Can planets in the solar system collide with each other? Four and a half billion years ago, any planet in the solar system could rapidly decrease in size or, conversely, increase. After the catastrophe experienced by the Earth, she had a satellite - the Moon,

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Mercury Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the Mercury year lasts 88 days. This is the penultimate planet, the smallest after Pluto. There is no atmosphere on it, the solid ground is all covered with craters. Mercury is practically

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Venus Venus is the closest planet to Earth. The smallest distance when it approaches the Earth is 45 million km. It is not possible to see its surface due to the dense cloudy atmosphere. Radar images taken

Overview of the planets of the solar system. The Moon The Moon, a satellite of the Earth, is located at a distance of 380 thousand km from the surface of our planet. There is no air, water, weather on the Moon. Its surface is mountains, craters, seas of hardened lava, and layers of dust. The mass of the Moon is 81 times less than the Earth, and the radius

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Mars The planet Mars is similar to Earth, but smaller and colder. Mars has deep canyons, giant volcanoes, and vast deserts. The red planet, as it is called due to the presence of iron oxide on the surface, has

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Jupiter Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, 11 times the diameter of Earth. The abundance of clouds and gas spots characteristic of the planet make it very picturesque to observe. The atmosphere of Jupiter on

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Saturn Saturn occupies the sixth position in terms of proximity to the Sun among the planets of the solar system. This cold world separated from our star by almost 800 thousand km, and the behavior of the layers of its atmosphere is very similar to the behavior of the layers

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Uranus Uranus was discovered on March 13, 1781 by the Englishman William Herschel, an amateur astronomer. Its atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, and methane is also present in it (about 15%). It is thanks to methane that Uranus has a bluish

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Neptune The planet Neptune was discovered partly mathematically. Scientists have puzzled over why the planet Uranus is constantly deviating from its path. This could only happen due to the gravitational influence of another celestial body

Overview of the planets of the solar system. Pluto Analyzing the movement of Neptune in orbit, scientists began to guess about the existence of another planet, which is located beyond Neptune. Pluto was discovered by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in the early 1930s. But due to the remoteness of this

Overview of the bodies of the solar system. Comets Comets are celestial bodies, having a small size and a "foggy look". They revolve around the Sun in elongated orbits. As comets approach the Sun, they form a coma and a tail of gas and dust directed in the opposite direction.

The population of the asteroid belt is very diverse. But all these differences fade before the variety of asteroid orbits. All the planets in the solar system move in the same plane in almost circular orbits. And asteroids, subject to the influence of the Sun and planets, move along a wide variety of trajectories. The main conductor of their movement is, of course, the giant Jupiter. Most of the minor planets are on average 2.2–3.6 AU from the Sun, that is, they are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and are completely subject to the influence of this giant.

The orbital eccentricity of most asteroids is less than 0.3 (between 0.1 and 0.8) and the inclination is less than 16°.

Among the asteroids there are groups that move in the orbit of Jupiter around the Sun, like his retinue. The Greek group (Achilles, Ajax, Odysseus and others) is ahead of Jupiter by 60 °. The Trojan group (Priam, Aeneas, Troilus and others) is 60° behind Jupiter. It is currently believed that the latter group contains about 700 asteroids.

Asteroids "prefer" to meet Jupiter less often, avoiding those orbits in which such encounters can occur regularly. Therefore, some areas of the asteroid belt are almost uninhabited - these are the so-called Kirkwood hatches. Avoiding encounters with Jupiter, some asteroids move in resonance with it, keeping their orbital periods in a simple ratio with the period of revolution of the giant planet. The simplest case of such a resonance with a period ratio of 1:1 is the Trojans. In 1866, the American astronomer Kirkwood discovered the existence of gaps in the distribution of the rotation periods of asteroids and in the distribution of the semi-major axes of their orbits. Kirkwood found that asteroids avoid those periods that are in a simple integer ratio to the period of Jupiter's revolution around the Sun, for example, 1:2, 1:3, 2:5, etc. Due to the gravitational influence of Jupiter, the asteroids change their orbit and leave this region of space.

However, asteroids are not only located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars - some of them are scattered throughout the solar system, and each planet probably has its own group of asteroids.

