Innehållsförteckning för April 2022 från BBC Sky at Night

ISS to be decommissioned by 2031 Commercial enterprises will replace ISS activities in low-Earth orbit NASA has laid out its plan to decommission and deorbit the International Space Station (ISS) by 2031, it was announced in late January. Commercial replacement facilities are expected to step in before that time, allowing NASA to maintain a constant human presence in low-Earth orbit. As the ISS enters its third decade, the spacecraft is beginning to show its age. Much of the equipment is outdated and structural problems, such as cracks discovered last year, are beginning to emerge. As such, the international partners have decided to wind down the station’s activities before eventually deorbiting the ISS. The process will take several years as the ISS’s orbit is gradually reduced by visiting spacecraft, eventually causing…

Hunting for life, but not as we know it Ammonia could be as important on other worlds as oxygen is on ours Over the coming years, as astronomers use spectroscopy to read the atmospheres of Earthsized, habitable planets, detecting the presence of one gas will be an important discovery: oxygen. On Earth, oxygen is released by life - specifically, by organisms using sunlight for energy. Oxygen is a very reactive gas. Early in Earth’s history any oxygen released into the atmosphere was rapidly removed. It reacted with rocks, or was destroyed by photochemical reactions driven by ultraviolet rays in sunlight. Such processes are known as ‘sinks’, and oxygen only started to accumulate in Earth’s atmosphere once its production had overwhelmed these sinks. An oxygen-rich atmosphere is thought to be a…

Welcome back The Sky at Night returns after a short two-month hiatus. In April’s episode, Maggie and Chris look at the astronomy and spaceflight stories that have made the headlines since the show has been off air, including a look at how the James Webb Space Telescope is faring since its launch. Pete Lawrence reveals what to see in the night sky this month and the team discuss the big stories for the rest of 2022. BBC Four, 10 April, 10pm (first repeat BBC Four, 14 April, 7:30pm) Check www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight for more up-to-date information…

Live Our Place in Space Northern Ireland and Cambridge, from 22 April From this month until 16 October an epic 10km space-themed sculpture trail will appear in Derry/Londonderry, Belfast, Cambridge, then County Down. Designed by children’s author and artist Oliver Jeffers, the walkable scale model of the Solar System will be accompanied by an interactive app and programme of events. www.ourplaceinspace.earth Live & Online The Water Cycle of a Cold Early Mars Queen Square, Bath, 1 April, 7:30pm Stephen Clifford from Arizona’s Planetary Science Institute explores the evidence that Mars was once a planet of oceans and lakes, and asks where the water is now. Watch online or the large-screen broadcast at the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution. Tickets £5/£2. www.brlsi.org/whatson/the-water-cycle-of-a-cold-early-mars Live Whitby observing night Bruce Observatory, Whitby, 3, 10…

When a rubella scare grounded Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly in 1970, he was forced to watch from the sidelines as his two crewmates headed off to the Moon without him on the ill-fated Apollo 13. Two years later in 1972, Mattingly hoped for better luck on his new mission, Apollo 16. Unfortunately, while Apollo 13 had been an Oscar-worthy triumph over tragedy, Apollo 16 would turn out to be something of a farce. In 1972, morale at NASA was low. A curtailed Apollo programme was heading into its final two missions and many staff members were being laid off. Meanwhile, the Soviets were making headlines with the Lunokhod rover and its robotic sample return missions, doing the work of the Apollo missions at a fraction of the cost and…

2022 is going to be a bumper year for lunar missions. Orbiters are set to begin hunting for potential resources, while landers plan on alighting at the lunar south pole for the first time, and a fleet of rovers are set to scuttle across the surface. Several of these missions are participating in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project, which pays commercial spaceflight enterprises to carry payloads to the Moon’s surface in preparation for the upcoming Artemis landings (see page 60). Elsewhere in the world, spacecraft from national space agencies and commercial companies based in India, Japan, Russia and South Korea are readying to make the trip. Lunar rush hour is about to begin. Nova-C IM-1, Intuitive Machines A lunar lander due to launch as part of NASA’s CLPS…

DON’T MISS The Lyrids 2022 BEST TIME TO SEE: 22-26 April, peak on the night of 22/23 April The annual meteor calendar starts with a bang as Earth experiences the Quadrantid meteor shower at the start of January. However, in the weeks that follow, activity is restricted to very weak showers and the background ‘noise’ of sporadic meteors, that is until April when the Lyrid shower raises the game once again. Lyrids occur when Earth passes through the debris spread around the orbit of comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. Activity typically begins on 16 April and continues through to the 25th. For most of this period, meteor rates are quite low in activity, reaching a peak on the night of 22/23 April, when a zenithal hourly rate of 18 meteors per…

