On Earth, highways enable humans to move from one place to another in a short period of time. In our solar system, planetary manifolds act as celestial highways where tiny asteroids, comets, and spacecraft can build a ride on an imaginary space-like jet stream. But what does this network of celestial highways look like in our own solar system – and let’s say, how fast can Jupiter get to the planet Neptune by taking advantage of one of these many manifolds?
These are questions that various astronomers are constantly working to answer, and a new study published in Science Advances has discovered this new network from the eclipse belt to Uranus and beyond. Together, the formation of these manifolds can be seen in our solar system as the “celestial autobahn”.
“We have observed some pathways that carry Jupiter to Neptune in less than 10 years,” Natia Todorovi, a research associate at the Astronomical Observatory Belf Belgrade and lead researcher on the study, told Salon by email. Even more exciting, Todorovi added: “I believe it can enable faster space travel.”
As expected, the strongest manifolds discovered are connected to Jupiter, considering the mass of the planet, according to the study. Interestingly, these strong manifolds associated with Jupiter have “deep control over the smaller body in the vast and previously unthinkable range of the three body powers,” notes Todorovia and co-authors of the study. In other words, they are expected to have much influence in space. Is.
“The novelty here is that we observed the global structure of such manifolds in terms of their domain in the solar system,” Todorov said. “We have observed that the manifold produced by Jupiter extends beyond Neptune, to the outer boundary of the solar system.”
From this point of view, Neptune is the farthest known planet from the Sun in our solar system; It orbits the sun an average of 164.8 years. Saturn is 2,313,267,138 miles away from Neptune. This highway provides short travel time for such long distances.
Todorovi, however, emphasized the inaccuracy of this space network.
“But we should not ignore the strong chaotic environment, which means that the course can change easily; systematic study of large orbital samples is needed to find a way to travel quickly and reliably,” Todorov said.
Aaron Rosegren, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California-San Diego and co-researcher of the paper, told the salon by email that the perfect fit for his discovery is “especially the powerful gulf” or more during space jet streams, Can enable fast and cost-efficient transportation. “
Manifolds are very complex in form, Todorovi explained. Technically speaking, it is the energy radiation surface that appears from the gravitational interaction between the planets and the sun or moon. Todorovi said manifolds originate from the “stability points” or luggage points of a planet.
“However, we can’t see them in their entirety, as we humans are limited to only 2D-3D shapes,” Todorovi explained. “Manifolds arising from different planets can intersect, enabling transitions between them; somehow, these planets are connected by such manifolds, in the sense that an object can move from one planet to another.”
The researchers made this discovery using a tool called the Fast Lipunov Indicator (FLI), which is commonly used to detect chaos in the universe (which is connected to manifolds).
“Here,” the researchers wrote in the paper, “we use FLI to detect the presence and global structure of space manifolds, and to capture the volatility operating on the orbital time scales, meaning we use this sensitive and well-established statistical tool within the solar system.” To more generally define areas of rapid transport. “
The idea of manifolds is nothing new, and has been used in space travel before, while Todorovis’ study revealed more details about this space autobahn produced by Jupiter that could lead to more information about the nature of comets beyond Neptune – and our solar system. , Like the infamous `Omuamua. You may remember, ‘Omuamua attracted the attention of scientists around the world in October 2017 because it has some strange properties that suggest it may be an alien spacecraft, but it turned out to be an international visitor.
“These channels are important in spacecraft research and also explain the irregular nature of the path of comets originating from near the Sun and approaching the Sun,” Avi Loeb, chairman of Harvard’s astronomy department, told the salon via email. “It can also help understand the fraction of objects ejected from the solar system into interstellar space.”
