Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 55 i All About Space

Discover the wonders of the universe @ NASA At 100,000 light years across – that’s the distance between our home planet and the Sun some 6 billion times over – the Milky Way is by no means a small structure. That is, until you compare it to our universe’s galactic giants – the biggest known structure, elliptical IC 1101, is 6 million light years in diameter and dwarfs our home galaxy. Despite being so big and relatively easy to spot, the behemoths of our universe still continue to mystify scientists. How did they get so big? What formed first: the supermassive black holes at their centre or the galactic structure around them? This month, we meet the experts with some answers. The universe hosts many facets that leave us questioning…

Dark matter particle still remains elusive Attempts to find what experts believe to be the signature of the mysterious material prove unsuccessful After 20 months of anticipation and hope, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment has failed to find any trace of the dark matter particle, even though the invisible material is thought to make up four-fifths of the universe’s mass. The study threw up a blank, despite using an incredibly sensitive detector located 1.6 kilometres (one mile) underground in a former gold mine in South Dakota, US. It was thought that if dark matter particles had interacted with LUX that the detector would have detected it. It had been looking for weakly interacting particles (WIMPs), which are thought to be – in theory – the most likely…

SUPERGIANT GALAXIES Classed as some of the most massive objects in the universe, these cosmic behemoths are also the most mysterious Written by Giles Sparrow  Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is big. With a diameter of 100,000 light years, this enormous disc of stars is on the large size for a spiral galaxy, and along with the similarly sized Andromeda Galaxy, it dominates our local group of galaxies – a region of space about 10 million light years across. So imagine a galaxy extending to almost 20 times the diameter of the one we call home – so big that if it were to replace our Milky Way, it would not only engulf nearby satellite galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds, but its outer limits would reach nearly all the…

Spacewalk safety During a spacewalk, there can be huge temperature fluctuations of close to 260 degrees Celsius (500 degrees Fahrenheit). Water-circulating tubing is placed within the spacesuit beneath layers of Mylar, which reflects sunlight. The suits also have cooling fans. The Sun’s glare is a major danger for astronauts due to the lack of a protective atmosphere in space. The body is covered by the suit and the helmet’s visor is coated with a thin layer of gold to filter out the Sun’s harmful rays. Making a mistake while performing a task because it hasn’t been encountered before could cause a mission to fail. The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near NASA’s Johnson Space Center has a pool with 6.2mn gallons of water: perfect for learning floating techniques. In the vacuum of…

Where scientists think wormholes exist If they are out there, astronomers think that they know where these portals through space-time could be hiding Centre of the Milky Way Last year Italian researchers suggested there could be a wormhole lurking in the centre of the Milky Way some 27,000 light years away. Ordinarily, a wormhole would need some exotic matter to keep it open, but researchers believe dark matter might be doing the job instead. Inside a black hole Rather than having a singularity at the centre as general relativity predicts, some researchers believe we’d find a wormhole – one that could allow us to make the journey from Interstellar a reality. However, the jury is out on whether it would be big enough for a human to traverse. Quantum foam…

How do we know if we’ve found a wormhole? There are several clues to look out for if we find a candidate for a space-time portal Gravitational wave ringdown echo The gravitational waves from colliding black holes die away very quickly. But two colliding wormholes would produce an echo detectable with the next generation of experiments. Microlensing If a wormhole passed in front of a distant star it would bend the star’s light slightly in an event called ‘microlensing’. The technique has already been used to find rogue planets. © Shutterstock; Caltech; MIT; LIGO Laboratory; ESO; B. Tafreshi; NASA; ESA; D. Coe; G. Bacon; CXC; M.Weiss; CQGplus; Les Bossinas Heading into one Some scientists believe that black holes are actually wormholes in disguise. It’s a risky endeavour but sending something…

