Scientists have found a new home for mankind! Not Mars, but an ocean planet 400 million kilometers away

When we talk about habitable planets in the solar system, in addition to the homeland on which we live, the Earth, another planet that has attracted much attention is the so-called "Second Earth" Mars.

However, it is very difficult to transform Mars, because although Mars is in the habitable zone, the surface conditions of Mars are extremely harsh, with terrifying low temperatures and endless dust, making Mars a A lifeless planet.

Of course, scientists have proposed many ways to transform Mars. They hope that in the future, Mars can be artificially made habitable through the transformation of Mars. Then, in addition to Mars, there are also other planets in the solar system. Is it a habitable planet?

A habitable planet appears 400 million kilometers away

This planet is now favored by scientists and is believed to be the only one in the asteroid belt that may contain life. Dwarf planet - Ceres.

Speaking of which, the discovery of Ceres also benefited from astronomical calculations and derivation in the mid-18th century. At that time, scientists had discovered six major planets (except Uranus and Neptune). At the same time, they were studying the six major planets. During the planetary process, scientists discovered that there is a certain relationship between the distance ratios between the six planets and the sun.

To put it simply, there is a certain average value for this distance ratio, which is also the key to maintaining the stability of the solar system. Therefore, through calculations, scientists believed that there should be another celestial body between Mars and Jupiter. You must know that at that time, humans did not know the existence of the asteroid belt, so they believed that there should be another celestial body between Mars and Jupiter. , there may be a planet.

Interestingly, based on the distance between the planet and the sun, the first thing scientists discovered was not Ceres, but a British scientist who discovered and Confirmed the existence of Uranus.

This discovery also made scientists once again convinced that there is a new planet between Mars and Jupiter. However, after Uranus was discovered in 1781, no one discovered it in the next 20 years. The discovery of a new celestial body between Mars and Jupiter made many researchers begin to doubt whether their previous estimates were wrong?

Finally, on the New Year of 1801, an Italian astronomer discovered a small celestial body in the orbit between Mars and Jupiter while observing the sky. In the following days, Everyone has always observed its existence, and also found that this small celestial body has been constantly moving.

But not long after, when the small celestial body was searched for again, it disappeared again. After other astronomers got the news, they did not find the small celestial body. So, this It also made many people think that they might have seen a comet that flashed past.

Nearly a year later, on the last day of December 1801, German astronomers finally discovered this small celestial body again. At the same time, after more than two months of continuous observation, Its existence was officially confirmed. In 1738, Ceres became the first asteroid discovered by humans. The mystery that had puzzled scientists for decades was finally revealed.

In the following 200 years, scientists have learned more and more about Ceres. Especially after discovering the existence of the asteroid belt and the existence of Pluto, Ceres became even more urgent. Special.

In 2006, when Pluto was downgraded, Ceres was successfully upgraded to a dwarf planet, which also made it the closest dwarf planet to the earth. Interestingly, many studies in recent years have also Ceres appears to be a very habitable planet.

Ocean planets in the asteroid belt

In the past, due to the limited level of science and technology, humankind’s understanding of Ceres was relatively one-sided until 2015. In February, when NASA's "Dawn" flew by Ceres, it sent back a set of mysterious photos. Through the photos, scientists discovered that there was a mysterious bright spot on the surface of Ceres.

What will this highlight be? In subsequent research, the discovery of "ice material" on Ceres also gave scientists more expectations for this planet.

NASA's "Dawn" probe discovered mysterious plumes on Ceres, which means that the interior of Ceres is extremely active, and at the same time, beneath the surface of Ceres, there may be There is something unknown.

What is even more surprising is that on Ceres, the "Dawn" also photographed a pyramid-shaped object, and this discovery made many people suspect that there may have been an unknown civilization on Ceres. .

In addition, research in recent years has also shown that there may be a large amount of liquid water and water ice on Ceres, and it is very likely to be an ocean planet, and terraforming it may be more difficult than terraforming Mars. for fit.

