Innehållsförteckning för February 2023 från BBC Sky at Night

BULLETIN Two new minerals, never seen before in nature, have been recently discovered inside a meteorite. The space rock was identified near the El Ali district of Somalia in 2020, but locals have known of it for much longer. They call the stone ‘Nightfall’ in folk songs and dances that go back seven generations. It is huge, weighing more than 15 tonnes, making it the ninth-largest meteorite ever discovered, and is predominantly made of iron and nickel. Shortly after its discovery, a 70g slice was sent to Chris Herd at the University of Alberta for analysis. Herd soon noticed something unusual in the data, which was identified as a pair of new minerals. “Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock,…

Our experts examine the hottest new research CUTTING EDGE The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been fully calibrated and operational for over six months now. The incredible images it has returned, rich with eye-popping detail, tend to make the news, but the JWST has also made a number of pivotal contributions to our understanding of the cosmos. As part of the first round of science observation programmes, JWST has been observing transiting exoplanets. This programme was proposed and led by three principal investigators: Natalie Batalha at the NASA Ames Research Center, Jacob Bean at the University of Chicago, and Kevin Stevenson at the Space Telescope Science Institute. But the particular research paper I'm reporting on here involved some 80-odd co-authors – it represents a phenomenal collaborative effort of planetary…

On the 18 February 1976 episode of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore looked towards a star famed not for its brightness or scientific importance, but its position – Polaris, the North Star. Located over the north celestial pole, Polaris is one of the first stars most people learn in the night sky, and from his home in Selsey, West Sussex, Patrick taught viewers how to locate the star. It is a common misconception that Polaris is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, but in truth it ranks around 50th (it's a variable star, meaning its exact ranking is hard to pin down). It is a mag. +2.0 star, meaning it's visible to the naked eye in all but the most light-polluted places, and is in the…

Journey to the Stars Neeld Community and Arts Centre, Chippenham, Wiltshire, 15 February, 2pm The secrets of the Universe revealed, using quirky puppets, props, wigs, fruit and vegetables. The Squashbox Theatre company's show Journey to the Stars blends storytelling, live music and comedy with astounding science and astronomy facts. It attempts to answer questions such as what's up there? How far does it go? And does it ever end? A 50-minute show suitable for anyone aged five or over, Journey to the Stars attempts to make science and astronomy accessible and fun. £8.50 or £30 for a family of four. www.chippenham.gov.uk/event/journey-to-the-stars…

Having taken your first images you need to get them off your camera and into a computer if you want to see them, improve them and share them with others. This is called processing and getting started can be quite daunting, so we're just going to look at the absolute basics here. Follow these, and you're on your way to creating incredible astrophotos. You will need: AUSBcardreaderto insert into your computer, or its card-reading slot Thememorycardfromyour camera Imageprocessingsoftwareonyour laptop Step 1 Remove your camera's memory card and insert it into your computer's in built card reader, or an external one. Find the relevant external drive folder and click on it to locate your images. We recommend that you change the settings on your computer so images show as pictures, not…

PICK OF THE MONTH Jupiter Best time to see: 1 February, from 17:30 UT Altitude: 34° Location: Pisces Direction: South-southwest Features: Complex atmosphere, Galilean moons Recommended equipment: 75mm or larger Jupiter is rapidly losing ground to the evening twilight, appearing 29° above the southwest horizon under deep twilight conditions at the start of the month, but reaching only 12° above the western horizon by the time we reach the end of the month. Through the eyepiece of a telescope, Jupiter's low altitude will mean it will be badly affected by seeing. This causes fine detail to wobble and blur, making such detail difficult to see well. On a more encouraging note, Jupiter's declination is increasing and when next at opposition in early November, it will be able to reach an…

Fra Mauro is a quintessential example of a walled plain. Measuring 96km in diameter and 800m in depth, its ancient form can be located east of 300km Mare Cognitum, ‘the sea that has become known’. It is not the clearest of lunar craters, its ringed plain defined by a gently raised rim to the west, appearing broken in form to the east. It forms a characteristic trio with 60km Bonpland and 48km Parry to the south. This pair are ancient too, but presumably younger than Fra Mauro as their rims appear to bulge into Fra Mauro's boundary, inverting the curve of the walled plain's rim. This suggests they were formed after Fra Mauro and overlay its edge. Fra Mauro's rim is rough and elevated to the southeast where it joins…

