Innehållsförteckning för No. 91 från All About Space

Martian dust devils © ESA Mars is not completely obsolete. Its thin atmosphere is negligible in comparison to Earth’s, but it is still able to whip up a bit of a wind. The gusts on Mars are able to create the ‘dust devils’ shown here on the surface by the ESA/ Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Dust devils occur when hot air on the ground moves up through the atmosphere via columns of cold air. They are shown in this image with blue/grey streaks in order to emphasise their abundance on the Martian surface.…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE We might need new physics to explain the universe © SKA Organisation/Swinburne Astronomy Productions “This mismatch has been growing and has now reached a point that is really impossible to dismiss as a fluke” Adam Riess The universe is expanding faster than expected, suggesting that astronomers may have to incorporate some new physics into their theories of how the cosmos works, a new study reports. The revised expansion rate is about ten per cent faster than that predicted by observations of the universe's trajectory shortly after the Big Bang, according to the new research. The study also significantly reduces the probability that this disparity is a coincidence, from 1 in 3,000 to just 1 in 100,000. "This mismatch has been growing and…

Seeing the unseeable Although yet unobserved, there are some telltale signs of Galaxy X Perturbed edge of Milky Way Something was disturbing the hydrogen gas at the edge of our galaxy. These can reveal the distance, location and mass of a satellite galaxy that can’t be seen in visible light. The gas can be mapped with radio telescopes, and mathematical analysis of this data reveals the galaxies. Stars that brighten and dim Four Cepheid variable stars were found 300,000 light years away using the VISTA infrared telescope, which can see through some of the dust at our galaxy’s core. The Milky Way only extends 48,000 light years in their direction, so they must be in another galaxy.…

INTERVIEW BIO © The Royal Society; Tobias Roetsch; Professor Brian Cox Brian Cox OBE is a popular science communicator, professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester, England, and former rock star. His work has been viewed and read by millions, with multiple books explaining complex areas of science and astronomy as well as his popular BBC television series Wonders of the Solar System in 2010, co-presenting Stargazing Live and soon his brand new show The Planets. His ability to explain science to a wide audience of people with different levels of scientific knowledge is what has made him so popular. He has also collected numerous accolades for his efforts.…

Watching the eclipse from anywhere in the world Exploratorium  exploratorium.edu/eclipse Starting at 13:00 PDT (20:00 GMT), Exploratorium will broadcast from La Serena, Chile. The stream will be available for free on its website and apps. ESO  eso.org/live Along with its publicly available event, the ESO will be broadcasting the eclipse live from the La Silla Observatory on its website. Time and Date  timeanddate.com/live/ This website not only offers a livestream, but will send you reminders. It has an iOS app and a 3D coverage map with all the necessary information. Slooh Observatory  slooh.com/shows/ event-details/623 For membership holders, Slooh astronomer Paul Cox and astrophysicist Dr Paige Godfrey will commentate on a stream of the solar eclipse. © Juaneugeniofantin1998;;…

The lost cosmonauts? Aleksei Ledovsky 1957 A top-ranking communist from Czechoslovakia claimed Ledovsky had died, having been launched in a converted R-5A rocket on a suborbital flight from Kapustin Yar rocket base. There is no evidence of a manned Soviet suborbital spaceflight. Andrei Mikov 1959 Another said to have died on a suborbital flight, as reported by the Italian news agency Continentale. This was stated as having happened a year after cosmonaut Serenti Shiborin was killed in the same way. Two, unknown 1961 The Italian Judica-Cordiglia brothers claimed to have picked up the sound of a dying, unconscious man, as well as a failing human heartbeat, with the suggestion that these were from two Soviets who had suffered a failed re-entry. Unknown 1961 It is suggested that a manned Vostok…

Key figures These were some of the major players in the early Space Race Wernher von Braun The German engineering genius behind the V-2 ballistic missile – after emigrating he worked on US Army rocket projects while advocating for a large-scale space programme. Sergei Korolev As head of the Soviet Union’s OKB-1 design bureau he oversaw rocket and satellite development, including the R-7 launch vehicle, the Sputnik satellites and Vostok. Milton Rosen Head of the Naval Research Laboratory’s Vanguard program, which after initial failures successfully launched three of America’s first satellites in 1958 to 1959. James R. Killian President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chief science advisor to President Eisenhower, Killian headed the committee that recommended NASA’s formation. John B. Medaris In charge of von Braun’s rocket team…

