Meteoric bodies or meteorites. The passage of cosmic rays through the earth's atmosphere
Walkthrough cosmic rays through the Earth's atmosphere
To the upper boundary of the Earth's atmosphere after long journey particles of primary cosmic radiation arrive. They have to overcome almost 1030 g/cm of matter to sea level (vertically), while in space their entire path was 5 g/cm 2. The Earth's atmosphere consists mainly of nitrogen (N 2 ~ 75.5% by mass), oxygen (O 2 ~ 23% by mass) and carbon dioxide. The density of the atmosphere at sea level is 0.0012 g/cm 3 .
At altitudes of the order of several tens of kilometers (~ 10 6 cm) from the Earth's surface, primary cosmic rays interact with the nuclei of air atoms. In these interactions various particles are born: pions - π, kaons K, nucleon-antinucleon pairs, hyperons, etc. As a rule, one of the secondary particles, of the same type as the primary one, receives, on average, about 50% of the initial energy (the so-called “leading” effect). Therefore, such a particle is able to interact several more times in the atmosphere. A primary nucleon with energy > 10 12 eV can experience up to a dozen such successive collisions with the nuclei of air atoms. The charged pions π± generated in these interactions then either decay or can themselves interact with the nuclei. The lifetime of charged pions is τ ~ 2∙10 -8 s, and they decay with the formation of a muon component and neutrinos:
.
Neutral pions π 0, due to their short lifetime τ ~ 10 −16 s, almost immediately decay into two gamma quanta, thereby giving rise to the electron-photon component (π 0 → ). Indeed, the energy received by this pair of quanta is much greater than the mass of the neutral pion π° (~ 135 MeV), and, therefore, for such γ-quanta the most likely process of interaction with the medium will be the formation of electron-positron pairs (e + e -) .
Electrons, in turn, due to bremsstrahlung on the nuclei of air atoms, again produce high-energy γ-quanta, i.e. again an e + e - pair, etc. Thus, an electron-photon cascade appears in the air.
So, we see that in the atmosphere, firstly, a cascade of nuclear-active particles (pions, kaons, nucleons, etc.) and, secondly, an electron-photon cascade develops due to the processes of bremsstrahlung and pair formation (Fig. 5.9).
However, the multiplication of particles in these cascades is limited by energy dissipation processes. For nuclear cascades on pions and kaons, such dissipative processes will be particle decays, as a result of which, instead of nuclear-active particles, nuclear-passive ones (muons and neutrinos) are born or, as in the case of the decay of a neutral pion, the energy will go into the electron-photon component. For example, for charged pions it can be shown that the decay process for them will become dominant when their energy reaches a certain critical value 
,
Where h- geometric length relative to nuclear interaction. Meaning E cr can be found from the condition of equality of geometric length h path length relative to the decay L decay:
,
but the pion energy E cr is equal to
,
,
where is the lifetime of a resting pion, and is the resting energy of the pion. For the lower atmosphere h~0.6 km and E cr~10 10 eV.
In the case of electron-photon cascades, energy dissipation occurs due to ionization losses of electrons and the Compton and photoelectric effects for photons. The development of electron-photon cascades continues until the ionization losses of an electron at one radiation length become equal to the energy E cr the particle itself. In air, the critical energy value is 81 MeV.
It was already mentioned above that as a result of the decay of charged pions, muons appear in the atmosphere. The muon is an unstable particle: its lifetime is ~2∙10 −6 s. μ − And μ + are a particle and an antiparticle. Their decay patterns are charge-conjugate: μ − decays into electron e − , muon neutrino and electron antineutrino . μ + decays into a positron e + , a muon antineutrino and an electron neutrino .
The mass and rest energy of the muon are respectively equal to m μ = 210m e and 105 MeV.
The maximum generation of muons occurs at a height of ~ 10-20 km. The main processes due to which muons are absorbed in the atmosphere are decay and ionization losses. Let's see how far a muon, having, for example, the energy E~ 2∙10 9 eV or speed βc (β ~ 1), i.e. we will find its decay range. The lifetime of such a muon is:
.
Now we see that only particles with the energy E> 2∙10 9 eV.
Muons lose on average about 2 MeV g−1 cm 2 to ionization in the atmosphere. In 30% of cases, so much energy is transferred to the electron that it itself turns into a fast particle. Such electrons are called δ-electrons. δ-electrons, having an energy of 10 3 -10 4 eV, can themselves experience ionization losses.
Due to their large mass, the radiation losses of muons in the air are small compared to the losses for electrons.
Indeed, the acceleration experienced during radiative braking by muons is m μ /m e, and energy emission - in (m μ /m e) 2 times less than the same values for electrons. Energy losses due to radiation will be:
Therefore, the energy E 0 , lost by a muon at one radiation length is ~ (200) 2 = 40,000 times less than what an electron loses at the same length.
Thus, the flux of high-energy muons is weakly absorbed in the atmosphere. Nuclear active particles are quickly absorbed into the atmosphere. Therefore, at sea level, secondary cosmic radiation consists mainly of muons (hard component), electrons and photons (soft component). The intensity of charged particles at sea level has the following values (for vertical flow):
J f = 0.82 ∙ 10 −2 cm −2 s −1 sr −1 ,
J m = 0.31 ∙ 10 −2 cm −2 s −1 sr −1 .
It should be noted that the composition of the hard component at different altitudes in the atmosphere is not the same. At sea level the hard component consists of muons, and at the upper boundary of the atmosphere it consists of protons and alpha particles.
At ultrahigh energies of the primary particle (E 0> 10 5 GeV) in the Earth's atmosphere, the number of its secondary descendants in nuclear and electron-photon cascades reaches 10 6 -10 9 particles. This phenomenon is called an extensive air shower (EAS). Particles from a wide air shower are detected by numerous and varied detectors located over an area of several square kilometers. Measuring the number of particles of different nature in a wide atmospheric shower, their energy and spatial characteristics, allows us to obtain information about the characteristics of primary particles and their interactions.