1. M41 This open cluster is bright enough for you to see it with your naked eye in a transparent sky. It is 4° south of mag. –1.1 Sirius (Alpha (α) Canis Majoris) and is large enough to be an obvious cluster of stars in 10x50 binoculars. Using averted vision at a dark site, you should be able to resolve up to 10 of the brighter stars against the background glow of fainter members. □ SEEN IT 2. M46/47 M46 and M47 offer contrasting examples of how open clusters can appear in small binoculars; you will find them 5° south of mag. +3.9 Alpha (α) Monocerotis. The 1,600-lightyear-distant M47 is large and loose, but although M46 appears to be a similar size, it is actually much larger, richer and more…

COSMOLOGY RASH COURSE Our Universe is huge. In each and every direction on the sky, powerful telescopes observe galaxies whose light took more than 10 billion years to arrive at Earth. But wait — if we receive such ancient light from two opposite directions, and if the Big Bang happened ‘just’ 13.8 billion years ago, does that mean that the Universe is expanding faster than light? And wouldn't that violate Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which says that the speed of light is an absolute limit? The answer may surprise you. But first, we need to take a closer look at the expansion of the Universe. As described in the previous instalment of this series, we know that the Universe is expanding because galaxies appear to speed away from each…

INTRINSIC VARIABLES Variability caused by internal factors Eruptive variables Output varies due to violent processes and flares within the star's surface and atmospheric layers. Examples include: Gamma Cassiopeiae FU Orionis RS Canum Venaticorum S Doradus R Coronae Borealis and UV Ceti These include irregular variables and rapid irregulars. Some eruptives eject material into the surrounding space to interact with the interstellar medium. Eruptive Wolf-Rayet stars also come under this class: massive, highly evolved stars that continually eject gas into space. Pulsating variables Stars which grow and shrink their outer layers, often in periodic fashion. The processes are linked to the star's internal energy generation, swelling when heating up then shrinking when cooling, the cycle then repeating. Pulsation may be symmetrical (radial) or asymmetrical (non-radial). Examples include: Delta Cephei, the prototype…

1. Mission specialist David Brown Born: 16 April 1956 Flights: STS-107 Former surgeon with the US Navy. Brown had been trained to fly NASA's supersonicjet, the T-38. 2. Commander Rick Husband Bom: 12 July 1957 Flights: STS-96, STS-107 Piloted the first ever ISS Shuttle docking during his first flight in 1999, on board Discovery. 3. Mission specialist Laurel Clark Born: 10 March 1961 Flights: STS-107 Clark was a surgeon with the US Navy. Joined NASA in 1996 and was assigned her first and only mission on STS-107. 4. Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla Born: 17 March 1962 Flights: STS-87, STS-107 Obtained a doctorate in aerospace engineering, then worked at NASA Ames Research Center. First woman of Indian origin to fly in space, on flight STS-87. 5. Payload commander Michael Anderson Born:…

Step 1 Carefully mark out the MDF (use our downloadable plans to work out the sizes). Cut out all the parts with a coping saw or similar, then sand the edges smooth. We used 3mm MDE, but any thin board should work. Keep close to our suggested dimensions. Step 2 Carefully drill the holes in the panels. You need a hole of approximately 20mm diameter for the reticule aperture and a similar size for the top of the main case. This could be cut with a coping saw if you don't have a large drill. Step 3 Carefully cut the glass for the reticule and viewing screen. Use a glass-cutting wheel to score a line, then press down over the edge of a ruler to snap it. We used a…

VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, 23 NOVEMBER 2022 Galaxy NGC1097, in the southern constellation of Fornax, the Furnace, doesn't have a common nickname like some other galaxies, but this rather beautiful barred spiral takes on a different character when you zoom in on its centre, as the ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph) infrared camera at the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile did to take its inaugural image. From a distance of 45 million lightyears, we can see an active galaxy with a quasar-like core, which is also interacting with a companion. Three supernovae have also been observed in the galaxy since 1992. The ring of bright star-forming regions that has formed around the supermassive black hole at its centre is sending gas and dust inwards. The motion of this material…

The 11-year solar cycle could soon be usurped, following a new study that has given strong evidence for a rival idea. “We call it the Extended Solar Cycle (ESC),” says Scott McIntosh from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, who led the study. “There are two overlapping patterns of activity on the Sun, each lasting about 17 years.” McIntosh used data taken by the Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO) since 1976 to measure the changing magnetic field of the Sun and compared that to sunspot numbers. This gave strong indications for two cycles, offset by five years from each other to create the illusion of an 11-year pattern. “The Extended Solar Cycle may be telling us something crucial about what's happening deep inside the Sun where sunspot magnetic fields are generated,”…

Sometimes what you can't see is just as important as what you can. When astronomers looked at the first generation of galaxies, which began to shinejust 200 million years after the Big Bang, using the SARAS3 radio telescope in India, they noticed an important signal created by cold hydrogen atoms, the 21cm line, was absent. “Our analysis places limits on some of the key properties of the first sources of light, including the masses of the earliest galaxies and the efficiency with which these galaxies can form stars,” says Anastasia Fialkov from the University of Cambridge. The results mean several theories about early galaxies can be ruled out – including that they were more than a thousand times brighter than current galaxies at radio wavelengths and were poor heaters of…

There is no episode of The Sky at Night in February, but there is a wealth of astronomy and stargazing content on the BBC iPlayer that's suitable for children and young astronomers. The CBeebies Stargazing Grand Tour sees Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Jarvis embark on a journey across the Solar System, inspired by the Voyager missions of the 1970s and 1980s. In each episode the team jump onboard their Space Sailor and explore a different planet, revealing the spectacular science behind the worlds of our cosmic neighbourhood. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rjgl…

Founded in 1972 in Bletchley by Richard Lambert, Milton Keynes Astronomical Society (MKAS) subsequently began meeting in Bradwell Abbey. But in 1997, the society returned to Bletchley for its meetings. MKAS currently meets fortnightly on Friday evenings at 8pm at Rectory Cottages, Bletchley, or occasionally online. The varied programme ranges from practical astronomy to space exploration, with guest speakers including the Richard Lambert Memorial Lecture, presented annually since 1990. There are also less formal meetings at which members can present results or progress reports relating to their projects, as well as our annual Astroquiz. In addition, our dark sky observation weekends have continued most years, usually in Shropshire, plus social events and trips. In 2022, MKAS celebrated its 50th anniversary, which included the ‘MKAS50 Open Day’ on 9 July 2022,…

There are those who have been fortunate to experience marvels when looking skyward – a total solar eclipse or the Northern Lights in all their glory – or perhaps they've been lucky enough to find a lens cap on the ground in pitch-dark conditions. However, there are some astronomical showstoppers whose magnificence has gone down in history. Comets feature significantly in this category down the centuries, such as the Great January Comet of 1910, often referred to as the Daylight Comet, which matched Venus for brightness with its appearance in the daytime sky. Comet Ikeya-Seki dazzled too in the daytime of October 1965, while Comet McNaught also produced a more than decent show, visible in January 2007 in broad daylight. Well before these more recent showings, we can thumb back…

Supported by Liberty Specialty Markets OPEN FOR ENTRIES! The time has come again for astronomy photographers around the world to put the finishing touches to their best images in the hopes of being named the winner of the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, supported by Liberty Specialty Markets. The world's biggest astrophotography competition is now open for entries from astrophotographers hoping to win the grand prize of £10,000. Now in its 15th year, the competition has eight main categories for different astronomy subjects, each with a £1,500 prize up for grabs, as well as runner-up and highly commended awards of £500 and £250 respectively. There are also two special prizes of £750 each: one for the best newcomer, and one for using professional data in an innovative way.…

