The mystery of the mysteriously disappeared satellite of Venus. Investigation

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

European astronomers, observing Venus in the 17th and 18th centuries, more than once saw a large celestial body next to it. But where did it go?

FIRST OBSERVATIONS

In the 17th century, Francesco Fontana from Naples tried to enhance the power of a telescope with additional lenses. The work was crowned with success: Francesco saw what was hidden from his predecessors.

On November 11, 1645, the astronomer aimed his lens at Venus and saw in the center of the planet's crescent "a reddish spot with a radius of about a fifth of it." Francesco considered it to be one of the surface details. When the "spot" floated out beyond the edge of the illuminated part of Venus, he realized his mistake. Only another celestial body could move in this way.

The director of the Paris Observatory, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, went down in the history of astronomy as an excellent observer. He discovered four moons of Saturn, a gap in its rings, which is now called the "Cassini gap", and accurately measured the distance from Earth to Mars. The new 150x telescope allowed him to confirm that a satellite of Venus exists and matches the description of Fontana:

“August 18, 1686. Examining Venus at 4:15 in the morning, I noticed to the east of it, at a distance of three-fifths of the planet's diameter, a light object of obscure outlines. It seemed to have the same phase as the nearly full Venus, west of the Sun. The object was nearly a quarter of its diameter. I watched him closely for 15 minutes.

I saw the same object on January 25, 1672 from 6:52 to 7:02, after which it disappeared in the rays of dawn. Venus was in the shape of a sickle, and the object had the same shape. I suspected that I was dealing with a satellite that did not reflect sunlight very well. Being at the same distance from the Sun and Earth as Venus, it repeats its phases."

Cassini and the other astronomers did not fall into self-deception trying to see what they really wanted to find. On the contrary, the theoretical models of the solar system developed by them assumed that the planets located between the Earth and the Sun should not have satellites. What they found contradicted accepted theories.

IN THE XVIII CENTURY

On October 23, 1740, the satellite was observed by James Short, the famous expert in the creation of astronomical instruments:

In 1761, the attention of astronomers around the world was again focused on Venus. This year was marked by the passage of the planet across the disk of the Sun. The satellite of Venus has been seen 19 times in all its glory, including against the backdrop of the solar disk.

Venus

Astronomer Jacques Montaigne from Limoges specifically observed the satellite, taking every precaution against optical illusion. He first saw him on May 3. As before, the phases of the satellite and the planet coincided. May 4, 7 and 11 (other nights were cloudy) Montaigne again observed the satellite. Its position relative to Venus changed, but the phase remained the same.

Jacques Montaigne, who had previously been skeptical about the possibility of the existence of a satellite, sincerely believed in its reality. He deliberately removed Venus from the field of view of the telescope. At the same time, the satellite remained visible, proving that it was not a lens flare or a reflection of the planet itself. According to his calculations, the satellite had an orbital period of 9 days and 7 hours.

DISAPPEARANCE

The Prussian king Frederick the Great proposed to name the satellite after the astronomer and mathematician Jean Leron D'Alembert, his old friend, but the scientist nobly rejected this honor. It was only in the 19th century that the unnamed satellite received its name. Belgian astronomer Jean Charles Ozot named him in 1878 after Neith, the ancient Egyptian goddess of hunting and war. But by that time there was nothing to watch.

From 1761 to 1768, Nate was seen only nine times, and some astronomers were clearly mistaken: they mentioned a "little star", not a large body. Astronomer Paul Strobant later calculated that Danish astronomers mistook a dim star in the constellation Libra for a satellite, and their colleague Peder Rudkiar from the Rudentarn Observatory saw next to Venus the then-unknown planet Uranus.

Since then, Nate has not been watched again. Space probes confirm Venus has no satellite.

A heavenly body of this size cannot disappear without a trace. If it collapsed in orbit, a ring of debris would appear around Venus. A fall on the planet would knock Venus off balance, leaving monstrous rifts. The probes studying the "goddess of love" could not miss the signs of a recent catastrophe.

The famous theosophist Charles Leadbeater, in his book "Inner Life" (1911), argued that the planet's satellites disappear when the race inhabiting it reaches the "seventh circle of rebirth." The disappearance of Nate means that the Venusians, ahead of the earthlings, have already reached the "seventh circle." When we acquire the same perfection, the Moon will cease to shine over the Earth.

MYSTERIOUS "STAR"

On August 13, 1892, the American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard was at the Lick Observatory. Near Venus, he saw a star-shaped object. Barnard was able to measure the position of the "star": it did not coincide with the coordinates of the known stars. It should be noted that Edward made a special search for the satellite of Venus and was convinced of its absence.

The obscure object was not Neith who returned from oblivion, an asteroid, a star or a planet. Astronomers concluded that Edward saw a distant supernova, "which, unfortunately, no one else noticed."

In 1919, Charles Hoy Fort suggested that both Barnard and eighteenth-century astronomers mistook spaceships in orbit around the planet for satellites.