So, the presence of a rather thick layer of atmosphere near the Earth allows primary cosmic rays to experience multiple interactions and develop cascade processes, and is also the cause of the appearance of muons and extensive air showers. The main sources of secondary radiation in the atmosphere are:
1. For muons - the decay of charged pions.
2. For the electron-photon component:
- decay of neutral pions with subsequent formation of an electron-photon cascade;
- muon decay;
- production of δ-electrons by muons.
We now know that cosmic rays at sea level consist mainly of leptons - muons and electrons. The differences in the properties of electrons and muons are clearly visible when studying the absorption of these particles in dense media, for example, in lead. This was first observed in his experiments by B. Rossi.
Meteors and meteorites
A meteor is a particle of dust or fragments of cosmic bodies (comets or asteroids), which, when entering the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere from space, burn up, leaving behind a strip of light that we observe. A popular name for a meteor is a shooting star.
The Earth is constantly being bombarded by objects from space. They vary in size, from stones weighing several kilograms, to microscopic particles weighing less than a millionth of a gram. According to some experts, the Earth captures more than 200 million kg of various meteoric substances during the year. And about one million meteors flare up per day. Only a tenth of their mass reaches the surface in the form of meteorites and micrometeorites. The rest burns up in the atmosphere, giving rise to meteor trails.
Meteoric matter usually enters the atmosphere at a speed of about 15 km/sec. Although, depending on the direction in relation to the Earth's movement, the speed can range from 11 to 73 km/s. Medium-sized particles, heated by friction, evaporate, giving a flash of visible light at an altitude of about 120 km. Leaving a short-term trace of ionized gas and extinguishes to an altitude of about 70 km. The greater the mass of the meteor body, the brighter it flares. These traces, which last 10–15 minutes, can reflect radar signals. Therefore, radar techniques are used to detect meteors that are too faint to be observed visually (as well as meteors that appear in daylight).
No one observed this meteorite as it fell. Its cosmic nature has been established based on the study of matter. Such meteorites are called finds, and they make up about half of the world's meteorite collection. The other half are falls, “fresh” meteorites picked up shortly after they hit Earth. These include the Peekskill meteorite, with which our story about space aliens began. Falls are of greater interest to specialists than finds: some astronomical information can be collected about them, and their substance is not altered by terrestrial factors.
It is customary to name meteorites based on the geographical names of places adjacent to the place where they fell or were found. Most often this is the name of the nearest populated area (for example, Peekskill), but prominent meteorites are given more general names. The two biggest falls of the 20th century. occurred on the territory of Russia: Tunguska and Sikhote-Alin.
Meteorites are divided into three large classes: iron, stony and stony-iron. Iron meteorites are composed primarily of nickel iron. A natural alloy of iron and nickel does not occur in terrestrial rocks, so the presence of nickel in pieces of iron indicates its cosmic (or industrial!) origin.
Nickel iron inclusions are found in most stony meteorites, which is why space rocks tend to be heavier than terrestrial rocks. Their main minerals are silicates (olivines and pyroxenes). A characteristic feature of the main type of stony meteorites - chondrites - is the presence of round formations inside them - chondrules. Chondrites consist of the same substance as the rest of the meteorite, but stand out on its section in the form of individual grains. Their origin is not yet entirely clear.
The third class - stony-iron meteorites - are pieces of nickel iron interspersed with grains of stony materials.
In general, meteorites consist of the same elements as terrestrial rocks, but combinations of these elements, i.e. minerals may also be those that are not found on Earth. This is due to the peculiarities of the formation of bodies that gave birth to meteorites.
Among the falls, rocky meteorites predominate. This means that there are more such pieces flying in space. As for the finds, iron meteorites predominate here: they are stronger, better preserved in terrestrial conditions, and stand out more sharply against the background of terrestrial rocks.
Meteorites are fragments of small planets - asteroids that mainly inhabit the zone between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. There are many asteroids, they collide, fragment, change each other’s orbits, so that some fragments, in their movement, sometimes cross the Earth’s orbit. These fragments give rise to meteorites.
It is very difficult to organize instrumental observations of meteorite falls, with the help of which their orbits can be calculated with satisfactory accuracy: the phenomenon itself is very rare and unpredictable. In several cases this was done, and all orbits turned out to be typically asteroidal.
Astronomers' interest in meteorites was primarily due to the fact that for a long time they remained the only examples of extraterrestrial matter. But even today, when the substance of other planets and their satellites becomes available for laboratory research, meteorites have not lost their importance. The substance that makes up the large bodies of the Solar System underwent a long transformation: it melted, was divided into fractions, and solidified again, forming minerals that no longer had anything in common with the substance from which everything was formed. Meteorites are fragments of small bodies that have not gone through such a complex history. Some types of meteorites - carbonaceous chondrites - generally represent weakly altered primary matter of the Solar system. By studying it, experts will learn from what large bodies of the solar system were formed, including our planet Earth.
Meteor shower
The main part of meteoric matter in the Solar System revolves around the Sun in certain orbits. The orbital characteristics of meteor swarms can be calculated from observations of meteor trails. Using this method, it was shown that many meteor swarms have the same orbits as known comets. These particles can be distributed throughout the orbit or concentrated in separate clusters. In particular, a young meteor swarm can remain concentrated near the parent comet for a long time. When, while moving in orbit, the Earth crosses such a swarm, we observe a meteor shower in the sky. The perspective effect gives rise to the optical illusion that meteors, which are actually moving on parallel trajectories, appear to be emanating from a single point in the sky, which is commonly called the radiant. This illusion is the perspective effect. In reality, these meteors are generated by particles of matter entering the upper atmosphere along parallel trajectories. These are a great number of meteors observed over a limited period of time (usually a few hours or days). Many annual flows are known. Although only some of them generate meteor showers. The Earth very rarely encounters a particularly dense swarm of particles. And then an exceptionally strong shower could occur, with tens or hundreds of meteors every minute. Typically a good regular shower produces about 50 meteors per hour.