Ptolemaeus Type: Walled plain Size: Length 154km Longitude/Latitude: 1.8° W, 9.2° S Age: Older than 3.9 billion years Best time to see: First quarter (9 April) or six days after full 0oon (23 April) Minimum equipment: 10x binoculars Ptolemaeus is an immense crater that sits just below the centre of the Earth-facing side of the Moon. It is battle-worn, with a rounded rim that has been heavily eroded by the impacts that followed after its formation. It’s an interesting exercise to circumnavigate Ptolemaeus’s rim, counting the number of small craterlets that lie within it. To its credit though, despite its age and battered appearance, it is whole. Ptolemaeus has a diameter of 154km. Inside its eroded walls, the crater’s floor has been smoothly surfaced in lava – well almost. Although…

1. Berenice’s Hair (Melotte 111) Look at a point midway between mag. +2.9 Cor Caroli (Alpha (α) Canem Venaticorum) and mag. +2.1 Denebola (Beta (β) Leonis) to see a misty patch of sky about 6° across. 10x50 binoculars will reveal 30 or so stars. Nearly 2.5° south of mag. +4.3 Gamma Comae, is the mag. +5.3 double star 17 Comae, whose white mag. +6.6 companion, 145 arcseconds away, is easy to split in binoculars. □ SEEN IT 2. Black Eye Galaxy, M64 You’ll need a transparent moonless sky for this mag. +8.5 galaxy which, owing to its high surface brightness, is easy to see in such conditions. Look 1° east-northeast of mag. +5.0 35 Comae, where it appears as a small oval glow, whose long axis is about a quarter…

Back in 2019, the year of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo lunar human space programme, Jim Bridestine, then NASA Administrator announced details of Project Artemis and with it the commitment to a single monumental goal: to establish a permanent human Moon base. With the project costing an estimated $93 billion by 2025, NASA’s first milestone in this programme is the Artemis I mission, which is due to launch from Kennedy Space Center in mid 2022. A four-week return mission to the Moon, Artemis I will be the first integrated test flight of NASA’s Deep Space Exploration System, which includes the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) at Kennedy Space Center. There will be no lunar landing for Artemis I, but it will…

Stargazing in solitude isn’t always easy in the Cambrian Mountains. “A few friends and I went up to the local Dark Sky Discovery Site to lie on blankets and watch a meteor shower, but there were so many sheep that we had to lie on the bonnet of the car instead!” says Linda Reid, who runs Glangwili Mansion (glangwilimansion.co.uk), a small luxury country house hotel in Llanllawddog in Carmarthenshire. “They must have thought we were the farmer coming to feed them.” Back at Glangwili Mansion there’s a feast, both gastronomical and astronomical, in the shape of the Stargazer Cabin in the lush hotel grounds. “We wanted to do something special so we created this cosy wilderness place with evening dining and spectacular skies,” says Linda. Welcome to the Cambrian Mountains…

When the Maunders married, Annie was forced to give up her official position at Greenwich, but continued to work alongside her husband unofficially – including accompanying him on the many expeditions he took around the world to see and photograph eclipses. Though Annie had to pay her own way on these trips, she was given a grant from her alma mater, Girton College, Cambridge, which she used to buy a camera with an unusually large field of view. Armed with this camera and unbound by the expedition rules and itinerary, she could often venture off and take images the official astronomers could not. One particularly dramatic example is her ‘longest-ray’ photograph taken in 1898. This showed a coronal streamer 14 solar radii in length – the longest on record at…

Create a skyscape panorama Processing an image to showcase the sky and a foreground Never could I have imagined that my ‘Château de Chambord’ image would be shortlisted in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition 2021. It was captured in 2020 when I travelled 4,500km by car, with the goal of reaching five locations in five nights, and Château de Chambord (at Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France) was the last location on the itinerary. The idea for imaging this beautiful location came from a photographer, Ralf Rohner, and if it wasn’t for him this photograph would have never been taken. The image is a panorama and both the foreground and sky sections consist of multiple images. For both these, the camera had to be panned between each shot, with…

APRIL HIGHLIGHTS Interview: A new cosmic constitution Who upholds the law beyond Earth? Space Law expert Professor Chris Newman talks post-launch legislation. DIY Astronomy: Make a solar projector Download extra images, plans and diagrams to help with this month’s DIY solar observing project (see page 74). Plan your observing for the month ahead Download charts to record your observations of the planets and take this month’s binocular and deep-sky tours. The Virtual Planetarium Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through the best sights to see in the night sky this month.…

