The plot distorts society and stifles scientific progress

Bratislava, Feb. 3 (TASR) – The public has recently learned of the discovery of a planet called Farout, which is currently the furthest object in the solar system. At Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, where the discovery was published, also works the Slovakian astronomer Peter Vereš.

It belongs to scientists who map the solar system – our home space, which must still surprise us.

Many like to watch the stars, but not everyone will become an astronomer. What did you do to this profession?

It started with the Sky book on the palm that I put in my hands at the age of seven. Since then, I have been interested in the universe, reading astronomy books, attending the Zilina observatory or looking at the night sky with a small telescope.

It can be said that I started as an amateur astronomer. I was studying for a professional career in astronomy at a high school and then at the faculty of mathematics, physics and computer science at Comenius University in Bratislava, where she studied.

Astronomy involves a lot of people as a hobby. Do you consider that the observation of amateur astronomers is beneficial from a scientific point of view?

Although most enthusiasts or amateur astronomers have missed the career of professional astronomer for various reasons, astronomy has drawn them to technical and scientific directions. For example, in the United States, the basics of astronomy, as well as geology, are the most popular elective subjects of the first year of university.

Amateur astronomers view the sky as a hobby, but also popularize science and research and educate potential professionals. At the same time, they have easier access to better observation techniques and, in many cases, are involved in research.

How did you end up at a workplace in the ocean, even on the famous Harvard? And how would you explain to the lay reader, what are you doing specifically?

It was a sequence of events. At first, as a doctor, I wanted to attend international scientific conferences. I must remember that at that time, it was almost impossible, because lack of financial resources or non-existent conference grants, students and doctoral students did not go de facto and, exceptionally, scientists.

Thanks to the support of my colleagues and the faculty dean's office, I finally managed to do it. It must be remembered that "matfyz" has always been a leader in mathematics and physics, and even in the case of a material security weaker than that of Western universities, research has been accepted in prestigious journals Foreign.

Through this experience, I received a scholarship for a winter school in Japan and a summer school in Italy. A year later, I spent six months in observatories in Hawaii through the scholarship of the Slovak Academic and Information Agency (SAIA).

Since I work in the United States?

Since 2011. As a postdoctoral fellow, I have worked for three years in Hawaii, two years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Caltech / NASA) and, since 2017, I am a permanent researcher at the Center for Research. Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysics.

I work at the Minor Planet Center, a global center that receives observations of asteroids and comets, calculates their tracks, also publishes the names and names of asteroids and comets and counts their positions. I am involved in the development of new software, meetings with our Global Defense Coordination Office (NASA) and the evaluation of grants.

I also do independent research, usually from the data we have at the center – they represent 800,000 tracks and 200 million observable positions. I work with colleagues from other institutions in Hawaii, Arizona, JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California) or Slovakia. I am delighted that our workplace is growing and that NASA's global defense spending is increasing year by year.

Hidden under the term "planetary defense" mapping and assessing the threat of a collision between the Earth and another body, such as an asteroid? And is this subject also interesting from a scientific point of view?

Global defense now includes the discovery of near-Earth asteroids larger than 100 meters and the probability of collision with the Earth. We try not only to discover asteroids and comets, but also to refine their tracks and improve the services of our center. In addition to global defense, it is wise to conduct fundamental research – we know what and where it is in the solar system.

These objects are more and more frequent in spaceships, so it is logical that they were first discovered and that their trajectory is sufficiently precise. These bodies tell us about the origin and development of the solar system, they can explain how water or organic molecules have arrived on Earth. In the near future, they will be able to provide the equipment we will benefit from. Especially water and precious metals.

NASA-funded professional workplaces in the United States have dominated the last 10-15 years, but a number of discoveries and follow-ups are also supported by amateur astronomers.

What is revealed to us by the observation of "little brothers and sisters", that is to say, smaller bodies that fly in our atmosphere as a meteor (bolid)?

Meteorites make up the smallest fragments of comets and asteroids and measure only a few millimeters to a few centimeters. These help us indirectly to follow the evolution of the comet, for example, or, on the contrary, to find the body that created the meteor swarm. We learn from their spectrum the chemical composition of the material that dies in our atmosphere when the body flies away and fades like a meteor, a shooting star.

