The scariest things in space. Black hole, Pulsar, comets and asteroids: the most dangerous and beautiful places in the Universe The most cruel places in the Universe

The Boomerang Nebula is located in the constellation Centaurus at a distance of 5000 light years from Earth. The nebula's temperature is −272 °C, making it the coldest known place in the Universe.

Keith Taylor and Mike Scarrott named the object the Boomerang Nebula in 1980 after observing it with the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. The sensitivity of the instrument made it possible to detect only a small asymmetry in the lobes of the nebula, which gave rise to the assumption of a curved shape, like a boomerang.

The Boomerang Nebula was photographed in detail by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998, after which it was realized that the nebula was shaped like a bow tie, but this name had already been taken.

R136a1 lies 165,000 light-years from Earth in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This blue hypergiant is the most massive star known to science. The star is also one of the brightest, emitting up to 10 million times more light than the Sun.

The star's mass is 265 solar masses, and its formation mass was more than 320. R136a1 was discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of Sheffield led by Paul Crowther on June 21, 2010.

The question of the origin of such supermassive stars still remains unclear: whether they were formed with such a mass initially, or whether they formed from several smaller stars.

Pictured from left to right: red dwarf, Sun, blue giant, and R136a1:

Ecology

Space is full of bizarre and even scary phenomena, from stars that suck the life out of their own kind to giant black holes that are billions of times larger and more massive than our Sun. Below are the scariest things in outer space.

The planet is a ghost

Many astronomers said that the huge planet Fomalhaut B had sunk into oblivion, but apparently it is alive again.

Back in 2008, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope announced the discovery of a huge planet orbiting the very bright star Fomalhaut, located just 25 light-years from Earth. Other researchers later questioned this discovery, saying that the scientists had actually discovered the giant dust cloud being imaged.

However, according to the latest data obtained from Hubble, the planet is being discovered again and again. Other experts are carefully studying the system surrounding the star, so the zombie planet may be buried more than once before a final verdict is made on this issue.

Zombie Stars

Some stars literally come back to life in brutal and dramatic ways. Astronomers classify these zombie stars as Type Ia supernovae, which produce huge and powerful explosions that send the stars' "innards" out into the universe.

Type Ia supernovae explode from binary systems that consist of at least one white dwarf—a tiny, superdense star that has stopped undergoing nuclear fusion. White dwarfs are "dead", but in this form they cannot remain in the binary system.

They can return to life, albeit briefly, in a giant supernova explosion, sucking the life out of their companion star or by merging with it.

Stars are vampires

Just like vampires in fiction, some stars manage to stay young by sucking the life force out of hapless victims. These vampire stars are known as "blue stragglers," and they "look" much younger than the neighbors with whom they were formed.

When they explode, the temperature is much higher and the color is “much bluer.” Scientists believe this is the case because they are sucking huge amounts of hydrogen from nearby stars.

Giant black holes

Black holes may seem like the stuff of science fiction - they are extremely dense, and their gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape if it gets close enough to them.

But these are very real objects that are quite common throughout the Universe. In fact, astronomers believe that supermassive black holes are at the center of most, if not all galaxies, including our Milky Way. Supermassive black holes are mind-boggling in size. Scientists recently discovered two black holes, each with the mass of 10 billion of our Suns.

Incomprehensible cosmic blackness

If you are afraid of the dark, then being in deep space is definitely not for you. It is a place of “utter blackness,” far removed from the comforting lights of home. Outer space is black, according to scientists, because it is empty.

Despite trillions of stars scattered throughout the cosmos, many molecules are at great distances from each other to interact and scatter.

Spiders and witch's brooms

The skies are populated with witches, glowing skulls and all-seeing eyes, in fact you can imagine any object. We see all of these forms in a diffuse collection of glowing gas and dust called nebulae that are scattered throughout the Universe.

The visual images that appear before us are examples of a special phenomenon in which the human brain recognizes the shapes of random images.