The Sky at Night TV show, past, present and future As a child I used to watch The Sky at Night. My parents gave me special permission to stay up late to watch the programme and I loved it. Growing up in London, you don’t see that many stars because of the light pollution, so Patrick Moore used to give me an insight into what I might be able to see in the night sky. As I was living close to Hampstead Heath, on the way back from school sometimes it would be dark and Id be able to have a clear view of the night sky. Id think, “Oh my goodness! Patrick mentioned that and now I can see it.” So he brought the night sky to life for…

Emails – Letters – Tweets – Facebook – Instagram – Kit questions Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2022 and Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellations Winner’s details will be passed on to Octopus Publishing to fulfil the prize MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Passing a planet If someone manages to capture a picture of the Internatioinal Space Station (ISS) crossing the Sun or the Moon, that is no small feat, but what about getting it crossing a planet? I would like to share my image that I took of the ISS transiting Jupiter, which was a difficult shot! I discovered that, on…

ONLINE Maddie, Space and You Five fact-packed CBeebies programmes for young space fans If you have small people to keep entertained during the Easter holidays, head to the BBC iPlayer for Maddie Moate’s upbeat series on space, Maddie, Space and You. The five 20-minute episodes introduce the Solar System, how rockets work, living and working on the International Space Station (ISS), the role of robotics in space missions and everything you need to know about training to become an astronaut. Packed with real science and filmed at the UK’s National Space Centre in Leicester, Moate’s exuberant style makes it a fun watch for all ages. BBC iPlayer…

Launch date: 16 April 1972 Launch location: Launch Complex 39A Landing location: Descartes Highlands Time on surface: 71 hours, 2 minutes and 12 seconds Distance covered by the Lunar Rover: 26.7km Duration: 11 days, 1 hour, 51 minutes Return date: 27 April 1972 Main goals: Inspect, sample and survey the Descartes region; set up surface experiments; photograph the lunar surface from orbit; test the Lunar Rover’s capabilities Achievements: First human landing on lunar highland; discovery that the region was an impact crater, not volcanic; collection of 96kg of material to sample, including one taken from 2.2m below the surface. Lunar Module name: Orion Command Module name: Casper…

Xelene, Masten Space Systems: CLPS mission Blue Ghost, Firefly Aerospace: CLPS mission Alina, Planetary Transportation Systems: Former Google Lunar X Prize contestant Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), NASA: Lunar prospector Lunar Zebro, Delft University: Student-built rover Seven Sisters, Space Industry Association of Australia: Nanosats to support the Artemis programme…

PICK OF THE MONTH Mercury Best time to see: 29 April, 30 minutes after sunset Altitude: 13° Location: Taurus Direction: West-northwest Features: Phase, surface markings through larger instruments Recommended equipment: 75mm, or larger Mercury reaches superior conjunction on 2 April when it appears to line up with the Sun on the far side of its orbit. Consequently, Mercury won’t be visible at the start of April. Its re-emergence into the evening sky is pretty spectacular, the planet appearing bright and distancing itself from the Sun rapidly. On 8 April, Mercury shines at mag. -1.6 and sets 35 minutes after sunset. By 12 April, just four days later, the planet will be setting a full 60 minutes after the Sun, having dimmed a bit to mag. -1.3 by that date. This…

This month there are several low numbered asteroids reaching opposition, including 8 Flora on 12 April, 15 Eunomia on the 16th and 10 Hygiea on the 28th. Of the three, 10 Hygiea will be the brightest, reaching mag. +9.3 as it sneaks into Virgo, the Virgin having spent much of the month in neighbouring Libra, the Scales. On 1 April, 10 Hygiea can be seen 5° to the southwest of mag. +2.7 Zubenelgenubi (Alpha2 Librae). Zubenelgenubi is a double star, the mag. +2.7 primary having a mag. +5.2 companion, which is 3.8 arcminutes to the northwest of it. As the month progresses, Hygiea performs a gently arcing movement to the west-northwest, crossing the border between Libra and Virgo on the night of 22/23 April. It begins its monthly path at…

The Sun exhibits a visual activity cycle, a solar cycle, where it goes from displaying few if any sunspots, before ramping up in numbers to a point where there is a regular procession of spot groups across the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere. The time taken for the spot group numbers to go from minimum to maximum, and back to minimum again, is approximately 11 years. We’re currently in the build-up to a maximum, the peak of Solar Cycle 25, expected around 2025. As sunspot groups are now reasonably common, this month’s challenge is to follow one or more groups on a daily basis, monitoring for changes. The Sun rotates differentially, its equatorial rotation being 25 days, and the rotation in its polar regions being 35 days. Sunspot groups appear at the…

