Innehållsförteckning för No. 47 från All About Space

ESCAPE TO TITAN When the Sun scorches the Earth, a tiny moon in orbit around the ringed giant Saturn is our next home Written by David Crookes Humanity on Earth is doomed and there is nothing we can do about it. Our planet may have already survived for some 4.5 billion years but we face some major threats. There’s always the possibility that an asteroid will wipe us out, just as one did for the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. We could be engulfed by a gamma-ray burst or disrupted by a wandering star. There are also dangers closer to home, from volcanoes to nuclear war. But supposing humans manage to survive all such threats, we can still say for certain that life here on Earth will eventually be no…

USER MANUAL James Webb Space Telescope Written by Dominic Reseigh-Lincoln THE SPECS Launch:October 2018 Launch rocket:Ariane 5 ECA Target:Sun-Earth L2 point Operators:ESA, NASA, CSA and STScl Orbital inclination:Halo orbit Component:Multiple international components Finishes construction:October 2018 Mission ends:2028 Time spent in orbit:6,201 days Focal length:131.4m (431ft) Ever since NASA launched the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 craft in 1968, the scientific world has gazed out into the depths of the universe through many a generation of space telescope. For decades, two observatories have provided the most prolific and in-depth imagery of space – namely the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has become an integral part of NASA’s (and by extension, the wider scientific community’s) understanding of the cosmos, and in conjunction with the…

Apollo 14’s Moon landing It's been 45 years since three rookies landed on the lunar surface and played lunar golf ©NASA When Apollo 14 launched on 31 January 1971, it was not without trepidation. The previous year, the third lunar landing mission – Apollo 13 – had failed to make it to the Moon when an oxygen tank exploded. The crew members survived but serious questions were being asked about the viability of manned missions. Apollo 14 didn’t get off to the best of starts either. Clouds and rain forced a delay of 40 minutes and two seconds, while commander Alan Shepard, command module pilot Stuart Roosa and lunar module pilot, Edgar Mitchell, had problems with the docking latches. But, they finally landed on the Moon on 5 February 1971…

Flight Information 2016 Lynx XCOR Aerospace This winged, suborbital spacecraft is a horizontal take off and horizontal landing craft that is able to carry one pilot, one passenger and/or a payload up to 100km (62mi) altitude. According to latest 2015 reports on the project, the Lynx space plane is due to take its first flight in 2016. 2017 SpaceShipTwo Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo is an air-launched rocket plane designed to carry six people on space tourism flights. It is carried up to 15km (9.3mi) altitude by its specially developed carrier aircraft White Knight Two, where it drops off and uses its rocket to boost up to a maximum height of 110km (68.4mi). 2018 Dream Chaser Sierra Nevada Corporation Dream Chaser is a lifting body space plane, where the wings and the…

Explorer’s Guide Io The most dangerous moon in our Solar System, a tortured world wracked with volcanoes and bombarded with radiation from nearby Jupiter Io is the fifth closest satellite of the giant planet Jupiter, and the innermost of the four major ‘Galilean’ moons – worlds so large they might be considered planets in their own right if they weren’t trapped in orbit around the largest planet in our Solar System. Orbiting Jupiter in just 42 hours, Io is slightly bigger than our own Moon, but hugely different in many other ways. While our satellite has been geologically dead for more than 3 billion years, Io is home to violently active volcanism – huge plumes of erupted material arc high into its almost-airless skies before falling down to blanket the…

Potentially habitable worlds in the Solar System Mars So much has been said about Mars’ potential habitability. As the fourth planet from the Sun, it sits at the edge of the habitable zone where conditions are almost right for liquid water to exist. Recent evidence has shown there were once vast bodies of water on the surface billions of years ago, and there are still dribbles of water today. But we still don’t know if it did, or still does, host life. Europa Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of the icy satellites believed to have a vast ocean beneath its frozen crust that extends several miles deep. Here, life would be protected from solar radiation, while Europa’s eccentric orbit around Jupiter pushes and pulls the core, providing a heat source…