Chinese Moon base CHINA PLANS TO BUILD A MOON BASE The Chinese space agency is looking to build on our satellite in the next ten years Reported by Rafi Letzter China plans to build a scientific research station on the Moon in "about ten years”, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The China National Space Administration (CSNA) intends to build the research station in the region of the Moon's south pole, Zhang Kejian, head of CSNA, said in a public statement, Xinhua reported. That's a bit of a departure from the six successful NASA Apollo Moon landings, which took place closer to the Moon's equator between 1969 and 1972. Details of China's long-term lunar plans are still sketchy, but CSNA has made significant steps towards lunar exploration. Earlier this…

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. Right Ascension (RA) Right Ascension is to the sky what longitude is to the surface of the Earth, corresponding to east and west directions. It is measured in hours, minutes and seconds since, as the Earth rotates on its axis, we see different parts of the sky throughout the night. 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…

Naked eye & binocular targets If you can stay up late enough for it to get dark, June’s night sky offers some fascinating treats… Messier 92 This globular cluster, more than 100 light years across, is overshadowed by bigger, brighter M13 to its south, but is a beautiful object in its own right. A pair of binoculars will show it as a tiny, smoky ball on clear, Moon-free nights. Epsilon Lyrae Often called ‘The Double Double’ Epsilon Lyrae is a pair of fifth magnitude stars, very close to brilliant Vega, that some keen-eyed observers can split with the naked eye under perfect observing conditions, but most people need binoculars to split the very attractive pair. Vega (Alpha Lyrae) Shining at magnitude 0, Vega is the fifth-brightest star in the sky.…

Our contributors include… Giles Sparrow Space science writer Step back to a time before NASA. Giles delves into spaceflight history to fill us in on the world's first steps in attempting to leave the confines of Earth. James Romero Science writer It's a particle, but it doesn't act like one. James reveals everything you need to know about the newly unveiled odderon – and what it tells us about space. Leo Bear-McGuinness Space science writer Galaxy X, a small, mysterious galaxy, could exist – that's according to brand-new evidence. Turn to page 16 for Leo's special report. Lee Cavendish Staff Writer Lee caught up with Professor Brian Cox this month – but not before writing a handy guide to this year's total solar eclipse. Turn to page 32 for your…

Secrets of tiniest star ever revealed by passing asteroids Words by Samantha Mathewson Most stars in the night sky are too far away to be measured accurately, even by the best optical telescopes. However, astronomers leveraged a method known as diffraction to overcome the challenge. Diffraction occurs when an object, such as an asteroid, passes in front of a star, creating a shadow called an occultation. As the asteroid passes in front, astronomers can calculate how long it takes for the light to fade. Knowing how fast the asteroid is travelling, astronomers can then determine the size of the star, and more precisely measure the diameter of several distant stars. © VERITAS Using the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Amado,…

Tiny Mercury may have a solid metallic core that rivals Earth's © NASA/JPL A solid metallic core nearly as large as Earth's might be lurking deep within the Solar System's smallest planet, according to new research based on data gathered by NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission. That spacecraft spent four years circling the tiny planet before intentionally crashing on Mercury's surface. Now, scientists have used data from near the end of the probe's mission to peer deeper than ever into the planet. As the MESSENGER spacecraft orbited the tiny planet, the probe pinpointed the poles that Mercury rotates around. One of the instruments aboard also carefully measured small variations in local gravity. Those variations cause a spacecraft to speed up or slow down, just a…