Until now, it is the simplest method because only a small part of the asteroids know their spectral properties and only a few of them have been visited by spacecraft. Only one asteroid, Itokawa, was able to carry a few grams of material on Earth. Two other probes are being routed to the asteroid. In the coming years, they will bring additional equipment: the Hayabusa 2 probe is located on the Ryug asyroid and the OSIRIS-REx probe on the planet Benna. .

The public recorded the discovery of a planet called Farout. In recent years, despite advances in observer technology, we have learned more about the bodies on the periphery of the solar system behind Neptune's orbit. What are the discoveries of this kind to tell us? To what extent can we consider that the solar system is courted today?

At the Kuiper Belt of Neptune, we have so far found less body than the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, but it is a selective effect. Because they are so far away, we find the biggest ones first. But we now know that the Kuiper band reveals a number of bodies and masses as the main belt. In fact, the main belt is essentially an asteroid belt behind Neptune.

In addition to the classical Kuiper belt, in which the bodies circulate on more or less circular paths or little eccentric, there is a population of bodies scattered with eccentric paths. These paths were disturbed during the encounter with Neptune, but their nearest distances to the sun (perihelia) are close to Neptune.

The bodies with Farout (2018 VG18) or Goblin (2015 TG387) are far away. Some of the paths of the outermost bodies also have eccentric elliptical paths that seem to have been ejected from their unknown gravitational force.

Is it linked to assumptions that there should be a planet still unrecognizable behind Neptune?

Yes, the discoveries of a few objects whose periellias were well beyond Neptune encouraged the theory of an unusually large and currently intensely sought-after planet. This research with the largest telescopes – eight to ten meter telescopes in Hawaii and Chile – has brought together a large number of newly discovered Transneptunian bodies, including exotic bodies such as Farout and Goblin.

The discovery is probably never over, as larger and newer devices always bring something new. Neither the existence of a new planet can explain the peculiarities of the solar system. The scattered paths may be the result of a very large cloud cloud at Oort, the flight of another star at the edge of the solar system, or even some other gravity-related physics, according to MOND.

According to this theory, the gravitational acceleration is not based on classical Newtonian physics at very low accelerations, and therefore at great distances from the central body.

What are the most recent astronomical discoveries that you think are most interesting?

Among the interests of recent years, there is the discovery of the first "Oumuamu", a body that went through the solar system and came out of another star. Another discovery is a number of distant objects behind the Kuiper Belt that support the existence of an unidentified planet, as well as the discovery of a new target for the New Horizons spacecraft. – a body nicknamed "Ultima Thule" around which the probe flew on January 1st of this year and which is more than 6 years old. 6 billion kilometers.

The telescope was searching for Hubble telescope astronomers during the flight of the probe, so that it was in the flight path of the probe after flying around Pluto. This is the farthest body examined by the probe. Finally, I mention the rapid increase of the recently discovered quasi-asteroid, as well as special shapes of objects from the Kuiper belt or the nearby small asteroid.

How do you explain that, on the one hand, human knowledge transcends new and new boundaries and that, on the other hand, many people think that the Earth is flat, that – as expressed by your colleague, astronomer Jiří Grygar, is the general ignorance of basic things so striking?

I believe that breakthroughs will come, the question is when and who will discover them. I consider the development of society and its priorities as a problem. On the one hand, technological advances make life easier, on the other hand, many people become lazy, stop thinking and indiscriminately accept unverified information. A prestige of research and exploration is perceived and basic education often fails.

Positive lack, vision of the future and scientists in management positions. And thanks to social networks and the Internet, more and more people are easily manipulated and confident in any kind of stupidity, whose purpose is only profit and targeted manipulation. Populism and the inability to tackle current socio-economic challenges is not only a science but also a potential breakthrough

A flat land without foundation, a conspirator plot on the Moon or chemtrails distort not only the society, but also hinder the technological progress or the financing of the science. I would like to be able to live in a functional fusion reactor (ITER). However, new discoveries in the field of sub-nuclear physics are essential for ITER. Without the support of basic research, only existing procedures are improved and they crawl on the ground.