In addition to many regular meteor showers, sporadic meteors are also observed throughout the year. They can come from any direction.
Micrometeorite
This is a particle of meteorite material that is so small that it loses its energy even before it could ignite in the Earth's atmosphere. Micrometeorites fall to Earth as a shower of tiny dust particles. The amount of substance that falls on Earth annually in this form is estimated at 4 million kg. The particle size is usually less than 120 microns. Such particles can be collected during space experiments, and iron particles, due to their magnetic properties, can be detected on the surface of the Earth.
Origin of meteorites
The rarity and unpredictability of the appearance of meteorite material on Earth causes problems in its collection. Until now, meteorite collections have been enriched primarily by samples collected by random eyewitnesses of falls or simply curious people who paid attention to strange pieces of matter. As a rule, meteorites are melted on the outside, and their surface often bears a kind of frozen “ripple” - regmaglypts. Only in places where heavy meteorite showers fall does a targeted search for samples bring results. True, recently places of natural concentration of meteorites have been discovered, the most significant of them in Antarctica.
If there is information about a very bright fireball that could result in a meteorite fall, you should try to collect observations of this fireball by random eyewitnesses over the largest possible area. It is necessary for eyewitnesses from the observation site to show the path of the car in the sky. It is advisable to measure the horizontal coordinates (azimuth and altitude) of some points on this path (start and end). In this case, the simplest instruments are used: a compass and an eclimeter - a tool for measuring angular height (this is essentially a protractor with a plumb line fixed at its zero point). When such measurements are made at several points, they can be used to construct the atmospheric trajectory of the fireball, and then look for a meteorite near the projection on the ground of its lower end.
Collecting information about fallen meteorites and searching for their samples are exciting tasks for astronomy enthusiasts, but the very formulation of such tasks is largely associated with some luck, luck that is important not to miss. But observations of meteorites can be carried out systematically and bring tangible scientific results. Of course, professional astronomers armed with modern equipment also do this kind of work. For example, they have radars at their disposal, with the help of which meteors can be observed even during the day. And yet, properly organized amateur observations, which also do not require complex technical means, still play a certain role in meteorite astronomy.
Meteorites: falls and finds
It must be said that the scientific world until the end of the 18th century. was skeptical about the very possibility of stones and pieces of iron falling from the sky. Reports of such facts were considered by scientists as manifestations of superstition, because at that time no celestial bodies were known whose debris could fall on Earth. For example, the first asteroids - small planets - were discovered only at the beginning of the 19th century.
The first scientific work asserting the cosmic origin of meteorites appeared in 1794. Its author, the German physicist Ernst Chladni, was able to give a unified explanation for three mysterious phenomena: fireballs flying across the sky, melted pieces of iron and stone falling to Earth after flights, and the finds of strange melted objects. iron blocks in different places on Earth. According to Chladni, all this is connected with the arrival of cosmic matter on Earth.
By the way, one of these unusual iron blocks was a multi-pound “kritsa”, taken by Russian academician Peter Simon Pallas from Siberia and which laid the foundation for the national collection of meteorites in Russia. This iron block with grains of the mineral olivine included in it received the name “Pallas iron” and subsequently gave the name to a whole class of stony-iron meteorites - pallastites.
Antarctica
Although meteorites fall all over the globe, they most often end up in the oceans and sink to the bottom. But there are huge barren plains of blue ice on Earth, in eastern Antarctica. On these plains there are occasional pieces of rock.
Research of meteorite impact sites
A bright streak in the sky, recorded almost at dusk on August 13, 1999, is not a meteor flash, but a “sunbeam” from a satellite. This satellite, Iridium-52, is one of the Iridium family of digital communications satellites. The "flares" are caused by sunlight reflecting off smooth antennae.
One in 100,000 meteorites that fall to Earth is destructive. Over the past 200 years of observations, 23 meteorites hit homes in the United States, and 4 meteorites in the former USSR.
1511 Genoa (Italy). A meteor shower occurred during a solar eclipse. As a result, several fishermen and a priest were killed. 1684 Tobolsk (Russia). The dome of the church was pierced as a result of a meteorite falling. 1836 Brazil. A sheep is killed by a meteorite. 1911 Egypt. A dog was killed by a falling meteorite.
On November 12, 1982, in Wethersfield (Connecticut, USA), Robert and Wanda Donahue were sitting in front of the TV in the evening when a blow was heard in the hallway and the sound of crumbling plaster was heard. The elderly couple discovered a hole the size of a human head in the roof and ceiling of the house, and in the kitchen, under the table, a stone meteorite with a diameter of 13 cm and a mass of 2.7 kg. The scientists who arrived on call were not too lazy to even look into the vacuum cleaner with which the owners carried out the cleaning before the arrival of the guests. and found several meteorite fragments there. The meteorite ended up in the collection and was named “Donahue”.
On October 9, 1992, at 8 o'clock in the evening, a stone meteorite weighing 12.3 kg fell in Peekskill (New York, USA) onto the trunk of a car parked in the yard and the impact split into several parts, severely denting the trunk. The young owner of the car ran out to hear the noise. The meteorite was still warm. She informed the nearest university. A few hours later, scientists, collectors, museum staff, the press, representatives of Sotheby's auction, etc. gathered at the house. Scientists confirmed that it was a stone meteorite (chondrite) and the owner received $70,000 for it. So the stone falling from the sky was fortunate.
Chicxulub Crater
A large terrestrial impact crater on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, now largely hidden by sedimentary rocks. It is believed to be associated with an impact event that occurred 65 million years ago, which apparently caused the mass extinction of living creatures, including dinosaurs.
Goba meteorite
The largest known meteorite in the world. Its dimensions are 3x3x1 m. It belongs to the type of iron meteorite and weighs approximately 55,000 kg. It is still at the crash site in Namibia, where it was discovered in 1928. The meteorite is covered in a layer of rusty, eroded material; taking into account erosion, the initial mass of the meteorite should exceed 73,000 kg.
