Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 51 i All About Space

Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft one step closer to launch The ‘spaceport of the future’ has just wrapped reviews for ground support facilities ©. ESO; ESA; Hubble; M. Kornmesser; NASA; JHUAPL; SwRI; JPL-Caltech; Marshall Space Flight Center NASA has surpassed another big milestone as its Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft has its ground support systems and facilities reviewed and signed off. With this stage finally complete, the ‘spaceport of the future’ is edging ever closer to its projected November 2018 launch date. The end of the review follows a huge financial boost for the ground systems of the SLS, with £1.4 billion ($2 billion) being pumped into upgrading and revamping the launch pad and facilities at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. “NASA is developing and modernising…

2 Iapetus’ walnut wall The strange wall that runs along the equator of Saturn’s moon Iapetus remains a tantalising mystery. Discovered by NASA’s Cassini probe in 2004, the wall (or ‘equatorial ridge’) is 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) high in places, with some of the tallest mountains in the Solar System. Iapetus’ other claim to fame is the stark division between the dark hemisphere that faces forward in its orbit, and its far brighter trailing hemisphere – the ridge structure is only present on the moon’s darker side. Seen from space, the wall gives Iapetus a walnut-like appearance, and as with most curiosities of planetary geology, some have suggested that it might be an artificial structure. All the evidence, however, points to the ridge being a natural feature and many theories…

Holidaying in space Ron Garan has spent 179 days outside Earth's atmosphere and now he wants as many people as possible to follow in his footsteps Interviewed by David Crookes “When the Soyuz came to rest, I saw a rock, a flower and a blade of grass and I distinctly thought to myself, ‘I’m home’” INTERVIEWBIO Ron Garan Astronaut Ron Garan flew to the International Space Station on two missions, once on the Space Shuttle (STS-124) and the other on a Soyuz spacecraft (TMA-21). He has also completed four spacewalks. As an aquanaut, he plunged to the depths of the ocean, spending just over 18 days in Aquarius, Earth’s only undersea research lab. Having retired from NASA two years ago and spent time writing his book The Orbital Perspective, the…

Hubble vs. James Webb Scheduled for launch in 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will show us Earth-like worlds like never before Secondary mirror The mirror brings the light from the primary mirror to a focus in the instruments behind the primary mirror. Solar array Hubble has two panels that absorb sunlight and convert it directly into electricity. Packed with instruments The aft shroud contains Hubble’s wide-field camera, a high-speed photometer, faint-object spectrograph, faint-object camera, high-resolution spectrograph and fine-guidance sensors. Primary mirror Measuring 2.4m (7.8ft) in diameter, Hubble’s mirror is the smoothest of its size. Science Instrument Module (ISIM) Webb’s cameras and science instruments are housed in a module behind the primary mirror. Trim flap This ensures that the spacecraft is stabilised. Solar power array The solar power array is…

Transit of Mercury The ultimate guide to one of the Solar System’s showpiece events Written by Colin Stuart Roll up, roll up! The world is gearing up for the first transit of Mercury in nearly a decade. On 9 May the smallest planet in the Solar System will ghost in front of the solar disc as it passes directly between the Sun and us. The last time this happened was back in November 2006 and it won’t happen again until November 2019. Only 36 Mercury transits have taken place since Pierre Gassendi became the first person to observe one in 1631. While it has been happening for billions of years, it wasn’t seen until then due to the vast difference in size between Mercury and the Sun – you’ll need…

What happens during a transit? Take a look at how the Sun, Mercury and the Earth occasionally line up Mercury’s tilt Mercury’s orbit is inclined at seven degrees to the ecliptic plane, which means that on most orbits it fails to pass directly between the Sun and us. November transits Transits can also occur in November when the two planets are on the opposite side of the Sun. In fact, November transits are more common than May transits. Venus transits too Venus is the only other planet seen to transit in front of the Sun from Earth. However, these events are even rarer, with the next one not due until 2117. The ecliptic plane The path the Sun takes across our sky is known as the ecliptic. This line, extended…

This month’s planets Of the Solar System’s five bright planets, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are readily visible in the skies throughout May Planet of the month Mercury Right Ascension: 02h 58m 32s Declination: +19° 46’ 25” Constellation: Aries Magnitude: -2.2 Direction: West Having reached its greatest elongation on 18 April (20 degrees east of the Sun), Mercury heads back towards the Sun in the evening skies during late April, and is visible as an evening object low above the sunset horizon. It will become increasingly difficult to observe Mercury due to its close proximity to the Sun. Mercury’s westward path towards the Sun continues until 9 May. On the afternoon of 9 May, Mercury actually crosses the face of the Sun – a rare occurrence that can be seen…

