Instruction

A star, unlike other celestial bodies, is a concentrated accumulation of gases and many chemical elements. This object is constantly in the development stage and radiates a huge amount of heat and energy, due to which the planets exist in the system of this star.

The sun or any other in the center of a single galaxy is a key link in the construction of the solar or other system. All planets and bodies revolve around their orbits and around the star.

An asteroid, unlike a star, is a relatively small body with a small mass and volume. It consists in most cases of one or more mineral or metallic rocks, and therefore has most often an irregular shape. Asteroids, like the rest of the planets in the galaxy, revolve around a star.

In some cases, when the gravitational force of the nearest planet is strong, the asteroid may deviate from its trajectory and onto the surface of the planet. The protective field of the Earth in the form of the atmosphere tends to weaken the rate of fall, and the force of friction against the air burns the approaching celestial body. In isolated cases, fragments of celestial bodies reach the surface of the Earth. This phenomenon is of general interest, as in the case of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.

Asteroids for a long time did not differ from stars, even the name itself comes from the Latin "like a star." Back in 2005, many asteroids were considered minor planets, but in 2006 it was decided to consider celestial bodies with a diameter of more than 30 meters, but less than 900 kilometers, as asteroids. Size and composition are the main stars and asteroids. However, unlike an asteroid, which can be conditionally called a body, a cleavage of a planet, stars evolve, they can grow and collapse.

The visual difference between an asteroid and a star is in the brightness of the glow: you cannot look with your naked eyes at the sun closest to us, while a passing asteroid can be an object of observation.

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Advice 4: How to distinguish a star from a planet with the naked eye

Space has attracted the inquisitive gaze of people since time immemorial. Over the past millennia, a lot of information has been accumulated about stars, planets, black holes, galactic clusters and other cosmic realities. Of course, for a more detailed study of space, one cannot do without special equipment. However, some points can be learned to capture with the naked eye.

Stars are held together by their own gravity and internal pressure.

Let's make a reservation right away: only the planets of our solar system can be fixed with the naked eye.

Planet, star. Differences

Both the planet and the star are characterized by luminescence, by which, in fact, they can be seen from the Earth. However, a star is a self-luminous object. While the planet glows due to the light reflected from the stars. Therefore, the radiation of the planets is many times weaker than the stellar radiation. This is especially noticeable on a frosty night or. The radiance of the stars is much more intense (especially those closer to the horizon). The glow of the planets is muted or even indistinct.

Venus and Jupiter, by the way, are an exception to the rule. They can be easily recognized by their characteristic glow, which is much brighter than some distant stars. Also, pay attention to the hue of the radiation. Venus is distinguished by its cold bluish-white glow. Mars is reddish, Saturn is yellow, and Jupiter is yellow with a touch of white.

Another distinguishing feature is the nature of the light emission. For stars, the twinkling caused by the fluctuation of the air is more characteristic. Even in the lenses of powerful telescopes, stars are represented by blinking dots. The planets, in turn, shine evenly, albeit more dimly.

The most effective method to recognize a celestial body is to observe the object. It is recommended to observe the sky for several days. You can even graphically fix the location of the main bodies and compare the results day by day. The bottom line is that the stars are fixed in relation to each other. The only thing that will change for them is the time of their appearance in the sky. The planets, on the other hand, are unstable. They move along unthinkable trajectories relative to the stars, sometimes changing their route to the opposite one.

Space Tricks

There are certain nuances that you need to know when observing the sky. Venus, for example, invariably appears in the East, just before sunrise. Visually, it resembles a bright spot during this period. If you look at night in the right direction - you can see Jupiter.

It will not be superfluous to familiarize yourself with the astrological calendar. With it, you can find out in advance which planets will be in the visibility zone at certain intervals.

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• HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE A PLANET FROM A STAR?

The night sky is full of incredible beauty objects that can be seen even with the naked eye. If you do not have special equipment to look at the sky - it does not matter, some amazing things can be seen without it.

Spectacular comets, bright planets, distant nebulae, twinkling stars and constellations can all be seen in the night sky.

The only important thing to remember is the light pollution in big cities. In the city, the light from the lanterns and windows of knowledge is so strong that all the most interesting things in the night sky are hidden, so to see these amazing things, you should go out of town.

light pollution

brightest planet

A very hot neighbor of the Earth - Venus can rightfully be proud of the title the brightest planet in the sky. The brightness of the planet is due to highly reflective clouds, as well as the fact that it is close to the Earth. Venus approximately 6 times brighter than other neighbors of the Earth - Mars and Jupiter.

Venus is brighter than any other object in the night sky, with the exception of the Moon, of course. Its maximum visible value is around 5. For comparison: the apparent magnitude of the full moon is -13 , that is, it is approximately 1600 times brighter than Venus.