Killer asteroids

The phenomena listed in the previous paragraph may be creepy or take an abstract form, but they do not pose a threat to humanity. The same cannot be said about large asteroids that fly close to Earth.

Experts say that an asteroid 1 kilometer wide has the power to destroy our planet upon impact. And even an asteroid as small as 40 meters in size can cause serious harm if it hits a populated area.

The influence of an asteroid is one of the factors that affects life on Earth. It is likely that 65 million years ago it was an asteroid 10 kilometers in size that destroyed the dinosaurs. Fortunately for us, scientists are scanning celestial rocks, and there are ways to redirect dangerous space rocks away from Earth, if, of course, the danger is detected in time.

Active sun

The sun gives us life, but our star is not always so good. It experiences serious storms from time to time, which can have a potentially destructive effect on radio communications, satellite navigation and power grids.

Recently, such solar flares have been observed especially often, because the sun has entered its particularly active phase of the 11-year cycle. Researchers expect solar activity to peak in 2013.

The most terrible planets in the Universe are presented. Space exploration is a great adventure. Its mysteries have always fascinated us, and new discoveries will expand our knowledge of the Universe.

The most terrible planets in the Universe are presented. Space exploration is a great adventure. Its mysteries have always fascinated us, and new discoveries will expand our knowledge of the Universe. However, let this list serve as a warning to avid intergalactic travelers. The universe can also be a very scary place. Let's hope no one ever gets stuck in one of these ten worlds.

10. Carbon Planet

The ratio of oxygen to carbon on our planet is high. In fact, carbon makes up only 0.1% of our planet's mass (which is why carbon-based materials like diamonds and fossil fuels are so scarce). However, near the center of our galaxy, where there is much more carbon than oxygen, planets may have a completely different composition. This is where you can find what scientists call carbon planets. The sky of the carbon world in the morning would be anything but crystal clear and blue. Imagine a yellow haze with black clouds of soot. As you descend deeper into the atmosphere, you will notice seas of unrefined oil and tar. The surface of the planet seethes with stinking methane fumes and is covered with black mud. The weather forecast is also not encouraging: it is raining gasoline and bitumen (...throw away the cigarettes). However, there is a positive aspect to this oil hell. You probably already guessed which one. Where there is a lot of carbon, you can find a lot of diamonds.

On Neptune you can experience winds that reach such terrifying speeds that they can be compared to the blast of a jet engine. Neptune's winds are blowing frozen clouds of natural gas past the northern edge of the Great Dark Spot, an Earth-sized hurricane with wind speeds of 2,400 kilometers per hour. This is twice the speed required to break the sound barrier. Such strong winds are naturally far beyond what humans can withstand. A person who somehow ended up on Neptune would most likely be quickly torn to pieces and lost forever in these cruel and incessant winds. It remains a mystery where the energy that fuels the fastest planetary winds in the solar system comes from, given that Neptune is so far from the Sun, sometimes even further than Pluto, and that Neptune's internal temperature is quite low.

8. 51 Pegasus b (51 Pegasi b)

Nicknamed Bellerophon after the Greek hero who wielded the winged horse Pegasus, this giant gas planet is 150 times larger than Earth and is mostly made of hydrogen and helium. Bellerophon is roasted by his star to a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius. The star around which the planet revolves is 100 times closer to it than the Sun is to Earth. To begin with, this temperature causes the appearance of strong winds in the atmosphere. Hot air rises, and cold air, accordingly, goes down in its place, which generates winds reaching speeds of 1000 kilometers per hour. This heat also causes a lack of water evaporation. However, this does not mean that it does not rain here. We have come to the most important feature of Bellerophon. The highest temperatures allow the iron contained in the planet to evaporate. When iron vapors rise, they form clouds of iron, similar in nature to earthly clouds of water vapor. Just don't forget one important difference: when rain pours from these clouds, it will be red-hot liquid iron pouring directly onto the planet (...don't forget your umbrella).