Mare Crisium Fully exposed to the morning sunshine on 10 May, Mare Crisium offers spectacular bright views this month Top tip! Mare Crisium will make a spectacular sight in early May through any optical instrument, as it is fully exposed to the morning sunshine and will appear as a large, flooded crater. A Moon filter will improve contrast, toning down any glare that often washes out intricate features. Despite their name, the prominent lunar features known as ‘seas’ (‘maria’ in Latin) aren’t stretches of liquid water. They’re vast pools of dark lava that flooded low-lying areas (mainly impact basins) several billion years ago. These lava flows have long since solidified. It was only in ancient times – long before telescopes were first invented – that these dark patches, so clearly…

Polishing your telescope lens An easy guide to keep your refractor in tip-top condition Your refractor telescope can provide you with many years of good service and enjoyable observing sessions if you look after it properly. Following this step-by-step guide will ensure that you get the same sharp images and the ease of use you got the first time you took it out of the box. Just to reiterate, go lightly and don’t scrub the telescope lens. You should also keep the tube clean and the focuser well greased for optimum use. Remember, a little dirt is better than lots of scratches! If you come across something you are not sure about, don’t be afraid to ask an expert. 1 Check the lens for dirt Check your telescope lens in…

Image Mars at opposition The Red Planet is at its best for viewing this month. Here’s how you can capture it... © Hubble; NASA; David Crisp; WFPC2 Science Team; JPL-Caltech You’ll need: • Telescope • Mount (driven is useful) • DSLR camera • Remote shutter release • Barlow lens When a planet comes to opposition, it means that it is opposite the Sun in our skies. It also means that this is a really good time to observe it, as it is also usually about as near as it can get to us in our respective orbits. In other words, it is on the same side of the Sun as Earth and is available throughout the night for observing. This is the case for Mars this month. Mars has a…

Olivon T900 Sturdy armour, multicoated optics and a lightweight design make this spotting scope ideal for casual astronomy “ T as a grab-and-go telescope and for travel” Telescope advice Cost: £449.99 (approx. $640) From: Optical Hardware Ltd Type: Spotting scope Aperture: 3.5” Focal length: 21.2” Best for... Intermediate Medium budget Planetary viewing Lunar viewing Bright deep-sky objects The spotting scope isn’t very well associated with observing the night sky and is most commonly used by the avid nature watcher, who takes great enjoyment in getting close-up views of the local wildlife. Our experience with the T900 though, has quashed this stereotype as we found this robust spotting scope to be particularly useful in observing a selection of targets in the night sky – in particular, the Moon, star clusters and…

Frigid Pluto was once a warmer world New evidence of a frozen lake suggests the dwarf planet was once a very different place indeed As New Horizons scientists continue to study Pluto in more detail, NASA has spied evidence of several features that suggest the dwarf planet could have once had a different climate – one that could have supported liquids. The biggest find, a large frozen lake of nitrogen located in a mountain range just north of Pluto’s informally named Sputnik Planum, was glimpsed by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) when the spacecraft conducted a flyby of Pluto on 14 July 2015. The lake itself appears to be around 30 kilometres (19 miles) across. “In addition to this possible former lake, we also see evidence of channels…

7 WONDERS of the Solar System The worlds in our cosmic backyard play host to some amazing sights. All About Space presents the best of them all Just as ancient historians loved to draw up lists of the Seven Wonders of the World, deep in our modern age of interplanetary exploration, astronomers love to argue over the finest sights our Solar System has to offer. From the cracked crust of Mercury to the frozen mountains of Pluto, there’s a wealth of wonders to consider, so how do you even begin to make a list? Sticking to the traditional limit of seven wonders, our own selection aims to be as diverse as possible, with everything from ancient and unchanging geology to short-lived but beautiful atmospheric phenomena. Some of these wonders have…

6 Enceladus’ fountains Enceladus is an icy moon of Saturn with a diameter of just 500 kilometres (310 miles), yet it is unusually bright for its size. In the 1980s, the Voyager space probe images revealed that many of its craters were blotted out by what looked like a blanket of snow. This made the moon an obvious target for NASA’s Cassini probe when it arrived at Saturn in 2004. But what no one expected was that on its first approach to Enceladus, Cassini flew straight through a plume of icy particles arcing hundreds of kilometres above the moon’s south pole. Backlit images soon revealed the presence of several geyser-like jets erupting into the sky: much of the material falls back to dust Enceladus with pristine snow, but some escapes…