Sikhote-Alin rain
A large meteor shower that fell on February 12, 1947 in eastern Siberia. The largest meteorite found weighed 1,745 kg, but it is estimated that thousands of fragments fell to the surface of the Earth, weighing up to 100 tons. Most of them were not found.
Anihito
The largest meteorite in museums in the world. This iron meteorite was found by Robert Peary in Greenland in 1897. Weight - 31 tons. Exhibited at the Hayden Planetarium in New York.
Interesting stories
October 9, 1992 America lived in anticipation of Columbus Day: the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the New World by the great navigator was approaching. 18-year-old Michelle Knapp from the small town of Peekskill (New York) was watching TV in the evening. Suddenly she heard a loud noise on the street. The girl got scared and called the police, who found that this time the “intruder” was a space wanderer: next to the Napps’ damaged car lay a melted stone weighing almost 9 kg.
This case is the exception rather than the rule: stones or pieces of iron falling from the sky - they are called meteorites - behave surprisingly peacefully towards people. Only two cases have been reliably recorded
Town of Peekskill
When the Peekskill meteorite flew over the United States in 1992, 16 people managed to film it before it crashed into a car. This spectacular car crossed the airspace of several US states during its 40-second flight until it landed in Peekskill, a suburb of New York.
The most famous meteorite falls
While Colby Navarro was working at the computer, a boulder from outer space crashed through the roof of the house, hit the printer, hit the wall and remained lying next to the catalog box. This happened around midnight on March 26 in the town of Forest Park, Illinois (USA) near Chicago.
Meteorite in Chicago
meteorites hitting people (both without serious consequences), the material damage they caused is also negligible. There is no mysticism in this “friendliness”: a meteorite fall is a rare phenomenon and can happen with equal probability anywhere in the world. And people still don’t take up much space on their planet. So the heavenly wanderers fall into the oceans, which account for more than 2/3 of the earth's surface, into vast deserts, forests, and polar regions - in full accordance with the laws of mathematical statistics. Therefore, any of us not only practically does not risk being hit by a meteorite, but even has very little chance of seeing it fall.
However, there is no need to despair. Everyone can observe the arrival of cosmic matter on Earth. It is enough to spend at least an hour on a clear night peering into the starry sky, and you will probably notice a fiery line cutting through the sky. This is a falling “star”, or meteor. Sometimes there are a lot of them - whole star showers. But no matter how many of them fly by, the appearance of the starry sky will not change: falling stars have nothing to do with real stars.
In the outer space surrounding our planet, many solid bodies of various sizes move - from dust grains to blocks with diameters of tens and hundreds of meters. The larger the body size, the less common they are. Therefore, dust grains collide with the Earth every day and hourly, and blocks - once every hundreds and even thousands of years.
The effects accompanying these collisions are also completely different. A small body weighing a fraction of a gram, invading the earth’s atmosphere at enormous speed (tens of kilometers per second), heats up from friction with the air and burns up completely at an altitude of 80–100 km. An observer on Earth sees a meteor at this moment. If a larger piece, for example the size of a fist, flies into the atmosphere, and not at the highest speed, the atmosphere can act as a brake and extinguish the cosmic speed before the piece burns up completely. Then its remainder will fall to the surface of the Earth. This is a meteorite. The fall of a meteorite is accompanied by a fireball flying across the sky and thunderous sounds. Few people have ever observed such phenomena. Finally, when the mass of the flying body is even greater, the atmosphere can no longer extinguish all its speed, and it crashes into the surface of the Earth, leaving a cosmic scar on it - a meteorite crater or crater.
If you look at the Moon through a telescope, you will see that its entire surface is literally pitted with such craters - traces of meteorite bombardment to which the Moon was subjected in the past. The Earth also received cosmic impacts in the past (see the article “Asteroid Threat”). Their traces in the form of meteorite craters (sometimes called astroblemes - “star wounds”) remained on the surface of our planet. The most famous of them, the crater in Arizona, is more than 1 km across and was formed 50 thousand years ago. The dry desert climate ensured its good preservation. External traces of other cosmic scars have been largely erased by subsequent geological processes. One of the largest such formations known today is located in northern Siberia. This is the Popigai meteorite crater with a diameter of 100 km.
Similar abstracts:
A message about Asteroids. Message about the Moon. Message about Venus and Mercury. Message about Mars. Message about Jupiter. Message about Saturn. Message about Uranus and Pluto and Neptune. Message about Comets. Cloud of Orth. A message about life in space.
History of the creation and development of the Solar System. Stars and their ages. Characteristics and structure of the Sun, planets of our system. Asteroid ring and giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. An icy ball orbiting the Sun - Pluto and its satellite.
What are the differences between meteors and meteorites? General concepts of fireballs and electrophone fireballs. General appearance and sizes of meteorites. Meteorites found on the territory of our country. List of observed meteor showers over the past 200 years. Scientific significance of meteorites.
Evolution of the solar system: the theory of Otto Yulievich Schmidt. Chemical and isotopic composition of solar matter. The hypothesis of the formation of the Moon due to the destruction of a molten and completely differentiated cold earth) more massive planet.
Meteor falling. Car crash. Meteor showers. Meteorites of the Stavropol Territory. Meteorite "Stavropol". Meteorite "Groznaya". Meteorite "Manych - 1". Meteorite "Manych - 2". Meteorite "Wonderful". Meteorite "Raguli". Lost meteorite.
The lesson helps fill the vacuum left by the elimination of astronomy classes in the high school curriculum. Based on student work, a presentation is compiled, which can subsequently be used to conduct lessons, dedicated to the day astronautics.