SOLAR SYSTEM What would happen if a star passed our Solar System? John Ray A passing star would cause big problems for Earth. The foreign star’s gravity would disrupt some of the objects in the Solar System, potentially sending them hurtling towards our planet. It is believed that a dim star passed close by to our planetary system and through the outer edge of the Oort Cloud about 70,000 years ago. Although close by astronomical standards, this put the star at 8 trillion kilometres (5 trillion miles) away. It’s possible that a star could pass close to our Solar System in the future, but, it’s unlikely to be anytime soon. Scientists have found that there are some stars whose movements could potentially bring them closer to us within the next…

DEEP SPACE Was there a noise when the universe exploded into existence? Carlos Bennett No, sound is unable to propagate through space as there are no particles to carry it. Despite its name, the Big Bang wasn’t a tremendous explosion: there was no catastrophic noise to accompany the birth of the universe. According to our current theory, the universe started out much hotter and denser than it is today, before expanding and cooling over time. It initially existed as a single point of infinite temperature and density. An explosion implies that the universe began from a centre point and moved outward into space – of course, this isn’t exactly how the Big Bang played out. However, scientists can understand why many refer to it as a great explosion – the…

SOLAR SYSTEM Does life really come from comets? Keith Moore @NASA There are theories that water on Earth, as well as the chemical building blocks of life, may have been delivered to our planet in it’s early history by icy comets. But how life first began on Earth is still a great mystery. Liquid water is assumed to be essential for life, but some scientists believe there wasn’t any when Earth initially formed. Delivery of this water by comet impacts may be the answer, as these are largely composed of ice. Another vital component for life is amino acids – organic compounds that join together to form complex proteins. For a long time, it was thought that these molecules could only be created via biological processes, but how did they…

Moonshots & Snapshots of PROJECT APOLLO What’s in the sky? A Rare Photographic History 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…

Polar align your telescope Successfully aligning your scope Follow these steps for fuss-free polar alignment When setting up, it’s easier to manoeuvre your telescope mount without the scope or counterweight attached. Once you are happy with your alignment, you can add the telescope and counterweights, but be careful not to knock the mount out of alignment as you do this. Make sure the mount is level and adjust each tripod leg as necessary. You can use a small spirit level to help. A polar alignment scope can help, too, if you have one. Don’t forget to use a red torch during set up to keep your eyes dark-adapted. 1 Get level Make sure your telescope mount is level with the polar axis pointing roughly due north. Adjust the tripod legs…

Photograph the Moon with your smartphone You too can take great-looking images of the lunar surface using your mobile device @ Nikos Koutoulas You’ll need: Smartphone Telescope Low-to-medium power eyepiece Moon filter that fits the eyepiece Optional phone bracket You’ve probably seen photographs of the Moon in magazines and on the internet which reveal all of its craters, mountains and other features, but did you know that you can take similar quality pictures just with your smartphone camera? Most smartphones have very high quality imaging devices built into them, as well as software that can give you some control over how they take the pictures. But many people just leave it on automatic. However, if you have previously tried to hold your smartphone’s camera up to a bright Moon in…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE ©NASA Space suit salad This collection of Soyuz spacecraft pressure suits floating around was taken by German astronaut, geophysicist, volcanologist and explorer Alexander Gerst on board the International Space Station during his six-month, long-duration Blue Dot mission to test human spaceflight. He posted it on Twitter with the words: “Space suit salad” and, surprisingly, the image only attracted 204 Twitter Likes. Oh well. At least those on board the ISS have been able to enjoy some real salad of late. In August 2015, ISS astronauts became the first to try space-grown food. They munched on fresh vegetables, including Red Romaine lettuce, with proponents of the experiment saying that space-gardening helped to de-stress the astronauts, while providing nutritious food for crew members. Growing…