A big eye on the sky 70 FAST’s diameter is 70 per cent larger than that of the Arecibo dish’s 305m (1,000ft) 80 FAST has a viewing angle of 80 degrees – twice the size of Arecibo’s 3 FAST will be up to three times more sensitive than Arecibo 4,000 The number of pulsars FAST will be able to find in our galaxy alone, most of which it will find in less than a year 1,000 The distance in light years from which FAST will be able to detect a signal £136 million The whole project cost 1.2 billion yuan, or just over £136 million 10 million The number of new, distant galaxies that FAST could detect during surveys Annulus and pylons These are FAST’s supporting…

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY OUR EXPERTS In proud association with the National Space Centre www.spacecentre.co.uk Sophie Allan National Space Academy Education Officer Sophie studied astrophysics at university. She has a special interest in astrobiology and planetary science. Josh Barker Education Team Presenter Having earned a master’s in physics and astrophysics, Josh continues to pursue his interest in space at the National Space Centre. Gemma Lavender Editor Gemma holds a master's degree in astrophysics, is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and an Associate Member of the Institute of Physics. Robin Hague ScienceWriter Robin has a degree in physics with space technology and a master's in hybrid rocket engine design. He contributes regularly to All About Space. Tamela Maciel Space Communications Manager Tamela has a degree in astrophysics and writes…

DEEP SPACE How do black holes reveal their location? Andrew Kamp Black holes cannot be seen, but their effects can reveal their presence. In the constellation of Cygnus, a blue supergiant is being pulled into a teardrop shape, causing its light to flicker. It completes an orbit every 5.6 days, and as it turns, hydrogen gas is stripped from its surface at speeds of 1,500 kilometres (932 miles) per second. The star is locked in a fatal dance with a black hole – Cygnus X-1 – and as the black hole spins, dust and gas from the star accumulate in a vast swirling whirlpool. Particles spiral towards the event horizon, like water circling a drain, and as they fall inwards the friction releases bright flares and flashes of X-ray light.…

SOLAR SYSTEM Why do Venus and Uranus have strange spins? Thomas Winston It’s something that we’re still attempting to find out. When our Solar System was made from the swirling pancake of gas and dust that would later clump together to make the planets, this industrious construction yard in space threw the planets on a counterclockwise orbit and an axial spin. Venus might follow suit in its orbit, but its rotation is opposite to the other planets at 177 degrees. It prefers to rotate in a clockwise direction. Further out rests Uranus, which was probably impacted by a number of other bodies in the early Solar System, causing it to be thrown onto its side so that it rolls, rather than spins, around the Sun. In the case of…

DEEP SPACE Can stars grow inside one another? Markus Smith According to physicist Kip Thorne and astronomer Anna ›ytkow, stars can grow inside one another. Thorne-›ytkow Objects (TZOs), also known as hybrid stars, are strange objects where one star is packed inside the larger shell of another. It’s thought that TZOs are made when a dense, small and dead star – such as a neutron star – is swallowed by a larger dying red giant. TZOs were regarded as hypothetical when they were proposed in the 1970s; the first candidate for such a hybrid star – named HV 2112 – was only discovered in 2014. It lies in the Small Magellanic Cloud, about 200,000 light years away. JB…

How to… Hunt for an asteroid There are some small rocky bodies in the Solar System that you can see with a telescope @ James Caldwell; Alamy You’ll need: • Star chart or planetarium • Medium-sized telescope or larger • Tracking mount Asteroids are rocky bodies that orbit the Sun and they can vary enormously in size, from around ten metres (32.9 feet) across to something the size of a small moon. A large number of them are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and some of the very largest ones are detectable in amateur telescopes and are often named. The third largest asteroid known and the second one to be discovered in this ‘asteroid belt’ is called 2 Pallas, and it was first recorded in 1802…

Me & My Telescope Send your astrophotography images to photos@spaceanswers.com for a chance to see them featured in All About Space Alastair Woodward Derby, UK Telescope: Sky-Watcher 130PDS “When I initially began observing the night sky, in particular the Moon, I wanted to keep strictly to visual astronomy. However, after six months of gazing at the stars, I wanted to get a better record of my observations, which led to an interest in astrophotography. My appreciation of dark skies was realised when I stayed in a small, inland village located in the south of France. The skies were the darkest I have ever seen, with stellar views of the Milky Way.” Mohammad Mireskandari Markazi, Iran “Using my Nikon D7000 camera as well as a Tokina lens, I captured this beautiful…