Clean craft construction Spacecraft construction takes place in a clean room to reduce the chances of contaminating other worlds…

Black hole power Interstellar flight will need a tremendous amount of energy; we may be able to store it in a miniature black hole “A Kugelblitz would be smaller than a proton, yet have a mass of 606,000 tons, and produce 160 Petawatts – 10,000 times the power consumption of humanity – for 3.5 years” Proxima Centauri Our closest neighbour is a red dwarf star 4.3 light years away. Proxima Centauri is a likely target for initial interstellar exploration. Engine The most efficient way to use the Kugelblitz is as an energy source used to power a separate dedicated propulsion system. Kugelblitz The heart of the starship would be the Kugelblitz microscopic black hole, the most incredible store of energy yet imagined. Energy harvesting shell The energy is extracted from…

Top six most Earth-like worlds To date, we’ve found several candidates that could be similar to our home planet Earth Size: 6,371km (3,959mi) Mass: 5.97x10››kg (1.317x10››lb) Parent star: G-type Kepler-438b Size: 1.12 times Earth Mass: Unknown Distance: 470 light years away Parent star: Red dwarf Discovered by: Kepler Space Telescope (2015) Kepler-442b Size: 1.34 times Earth Mass: 2.3 times Earth Distance: 1,120 light years away Parent star: Orange dwarf Discovered by: Kepler Space Telescope (2015) Gliese 667 Cc Size: 1.54 times Earth Mass: 3.8 times Earth Distance: 23.62 light years away Parent star: Red dwarf binary system Discovered by: European Southern Observatory (2009) KOI-3010.01 Size: 1.58 times Earth Mass: Unknown Distance: 1,250 light years away Parent star: G-type Discovered by: Kepler Space Telescope (unconfirmed) Kepler-62e Size: 1.61 times Earth Mass:…

How Falcon Heavy will lift its ‘super hefty’ cargo The rocket will offer three times the thrust of a single Falcon 9 rocket when it begins operations later this year First separation event After 167 seconds of burn time, the side boosters on the Falcon Heavy will reach depletion and be separated from the main core. Firing up for take off With all of its 27 engines firing at once, the Falcon Heavy will generate a staggering 20,000kN (4.5mn lb) of thrust and begin to take off. Boosters prepare for controlled descent The boosters will fire one last time to direct themselves away from the main core, readying themselves for landing back on the ground. Second separation The central core will power on for a few seconds more before its…

Where is the transit visible from? Getting a good glimpse of the event will depend on your location here on Earth Unfortunately for those living in Australia, Japan and Indonesia, the transit will not be visible as it will already be night by the time the event begins. Moving westwards, observers in China, India, The Middle East, most of Africa and Eastern Europe will be able to watch the majority of the transit, but the Sun will set before Mercury leaves the Sun’s disc. The further west your location is, the more of the 7.5-hour event you’ll have access to. Those in Portugal, Spain, France, the UK and Scandinavia will be able to the see the whole transit. In London, for example, the event begins at 12.12pm and ends at…

Image a meteor shower We have probably all seen shooting stars streaking across the sky. Here's how to take a picture of these fleeting flashes of light © Alamy You’ll need: • DSLR camera • Wide-angle lens • Tripod • Remote shutter release Around the 6 and 7 May each year, we can see a regular annual meteor shower in our skies, known as the Eta Aquarids. One of the interesting things about this meteor shower is that it has its origins in the famous Halley’s Comet. In fact, this comet, which revisits our part of the Solar System every 76 years, also gives rise to a second meteor shower that occurs in October, known as the Orionids. The Eta Aquarids are swift meteors with long paths, which make them…

The ‘Realm of the Galaxies’ and globular star clusters May’s skies are rich with objects to spot through your telescope, including globular star clusters If you look due south in the spring in the late evening, you are in fact looking out from the plain of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and out into deep space. It is in this region that you will find far distant objects to challenge your telescope, including dozens of galaxies. The part of the sky around the constellations of Leo, Virgo and Coma Berenices is known as the ‘Realm of the Galaxies’, and it is teeming with faint smudges of light, which is all that we can see of these island universes; each galaxy containing hundreds of millions of stars. There are some…