Twin planets could share life in alien planetary systems New study suggests twin planets near Kepler-36 have the potential to support organisms Two exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler observatory in 2012 could hold the potential to support life between them, reveals a new study. Kepler-36b and Kepler-36c are bound by close-passing orbits and it is this unusual bond that could foster life. The two planets – which are roughly 1,200 light years from Earth – have orbits so closely synced they pass within a staggering 1.9 million kilometres (1.2 million miles) of one another, creating a ‘planetrise’ effect similar to our own relationship with the Moon. It’s this incredibly unusual proximity that could provide the scenario needed to support life. A team of astronomers currently working at the University of…

Evolution of the Sun The Sun emerges The Sun was born in a large, cold cloud of gas and dust called a nebula. Hot stuff Collapsing under gravity and heating up to 10 million degrees Celsius (18 million degrees Fahrenheit), a small star is formed. Early years Hydrogen within the Sun’s core sustains nuclear fusion at a constant rate, radiating heat. Here and now The Sun continues to fuse hydrogen into helium and it is currently stable. Gradual warming As it ages, the Sun gradually warms up and slowly loses mass to energy. A red giant In time, the Sun’s supply of hydrogen will be exhausted and it will inflate in size. Planetary nebula As it dies and burns through its fuel, it opens up and ejects ionised gas. White…

How to get to Titan It may not be needed for five billion years, but it’s good to be prepared 1 Send more probes Huygens touched down in 2005 but it could only send 90 minutes worth of data back to Earth. 2 Train up astronauts Astronauts diving in Lake Untersee in Antarctica feel similar conditions to Titan: cold and lacking in oxygen. 3 Get some power Solar panels are useless until the red giant phase, so nuclear energy may be used. 4 Create a spacecraft Seven years travel is hard. A fast human-rated spacecraft capable of reaching 10AU is needed.…

Interstellar space ark An international team of researchers are figuring out how to make a living interior for a starship “All parts of the worldship will contribute towards keeping its ecology and its colonists alive, as even the buildings will include living material” Engines The most likely engines for the space ark would be some kind of fusion rocket, creating thrust and power by combining light atoms so that they release energy. Destinations Given an effective fusion rocket, these worldships could probably reach the nearest stars in decades to centuries, and data suggests that nearly every star in the sky has some neighbouring planets. Asteroid material Such big worldships will have to be built from material already available in space; they could be hollowed out asteroids, or assembled from asteroid…

Hunting for life on Mars How this European-led mission will search for signs of life on the Red Planet Heat shield The heat shield bears the brunt of atmospheric entry, slowing the spacecraft to a speed of 1,650km/h (1,025mph) at 11km (6.8mi) high before it is jettisoned at 7km (4.3mi). Solar power The solar panels on the autonomous ExoMars rover will produce 1,200 Watt-hours of energy, while a battery will store the solar energy collected by the panels. Raman Laser Spectrometer This instrument will perform the first Ramon spectroscopy on another world, which will study the vibrations of molecules to determine their characteristics. Drill The rover will drill further underground than any Martian mission before it, collecting samples up to a depth of 2m (6.6ft). Parachute The parachute is deployed…

SOLAR SYSTEM What would the Sun look like from other planets? Jamie Holland Saturnian solar eclipse For 12 hours in 2006 while orbiting Saturn, NASA’s Cassini space probe drifted into Saturn’s shadow; looking back at the planet it captured this amazing solar eclipse. Saturn easily covers the Sun’s disc (unlike Earth’s solar eclipses where the Moon and Sun pretty much match) but light bends through the atmosphere, lighting the edge of the disc. Light reflecting off the ring system brightens the night side of Saturn, and the rings scatter or block light depending on their composition. Mercury So close to the Sun and with little atmosphere, Mercury sees the Sun as a brilliant white ball dominating the sky at 2.5-times the size that we’re used to. Venus From Venus the…