WORTH £210! WIN A MEADE WILDERNESS 20-60X80 SPOTTING SCOPE BaK-4 prisms, anti-reflection coatings and a waterproof casing make this instrument ideal for casual astronomy If you’re a lover of the great outdoors and enjoy nothing more than dabbling in everything from bird-watching to observing the night sky, the Meade Wilderness provides stunning views like no other. It features high index Bak-4 prisms, as well as high-quality, precision lenses fi nished with layers of anti-refl ection coatings, for optimal performance equivalent to or better than any spotting scope in its class. Magnifi cations from 20x to 60x, combined with an 80mm objective, provide bright and detailed images for a superb viewing experience. A sliding sunshade to reduce glare and rugged, rubber armour also provides an exquisite fi nish, creating a waterproof…

Contributors Giles Sparrow How are the biggest galaxies in our universe made? Giles gets an exclusive, up-to-date look at what we know about these cosmic behemoths. Turn to page 18 to find out more. Colin Stuart This issue, Colin goes on a hunt for wormholes, portals through space-time, and meets the scientists who think that they exist along the way. Jonny O’Callaghan After NASA decided to keep the Dawn spacecraft at Ceres, rather than send it to asteroid 145 Adeona, Jonny looks at what we’ve learned about dwarf planets from the mission so far. Kulvinder Singh Chadha With the world’s largest radio telescope now complete, Kulvinder reveals how it will hunt for alien life and provide a new window to our universe. “The Lunar Roving Vehicle drove on the…

Record-breaking ASTRONAUTS Journeying into space is a feat in itself but who has the greatest bragging rights? Written by David Crookes There appears to be a record for just about anything. From the longest fingernails and the fastest tortoise to the largest arcade machine and the wealthiest cat, they can range from the curious to the downright weird. Tens of thousands of people from virtually every country across the globe clamour for a place in the record books each year, but few are as out-of-this world as the feats that have taken place in space. In April this year, Guinness World Records confirmed that ESA astronaut Tim Peake had achieved the fastest marathon in orbit, having run the London Marathon 400 kilometres (249 miles) above Earth on the International Space…

BIGGEST SPACE GATHERING STS-127 ISS As STS-127 docked with the ISS more than 354 kilometres (220 miles) above the Australian coast in July 2009, it led to the most extraordinary of meet-ups. What should have been a routine mission to deliver and install the last two components for the Japanese Experiment Module actually became a record-breaker for the largest crowd to ever gather in orbit. The craft had seven astronauts on board while the ISS had six. So when the 13 people met, they were able to smash the previous record of ten. But as well as being large in number, the group was also diverse. That’s because the Space Shuttle had six US astronauts on board – Mark Polansky, Douglas Hurley, Christopher Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn, David Wolf and Timothy…

MOST SPACEWALKS Anatoly Solovyev It will surely take a long time before someone manages to break the record for the most spacewalks set by Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev. By the time he retired in 1999 – nine years after embarking on his first spacewalk – the former fighter pilot had a staggering 16 extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) under his belt. Solovyev’s first trip saw him spend seven hours and 16 minutes repairing thermal protection gear, and he went on to rack up a mighty 82 hours and 22 minutes worth of spacewalks. To put Solovyev’s achievement into context, NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who takes second place, carried out ‘just’ ten spacewalks during his career, totalling 67 hours and 40 minutes. Solovyez’s record was set during five missions on board the Mir…