Teacher introduction
"From Tsiolkovsky to Korolev"At the beginning of space exploration, the USSR was two corps ahead of the rest. Tsiolkovsky is rightfully considered the founder of modern cosmonautics. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, born in 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye near Ryazan. At the age of nine, Kostya suffered from scarlet fever and, as a result of complications from the illness, he lost his hearing. Because of this, he studied with difficulty and was expelled from the gymnasium. After that, I never studied anywhere officially, but studied independently, designs and invents. His father, believing his abilities, sends him to Moscow to the Higher Technical School. Konstantin did not enter the school, lives on bread and water: “I lived on 90 kopecks a month,” from ten in the morning until three or four o’clock in the afternoon he studies science in the Chertkovsky public library. In three years, Konstantin completely mastered the gymnasium curriculum, as well as a significant part of the university curriculum. His father could no longer pay for his stay in Moscow. With the knowledge he gained, Konstantin could easily begin independent work in the provinces, as well as continue his education outside of Moscow. Returning to Vyatka, Konstantin began giving private lessons in physics and mathematics. Together with his students, he conducted numerous experiments in physics lessons, which earned him the reputation of a teacher who explains the material well and clearly, and whose classes are always interesting. Soon he passed the exam to become a district mathematics teacher as an external student and received documented confirmation of his qualifications. While working as a teacher, he continued his scientific research. “At the age of 28, I firmly decided to devote myself to aeronautics and theoretically develop a metal controlled balloon.” Tsiolkovsky's main works were related to four major problems: scientific basis an all-metal balloon (airship), a streamlined airplane, a hovercraft and a rocket for interplanetary travel. Tsiolkovsky put forward a number of ideas that found application in rocket science. They proposed: gas rudders (made of graphite) to control the flight of the rocket and change the trajectory of its center of mass; the use of propellant components to cool the outer shell of the spacecraft (during re-entry), the walls of the combustion chamber and the nozzle; pumping system for supplying fuel components; optimal descent trajectories of a spacecraft when returning from space, etc.
The flight of the first satellite was preceded by titanic work by Soviet rocket designers led by Sergei Korolev. Already a student at the Moscow Higher Technical School (now named after Bauman), S.P. Korolev had already gained fame as a young, capable aircraft designer and an experienced glider pilot. In 1938, on false charges, S.P. Korolev was arrested and sentenced to 10 years. In conclusion, he continued to work on new types of rocket engines for the purpose of using them in aviation. On May 13, 1946, J.V. Stalin signed a decree on the creation of a rocket science and industry in the USSR. In August, S.P. Korolev was appointed chief designer of long-range ballistic missiles. In 1947, flight tests of V-2 rockets assembled in Germany marked the beginning of Soviet work on the development of rocket technology. But the German V-2 embodied Tsiolkovsky’s ideas in its design! In 1948, tests of the R-1 rocket, which was a copy of the V-2, manufactured entirely in the USSR, were already carried out at the Kapustin Yar test site. In September 1953, by order of the Korolev Design Bureau, the first research work on space topics, “Research on the creation of the first artificial Earth satellite,” was opened at NII-4. The first complex of the R-7 rocket was built and tested during 1955-1956 at the Leningrad Metal Plant. At the same time, construction of NIIP-5 began in the area of the Tyura-Tam station. When the first rocket in the factory workshop was already assembled, the plant was visited by a delegation of the main members of the Politburo, headed by N. S. Khrushchev. The rocket made a stunning impression not only on the Soviet leadership, but also on leading scientists. A.D. Sakharov: “We [nuclear scientists] thought that our scale was large, but there we saw something that was an order of magnitude larger. I was struck by the enormous technical culture visible to the naked eye, the coordinated work of hundreds of highly qualified people and their almost everyday, but very business-like attitude towards the fantastic things they were dealing with...” In January 1956, the government signed a decree on the creation and launch into orbit in 1957-1958. “Object “D”” - a satellite weighing 1000-1400 kg carrying 200-300 kg of scientific equipment. By the end of 1956, it became clear that reliable equipment for the satellite could not be created in the required time frame. Korolev, convinced of this, sends the government an unexpected proposal: “There are reports that... the United States intends to launch satellites in 1958. We risk losing priority. I propose that instead of a complex laboratory - object “D”, we launch a simple satellite into space. “The design of the simplest satellite began in November 1956, and at the beginning of September 1957, PS-1 passed final tests on a vibration stand and in a thermal chamber. The satellite was designed as a very simple vehicle with two radio beacons for performing trajectory measurements. The transmitter range of the simplest satellite was chosen so that radio amateurs could track the satellite. On September 22, the R-7 rocket arrived in Tyura-Tam. On October 2, Korolev signed an order for flight tests of the PS-1 and sent a notification of readiness to Moscow. No response instructions were received, and Korolev independently decided to place the rocket with the satellite at the launch position.
- "First satellites"
Satellite launched.
On October 4 at 22 hours 28 minutes 34 seconds Moscow time (19 hours 28 minutes 34 seconds GMT) a successful launch was made. 295 seconds after launch, PS-1 and the central block of the rocket, weighing 7.5 tons, were launched into an elliptical orbit with an altitude of 947 km at apogee and 288 km at perigee. At 314.5 seconds after launch, Sputnik separated and it cast its vote. “Beep! Beep! - that was his call sign. They were caught at the training ground for 2 minutes, then the Sputnik went beyond the horizon. People at the cosmodrome ran out into the street, shouted “Hurray!”, shook the designers and military personnel. And even on the first orbit, a TASS message was heard: “... As a result of a lot of hard work by research institutes and design bureaus, the world’s first artificial Earth satellite was created...”. Only after receiving the first signals from Sputnik did the results of processing telemetry data arrive and it turned out that only a fraction of a second separated it from failure. One of the engines was “delayed”, and the time to enter the mode is strictly controlled and if it is exceeded, the start is automatically canceled. The unit entered mode less than a second before the control time. At the 16th second of flight, the fuel supply control system failed, and due to increased kerosene consumption, the central engine turned off 1 second earlier than the estimated time. A little more - and the first escape velocity might not have been achieved. But the winners are not judged! Great things have happened! The satellite flew for 92 days, until January 4, 1958, completing 1,440 revolutions around the Earth (about 60 million km), and its radio transmitters operated for two weeks after launch
Sputnik 2 launched.