This month’s planets It's the ideal time of year to catch the other members of our Solar System Planet of the month Jupiter Right Ascension: 11h 33m Declination: 04º 08’ Constellation: Leo Magnitude: -2.1 Direction: East Jupiter is a late evening and late morning object, gradually heading west of the Sun and approaching opposition on 8 March (when the planet will be located directly opposite the Sun). Of all the planets in the Solar System, Jupiter offers the most generous observing and imaging opportunities to the amateur astronomer, in terms of apparent size, combined with observable detail and exciting dynamism. The Solar System’s largest planet is a vast globe – a gas giant ten times the diameter of Earth and with a volume in which a thousand Earths could fit.…

Plato crater One of the Moon’s greatest craters is an excellent lunar target this month Top tip! Many craters, like Plato, are best observed during certain phases of the Moon. In particular, Plato is an excellent target during the first quarter Moon. If you choose to observe Plato during a full Moon, use a Moon filter to block out glare. Known to all lunar observers, Plato is one of the Moon’s most iconic and recognisable craters. Sunk deep below the level of the mighty lunar Alps, Plato is a near-circular depression around 100 kilometres (62 miles) in diameter whose flat, dark floor lies more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) below its rugged mountain surroundings. Because Plato lies in the Moon’s northern hemisphere, fairly close to the Moon’s northern edge, a…

Photograph the Moon Shooting with an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry Taking good pictures of the Moon is all about being methodical. Here’s how to do it… The important thing to do when taking images of the Moon through a telescope is to take your time and get each step right. This can make the difference between a mediocre image and a great one. If you are using a smartphone bracket, for example, make sure it’s securely attached to the telescope or eyepiece. If the Moon is very bright on your chosen night of viewing, screw a Moon filter to the eyepiece. But if the Moon is only a thin crescent, you may not need one. If you follow the simple steps here, it should minimise any problems and maximise your…

The Northern Hemisphere A menagerie of night-sky targets await observers of the winter heavens © Wil Tirion Throughout January and into early February, a gaggle of impressive targets for those with binoculars and telescopes pop into view. With the Sun dipping below the horizon roughly between 4pm and 5pm, some objects can even be enjoyed with the unaided eye – from the +1.4 magnitude Pleiades star cluster (M45) to bright stars Rigel and Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. If you’re observing from an especially dark site, some astronomers will even be able to spot the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) as a faint smudge of light. At varying times of the night, all of the naked-eye planets will make their way along the ecliptic. Remember, when using this map, to use…

Robots to spy on black holes New unmanned spy vehicles will enable these violent objects to be studied like never before © NASA;ESO; Dana Berry; Skyworks Digital; CfA The process of accurately measuring black holes could be about to get a whole lot easier thanks to a new initiative that uses robotically-controlled telescopes to do all the hard work. This traditional method of black hole study, known as ‘reverberation mapping’, usually takes a considerable amount of time and manual telescope use, so these new robot eyes could streamline the field like never before. Reverberation mapping involves studying the gas clouds surrounding a black hole and measuring how its gravitational pull affects them. This gas is chemically analysed and compared to similar pockets located further away – this, in turn, enables…

A shift of habitability As it stands In the Solar System today, the habitable zone for life forms is between 0.9AU to 1.5AU. Growing old As the Sun starts to age, it will become hotter. Earth would become too close to the Star. Continuing expansion The Sun becomes larger and it will turn into a red giant, expanding past the orbit of Mercury and Venus. Life on Earth Earth is within this habitable zone because liquid water can exist on it – habitability’s key test. Evaporating water Water on Earth would evaporate and the planet would no longer be in the habitable zone. Titan becomes habitable The outer lying planets will become closer to the Sun, shifting the habitable zone. Titan will become potentially habitable.…

