Review of the best mosquito traps. Dust trap - regions are formed near young stars in which the growth of future comets is possible - What about funding

Earlier this year, three Russian amateur astronomers became laureates of the international Wilson Prize. One of the most prestigious awards in astronomy is awarded for the discovery of new comets. The pioneers of space travelers are mainly large observatories with powerful telescopes. But sometimes amateurs are also lucky, whose names immediately end up in the star encyclopedia.

This message literally blew up scientific Internet sites. Amateur astronomers Artem Novichonok and Vitaly Nevsky discovered a new comet. This November it will fly close to the Sun, and its glow will be visible even during the day. Such events are very rare in astronomy. We can consider our contemporaries to be very lucky.

“When its Sun heats up, and this ice block begins to actively evaporate and envelops itself in a large cloud of gas, it will be an amazing sight,” says Vladimir Surdin, a senior researcher at the State Astronomical Institute. “It will probably be the brightest comet of the 21st century.”

In the capital of Karelia, Petrozavodsk, Artem Novichonok is an ordinary graduate student biologist at a state university. However, now his name is inscribed in history, and the found comet is on a par with such discoveries of mankind as Halley’s comet. However, Novichonok has a philosophical attitude towards this. Search for comets - gambling, and the opening is a jackpot.

“The most important thing is passion,” admits amateur astronomer Artem Novichonok. “You start searching, you get excited about it, you search further, you work hard, you come to a result.”

It’s minus 20 outside and windy, but for a true stargazer this is not a problem. And although all the great discoveries today often occur in a warm office in front of a monitor, astronomers are still drawn to freedom.

“It’s interesting for me to look not just at the computer, but also to look at the object live, where there is an asteroid, a distant galaxy, for me this dramatic component remains,” explains Artem. “You want to see it yourself.”

Artem discovered his now famous comet at an observatory in the North Caucasus. Together with the same fans from Belarus - Vitaly Nevsky. A few pictures of the starry sky in the Constellation of Gemini and - incredible luck.

“The stars are motionless. To find a comet, it is necessary to photograph some part of the sky at different intervals of time (short, it can be five minutes), and then these images are compared,” continues Artem. “The stars are motionless, and asteroids or comets move. Our the task is to understand whether it is a known object or not.”

According to statistics, more than fifty comets are discovered a year, and space is a real treasure trove of undiscovered objects. And yet, it is becoming increasingly difficult for amateur astronomers to search for tailed wanderers. It is no longer possible for individuals to compete with the world's observatories - they have to resort to tricks.

Leonid Elenin is a professional comet catcher. In history modern Russia he is the first amateur astronomer to discover a comet. In the starry sky, as in the water, there are “fishy” places.

“Basically, everyone observes in the ecliptic plane,” says Leonid. “There is the most “grain” zone where everyone works, so the probability is greater, but since there is very high competition there, you have to move further away.”

Comets - unique objects space. They appeared 4.5 billion years ago from a cloud of gas and dust, from which the Sun and planets were once born. Systems thrown to the periphery, where the maximum low temperatures, did not occur in comets chemical reactions. It turns out that they are carriers of the original substance. For astronomers, penetrating into the bowels of a comet means unraveling the mystery of the appearance of the universe itself.

“Firstly, we don’t know what’s inside the Sun; so far we have only superficially studied it,” adds Vladimir Surdin.

Scientists have made repeated attempts to penetrate the secrets of comets. In 1986, the Soviet spacecraft Vega-1 and Vega-2 approached the legendary Comet Halley, which flies near the Earth once every 75 years.

“The approach with comet Halley was very short,” says Vladimir Kurt, deputy of the Astrospace Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute. “They moved towards each other, the entire approach session lasted only 20 minutes.”

Then, for the first time, it was possible to photograph the nucleus of the legendary Comet Halley and even measure it. It turned out that the space wanderer, 15 kilometers long, looks like a burnt firebrand, from the surface of which up to 40 tons of ice per second evaporates.

