The universe is so huge that astronomers have not yet been able to establish how big it is! However, thanks to the latest advances in science and technology, we have learned a lot about space and our place in it. In the last 50 years, people have had the opportunity to leave the Earth and study the stars and planets, not only watching them through telescopes, but also receiving information directly from space. The satellites that are being launched are equipped with sophisticated equipment that has made amazing discoveries that astronomers do not believe in, such as black holes and new planets.
Since the launch of the first artificial satellite into outer space in October 1957, many satellites and robotic probes have been sent outside our planet. Thanks to them, scientists "visited" almost all major solar system planets. Such launches are carried out constantly, and nowadays the new generation of probes continue their flight to other planets, extracting and transmitting all the information to the Earth. Some missiles are designed to reach only the upper atmosphere and are not fast enough to go into space. To go beyond the atmosphere, the rocket must overcome the Earth"s gravitational force, which requires a certain speed. If the missile has a speed of 28, 500 km/h, it will fly at an acceleration equal to gravity. As a result, it will fly around the Earth in a circle. In order to fully overcome the gravity of the Earth"s gravity, the missile must move at a speed greater than 40, 320 km/h. Once in orbit, some spacecraft, using gravity energy from the Earth and other planets, can thereby increase their own speed for further breakthroughs into space.
TO THE BOUNDARIES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Satellites and space probes have been launched repeatedly to the inner planets. Some of the probes are still flying near the boundaries of the solar system and will be sending information to Earth until 2020, and some have already left the solar system.
MOONLIGHT FLYOVERS
The moon, the closest to us, has always been and remains a very attractive object for scientific research. Since we always see only the part of the Moon that is illuminated by the Sun, the invisible part of it has also been of particular interest to us. The first overflight of the Moon and photographing of its backside were carried out by the Soviet automatic interplanetary station "Luna-3" in 1959. If not long ago scientists simply dreamed of flying to the Moon, today their plans go much further: the earthlings consider this planet as a source of valuable rocks and minerals. And now, on July 21, 1969, the leg of the first man stepped on the Silver Planet. It was Neil Armstrong, commander of the American spacecraft Apollo 11, and Edwin Aldrin. Astronauts collected samples of lunar rock, conducted a number of experiments over it, the data on which continued to arrive on Earth for a long time after their return. Two expeditions on Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 spacecraft allowed us to accumulate some information about human behavior on the Moon. The created protective equipment helped the astronauts to live and work in conditions of hostile vacuum and abnormal temperatures. The lunar attraction turned out to be very favorable for the work of astronauts, who found neither physical nor psychological difficulties. Although the man has been on the Moon many times already, he has not found any life there. But interest in the question of the Moon"s population (if not in the present, then in the past) is growing and is being warmed up by various reports of Russian and American researchers.
For example, the discovery of ice at the bottom of one of the lunar craters. Other materials on this topic are also published. One can refer to a note by Albert Valentinov (a scientific observer for Rossiyskaya Gazeta) in her May 16, 1997 issue. It tells about the secret photos of the lunar surface stored behind seven seals in the Pentagon"s safes. The published photos show the destroyed cities near the Ukert crater (the image itself is made from satellite). One of the first discoveries made during the analysis of lunar rocks was among the most important: rocks from dark lunar seas are generally similar to the earth"s basalts. This shows that the Moon was not always cold; most likely, it was once hot enough to form magma (molten rock) that crystallized into basalts once it was poured out to the surface. Significant differences between lunar and terrestrial rocks were also found. At present, experts are almost unanimously in favor of the idea that the Moon was formed approximately where it is now. Its formation was part of the Earth formation process.