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Remember these dates. Why is this important? Usually we look at the night sky and see a completely still, calm picture. It seems as if the universe has pressed pause, but this is a grand illusion. Right now, an asteroid the size of a smarachos is hurtling toward us at breakneck speed. In a neighboring constellation, a dead star has reached critical mass and is about to be illuminated or undergo a thermonuclear explosion. Meanwhile, our own moon is preparing to take a brutal hit, and we're watching this outburst in real time. The craziest thing is that these major shows don't take place in some abstract future, but in our lifetimes. To see the first of these, you don't even
have to wait decades, because it's happening right now, in 2026. If you look at the constellation Corona Norte, you will see a bright new star. It shines almost as brightly as the North Star. Although just yesterday there was absolute emptiness in its place. It seems that the night sky has simply been decorated with another bright dot. But don't let that put you off. Behind this even light lies the epicenter of a colossal catastrophe. In the northern corona system, a faint white dwarf rotates in tandem with a massive red giant.
They are so close to each other that for decades the dwarf's gravity sucks gas from its neighbor. All this hydrogen accumulates on the surface of the dwarf. The temperature and pressure increase until they reach a critical point. The result is a predicted massive thermonuclear explosion. What looks like a simple twinkling star from the ground is actually a wall of expanding plasma heated to a million degrees. But here's the most interesting thing. The explosion itself occurred 3,000 years ago. It took the light all
this time to cross the void and reach us today. Soon this light will go out, and the dwarf will resume his voracious work in the darkness. But cosmic events don't just change the night sky. True darkness will descend on the earth in broad daylight. In August 2027, the sun will go out. Sounds like a normal solar eclipse. A comedy astronomical trick lasting a couple of minutes. But this time, there will be a glitch in the mechanics of the universe The sun will go out for an incredible 6 minutes and 23 seconds. This will be the longest total eclipse remaining in our century. It is on this day that the moon will approach the Earth at the minimum possible distance, becoming huge in our sky.
Meanwhile, the Earth will move away from the sun to its maximum distance. As a result, the giant lunar disk will easily block out the tiny star. still with in reserve. Such perfect alignment of orbits is an immense rarity. A completely black shadow almost 300 km wide will cut the planet from southern Spain to the abyss. It will plunge the Egyptian pyramids in Luxor into darkness and sweep directly over Mecca. Moreover, the shadow will race across the planet at a terrifying speed of about 2,500 km/h.
You wouldn't be able to escape this darkness even on a passenger Boeing. But this time, there will be a glitch in the mechanics of the universe. But in 6 minutes the light will return. As scary as an eclipse may seem, it is a completely safe phenomenon that astronomers can predict to the nearest second. The problem is that there are things in space whose orbits are much more difficult to predict. In just a year and a half, in April 2029, an asteroid the size of a skyscraper will approach Earth. And it's heading straight for our satellite zone. On April 13, 202, Apophis, an asteroid the size of the Empire State Building, will fly past Earth. In the early 2000s, astronomers seriously
considered the possibility of its collision with our planet. A blow of such force, Esther, without casting the Earth, an entire continent. The calculations have been clarified. There will be no collision, but it will pass at a distance of only 32,000 km. That's 12 times closer than the moon. Apophis will dive even deeper than our ring of weather and communications satellites. In Europe and Africa, you can see it just by looking up, a shining dot gliding quickly across the night sky. At the moment of maximum approach, Apophis will not simply fly past Earth.
Gravity heavyweight. Cholesterol will enter our zone of influence, the tidal forces of the planet will literally start tearing it apart. Gravity will pull on the near side of Apophis much more strongly than the far side. This will cause massive asteroid tremors. The Earth will deform the shape of this rock, change its rotation, and rewrite its orbit forever. But objects without such enormous mass and a dense atmosphere don't stand a chance. This is exactly what our moon will experience in 2032.
For several months, astronomers have been observing the asteroid 2024YR4. The probability that this 60-meter stone would be in the moon in December 2032 was 4.3%. For orbital mechanics, this is a critical level of threat. The moon does not have a dense atmosphere that could tear an object apart. A rock weighing hundreds of thousands of tons would hit the surface at full speed. The energy of the explosion was about 15 megatons, hundreds of times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The explosion would have raised a cloud of debris that could have been fatal to satellites in lunar orbit. New radar data from ground-based observatories allowed the trajectory to be refined The collision is canceled.