November 3, 1957. The USSR launched Sputnik 2 with a dog named Laika on board. There would have been enough food and nutrition for a week and a half, but no one took into account the temperature changes and the dog died within a day or two.
Soviet Luna 2 lands on the Moon.
September 13, 1959. The Soviet Luna 2 successfully reached the Moon. One of the main scientific achievements of the mission was the discovery of the solar wind.
The first animals made orbital flight.
August 19-20, 1960. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 (the Vostok prototype) with two dogs, Belka and Strelka, into space. The flight was successful and the dogs returned alive and healthy. A few months later, Strelka gave birth to puppies. Khrushchev gave one of them to his daughter Kenn
Flight of Venera-1.
February 12, 1961. The USSR launched Venera 1, which was headed to Venus. From the Venera-1 station, measurement data of the parameters of the solar wind and cosmic rays in the vicinity of the Earth, as well as at a distance of 1.9 million kilometers from the Earth, were transmitted. After the discovery of the solar wind by the Luna-2 spacecraft, the Venera-1 station confirmed the presence of solar wind plasma in interplanetary space. The last communication session with Venera 1 took place on February 19, 1961. After 7 days, when the station was at a distance of about 2 million kilometers from the Earth, contact with the Venera-1 station was lost. On May 19 and 20, 1961, the Venera 1 probe passed at a distance of approximately 100,000 km from the planet Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit.
The first man in space.
April 12, 1961. The first cosmonaut is Yuri Gagarin. The Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched at 09:07 on April 12, 1961 Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Having completed one revolution around the Earth at 10:55:34 in the 108th minute, the ship completed its planned flight (one second earlier than planned).
By decision of the International Air Sports Federation, April 12 has been celebrated as World Aviation and Cosmonautics Day since 1968. Manned spacecraft: Vostok (1961-63); Sunrise (1964-65); Union (since 1967); Buran (since 1988). Launch vehicles: Soyuz, Progress, Proton, Energy
- "Gagarin"
The first pilot-cosmonaut in the history of earthlings, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, was born on March 9, 1934 in the village of Klushino, Smolensk region, into the family of a collective farmer. In 1941 he entered elementary school, then a vocational school in Lyubertsy near Moscow. He received a specialty as a foundry worker and at the same time graduated from the school for working youth. Then he studied at an industrial technical school in Saratov and received a diploma with honors. He graduated from the flying club in Saratov and entered the military aviation school in Orenburg. Since 1957 - military pilot. In 1960, pilot Yuri Gagarin crossed the threshold of the school of Soviet cosmonauts. Yuri Gagarin celebrated New Year 1961 at the cosmonaut training center. These were difficult months before the first start. After numerous earthly and space experiments, April 12, 1961 arrived. On this day, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, on the Vostok spacecraft, was the first in the history of mankind to make a space flight around our planet - a flight that all of humanity dreamed of. This day went down in human history as the beginning of a new era - the era of human space flights. Gagarin deeply understood the share of his participation in the great achievement of the Soviet people, in the feat of our scientists and engineers. He continued to work and study. Graduated with honors from the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky. On March 27, 1968, Yuri Gagarin died as a result of a crash during a training flight on an airplane. The name of the man who was the first to break the chains of gravity has forever entered into the memory of mankind.
- "The Russians are flying"
Flight of German Titov On August 6-7, 1961, German Titov made a space flight lasting 1 day 1 hour, making 17 revolutions around the Earth, flying more than 700 thousand kilometers.
For the first time, two spacecraft are in orbit at the same time.12 August 1962. The Soviet Union simultaneously launches two ships Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 into orbit, on which Andriyan Nikolaev and Pavel Popovich were.
November 1, 1962. Soviet launch automatic station "Mars-1", who became one of the space pioneers who laid the interplanetary route to the planet Mars. The weight of the station was 893.5 kg, and a complex of scientific instruments was installed on board the station. On June 19, 1963, the station flew past the planet and, entering a heliocentric orbit, became an artificial satellite of the Sun.
The first woman is an astronaut. On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova flew on the Vostok-6 spacecraft; the flight lasted almost three days.
Spacewalk.
On March 18-19, 1965, together with Pavel Belyaev, he flew into space as a co-pilot on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. During this flight, Leonov made the first spacewalk in the history of astronautics, lasting 12 minutes 9 seconds. A swollen space suit prevented the astronaut from returning to the spacecraft. Leonov managed to enter the airlock only by releasing excess pressure from his suit
First soft landing on the Moon.
February 3, 1966. The first soft landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet Luna-9 spacecraft. For three days, the station transmitted images of the lunar surface.
March 31, 1966. Launch of the Luna 10 automatic station, which on April 3 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon.
First docking in space.
On January 15, 1969, for the first time, two ships docked in space - Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5, and the cosmonauts transferred from one ship to another. On January 18, 1969, the cosmonauts returned on the ships in which they had not launched.
Venera 7 lands on Venus.
August 17, 1970. Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus and operates for as long as 23 minutes. Considering the conditions on Venus, this was a success. Venus projects carried out by the USSR continued until Venera 16 in 1983. In 1982, Venera 13 operated for 127 minutes.
November 10, 1970. The Proton-K launch vehicle launched the Luna-17 automatic interplanetary station with the Lunokhod-1 self-propelled vehicle on board on a flight path to the Moon. On November 17, Luna 17 made a soft landing on the Moon. Two and a half hours later, Lunokhod 1 left the landing platform along the ramp and began its program. It operated for 322 days and covered 10.5 km.
Launch of Salyut-1.
On April 19, 1971, the Salyut-1 orbital space station was launched into orbit. It was on this OKS that the Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev conducted their first long-term expedition. They were at the station for 23 days. When returning to Earth they died.
First docking of Soyuz-Apollo spacecraft
On July 17, 1975, the first docking occurred spacecraft belonging to different countries: Soviet Soyuz-19 and American Apollo CM-111.
