Innehållsförteckning för No. 53 från All About Space

New Horizons reveals information on first object beyond Pluto Through the LORRI lens of the NASA spacecraft, we're now able to investigate another body in the Kuiper Belt “Alterations in light reflected from JR1’s surface indicate that it rotates once every 5.4 hours” NASA’s long-serving New Horizons spacecraft has recently collected data on an object within our Solar System that lies further out than dwarf planet Pluto – a celestial remnant that holds the potential to unlock many of the mysteries surrounding the earliest days of the Solar System. The object, named 1994 JR1, has actually been identified twice – once in November 2015 when astronomers observed a 150-kilometre (90-mile) wide Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) orbiting more than 5 billion kilometres (3 billion miles) from the Sun and a second…

ESA send 14 Earth-observation satellites to space The Galileo network of satellites is now larger than ever © NASA; JPL-Caltech; AEI; MM; exozet; C. Henze; T.Pyle; ESA; SwRI; LORRI; Alexis Rodriguez; CNES; Arianespace Following two successful launches last month from French Guiana, the European Space Agency’s ever-growing Galileo satellite programme has now increased to an impressive 14 different craft. The double launch – which propelled Galileo 13 and Galileo 14 into orbit around the Earth – went off without a hitch, with both satellites blasting off atop a Soyuz rocket operated by French multinational launch specialists, Arianespace. “Today’s textbook launch has added two more satellites to what has become Europe’s largest satellite constellation,” comments Jan Woerner, director general of ESA. “It was made possible by the fact that the European…

How black holes are made 1 Massive main sequence progenitor star A star of at least ten solar masses is required for a black hole to form. These stars have strong gravitational fields and short lifetimes. 2 Red supergiant phase begins After a few million the star years, consumes all of its hydrogen and becomes a red giant. It consumes other fuels formed by stellar nucleosynthesis. 3 Star explodes as supernova When there’s no more fuel, the star cools and implodes. The resulting shock wave then blows the star apart in a colossal supernova explosion. 4 Core collapses to black hole While the shock wave results in the star’s destruction, it crushes the core a . around 2-3km (1.2-1.8mi) in diameter. Many stars leave behind white dwarfs or neutron stars…

They’re not very black This is not strictly true – black holes themselves are truly black. But boy do they like being the centre of attention. Quasars (quasi-stellar objects) occupy the centres of distant galaxies that formed early in the universe’s history, probably via galactic collisions. Their central black holes merged – pulling in matter to create quasar jets. These are 100 times as luminous as our galaxy and the size of our Solar System. Energy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum is concentrated from the accretion disc surrounding the central black hole into intense, polar jets. Some of these are directed towards us like cosmic lighthouse beams. 1 Ancient distant galaxies collide When our universe was 1 to 2 billion years old, early galaxies attracted by mutual gravitation collided with…

Why there’s a ribbon at the edge of our solar neighbourhood © Neo Phoenix No bow shock? IBEX data showed that a bow shock might not exist, as the Solar System moves more slowly than predicted through its galactic neighbourhood. The heliosphere The heliosphere is a vast bubble, generated by the action of the solar wind, which encapsulates the Solar System at 1.6mn km/h (1mn mph). Influence of interstellar space Finding the IBEX ribbon showed that the plasmas and magnetic fields of interstellar space play a major role in shaping the heliosphere. The Solar System’s ragged edge IBEX’s primary mission was to explore the transition from the heliosphere to interstellar space, including the role of the termination shock, heliosheath and heliopause. Cocooned within the ‘heliosphere’ – a vast protective bubble…

Where the other part of the universe went When the universe came into existence 13.8 billion years ago, equal quantities of matter and antimatter should have been created. Their particles were generated in pairs and annihilated each other on contact, which released in the pure energy form of radiation. In the first gamma instant after the Big Bang, positively charged particles and negatively charged antiparticles were both created and destroyed. Although enough matter survived to generate today’s observable galaxies, there is little evidence of antimatter in the universe. Where it went – the puzzle of ‘baryogenesis’ – is one of the greatest challenges of modern particle physics. Existing models and Einstein’s general theory of relatively both fail to offer a satisfactory explanation. A violation of charge-particle symmetry, which states that…

