Space bodies flashing in front of us mainly on the pages of atlases, monitors and TV screens, are of great interest. A lot of data has been collected about our solar system over the past century, when the development of space technology has made a leap forward. However, people who are far from astronautics and astronomy have not such wide knowledge about the planets that are neighbors of the Sun.
We are going to talk about one of the small planets of the solar system in this article. This is the planet Mercury, closest to the Sun, one of the smallest. What do you think, what secret is fraught with this celestial body? To solve it, you must first remember whether there are satellites of Mercury. Difficult, right? And now let's go on a journey into interesting astronomical facts.
What do we already know about Mercury?
The school curriculum provides not too extensive knowledge about the planets of the solar system, but sufficient for the general knowledge sector.
Mercury is one of the smallest planets in the solar system (after Pluto was expelled from the planetary system, it is the smallest). He alsois closest to the Sun.
The planet has a small mass relative to our Earth (only 1/20). However, the majority of the object's body is made up of a liquid core, which some researchers believe contains high levels of iron.
Besides, we also know how many satellites Mercury has: it doesn't have any. However, not everything turned out to be so clear in the world of astronomers.
Mysterious celestial body: the history of the hypothesis
As we have already said, the existence of a natural satellite was not a scientific hypothesis for long. It is interesting, on the basis of what conclusions it was put forward at the time.
So, it happened in 1974, March 27th. At this time, the interplanetary station "Mariner-10" was approaching Mercury. Instruments on board the station recorded ultraviolet radiation, which a priori should not have been on this section of the path. At least the astronauts thought so.
The next day there was no radiation. Two days later, on March 29, the station again flew near Mercury and again recorded ultraviolet radiation. According to its characteristics, it could come from a space object that separated from the planet.
Versions of scientists about objects near Mercury
Under the current conditions, the research team has new data for versions of whether Mercury has satellites. Regarding this alleged object, scientists have several versions. Some were convinced that it was a star, others that it was a satellite. Some spoke in favor of the latest versiondata related to then-relevant assumptions about the existence of the interstellar medium.
For a long time, research was conducted on the outer space of Mercury in order to detect the source of ultraviolet radiation. However, neither then nor now is there any information about that object.
How many moons does Mercury have?
Thus, we can repeat the hypothesis of scientists and take into account the historical existence of a certain satellite of Mercury. At the moment, there is an unambiguous answer to the question of how many satellites Mercury has - not a single natural one.
There is no data on the number of space objects orbiting this planet. Only artificial space bodies launched by man now fit the definition of a satellite of this celestial body.
So, the satellite of Mercury is a hypothetical space object revolving around the planet, was considered to be of natural origin. That is, its presence (at least hypothetically) would be the answer to the question of whether there are natural satellites of Mercury. This hypothesis existed for a short time, its adherents became less and less. Subsequently, the first artificial satellite of Mercury was launched. This happened in March 2011. The existence of natural satellites has not been confirmed.
Conclusion
This article touches on an interesting aspect of astronomy that you probably didn't learn about in school. When describing the planets of the solar system, there are manyattention is paid to natural and artificial satellites.
At the current stage of development of astronomical science, there are no doubts about the absence of natural satellites of Mercury. However, there was another period in science, when, after capturing ultraviolet radiation in an unusual part of outer space, scientists came up with various hypotheses. Among them were suggestions that the natural satellites of Mercury exist.
What other mysteries the cosmos will present in such a space as our solar system, we can only assume and rely on science fiction writers. Perhaps the satellites of Mercury and other cosmic bodies that planetology is not aware of now will still be discovered.