Mark Kelly He commanded the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour, despite suffering intense family turmoil On paper it was an easy mission; in reality it was one of the hardest things for an astronaut to do. Mark Kelly had been preparing to become commander of the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission, STS-134, in 2011 when he received the worst possible news: his wife, US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, had been shot in the head during an assassination attempt outside a supermarket in Arizona. That day – 8 January 2011 – six people, including a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge, were killed and 13 others were injured. Giffords had undergone emergency surgery to remove fragments of her skull and a tiny amount of necrotic tissue from her brain, and Kelly…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE @ NASA Suited and booted for spacecraft testing Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas have been busy analysing astronauts inside a mock-up of the Orion spacecraft – a capsule that may one day take humans to Mars. They are looking at how the astronauts interact with the hand controller and cursor control device while inside their Modified Advanced Crew Escape spacesuits. The controllers are used to operate Orion’s displays and control system, which will allow the crew to manoeuvre during missions into deep space. Moonset from the Space Station After a fruitless search for the continent of Antarctica from the International Space Station on 28 March, Expedition 47 flight engineer Tim Peake had to give up the hunt due…

Climate change seen on distant super-Earth The Spitzer Space Telescope reveals why the planet has major temperature swings NASA has performed the first temperature map of a distant super-Earth almost twice the size of our own. The data is an exciting step forward for the study of Earth-like exoplanets and brings us one step closer to understanding why this celestial body has such wildly different temperatures. “Our view of this planet keeps evolving,” comments Brice Olivier Demory of the University of Cambridge.. “The latest findings tell us the planet has hot nights and significantly hotter days. This indicates the planet inefficiently transports heat around itself. We propose this could be explained by an atmosphere that would exist only on the day side of the planet, or by lava flows at…

Opportunity takes on steepest ever Martian slope The long-serving rover is forced to turn back after a failing to climb a sharp incline on the Red Planet Recently, the veteran NASA Opportunity rover attempted its most ambitious excursion to date, climbing the steep slopes of the elevated area known as Knudsen Ridge. But despite three big attempts, the slope proved one incline too far for the plucky robot. Opportunity, which has been operating on the surface of the Red Planet for 12 years and counting, had been exploring the Marathon Valley on the western edge of the 22.5-kilometre (14-mile) wide Endeavour Crater in Meridiani Planum when NASA decided to push the rover to new limits by scaling Knudsen Ridge. The rover’s tilt hit 32 degrees on 10 March, with NASA…

1 Saturn’s rings Saturn’s astonishing ring system makes it the most beautiful planet in the Solar System – the brightest regions of the rings stretch to three times the diameter of the planet, while fainter clouds of material extend for thousands of kilometres into space. Each major ring is made up of narrow ringlets, and each ringlet is a stream of individual particles following near-perfect circular orbits around Saturn. The brightness of the rings varies depending on the material within them: the prominent A and B Rings are dominated by densely packed, house-sized chunks of water ice, while particles in the C and D rings are smaller and far more scattered. Between and within the rings lie several apparent gaps, most prominent of which is the Cassini Division between the…

4 Earth's light show Earth’s northern and southern lights, the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, are a wonder of the Solar System that come close to home. These colourful displays of glowing light result from the interaction between our planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere, and the stream of particles constantly flowing out from the Sun. Aurorae are created when electrically charged particles from the solar wind are drawn towards Earth and interact with scattered atoms and molecules of gases in the atmosphere. Collisions with the gas particles cause changes in their internal structure and give them a short-term energy boost, but this is rapidly dissipated through emission of electromagnetic radiation. The structure of Earth’s magnetic field creates funnels that channel and concentrate solar wind particles in ‘auroral ovals’ surrounding each…

7 Jupiter’s monstrous storm The most famous storm in the Solar System, the Great Red Spot (GRS) dominates the southern hemisphere of Jupiter, forming a baleful whirlpool in its turbulent atmosphere. The storm has been observed since the 1830s but was likely seen much earlier, by Jean-Dominique Cassini and others from the 1660s to 1713. And its disappearance for over a century may be because the spot periodically changes colour and size. At its peak, however, the GRS is a huge eye-like oval with twice the diameter of Earth. Studies of Jovian weather show that it is a vast anticyclone (rotating counterclockwise). As this is the opposite direction to the way storms rotate on Earth, it indicates the GRS is an area of high pressure. What’s more, infrared images show…