Dark matter galaxies Though hypothetical, these galaxies could be real examples Dragonfly 44 This strange galaxy has around the same mass as the Milky Way, yet hardly any stars shine from its disc - only one per cent the number seen in our home galaxy. This means it emits only one per cent of the light too, making it difficult to identify. 0.1% Dark matter 99.9% Visible matter Segue 3 Smaller galaxies tend to be proportionately richer in dark matter. The galaxy with the lowest known mass, Segue 3 in the constellation of Pegasus, has 600-times more dark matter than normal matter. A more usual ratio is 5:1. 98.83% Dark matter 0.17% Visible matter HE0450-2958 A quasar apparently floating freely in space. It may be a supermassive black hole ejected…

Catching a GLIMPSE of Galaxy X The Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire, or GLIMPSE, uses the Spitzer space telescope to survey the galactic plane, meaning that it will cover the area Galaxy X is expected to be in. Spitzer is an infrared telescope, meaning it can pick up on radiation passing through the galactic core, an area that blocks visible light and generates a lot of radio waves that can interfere with observations. Spitzer was launched by NASA in 2003 from Cape Canaveral with a planned mission lasting 2.5 years, but is still operational today. Subsequent launches of observational telescopes, such as the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2009 and the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021, have – and will – increase our ability to hunt out…

Yuri Gagarin MYSTERIES UNIVERSE YURI GAGARIN WAS HE REALLY THE FIRST MAN IN SPACE? Before the cosmonaut orbited the Earth, rumours abounded that someone else already had Reported by David Crookes ©Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo Everybody knows that Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the Moon. Most people are also aware that he wasn't the first to go into space. After all, Alan Shepard paved the way for American astronauts on 5 May 1961, while Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin stole a march by rocketing into space a few weeks earlier on 12 April. Or did he? Today Gagarin's name is cemented in the record books, and he instantly became a national hero across the Soviet Union. Presented as a triumph of the…

The theories Vladimir Ilyushin circled Earth three times Dennis Ogden suggested a cosmonaut had successfully completed a manned spaceflight on 7 April 1961 but it had left him incapacitated, forcing Russia to find someone else to face the public. Vladimir Ilyushin crashed in China Further embellishments claimed Ilyushin had crashed in China and was not only injured but in the hands of the Chinese, who refused to release him. Vladimir Ilyushin was an obvious choice One of the reasons why Ilyushin's name crops up in relation to this conspiracy theory is that his background was conducive to a space mission. He was an accomplished test pilot. Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space Ilyushin is thought to have been involved in a car accident and he is not understood…

The presidents that paved the way for space exploration Harry S. Truman 1945 to 1953 Oversaw Operation Paperclip, which imported German rocket scientists to the United States. Initiated the first US attempts to build an intercontinental ballistic missile, but cancelled them as early as 1947 in favour of ‘cruise’ missiles that remain in Earth’s atmosphere throughout their flight. Several studies of the potential for satellite launches occurred in his administration, but none led to action. Generally dismissive of even limited space exploration, describing the idea as “hooey”. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 to 1961 Advocated the civilian use of space and fought against its militarisation. Backed the Naval Research Laboratory’s Vanguard satellite launcher over the Army’s ‘Project Orbiter’. Announced plans to launch a satellite during the IGY of 1957 to 1958.…

ASK Space Our experts answer your questions ASTROPHYSICS How does a cloud of gas and dust become a star? Our Milky Way galaxy is filled with interstellar gas peppered with dust, known together as the interstellar medium. This very low-density material churns with turbulent motion between stars, and most of it can remain in this free-moving form for millions or even billions of years. Where pockets of gas become compressed, sometimes through the pressure from a nearby supernova explosion, the density can rise to the point where the inward gravitational pull of the gas on itself is a stronger influence than the dispersing tendency of turbulence. This interstellar cloud can therefore be gravitationally bound, at least for a while. Through an interplay of the motions within the interstellar cloud, internal…

Deep sky challenge Hidden wonders of Hercules the Hero There’s more to this constellation than M13, the most beautiful globular cluster in the northern sky Think of the constellation of Hercules and naturally you think of M13, the Hercules Globular Cluster. Many observers think it is the finest globular cluster in the northern sky, and that’s fair enough. It can be seen with the naked eye on a clear, Moon-free night – just – and contains perhaps a million stars all packed closely together. The problem is it is so impressive it tends to hog the Herculean limelight and overshadows everything else in that constellation. There's another problem: by the time June rolls around the night sky doesn’t actually get dark for those at mid-northern latitudes until well after midnight,…