COROT-3b is the densest and heaviest exoplanet known to date. It is approximately equal in size to Jupiter, but its mass is 20 times greater. Thus, COROT-3b is approximately 2 times denser than lead. The scale of pressure exerted on a person stranded on the surface of such a planet would be unimaginable. On a planet with the mass of 20 Jupiters, a person would weigh 50 times what they weigh on Earth. This means that an 80-kilogram man will weigh as much as 4 tons on COROT-3b! Such pressure will break a person's skeleton almost instantly - the same as if an elephant sits on his chest.

On Mars, in just a few hours a dust storm can form that will cover the surface of the entire planet in a few days. These are the largest and most violent dust storms in our entire solar system. Martian dust funnels easily exceed their terrestrial counterparts - they reach the height of Mount Everest, and winds rush through them at speeds of 300 kilometers per hour. Once formed, a dust storm can last for several months before completely disappearing. According to one theory, dust storms can reach such large sizes on Mars because dust particles absorb solar heat well and heat up the atmosphere around them. The heated air moves towards colder regions, thereby forming winds. Strong winds raise even more dust from the surface, which in turn heats the atmosphere, which causes even more wind to form and the circle continues again. Surprisingly, most dust storms on the planet begin their lives in a single impact crater. Hellas Planitia is the deepest crater in the Solar System. Temperatures at the bottom of the crater can be ten degrees higher than at the surface, and the crater is filled with a thick layer of dust. Differences in temperature cause the formation of wind, which picks up dust, and the storm begins its further journey across the planet.

In short, this planet is the hottest planet discovered so far. Its temperature, which provides such a title, is 2200 degrees Celsius, and the planet itself is in the closest orbit to its star, compared to all other worlds known to us. It goes without saying that everything known to man, including man himself, would instantly ignite in such an atmosphere. For comparison, the planet's surface is only twice as cold as the surface of our Sun and twice as hot as lava. The planet also orbits its star at incredible speeds. It travels its entire orbit, located just 3.4 million kilometers from the star, in one Earth day.

Jupiter's atmosphere is home to storms twice the size of Earth itself. These giants, in turn, are home to winds that reach speeds of 650 kilometers per hour and colossal lightning that is 100 times brighter than earthly lightning. Beneath this terrifying and dark atmosphere lies an ocean 40 kilometers deep, composed of liquid metallic hydrogen. Here on Earth, hydrogen is a colorless, transparent gas, but in the core of Jupiter, hydrogen turns into something that has never existed on our planet. On the outer layers of Jupiter, hydrogen is in a gas state, just like on Earth. But as you dive into the depths of Jupiter, the atmospheric pressure increases sharply. Over time, the pressure becomes so strong that it “squeezes” electrons out of the hydrogen atoms. Under such unusual conditions, hydrogen turns into a liquid metal that conducts electricity and heat. It also begins to reflect light like a mirror. Therefore, if a person were immersed in such hydrogen, and a giant lightning flashed above him, he would not even see it.

(Note that Pluto is no longer considered a planet) Don't be fooled by the image - this is not a winter's tale. Pluto is a very cold world where frozen nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane cover the planet's surface like snow for most of Pluto's year (equivalent to about 248 Earth years). These ices transform from white to pinkish-brown due to interaction with gamma rays from deep space and the distant Sun. On a clear day, the Sun provides Pluto with about the same amount of heat and light as the Moon does on a full moon. At Pluto's surface temperature (-228 to -238 degrees Celsius), the human body would freeze instantly.

Temperatures on the side of the planet facing its star are so high that they could melt rock. Scientists who simulated the atmosphere of COROT-7b believe that the planet most likely does not contain volatile gas (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen), and the planet consists of something that can be called molten mineral. In the atmosphere of COROT-7b, such weather phenomena are possible, during which (unlike terrestrial rains, when water droplets collect in the air) whole stones fall onto the surface of the planet covered with a lava ocean. If the planet still doesn't seem uninhabitable to you, it's also a volcanic nightmare. Some indications suggest that if COROT-7b's orbit is not perfectly round, the gravitational forces of one or two of its sister planets could push and pull on COROT's surface, creating a motion that heats up its interior. This heating could cause intense volcanic activity on the planet's surface—even more so than on Jupiter's moon Io, which has more than 400 active volcanoes.