1. Artemis I launches from Kennedy Space Center, Florida 2. The spacecraft enters low-Earth orbit and deploys the solar array 3. Separation of Orion from rocket. Propulstion stage takes dotted grey line to a disposal orbit around the Sun 4. Trans-lunar injection propels the Orion spacecraft towards the Moon 5. First flyby, 100km from the surface 6. Orion enters a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the 0oon 7. At its furthest point, Orion is 61,155km from the Moon’s surface 8. The Orion spacecraft leaves distant retrograde orbit (DRO) 9. Second flyby of the lunar surface 10. Thrusters fire to send Orion on its return trajectory to Earth 11. The Orion service module separates from the crew module 12. Atmospheric entry at 39,500km/h 13. Orion splashes down in the Pacific Ocean,…

One of the most popular areas in the region is Devil’s Bridge/Pontarfynach, which is about 19km east of Aberystwyth. “It’s one of the ultimate destinations for anyone with an interest in the night sky,” says Cambrian Mountains Initiative project manager Dafydd Wyn Morgan. “It’s got everything you need, from accommodation, attractions and activities to places to eat and drink.” There’s a Victorian vibe here: Devil’s Bridge Falls (devilsbridgefalls.co.uk) in Rheidol Gorge has been visited since the 18th century, with William Wordsworth counted among the sightseers. Enter the turnstiles to reach the path, which also gets you the occasional view of three bridges built one on top of the other. Reach Devil’s Bridge car-free via the Vale of Rheidol Railway (rheidolrailway.co.uk) from Aberystwyth - between March and November. Opposite the station…

Practical astronomy projects for every level of expertise This month’s project is to build a solar projector, which you can use to safely view the Sun. Not only is it easy to operate, but it’s useful for catching sunspot activity, a solar eclipse or a transit event. As it is not safe to look directly at the Sun with the naked eye (or any unfiltered optical equipment), our design keeps your eyes well away from the light path, which is inside an enclosed casing. The image is projected onto a screen which can be viewed by several people simultaneously. Cost-effective design The design makes use of binoculars, a mirror and a screen. Charity shop 7x50 binoculars are a good bet, particularly those built with metal and glass parts and costing…

Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month PHOTO OF THE MONTH Bode’s Galaxy, M81 Alex Bell, Bath, 4 February 2022 Alex says: “Bode’s Galaxy is a favourite I return to each year. I recently upgraded my scope and wanted a big target to fill the field of view, and 081 was perfect. It’s a wonderful, bright object and rises high to the zenith at this time of year. I took this image from my home observatory (the ‘BLT’), an octagonal self-build, which I designed, with a rotating and retractable roof. Living on a hill I don’t have the greatest southern aspect for winter targets, but this object in the north is accessible.” Equipment: ZWO ASI2940C camera, Celestron 11-inch EdgeHD Schmidt-Cassegrain, iOptron CE060 mount Exposure: 75x 120” Software: APP,…

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 7 FEBRUARY 2022 The friendship between two near neighbours, the Seyfert galaxy NGC 169 (bottom) and galaxy IC 1559 (top), is getting a little too close for the more diminutive of the pair. Collectively known as Arp 282 and found 319 million lightyears away in the constellation of Andromeda, they give us a vivid demonstration of the tidal interactions that occur when galaxies meet. Thanks to its immense gravitational pull, NGC 169 is causing the smaller satellite to warp and stretch. Captured in such fine detail here, wispy strands of gas, dust and even star systems are being stripped away from the outskirts of the smaller galaxy by its colossal companion. You can’t blame the bigger galaxy, however: galaxies grow and evolve by cannibalising material from head-on…

New nearest exoplanet A new planet has been detected around our nearest neighbouring star, Proxima Centauri, the third found so far. The planet is around a quarter of the mass of Earth, making it one of the lightest exoplanets ever discovered. Puffy planets lose atmosphere Astronomers have observed at least two examples of mini-Neptunes having their puffy outer atmosphere stripped away by their star, transforming them into super-Earths. Astronomers suspected the evolution of the two classes of planets might be linked, but this is the first time a connection has been observed. Solar storm destroys 40 satellites SpaceX suffered a mass loss of satellites during a launch on 3 February. The batch of 49 satellites was launched straight into a solar storm, which knocked out at least 40 of the…