In February 2012, a unique conjunction of three of the brightest objects in the night sky was observed: Venus, Jupiter and Moon which could be seen just after sunset.

The largest star

The largest star known to science - VY Canis Major, a type M red hypergiant, which is located at a distance of approximately 3800 light years from Earth in the constellation Canis Major.

Scientists have estimated that VY Canis Majoris could be more than 2100 times the size of the Sun. If it is placed in the solar system, then the edges of this monster will be located approximately in the orbit of Saturn.

The surface of a hypergiant can hardly be called noticeably outlined, since this star is approximately 1000 times less dense than our planet's atmosphere at sea level.

VY Canis Major is the source a lot of controversy in the scientific world, since the assessment of its size goes beyond the boundaries of the current stellar theory. Astronomers believe that the star VY Canis Majoris during the next 100 thousand years explode and die, turning into a "hypernova" and releasing an enormous amount of energy, and this energy will be more than any other supernova.

brightest star

In 1997, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found that the brightest known star is a star located at a distance 25 thousand light years from us. This star highlights 10 million times more energy than the sun. In size, this star is also much larger than our star. If you place it in the center of the solar system, it will take the orbit of the Earth.

Scientists have suggested that this large star, located in the region of the constellation Sagittarius, creates a cloud of gas around it, which is called Nebula "Pistol". Thanks to this nebula, the star also received the name Pistol Star.

Unfortunately, this amazing star is not visible from Earth due to the fact that it is hidden by the dust clouds of the Milky Way. The brightest star in the night sky can you name a star? Sirius located in the constellation Canis Major. The magnitude of Sirius is -1,44.

You can observe Sirius from anywhere on Earth, except for the northern regions. The brightness of a star is explained not only by its high luminosity, but at a relatively close distance. Sirius is located approximately at 8.6 light years from the solar system.

The most beautiful star in the sky

Many stars are known for their brilliance of different colors, for example, a system consisting of blue and orange stars. Albireo, or bright red giant star Antares. However, the most beautiful of all the stars visible to the naked eye can be called a red-orange star. Mu Cephei, which is also called "Herschel's garnet star" after its first explorer, the British astronomer William Herschel.

The red giant Mu Cephei is located in the constellation Cepheus. This pulsating variable star and its maximum brightness changes 3.7 to 5.0. The color of the star also changes. Most of the time, Mu Cephei is a rich orange-red, but sometimes it takes on a strange purple hue.

Although Mu Cephei is a little dim, its reddish tint can be seen even with the naked eye, and if you take a simple binoculars, the spectacle will be more impressive.

The most distant space object

The farthest object visible to the naked eye is andromeda galaxy, which includes about 400 billion stars and which was noticed back in the 10th century by the ancient Persian astronomer Al Sufi. He described this object as "a small cloud".

Even if you arm yourself with binoculars or an amateur telescope, Andromeda will still look like slightly elongated blurry spot. But still, it is very impressive, especially if you know that the light from it gets to us. for 2.5 million years!

By the way, the Andromeda galaxy is approaching our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have estimated that these two galaxies will collide at about in 4 billion years, and Andromeda will be visible as a bright disk in the night sky. However, it is not yet known whether those who wish to look at the sky will remain on Earth after so many years.

Source: www.space.com

Traveling around the world. Seychelles.
The Republic of Seychelles is a small island nation in East Africa. Seychelles sos...

Details Oleg Nekhaev

Zvezdnoe The sky that you see on this map (below) represents the real position of the planets, bright stars and constellations at the moment. It is enough to make adjustments to the program settings and you will see everything on the screen, based on your location. How to set up the "starry sky"? How to see the most interesting in space?

At the top left of the map there are two lines: date and time, below - coordinates. The first line automatically displays the time you opened this page. Want to see what the sky will look like later? Enter the year, month, date and time to see how the stars in the sky are located at the right time. Depending on the geographical point, there will be a different position of the luminaries and planets. To set the desired coordinates, click on the second line. Enter the latitude and longitude if you know them, or find them in the column below using the navigator. Write the name of the city (preferably in Latin), click search (Search). If he is successful. Close the panel. If the "select" box appears, click on this column and select the one you are looking for from the options. Close the window and check the new values.

To find out the coordinates, you can contact through the Yandex-map search. Enter the name of the area (settlement) and click "search". The coordinates of the place will appear on the right. Write them down. For most locations, Wikipedia can help as well. Enter the name of the city in the search and in the right column you will see the necessary numbers. Attention! Enter data without degrees and minutes symbols. After an integer, put a dot and add the rest of the numbers without separation. Write down the latitude first. By default, the coordinates of the center of Moscow are set.