Very little was known about Venus (its thick atmosphere does not allow visible light to pass through) until the Soviet Union launched the Venus program during the space race. When the first robotic interplanetary spacecraft successfully landed on Venus and began transmitting information to Earth, the Soviet Union achieved the only successful landing on the surface of Venus in human history. The surface of Venus is so volatile that the longest time one of the spacecraft survived was 127 minutes - after which the device was simultaneously crushed and melted. So what would life be like on the most dangerous planet in our solar system - Venus? Well, a person would almost instantly suffocate on the toxic air, and although the gravity on Venus is only 90% of that on Earth, the person would still be crushed by the enormous weight of the atmosphere. The pressure of the atmosphere of Venus is 100 times higher than the pressure to which we are accustomed.

Venus's atmosphere is 65 kilometers high and so thick that walking on the planet's surface would feel no different than walking 1 kilometer underwater on Earth. In addition to these “pleasures,” a person would quickly burst into flames due to a temperature of 475 degrees Celsius, and over time, even his remains would be dissolved by high concentration sulfuric acid falling as precipitation on the surface of Venus.

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This is incredible. We seem to know a lot about space, but in reality we know almost nothing about it. Considering the infinity of the Universe, our knowledge about it is simply scanty. Some things that we will tell you about some planets will not fit in your head. For example, is it possible to imagine ice not melting at a temperature of 440 degrees Celsius? What do you think of the planet made of diamonds? Impossible? An interesting site talks about the most terrible and incredible planets in the Universe.

This planet should not exist at all. Its size is almost twice the size of Earth. Unfortunately, astronomers have not yet been able to understand much about it; it is probably a rocky planet. But the speed of its rotation around the orbit is 8.5 hours, and the temperature on the surface is 2400 degrees Celsius.

The photograph taken by astronomers of this terrible planet (also called Kepler-1b) is quite impressive. Like any cosmic body, it should reflect the light of its star, but with the exception of a few bright spots, it is completely black. TrES-2b is called the darkest planet known in our Universe, reflecting less than 1 percent of the light. Scientists say that the gases surrounding this object absorb light. The temperature on its surface reaches more than 1000 degrees Celsius.

Another freak of the Universe is a planet orbiting GJ 436 and similar in size to Neptune. This icy celestial body is characterized by a temperature of 440 degrees Celsius. It sounds far-fetched, but it's true. The freezing of water occurs due to strong gravity, which is why the planet attracts all the water to itself, so intensely that the water has the density of ice and remains in a solid state.

This strange planet has an eye-pleasing blue color. Close in size to Jupiter, the planet is surrounded by an atmosphere filled with silicon particles. That is why it has this appearance, but do not delude yourself, silicon particles on the planet rush at the speed of the wind, that is, more than 6000 km/h.

This planet is very close to its star, so its year lasts 1.09 Earth days. The distance between them is more than 40 times less than between the Earth and the Moon. Planet WASP-12b will soon disappear from the Universe as it slowly falls towards its star.

Many women would probably like to be on this planet. But more on that later. 55 Cancri e is a binary system created by two dwarf stars. Looking at the picture, you might think that the planet is quite cold, but due to its proximity to the star, its temperature is 2700 degrees Celsius. Women will be delighted to learn that diamonds make up 30 percent of the mass of this celestial body.

This rocky planet does not have good conditions for life. Another object orbiting very close to its star. According to scientists, the temperature on it exceeds 2300 degrees Celsius! This is enough to melt rocks floating in space above the planet. When night falls over the planet, the temperature drops so much that molten rocks solidify and fall onto this celestial body in a rain of stones.

Just like GJ 436 b, this celestial body is also covered with hot ice. Enormous pressure does not allow ice to melt, even at a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius.


Our Universe holds many secrets, but thanks to modern telescopes, scientists are able to lift the veil of the unknown.