LONGEST TIME IN LUNAR ORBIT Ronald Evans While Ronald Evans was within the command module waiting for Apollo 17 to launch, he promptly fell asleep, much to the amusement of the crew. But there was plenty of time to be alert: the Apollo 17 mission lasted for 12 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes and 59 seconds and, of the crew who journeyed skyward on that dark December night in 1972, it was command module pilot Evans who ended up breaking the record for the longest time in lunar orbit. The mission marked Evans’ first time in space but, as it turned out, he would become the last person to orbit the Moon alone. He stayed in lunar orbit for six days and four hours, observing geological features and snapping pictures…

FURTHEST DISTANCE INTO SPACE Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise © NASA; Getty Images; Bruce Weaver; Robert Markowitz; KSC Apollo 13 was an unlucky mission. The idea had been for Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise to land in the Fra Mauro area of the Moon. But one of the oxygen tanks on board the spacecraft suffered catastrophic failure, blowing up 55 hours and 55 minutes into its flight. It caused the other tank to fail, which in turn led to the loss of the Command Module’s electricity, light and water. The alarming issue was relayed to mission control with the infamous words, “Houston, we have a problem...” With the oxygen in the second tank fast depleting into space, a lunar landing was impossible and attention turned towards…

How wormholes are made If these space-time tunnels do exist, what would they look like and how would they come into existence? 1 Collapse of the core When a gigantic star – with a mass much more than 20 times the mass of the Sun – dies, sometimes a black hole is formed. When we refer to a star dying, we mean that it no longer has any nuclear fuel to burn and this means that gravity is unable to override an outward force. The core has no choice but to collapse in on itself in the catastrophic explosion of a supernova. The devastated star’s outer layers are expelled into space while the core continues to shrink in size. 2 A cosmic plughole Shrinking smaller and smaller, the core continues…

New Horizons: Life after Pluto As the NASA mission is extended for a further five years, co-investigator John Spencer details his hopes for the next leg of the journey Interviewed by David Crookes “ Pluto was far more complex, varied and active than we could have ever hoped. New Horizons was our first close-up look at an ice dwarf planet” INTERVIEW BIO John Spencer John Spencer is a key member of the New Horizons mission that has been exploring the edge of our Solar System. The craft was launched in 2006 and successfully performed a flyby of Pluto last summer, with Dr Spencer among the planetary scientists poring over the data. Born in Colne, UK, Spencer has a PhD in planetary science from the University of Arizona. He now works…

ASTRONOMY What targets can I observe during the day? Simone Carter The Sun Optical aid: Pinhole camera A simple pinhole camera will reveal the largest sunspots and you can attach cameras and filters to telescopes to see prominences, filaments and flares. Warning: never view the Sun directly! The Moon Minimum optical aid: Unaided eye Whether you can see the Moon during the day depends on where it is on its journey around Earth. If it is on the dayside then it will be visible and most often less than half illuminated. Venus Minimum optical aid: Unaided eye Venus is bright as it reflects a lot of sunlight towards Earth. It is never too far from the Sun in the sky, so use your hand to block out some of the…

DEEP SPACE What is the Gould Belt? Sean Druitt All around the Solar System is a giant loop of stars and star formations in the ghostly shape of nebulae. Scientists think that this ring – which is 3,000 light years across and called the Gould Belt – was created when dark matter fell onto the Milky Way around 30 million years ago and collided with a giant cloud of molecular hydrogen gas. The impact caused the Milky Way to see more stars, literally, as the gas then collapsed and hot stellar infants were formed. Ripples spread out from the epicentre of the collision and we see one of those ripples today – in the form of the Gould Belt. JB…

SPACE EXPLORATION How do astronauts make coffee in space? Adam Duguid It’s quite a complex task, but that hasn’t put off the Italian Space Agency, who has teamed up with space food engineering company Argotec and coffee giant Lavazza to make a machine that could be used in microgravity. The project, named ISSpresso, ran for about 18 months. Water at high temperatures and pressures is difficult to manage in space, so it was a serious engineering challenge. Plastics were replaced with steel tubing capable of withstanding pressures of up to 400 bar (5,800 pounds per square inch) – for comparison, the pressure on Earth is one bar (14.5 pounds per square inch) – and it weighed a hefty 25 kilograms (55 pounds). The ISSpresso machine works in a similar way…