A star chart is very convenient not only for preparing views through a telescope, but also for ordinary observations of space objects, without the use of technical means. You will always know: which planets shine in the sky or how they call the conspicuous star that you saw today, and what is the name of the constellation that appeared in the sky. You will be able to observe the passage of low-orbit satellites of the Iridium system. And they are very important to look at a certain point. Surprisingly bright flashes periodically emanate from these devices. Reminiscent of the fall of noticeable meteorites. The brightness of this phenomenon is such that it is second only to the Sun and the Moon. Or you can predict the flight path of the International Space Station in advance. And you will wait for its appearance in a certain place in the starry sky. Live broadcast from the station is conducted on Sibirik. And you can calculate the exact time of the apparent passage of the ISS in your place on our page using this LINK .

Small explanations. The starry sky in the diagram appears to us as if it is above our head. For real perception of it, you need to make a mental flip of the image. The cardinal points indicated in the diagram will help the correct representation. On the map you see them along the edges of the circle. You need to bring them to reality. Find out where North is at your location using a compass or other means, such as GPS-Glonass navigation in apps on your smartphone or tablet. And then mentally place a map of the starry sky according to them, based on the revealed data, or rotate the configured map using the cursor.

Notation. Lilac color The names of the constellations are marked on the map. White are the names of the brightest stars. Turquoise the contour shows the boundaries of the Milky Way. Arc Red reflects the ecliptic - the trajectory (projection) of the Sun's movement. The same path is followed by the planets of our star system. They are displayed orange color. light green radiant points of meteor showers are shown. During periods of their activity, on some of the days, you can see "star rain" coming from this area. May you be lucky.

Do not forget that in the northern hemisphere, where the vast majority of visitors to our site are located, the most significant, coordinate star is Polaris. It is easy to find in the sky if you take the famous constellation to help. Ursa Major(Ursa Major), or rather her Big Bucket. On the map, her second star in the pen is highlighted - Mizar (Mizar). So, if you draw a line up through the last two stars of the bucket, then after five the same distances as between these stars, you will find Polaris. She is the only one that is in one place, and all the others, as it were, revolve around her. She points to the North. Therefore, it has always been called the guiding one.
Other visible bright stars are not difficult to deal with. Some of the most notable...

Deneb is one of the largest and is the most powerful star of all the 25 brightest stars in the sky known to science. In one day, Deneb emits more light than our Sun in 140 years. A very distant star.

Sirius- according to perception - the brightest star for us. Because it is located much closer to us than other luminaries, with the exception, of course, of the Sun. Actually it is double. And it has a lot of mobility. In about 11,000 years, Sirius will no longer be visible to those who live in Europe.

Arcturus. Orange giant. One of the brightest stars. All year round it can be seen from the territory of Russia. Arcturus was the first star to be seen through a telescope during the day. It happened over three hundred years ago.

Vega. A young, rapidly rotating star. The best studied (if you do not take into account the Sun). The first one that I managed to photograph well. Apart from Antarctica, it can be seen from almost anywhere in the world. Vega is one of the favorite "heroines" of science fiction writers.

Altair- a star close enough to us. It is located just 159 trillion kilometers away. Compare: the mentioned Deneb is almost a hundred times farther from us.

Rigel- a blue-white supergiant. More than seventy times the size of the Sun. So far away from us that the light we now see was emitted by a star 860 light years ago. Compare: the light from the moon reaches us in one second at a distance of about 400 thousand kilometers. Rigel is a star of incredible power in its luminosity and monstrously distant. And there, someone or something perceives it as the sun. But, from there it is impossible even with the most powerful telescope to consider our Sun, not to mention the Earth on which we live ...

Pay attention! 1. Carefully read the instructions for displaying the sky map. Many ask questions about the location of stars and planets, which they themselves can get answers by entering the appropriate data into the map settings. 2. There are visible "parades of planets" and invisible ones (without the use of binoculars and telescopes). The latter occur quite frequently. The nearest visible parade of five planets from the territory of Russia will occur only in 2022. Don't believe the frequent reports about the "end of the world" and how the position of the planets can affect the rotation of the Earth.

Clear skies and good luck with your observations!

Venus is the most visible and brightest inhabitant of the earth's sky after the sun and moon. Sometimes it can be observed with the naked eye even in the daytime.

On the distant star Venus // The sun is fiery and golden, // On Venus, ah, on Venus // The trees have blue leaves. (Nikolai Gumilyov)

The distance between Venus and the Sun is approximately 72% of an astronomical unit, the length of the semi-major axis of the earth's orbit. Being an inner planet, Venus never approaches the zenith. Its elongation, the maximum elevation above the horizon, is about 48 degrees. Venus makes a complete revolution around the Sun in almost 225 Earth days.