A study of the unnamed asteroid 3753, conducted by the Canadian astronomer Wigert, showed that this asteroid surprisingly accompanies the Earth: the average radius of its orbit is almost equal to that of the Earth, and therefore the periods of their revolution around the Sun almost coincide. Slowly, slowly, the asteroid is approaching the Earth, and having approached, slightly changes its orbit under the influence of the forces of Earth's gravity. If an asteroid lags behind the Earth, then it approaches it from the front, and the gravity of the Earth slows it down. From this, the size of the asteroid's orbit and the period of revolution along it are reduced, and it begins to outstrip the Earth, ending up behind it. Now the gravity of the Earth causes the asteroid to go more high orbit with a long period, and the initial situation is repeated. If the orbit of asteroid 3753 were close to circular, its trajectory relative to the Earth would resemble a horseshoe. But the large eccentricity (e = 0.515) and inclination (i = 20°) of the asteroid's orbit make its motion even more intricate. Being influenced not only by the Sun and the Earth, but also by all other planets, it cannot move steadily along a horseshoe-shaped orbit. Calculations show that 2500 years ago asteroid 3753 crossed the orbit of Mars, and about 8000 years ago it should cross the orbit of Venus; in this case, a transition under the influence of its gravity to a new orbit and even a collision with the planet is quite possible.

It is important for the inhabitants of the Earth to know the asteroids whose orbits are close to it. There are three families of asteroids (according to their typical representatives):

1221 Cupid; the orbit at perihelion almost touches the Earth;

1862 Apollo; the orbit at perihelion goes beyond the Earth's orbit;

2962 Aton; family cross the earth's orbit.

Some asteroids move in resonance with several planets at once. This was first seen in the motion of the asteroid Toro. It makes 5 orbital revolutions in approximately the same time as the Earth - 8, Venus - 13. The perihelion of the asteroid Toro is located between the orbits of Venus and the Earth. Another asteroid, Amur, moves in resonance with Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter, making 3 of its revolutions in the same time during which Venus makes 13 revolutions, the Earth - 8 revolutions; resonance with Mars 12:17 and with Jupiter 9:2. Obviously, such a movement protects the asteroids from being captured by the planet's gravitational field and prolongs their life.

Many asteroids are beyond the orbit of Jupiter. In 1977, the asteroid 2060 Chiron was discovered, the orbit of which is as follows: perihelion inside the orbit of Saturn 8.51 AU, aphelion near the orbit of Uranus 19.9 AU. Chiron's orbital eccentricity is 0.384.

Near perihelion, Chiron develops a coma and a tail. However, the size and mass of Chiron is much larger than the size of ordinary comets. In ancient Greek mythology, Chiron is half-man, half-horse; cosmic Chiron is either an asteroid or a comet. Now such objects are called centaurs.

In 1992, even more distant objects were discovered, larger than 200 km, far beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. The total number of bodies in the Kuiper belt, according to experts, is several times greater than the number of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

In 1993, the Galileo interplanetary probe, flying past the asteroid 243 Ida, discovered a small satellite with a diameter of 1.5 km, called Dactyl, which revolves around 243 Ida at a distance of about 100 km. This was the first time a satellite was discovered around an asteroid. Then came a message from the Southern European Observatory in La Silla (Chile) about finding a second satellite, this time around the asteroid 3671 Dionysus. Currently, 7 asteroids are known to have small satellites.

Dionysus was included in the list of candidates for research, because it belongs to a special group of asteroids that periodically cross the Earth's orbit and have a chance to collide with our planet. The asteroid 1862 Apollo, discovered in 1934, became the prototype of this group, so all asteroids with such orbits are now referred to the Apollo group. Dionysus comes close to Earth once every 13 years. This is exactly what happened on July 6, 1997, when it passed at a distance of 17 million km from the Earth. By thermal radiation Dionysus, astronomers determined that its surface is very bright, well reflecting the sun's rays, and its diameter is about 1 km. Recall that the asteroid Ida, in which a satellite was first discovered, has a diameter of 50 km.

In 1992, the asteroid Tutatis passed at a distance of only 2.5 million km from the Earth. It turned out to be formed, as it were, by two blocks, the dimensions of which are 2 km and 3 km. Since then, the term has appeared: contact-double asteroids.

It is too early to talk about the origin of double, and possibly more complex asteroids. It is necessary to accumulate observational data. But one thing is clear: the more difficult space system, the more valuable information it carries about its origin and evolution.