SPACE EXPLORATION How many types of space station are there? The ISS is the largest and best-known space station, but it is not the first or the last in space Liam Mckenna The first description of a space station came in a short story, The Brick Moon, written in 1869 by American author Edward Everett Hale. It is also thought to be the first description of an artificial satellite, and satellite navigation, as a 61-metre (200-foot) wide brick sphere is launched into orbit as a navigational aid. However, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky carried out the first scientific work on space stations in the early 20th century. Slovenian scientist Herman Potocnik then put forward the classic rotating ring-shaped design in his 1929 book The Problem Of Space Travel. Ultimately, it would…

Get on the lookout for 2 Pallas Asteroids can be quite tricky to spot, so follow these steps to improve your chances A telescope with an aperture of at least three-inches (75mm) for a refractor, or six-inches (150mm) for a reflector, should reveal the asteroid. Use a low-to-medium power eyepiece and increase the magnification a little once you are looking at the right part of the sky. A tracking mount is useful, too, to keep the field of view constant. Use your star chart to pinpoint 2 Pallas and check this part of the sky over the course of a few nights to check the movement of the asteroid against the background stars. 1 Wait for culmination The asteroid culminates (reaches its highest point) around midnight UST on 21-22 August.…

In the shops The latest books, apps, software, tech and accessories for space and astronomy fans alike App Galaxy Collider Cost: £0.79 / $0.99 From: iTunes If you want to be a master of galaxy smashing, then the Galaxy Collider app is the smartphone app for you. By simulating the physics of interacting galaxies, this app is quite an accurate simulation of what happens when these giant structures merge. Galaxy Collider is great fun to use and allows you to alter the size and number of galaxies in the simulation before you smash them together. On a couple of occasions though, we found that there were several glitches in the running of the app. For example, after a certain period of time had elapsed, the galaxies would reset even if…

News in Brief Astronomers confirm more than 100 new planets Astronomers working with NASA’s Kepler spacecraft on the K2 mission have confirmed an impressive 104 planets outside of our Solar System. One of them is a planetary system of four potentially rocky planets, each of which are between 20 and 50 per cent larger than Earth and are orbiting the K2-72 M dwarf star, which is located some 181 light years away. Air-con could make alien worlds habitable Researchers at Belgium’s largest university, KU Leuven, believe that exoplanets with a freezing half and a very hot half – thanks to the presence of permanent day and night sides – could produce their own natural air-conditioning system in order to balance out the overall temperature of the exoplanet. In theory, this…

Hubble studies atmosphere of Earth-sized planets for the first time Exoplanets thought to be like Earth are the focus of a fresh search for atmospheres © NASA; JPL; Caltech; C.H. Faham; ESA; G. Bacon The search for the atmospheres of a pair of Earth-sized exoplanets over 40 light years away has begun. Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, they have been peering at TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, hoping for evidence suggesting habitability, and they have already found that the chances of these exoplanets having puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres are low. “The lack of a smothering hydrogen and helium envelope increases the chances for habitability,” says Nikole Lewis of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Maryland. “If they had a hydrogen-helium envelope, they could not support life as the dense atmosphere acts like a…

Sizing up galaxies Most of the largest structures are elliptical in form, but there are some notable exceptions © NASA; ESA; ESO; the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Richard Wainscoat; Alamy; S. Beckwith (STScI); STScl; D. Ducros; Chris Mihos (Case Western Reserve University); VLT; Judy Schmidt; JPL; Caltech; SDSS; NRAO Milky Way Size of galaxy: 100,000 light years Type of galaxy: Barred spiral NGC 4889 Distance: 310mn light years Size of galaxy: 1mn light years Type of galaxy: Elliptical One of two supergiant elliptical galaxies that anchor the Coma Cluster, NGC 4889 is home to a central black hole that contains a staggering 21bn solar masses of material. NGC 5128 Distance: 12mn light years Size of galaxy: 260,000 light years Type of galaxy: Elliptical/lenticular This nearby active galaxy, also known as…