Asteroid protection plans Some of the proposals that could save life on Earth from extinction © Neo Phoenix Gravity tractor Spacecraft in orbit This change in velocity would be achieved by having a spacecraft in orbit around the asteroid. Firing thrusters The spacecraft would keep itself in one place by firing its engines repeatedly. Changing velocity A gravity tractor would work by slowly changing the velocity of an asteroid. Gradual change Over several years, the gravitational tug of the spacecraft would change the speed – and trajectory – of the asteroid. Laser Bees Laser beams This proposal from The Planetary Society would involve firing lasers at an asteroid. Fleet of spacecraft There would be several spacecraft all firing lasers towards the asteroid at the same time. Plume of material The…

Mars Pathfinder’s ‘landiversary’ Nineteen years ago, the very first Mars rover touched down on the Red Planet’s soil © NASA While Mars Pathfinder is no longer in operation, the mission, which consisted of a lander and a 10.6-kilogram (23.3-pound) rover named Sojourner, is recognised as the very first robot to operate outside of the Earth-Moon system, as well as the first spacecraft to explore the Red Planet in more than 20 . years After landing safely on the surface of Mars on 4 July 1997, the first set of data was released within hours, followed by images 4.5 hours later. The Sojourner rover then began its trek of the Martian surface, returning images and other data over the course of three months. Providing a tremendous amount of new information about…

Make a lunar analemma Perhaps you’ve heard of a solar analemma, but did you know you can get the same type of image from the Moon? Find out how… © Peta Jade Gett Ima es ; y g You’ll need: • DSLR camera • Tripod • Wide-angle lens • Telephoto lens An ‘analemma’ is a composite picture of usually the Sun, taken over the period of a year, which shows its shifting position in the sky as the seasons progress. It can take a year to create a picture like this, so as you can imagine, it takes some dedication. However, you can create the same effect with the Moon in just 29.5 days, if you’re lucky enough to have a month of clear night skies! The image gives you…

Nebulae and clusters of the summer The nights are still short, but there are plenty of things to see if you stay up late © ESO; NASA It’s well worth staying up late at this time of year, as some of the best and most spectacular targets for your telescope are well positioned in the night sky. For example, there’s one of the best globular clusters in the entire night sky, as well as nebulae and open star clusters. The Milky Way sits on a line almost north to south and some of the best objects can be found in the southern section, which you can go hunting for with your telescope. No matter what the size of your telescope, there will be some wondrous sights to see. Some of…

LISA Pathfinder begins tracking the path of gravitational waves The ESA space observatory is now listening to the sound of the cosmos itself Following a successful launch back in December 2015, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder spacecraft has been locked in gravitational stasis from March this year and has now been operating beyond expectation for two months. The ESA’s space observatory – which is now anchored some 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from the Earth at L1 – can now begin one of its most exciting goals: tracking the path and behaviour of gravitational waves, a curvature in space-time first observed in February this year. “With LISA Pathfinder we have created the quietest place known to humankind. Its performance is spectacular and exceeds all of our expectations by…

Earth-like exoplanets ‘most likely’ too hot for life New research suggests the ‘habitable zone’ planets might not be so habitable after all Over the years, NASA and its Kepler spacecraft have discovered thousands of distant planets that exist within a ‘habitable zone’ (near enough to a dwarf star to maintain liquid water), but a new report reveals many of these Earth-like worlds could be too hot to be hospitable. “It was previously assumed that planets with masses similar to Earth would be habitable simply because they were in the habitable zone ” James , says Owen of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. “However, when you consider how these planets evolve over billions of this years, assumption turns out to not be true.” Owen and his team believe…

IS THIS WHATA BLACK HOLE LOOKS LIKE? They’re perplexing and mystifying, yet we know more about black holes than you might realise Written by Kulvinder Singh Chadha © Mark Garlick “ Supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies grow by swallowing gas, stars and other black holes” They have an almost supernatural hold over our imaginations: dark, cosmic entities that seemingly rebel against nature. Black holes have mesmerised us for 50 years. Nothing can ever come out of one, and anything that falls in is lost forever. They are the ultimate beasts of the cosmos, feasting upon unsuspecting matter and radiation. However, we now know that black holes are more nuanced and complex than that. They surprise us at every turn with their perplexing properties and baffling behaviour. Black…