Event Horizon Telescope's galaxy © ESO Messier 87, the focus of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)’s recent black hole news, has been pictured here by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. This gigantic elliptical galaxy is located 55 million light years away, the supermassive black hole at its centre creates a jet of particles travelling at velocities close to the speed of light, which can be seen shooting out of its heart. These ‘relativistic jets’, as they are known, were not imaged by the EHT as they are so extensive.…

29 years of Hubble © NASA/ESA Astronomers celebrated the 29th anniversary of NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope by snapping a shot of the colourful Southern Crab Nebula. The official name of the Southern Crab Nebula is Hen 2-104, and it is located in the constellation of Centaurus. What’s extraordinary about it is its amazing hourglass appearance and the smaller figure-of-eight at the centre; the result of a binary star system at its core. The stellar pair consists of an old, red giant star and an already-aged white dwarf star. The outflow of gas from the red giant, along with the gravitational interaction between the two, led to this majestic hourglass shape.…

Marsquake! NASA's InSight lander feels its first Red Planet tremor Words by Meghan Bartels © NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists just felt the Red Planet move under their feet – robotically from millions of miles away – on the surface of Mars. On 6 April, NASA's InSight lander sensed its first confirmed marsquake, a phenomenon scientists suspected, but couldn't confirm, on our neighbouring planet. Measuring the Martian equivalent of earthquakes was among the lander's key science goals. "We've been waiting months for our first marsquake," Philippe Lognonné, the principal investigator for the seismometer instrument, said in a statement released by the French space agency, which runs the instrument with the national research centre. "It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active." Scientists never thought marsquakes would be as…

Third planet found in two-star 'Tatooine' system Words by Mike Wall A third world lurks in the two-star Kepler-47 system, and it's bigger than its two siblings, a new study reports. "We certainly didn't expect it to be the largest planet in the system," study co-author William Welsh, an astronomer at San Diego State University, said in a statement. "This was almost shocking." Kepler-47 is a roughly 3.5 billion year old system located 3,340 light years from Earth. One of its stars is quite Sun-like, but the other is considerably smaller, harbouring just one-third the mass of our Sun. The two stars orbit their common centre of mass once every 7.45 Earth days. Kepler-47b and c complete one lap around the circumbinary system every 49 and 303 Earth days respectively.…

Top five destinations to see the eclipse La Serena, Chile Partial eclipse begins 17:22 CLT (19:22 GMT) Totality 16:38 CLT (20:39 GMT) Duration of totality 2 minutes 18 seconds Partial solar eclipse ends 17:46 CLT (21:46 GMT) Amount of eclipse 100 per cent La Silla Observatory Partial eclipse begins 15:23 CLT (19:23 GMT) Totality 16:39 CLT (20:39 GMT) Duration of totality 2 minutes 25 seconds Partial solar eclipse ends 17:47 CLT (21:47 GMT) Amount of eclipse 100 per cent San Juan, Argentina Partial eclipse begins 16:26 ART (19:26 GMT) Totality 17:40 ART (20:40 GMT) Duration of totality 36 seconds Partial solar eclipse ends 18:42 ART (21:42 GMT) Amount of eclipse 100 per cent Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina Partial eclipse begins 16:30 ART (19:30 GMT) Totality 17:41 ART (20:41 GMT) Duration…

Yuri’s flight path Gagarin was calm prior to his ascent into space, despite being the first human to do so © Adrian Mann; pedrosala 1. Blast off Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 spacecraft launched on 12 April 1961 at 06:07 UTC blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a spaceport in southern Kazakhstan. 2. Separation At 06:09 four strap-on boosters broke away from the rocket, having depleted their propellant. Three minutes later the rocket's core stage separated from the spacecraft and final rocket stage. 3. Reaching orbit On its ascent and as it reached orbit, the final rocket stage shut down and dropped from the spacecraft. The capsule reached a maximum height of 327 kilometres (203 miles). 4. Revolving around the Earth Gagarin was able to make a single revolution of Earth…

