What is Orbital Resonance?

I wrote about Jupiter's Galileo moons in a previous article. 

Would you like to hear something else interesting about these moons?

Three of the four moons known as the Galileo moons are in resonance with each other as they orbit around Jupiter.

What do you mean they are in resonance?

What is resonance? 

If I have to explain it with an example, they usually give this example, so let me give the same example.

If a company of soldiers walks at the proper pace while crossing a bridge, even the bridge can collapse due to resonance. 

That's why, as those who are soldiers know, you don't cross the bridge with a proper step, but with a free step.

In other words, since the steps taken by all those soldiers at certain intervals during the march are taken with a certain period, if the periods of these steps are compatible with the natural periods of the bridge, the huge bridge starts to shake and the shaking increases. If the bridge is not designed for such swaying, it cannot withstand the forces caused by resonance and collapses.

Resonance, in general terms, is the harmony in the periodic movements of two things.

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Going back to the Galileo satellites, three of these satellites were orbiting around Jupiter in resonance with each other.

One of them was orbiting Jupiter for a certain period of time, the other one was making two orbits around Jupiter, and the third one was making three orbits.

You may say, what is there to be surprised about? 

Actually, of course, there is nothing to be surprised about. But how this resonance occurs is a subject of research.

In addition, whether this resonance has any effect in any way has been a subject of investigation for space scientists, and the result of the research has resulted in a very interesting conclusion.

Apparently, resonance and orbital motion cause them to be more stable in their orbits than other moons of Jupiter.

In other words, their orbits are almost locked. 

Compared to the other moons, they are relatively stable in their orbits without any wobble or wobble and without any change in their orbital diameters.

In a previous article I wrote about the orbital anomaly of one of Saturn's moons (Hyperion).

This is the opposite, with the three moons locked together so that there is not even the slightest deviation in their orbits.

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As you know, the moon and the earth are also locked in another way. From Earth, we always see the same surface of the moon. 

The Galileo satellites were also in motion, not in such a way that they always showed one face to Jupiter, but their orbital movements were locked among themselves.

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The enthusiasm for taking a more detailed look at space with the help of telescopes, which started with Galileo (before that, people only watched the sky with the naked eye!), is now done with super telescopes and the information obtained from these telescopes is used by many scientists working in different branches of science.

In addition to the astrophysicists' research on black holes, the expansion of the universe, galaxies, dark matter, galaxy motions at the edge of the observable universe, another branch of science that makes use of these telescopes is the search for earth-like planets.

I think scientists are convinced that mankind will eventually turn our beautiful Earth into an uninhabitable place.

On the other hand, as I've written before, the day will come when our sun will run out of fuel. This is also a scientific fact.

Although this sad end is still a long way off, perhaps just out of curiosity, the search for another habitable Earth-like planet is being pursued vigorously these days.

Already, over 5,000 potentially habitable planets have been identified in the Milky Way. 

This number does not include the millions of planets in other galaxies in the universe. These are only the planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, that appear to be suitable.

It is also said that some of them may no longer be there, but it is still useful for analyzing the available images and the possibility of finding something interesting.

Don't ask what this means, many of the planets detected are tens of thousands of light years away. 

So even our Milky Way galaxy is a pretty big galaxy.

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy whose disk is 80 thousand light years across! It is 2,000 light years thick. At its center is a bulge 15 thousand light years in diameter. 

And at the very center, as you know, there is a huge black hole that will one day swallow the entire galaxy. 

This is the black hole that was photographed last year. 

Sagittarius A*.  That's its name!

It's a gigantic black hole with almost 4 million times the mass of our sun!

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By the way, I say light years for distance, but the year is not a unit of distance, so don't say it's a unit of time. 

A light year is the length of the distance light travels in a year. 

Light travels a distance of almost 300 thousand kilometers per second, it circles the earth more than 7 times in one second, so you can calculate how far it travels.

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With telescopes we can get images from millions and billions of years ago.

I'm talking about images from other galaxies, but maybe now that star has exploded and destroyed the planets around it! Do we have any way of knowing that? No. Because a lot of things could have happened in between until its light reached us.

That's what they are talking about when they say that some planets may not be there.

In fact, if we destroy this world one day, even if there really is a habitable planet somewhere, it may be impossible for human beings to reach it.

There is also something called special relativity, where the faster you go, the slower time slows down for you. So maybe one day, if mankind manages to build spacecraft that go fast enough, it might at least be possible to bring life to another planet!

In the meantime, though, hundreds of years will pass on Earth and there will be a lot of people living on Earth.

So let me not forget to say that we should take care of the beautiful world we live in.

***

During this search for habitable planets, it was realized that somewhere far away there are planets locked together by orbital resonance like the Galileo satellites.

Now more in-depth studies are being conducted on these planets.

Of course, it is not possible to reach them with today's technology, but if there is a way to go there tomorrow, it is thought that the chances of reaching these planets are much higher because they are in resonance with the other planets around them in their orbits.

Therefore, it was decided to study these planets in more detail.

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Of course, the investigations are not limited to this. 

The project is called "Earth 2.0 Research" and it is thought that in the next 20 years, with these and many other criteria, the options in the search for Earth-like habitable planets can be reduced from thousands to 15-20 planets. 

Spectrum graphs and many other methods are used in the research. For this purpose, remote spectrum graphs of the Earth were also taken. By making comparisons, they are trying to decide on the most suitable planets for Earth's conditions.

Although the Kepler telescope and other telescopes and information from satellites sent out of the solar system are currently being used intensively for this purpose, more technological satellites are planned to be sent into space in the near future for this purpose.

So this is a very long-term project.

It seems that scientists are working hard to get rid of the Earth as soon as possible.

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Scientists all over the world are starting from different points of view and thinking about all sorts of things, aren't they?

Why don't we study the sky? 

Or have we driven a stake into this world as a nation?

I thought the Republic of Turkey was supposed to last forever?

If we don't start now, there may not be a world in which this nation can survive. 

It is as if mankind has sworn an oath to make the world an uninhabitable place. They are constantly fighting with each other and never hesitate to start wars.

Even nuclear wars can be one of the horrible endings in front of the world as a risk at any moment.

I think if we don't start space exploration now, like other developed countries, then we will be left behind as always.

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Jokes aside, we also have very valuable scientists who contribute to space studies in the world. 

Unfortunately, most of them continue their work outside the country, in other countries.

Maybe they are doing well, because we have not even decided what kind of future we want for ourselves. 

We keep drifting this way and that, following the rulers in charge.

Maybe one day we will wise up.

Stay with science, you will not be wrong.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow