Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 62 i All About Space

LAUNCH PAD NASA release new results from twin astronaut experiment Key ageing processes appeared to reverse when astronaut Scott Kelly lived on the ISS “Scott Kelly’s telomeres had actually increased while in space” An astronaut who lived in space for just under a year appeared to temporarily reverse his ageing processes, according to brand new research. Scott Kelly, who spent 340 days on the International Space Station between 2015 and 2016, had noticeable mutations in his DNA that appeared to fly in the face of scientific expectations. One group of investigators looked within Scott’s white blood cells and specifically at his telomeres, which appear at the end of chromosomes. These are known to decrease in length as a person gets older, yet radiation biologist Susan Bailey found the astronaut’s telomeres…

Alien life may be hiding under rocks on Mars Microbes elsewhere in the Solar System could be closer than we initially thought Iron oxides coating the surface of rocks on the Red Planet may be acting as an ultraviolet sunscreen for microbial organisms. At least, that’s the theory being put forward by chemical and planetary scientist Janice Bishop, who found that carbonate organisms in the Mojave Desert in California were being protected from deadly ultraviolet light back in 2011. Bishop, who works with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), believes a common Martian surface element called hematite shielded bacterial alien life in the distant past, just as it did on Earth. This allowed for photosynthesis, converting light into chemical energy. The theory has led to much research in this…

Rapid gas flares discovered on white dwarfs Oxford scientists reveal that our understanding of star habits is incomplete © NASA; JPL-Caltech; ESA; CXC; STScI; Cornell; SDSS; J. Nichols (University of Leicester) SS Cyg was discovered more than 100 years ago and is 372 light years away Scientists at Oxford University, UK, have detected rapid gas flares emitted by a white dwarf system for the first time. They were observed in the binary system SS Cyg, which is one of the brightest variable stars in the constellation Cygnus, and they were due to an enormous amount of energy suddenly being released. Low-level bursting behaviours, or outbursts, have been detected in dwarf novae in the past but never on the scale of rapid flares, seen as fast variations in brightness. A giant…

Edge of the universe The size of the universe The observable cosmos is not the whole story when astronomers consider how big the universe really is © Nicholas Forder Big Bang Time: 13.8 billion years ago Radiation era Time: 13.8–13.79bn years ago The radiation era began some two or three minutes to 300,000 years after the Big Bang in a process known as nucleosynthesis. At this stage helium nuclei were formed out of protons and neutrons. Dark ages Time: 13.79–13.5bn years ago At this point in the universe’s history, the cosmos was opaque and foggy. It’s thought that the Dark Ages lasted between 150 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang. First stars Time: 13.5bn years ago Fluctuations in the density of the universe meant that the very…

Next giant leap Avoiding space junk SOLVED BY: Decommissioning old boosters and trash collection Space is no longer a pristine wilderness. Since 1957 we have been dumping an assortment of junk in low-Earth orbit. The largest objects are actually the upper stages of old rockets and residual fuel left in their tanks can get heated by the Sun and cause them to explode. NASA now requires rockets to vent their unused propellant to prevent this but the wreckages of hundreds of old upper stages still hurtle around the Earth. These objects are at least easy to track from the ground but there are much smaller pieces of debris too. Tiny grains from the exhaust of a solid rocket motor, or flecks of paint dislodged by the harsh sunlight, are invisible…

Next giant leap Having enough food and water SOLVED BY: Energy bars Feeding astronauts on deep space missions isn’t as simple as bringing seeds and plant pots. Even on Mars, the challenges are enormous. If you use natural light for photosynthesis, the Martian farmers will need to don spacesuits while tending the crops due to radiation. And while Mars’ atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, the pressure is much too low to grow outside of a sealed dome. The sheer space that agriculture requires means that self-sustaining food production wouldn’t be more efficient than hauling all the food from Earth, until a Mars colony has hundreds of people living on it. On long journeys to the outer planets, the problem is even worse. Water can be recycled indefinitely from a sealed…

Navigating space SOLVED BY: Tracking the constellations @ Adrian Mann Sunshade A folding shade allows star tracking even at angles close to the direction of the Sun. Periscope tilt motor Rotates the mirror to adjust the view, while another motor provides sideways panning. Radiator Sheds heat to keep electronics cool and reduce thermal distortions in the lenses. Periscope mirror Allows the DPS unit to scan the sky without rotating the entire spacecraft. Telescope optics A wide-field lens identifies star constellations and a high-magnification gives precision. Compact design The entire unit is just 32cm (12.6in) long when stowed and weighs less than 5kg (11lb). Camera electronics Image processing extracts navigation information from the relative positions of the stars. GPS navigation has limited effectiveness for spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, but it doesn’t…

Mercury is shrinking Inside a shrinking world Mercury’s interior is dominated by a huge iron core, which accounts for approximately 80 per cent of the planet’s diameter and around 55 per cent of its volume © Tobias Roetsch Iron sulphide layer Size: Up to 200km deep MESSENGER measurements showed that Mercury’s mantle layer is surprisingly dense in its own right. To explain this, in 2012 NASA scientists proposed that the lower mantle is composed of dense iron sulphide that has risen out of the core and solidified. Thin crust Size: About 20km deep Mercury’s solid crust forms a thin layer on top of the mantle. It was shaped by volcanic activity early in the planet’s history – by compression and faulting as the interior contracted – and also by bombardment…

What is an EmDrive? 1 Emitted electrons move through the chamber and are collected by an anode wall 2 Propellant is injected and travels toward a discharge cathode 3 Electrons crash into propellant atoms to create ions 4 Ions are pulled out of the discharge chamber by ion optics 5 Electrons are injected into the beam for neutralisation British engineer Roger Shawyer’s idea for a propellant-less space engine thruster has often been labelled science fiction, as it appears to violate Newton’s third law – “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” It works by gathering electricity from solar power to bounce microwave photons around its closed interior. When the waves hit the larger end, the photons should produce the minutest of forces, causing the pointed end to…

Strangest star What could be causing Tabby’s Star? Several explanations have been suggested to explain the behaviour of KIC 8462852 © Tobias Roetsch Young star with material Tabby’s Star moves too fast to be part of the galaxy’s youthful stellar population; nor are there infrared observations supporting the existence of a protoplanetary disc that might irregularly block out the star’s light. Spectral emission lines suggest it’s not a young star. The star ate a planet A large mass sinking into the outer layers of a star releases gravitational energy that could cause an unobserved brightening; a subsequent return to the star’s original state might then be seen as a gradual dimming. Debris could orbit the star for some time. Field of planetary debris A field of planetary debris, the remains…

Light pollution How to beat LIGHT POLLUTION tonight Thought it was impossible to observe the wonders of the night sky from towns and cities? Think again! Follow our tips and tricks on successfully observing through sky glow Written by Jaspal Chadha Light pollution and astronomy don’t go hand in hand. If you’re a resident of a town or city, this may be a statement that has put you off from buying a telescope or simply heading outside to gaze up at the night sky. It’s true that there’s no contest between a dark sky site and a city brimming with life and streetlights: an area completely untouched by an orange artificial haze will win hands down. On the flip side of the coin though, it’s not impossible for successful…

STARGAZER Your targets for tonight Get under the stars and push your eyes, binoculars and telescope to the limit under light-polluted skies – you’ll be amazed at what you can see Bode’s Galaxy (M81) Constellation: Ursa Major Magnitude: 6.9 M81 is one of the easiest and most rewarding galaxies to observe in the Northern Hemisphere, as it can be found with small instruments. Messier 5 Constellation: Serpens Magnitude: 5.6 This globular cluster, found quite easily with a sweep of your binoculars, contains about 150,000 stars within a diameter of 150 light years. Messier 52 Constellation: Cassiopeia Magnitude: 7.3 M52 is estimated to be 35-50 million years old. This is a relatively young star cluster and complements very well in a wide-field shot with the Bubble Nebula. Vega Constellation: Lyra Magnitude:…

Deep sky challenge The Lion’s galaxies The evenings of early spring are welcomed by the arrival of deep-sky objects Spring is known as the season of the galaxies to astronomers, as the night side of the Earth is facing away from the Milky Way and out into deep space, which is littered with other such ‘island universes’ as our own. The distances to these objects are truly vast and so we often see them as small, hazy patches of light, but these objects are anything but small. Like the Milky Way, they contain billions of stars, clusters and nebulae in their own right. They also come in various shapes and sizes and can be a little smaller or even a lot larger than our own galaxy. Due to line of…

The Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere Turn your binoculars, telescopes and unaided eyes to the March skies – there’s plenty on show © Wil Tirion; Adam Block; Mount Lemmon SkyCenter; University of Arizona; ESO; Igor Chekalin; NASA Messier 3 Look to the north this month and there’s plenty of objects to keep you occupied. In particular, the galaxies and star clusters of Cassiopeia (The Vain Queen) and Cepheus (The King) – and heading northwest to Perseus (The Hero) and Auriga (The Charioteer) – offer easy pickings for observers of the night sky with binoculars and telescopes. Look to the southwest for a similar setup, with open star clusters scattered throughout the constellations of Monoceros (The Unicorn), Orion (The Hunter) and Puppis (The Poop Deck), displaying the occasional galaxy for the…

HEROES OF SPACE Milton L Humason The self-educated former mule driver whose research helped discover the expanding universe © J. R. Eyerman; Getty Images Sometimes simply having an interest in a subject can put someone on the path to becoming a true star. That certainly proved to be the case with Milton L Humason, who began working as a janitor at Mount Wilson Observatory, Los Angeles, shortly after it was completed in 1917. His subsequent appointment as a night assistant at the observatory led him to become a staff member. He then went on to play a key role in a crucial space discovery, cementing his place as a hero of space. Humason was not, it is fair to say, a particularly remarkable child. Born in Dodge Center, Minnesota, in…

LAUNCH PAD Odd supernova challenges theory of how stars evolve NuSTAR has uncovered fresh clues about the behaviour of the 'chameleon supernova' A 'chameleon supernova' is challenging models of star evolution. Scientists studying SN 2014C have noted vast changes in its appearance over the course of a year, which they say is due to the star having unusually released a huge mass of material late in its life. Since this happened in the decades to centuries before the star exploded, it is altering models of how stars distribute their elements following a violent death. Typically there are two types of exploding stars. Type I refers to supernovae that have no hydrogen present during the event. In these cases, the gas has run out thanks to the star beginning its life…

Future Tech Mars rovers MARS ROVERS In an unlikely collaboration, the Royal College of Art has been helping NASA envisage cutting-edge Martian buggies with a revolutionary twist © Royal College of Art; NASA; JPL-Caltech; Malin Space Science Systems “The teams had to provide a complete concept of operations from Earth launch to Mars deployment” Mission Terra Form Alicja Pytlewska, Peter Krige, Jeehoon Shin, Teeravit Hanharutaivan Runabout Terra Form’s rover is a relatively small transporter for accessing the installed greenhouses, but it still provides a pressurised environment and docking. Walking greenhouse Team Terra Form has a walking rover carrying their greenhouse. Once in position the legs could dig the greenhouse into a protective hole. Mars Space Capsule Chris Pinches, Kevin Bickham, Nevin De Paravicini, Kyungeun Ko Individual bi-wheel rovers Four separate…

Space is too big to explore SOLVED BY: Hyperspace technology 1. Warp rings An Alcubierre warp drive would try to create a ‘bubble’ in space within the rings. 2. Antimatter power source Even a small warp bubble might need star-sized quantities of energy to sustain it. 3. Space shortcut Space in front of the warp bubble is compressed so the effective distance you travel shrinks. 4. Surfing space-time Behind the bubble, space is expanded and this pushes the spaceship forward like a surfer. Once we cast our sights beyond the confines of our Solar System, the distances involved get truly daunting. If we were able to accelerate a small probe to 0.5 per cent the speed of light, it would still take 860 years to reach the nearest star. And…

Next giant leap Humans can’t colonise worlds alone SOLVED BY: An army of robots Setting up a colony is hard work and it doesn’t make sense to use humans for all the jobs. Just the fact that robots don’t need to eat, drink or breathe on the long journey to another planet is an argument for using them, and they will likely precede us to any planet we travel to. A lot of the initial work at an extraterrestrial colony will be digging – a difficult job for humans to do safely. NASA has designed the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) to cope with digging on lower gravity worlds. It uses counter-rotating scoops at the front and back, so that it doesn’t need to rely on its own…

We only know of one Earth SOLVED BY: Making a new home When settlers arrived in America, they found a fertile land with fresh water and wildlife. Space colonisation isn’t going to be like that. Mars is cold and doesn’t have enough of an atmosphere, while Venus is hot and has too much. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn have lethal radiation, Pluto is too cold, and Mercury is too hot. Beyond our Solar System, things are even worse. The nearest extrasolar planet is Proxima Centauri b. This is technically an ‘Earth-like’ world but it’s a relative term; it’s tucked into a tiny orbit against a dim red dwarf star and receives two per cent of the visible light we get on Earth but 400 times more X-ray radiation. The…

Space radiation SOLVED BY: Plastic and magnets Where space radiation comes from Exploding stars, magnetic fields and only vacuum to stand in their way! The Earth The magnetic field traps solar wind in the Van Allen belts from 1,000-60,000km (621-37,300mi). Satellites crossing the belt receive 25,000mSv radiation per year. The Sun’s rays The Sun emits light at all wavelengths but Earth’s atmosphere screens out most of the shorter wavelengths. In space, ultraviolet radiation is 100-times stronger. Galactic Cosmic Radiation The gas clouds left after a supernova have magnetic fields that accelerate heavy ions to almost the speed of light, which continually bombard our Solar System. Coronal Mass Ejections Solar flares can cause the Sun to blast a few billion tons of its upper atmosphere into space. If this is pointing…

Asteroid attack ASTEROID ATTACK Is Earth ready if a space rock strikes? A new ‘doomsday plan’ is due to be accelerated by the US government in the event of a potential asteroid impact It’s one of the most popular disasters in movies, such as Armageddon and Deep Impact, but unfortunately for us, the threat of an asteroid hitting our planet and wiping out civilisations is extremely real. Even worse, the recent release of an official document by the White House reveals that we’re extremely under-prepared should a space rock decide to strike. It’s enough of a wake-up call for the US government to put together a plan, which will see the country collaborate with other nations. Entitled the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy, the action plan aims to improve the…

Mercury is shrinking How Mercury is getting smaller Changes to internal temperature and loss of heat into space have caused the little planet to develop widespread surface faults © Tobias Roetsch Early phase of expansion Early in its history, Mercury’s already-hot interior grew much hotter and swelled in volume, as radioactive minerals in the mantle released energy as they changed their form. Cooling and contraction Thanks to its thin mantle, the heating effect of radioactive elements dwindled rapidly and the loss of heat became dominant. As the planet’s interior cooled, it began to shrink. Splitting crust As the interior expanded, Mercury’s crust fractured, allowing volcanic lava to rise up and fill the gaps. These early features were later obscured by heavy asteroid bombardment. Scarp formation Shrinking of the interior created…

Mercury is shrinking Future of Mercury If it's still cooling and shrinking today, then what does the future hold for the tiny planet? 1 More faulting on the surface Small-scale faults may continue to form and even grow in size, as the continued cooling and contraction of Mercury’s interior places more stress on the crust. 2 Contraction comes to an end In a billion or more years from now, the shrinking of the interior finally dwindles to a point where it cannot create enough stress for more faults to form in the crust. 3 Fresher faults are wiped away Over hundreds of millions of years, small-scale faults are erased from the surface, obscured by the slow but steady processes of meteorite bombardment. 4 The core continues to solidify As the…

Strangest star What’s causing the STRANGEST STAR in the universe? Space dust? Alien structures? Planetary collisions? The behaviour of Tabby's Star continues to inspire new ideas Written by Paul Cockburn © Tobias Roetsch “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known,” the wise American scientist Carl Sagan once said. Nor is it always where you expected. At first glance the star designated KIC 8462852 seemed nothing unusual, an ordinary hydrogen-fusing, F-type, main-sequence star slightly larger and hotter than our own (G-type) Sun. Located in the constellation of Cygnus, some 1,276 light years from Earth, it was just one among 145,000 stars observed by NASA’s Kepler space observatory during the course of a four-year mission, looking for the telltale dips in brightness revealing orbiting exoplanets passing in front of their parent…

Charon Explorer’s Guide Charon Far out on the edge of our Solar System sits the largest of Pluto’s five natural satellites, an imposing celestial mystery all on its own In the summer of 2014, the New Horizons spacecraft had awakened from hibernation, its course corrected for an encounter with one of the remotest planetary bodies in the Milky Way. As Pluto began to emerge from the deep dark of space, so did another bright neighbour – the imposing moon, Charon. Named after the boatman who carried souls down the river Styx into the underworld of Greek mythology, Charon stands as a relatively new discovery, first recorded in 1978. The largest of Pluto’s satellites, Charon has remained one of astronomy’s most intriguing mysteries. Some scientists argue it was formed around 4.5…

Planet of the month This month’s planets After sunset, the evening skies of spring are brimming with planets for astronomers to observe with the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes Mercury Constellation: Pisces Magnitude: -2.6 Direction: West Mercury is a small world, just 4,879 kilometres (3,032 miles) across, which whips around the Sun once every 88 days – fitting for a planet named after the winged messenger of the gods. Because Mercury orbits so close to the Sun – on average it is just 58 million kilometres (36 million miles) from the Sun, which is less than half as far away from our star as the Earth is – it can only ever be seen close to the Sun in the sky, for a short period after sunset, or a short…

How to… Catch the colours of the Wishing Well Cluster Located in the constellation of Carina, NGC 3532 is packed full of colourful stars © ESO; G. Beccari You’ll need: • Binoculars • A telescope • Tracking mount • DSLR camera • Camera adaptor • Remote shutter release Catalogued as NGC 3532, the Wishing Well Cluster is an open star cluster and contains about 400 stars; some are red in colour and others orange, white or blue. It is a bright cluster and easily seen with the naked eye, found in the constellation of Carina, not far from the famous Eta Carina Nebula and northwest of the Southern Cross, in the misty river of light, the Milky Way. It is thought that the cluster is around 300 million years old…

How to… Make a sundial out of cheap materials A fascinating instrument to both make and use, learn how to make one of these devices You’ll need: • Stiff card • Scissors • Glue • A printer • Something with a blunt point • Computer with internet access • A PDF viewer Sundials are as popular as they have ever been. You can see them in ornamental gardens, on the side of buildings and even in people’s pockets. Sundials can be very simple or very ornate, however, they all do essentially the same thing, which is to cast a shadow from the Sun onto a marked scale from which you can read off the time. They have been used for millennia and long before the invention of the clock; examples…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE @ ESA; Hubble; NASA Starbirth with a chance of winds Home to a variety of deep-sky objects, the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) is home to this beautiful galaxy known as NGC 4861. Perhaps unsurprisingly, astronomers are finding it difficult to classify this astronomical object: its mass, size and rotation speed indicate that NGC 4861 is a spiral galaxy, while its appearance is quite similar to a comet – a feature that puts it in the dwarf irregular galaxy category. NGC 4861’s messy appearance provides astronomers with opportunities to investigate galactic winds that flood these structures. The process of star formation, which involves huge amounts of energy, powers galactic winds, and baby stars are springing into life within the galaxy’s bright,…

Quiet black hole found hiding in the Milky Way Scientists have accidentally discovered a way of identifying exotic objects within our galaxy Astronomers say they have found hints of a wandering black hole lurking in a corner of our galaxy. This so-called “quiet black hole” was spotted by analysing the gas motion of an unusual, fast-moving cosmic cloud, and it points to an exciting new method of discovery. Since they don’t interact with nearby stars like normal black holes, these sneaky, lonely celestial objects have largely evaded observation; that is why only a few dozen black holes have been found so far yet there are believed to be millions of them floating alone in the Milky Way. A Japanese research team using the ASTE Telescope in Chile found the particular…

Edge of the universe What’s at the edge? Cosmologists have put forward several different scenarios for where our universe ends The universe goes on forever The universe could be infinite in extent, endlessly continuing in all directions, on and on beyond our cosmic horizon, with no edges or boundaries. If this picture is accurate then the universe has no edge, and it gives rise to the idea that eventually the same configuration of atoms would repeat in the universe. This means that there is another Earth and another you out there somewhere in the universe right now. Other universes If cosmic inflation really happened – the super rapid expansion of our universe in its earliest moments – then it may have happened more than once, giving rise to neighbouring universes.…

Avoiding space madness SOLVED BY: Using virtual reality Cramped conditions, lack of leisure time, monotonous food and the dangers of outer space make for a stressful workplace. NASA has conducted several long-duration habitation studies simulating a Mars base at the HI-SEAS facility in Hawaii, and the main conclusion so far is that crew conflict is inevitable. Regardless of how carefully astronauts are screened, arguments and meltdowns are certain. Several studies have found that the mid-point of the mission has the most potential for a flare up, as that’s when morale is lowest and the crew has the least to do. Until deep space hibernation technology is perfected, one way to avoid space madness is through virtual reality (VR). The Digital Arts Leadership and Innovation (DALI) is researching ways to use…

Escaping gravity without massive costs SOLVED BY: Reusable rockets 1. Falcon 9 lifts off The first stage engines burn for 162 seconds, powering up through the thick lower atmosphere. 2. Stage separation At 67km (42mi) altitude, the first-stage engines cut out and shortly after the first stage separates. 3. Boost back manoeuvre The first stage flips round and relights three of its engines to cancel out horizontal velocity. 4. Re-entry burn The engines fire again to slow from 7,600km/h (4,722mph) to around 3,500km/h (2,175mph). 5. Descent guidance The rocket initially aims to just miss the drone ship, in case the engine doesn’t relight. 6. Landing burn A single engine is fired for the terminal approach and grid fins steer it onto the target. 7. Touchdown Four landing legs extend and…

MERCURY IS SHRINKING The smallest planet in our Solar System is getting even smaller Written by Giles Sparrow “Mercury is the least understood of our Solar System’s four terrestrial worlds” Dr Paul Byrne, North Carolina State University Mercury can be easy to overlook – as not only the smallest rocky planet but also the closest to the Sun, it is hard to spot on its fleeting visits to our twilight skies, and never appears in full darkness like brilliant Venus or blood-red Mars. At first glance it also lacks the complexity of its planetary neighbours – while Venus has a dense, hostile atmosphere and volcanic landscape and Mars has its tantalising similarities to Earth, Mercury is an airless ball of grey rock that most closely resembles our Moon. Over the…

