of other galaxies. No one knows the exact number of distant worlds. How many galaxies in the universe can only be known approximately by creating a mathematical model of the cosmos.

Therefore, given the size of the Universe, one can easily assume the idea that in a dozen, a hundred billion light-years from Earth, there are worlds similar to ours.

Space and the worlds that surround us

Our galaxy, which received the beautiful name "Milky Way", several centuries ago, according to many scientists, was the center of the universe. In fact, it turned out that this is only a part of the Universe, and there are other galaxies of various types and sizes, large and small, some further, others closer.

In space, all objects are closely interconnected, move in a certain order and occupy a designated place. Planets known to us, well-known stars, black holes and our solar system itself are located in the Milky Way galaxy. The name is not accidental. Even ancient astronomers who observed the night sky compared the space around us with a milk path, where thousands of stars look like drops of milk. The Milky Way Galaxy, the celestial galactic objects that are in our field of vision, make up the nearest space. What could be beyond the visibility of telescopes became known only in the 20th century.

Subsequent discoveries, which increased our cosmos to the size of the Metagalaxy, prompted scientists to the theory of the Big Bang. A grandiose cataclysm occurred almost 15 billion years ago and served as an impetus for the beginning of the processes of formation of the Universe. One stage of the substance was replaced by another. From dense clouds of hydrogen and helium, the first rudiments of the Universe began to form - protogalaxies consisting of stars. All this happened in the distant past. The light of many heavenly bodies, which we can observe in the strongest telescopes, is only a farewell greeting. The millions of stars, if not billions, that strewn our sky are a billion light-years from Earth, and have long since ceased to exist.

Map of the Universe: Nearest and Farthest Neighbors

Our solar system, other cosmic bodies observed from the Earth are relatively young structural formations and our closest neighbors in the vast Universe. For a long time, scientists believed that the closest dwarf galaxy to the Milky Way was the Large Magellanic Cloud, located just 50 kiloparsecs away. Only very recently have the real neighbors of our galaxy become known. In the constellation Sagittarius and in the constellation Canis Major there are small dwarf galaxies, the mass of which is 200-300 times less than the mass of the Milky Way, and the distance to them is just over 30-40 thousand light years.

These are one of the smallest universal objects. In such galaxies, the number of stars is relatively small (on the order of several billion). As a rule, dwarf galaxies gradually merge or are absorbed by larger formations. The speed of the expanding Universe, which is 20-25 km / s, will unwittingly lead neighboring galaxies to collide. When this will happen and how it will turn out, we can only speculate. The collision of galaxies has been going on all this time, and due to the transience of our existence, it is not possible to observe what is happening.

Andromeda, two to three times the size of our galaxy, is one of the closest galaxies to us. Among astronomers and astrophysicists, it continues to be one of the most popular and is located only 2.52 million light years from Earth. Like our galaxy, Andromeda is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies. This gigantic cosmic stadium is three million light-years across, and contains about 500 galaxies. However, even a giant like Andromeda looks small compared to IC 1101.

This largest spiral galaxy in the Universe is located more than a hundred million light-years away and has a diameter of more than 6 million light-years. Despite the fact that it includes 100 trillion stars, the galaxy is mainly composed of dark matter.

Astrophysical parameters and types of galaxies

The first explorations of space, carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, provided abundant ground for reflection. The space nebulae discovered through the lens of a telescope, which over time counted more than a thousand, were the most interesting objects in the Universe. For a long time, these bright spots in the night sky were considered gas accumulations that are part of the structure of our galaxy. Edwin Hubble in 1924 was able to measure the distance to a cluster of stars, nebulae and made a sensational discovery: these nebulae are nothing more than distant spiral galaxies, independently wandering on the scale of the Universe.

An American astronomer for the first time suggested that our Universe is a lot of galaxies. Space exploration in the last quarter of the 20th century, observations made with the help of spacecraft and technology, including the famous Hubble telescope, confirmed these assumptions. Space is limitless, and our Milky Way is far from being the largest galaxy in the Universe, and besides, it is not its center.

Only with the advent of powerful technical means of observation, the Universe began to take on a clear outline. Scientists are faced with the fact that even such huge formations as galaxies can differ in their structure and structure, shape and size.

Through the efforts of Edwin Hubble, the world received a systematic classification of galaxies, dividing them into three types:

spiral;
elliptical;
wrong.