Constructing a craft for space ExoMars comprises both an orbiter and lander, but what are their components? Trace Gas Orbiter What it does: Measuring 3.2m by 2m by 2m (10.5ft by 6.6ft by 6.6ft) and with a mass of 3,618kg (30,022lbs) at launch, the Trace Gas Orbiter carries a scientific payload to Mars. What it’s made of: Carbon reinforced polymer – aluminium honeycomb material Company building it: OHB System and Thales Alenia Space France High-gain antenna What it does: This steerable 2.2m (7.2ft) dish is used to transmit data to and from Earth and receive commands. There are also three low-gain antennas. What it’s made of: Metal parabolic reflector with small feed antenna Company building it: Thales Alenia Space Italia FREND neutron detector What it does: The Fine Resolution Epithermal…

Using gravitational assists How using natural forces can reduce the amount of propellant needed for a spacecraft’s journey to space 1 We have lift off In order to reduce the amount of propellant used by a spacecraft, a technique was developed in the 1960s to make use of the relative movement and gravity of a planet. It was called a gravitational assist. 2 First swing-by In this diagram we are seeing how the spacecraft Cassini-Huygens first swung by Venus en route to Saturn, allowing a change in velocity of 7km/s (4.4mi/s). 3 Deep space manoeuvre In December 1998, Cassini-Huygens fired its large onboard rocket engine for 90 minutes, altering its trajectory so that it could swing by Venus for a second time. This manoeuvre slightly slowed its speed. 4 Second…

How we’ll find ANOTHER EARTH It may now be a matter of when, and not if, we find another planet like our own Written by Kulvinder Singh Chadha The first discovery of an exoplanet heralded a revolution for astronomy, eventually revealing just how many such objects could exist in the galaxy. It turns out that they are a legion. Now a second, more exciting revolution is taking place in exoplanetary science: the search for habitable, Earth-like worlds. When the first exoplanets – planets in other star systems – were being found from 1989 onwards, they were initially gas giants like Jupiter, and quite often much larger. Exoplanet detection was very much in its infancy throughout the 1990s due to the technological limitations of the time, so it made sense that…

GUIDES AND ADVICE TO GET STARTED IN AMATEUR ASTRONOMY What’s in the sky? Jargon buster Conjunction An alignment of celestial objects at the same celestial longitude. The conjunction of the Moon and the planets is determined with reference to the Sun. A planet is in conjunction with the Sun when it and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of the Sun. Opposition When a celestial body is in line with the Earth and Sun. During opposition, an object is visible for the whole night, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. At this point in its orbit, the celestial object is closest to Earth, making it appear bigger and brighter. Greatest elongation When the inner planets, Mercury and Venus, are at their maximum distance from the Sun. During greatest elongation,…

How to… Film the transit Given that transits of Mercury are reasonably rare – it’s been a decade since the last one – many observers are keen to capture the moment as a keepsake. Luckily, photographic equipment for astronomy has become relatively cheap and widely available and so this is pretty easy to do, particularly if you are already viewing the transit through a filtered telescope. If you capture a video of all or part of the transit then you have the added bonus of taking frames from that movie to give you a photograph, too. You’ll need: • Telescope fitted with a solar filter • Webcam, camera or smartphone • Eyepiece adapter for camera • Photo/video editing software 1 Setting up your telescope The first thing that you should…

Shooting 'falling stars' Meteor showers offer the perfect opportunity to test your astrophotography skills Meteor photography can be really frustrating but also very rewarding. You can take dozens of shots without capturing a single meteor, but then you can get lucky! Be persistent and don’t give up. If you see a meteor zip through the sky just out of shot, resist the urge to move the camera to that part of the sky, as it won’t appear there again! For the Eta Aquarids, aim your camera and tripod roughly due south and point it about half way up the sky. This should increase your chances of bagging at least one shooting star. Don’t forget to focus your camera well, too, to ensure higher quality images. 1 Set up the camera…

Clean your refractor telescope Here’s how to keep your scope clean for optimum views You’ll need: • Camera lens blower • Microfibre cloth • Lens cleaning fluid • Lithium grease Refractor telescopes come in a variety of sizes and qualities. They all have a lens at the front, the objective lens, and a focuser at the other end into which you put your eyepieces. They are what most people think of when you say the word ‘telescope’ and they are simple instruments. They do, however, need to be maintained. Doing this maintenance regularly will ensure that your telescope will go on giving you high quality views and images year after year. As with any optical device though, you need to exercise caution when it comes to cleaning them, especially when…