As Venus orbits between the Earth and the Sun, like Mercury, it changes its appearance from a thin crescent to a full disk. People with very good eyesight can distinguish the phases of Venus even with a simple eye, and they are perfectly visible even in the weakest telescopes. Therefore, it is not surprising that in October 1610 they were observed by Galileo. However, he did not doubt that he would find them, since the presence of phases in any inner planet unambiguously follows from the theory of Copernicus.

Hypsometric map of Venus, compiled at the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg Moscow State University according to data obtained by the American Magellan spacecraft.

The transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun in 1761 made the first truly non-trivial contribution to our knowledge of this planet. Lomonosov, who observed it, noticed that when the Venusian disk left the solar disk, a brightly luminous ejection appeared and immediately disappeared at the edge of the latter (Lomonosov called it a bump). Mikhailo Vasilievich quite correctly explained this phenomenon by the presence of a "noble air atmosphere" near Venus, which refracts the sun's rays. European astronomers ignored this discovery until it was confirmed by the discoverer of Uranus, William Herschel, and amateur astronomer from Bremen, Johann Schroeter, at the end of the 18th century.

The position when the projection of Venus onto the plane of the earth's orbit falls on the line connecting the Earth and the Sun is called conjunction. Venus is in superior conjunction when the Sun is between it and the Earth, and in inferior conjunction when she is wedged between them. In the lower conjunction, the distance between the planets is reduced to 42 million kilometers, and in the upper one it increases to 258 million. The interval between successive upper and lower conjunctions is called the synodic period of Venus. On average, it is equal to 584 Earth days, although deviations in one direction or another reach hundreds of hours.

Unlike the Earth, Venus does not have mobile lithospheric plates floating on a viscous mantle. The Earth's crust, due to their movements, is updated every hundred million years, and the Venusian, apparently, has not changed five times longer. However, this does not mean that it is stable. Heat flows from the depths of Venus, which gradually heat up the crust and soften its substance. Therefore, the crust periodically becomes plastic and deforms, which causes global changes in the relief. The duration of such cycles, apparently, is at least half a billion years. We also know very little about the internal structure of Venus. It can be studied only with the help of seismic methods, and this requires the creation of long-lived ones - not minutes and hours, but days and weeks! - descent vehicles. By analogy with the Earth, it is generally accepted that the planet consists of a basaltic crust several tens of kilometers thick, a silicate mantle and an iron core with a radius of less than 3000 km.

Observations from Earth

Telescopic observations have always given such fuzzy pictures of the surface of Venus that any attempts to determine the length of the day of this planet with their help have never been successful (for the same reason, cartography of Venus became possible only after it had artificial satellites with radar equipment, although ground-based radio telescopes also managed to do something).

And such attempts were made by almost all astronomers who were interested in this planet. The first of these was the great Giovanni Cassini, who studied Venus even before moving to Paris at his observatory in Bologna. In 1667, he announced that the Venusian day is almost equal to the earth - 23 hours 21 minutes. Over the next 300 years, telescoping astronomers made more than a hundred such estimates - alas, erroneous.

The first color images of Venus obtained by the equipment of the descent vehicle of the Soviet interplanetary station "Venera-13".

The case was helped by the radar of Venus, and even then not immediately. The first experiments of this kind were carried out in the USA (1958) and Great Britain (1959) - but without much success. In May 1961, Soviet newspapers reported that a group of employees of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, led by Academician Kotelnik, using an interplanetary radar, established that Venus makes one revolution around its axis in approximately 11 days. Like many others, this estimate turned out to be extremely underestimated. Only a year later, radio physicists from the California Institute of Technology, Goldstein and Carpenter, received an almost correct value - 240 Earth days. In subsequent years, it was repeatedly refined, and now the duration of the Venusian day is considered equal to 243 Earth days (so the day of Venus is longer than its year!). At the same time, it was established that Venus revolves around its axis not from west to east, like the Earth, but from east to west. When viewed from the north pole of the Sun, it turns out that Venus rotates clockwise, and not counterclockwise, like the Earth and other planets (with the exception of Uranus, whose own rotation axis is almost parallel to the orbital plane). Since Venus, like all planets, revolves around the Sun counterclockwise, its orbital and axial angular velocities are opposite in sign. This movement is called retrograde.

In the high layers of the Venusian atmosphere, above the streams of gas circulating in the "superrotation" regime, another circulation is observed. The flow of solar UV radiation on the day side "breaks" carbon dioxide molecules, releasing atomic oxygen, which is transported by the so-called "solar" flows in the thermosphere to the night side of the planet. There, atomic oxygen descends lower into the mesosphere, where it recombines into molecular oxygen, emitting at a wavelength of 1.27 microns. The image is composed of two parts captured by the VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) spectrometer aboard the European Venus Express satellite.