Black holes come in a variety of sizes © Tobias Roetsch Stellar-sized black hole Black holes between five and 40 solar masses and several kilometres in diameter populate the Galaxy. The closest one to Earth is A0620-00/V616 Mon, which is 2,800 light years away. Intermediate-mass black hole These have masses of around 100 to 1 million solar masses. Some high-energy galaxies and globular star clusters may contain them. Ultra-luminous X-ray sources might also be candidates. Supermassive black hole These are found at the centres of large galaxies, like our Milky Way, and range from one million to tens of billions of solar masses. For both stellar-sized and supermassive black holes, there will naturally be size variations. For a stellar black hole (at least five times the mass of our Sun),…

JUNO ARRIVES AT JUPITER Arriving this summer, NASA’s fastest ever space probe hopes to solve the biggest mysteries about our Solar System’s largest planet Written by Giles Sparrow “ Juno is the most distant space mission yet to rely entirely on solar power and is only the second spacecraft to enter orbit around Jupiter” After a five-year journey across the Solar System, NASA’s Juno spacecraft finally arrives at its destination, the giant planet Jupiter, this July. Equipped with an array of instruments designed to investigate Jupiter’s atmospheric composition, deep internal structure and powerful magnetic field, Juno promises to transform our understanding of this colourful gas giant and hopefully answer some fundamental questions about the origin of our Solar System and others. Launched from Earth in August 2011, Juno is the…

WHY SPACE IS SO LOUD + other discoveries that will change how we see the universe Written by Ben Evans We solved what causes the roar space When NASA sent a balloon to the edge of space in July 2006, its mission was to study heat from ancient stars and galaxies. It would uncover clues about how the universe evolved from the Big Bang until halfway through its 13.8-billion- life . year span Aboard the balloon, the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE) detector spent several hours observing a small patch of sky from 36,576 metres (120,000 feet). What it found was tantalising. Instead of faint signals from the universe’s infancy, ARCADE revealed a powerful ‘hiss’ of low-frequency radio waves. A radio ‘background’ – the combined output…

We found life on Mars Where could life have existed on the Red Planet? Sinus Meridiani Evidence of jarosite, a mineral that only forms in water, was found in all bedrocks within this equatorial region. Northern polar cap and ‘hood’ Radar data has revealed a water-ice volume equivalent to 30 per cent of Greenland’s ice sheet, about 820,000 cubic km (197,000 cubic mi). Huygens crater Branched channels, indicative of ancient flowing water, as well as carbonates have been identified in Huygens’ rim by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Hellas Planitia Situated within an impact basin, the eastern plain of Hellas Planitia include may glaciers of water-ice, over 250m (820ft) thick, buried under craters. Southern polar cap In addition to large quantities of water-ice, Mars’ southern polar cap is known to harbour…

Project RAMA A Californian company wants to turn asteroids into autonomous spacecraft - to mine them and to relocate them in space © Adrian Mann “ A RAMA mission could be sent to a potentially Earth-crossing asteroid to push it off course and collect it for its resources – the ultimate Earth !” revenge Asteroid mining Robotic mining equipment would need to be part of the RAMA system in order to extract raw materials from an asteroid. Space settlement Using space-based materials would transform space exploration, opening up the Solar System to us and enabling the construction of settlements. space Propulsion RAMA could deliver an asteroid, ready for processing, by using material from the asteroid for propulsion. This could be by expelling rocks, or splitting water ice into hydrogen and…

Asteroid watch Which near-Earth objects could collide with our planet? 2007 FT3 Diameter: 340m (1,120ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 0.00011% Year of earliest impact: 2019 Impact*: 54 2010 RF12 Diameter: 7m (23ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 6.5% Year of earliest impact: 2095 Impact*: 0.0002 410777 (2009 FD) Diameter: 160m (525ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 0.16% Year of earliest impact: 2185 Impact*: 2.8 99942 Apophis Diameter: 370m (1,210ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 0.00089% Year of earliest impact: 2060 Impact*: 24 2011 AM37 Diameter: 4m (13ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 0.1% Year of earliest impact: 2044 Impact*: 0.00003 1979 XB Diameter: 660m (2,170ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 0.000099% Year of earliest impact: 2056 Impact*: 640 2006 JY26 Diameter: 7m (23ft) Probability of hitting Earth: 0.97% Year of earliest impact: 2073 Impact*: 0.0002…

Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle © Alam NASA JPL-Caltech ESA y; ; ; Inside an asteroid destroyer The Armageddon approach A Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle would use a nuclear device to shift an asteroid off course and prevent it from hitting Earth. Making a crater First, a leader spacecraft would hit the asteroid, forming a crater on its surface. Nuclear device The following spacecraft would then fly into the crater and detonate its nuclear device within it. Not quite blown to bits The explosion would dramatically alter the asteroid’s trajectory, but it wouldn’t blow it up completely. Follow the leader The leader spacecraft would have cameras to target the asteroid. Right behind The follower spacecraft would follow closely behind the leader. Kinetic energy The leader’s thrusters would slam it into the…

What’s in the sky? Red light friendly In order to preserve your night vision, you should read our observing guide under red light Jargon buster Conjunction A conjunction is an alignment of 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. Declination (Dec) This tells you how high an object will rise in the sky. Like Earth’s latitude, Dec measures north and south. It’s measured in degrees, arcminutes and arcseconds. There are 60 arcseconds in an arcminute and there are 60 arcminutes in a degree. Right Ascension (RA) Right Ascension is to the sky what longitude is to…

Get the best views of Pluto On 7 July the dwarf planet reaches opposition. This is the best time to see it if you have the right equipment… @ Getty Images; Jon Hicks You’ll need: • Large telescope • Star chart • DSLR or CCD camera When a planet is said to be in ‘opposition’, it means that it is directly opposite the Sun in our skies and is therefore usually available to view all night long. It also means that it will be about as near to Earth as it can get in terms of our respective orbits. In the case of tiny Pluto, this opposition occurs in the constellation of Sagittarius. Because Pluto is so small and distant, you’ll need a large aperture telescope – in this case…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE Three-millionth image aboard the International Space Station The crew of Expedition 47 take a moment out of their busy schedule to pose for what marks a milestone in the history of the International Space Station – the 3 millionth image taken on the Earth-orbit habitat. Such a large volume of snaps also reminds astronauts from the Russian, European and American space agencies that many men and women have photographed our unique planet from space for over 15 years. Expedition 47 comprises of (front row from left to right) the European Space Agency’s Tim Peake, NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra and Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, as well as (back row from left to right) Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut…

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg chats with the ISS The Facebook CEO grills three of the ISS astronauts on many subjects, including new technology that could take us to Mars It’s not every day you get to have a live video chat with a trio of multinational astronauts, but that’s exactly what we got earlier in the month with a milestone exchange between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Kopra, Jeff Williams and Britain’s very own Tim Peake. The 20-minute chat, which was broadcast live on NASA’s official Facebook page, gave viewers the opportunity to submit questions to the western crew of the International Space Station (ISS) and the answers helped to peel back a little of the mystique behind the inner machinations of such a landmark craft. Zuckerberg was also keen…

They throw stars out of galaxies Binary star systems – two stars orbiting one another – risk having their happy union destroyed by black holes. If they get too close to a supermassive black hole, a binary system’s behaviour becomes unpredictable (this is known as the ‘three-body problem’ and is something that crops up numerous times in physics). One binary star may tear away from its partner towards the black hole, as in mad infatuation, due to gravitation. The other, wronged, star – now without its partner to keep it stable – is flung right out of the galaxy at hundreds of kilometres per second. 1 Binary system gets too close A binary system a supermassive . gets too close it can disrupt the binary system’s gravitationally stable setup. 2…

USER MANUAL Juno spacecraft Written by Dominic Reseigh-Lincoln “ Juno will investigate the core mass of Jupiter in the hope of understanding how such an object formed” THE SPECS Launch: 5 August 2011 Launch rocket: Atlas V 551 Target: Jupiter Operators: NASA / JPL Programme cost: $1.1bn (£760mn) Component: Multiple components Finished construction: 2011 Height (core): 3.5m (11.5ft) Diameter (core): 3.5m (11.5ft) For NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Jupiter Near-Polar Orbiter (Juno) is more than just another analytical study far out in the depths of space – it’s a step forwards for alternative fuels in deep space travel and could very well change the way we design such craft in the decades to come. Interestingly, the estimated $1.1 billion (£760 million) programme isn’t the first NASA effort to…

Why the Sun’s outer layer is so hot From the Latin word ‘crown’, the corona – the Sun’s outer atmosphere – is the crowning jewel of our parent star. However, its greatest riddle is its temperature. This exceeds 1 million degrees Celsius (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit), far hotter than the 6,000 degrees Celsius (10,800 degrees Fahrenheit) of the Sun’s visible surface, the photosphere. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that heat should not flow outwards from a cooler to a hotter region. Therefore, the explanation must lie in wave or magnetic energy. Waves were observed by the SOHO probe in 1997. Computer models and spacecraft data have shown that waves – including low-frequency Alfvén waves – can move large amounts of into the Sun’s energy corona and sustain high temperatures.…

Where life on Earth came from Five centuries ago, even the most educated civilisations believed that the Earth lay at the centre of the universe. Just as that stance was common back then, so modern thinking remains very ‘Earth-centric’ with respect to the origins of life. But when Europe’s Rosetta orbiter and Philae lander reached Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, they found significant outgassing of molecular oxygen, as well as many organic compounds inside its darkened crust. It has long been theorised that these icy relics of the ancient Solar System – laden with volatiles like carbon monoxide, ammonia and water-ice from outer space – may have sown the seeds for life on Earth, through ‘panspermia’. Life on Earth began around 3.8 billion years ago, with general consensus favouring self-replicating…

An interview with Elon Musk Not content with having the only private company to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, the CEO of SpaceX is aiming for the Red Planet by 2018 Interviewed by David Crookes “ SpaceX will head to Mars by 2018” INTERVIEW BIO Elon Musk Elon Musk is the founder of the private aerospace company SpaceX, which designs, manufactures and launches advanced reusable rockets and spacecraft. Having already sent cargo to the International Space Station via its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, his continues to work company on technology that will one day allow humans to venture to Mars and establish a huge colony, helping to secure the future of our species. There is a feeling that Elon Musk is on a perpetual upward trajectory, his…

This month’s planets Of the Solar System’s five bright planets, Mars and Saturn are readily observable in the summer Planet of the month Saturn Right Ascension: 16h 36m 02s Declination: -20° 17’ 52” Constellation: Ophiuchus Magnitude: +0.9 Direction: South Following its opposition on 3 June, Saturn’s observational circumstances in this period still render it the UK-based astronomer’s best opportunity to view the ringed planet at a reasonable altitude in fairly dark skies until 2020. Through a 100mm telescope under a magnification of at least 100x, Saturn, plus its rings and numerous moons, presents a beautiful sight. Saturn’s North Polar Region is tilted towards Earth at present. Its North Equatorial Belt is broad and sharply delineated against the brighter Equatorial Zone. Banding parallel to the planet’s equator may be observed further…

The Northern Hemisphere Now well into summer, nebulae are visible and the central part of our galaxy is teeming with star clusters to enjoy © Wil Tirion; ES0; NASA The short warmer nights offer a splendid selection of nebulae, star clusters and bright stars to observe. Red supergiant Arcturus proudly makes its appearance known in the constellation of Boötes. The unmistakable Summer Triangle is easily observed this month, with the stars Altair, Deneb and Vega in the constellations of Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra respectively marking each of its corners. The summer is an ideal time to see the Milky Way galaxy, with Sagittarius and Scorpius marking its centre – here you’ll see a selection of clusters including the Ptolemy Cluster, also known as Messier 7. To add to an impressive…

Omegon MightyMak 90 Highly portable, simple to use and ideal for beginners on a budget, this small telescope is an excellent introduction to astronomy “The Omegon MightyMak 90 is versatile and suits a wide range of eyepieces and filters” Telescope advice Cost: €215 (approx. £170) From: Astroshop.eu Type: Maksutov-Cassegrain Aperture: 3.54” Focal length: 39.37” Best for... Beginners Small budget Planetary viewing Lunar viewing Terrestrial viewing Basic astrophotography If you’re looking for a telescope that’s easy to carry and set up for your very first venture into observing, or perhaps you have children that have been hassling you for a scope but you don’t want to spend a fortune on a hobby that could end up being a fad, then the Omegon MightyMak 90 is a worthwhile option to consider. Omegon’s…

Stephanie Wilson The second African American woman to go to space flew her first mission ten years ago Being an astronaut is no walk in the park. It is not a career that you can merely dip a toe into. It requires an intelligent scientific or engineering mind, a huge dollop of curiosity and many years of commitment and training to even be considered for a mission. But for Stephanie Wilson, the hardest part of her training was going in at the deep end: “I couldn’t swim,” she later revealed. But thankfully she didn’t sink. Wilson was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1996, four years after she had begun working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. With a degree in engineering science from Harvard and…