Elliptical galaxies and spiral galaxies are the most common types. These include our Milky Way galaxy, as well as our neighboring Andromeda galaxy and many other galaxies in the universe.

Elliptical galaxies have the shape of an ellipse and are elongated in one of the directions. These objects lack sleeves and often change their shape. These objects also differ in size from each other. Unlike spiral galaxies, these cosmic monsters do not have a distinct center. There is no nucleus in such structures.

According to the classification, such galaxies are designated by the Latin letter E. All currently known elliptical galaxies are divided into subgroups E0-E7. The distribution into subgroups is carried out depending on the configuration: from almost round galaxies (E0, E1 and E2) to strongly stretched objects with indices E6 and E7. Among elliptical galaxies, there are dwarfs and real giants with diameters of millions of light years.

There are two types of spiral galaxies:

galaxies represented as a crossed spiral;
normal spirals.

The first subtype is distinguished by the following features. In shape, such galaxies resemble a regular spiral, but in the center of such a spiral galaxy there is a bar (bar), which gives rise to arms. Such bridges in a galaxy are usually the result of physical centrifugal processes that divide the core of the galaxy into two parts. There are galaxies with two nuclei, the tandem of which makes up the central disk. When the nuclei meet, the bar disappears and the galaxy becomes normal, with one center. There is a jumper in our Milky Way galaxy, in one of the arms of which our solar system is located. According to modern estimates, the path from the Sun to the center of the galaxy is 27 thousand light years. The thickness of the arm of Orion Cygnus, in which our Sun resides and our planet along with it, is 700 thousand light years.

In accordance with the classification, spiral galaxies are designated by the Latin letters Sb. Depending on the subgroup, there are other designations for spiral galaxies: Dba, Sba and Sbc. The difference between the subgroups is determined by the length of the bar, its shape and the configuration of the sleeves.

Spiral galaxies can range in size from 20,000 light years to 100,000 light years in diameter. Our galaxy "Milky Way" is in the "golden mean", with its size gravitating towards medium-sized galaxies.

The rarest type is irregular galaxies. These universal objects are large clusters of stars and nebulae that do not have a clear shape and structure. In accordance with the classification, they received indices Im and IO. As a rule, structures of the first type do not have a disk or it is poorly expressed. Often, such galaxies can be seen like arms. Galaxies with indices IO are a chaotic cluster of stars, clouds of gas and dark matter. Bright representatives of such a group of galaxies are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

All galaxies: regular and irregular, elliptical and spiral, are made up of trillions of stars. The space between the stars with their planetary systems is filled with dark matter or clouds of cosmic gas and dust particles. In between these voids are black holes, large and small, which disturb the idyll of cosmic tranquility.

Based on the existing classification and the results of research, it is possible with some degree of certainty to answer the question of how many galaxies in the Universe and what type they are. Most of all in the universe of spiral galaxies. They are more than 55% of the total number of all universal objects. There are half as many elliptical galaxies - only 22% of the total number. There are only 5% of irregular galaxies similar to the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds in the Universe. Some galaxies are adjacent to us and are in the field of view of the most powerful telescopes. Others are in the farthest space, where dark matter prevails and the lens shows more blackness of the boundless space.

Galaxies up close

All galaxies belong to certain groups, which in modern science are called clusters. The Milky Way is included in one of these clusters, in which there are up to 40 more or less known galaxies. The cluster itself is part of a supercluster, a larger group of galaxies. The Earth, together with the Sun and the Milky Way, is included in the Virgo Supercluster. This is our actual space address. Together with our galaxy in the Virgo cluster, there are more than two thousand other galaxies, elliptical, spiral and irregular.

The map of the Universe, which astronomers are guided by today, gives an idea of how the Universe looks like, what is its shape and structure. All clusters gather around voids or dark matter bubbles. It is possible to think that dark matter and bubbles are also filled with some objects. Perhaps this is antimatter, which, contrary to the laws of physics, forms similar structures in a different coordinate system.

The current and future state of galaxies

Scientists believe that it is impossible to make a general portrait of the universe. We have visual and mathematical data about the cosmos, which is within our understanding. It is impossible to imagine the real scale of the Universe. What we see through a telescope is the light of stars that has been coming to us for billions of years. Perhaps the real picture today is completely different. The most beautiful galaxies in the Universe as a result of cosmic cataclysms could already turn into empty and ugly clouds of cosmic dust and dark matter.