FROZEN STELLAR GIANT +10stars of the in weirdest the galaxy All About Space take a look at some of the Sun’s strangest stellar cousins Written by Laura Mears Aside from the fact that the Sun is orbited by the only planet in the universe known to be home to life – which, let’s face it, is pretty special – our star is pretty normal as far as stars go. Along with 90 per cent of the other stars in the universe, it is classed as ‘main sequence’: powered by fusing hydrogen to make helium. It is medium sized, it is using up its fuel relatively slowly, and it will die quite quietly; without all the drama of a supernova and with no risk of leaving behind a black hole. However,…

ARE WE ALONE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? In our continuing quest to find alien life, can our own neighbourhood provide the answer? Written by Jonathan O'Callaghan As little as a few decades ago, the suggestion that some moons or planets in the Solar System once hosted life, or perhaps still do, would have been met with heavy scepticism. Now, thanks to various robotic explorers, we know differently; there are several potentially habitable worlds in our Solar System alone. But the biggest question still remains, could one of these locations host existing life? We are getting close to resolving that question, and the answer – one way or another – will define our place in the universe. Essentially, the search for life in the Solar System boils down to three waves…

DEEP SPACE What do the galaxies from the early universe look like now? Shaun Allen We can only really speculate. Since light emitted from galaxies takes a long time to get to us – millions, if not billions, of years in fact – we only see the galaxies as they used to be. The most distant galaxies are also the youngest, so technically, they are galactic as we see them. Given our understanding of how galaxies grow and evolve, it’s thought that the early galaxies could look like the galactic structures that are closest to us. Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure and, as such, we’re unable to get a good handle on how these distant galaxies might have evolved into the ones we see nearby. We can, however, get…

SPACE EXPLORATION Would astronauts need a lot of shielding to safely travel into deep space? Lisa Smith When it comes to deep space travel, we believe the answer to sufficient protection – on top of the standard shielding of a spacecraft and a water tank around the astronaut’s cabin – is to travel faster through space so astronauts are exposed for a shorter length of time. This relies heavily on our advancement of propulsion systems. According to measurements from the Mars Science Laboratory, which it took during its 253-day journey to the Red Planet, the amount of radiation – in the form of deadly cosmic rays and energetic solar particles – that would be accumulated by the human body is the equivalent to getting a whole computerised tomography, or CT…

Polar align your telescope The secret to tracking objects and taking great astrophotographs is good polar alignment of your telescope mount. Here’s how to get it @ Nikos Koutoulas You’ll need: Polar alignment scope (if available) Magnetic compass Local Ordnance Survey map or GPS If you have an equatorial telescope mount, you need to be able to polar align it reasonably accurately. That is, you align the polar axis of the mount with the north (or south, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere) celestial pole. This means that the mount’s axis is parallel to the Earth’s axis. The benefit of this is that you only need to guide the telescope around this axis, which can be done with a simple motor drive made for this purpose, in order to…

Nebulae in Orion the hunter Take a tour of some of the deep-sky objects found in the constellation of Orion this month The night sky around the constellation of Orion is teeming with objects for those armed with a telescope. There are nebulae and star clusters galore. Some will be easy to spot even with a small telescope, whereas others will be more of a challenge. The Great Orion Nebula, also known as M42, is fairly easy to enjoy, even with a telescope with a small aperture, but the famous and difficult to see Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) found in the same constellation will need a scope with a larger aperture, and the addition of a filter will help to show up this diffuse region even more. Here are a…

Jeffrey A Hoffman The first astronaut to log more than 1,000 hours on board the Space Shuttle and the man who helped save the Hubble Space Telescope Shortly after the Hubble Space Telescope had launched into orbit in 1990, mission managers began worrying that the images being sent back to Earth were woefully out-of-focus. The problem was a tiny flaw in the manufacture of the $2.5 billion (£1.6 million) telescope’s mirror but it was a major embarrassment for NASA and ESA. With the project in serious danger and a sense of despair among the astronomical community, a mission was launched in 1993 to repair the space telescope. Jeffrey A Hoffman was among the seven astronauts chosen for the task. By then, Hoffman was an experienced astronaut. Born in Brooklyn, New…