5 mysteries of the solar system that science still can't explain

1. Why is there a giant hexagon sticking out at Saturn's pole?

Most atmospheric planets have winds and cyclones, but the gas giants are the most impressive. AND mysterious. For example, a huge cyclone rotates at the north pole of SaturnK. H. Baines. Saturn's north polar cyclone and hexagon at depth revealed by Cassini/VIMS / Planetary and Space Science 300 km high. But unlike normal, self-respecting round hurricanes, Saturnian has a hexagonal shape. And no one can understand why.

Each side of Saturn's hexagon is 14,500 km long and could easily fit our entire Earth into it. But it's better not to.

Saturn is not the only gas giant with this strange weather phenomenon. For example, around the poles Jupiter constantly ariseWeird Cyclones on Jupiter Form Geometric Shapes — But Why? /Space smaller, but more numerous, hexagonal honeycomb-like storms.

Several hypotheses have been put forward as to why this might be happening. There is a possibility that because of the interaction of cyclones and anticyclones. Or the magnetic fields of the giant planets affect the winds in a different way than we previously assumed. But until now, the mechanism of the appearance of giant hexagons is unclear.

2. Why does Uranus rotate incorrectly?

All decent planets rotate around their axis like tops. Some are faster, others are slower, but in general things are quite predictable. But not in the case of Uranus: it spinsJ. T. Bergstralh. Uranus at an angle of 99° to the plane of its orbit, so that it resembles a rolling ball.

No other planet in our system behaves like this.

This is usually attributed to the fact that during the formation of the solar system, Uranus collided with some other protoplanet and was knocked over. However, this theory does not explain why none of its many moons have the same inclined orbit.

It is also possible that once Uranus rotated as usual, and then it was shaken and gradually tilted by some large satellite, which subsequently flew into the depths. space and got lost.

Or maybe there is another option, but scientists have yet to find it. But it won't be easyJ. T. Bergstralh. Uranus: Uranus is far away, and the last person to visit it was Voyager 2 in 1986.

Because of the rotation angle confusion, scientists are also not quite sure which pole of Uranus to call north and which south.

3. Why is one of Saturn's moons shaped like a walnut?

Saturn has a lot of satellites, and among them there are a lot of remarkable celestial bodies. One of these is Iapetus, which consists of water ice. It is the most distant in the Saturn system and is divided into two hemispheres: black, like soot, and white, shining like fresh snow.

The most important attraction of Iapetus is a huge mountain rangeMystery of Saturn's Walnut Moon Cracked? /Spacelocated almost exactly on the equator. Supreme its point reaches 20 km, which is more than twice the height of Everest.

A long ridge actually divides the entire satellite in two, which is why Iapetus resembles a walnut.

It is still not clear why he looks like this. Assumptions are madeW. H. IP. On a ring origin of the equatorial ridge of Iapetus / Geophysical Research Lettersthat once Iapetus had a moon (a satellite of a satellite is great!), Which fell on him and formed a ridge.

Another theory is that Iapetus once had rings (the rings of the planet's satellite with rings are even cooler!), And then they collapsed and created these mountains. Or is the ridge formed naturally from ice and looks more like a wall from Game of Thrones than ordinary mountains? For now, we can only speculate.

4. Why does Neptune radiate more heat than it receives from the Sun?

Neptune is the farthest from sun planet in our system. Say it's cold out thereG. F. Lindal. The Atmosphere of Neptune: an Analysis of Radio Occultation Data Acquired with Voyager 2 / Astronomical Journalmeans to say nothing. The temperature in the upper layers of its atmosphere is −221.3 °C.

Despite this, winds and hurricanes rage on Neptune, which can only be explained by the presence of an internal source of thermal energy. And in fact, the ice giant, despite the name, manages to emit heat - 2.6 times more than it receives from the sun's rays.

Scientists don't know exactly where Neptune's internal energy comes from.

Perhaps in the bowels of the planet there isJ. I. Lunin. The Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune / Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics some radioactive substances that heat it up. Or Neptune is affected by some unaccounted for interaction of gravitational waves and the atmosphere above the tropopause.

But the coolest theoryS. Scandolo, R. Jeanloz. The Centers of Planets / American Scientist says that hydrocarbons are produced from methane in the upper atmosphere, which then turn into diamonds under pressure. Rain from them all the time falls into the lower dense layers of the atmosphere planets, and the friction of precipitation creates heat.

But for now, we cannot look into the bowels of Neptune.

5. Did the sun ever have a twin star

On the Internet, you can find theories that every 26 million years a mass extinction occurs on our planet.

It allegedly happens because a second star, Nemesis, dangles on the outskirts of the solar system. A dim brown dwarf that sends radioactive rays, asteroids and other misfortunes to Earth. We already mentioned about this myth and told that there is nothing similar in our system.

But this does not mean that our luminary could not have had a companion star earlier.

A group of astrophysicists at Harvard have studiedThe sun may have a long-lost twin / Live Science the structure of the Oort Cloud - many small cosmic bodies flying on distant borders solar system. And I found that its "population" is much more numerous than one would expect.

Scientists have suggested that the Sun could hardly have attracted so many rocky and icy debris alone. And so, billions of years ago, even at the dawn of the formation of the system, our star could have a luminary companion.

Paired and even triple stars in space are not uncommon. Moreover, they are extremely common. It is likely that the Sun was born as a binary star from a dense molecular cloud, and then the gravitational influence of passing luminaries threw the nameless twin away into the depths space. This would well explain some features of the structure of our system.

Astrophysicists have calculatedA. Sirai, A. Loeb. The Case for an Early Solar Binary Companion / The Astrophysical Journal Lettersthat the twin star was almost the same mass as the Sun and orbited at a distance of 1,000 astronomical units from it. But 4.5 billion years have passed since we parted ways. The sun managed to make at least a dozen revolutions around the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and all the orbits were mixed up so that the former neighbor could no longer be found.

By the way, if you looked from the surface Earth on that star, when it was still with us, it would not have seemed to you a second Sun, but rather a bright point. Approximately so now Jupiter is visible in the evening.