World(“Salyut-8”) - Soviet (later Russian) orbital station, which was a complex multi-purpose research complex. The base unit was launched into orbit on February 20, 1986. Then, over the course of 10 years, six more modules were docked one after another. The total mass of the Mir OS with two docked ships is more than 136 tons. The total volume of sealed compartments is about 400 cubic meters. The linear dimensions of the Mir OS along the hulls of the base unit, the Kvant module and the two docked ships are about 33 meters. The very first crew of the Mir OS were cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov, who launched on March 13, 1986 on the Soyuz T-15 spacecraft and arrived on board the OS on March 15. During the entire flight, 96 people visited the Mir OS, nineteen of them twice, Alexander Viktorenko four times, Anatoly Solovyov five times. 70 spacewalks and two spacewalks into the depressurized Spektr module were completed with a total duration of 330 hours 08 minutes. On March 23, 2001, the station was flooded in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
November 15, 1988. The Energia-Buran launch vehicle was launched, which placed the Soviet Buran spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. The reusable spacecraft "Buran" made an automatic landing on Earth for the first time in the world.
November 20, 1998 Russia launched the first element International Space Station— functional cargo block “Zarya”. The ISS is a manned orbital station used as a multi-purpose space research complex. The ISS is a joint international project in which sixteen countries participate
- "Astronauts"
Manned spacecraft: Mercury (1961-63); North American X-15 (1963); Gemini (1965-66); Apollo (1968-1975); Space Shuttle (since 1981).
On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. “The successful launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 was a gauntlet thrown in the face of the United States” (Johnson Friese). The Americans' attempt to launch their first Avangard satellite on December 6 of the same year turned into a national disgrace: the launch vehicle exploded before it even left the launch device. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin flew into space. On May 5, the first American, Alan Shepard, was in space (not in orbit!). In the mid-nineties, American science in the field space research, especially in the field of manned flights, was 15-20 years behind the Soviet one! Developing inconsistently and without any specific plan (including for space exploration), the Americans found themselves with a dubious quality reusable system and no orbital stations at all. Nevertheless, we will not deny the obvious successes of the Americans.
March 03, 1959. First American launched artificial solar satellite"Pioneer-4".
The first primates in space.
November 29, 1961. The launch of the Atlas-D rocket from Cape Canaveral, which launched the American Mercury MA-5 spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. There was an ENOS monkey on board the ship. After three orbits around the Earth, the descent capsule with the monkey splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.
February 20, 1962. The Atlas-D launch vehicle was launched from the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome, which launched the American spacecraft Friendship-7 into low-Earth orbit. The spacecraft was piloted by astronaut John Glenn. The first manned orbital flight in the United States.
The first people to orbit the Moon.
December 24, 1968. The American Apollo 8 with three crew members (F. Borman, J. Lovell, W. Anders) on board entered lunar orbit.
Landing on the Moon.
July 20, 1969. The landing of American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins on the Moon. The duration of the astronauts' stay on the lunar surface was: Neil Armstrong - 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds, Edwin Aldrin - 2 hours 15 minutes. The astronauts took with them 24.9 kilograms of lunar soil
05 September 1977. Voyager 1 launched. Flew up to Jupiter on March 5, 1979, and to Saturn on November 13, 1980. Voyager 1 could, in principle, head to Pluto, but JPL decided that Titan would be enough
Flight of the first Shuttle.
On April 12, 1981, the United States launched the first shuttle into space, STS-1, with a crew of John Young (flight 5) and Robert Crippen. The flight lasted more than 2 days and ended with a successful return.
April 25, 1990. The Discovery shuttle launched the Hubble telescope into low-Earth orbit. As of March 2000, using the telescope it was possible to carry out more than 330 thousand observations and study more than 25 thousand astronomical objects.
III. To "Own game"The file will be here:/data/edu/files/o1442238078.ppt (own space game)
Rules: Questions are played on a specific topic and are ranked according to difficulty level from 10 points to 50. 3 people take part in a round. The game is played on five themes. Points are added up for a correct answer, and deducted for an incorrect answer. A player can answer one question only once.
Topics: Russian cosmonauts, Solar system, space exploration, planets,Stars and constellationsSpace exploration.
1. Who is the founder of astronautics? Answer: Tsiolkovsky
2. Who was called the Chief Designer in our country? Answer: Queen
3. In honor of what event is Cosmonautics Day celebrated? Answer: Flight of Gagarin (12.04)
4. What was the name of the first manned spacecraft? Answer: East
5. When was the first satellite launched? Answer: October 4, 1957
solar system
1. How many stars are there solar system? Answer: one. Sun
2. What is evidence of the change of day and night on the planet? Answer: rotation of the Earth around its axis. 3. How long will a match burn on the Moon? Answer: It won’t burn, there is no oxygen. 4. Is it possible to navigate on the Moon using a compass? Answer: no. The Moon does not have its own magnetic field 5. What does the sky look like on the Moon? Answer: black. The Moon has no atmosphere
Russian cosmonauts.
1. The world's first man to go into outer space. Answer: Leonov
2. The first female cosmonaut Answer: V. Tereshkova
3. He was the second to go into space after Gagarin. Answer: German Titov 4. Commander of the Soyuz-11 crew, which made the first docking with the Salyut orbital station Answer: Grigory Dobrovolsky
5. He designed the Soyuz spacecraft and the Mir orbital station. And in 1964, he made the first group flight into space on the Voskhod-1 spacecraft. Answer: Konstantin Feoktistov
Planets
1. How many satellites does Mars have? Answer: two. Phobos and Deimos. 2. Which planet has virtually no atmosphere? Answer: Mercury
3. Which planet rotates “lying on its side”? Answer: Uranus 4. What is the difference between a meteor and a meteorite? Answer: meteor - passing phenomenon cosmic body through the earth's atmosphere, a meteorite is a cosmic body that reaches the surface of the earth.