Today in the scientific world there are many different versions associated with comets. For example, due to the huge amount of ice, comets are considered the main suppliers of water to the Moon and Mercury. Moreover, scientists increasingly believe that it was they who filled our planet with oceans, and, possibly, with life, with the first microorganisms. There is an assumption that the influenza virus also comes from comets. Hypotheses are still being tested.

The problem called “mosquitoes are gone” is known to each of us. Its solution is relevant not only for summer residents and residents of the private sector located near a lake or other body of water. Bloodsuckers attack apartment owners in city high-rises. Moreover, the number of floors is not a hindrance for them. Disillusioned with the advertised exterminators, craftsmen are trying to find their own method of fighting. A DIY mosquito trap is an alternative to tablets, ointments, aerosols, electronic traps and other industrial devices.

Can be made from improvised materials

The operating principle of homemade and industrial catchers is based on the physiology of mosquitoes: they are attracted to heat, the smell of urea secreted by human sweat glands, CO2 (exhaled gas) and water. A home mosquito trap does not require the purchase of expensive chemicals or motion sensors. In your household you will always find a piece of cardboard or other thick paper, castor oil (castor oil), turpentine, rosin, water and sugar. This kit can be used to make adhesive sheets or tape. The work is as follows:

• An adhesive bait solution is prepared. To do this, dissolve 3 tablespoons in 5 tablespoons of water. Sahara. The sweet liquid is heated until it boils. Stir until thickened.
• Hot sugar syrup mixed with half a glass of rosin, a quarter glass of turpentine and 100 g of castor oil until a homogeneous sticky mass is formed.
• The prepared composition is applied to cut paper strips or a whole format sheet.
• The finished trap is placed near a resting place on the street or at the entrance to a room. You can bring it into the house and watch how mosquitoes flock to the smell and stick to the paper.
• As the catcher becomes full of insects, it should be changed. Usually this is done once a week.

Attention! Another composition is used as an impregnation for paper tapes: pine resin (0.3 kg), linseed oil (0.15 kg), beeswax (0.01 kg), honey (0.05 kg).

"Ode" to a plastic bottle

Plastic containers are used in various fields in our country. After it is empty, enterprising users do not throw away the container, but create a mass useful devices for household use. So it came in handy for fighting bloodsuckers.

To make a homemade catcher you will need a bottle with a capacity of 1.5-2.0 liters, granulated sugar (0.5 cups), 5 g of yeast. The operating principle of the future device is based on attracting insects to flock to the smell of carbon dioxide. It is exhaled by humans and warm-blooded animals. This mosquito trap is made from plastic bottle It is precisely the CO2 emitted that attracts insects. The manufacturing algorithm is as follows.

• The plastic container is cut crosswise. There should be 2 fragments. The one that contains the cone-neck must be at least 1/3 total length vessel.
• The cone-shaped funnel is tightly inserted into the lower (bottom) part of the bottle upside down.
• The junction of both halves is sealed with tape.

The catcher design is ready. All that remains is to prepare the bait.

• Sugar dissolves in half a glass of slightly warmed water (no more than 30°C). Then the yeast is bred (you can use Saf-Moment).
• The resulting composition is mixed well and poured into the prepared plastic trap(lower bottom part).
• The level of the sweet fermenting solution should be such that the edges of the neck do not reach it.

It would be good to use dark beer or kvass bottles so that mosquitoes are not repelled by bright light. If the plastic is light, the structure is wrapped in opaque paper or mirror foil. Soon fermentation processes will begin in the installed trap, releasing an aroma and heat that attracts mosquitoes, which mosquitoes also fly towards. Having flown through a narrow neck, insects will not be able to get back out. After the fermentation process of the bait is completed (and this lasts several days), it should be replaced.

Attention! It is necessary to strictly follow the recipe when preparing the solution. If the water is not warm enough, fermentation may stop or not begin at all. And with an excess of sugar and yeast, foaming will increase: the solution will rise sharply and begin to “climb out” of the trap. In this case, remove excess foam.

