The huge asteroid called Polyhymnia is incredibly dense, so much so that it cannot consist of chemical elements known to science. In a new study, scientists suggest that it is all from elements of the periodic table that have not yet been discovered. But there are other possibilities.
The asteroid was discovered in 1854. Back then, small planets were given proper names, and so this planet acquired the name “Polyhymnia.”
It has a strange orbit and although it rotates between Mars and Jupiter, as large asteroids do, its path is elongated, and from time to time Polyhymnia ends up quite close to Earth. However, modeling says that the orbit is in an unstable resonance with Jupiter and is chaotic. In several thousand years, the asteroid may be dislodged and carried in an unpredictable manner.
A couple of days ago, a popular Italian astronomer-streamer observed the asteroid near the moon and broadcast the show live for several hours:
If these are asteroids, if they are now somewhere near the moon, then we will carry out simple calculations.
Let us take the distance from the Earth to the moon to be 360,000 kilometers. Dividing this by 3,600 we get 100 – that is, the number of hours it would take for an asteroid flying at a speed of 1 km/sec and located near the moon to reach Earth.
The average speed of asteroids in the Solar System is about 20 km/sec, that is, 20 times faster than 1 km/sec, but this is the speed relative to the Sun. Relative to the Earth, it is usually either significantly smaller or significantly larger, depending on which side the planetoid flies from. Therefore, 1 km/sec is an average speed and it suggests that if the Italian saw the asteroid near the moon then it will crash into the Earth within a week, at most, or within a day, at least.
We don’t think it’s an asteroid. Most likely this is some kind of artificial object, very large, comparable in size to the Death Star from Star Wars. And what it’s doing in the orbit of the moon is scary and of course, interesting.
Today, even small children understand that the moon is not “our satellite” at all, but the base of some incomprehensible creatures that most likely rule human civilization. And there’s no need to prove or show anything – just look at the moon through a simple telescope:
Laws of physics are “broken”
The size of Polyhymnia is impressive – 55 kilometers – and it is quite light. But the main thing is its average density, 75 grams per cubic centimeter. For comparison, the density of lead is only 11 grams. There is no element in nature with such density.
As astronomers put it when they determined this parameter, “such a high density is unnatural.” Thus, the laws of physics have been broken.
There are several other asteroids with this density, so Polyhymnia is not alone.
For some time scientists thought that the density was determined incorrectly. To find out the density, you need to divide the mass by the volume. We can find out the volume reliably, but the mass – only by the impact of Polyhymnia on other bodies, and inaccuracies cannot be ruled out here. However, there is still no error.
A new study by US astronomers puts the question squarely: what if Polyhymnia consists of elements heavier than those in the periodic table?
Today, the periodic table ends at element number 118 – oganesson. But it does not exist in nature: Oganesson, after many attempts, was synthesized at a nuclear accelerator in Russia in 2006. It is incredibly unstable, and you won’t be able to hold a piece of oganesson in your hands. The element is available to us only in the form of individual atoms. The heaviest one that can be found in a mine, and not in a reactor, and could be held in hands is the metal osmium with a density of 22 grams per cubic centimeter.
And this is generally the problem with superheavy elements: they fall apart. If the asteroid consists of such things, then there are two immediate questions: where did they come from if they do not exist in nature, and why did they not fall apart?
Physicists have long assumed that somewhere far away in the periodic table there is an element with number 164, and it is stable. This place in the table, which no one saw, was called the “Island of Stability.” It is around this assumption that speculation revolves around the new study. According to calculations, the density of the substance in the area of the “Island of Stability” is approximately 65 grams. The mathematics presented in the study seem convincing.
However, what is unclear is this if this “Island of Stability” exists and if nature creates such elements. Why are they not on Earth, in the form of stones? And the authors themselves admit that there remains room for other hypotheses.
Other hypotheses
Recently, another group of astronomers suggested that Polyhymnia is loaded with dark matter. That would really explain everything. We don’t see dark matter, so the size of the asteroid is what it is. But dark matter provides mass. The mass is huge, the apparent size is small – the density is gigantic.
But here, of course, there are continuous pitfalls. No one has ever observed dark matter, and recent research even claims that it does not exist. If it exists, why did it accumulate there? Is Polyhymnia a messenger from another Universe made of dark matter?
Well, since Polyhymnia is a “messenger,” then the cards are in the hands of conspiracy theorists. Of course, the spaceship hypothesis has been floating around the Internet for a long time. It consists from a substance unknown to science, to overcome gravity and exceed the speed of light.
Although we do not yet have photographs of the Polyhymnia, it looks like it is a roughly round body with a rotation time of 18 hours around its axis. Here is Oumuamua, that asteroid that flew towards us from behind the stars – it was strange in shape, like a flattened plate. Even many astronomers believe that it was an alien ship. But here everything doesn’t quite add up. Although who knows what an alien ship really looks like?
Could Polyhymnia, this big 50-kilometer colossus hover from above and take the “harvest.”? Or the “harvest” will take plave on a planetary scale and after a nuclear exchange, where three billion will go to a space cannery. Or to an enrichment plant, where they will face hardship for the next million years.
Thus, there may be different options and we do not exclude any. But in any case, there is little good in the presence of this big thing near the moon.