The amateur astronomer’s forum When I was young, I was given a copy of HA Rey’s beautiful book The Stars: A New Way to See Them. First published 70 years ago, it is as far as I know the only title in print with a cover endorsement by Albert Einstein. Rey’s love for stargazing and his talent for creative illustration resulted in something special - a timeless classic at once both traditional and progressive. It also popularised new, more accessible designs for the ancient star patterns of the constellations. Rey’s book was published several years before The Sky at Night first appeared on our screens, and much has changed in the world of astronomy. But what about the way we interpret the stars? Why is it that, in the age…

The Bowl of Virgo is a large semi-circular asterism, which is visible in the spring sky and defines the northwest portion of Virgo, the Virgin. It lies southeast of the tail of Leo, the Lion, marked by mag. +2.1 Denebola (Beta (β) Leonis). The Bowl is formed from five stars in Virgo; mag. +2.8 Vindemiatrix (Epsilon (ε) Virginis), mag. +3.4 Auva (Delta (δ) Virginis), mag. +2.7 Porrima (Gamma (γ) Virginis), mag. +3.9 Zaniah (Eta (η) Virginis) and mag. +3.6 Zavijava (Beta (β) Virginis). Despite being designated beta, Zavijava is the fifth brightest star in Virgo. It has a spectral type of F9 V, which places it close in spectral hierarchy to our Sun’s own G2 V. The ‘V’ here refers to the fact that both stars are main-sequence dwarfs, and…

1 NGC 4147 We start with the dim but rich globular NGC 4147, which has an apparent magnitude of +10.7 and is compact, with an apparent diameter less than 2 arcminutes across. It sits 6.5° northeast of Denebola (Beta (β) Leonis) or about one-third along the line from Denebola towards Beta (β) Comae Berenices. While a small scope shows a faint glow, 1 arcminute across, a 250mm scope increases the apparent diameter, and with over 250x magnification it should be possible to see some resolved stars. □ SEEN IT 2 M98 This region of sky has a good number of Messier objects, thanks to the presence of two large galaxy clusters in this direction: the Virgo and Coma galaxy clusters. Head 3.8° south of NGC 4147 to locate M98, an…

The Artemis programme is the first phase of NASA’s ambitions to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon and then onwards to Mars by the 2030s. The most significant component of this strategy is a Moon-orbiting outpost called the Gateway – a command module which will continuously orbit the Moon on an elliptical path, ranging from 1,500km to 70,000km from the lunar surface. The Gateway will initially be composed of a simple power and propulsion element along with a mini-habitat element. Building the Gateway is going to take the work of more than just NASA, and several of the agencies that helped to build the ISS have already expressed an interest. Among them is ESA, which has already agreed to provide the habitation module, telecommunications, propulsion systems and a…

Take the perfect astrophoto with our step-by-step guide There are a number of interesting morning meetings of planets in April, ending with a spectacular conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Both planets will be bright, but their altitudes and positions are not ideal at this time of year due to the shallow angle of the morning ecliptic with the eastern horizon. As such, you’ll need good photographic skills (including adaptability, the most important skill of all) to capture this and the other conjunctions that can be seen throughout the month. On 3 April, a 6%-illuminated waxing crescent Moon sits close to Uranus, which is always close to the naked-eye threshold from a dark-sky location. On the evening of 3 April, Uranus will appear 1.1° from the Moon’s centre. The difference in…

VITAL STATS • Price £3,850 • Sensor Sony IMX455, full-frame CMOS • Resolution 61MP, 9,568 x 6,380 • Exposure range 0.1 milliseconds to 3,600 seconds • Accessories 12V power supply, M54 nosepiece, M48 adaptor ring • Size 102mm x 91mm • Weight 710g • Supplier Altair Astro • Tel 01263 731505 • www.altairastro.com The Hypercam AA61CFX is a full-frame, one-shot colour astronomy camera with 16-bit capability. Designed for serious astrophotography and dedicated enthusiasts, the AA61CFX represents a significant investment. Matching its high-end capabilities to the rest of an imaging setup is a crucial exercise, as this camera will quickly reveal any shortcomings in the equipment it’s used with. For our tests we selected a high-grade mount on a permanent pier and a 150mm apochromatic telescope, which provided a large enough…

Melissa Brobby interviews Dr Rosanne Di Stefano You’ve found hints of what could be the first extragalactic planet to Be found, in M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. How was this discovery made and when? There was data that had been taken over a 20-year period by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the XMM-Newton Observatory, which is a European project. And these observatories both look regularly at galaxies outside the Milky Way. There are some galaxies, like M51, that have been observed many times over the years. We were looking for a dip in the X-ray emission, and what we realised is that the passage of a planet in front of an X-ray source would give a dip that would tell us that the planet was there. This is a pretty big…