It cannot be ruled out that in the distant future, our galaxy will collide with a larger neighbor in the Universe or swallow a dwarf galaxy that exists in the neighborhood. What will be the consequences of such universal changes, one can only guess. Despite the fact that the convergence of galaxies occurs at the speed of light, earthlings are unlikely to witness a universal catastrophe. Mathematicians have calculated that just over three billion Earth years remain before the fatal collision. Whether there will be life on our planet at that time is a question.

Other forces can also interfere with the existence of stars, clusters and galaxies. Black holes, which are still known to man, are able to swallow a star. Where is the guarantee that such enormous monsters, hiding in dark matter and in the voids of space, will not be able to swallow the galaxy entirely.

Surely, many of you have seen a gif or watched a video showing the movement of the solar system.

Video clip, released in 2012, went viral and made a lot of noise. I came across him shortly after his appearance, when I knew much less about space than I do now. And most of all I was confused by the perpendicularity of the plane of the orbits of the planets to the direction of motion. It's not that it's impossible, but the Solar System can move at any angle to the plane of the Galaxy. You ask, why remember long-forgotten stories? The fact is that right now, with the desire and the presence of good weather, everyone can see in the sky the real angle between the planes of the ecliptic and the Galaxy.

We check scientists

Astronomy says that the angle between the planes of the ecliptic and the galaxy is 63°.

But the figure itself is boring, and even now, when adherents of the flat Earth arrange a coven on the sidelines of science, I want to have a simple and visual illustration. Let's think about how we can see the planes of the Galaxy and the ecliptic in the sky, preferably with the naked eye and without moving far from the city? The plane of the Galaxy is the Milky Way, but now, with an abundance of light pollution, it is not so easy to see it. Is there any line approximately close to the plane of the Galaxy? Yes, it is the constellation Cygnus. It is clearly visible even in the city, and it is easy to find it, relying on the bright stars: Deneb (alpha Cygnus), Vega (alpha Lyra) and Altair (alpha Eagle). The "torso" of Cygnus approximately coincides with the galactic plane.

Okay, we have one plane. But how to get a visual line of the ecliptic? Let's think, what is the ecliptic in general? According to the modern strict definition, the ecliptic is a section of the celestial sphere by the plane of the orbit of the barycenter (center of mass) of the Earth-Moon. On the average, the Sun moves along the ecliptic, but we do not have two Suns, according to which it is convenient to draw a line, and the Cygnus constellation will not be visible in sunlight. But if we remember that the planets of the solar system also move approximately in the same plane, then it turns out that the parade of planets will just roughly show us the plane of the ecliptic. And now in the morning sky you can just see Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

As a result, in the coming weeks, in the morning before sunrise, it will be possible to very clearly see the following picture:

Which, surprisingly, is in perfect agreement with astronomy textbooks.

And it's better to draw a gif like this:

Source: astronomer Rhys Taylor website rhysy.net

The question can cause the relative position of the planes. Are we flying<-/ или же <-\ (если смотреть с внешней стороны Галактики, северный полюс вверху)? Астрономия говорит, что Солнечная система движется относительно ближайших звезд в направлении созвездия Геркулеса, в точку, расположенную недалеко от Веги и Альбирео (бета Лебедя), то есть правильное положение <-/.

But this fact, alas, cannot be verified “on the fingers”, because, even if they did it two hundred and thirty-five years ago, they used the results of many years of astronomical observations and mathematics.

Receding stars

How can you generally determine where the solar system is moving relative to nearby stars? If we can record the movement of a star across the celestial sphere for decades, then the direction of movement of several stars will tell us where we are moving relative to them. Let's call the point to which we are moving apex. Stars that are not far from it, as well as from the opposite point (anti-apex), will move weakly, because they are flying towards us or away from us. And the farther the star is from the apex and anti-apex, the greater will be its own motion. Imagine that you are driving down the road. Traffic lights at intersections in front and behind will not shift much to the sides. But the lampposts along the road will flicker (have a large own movement) outside the window.

The gif shows the movement of Barnard's star, which has the largest proper motion. Already in the 18th century, astronomers had records of the position of stars over an interval of 40-50 years, which made it possible to determine the direction of motion of slower stars. Then the English astronomer William Herschel took the star catalogs and, without approaching the telescope, began to calculate. Already the first calculations according to Mayer's catalog showed that the stars do not move randomly, and the apex can be determined.

Source: Hoskin, M. Herschel's Determination of the Solar Apex, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 11, P. 153, 1980

And with the data of the Lalande catalog, the area was significantly reduced.