Astronomers have already found more than a thousand asteroids crossing the Earth's orbit. Perhaps in the future, scientists will have to work hard to prevent a collision of any of them with our planet.

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Away from the Sun, comets look like very faint blurry bright spots, sometimes with a nucleus in the center. Most comets remain this way even near the Sun. Only a few comets become very bright and have tails near the Sun.

Comets are luminaries of insignificant mass compared to the scale of objects in the solar system.

Halley's comet is one of the periodic comets. Now many periodic comets are known with orbital periods from three (Encke's comet) to ten years. Their aphelia lie near the orbit of Jupiter. The approach of comets to the Earth and their future apparent path across the sky are calculated in advance with great accuracy. Along with this, comets are usually discovered from photographs, moving in very elongated orbits with long periods of revolution. We take their orbits for parabolas, although in reality they are. appear to be ellipses. It is not easy to distinguish them from each other, knowing only a small segment of the path of comets. Most of these unexpectedly appearing comets, like most periodic ones, do not have a tail and are visible only through a telescope. For example, in 1967, 14 comets were discovered, of which 4 were new, and 10 were already expected. About a thousand observed comets have been cataloged. When a comet is discovered, it is named after the scientist who discovered it.

Periodic comets have orbits slightly inclined to the plane of the ecliptic and with small eccentricities. For example, the Shwasmann-Wachmann comet moves even along an almost circular orbit, which differs little from the orbits of asteroids. Moreover, asteroids such as Icarus and Hermes have cometary rather than planetary (elongated) orbits. On the other hand, for the comet Shvasman-Wachmann and some other comets, the nebulous shell disappeared for a while and they became indistinguishable from asteroids. Therefore, there is some relationship between small asteroids and comets.

Asteroids are like rocky fragments that have been formed since the formation of the solar system approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists say that their homeland is located in the most remote region of the solar system. About 10,000 times further from the Sun than the asteroid belt itself. They are filled with ice and gases such as carbon dioxide and ammonia.

Asteroids are covered with ice, which contains many dark inclusions - nodules of iron, carbon-containing substances. Therefore, asteroids are often called comets or "dirty snowballs" or "frozen garbage dumps."

Asteroids revolve around the Sun in the area between the orbit of Mars and the orbit of Jupiter from pebbles, the size of a pebble or cobblestone, to minor planets. Their orbits mainly lie in the range from 254 to 598 million km from the Sun. In some places, there are practically no asteroids, and these gaps are called Kirkwood hatches. An asteroid that falls into such a zone is influenced by Jupiter's gravity and changes its orbit. In our solar system, this area is also called the Asteroid Belt or the Main Belt; apparently due to the accumulation of a large number of asteroids. Previously, astronomers believed that the asteroid belt is the remains of an unknown planet, the orbit of which ran between Mars and Jupiter and which collapsed as a result of a cosmic cataclysm. However, today it is said that Jupiter's gravity simply did not allow small bodies to coalesce into a planet during the formation of the solar system.

These comets or asteroids, in turn, are very different in size from Ceres. Ceres is generally, roughly speaking, a rock in space, which is only 970 km in diameter! It was discovered in 1801. That's one quarter of the moon's diameter! There are already over 90,000 numbered asteroids.

It is also known that asteroids and comets can go out of their orbits.

An asteroid can head towards the Sun or Earth as a result of a collision with another body or under the influence of Jupiter's crazy gravity. The attraction of stars often affects the orbits of comets, changing them in different ways. For example asteroids may be the captured Mars moons Phobos and Deimos. Scientists believe that stray asteroids or fragments of asteroids once crashed into the Earth, thereby playing leading role and in change geological history planet and in the development of life on it. It is established that the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago was associated with a devastating impact that occurred near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

An asteroid is a relatively small, rocky cosmic body, similar to a planet in the solar system. Many asteroids revolve around the Sun, and their largest cluster is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is called the asteroid belt. Here, is the largest of the known asteroids - Ceres. Its dimensions are 970x940 km, i.e., almost rounded. But there are those whose sizes are comparable to dust particles. Asteroids, like comets, are the remains of the substance from which our planet was formed billions of years ago. solar system.

Scientists suggest that in our galaxy you can find more than half a million asteroids with a diameter of more than 1.5 kilometers. Recent studies have shown that meteorites and asteroids have a similar composition, so asteroids may well be the bodies from which meteorites are formed.

