Sixty years ago, astronomers predicted a mysterious, hard-to-discover cloud of dust 400,000 kilometers away: the Kordylewski cloud. Today we captured it for the first time.
In this image, the central region of the Cotileski dust cloud appears in the form of bright red pixels around the L5 Lagrange point. The slanted lines on the map are traces of satellites.
A controversial idea from 60 years ago has been considered feasible thanks to astronomers' new observations of a spooky cloud of dust just 400,000 kilometers from Earth (and we may find a second one).
The Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski first discovered these dust clouds in 1961. But because their brightness was extremely weak and extremely difficult to detect, many scientists at the time were unsure whether these dust clouds really existed. And today, with the latest observations published in the Monthly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society by a team led by Judit Slíz-Balogh of E tv s Loránd University in Hungary, the possibility of these dust clouds is reignited.
These dust clouds are formed by a special interaction between the gravitational pull of the Earth and the Moon.
While large bodies can attract matter to themselves under gravitational force, at five points around the Earth, the respective gravitational pulls of two large bodies (Earth, Moon, Sun, or another planet) are balanced with the centrifugal force experienced by smaller orbiting objects. Balance means that objects can be captured and fixed in relative positions. These five points are called Lagrange points.
Two of the Lagrange points, L4 and L5, form equilateral triangles with the Earth and the Moon and move around the Earth as the Moon orbits. Although they are often slightly disturbed by the Sun and are not completely stable, L4 and L5 form places where interstellar dust can temporarily accumulate. In fact, in 1961, It was at L5 that Kotilski observed two dust clouds.
Sleisser Barloger and his team first created a three-dimensional model of the Sun, Earth, Moon, and dust clouds. From them they found that it is possible to form a cloud of dust in L5. The researchers then went to the private observatory in the small town of Badacsonyt rdemic in Hungary and tried to observe the phenomenon with a linear polarization filter system. The images they captured showed polarized light reflected from the dust cloud: this didvetail with their three-dimensional model and predictions made by Cotileski 60 years ago.
"After months of perseverance (because it is difficult to find a good moonless and cloudless day in Hungary), we managed to catch the Koti leschi dust cloud near the L5 Lagrange point for two consecutive nights," the team wrote.
Slaisebalog added: "The Cotileski cloud is two of the hardest objects to find. Although they are as close to Earth as the Moon, they are always overlooked by astronomical researchers. The 'dusty fake satellite' and our moon neighbors circling us is a lot of fun. ”
Despite the success of their observations and modeling, their findings were not conclusive. Other researchers' previous studies have also cast doubt on the existence of cotillas kiyun. Sleisser Barloger's team acknowledges that the Coty Lesqui cloud may only be temporary. It can also be "blown away" by the solar wind or gravitational perturbations from other celestial bodies. Indeed, the team's modeling shows that the structure and density of particles in the cloud are not consistent. Its shape is also constantly changing.
In the systems of the Sun, Jupiter, Earth, Mars and Neptune, we also find Lagrange points, where asteroids often "anchor". However, lagrange points around the Earth are the most interesting, and they can be used by us as transit stations for satellites. NASA's Lagrange Point L1 serves as the holding position for its solar probe SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), where it can observe the Sun uninterrupted. L2 is expected to be used as a transit location for the upcoming Launch of the James Webb Telescope.
Related knowledge
The James Webb Space Telescope is a planned infrared space telescope that was originally planned to cost $500 million and launch in 2007. However, due to various reasons, the project was seriously overspended, and the launch time was postponed several times, with the latest estimate of a total cost of up to 9.66 billion US dollars, and the launch time was 20:20 Beijing time on December 25, 2021. On August 28, 2019, NASA said that the telescope was assembled for the first time.
BY: Ben Lewis
FY: Amberley
If there is any infringement of the relevant content, please contact the author to delete it after the work is published
Please also obtain authorization to reprint, and pay attention to maintaining completeness and indicating source