From there

Then normal scientific work went on - data clarification, calculations, disputes, but Herschel used the correct principle and was only ten degrees wrong. Information is still being collected, for example, only thirty years ago, the speed of movement was reduced from 20 to 13 km / s. Important: this speed should not be confused with the speed of the solar system and other nearby stars relative to the center of the Galaxy, which is approximately 220 km/s.

Even further

Well, since we mentioned the speed of movement relative to the center of the Galaxy, it is necessary to understand here as well. The galactic north pole is chosen in the same way as the earth's - arbitrarily by agreement. It is located near the star Arcturus (alpha Bootes), approximately up in the direction of the wing of the constellation Cygnus. But in general, the projection of the constellations on the map of the Galaxy looks like this:

Those. The solar system moves relative to the center of the Galaxy in the direction of the constellation Cygnus, and relative to the local stars in the direction of the constellation Hercules, at an angle of 63 ° to the galactic plane,<-/, если смотреть с внешней стороны Галактики, северный полюс сверху.

space tail

But the comparison of the solar system with a comet in the video is absolutely correct. NASA's IBEX was specifically designed to determine the interaction between the boundary of the solar system and interstellar space. And according to him

In which the solar system and the planet Earth are located. It has the form of a spiral with a bridge, several arms extend from the center, and all the stars in the Galaxy revolve around its core. Our Sun is almost on the very outskirts and makes a complete revolution in 200 million years. It forms the planetary system best known to mankind, called the solar system. It consists of eight planets and many other space objects formed from a gas and dust cloud about four and a half billion years ago. The solar system is comparatively well understood, but the stars and other objects beyond it are at great distances, despite belonging to the same galaxy.

All the stars that a person can observe with the naked eye from Earth are in the Milky Way. The galaxy by this name should not be confused with a phenomenon that occurs in the night sky: a bright white streak that crosses the sky. It is part of our Galaxy, a large cluster of stars that looks like this because the Earth is near its plane of symmetry.

Planetary systems in the galaxy

Only one planetary system is called the solar system - the one in which the Earth is located. But there are still many systems in our Galaxy, of which only a small part has been discovered. Until 1980, the existence of systems like ours was only hypothetical: observational methods did not make it possible to detect such relatively small and dim objects. The first suggestion of their existence was made by astronomer Jacob of the Madras Observatory in 1855. Finally, in 1988, the first planet outside the solar system was found - it belonged to the orange giant Gamma Cepheus A. Then other discoveries followed, it became clear that there could be many of them. Such planets that do not belong to our system are called exoplanets.

Today, astronomers know more than a thousand planetary systems, about half of them have more than one exoplanet. But there are still many candidates for this title, so far they cannot confirm these data. Scientists suggest that there are about one hundred billion exoplanets in our Galaxy, which belong to several tens of billions of systems. Perhaps about 35% of all sun-like stars in the Milky Way are not alone.

Some of the found planetary systems are completely different from the solar system, others are more similar. In some, there are only gas giants (so far there is more information about them, since they are easier to detect), in others - planets like Earth.

A galaxy is a system of stars, dust, gas, and dark matter that is held together by the forces of gravity. Behind such a prosaic description lies the beauty of millions of shining stars. Some galaxies are named after the constellations in which they are located, and some have beautiful, unique names.

Instruction

The galaxies are named after the great, discoverers and other prominent figures and art (for example, the Magellanic Clouds). You can name a galaxy after your mentor who gave you an important start in life, and you would like to express your gratitude to him in this way. Or you can name the galaxy after a traveler whose adventures you read as a child and admire to this day.

If you have a loved one, name the galaxy after them. Now, to the request “give me a star”, you can always answer: “I give you the whole galaxy!”, And your beloved will be very pleased. In addition, some scientists entomologists name open species of insects after their wives, and they are pleased that husbands decide to perpetuate their names in this way.

Give the galaxy the name of an ancient Greek goddess. The pantheon of goddesses was quite large, and every reader of ancient Greek myths has a favorite character in these legends. The splendor and scale of the galaxy will be well matched by the name of a proud, beautiful and powerful goddess.

You can always name the galaxy after your discoverer, that is, yours. At the same time, you will gain wide popularity around the world. Also, thousands of schoolchildren will be grateful to you when they are asked in astronomy classes “who discovered the Ivanov galaxy?”

Portal for the student. Self-training