Mercury Best time to see: 1 February, 40 minutes before sunrise Altitude: 3.3° (very low) Location: Sagittarius Direction: Southeast Having reached greatest western elongation on 30 January, Mercury is a low morning object this month. Its altitude before sunrise is dropping and despite being around mag. 0.0 for the first half of February, brightening to –0.5 by the end of the month, Mercury is unlikely to be seen. Venus Best time to see: 28 February, 1 hour after sunset Altitude: 16° Location: Pisces Direction: West-southwest Evening object setting two hours and 15 minutes after sunset at the start of February. Shining at mag. –3.8 on 1 February, if the sky is clear after sunset, it'll be hard to miss. Very close to Neptune on the evenings of 14 and 15…

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF is well-positioned at the start of February, high in the sky and theoretically above the threshold for nakedeye visibility. There are a couple of reasons why this is unlikely to be the case though. First, the comet is expected to reach a peak magnitude of +4.8 around the end of January and start of February. Comet magnitudes can be misleading because they refer to how bright the object would look if its light were condensed into a single point like a star. If the comet has a tangible size, that light is spread out, making its surface dimmer than its rating would suggest. Secondly, there will be a bright Moon and this will sadly diminish the appearance of C/2022 E3 ZTF. You can find where the…

Sirius is the brightest nighttime star, shining at mag. -1.5, a beacon in the UK's winter sky. Its brightness makes it easy to find, but if you need assistance, simply follow the line of Orion's Belt down and left (southeast), a direction that points directly to Sirius. At 8.6 lightyears distance, Sirius is one of the Sun's nearest neighbours. It has a white dwarf companion and this month's challenge is to try to see or image this. There are issues. Sirius never gets high above the UK horizon when due south and this tends to keep it in a more turbulent and unstable part of the sky. You can see the effects of this on a cold, crisp winter night, when the star flickers and flashes distinct colours. Atmospheric seeing…

If space is expanding, is our Milky Way galaxy growing bigger, too? Are the Solar System's planets slowly receding from the Sun? Is the diameter of Earth increasing? And what about ourselves? Don't worry: relatively compact structures in the Universe are held together by their gravity — they don't expand. This is even true for groups and condensed clusters of galaxies. According to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, massive objects affect the properties of empty space, including its curvature and rate of expansion. If we compare the expanding Universe with a loaf of raisin bread in which the raisins remain at fixed positions with respect to the rising dough (see main story), gravity could loosely be imagined as rubber bands connecting neighbouring raisins. Because of the rubber bands, the raisins…

Choose a variable star and find a reference chart for it via the BAA (British Astronomical Association, britastro.org) or AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers, aavso.org). Both organisations have charts for variable stars which identify non-varying comparison stars to use when estimating the variable's brightness. Pick two stars, one brighter (A) and one dimmer (B) than the variable (V). If the difference in brightness between A and V equals that between V and B, V is mid-way between A and B, and you'd write that as ‘A(1) V(1)B’; the brighter comparison is always presented first. If the difference between A and V were three times larger than that between V and B this would be written as ‘A(3)V(1) B’ and so on. You're mentally dividing the difference in brightness…

This month's project helps you aim your scope at a target in the night sky. It is called a zero-magnification finder because the view is the same size as seen with your naked eye. The finder projects a red circle onto the background sky and you move your telescope to align the centre of this circle with your target. Many stargazers use similar devices because they allow you to keep both eyes open and see a much larger area of sky, making it easier to jump to the target. Our design has a red LED that illuminates the white interior of the front of the case. The LED is powered by a coin cell battery, via a switch on the back panel. The red light is reflected backwards through a…

Star colour is often mentioned when we describe the night sky. From the red of Betelgeuse, to the yellow hues of Capella and steely blue-white of Vega, colour descriptors often promise more than the visual or photographic view shows. There are several reasons for this. For one, when we describe a star as red it may conjure up the image of a bright pure red object shining against the blackness of space, but in reality the colour will appear far more subtle than this, often as a hint of orange. Betelgeuse and Aldebaran are fine examples in the winter sky. Although the colours may not appear strong visually, what about photographically? Here, although the view is similar, there are things that can be done to reveal colour in a more…

