Super Military Scientist

Chapter 1815 Ceres

It can be said that Ceres may be more famous than Vesta Juno and Zhisheng. Anyone who has gone to school should have heard of this asteroid.

After hearing what his son said, Zhao Zhongyao happily said, ‘Go, let’s set off for Ceres. ’

After speaking, Zhao Zhongyao flew to Ceres with the spacecraft.

There is a distance of hundreds of millions of kilometers from Zhi Shen to Ceres. However, for a very fast flying saucer spacecraft, this distance is nothing. The UFO spacecraft can fly to Ceres in less than an hour at the fastest speed.

During the flight to Ceres, Feifei wanted Dad to explain to them about this Ceres.

After all, this Ceres is too famous. It can be said that Ceres is definitely ranked first among all asteroids in the solar system.

Although everyone has heard of this asteroid, not many people know this asteroid very well. Everyone has only heard of this very large asteroid.

After hearing Feifei’s words, Zhao Zhongyao said, ‘Okay, about this Ceres, there’s really no end to the topic, this asteroid. In fact, it is the most amazing asteroid. First of all, he is no longer an asteroid. Ceres is now classified as a dwarf planet. Because he is in an asteroid, it is too big. But among the dwarf planets, it is the smallest. Therefore, Ceres is a very special asteroid between an asteroid and a dwarf planet. ’

After hearing what Zhao Zhongyao said, Feifei said again, ‘Dad, do you know this Ceres very well? Tell us more about this Ceres. ’

After hearing what his son said, Zhao Zhongyao smiled and said, ‘Okay, I will explain to you some knowledge about this Ceres in detail. ’

Next, Zhao Zhongyao talked about some knowledge about Ceres.

Ceres is the smallest and only dwarf planet in the solar system in the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Italian astronomer Piazzi and announced on January 1, 1801. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union redefined Ceres as a dwarf planet. Ceres was once considered to be the largest known asteroid in the solar system.

Ceres is likely to be a differentiated planet with a rocky core and a large amount of ice and water in the mantle layer. A large number of water-carrying minerals have been detected on the surface of the planet. It is preliminary speculated that water accounts for 40% of the volume of Ceres. Ceres can also obtain energy from solar energy because it is only 2.8 astronomical units away from the sun. In contrast, Europa and Enceladus are far away at 5.2 and 9 astronomical units, respectively.

Ceres is located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and previous studies have confirmed that there is a large amount of ice inside. The European Aviation Agency reported in the journal Nature that they used the Herschel telescope to find water vapor on Ceres for the first time, which came from the darker areas of the surface of Ceres. The amount of water vapor is not large, about 6 kilograms per second, but this discovery is of great significance for confirming that there is water on Ceres. Researchers speculate that there may be two specific reasons for the emergence of water vapor: one is that the ice on the surface of Ceres is rapidly heated by the sun, and the other is that there is still energy inside Ceres. Scientists speculate that there may be an ocean of liquid water.

The existence of life requires three basic conditions-liquid water, energy sources and certain chemical components (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, etc.), and Ceres has a certain advantage. "

The classification of Ceres has been changed many times, and it is all caused by disagreements among astronomers. John Podder believes that Ceres is the "missing planet" between Mars and Jupiter, 419 million kilometers (2.8 AU) from the sun. Ceres was given the symbol of a planet. Before more asteroids were discovered, Ceres (as well as Zhisu, Juno, and Vesta) was listed as a planet in the astronomy book list for nearly half a century. .

However, when other celestial bodies were discovered in the same range one after another, people gradually realized that Ceres was just one of many similar types of celestial bodies. William Herschel created the term asteroid (a celestial body similar to a star) in 1802 to refer to this kind of celestial body, and wrote, "It is so indistinguishable from the stars, and the best telescope would be considered an asteroid. ". As the first asteroid to be discovered, it was listed as asteroid 1 Ceres by the modern asteroid numbering system.

In 2006, the debate about whether Pluto is a "planet" raised the question of whether Ceres should also be reclassified as a planet.

Before the International Astronomical Union officially defined a planet, a planet was defined as "a celestial body conforms to: (a) It has enough mass to overcome rigid body forces with its own gravity, so it can assume a hydrostatically balanced shape (close to a sphere) ); (b) It revolves around a star in orbit and is not a planet or a planet’s satellite”. According to this definition, Ceres will be the fifth planet in order from the inner solar system.

However, this definition was not accepted, and a new definition came into effect on August 24, 2006: "A planet meets (a) and (b), and celestial bodies in adjacent orbits must be eliminated."

According to this definition, Ceres is not a planet (because its orbit in the asteroid belt is full of thousands of asteroids), and is classified as a "dwarf planet" (also Pluto and Eris) , But did not say whether it is still an asteroid problem. In astronomy, there are also celestial bodies with dual identities like asteroid belt comets, so it is not ruled out that a dwarf planet can have other names.

Ceres is by far the largest celestial body in the asteroid belt, but with the discovery of the Kaiber Belt and its celestial bodies, celestial bodies larger than Ceres have also been found, including (28978) asteroids, (50,000 quair stars), small Planets and 2003UB313 (Eris), and the newly discovered farthest celestial body (90377) Sedna (Sedna) may also be larger than Ceres, it may come from the inner layer of the Otter cloud. Pluto is sometimes referred to as a Kappa belt object.

