Many interesting stories happened this year. Here are some that I would like to recall.
Minibar on the space station?
What could be better than enjoying your favorite whiskey during sunset, while aboard the International Space Station? It sounds pretty nice, however, for astronauts this is not a fairy tale. In addition to the ISS, there is even a whole collection of various spirits brought there this year.
Both perfume and alcohol were initiated by a Japanese company, which decided to make a gift and send it to space. But it was not only a thought-out marketing campaign, it was an experiment. The Japanese want to check: does the state of spirits change in drinks outside of our Earth, do they become "softer" or vice versa? It has long been known that the environment can affect the state of various substances. So why not watch the accelerated process of aging spirits while drinking whiskey?
FOREIGNERS! Big as polar bears ...
Now people have no clue about the existence of life outside the Earth, at least officially. However, there are guesses that aliens are about the size of a foreigner. Researchers working in this area said: if the aliens really existed, then they can be compared to a polar bear. We hope they at least will not be hungry.
Thank you, Einstein
Pulsars - rapidly rotating balls of ejected material of a dead star. Of course, in fact they are "dead", but this does not mean that pulsars do not generate a powerful electromagnetic field. Due to the "explosive" poles, there is a rapid rotation of neutron stars, emitting an intense glow, which allegedly indicates the correct direction. If they were located near the Earth, then these objects would play the role of a beacon for our spacecraft. In a study published in early 2015, astronomers described a newly discovered pair of pulsars, which not only spin rapidly, but also have the shape of orbitals. Between them there is an out-of-time space that causes matter to deform. Studying physics, more than 100 years ago, Einstein was able to predict that if one of the pulsars knocks out another from the trajectory, an irreparable deformation would occur (this process was called “geodetic precession”). The result of this is the disappearance from the field of view of the entire orbitals.
Really, what is it?
Well, it turned out to be the most interesting discovery of 2015, which was full of all the headlines. Shortly after arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres, located mainly in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the NASA Dawn noticed a very bright, white spot inside the crater on the surface of one of the asteroids. Scientists immediately suggested that it was ice or a trace left by a volcano. Similarly, it is still not known.
Pluto
A lot has been said about Pluto, so we’ll get by with just one mention.
Kiss of the Stars
As is usually the case, love was miserable. Astronomers have discovered stars that are extremely close to each other and rotate in the same way. It looks very touching. There is a mutual exchange of plasma. Thus, the stars merge gradually, but this process can lead to the death of two objects, because the mass of one of them is significantly different from the other.
Is a black hole an emergency exit?
Until one moment black holes never caused bewilderment, but not now.
One of the largest polemic battles of theoretical physics takes place just beyond the horizon of this anomaly. Most likely, the common man will never be able to learn about its secrets, but this does not prevent scientists from making huge computational equations. The superstar of British physics Stephen Hawking considers black holes public domain. Now, to get into a black hole, you can install the Paradox Firewall, and some will be enough to have a doctorate in theoretical physics to understand all the information about quantum dynamics.
Incredible space structure!
So far, this year, no more popular story has appeared on the V-kosmose.com portal than the story of the strange nugget seen by NASA's Kepler telescope. His task is to find new small worlds unknown to mankind and revolving around each other. The device was found many exoplanets of our Universe, as well as a strange signal from the star Tabbi in 1500 light years from Earth. It was not possible to find out exactly what this signal was.
With the help of scientists and at the same time, the “space” hunters learned: a strange sound vibration of transit was caused by speculation. Perhaps the phenomenon may be evidence of an alien "megastructure", although most likely the reason is the movement of a huge swarm of planets. Some self-taught astronomers have put forward their pseudo-theories, but you know, they are not justified in any way. So, here is another interesting moment of the outgoing 2015, but the strangest thing is still to come.
The most common floating spoon on Mars. Yes, this is all
NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity landed on a red planet in 2012, far from us, and found evidence of a huge amount of ancient water on the planet. This is proof of life there in the distant past.
Scientists now know that Curiosity saw a huge amount of unusual things on the surface of Mars during its stay: from strange glowing balls to rocks that look like rats or Buddha. The latter are the result of a long process of alien corrosion, giving the rocks of Mars bizarre forms. Naturally, this is all: waters and rocks - cause an infinite number of assumptions about possible Martian conspiracies up to finding an alien floating spoon on the planet. Amazing isn't it?
Of course, there is a scientific answer. If you follow NASA astronomers, this is a brilliant example of a ventifact (a form of wind erosion). Unfortunately, for many of us, this will forever remain only in memory, because a lot of time will have to pass for really amazing results. Unlike humans, Mars has plenty of it.