Atmosphere of Venus

The first information about the composition of the Venusian air was obtained exactly a quarter of a century before the beginning of the space age. In 1932, American astronomers Walter Sidney Adams and Theodore Dunham used for this purpose a spectrograph installed on the world's largest 250-cm telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory. They convincingly proved that the gaseous environment of Venus consists mainly of carbon dioxide. The degree of heating of the upper layer of the Venusian clouds was measured for the first time even earlier, and on the same telescope. Edison Pettit and Seth Nicholson used bolometers to find out that its temperature fluctuates between 33-38°C. These measurements turned out to be surprisingly accurate, and in the future their reliability was repeatedly confirmed.

Other data have already been obtained from spacecraft. We now know that the Venusian air is 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen. The remaining components (sulfur dioxide, argon, water vapor, carbon monoxide, helium, hydroxyl groups most recently detected by the Venus Express probe) are present only in small quantities. Nevertheless, atmospheric sulfur is quite enough to form clouds that cover the planet, consisting of sulfur dioxide and aerosol sulfuric acid.

The lower layer of the Venusian atmosphere is almost motionless, but in the troposphere the wind speed exceeds 100 m/s. These storms merge into a single hurricane stream that goes around the planet in four Earth days. It moves in the direction of its rotation (from east to west) and carries dense clouds that circulate around the planet at the same speed (this phenomenon is called superrotation).

Radar imagery taken by the Magellan spacecraft showed that the planet is rife with volcanoes (it is not clear whether they are active or not). On the left is the 400-km mountain Shapash, 1.5 km high, on the right is a volcanic "teak" in the Alpha region with a diameter of 30 km with radial structures extending from it. The picture on the left shows the European station Venus Express orbiting Venus.

Expectations and disappointments

Until the middle of the 20th century, very high expectations were associated with Venus. Before the start of space exploration of this planet, scientists hoped to find on it natural conditions very close to those on Earth, or, more precisely, to those that the Earth went through in the process of its evolution. There were undeniable reasons for this. Both planets are similar in many ways.

Their sizes practically coincide - the equatorial radius of Venus is 6051.8, the Earth - 6378.1 km. The difference between the polar radii is even smaller - 6051.8 and 6356.8 km (Venus is an almost perfect ball, while our planet is somewhat flattened at the poles). The average density of Venusian matter is 95% of that of the earth (5234 and 5515 kg/m3). The acceleration of free fall on the surface of Venus is 8.87 m/s 2 , only 10% less than the earth's. Both Venus and the Earth revolve around the Sun in almost regular circles lying almost in the same plane, the eccentricities of their orbits are 0.0067 and 0.0167, respectively. Moreover, these are the only solid circumsolar planets that have a dense atmosphere. Venus, on a cosmic scale of distances, is located next to the Earth, although, as further studies have shown, this difference in distance from the Sun turned out to be fatal for her. It could be assumed that in terms of their age, Venus and the Earth are quite close, which means that they evolved in a similar way. Popular science magazines have written that Venus is going through a kind of Carboniferous period in its evolution, that it is covered with oceans and full of exotic vegetation. But since the late 1950s, these ideas began to change. With the help of radio telescopes, astronomers measured the so-called brightness temperature of Venus, and it turned out to be significantly higher than expected - by hundreds of degrees. Unlike other terrestrial planets - Mars and Mercury - the surface of Venus is shrouded in a dense cloud layer. Therefore, it was not clear what exactly is the source of such a high temperature. Several models have emerged, some of them associating this temperature with the surface below the clouds, others explaining it with the properties of the ionosphere. These two alternative points of view greatly fueled interest in Venus research. Everything became clear in 1962, when the American Mariner 2 from a distance of 35,000 km measured the brightness temperature of Venus (more than 400 ° C) and discovered the so-called darkening to the edge of the planet's disk (due to the greater thickness of the atmosphere at the edges). And this meant that most likely the temperature is associated with the surface of the planet.

The main data on the surface of Venus were obtained by the Magellan spacecraft from 1990 to 1994. This made it possible to create a map of the planet and make some assumptions about its internal structure and evolution. Earlier, the northern hemisphere of the planet was photographed by the Soviet stations Venera-15 and Venera-16.