Such a device is easy to construct and install in the house or on the veranda. The undoubted advantage of the trap is its ease of manufacture, autonomy and silent operation.

A simple mosquito trap can be made from a piece of gauze coated with insect glue. The treated fabric is stretched over ventilation holes and shafts. It can also be used for window openings.

A trap for insects based on UV radiation can be made from a lamp daylight power 20 W, enclosed in mesh fittings. Mesh weaving consists of two metal wires under tension. For safe servicing, the model is placed in a woven mesh case. The trap works as follows: mosquitoes are attracted ultraviolet radiation, fly towards it and come under the influence of voltage applied to the electrical grid. On the one hand, the device fights insects, and on the other, it is a source of soft, calm lighting.

Electronic device made from an economy lamp

If you are familiar with electrical engineering, then an economy class lamp with a used resource can be used for homemade design traps. You will also need a high-voltage module and a AA battery.

• The light bulb is disassembled and the necessary parts are removed.
• 2 holes are drilled into which soft aluminum wire is threaded. One end is fixed and the wire is wound in a spiral around the light bulb.
• The rest of it is bitten off.
• The same operation is performed at the other end, through another drilled hole.
• Two “original” wire ends come out of the light bulb. One of them is connected to the end of the wound aluminum wire and twists tightly on it.
• The remaining 2 terminals (from the light bulb and the aluminum wire) are connected to the module, previously connected through a switch to the battery.
• A light bulb with a high-voltage winding is placed on the connected module. This must be done so that the wiring on both parts coincides and their contact occurs.
• The resulting trap device turns on and the lamp lights up. Mosquitoes flock to its light. As soon as they sit on the body of the lamp covered with wire, they are immediately struck by a current discharge.
• A polyethylene lid is used as a tray for fallen insects. She sticks construction glue to the bottom of the lamp.
• A loop is made of wire at the top of the catcher for hanging.
• The device operates when the general light is turned off.

Night catch of mosquitoes

Well, if we’re really tired of the bloodsuckers... Our compatriot turns on the vacuum cleaner at 3 am and collects them from the walls and ceiling.

If the premises are dominated by mosquitoes, one catcher will not be enough. Strengthening the effect is achieved by placing several traps throughout all rooms in problem areas different designs. The moment of adaptation must also be taken into account. If it is discovered that the trap does not work (there are no or few insects in it), the structure or bait itself must be replaced with a new one, and after a while, return to the previous version.

The situation is similar with birth. celestial bodies. There are a number of theories regarding the birth of planets. There are also assumptions for asteroids and comets, and all of them, of course, have as their central point the attraction of particles of the protoplanetary disk to each other. After a star emerges, there are only tiny particles of dust in its accretion disk, and they have a long way to go to large stones, planetesimals, planets. This process remains a mystery, the main part of which the high-altitude interferometer helped to solve.

Computer simulations show that dust particles in the star's surroundings can stick together during collisions. However, a particle enlarged in this way, colliding with its own kind at enormous speed, is destroyed. The process stops long before reaching the size of asteroids. If for some reason the particle avoided dangerous collisions or survived them, another danger awaits it. Having increased in size, it begins to experience greater resistance when moving through the protoplanetary disk. Its orbit decreases and it eventually falls into the star. It turns out that there must be places in the disk where dust particles have a chance to grow to large sizes, after which they become harmless typical problems smaller brothers. The lifespan of such a dust trap should be hundreds of thousands of years. This is how long it takes for a large dust particle to “grow up”. After the trap ceases to exist, the particles that were in it continue to move in close orbits and decay very slowly, which favors further growth.