Interview Proving the EmDrive Cracking the secrets of the ‘physics-defying’ INTERSTELLAR EMDRIVE For years, we've looked for ways to test whether an EmDrive could power a craft without propulsion. Dr Mike McCulloch has a theory that could help Interviewed by David Crookes “The great thing about the EmDrive is that it carries no fuel. It would make interstellar travel possible” INTERVIEW BIO Dr Mike McCulloch Dr Mike McCulloch is a British physicist at Plymouth University. As well as lecturing in Geomatics, he’s spent the past few years studying the electromagnetic drive, or EmDrive. Scientists have been puzzled for two decades after British scientist, Roger Shawyer, came up with the concept in 1999. But Dr McCulloch says he has “accidentally” chanced upon an explanation, saying it is evidence of his new…

The weirdest star in the universe Tabby’s Star, also designated KIC 8462852, is over 1,000 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus WHERE IS IT? WHAT IS IT? It’s like our Sun This hydrogen-fusing F-type star is roughly 1.4 times the mass of the Sun. It’s quite rare Roughly one in 33 (3.03 per cent) stars in our immediate stellar neighbourhood are F-type stars. Tabby’s Star spits out light at odd intervals The numerous dips in the light coming from Tabby’s Star don’t occur at regular intervals. You can see it from Earth… With an apparent magnitude of 11.7, Tabby’s Star cannot be seen with the naked eye. … but you would need a telescope Tabby’s Star is visible with a 5-inch (130mm) telescope, with low light pollution. WHY…

Focus on Rings of Uranus Discovery of Uranus' rings This month marks 40 years since we realised rings could exist around worlds other than Saturn © NASA; ESA; M. Showalter (SETI Institute); Science Photo Library On the evening of 10 March 1977 two teams of astronomers using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and the Perth Observatory in Australia settled down to watch a spectacular and rare event: Uranus pass in front of star SAO 158687, a transit that would provide the perfect chance to observe a distant world. On that night, however, they didn’t just get to see the ice giant; they managed to make a major discovery – a ring system around Uranus. How the astronomers confirmed the rings, which the Kuiper Airborne Observatory named as Alpha, Beta, Gamma,…

Moon tour Endymion crater Get to know one of the Moon’s lesser known impact features © Damian Peach; Science Photo Library Several of the Moon’s impact features are so large they are visible to the naked eye. Round Mare Serenitatis, which forms the left eye of the ‘man in the Moon’, is the most obvious, followed by Mare Imbrium and bright young craters such as Copernicus, Tycho and Aristarchus. But scattered here and there are smaller, less obvious features, bigger than the average craters but smaller than the great lava-filled seas, which are worth hunting down when the phase is right. One of these is Endymion, a small, roughly circular crater found near the very “top” of the Moon. Endymion’s mythological roots are rather confused. Depending on which account you…

Make a sundial Making and using your sundial Once you’ve made the device, you need to set it up carefully to show the right time Now you have your sundial ready for action, you’ll need to line it up to true north – or true south if you are in the Southern Hemisphere. If you’re using a magnetic compass, make sure that you allow for the offset of the magnetic pole from your location – you can check this on a good survey map. Place the sundial on a level surface such as a sunlit table, make any small adjustment necessary and enjoy telling the time by the Sun. Detailed instructions on how to create and set up the sundial can be found at www.instructables.com/id/15-minute-paper-craft-sundial/. 1 Print your sundial Once…

Telescope advice Meade Infinity 60AZ Perfect as an introduction to astronomy, this beautifully finished telescope is suitable for observing the lunar surface and the planets “The Meade Infinity 60AZ is a robust telescope that’s ideal for the whole family” Telescope advice Cost: £250 From: Hama UK Ltd Type: Refractor Aperture: 2.4” Focal length: 31.5” Best for... Beginner Small budget Planetary viewing Terrestrial observing Lunar viewing Families Starting out on the right foot is essential in astronomy and this introductory telescope from Meade Instruments ensures that the beginner is fully equipped for their first night under the stars. It comes complete with low-power (26mm) and high-power (6.3mm) Plössl eyepieces for a variety of viewing situations, along with a 2x Barlow lens, which doubles the magnifying power for each of the eyepieces.…