The first space swallows

Actually, almost all information about the atmosphere, surface and internal structure of Venus was obtained using spacecraft. The first two attempts to explore Venus were made by the Soviet Union, even before the flight of Yuri Gagarin. On February 4, 1961, a 645-kilogram Venusian probe, landed on an almost six-ton ​​orbital platform, went into space from Tyuratam. The tandem went into low Earth orbit, from where the probe was supposed to go to Venus and crash into its surface. However, the probe's engines did not work, and on February 26, it, along with the platform, burned up in the earth's atmosphere. And on February 12, the Venera-1 automatic station was launched from Tyuratam. In all likelihood, in May 1962, it passed a hundred thousand kilometers from the target planet and turned into a man-made satellite of the Sun. However, communication with it disappeared a week after launch, when the station moved away from the Earth by 1.5 million kilometers. In the summer of 1962, two more unsuccessful launches followed, an American and a Soviet one. The fifth unit was the American Mariner 2, the one that buried the hypothesis of the Venusian seas.

In the early 1960s, all space programs, including lunar and planetary research, were carried out at OKB-1 under the leadership of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. But the first launches of automatic interplanetary stations were not successful: there was too little experience in designing spacecraft. In 1965, Venera-2, a flyby vehicle, and Venera-3, an atmospheric probe, were launched, which was supposed to "stick" into the surface of the planet. The devices flew towards the Sun, the intensity of solar radiation grew as they approached the target, and during the flight the electronics failed. The devices reached Venus, but did not transmit any data. Nevertheless, this fact in itself was very significant - it was necessary to calculate the trajectory with the utmost accuracy in order for the device to make a rendezvous with the planet.

The upper boundary of the air layer of Venus lies at an altitude of only 250 km. The pressure at the surface of the planet is 92 atm - as at sea depths of 910 m. Carbon dioxide and water vapor create the strongest greenhouse effect, due to which the surface warms up to 467 ° C, despite the fact that sulfur clouds reflect ¾ of the sun's light. With this combination of temperature and pressure, both carbon dioxide and nitrogen are in a state of supercritical fluid. Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no gas at the surface of Venus at all.

In 1965, it was decided to divide the space programs into areas. Korolev continued to work on manned programs - orbital and lunar, and the unmanned lunar-planet theme, at the initiative of Keldysh and Korolev, was transferred to the OKB. S.A. Lavochkin, which at that time was headed by Georgy Nikolaevich Babakin. All technical documentation transferred from OKB-1 was subjected to the strictest revision, shortcomings were found, a number of systems were redesigned. The results were not long in coming - the very first launch of the E6 lunar program, made in mid-1966, led to the success of Luna-9, with a soft landing, with open petals, with a very original idea to shift the center of gravity for greater stability (device called "Roly-Vstanka"). The first panoramas of the Moon were obtained, the mechanical properties of the soil were studied, then the first artificial satellite of the Moon, Luna-10, was launched, followed by a whole series of successful launches.

Under the clouds

However, scientists were interested not only in the Moon, but also in Venus. But here a problem arose. If at least some assumptions could be made about temperature from previously obtained data, then no conclusions could be drawn about pressure. The range of possible pressure values, according to various estimates, ranged from 0.5 atm to several hundred, the depth of the atmosphere was unknown. Babakin discussed this issue for a long time with Keldysh and the leadership of the Space Research Institute (IKI). In the end, Babakin made a strong-willed design decision: "We will calculate the descent vehicle for 15 atm!" On October 18, 1967, the descent vehicle of the Venera-4 station began its parachute descent. Immediately after the antenna was opened, the radio altimeter gave a mark of 26 km (later it turned out that the real height at that moment was about 60 km). During the parachute descent, the device measured the pressure and temperature of the atmosphere, and also analyzed its composition. Upon reaching a pressure of 18 atm and a temperature of 260 °C, the apparatus was crushed, which was erroneously interpreted as the moment of landing (the actual height was about 28 km). The error of the radio altimeter was quickly found out, it was very annoying, but this mission made it possible to estimate the temperature and pressure on the surface - about 100 atm and 450 ° C. The chemical composition of the atmosphere was also specified.

The atmospheric probes "Venera-5" and "Venera-6", designed for a pressure of 25 atm, in 1969 confirmed and refined data on the composition and parameters of the Venusian atmosphere. Based on these data, the next station, Venera-7, was designed. Despite the fact that the telemetry switch failed during landing, and the parachute system worked abnormally, the device made the first soft landing on the night side of the planet and for the first time transmitted accurate data on pressure and temperature on the surface. And in 1972, after the death of Babakin, Venera-8 was launched. All systems worked absolutely flawlessly. The device made a soft landing on the surface of the planet, and for the first time on the day side, near the terminator. For the first time, data on the nature of the surface rocks became known, and this was a very major achievement. Venera-8 also measured the illumination for the first time: it turned out that even on the day side of the planet twilight reigns due to the scattering of sunlight in clouds and a dense atmosphere.