A series of space firsts 1965 18 March 1965 First ever spacewalk Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov stepped outside Voskhod-2 for a 12-minute EVA but his bloated spacesuit stopped him re-entering the capsule until he dangerously reduced the pressure. 1970 3 June 1965 America’s debut spacewalk Ed White became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. He pushed himself out of the capsule using a hand-held manoeuvring oxygen-jet gun. 1975 25 May 1973 First repair job After the Skylab space station suffered some damage during its unmanned launch on 14 May 1973, the first of three repair crews were sent up to space in order to fix it. 1980 7 February 1984 First untethered spacewalk NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless made the first untethered free flight using the jetpack-like Manned Manoeuvring Unit, also…

If they exist, could we travel through a wormhole? YES Vitor Cardoso University of Lisbon, Portugal “ The possibility of using wormholes to travel is not completely excluded, at a theoretical level. However, to even create a wormhole requires exotic matter that we have never seen here on Earth.” NO Diego Rubiera-Garcia University of Lisbon, Portugal “ The problem is that usually these wormholes are very small, and when I say small, I mean really, really small. So it is not possible for a real observer to pass through that wormhole.”…

SOLAR SYSTEM How could water have existed when the Sun was young and faint? Ben Laugharne It’s still a mystery to astronomers. When our planet was young, it would have been showered with light that was only 70 per cent of the intensity that our Sun throws out now. In other words, the Sun was quite faint and, according to the likes of astronomers Carl Sagan and George Mullen in 1972, it wouldn’t have been able to support water in a liquid consistency but more of a frozen one. This is what we refer to as the faint young Sun paradox. Teams of scientists have traced back into the Earth’s early years and believe that its atmosphere could have harboured more greenhouse gases. Choking carbon dioxide levels might have been…

SPACE EXPLORATION How did the Apollo 13 crew overcome the explosion of their fuel tanks? Mike Lockwood 1 Lift-off 00:00:00 Upon lift-off in 1970, Apollo 13 is the third manned mission to the lunar surface. The crew plan to explore the Fra Mauro region on the nearside of the Moon. 2 Television transmission 55:14:00 Shortly before the explosion, the crew take part in a live broadcast back to Earth, which is watched from the ground by their families. 3 “Houston, we’ve had a problem” 55:55:20 After the broadcast, the crew stir the oxygen tanks, which triggers an explosion in the support module, venting their oxygen supply and taking the fuel cells offline. 4 To the lifeboat 57:43:00 As the remaining oxygen dwindles, the crew abandon the command module and retreat…

ASTRONOMY Does the aurora look colourful to the naked eye? Anthony Scavo © NASA; ESA; SOHO; Zeynel Cebeci; JPL-Caltech; ESO; L. Calçada; ESA; SPIRE; PACS; P. André (CEA Saclay); Shutterstock You may be surprised to learn that it doesn’t – many picture the aurora to be a vivid green arc or curtain of light that is so bright that it reflects on the lakes and rivers it dances above. The truth is that the real thing is actually much paler and fainter than we are so used to seeing in photographs. You’ll see the dancing of the Northern Lights but the strong bold colours you see in pictures are actually achieved by the photographer, and more specifically the camera they are using. It’s true that the colours are real, but…

This month’s naked eye targets Late summer night skies are full of celestial wonders, particularly in Cygnus and Aquarius Messier 39 Just north of the North America Nebula, M39 is just visible to the naked eye and a superb target through decent binoculars. Fomalhaut This is a bright star of the Southern Hemisphere that is visible in much of the north, but only for a short time. Messier 15 Just on the edge of naked eye visibility, this globular star cluster looks like a fuzzy ball of light in 10x50 binoculars. Messier 2 Similar to Messier 15, this globular cluster is just on the limit of naked eye visibility. It contains some of the oldest stars in the universe. North America Nebula Lying just to the east of the bright…