How NASA was formed The case for an overarching US space authority became clear after the Soviet Union’s shock victory in the 1957 race to put a satellite in orbit 1 May 1957 Almost in orbit The US Naval Research Laboratory fires a dummy satellite onto a suborbital flightpath using the first and third stages of its Vanguard rocket. 8 August 1957 Return from space Wernher von Braun’s Army rocket team use a Jupiter-C missile to fire a one-third-scale missile nose cone into space and study its condition after returning to Earth. 4 October 1957 Red star in orbit The Soviet Union successfully launches the 84 kilogram Sputnik 1 satellite, an orbiting radio beacon whose signals are heard around the world. 8 November 1957 Project Orbiter reprieved Following the Soviet…

What does the odderon tell us about the universe? From glueballs and future technology to shining a light on the Standard Model, particle physicists assess the impact of the detection The odderon as a standalone particle “The main implications are, both mathematically and empirically, that when a particle exists in its virtual state to mediate interactions, it should also exist as a standalone particle. For the case of the gluons under discussion, it is called ‘glueball’.” Simone Giani, CERN Glueball detection “There were many attempts to see the odderon as glueball in many processes differed of elastic scattering. However, until now nobody detected such a glueball.” Evgenij Martynov, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Disproving naïve expectations “A spectacular possible consequence of the odderon is the fact that the proton-proton…

The journey from KBO to comet Ultima Thule must undergo a drastic change to become a space snowball, but it is still possible © Nicholas Forder; Tobias Roetsch; “If you moved it into the inner Solar System, the heat from the Sun would go deep into Ultima Thule” Dr Joel Parker 1 The kick-start Ultima Thule would stay in its stable orbit unless there was a close passing of a nearby star influencing the Solar System with its immense gravity. 2 Orbiting the Sun Observational astronomers of Earth would enjoy the maximum activity of Comet Ultima Thule as it orbits the Sun and begins its new passage as a comet. 3 Appearing as a comet As Ultima Thule gets closer to the Sun more material will be stripped off, losing…

STARGAZER What’s in the sky? 23 MAY The Moon and Pluto make a close approach, passing within 0°04’ of each other in Sagittarius 4 JUN Globular cluster Messier 12 is well placed in Ophiuchus at magnitude 6.1 © ESA/Hubble & NASA Naked eye Binoculars Small telescope Medium telescope Large telescope 12 JUN © NASA/JPL-Caltech Globular cluster Messier 92 is well placed for observation in Hercules, glowing at magnitude 6.5 16 JUN The Moon and Jupiter make a close approach, passing within 1°58’ of each other in Ophiuchus 19 JUN Conjunction between the Moon and Saturn in Sagittarius 29 MAY Dwarf planet Ceres reaches opposition in Ophiuchus, glowing at magnitude 7.0 © ESA/Hubble & NASA 17 JUN Mercury reaches its highest point in the…

Tips & tricks Find a clear view in advance Scout out an observing site where you’ll be able to see without any obstructions on the horizon. Be an early bird Don’t wait until the Sun sets to get to your observing site. Be there before sunset so you can catch the Moon and planets shining together as quickly as possible. Use binoculars Sweep the northwestern sky with binoculars to find the Moon. The earlier you spot it, the more time you’ll have to plan your photos. Take lots of photos Once the sky is dark enough to see the Moon, Mars and Mercury, take as many photos as possible. Try different exposure times to be sure some show all three.…

HEROES OF SPACE Valery Bykovsky He was one of the first generation of cosmonauts, totalling over 20 days in space ©ullstein bild Dtl. / Getty “He was selected to be part of the first crop of cosmonauts in March 1960 alongside Yuri Gagarin” 27 March 2019 saw the loss of the influential Soviet Union cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky at the age of 84. His contributions to the Soviet space programme at the pinnacle of the Space Race era paved the way for future generations. He still holds the record for the longest solo spaceflight, 56 years after the mission. Bykovsky was born on 2 August 1934 in Pavlovsky Posad, a town near Moscow in what is now Russia but was formerly the Soviet Union. His…