5. What is an asteroid? Answer: Small planet.
Stars and constellations
1. A star that indicates the direction north Answer: Polaris
2. Deneb - α constellation... Answer: Cygnus
3. The constellation in which the variable star Algol is located. Answer: Perseus
4. The star is a red giant located in the constellation Taurus Answer: Aldebaran
5. The star from the Latin translation of whose name the word “vacation” comes from. Answer: Sirius
Phenomena observed in the form of short-term flashes that occur during the combustion of small meteoric objects (for example, fragments of comets or asteroids) in the earth's atmosphere. Meteors streak across the sky, sometimes leaving behind a narrow glowing trail for a few seconds before disappearing. In everyday life they are often called shooting stars. For a long time, meteors were considered a common atmospheric phenomenon such as lightning. Only at the very end of the 18th century, thanks to observations of the same meteors from different points, their altitudes and speeds were first determined. It turned out that meteors are cosmic bodies that enter the Earth’s atmosphere from the outside at speeds from 11 km/sec to 72 km/sec, and burn up in it at an altitude of about 80 km. Astronomers began to seriously study meteors only in the 20th century.
The distribution across the sky and the frequency of occurrence of meteors are often not uniform. So-called meteor showers occur systematically, the meteors of which appear in approximately the same part of the sky over a certain period of time (usually several nights). Such streams are given the names of constellations. For example, meteor shower, occurring annually from approximately July 20 to August 20, is called the Perseids. The Lyrid (mid-April) and Leonid (mid-November) meteor showers take their names from the constellations Lyra and Leo, respectively. IN different years meteorite showers exhibit varying activity. The change in the activity of meteor showers is explained by the uneven distribution of meteor particles in the streams along the elliptical orbit intersecting the earth's.
Rice. 2. Perseid meteor shower ()
Meteors that do not belong to showers are called sporadic. On average, about 108 meteors brighter than 5th magnitude flare up in the Earth's atmosphere during the day. Bright meteors occur less frequently, weak ones more often. Fireballs(very bright meteors) can be visible even during the day. Sometimes fireballs are accompanied by meteorite falls. Often the appearance of a fireball is accompanied by a fairly powerful shock wave, sound phenomena, and the formation of a smoke tail. The origin and physical structure of large bodies observed as fireballs are likely to be quite different compared to the particles that cause meteoric phenomena.
It is necessary to distinguish between meteors and meteorites. It is not the object itself that is called a meteor (i.e. meteoroid), but a phenomenon, that is, its luminous trace. This phenomenon will be called a meteor, regardless of whether the meteoroid flies away from the atmosphere into outer space, burns up in it, or falls to Earth in the form of a meteorite.
Physical meteorology is the science that studies the passage of a meteorite through the layers of the atmosphere.
Meteor astronomy is the science that studies the origin and evolution of meteorites
Meteor geophysics is the science that studies the effects of meteors on the Earth's atmosphere.
- body cosmic origin, fallen onto the surface of a large celestial object.
In my own way chemical composition and structure meteorites are divided into three large groups: stone, or aerolites, iron-stone, or siderolites, and iron - siderites. The opinion of most researchers agrees that stone meteorites predominate in outer space (80-90% of the total), although more iron meteorites have been collected than stone ones. Relative quantity various types Meteorites are quite difficult to identify, since iron meteorites are easier to find than stone ones. In addition, stony meteorites are usually destroyed when passing through the atmosphere. When a meteorite enters the dense layers of the atmosphere, its surface becomes so hot that it begins to melt and evaporate. Jets of air blow away large drops of molten matter from iron meteorites, while traces of this blowing remain and can be observed in the form of characteristic notches. Rocky meteorites often break up, scattering a shower of fragments of various sizes onto the Earth's surface. Iron meteorites are more durable, but they sometimes break into separate pieces. One of the largest iron meteorites, which fell on February 12, 1947 in the Sikhote-Alin region, was discovered in the form of a large number of individual fragments, the total weight of which is 23 tons, and, of course, not all the fragments were found. The largest known meteorite, Goba (in South-West Africa), is a block weighing 60 tons.
Rice. 3. Goba - the largest meteorite found ()
Large meteorites burrow to a considerable depth when they hit the Earth. In this case, in the Earth's atmosphere at a certain altitude, the cosmic velocity of a meteorite is usually extinguished, after which, having slowed down, it falls according to the laws of free fall. What will happen in a collision with Earth? large meteorite, for example, weighing 105-108 tons? Such a gigantic object would pass through the atmosphere almost unhindered, and when it fell, a powerful explosion would occur with the formation of a funnel (crater). If such catastrophic events ever occurred, we should find meteorite craters on the surface of the Earth. Such craters really exist. Thus, the funnel of the largest, Arizona, crater has a diameter of 1200 m and a depth of about 200 m. According to a rough estimate, its age is about 5 thousand years. Not long ago, several more ancient and destroyed meteorite craters were discovered.
Rice. 4. Arizona meteorite crater ()
Shock crater(meteor crater) - a depression on the surface of a cosmic body, the result of the fall of another smaller body.
Most often, a meteor shower of high intensity (with a zenith hour number of up to a thousand meteors per hour) is called a star or meteor shower.
Rice. 5. Star rain ()
1. Melchakov L.F., Skatnik M.N. Natural history: textbook. for 3.5 grades avg. school - 8th ed. - M.: Education, 1992. - 240 pp.: ill.
2. Bakhchieva O.A., Klyuchnikova N.M., Pyatunina S.K., et al. Natural history 5. - M.: Educational literature.
3. Eskov K.Yu. and others. Natural history 5 / Ed. Vakhrusheva A.A. - M.: Balass
1. Melchakov L.F., Skatnik M.N. Natural history: textbook. for 3.5 grades avg. school - 8th ed. - M.: Education, 1992. - p. 165, tasks and question. 3.
2. How are meteor showers named?
3. How does a meteorite differ from a meteor?
4. * Imagine that you have discovered a meteorite and want to write an article about it for a magazine. What would this article look like?