In August last year, NASA also announced another research report on Ceres, showing that Ceres may be an ocean planet with 40% liquid water inside. At the same time, because the detector discovered water vapor on Ceres, existence, which also makes some researchers suspect that there may be life on Ceres.

How did Ceres evolve?

When it comes to the formation of asteroids in the asteroid belt, scientists believe that they are generally related to the large collisions of planets in the early solar system. Although there are only eight planets in the solar system today, modern scientific research believes that in the early days of the birth of the solar system, the number of planets in the solar system may have been at least hundreds.

We all know that as a yellow dwarf star, the sun itself does not have a large mass. This also means that a large number of planets gather around the sun, but the sun cannot allocate enough orbits for them. .

Therefore, an "orbital battle" started among the early planets. Most of the planets eventually became fragments in the impact. Affected by Jupiter's gravity, they gathered between Mars and Jupiter. During this period, the asteroid belt was formed.

Of course, there are some special ones, such as protoplanets like Ceres. What is a protoplanet? To put it simply, it is a planet in its budding stage. Due to some reasons, for example, it suffered a heavy blow in the early stage of evolution, resulting in the loss of a large amount of mass, etc., which caused it to be unable to evolve normally.

Therefore, in the end, the protoplanet was preserved in the form of a "dwarf planet". It was also an independent and complete individual, and was the predecessor of the terrestrial planet. Therefore, it had a fierce interior Activity, the interior can continuously generate heat energy, allowing it to become an ocean planet.

Research believes that Ceres’ liquid ocean should be located between the stratum and the core. Because it is far away from the sun, ice is formed on its surface due to insufficient light. Therefore, it Only then will the ocean be "sealed" inside.

Is Ceres really suitable for humans?

We mentioned at the beginning of the article that at this stage, the most suitable planet for human settlement is Mars, the current focus of exploration. However, there are many problems in the transformation of Mars. After all, the interior of Mars is in a "dead" state and Mars has no magnetic field. This also means that even if humans successfully simulate the Earth's environment on the surface of Mars, Mars may not be able to provide humans with habitable space for too long.

To put it more bluntly, Mars' internal activities are inactive, resulting in its own inability to continue to provide heat energy and other help so that humans can successfully transform it in the short term.

But Ceres is different. As we said above, Ceres is a planet with very active internal movements. Many years ago, scientists proposed a plan to transform Ceres.

For example, build multiple "space stations" orbiting Ceres, each of which can accommodate 5,000 people. In these small space cities, rotation can also be simulated. Gravity environment on Earth.

In addition, the surface of Ceres can also be modified to increase its surface temperature through some methods and allow it to form an atmosphere similar to the Earth. In this way, many resources can be self-sufficient on Ceres. Self-sufficient, humans can also directly use transportation devices to provide the "satellite cities" around Ceres with a steady supply of resources.

However, because Ceres is in the asteroid belt, we all know that the number of asteroids in the asteroid belt is measured in millions. This also means that Ceres is among them, and There will be more chances of being hit, which means Ceres is not as stable as we thought.

At the same time, Ceres is a dwarf planet after all. It is even much smaller than the moon. Relatively speaking, its surface land area cannot support too many human habitations. Compared with Mars, although Mars It is small, but the land area on Mars is similar to that on Earth, which also means that Mars can host more humans.

In addition to Ceres and Mars, scientists have also been trying to find new homes for humans for many years. Although during research, many scientists have discovered that there are suitable places outside the solar system. The inhabited planet is suitable for humans to move in with their bags, but humans may never reach it.

Because the universe is so big and human beings are so slow, even if we can fly at the speed of light, it will take nearly 9 years for us to go back and forth to the nearest Proxima Centauri star system.

Other habitable planets are even further out of reach. Therefore, the focus of human immigration in the future will still be the inner solar system. So, in your opinion, which planet in the inner solar system is the most reliable? ?