30 Mindblowing Facts About the Solar System
The ozone layer is healing. In order to understand why this is important, let's recap what we know about ozone. Imagine you have a precious crystal ball, and this ball is what keeps you safe from harmful rays that come from the sun. But one day, you notice that your crystal ball is getting thinner and thinner. You realize that if it keeps getting thinner, it won't be able to protect you from the sun's rays anymore. This is what happened to our atmosphere in the 1970s and 80s. Scientists in Antarctica discovered that our protective layer, the ozone layer, was getting thinner every year. And by the mid-1980s, they realized that the ozone layer was in danger of disappearing completely.
The ozone layer is like our planet's sunscreen. It protects us from the sun's harmful rays. But there was a chemical called chlorofluorocarbons that we used to use a lot in things like refrigerators and aerosol sprays. These chemicals were like little holes in our sunscreen, letting in too much of the sun's rays. So, people all over the world came together to ban these chemicals and save our ozone layer. Now, fast forward to the present day. Because of the hard work and dedication of people worldwide, the ozone layer is slowly but surely starting to recover. In fact, a recent report found that we're on track to have a fully recovered ozone layer within four decades! This is all thanks to the international treaty that banned the use of chlorofluorocarbons. Just like how we need to take care of our bodies by using sunscreen, we also need to take care of our planet. And just like how it takes time for a sunburn to heal, it takes time for our ozone layer to heal too. But if we keep doing our part and taking care of our planet, we can ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the same protection from the sun's harmful rays that we do today.
29. A Scientist was Buried on the Moon
There could have been no finer tribute to the legendary planetary geologist Levy Shoemaker who said his greatest unfulfilled dream was to go on the moon. His ashes were launched aboard the Lunar Prospector probe to the moon, enclosed in a special capsule that is a mere one and three-quarters inches long and seventh-tenths inch in diameter. This capsule was then wrapped in a piece of brass foil on which is inscribed an image of comet Halebopp, Meteor Crater in Arizona, and a passage from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Shoemaker was best known for his expertise on extraterrestrial impacts and his discovery of comets with his wife, Carolyn. He was a distinguished scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he established their astrogeology branch.
This tribute was proposed by planetary scientist Carolyn C. Porco, who was a student of Shoemaker's at Caltech. She designed and crafted the inscriptions on the brass foil, including the passage from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", which speaks of taking someone's great soul and turning it into "little stars" so that "the face of heaven" appears as if made of these stars. This metaphor gave Porco the inspiration to send Shoemaker's ashes to the moon, where he can become a part of the celestial body that he so deeply loved. The scientist had always desired to explore the moon as an Apollo astronaut and study its geology firsthand. Unfortunately, health issues prevented him from doing so. He continued his lunar research by training the Apollo astronauts in lunar geology and impact cratering, and he even provided geologic commentary during their moon walks. He played a significant role in the pre-Apollo Lunar Ranger and Surveyor programs, and he was science-team leader on the 1994 Clementine mission. And what about you? Would you like to be buried on the moon? Or would you prefer your body to chill on Earth for eternity? One thing is sure: it must feel really lonely to be the only person buried on the moon.
28. Curiosity Sang Happy Birthday to Itself
But perhaps what's even sadder is to be alive, wandering alone on the surface of Mars on your own birthday. Unfortunately, this is what the poor Curiosity rover witnesses every year. Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012. It was born on Mars that day, and so scientists consider that day as its birthday. Curiosity employs an instrument, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), that runs some great science experiments on Mars, analyzing some soil samples. To make the soil samples go down, scientists had to program SAM to vibrate at various frequencies. When they introduce a sample into SAM, it goes through resonance and produces a sound.
We have never been to Triton, the largest moon of Neptune. Triton is a strange and mysterious moon that scientists have never visited. It's a shame because there's so much we could learn from this fascinating world. It is one of the coldest objects in the solar system, with temperatures hovering around 235 degrees Celsius. It's also one of the few moons in the solar system that orbits its planet in a retrograde motion, meaning it travels in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. So why haven't we been to Triton yet? There are a few reasons.
First of all, Triton is really far away from Earth - it's over 4 billion kilometers away, which makes it one of the hardest places in the solar system to reach.
Second, Triton is covered in ice, which makes it difficult to land a spacecraft on the surface.
Finally, the extreme cold on Triton means that any spacecraft we send there will have to be specially designed to withstand those temperatures.
Despite these challenges, scientists are developing mission concepts to send a spacecraft to Triton. One such concept is the Triton Hopper, which would use a lander equipped with a hopping mechanism to explore Triton's surface. Another idea is the Trident mission, which would send a spacecraft to orbit Triton and study its atmosphere, surface, and interior.
One of the main reasons why we want to explore Triton is to search for signs of life. While it's unlikely that we'll find living organisms on the frozen moon, there may be evidence of past or present life in the form of organic molecules. There's also the possibility that Triton's subsurface ocean could harbor life, similar to what we've found on Jupiter's moon Europa.
In addition to its potential for finding life, Triton could provide valuable information about the formation and evolution of the solar system. As a moon that was likely captured by Neptune, Triton may hold clues about the early history of our solar system and how it came to be.
In conclusion, Triton remains one of the most intriguing and mysterious places in the solar system. While the challenges of exploring this frozen moon are significant, the potential rewards are enormous. Scientists are working hard to develop mission concepts that will allow us to finally visit Triton and unlock its secrets.
But hey, let me tell you a secret: Triton is not the only interesting moon in the solar system. In fact, Jupiter's moon Europa has liquid water oceans. This moon has always been a mystery with its icy surface hiding an unimaginable world beneath. Scientists have been studying this moon since the first hints of liquid water were found during the Voyager mission in 1979, and today they are more confident than ever about the presence of a vast and deep ocean lying beneath the thick ice shell.
Europa's ocean is a true enigma - it is unfathomably deep, wider than the Earth's diameter, and may contain twice as much water as all the oceans on our planet combined. With such an abundance of water, many believe that Europa is the most promising place to look for extraterrestrial life.
Recently, scientists have detected thin plumes of water vapor being ejected into space from Europa's surface, which could be a gamechanger in the search for life. If these plumes are linked to the moon's ocean, a spacecraft could travel through them, sample the water and analyze it from orbit. Even if Europa's ocean is not ejecting samples, it is possible that the ocean's material could get frozen into the base of the moon's ice shell. As the ice shell flexes from tidal forces, the ocean samples could rise to the surface, allowing a spacecraft to study them remotely.
Europa is not the only icy moon in our solar system, but it is a unique world in its own right. While Enceladus, Saturn's moon, also has an ocean spraying into space, it is much smaller than Europa and its ocean is not as deep. Europa's ocean is vast and mysterious, like staring into the depths of the unknown. Studying Europa's ocean is like peeling an onion - each layer reveals something new and unexpected. It is a journey of discovery, where the ultimate goal is to find the truth about the possibility of life beyond our planet.
With technology advancing at a rapid pace, and with the Juice mission waiting to be launched, we may soon have a chance to unlock the secrets of Europa's ocean and unravel the mysteries of the solar system.
Europa might be hiding some secrets, but what about its huge gaseous planet? Astronomers found out that, in the past, Jupiter liked to run towards the sun and back, in a process that's now known as planetary migration.