Images from ALMA (green - millimeter wave, 450 nm) and the Very Large Telescope (orange - infrared, 18 nm) (eso.org)

Models of such a process were proposed a long time ago, and their observational confirmation was received only a few months ago. Luck was with Ninke van der Marel, an employee of the Leiden Observatory. Of course, it was not the equipment of the ancient observatory that was used. The ALMA interferometer, recently put into operation, made it possible to observe the protoplanetary disk around the star Oph-IRS 48. The distance to the star is about 400 light years. The observations were made before the interferometer was officially launched using less than half of its constituent radio telescopes. The work was carried out in the range of 0.4–0.5 millimeters (in this range the interferometer so far has the best resolution). Previous observations of this star using the Very Large Telescope showed that dust in the disk collects in disk-shaped structures, and the first observations using a radio telescope showed that very similar holes can be seen in the gas disk, which were initially attributed to those already born in the disk planets, large asteroids or even a companion star.

“At first, the structures found in the dust cloud images came as a surprise,” says Marel. “Instead of the ring we expected to see, what appeared before us was the exact shape of a cashew nut. We had to spend a lot of time convincing ourselves that this structure was real, and the high spatial resolution and clarity of the ALMA image left no shadow of doubt. Then we quickly realized what this discovery meant.” The discovered structure is the very area where large dust particles are trapped, but protected from destruction and can continue to grow. This is an ideal dust trap from a theoretical point of view. “Apparently, what appears before our eyes is a factory for the production of comets. The conditions inside the trap are just ideal for dust to grow from tiny millimeter-sized particles to full-fledged nuclei of future comets. The formation of a full-fledged planet at such a distance from the star seems unlikely. Soon, however, the ALMA interferometer will be able to observe dust traps closer to the star, and exactly the same mechanisms should be at work there. All that remains is to wait for the discovery of the cradles of the planets in the dust.”

Dust traps form when dust particles enter areas of high pressure. Modeling showed that such areas of high pressure can be born when gas moves at the edge of an area practically devoid of it - just the same one that was discovered in the early stages of observation. “Combining modeling and observation work with a high-precision interferometer makes the work unique,” ​​says Cornelis Dulemo, a researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Heidelberg, who is responsible for the theoretical part of the work. – Just at the time of obtaining observational data, we were working on models that predicted the birth of such structures. Amazing coincidence!

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Do you know how the telescope complex in the Hawaiian Islands works? A powerful instrument with a two-meter mirror and a 1.4 gigapixel matrix methodically photographs fragments of deep space. Comparing with previous images, the system records the movement and change in brightness of objects. The entire accessible area of ​​the sky is scanned three times a month. This is how comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) was discovered a year and a half ago. A tiny piece of ice flying at great speed in the blackness of the interstellar vacuum.

The names of modern comets are assigned according to a simple model. First the prefix.
P/ - short-period comet (that is, a comet whose period is less than 200 years, or which was observed at two or more perihelion passages);
C/ - long-period comet;
X/ - a comet for which a reliable orbit could not be calculated (usually for historical comets);
D/ - comets have collapsed or been lost;
A/ - objects that were mistakenly taken for comets, but actually turned out to be asteroids.

Let's decipher our comet: Long-period (of course! The next flyby of the Earth will be in 110 thousand years!), discovered in 2011 in the first half of June. And this is the fourth comet discovered this month.

The peak brightness of C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) occurred in early March this year. They say that the comet glowed in the evening sky comparable to the Moon and was visible naked eye. Alas, the Moscow spring spoiled us with exceptional cloudiness and unsurpassed abundance of precipitation. There is no point in taking out a telescope in such weather.

And finally, for three nights in a row, the clearest ringing sky. As luck would have it, I made a mistake in the telescope settings and was unable to observe the comet. Yesterday I made friends with technology again. I share what I saw.

Total exposure 13 minutes 20 seconds.
This frame is defective in assembly. Here the comet's nucleus was processed incorrectly and ended up elongated. However, I like this picture
2.

The result of assembling half of the frames. I removed from the addition pictures with strong movements of the telescope.
3.

And, traditionally, a single frame from the series. This is the kind of garbage we get pictures from.
4.

Something like this this time...