Exploring asteroids

The study of asteroids dates back to 1781, after William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus to the world. At the end of the 18th century, F. Xaver gathered a group of famous astronomers who were looking for a planet. According to Xaver's calculations, it should have been between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At first, the search did not give any results, but in 1801, the first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered. But its discoverer was the Italian astronomer Piazzi, who was not even part of the Xaver group. In the next few years, three more asteroids were discovered: Pallas, Vesta and Juno, and then the search stopped. Only 30 years later, Karl Ludovik Henke, who showed interest in the study of the starry sky, resumed their search. Since that period, astronomers have discovered at least one asteroid a year.

Characteristics of asteroids

Asteroids are classified according to the spectrum of reflected sunlight: 75% of them are very dark carbonaceous asteroids of class C, 15% are grayish-siliceous class S, and the remaining 10% are metallic class M and several other rare species.

The irregular shape of the asteroids is also confirmed by the fact that their brightness decreases quite rapidly with increasing phase angle. Due to the large distance from the Earth and their small size, it is rather problematic to obtain more accurate data on asteroids. The force of gravity on an asteroid is so small that it is not able to give them a spherical shape characteristic of all planets. This gravity allows broken asteroids to exist as separate blocks that are held close to each other without touching. Therefore, only large asteroids, which avoided collisions with medium-sized bodies, can retain the spherical shape acquired during the formation of the planets.

Asteroids of the Main Belt move in stable orbits, close to circular or slightly eccentric. They are in the "safe" zone, where the gravitational influence of the large planets on them is minimal, in the first place, Jupiter. It is believed that it is Jupiter that is “to blame” for the fact that a large planet could not form on the site of the Main Asteroid Belt during the youth of the solar system.

However, at the beginning of the 20th century many scientists believed that between Jupiter and Mars there used to be a large planet, which for some reason collapsed. Olbers was the first to express this hypothesis, immediately after his discovery of Pallas. He also suggested calling the hypothetical planet Phaeton. However, modern cosmogony has abandoned the idea of ​​the destruction of a large planet: the asteroid belt probably always contained many small bodies, which were prevented from uniting by the influence of Jupiter.

This giant still continues to play a primary role in the evolution of asteroid orbits. Its long-term (more than 4 billion years) gravitational influence on the asteroids of the Main Belt led to the emergence of a number of "forbidden" orbits and even zones in which there are practically no small bodies, and if they get there, they cannot stay there for a long time . These zones are called Kirkwood gaps (or hatches) after Daniel Kirkwood (1814-1895), who first discovered them in the distribution of the orbital periods of just a few dozen asteroids.

Orbits in Kirkwood hatches are called resonant, since the asteroids moving along them experience regular gravitational perturbation from Jupiter at the same points of their orbit. The periods of revolution in these orbits are in simple ratio with the period of revolution of Jupiter (for example, 1:2, 3:7, 2:5, 1:3). If any asteroid, for example, as a result of a collision with another body, enters a resonant orbit, then its eccentricity and semi-major axis rapidly change under the influence of gravitational field Jupiter. The asteroid is leaving its resonant orbit and may even leave the Main Belt. This is Kirkwood's permanent "clean-up" mechanism.

However, we note that if we depict the instantaneous distribution of all the asteroids of the Main Belt, then we will not see any “gaps”. At any given time, the asteroids fill the belt quite evenly, because, moving in elliptical orbits, they often cross the “forbidden zones”.

There is another, opposite, example of the gravitational influence of Jupiter: outer border The main asteroid belt has two narrow "zones" containing an excess number of asteroids. The periods of revolution in them are in proportions of 2:3 and 1:1 with the period of revolution of Jupiter. It is clear that the 1:1 resonance means that the asteroids are moving almost in the orbit of Jupiter. But they do not approach the giant planet, but keep a distance, on average, equal to the radius of Jupiter's orbit. These asteroids were named after the heroes of the Trojan War. Those of them that are ahead of Jupiter in their orbit are called "Greeks", and the lagging group is called "Trojans" (both groups together are often called "Trojans"). The movement of these small bodies occurs in the vicinity of the "triangular Lagrange points", where gravitational and centrifugal forces are equalized during circular motion. It is important that with a small deviation from the equilibrium position, forces arise that tend to return the object to its place, i.e. its movement is steady.