Ceres may be a surviving protoplanet (a budding planet) that formed in the asteroid belt 4.57 billion years ago. Although most of the protoplanets in the inner solar system include all (Moon-Mars-sized celestial bodies) either merged with other protoplanets to form terrestrial planets or were ejected out of the solar system by Jupiter, Ceres is believed to have survived more intact (the other It may be that the protoplanet is Vesta, which is smaller in size and suffered a major impact after solidification, losing ~1% of its mass). An alternative theory is that Ceres formed in the Cooper belt, later Just migrated to the asteroid belt.

The geological evolution of Ceres depends on the heat sources available during and after its formation: friction from MSI accretion, various radioactive elements, which may include short half-life elements (such as Al). These are believed to be sufficient to differentiate Ceres into a rock core and an icy earth letter shortly after its formation. This process may cause the surface to be reshaped by water volcanoes and geological structures, eliminating the ancient geological features.

Because of its small size, Ceres will cool down faster and effectively prevent the process that led to the early restructuring of the geological structure. Any ice on the surface will gradually sublimate, leaving behind various hydrated minerals, such as clay and carbonate. Today, Ceres seems to be a geologically inactive celestial body, and its surface may be affected by impacts.

A large amount of water ice exists in its composition, so there may be a layer of liquid water inside Ceres. This hypothetical layer may be called the ocean. If there is a layer of liquid water, I believe it will borrow between the core of the archaic body and the ice-earth envelope, just as it theoretically exists in the ocean of Europa. The presence of the ocean is more likely to dissolve solutes (ie, salt, ammonia, sulfuric acid or other antifreeze and other ingredients) in its water.

Several mysterious bright spots on the surface of Ceres may eject plumes of water vapor into space, suggesting that the dwarf planet has very active geological activities. NASA’s Dawn probe took some images when it was approaching Ceres. Scientists pointed out at the lunar and planetary science seminar that the latest images showed that Ceres’ bright spots may be ice water material, which will provide important clues to reveal the hidden material under the surface of the planet. .

Dr. Andreas Nelsons of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany said: "This kind of plume changes during the day of Ceres. During the day, the plume becomes brighter. At dusk, The plume became dim, and into the evening, the plume disappeared completely."

The mysterious bright spots originally discovered by the Hubble telescope reappeared in the images taken by the Dawn probe recently. Although scientists speculate that these bright spots contain highly reflective ice and water substances, the Dawn probe has not yet fully observed it at close range. The latest data show that These bright spots are likely to be ice water.

At present, the brightest bright spot is called "Feature No. 5" by scientists. Photos taken at different times and angles during the day show that it is likely to be related to plume material. The area is located at the bottom of an 80-kilometer-diameter crater. Nasons said: "We think this bright spot is some kind of outgassing phenomenon, we need high-resolution image data to confirm."

Not everyone quickly accepts the preliminary plume explanation. Bill McKinnon of the University of Washington said that you have never seen a bright plume, frost and snow falling on the surface of Ceres, but we need further observation.

Ceres is large in size, round in shape and rich in water. It is a strange celestial body in the asteroid belt. Scientists guess that Ceres has subsurface oceans or frozen water layers. As a dwarf planet, it is more like a planet or ice. Satellites, not asteroids as previously understood by astronomers.

Zhao Zhongyao looked at everyone and explained the knowledge about this Ceres in detail, so that everyone had a more detailed understanding of this Ceres.

It’s just that after Zhao Zhongyao explained the knowledge to everyone, he looked at everyone and said, ‘Actually, this Ceres is not only very magical in itself, but even the discovery of it is also a magical thing. ’

After hearing what Zhao Zhongyao said, Feifei asked curiously, ‘Dad, what do you mean by this? What is magical about finding this Ceres. Didn't it happen by a certain astronomer? ’

After hearing Feifei’s words, Zhao Zhongyao said, ‘The magic of discovering this dwarf planet is that the credit for discovering this dwarf planet should be attributed to a mathematician. ’

After hearing what my dad said, Feifei said in a puzzled way, ‘how can it be attributed to a mathematician, the discovery of asteroids shouldn’t be the business of astronomers, but how it became a mathematician’s business. ’

Zhao smiled again and said, ‘An astronomer originally discovered this asteroid. But after he discovered it, he fell ill before he had time to observe it in detail. Then it can no longer be observed.

But when he recovered from his illness and wanted to observe again, he couldn't find this asteroid again. This astronomer is very upset because of this. I feel that I have a chance to discover an asteroid. But because of my illness, I missed such a good opportunity.

Later, when a mathematician heard about this incident, he had a whim. He was wondering whether he could use mathematical methods to calculate where the escaped asteroid went.

Therefore, after a lot of hard work, this mathematician developed a theory for calculating planetary orbits. He used this theory to calculate the orbit of this asteroid in only one hour.

This mathematician, after calculating, knew that this asteroid would appear in that piece of sky one day in the future.

So he told some astronomers the news. Among them was a German astronomer named Oberst who used an astronomical telescope to observe the sky that the mathematician predicted.

Originally, this astronomer was just an amateur astronomer, and he didn't care much about the predictions of this mathematician. Just because I love astronomy, I observed it from the sky predicted by this mathematician.

Who knows, with his observation, a miracle appeared. This asteroid that people were looking for has once again appeared mysteriously. This time, people really discovered this asteroid. And named it Ceres.

This mathematician is actually the famous German mathematician Gauss. It is precisely because Gauss knows the orbit of this Ceres through calculations that this allows an astronomer to discover the trace of Ceres.

Therefore, mathematics is very important in astronomy. An excellent astronomer must be a mathematician. Because all astronomical discoveries rely on mathematical calculations.

In fact, this is not only true in astronomy, but also in many scientific fields.

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