How many times on a warm summer evening have we raised our heads up and admired the flickering dots in the sky. How many times have you dreamed of being outside the Earth and seeing with your own eyes the frozen and beautiful Universe. It has been attracting people for thousands of years, forcing them to overcome gravity and make a breakthrough in scientific thinking.

The universe is beautiful. But she is not as sweet and safe as she seems at first glance.

The sun is our life and our death

The surface temperature of the Sun reaches five thousand degrees Celsius, and the temperature at its center can be more than tens of millions of degrees.

Loops of burning gas - a consequence of the planet's electrical activity - extend thousands of kilometers beyond the Sun. These prominences are not just a beautiful sight. They carry a huge amount of radiation into space, from which the Earth's magnetic field protects us.

The energy generated by one prominence is more than the energy of 10 million earthly volcanoes. And the planet Earth will easily pass through such a loop, leaving some free space.

If airlines ever agree to make interplanetary flights, those who wish to do so will have to fly to the Sun for 20 years.

The sun is our life and our death. Today, thanks to its energy, thousands of life forms thrive on our planet. But everything comes to an end someday. The sun will die, most likely becoming a white dwarf. Even if it does not consume our planet, then its light and heat will not be enough to support life on Earth.

Comets - deadly messengers of life

Scientists substantiate the theory according to which life on our planet originated thanks to comets. After all, where there is water, there is life. It is believed that the comets that crashed into the Earth during its formation brought with them water and biological material, which became the building base for all life on Earth.

But today comets are a threat to our existence. If one of them crashes into the Earth, life in all its forms could end forever.

Asteroids are insidious killers

An encounter with an asteroid can be fatal for the planet. Both small and large, they pose a threat to humanity. Large asteroids are easier to detect, but even if a cosmic body with a diameter of more than three kilometers crashes into the Earth, an entire civilization may perish.

Scientists suggest that this is how dinosaurs became extinct on Earth.

Supernova - death and rebirth

The death of a star is an extraordinary and very dangerous spectacle. The upper layers of the star and radiation are ejected into space for many millions of kilometers. Emissions of deadly particles would destroy all life in its path.

If the star explosion had been relatively close to the Earth, we would not have been able to survive the catastrophic consequences of radiation on living beings.

But in the Universe nothing is wasted. There is order in this chaos. During a supernova explosion, new chemical elements are formed. These particles are the building material for new life forms. Calcium in our bones, iron in our blood, air in our lungs - these are the elements of a once dead star, the death of which gave life to new forms of habitation.

Black hole - incredible gravitational force

According to many theories, there is no time, space or matter inside, and all the laws of physics cease to exist. Many people think that a black hole pulls in everything that gets in its way. But it is not so. There is a certain distance - the event horizon. If you get further beyond its boundaries, nothing will be able to escape from the deadly embrace of the black hole.

There is an assumption that our entire Galaxy may be inside a huge black hole. But to imagine this, imagination alone is not enough, and the mind may be shaken.

Pulsar - a cosmic mystery

Despite their size, pulsars have powerful energy. The radiation on the pulsar is greater than on the Sun.

The pulsar rotates incredibly fast - approximately 30 revolutions per second. It is incredibly dense. Just a teaspoon of the substance can weigh hundreds of millions of tons. The pulsar's magnetic field is several trillion times greater than that of Earth.

Nebulae - frozen music of the Universe

Nebulae are located at incredible distances from Earth - thousands of light years. This is so far away that it is difficult for our minds to imagine these numbers.

Quasars - chronicles of light years gone by

A quasar moves through space at incredible speeds - about 80% of the speed of light.

Quasars are a window into the past. After all, their light took millions of years to reach us. Perhaps some of them no longer exist.

The universe is beautiful. It fascinates with its secrets, power and scale. Who are we by cosmic standards? Not even ants or grains of sand.

Our solar system is located on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy, far from important events and breaking news. Even if she disappears in an instant, no one will notice.

But I really want to believe that humanity will be able to discover the secrets of space, find new worlds and remain in the history of our Universe.