Twenty years of soft landings

In 1975, two next-generation vehicles, Venera-9 and Venera-10, were launched. Each station consisted of an orbital module and a descent vehicle, which carried an expanded complex of scientific instruments compared to previous missions. The orbital modules became the first artificial satellites of Venus, and the descent vehicles made a soft landing and for the first time transmitted panoramas of the planet's surface, which, along with the measurement of the content of natural radioactive elements, made it possible to draw a conclusion about the type of surface rocks and get some ideas about the evolution of the planet. We also studied the cloud layer (the device descended through this layer on parachutes, which were then unhooked to accelerate the descent and reduce the heating of the device) and the absorption spectra of the atmosphere. It turned out that mostly red and orange ranges reach the surface, so the Venusian day is actually an orange twilight.

In 1978, the descent vehicles Venera-11 and Venera-12 landed on the planet, which also studied the electrical activity of the atmosphere, and in 1982 Venera-13 and Venera-14 transmitted the first color images the surface of the planet. Data on the elemental composition of surface rocks were also obtained for the first time, which required an extremely complex experiment - it was necessary to lower the pressure and temperature, and only after that put the soil on the measuring shelf (for this, the devices were equipped with a special lock). The Venera-13 descent vehicle worked on the surface for 127 minutes, although it was designed for only 32. And this is at temperatures above 450 ° C and pressures of about 90 atm! In the same 1978, two American stations were launched - the orbital Pioneer Venus, which began radar mapping of the planet, and Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, which "shot" four atmospheric probes to analyze the composition and parameters of the atmosphere.

Venus has no planetary magnetic field of deep origin, and all of its extremely weak magnetism is generated by the interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind.

"Venera-15" and "Venera-16" in 1983, using radar, mapped the northern hemisphere of the planet from orbit, which made it possible to assess the structure (morphology) of the surface. Later, the American satellite Magellan, launched in 1989, carried out global mapping of the planet for several years. And finally, the Soviet Venusian space program was completed in 1985 by two landing spacecraft Vega-1 and Vega-2 with a similar scientific load. They also launched balloons with scientific instruments that drifted in the atmosphere of Venus at an altitude of 50-60 km.

Venus became the real pride of the Soviet planetary program. Most of the data on this planet was obtained with the help of Soviet interplanetary stations, and these data are unique. The designers took very seriously the development of landers that were able to continue working in such extreme conditions for the time necessary to complete the scientific task.

In total, over the course of 45 years - from 1961 to 2005 - 37 attempts were made to send spacecraft to Venus. 19 of them were successful, 18 were unsuccessful. Another six automatic stations - the American Mariner 10, Galileo, Cassini and Messenger - one or two times passed by Venus on the way to their goals (respectively, to Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and again to Mercury) and transmitted a lot of valuable information to Earth.

The political incorrectness of the past centuries is most clearly manifested in the names of the planets walking around the earth's sky. Almost all of them bear the names of the gods of the Roman pantheon. Only the second planet from the Sun became the namesake of the goddess, who initially played a very modest role as the patroness of gardens. Venus turned into a symbol of beauty and love later, when she (largely for political reasons) was identified with the Greek Aphrodite, the mother of the mythical founder of Rome, Aeneas. True, quite recently a tradition has emerged to name the geographical structures of the Venusian surface after real women and female literary characters (the only exceptions are the Maxwell Mountains and the high plateaus of Alpha and Beta).

The last, 670-kilogram European ship Venus Express, was launched into space on November 9, 2005 by the Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket system from the Tyuratam cosmodrome. After 153 days of travel, he approached Venus and on May 6, 2006 entered a stable polar orbit with a minimum distance of 250 km from the planet and a maximum of 66,000 km. From there, he studies Venus and its atmosphere with his instruments (mostly various spectrometers). “Unfortunately, one of the instruments, the planetary Fourier spectrometer, failed,” says Lyudmila Zasova, head of the planetary spectroscopy laboratory of the Department of Physics of Planets and Small Bodies of the Solar System, IKI RAS. “But its tasks are partially covered by the VIRTIS mapping spectrometer, and with the help of other instruments, Venus Express has already received a lot of extremely interesting data about the planet’s atmosphere. Some things were a real surprise for us - for example, the presence of hydroxyl ions. But there are still many mysteries. For example, we still do not know what substance absorbs 50% of the solar ultraviolet in the range of 0.32-0.45 microns at altitudes of 58-68 km.”

What is inside and outside

Eighty percent of the Venusian surface is flat and hilly plains of volcanic origin. Most of the remainder falls on four gigantic mountain ranges - the Land of Aphrodite, the Land of Ishtar and the already mentioned regions of Alpha and Beta. The main surface material is basaltic lava. About a thousand impact craters with a diameter of three to three hundred kilometers have been discovered there. The absence of smaller craters is easily explained by the fact that meteorites capable of leaving them lose speed in the atmosphere or simply burn up. Venus is replete with volcanoes, but it is not yet known whether active volcanic activity has ceased there, and this is essential for understanding the evolution of the planet. In addition, despite the data from the Magellan satellite, scientists still have a poor understanding of the geology of Venus. And geology is the key to understanding the internal structure and evolutionary processes.