In December 2032, the asteroid will pass the moon by only 21,000 km. By cosmic standards, it's a hair's breadth away from us. But the orbital mechanics work flawlessly. There will be no collision. We can calmly watch as the stone flies back into the darkness. And while it disappears, the night sky is preparing something completely different for us. This time, an incredibly bright spectacle. On this day, you will look up and see a blood red giant dominating the sky. It will shine so incredibly brightly that it will begin to cast its own shadows on the ground. It may seem like a supernova has exploded in space or another threat is approaching us. But there's no need to panic. It's our neighbor
Mars that decided to break its usual distance and come very close to Earth. Mars usually hangs about 225 million kilometers from us, sometimes moving as far as 400 million. But this time, it will reach the closest point in its orbit to the Sun just as Earth passes directly between them. The distance will be reduced by a factor of four, decreasing to some 55.9 million km. By cosmic standards, that's at arm's length. This is a historical record of our century. Mars was last approaching so close that in 2003. In August 2050, you won't need billion-dollar orbital telescopes. Through the cheapest amateur optics, you will see not just a red dot, but an alien world with its ice caps and global hail storms.
This close encounter with Mars will be the major astronomical event of 2050. And in 11 years, the sky will prepare another epic comeback, for which humanity has been waiting for more than half a century. In This is not just a flying piece of ice. This is the first comet in history to prove that the entire universe operates on a strict schedule. Why did it become the most famous comet in human history? It's not about its size. The thing is, it abolished our fear of space. Until the 10th century, comets were considered harbingers of the apocalypse. They appeared out of nowhere and spread panic. But astronomer Edmond Halley dispelled this fear with the help of mathematics.
He proved that the objects that had terrified Europe for centuries were not different harbingers of doom, but one and the same stone. Tied to the sun by an invisible gravitational chain, it returns every 76 years. This is the only comet that a person has a chance to see twice in their lifetime. On her last visit in 1986, she was, frankly, disappointing. The Earth and the coma were on opposite sides of the sun, at a huge distance from each other. So to most people on Earth, the legendary comet looked like a tiny, blurry gray spot.
People were buying binoculars en masse, but back then it was difficult to see anything spectacular. But in July 2061, orbital mechanics will repay us. We will be on one side of the star, at the perfect distance. This magnificent bright tail, which we will finally be able to see in all its glory, is actually a comet being cooked alive as it approaches the sun. This 15-kilometer piece of dirty ice will be fried in a vacuum. It will shed millions of tons of matter, fly past us, and plunge back into darkness until the year 2134. He will leave behind only a trace and a cut.
Halley's Comet is a quiet primal show. A sheet of ice melting in the void. But the next item on our calendar will change the genre and show us the real primitive people. In the year 2083, a new dawn will suddenly break out over the earth. It will appear out of nowhere and in a matter of days will become the brightest dot in the night sky, eclipsing Sirius and Venus. For a few weeks, this light will change the usual pattern of constellations. You might think this is the death throes of a giant. But this is not the death of one star. This is a catastrophic head-on collision between the two.
Right now, the Vistula system is a pair of dim stars locked in a gravitational death grip. A dead white dwarf literally sucks the plasma out of its neighbor. Because of this, they rapidly lose orbital velocity and spiral closer to each other. In 2083, the distance will be reduced to zero. The white dwarf will sink into the core of its neighbor. This is not just a collision. This is a fatal fusion that will trigger a thermonuclear explosion. Then the glow will gradually fade, leaving behind one star instead of two. This is the greatest catastrophe of our century that we will be able to see with the naked eye. But even the merger of two stars pales in comparison to the event that awaits us next. In March,
those who point their telescopes at Jupiter will see something incredible. The planet's four largest satellites will disappear, merging into a single shining point. After the thermonuclear explosion of the arrow's lash, one would think that we would witness another massive cosmic collision. But this time there will be no disaster. The universe will show us a mathematically perfect optical illusion. Io. Europe. Ganymede and Callisto orbit Jupiter in the same plane. In 2092, the Earth will pass perfectly through this level. Orbital rhythms line up in an extremely rare parade. Some of the moons will pass directly in front of Jupiter's disk,
merging with its clouds, while others will disappear into a giant black shadow behind the planet. Moreover, the satellites will begin to obscure each other. Massive Ganymede will cast its shadow directly onto Europa's ice, shutting out its light for an Earth-based observer. This deceptive geometry will only last a couple of hours. Then the satellites will come out in a wall and the Jupiter system will return to its usual state. Events are just happening above us right now, and they are already in motion. Some unfold slowly. Some are approaching moments that we can witness in our lifetimes.
The sky is not static. This is a timeline, and it moves. All it asks is that we remember to look up. If you like the new format, I would appreciate it if you would subscribe, turn on notifications, or give me a like. Your support motivates me to create even more and make videos even better.