Until the 1950s, the hypothesis of warm Venusian oceans, which is full of not only aquatic plants, but also animals, was in a special fashion. Now we know that even the most terrible deserts of the Earth, compared with the waterless stony Venusian hell, look like fertile oases. There are no blue-deciduous trees on Venus, or even anything like extreme terrestrial archaebacteria that have broken all records in terms of survival in an unfriendly environment. And the sun there is not more golden than the earth. On the contrary, its rays almost do not penetrate dense clouds of sulfur dioxide and aerosol sulfuric acid, circulating at an altitude of 45–70 km and reliably hiding the planet from terrestrial telescopes. In a word, hellish place.

Whether Venus has a solid core or a liquid one is not yet known for sure. In any case, there are no circular flows of electrically conductive matter in it, since otherwise the planet would have a stable earth-like magnetic field. “The magnetic passivity of Venus has not yet found a generally accepted interpretation,” Sean Solomon, director of the department of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, told Popular Mechanics. - The presence of a magnetic field near the Earth is most likely due to the gradual solidification of the still liquid outer core of our planet. This process releases thermal energy, which provides convective motions of nuclear matter, which make possible the emergence of a magnetic field. Obviously, this does not happen on Venus. Why is not yet clear. According to the most plausible hypothesis, the Venusian core has not yet begun to solidify and therefore convective jets are not born there, twisting due to the rotation of the planet and generating a magnetic field. Otherwise, such a field still should have arisen, although in magnitude it would be much inferior to the earth's one, since Venus rotates around its axis much more slowly. Theoretically, it can be assumed that the Venusian core has already cooled below the point of crystallization of its substance. This is possible, but unlikely. To do this, one would have to assume that the core of Venus consists of almost pure iron and is practically devoid of light impurities that reduce the phase transition temperature. It is difficult to see how Venus could acquire such a core during its formation. Therefore, the first hypothesis seems to be preferable.

Why is Venus so hot? The main model for heating the surface of Venus is considered to be the greenhouse effect. Calculations show that when the Earth moves 10 million kilometers closer to the Sun, the greenhouse effect gets out of control and irreversible heating begins. This is a very delicate balance, which is why climate scientists are worried. So far, no one knows the limits of compensatory processes beyond which positive feedback begins to act. There are models in which, during the first tens of millions of years after its formation, Venus was different - it had oceans, almost the same as on Earth. In particular, this is confirmed by the fact that the atmosphere of Venus is enriched with deuterium. “More accurate measurements of the isotopic composition of the atmosphere will allow us to make assumptions about why Venus took a different path than Earth and Mars,” says Lyudmila Zasova. “Perhaps this will be found out by the Russian Venera-D mission, which is planned to be launched after 2015.” The interplanetary station will consist of an orbital module, a long-lived descent vehicle and atmospheric balloon probes.

Scientists have high hopes for the next flights to Venus. For now, this planet raises many more questions than it answers.

morning Star

The only planet in the solar system, named after the goddess of love - Venus, is the brightest planet inhabiting the earth's firmament. Venus is closest to our planet, and since its surface is covered with dense clouds, it reflects about 76% of the sunlight. The peak of Venus' brightness in the night sky can be observed shortly before sunrise or some time after sunset, so it is sometimes called the Morning Star or Evening Star.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth, in brightness it far exceeds the light of the brightest stars, while Venus, unlike twinkling stars, glows with even white light. Ancient scientists believed that morning and evening Venus are different stars. Venus is the third brightest object in the sky, after the Sun and Moon. Even with a weak telescope, you can see the different phases of the visibility of the planet's disk: in 1610, this was first noted by Galileo.

Atmosphere of Venus

The sizes of the Earth and Venus are almost identical, and they are also the only solid circumsolar planets with a dense atmosphere. These and other facts, until the middle of the 20th century, gave rise to high expectations of astronomers regarding the habitability of the nearest planet.

But it turned out that there is no life on this bright and beautiful planet, because the atmosphere of Venus consists of poisonous carbon dioxide and is very dense, which allows it to retain heat, and makes it very hot. Also, it would seem that there is a small difference in distances of 45 million km. Earth and Venus from the Sun became fatal for the existence of any life on this celestial body.

Interesting fact

An interesting fact is that the Earth's sister Venus is the only planet that rotates around its axis in the opposite direction. It completes this turn in 243 Earth days. The slow and reverse rotation has led to the fact that on Venus the Sun rises and sets only 2 times per Earth year. Here it is - the brightest planet, which is easier to find in the sky than any other.