More ONLINE A gallery containing these and more of your images PHOTO OF THE MONTH The Spaghetti Nebula Michael P Caligiuri, Anza Borrego Desert, California, 25-26 November 2022 Michael says: “Sh2-240 is a supernova remnant located 3,000 lightyears away. It's believed to be the remnant of a star that exploded 40,000 years ago. What sets this image apart from my prior attempts is that I was able to acquire sufficient OIII (oxygen). While dim, there is ONI throughout the filaments, a feature often missed in HaRGB images.” Equipment: ZWO ASI294 camera, Samyang 135mm f/1.8 lens at f/4, Astro-Physics AP1100 equatorial mount Exposure: 13h 45’ Software: Maxim DL, CCD Stack, Photoshop Michael's top tips: “Shooting with a 135mm camera lens allowed me to capture a full 3°-span of the sky, and…

The latest astronomy and space news, written by Ezzy Pearson BULLETIN A recently-launched bright satellite could pose a threat not only to visible astronomy, but also radio observations, causing the International Astronomy Union (IAU) to release a statement expressing concern over the growing number of bright satellites. BlueWalker 3 (BW3) is a prototype for a new constellation of around 100 telecommunications satellites called BlueBird. However, shortly after it was launched on 10 September 2022, astronomers noted it was extremely bright. The IAU's Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS) has now collated measurements of the satellite, finding it reaches around magnitude +1.0 at its brightest – similarto Antares, the 15th-brightest star in the sky. In addition, BW3 uses the same radio frequencies…

The Orion capsule successfully splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on 11 December at 9:40am PST (Pacific Standard Time), completing Artemis I, the first test flight in a programme to return humans to the Moon's surface. “The splashdown of the Orion spacecraft – which occurred 50 years to the day after the Apollo 17 Moon landing – is the crowning achievement of Artemis I. From the launch of the world's most powerful rocket to the exceptional journey around the Moon and back to Earth, this flight test is a major step forward in the Artemis Generation of lunar exploration,” says NASA administrator Bill Nelson. The spacecraft used aerobraking to slow from 40,000km/h to just 32km/h, during which time the heatshield withstood temperatures up to 2,760°C. It then deployed its 11…

Hakuto-R, a commercial lunar lander from Japanese company iSpace, launched on 11 December and entered lunar orbit three days later. The lander is expected to attempt a soft touch down in Atlas Crater in the northeastern region of the Moon in April 2023. The lander has been in development for 12 years, having originally begun as a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize. This first mission is predominantly a flight test, but it does carry several payloads including the Rashid lunar rover from the United Arab Emirates. A second mission is already planned for 2024. However, Hakuto-R may not be the first commercial lander on the Moon, as US companies Astrobotic and Intuitive Landers are due to follow in early 2023. But successfully touching down on the lunar surface…

Where there is life, there is language. If you were to listen to Earth from the skies, you might hear one of 7,000 languages, and you would be forgiven for thinking only humans had evolved language. But you would be wrong. Chimpanzees gesture instructions and emotions, whales sing to each other, and prairie dogs have vocal warnings so complex that experts believe they can describe the size, shape and colour of the threat to their clan. Life's capacity for language astounds me, and it gives me hope. Hope that life orbiting around distant stars may also have the capacity for language and communication. So the question is not, “Do intelligent aliens exist?” but, “Could we communicate with them?”. In 1974, my friend the late Frank Drake sent a message to…

Winter Nights Royal Observatory Edinburgh, 14 February, 6:30pm Tour the Victorian telescope dome and learn about the observatory, plus the science and engineering that goes on there. There will be time for some astronomy and questions too. Children £4.50, adults £7.50. visit.roe.ac.uk/public-events Dark Horizons Online, 2 February, 7:30pm A presentation from photographer Ollie Taylor on his two-month journey across South America at high altitudes and under clear skies, hosted by Chichester Camera Club, with astronomical and landscape images. £3 for non-members. chichestercameraclub.org.uk/event Stargazing at Mugdock Mugdock Country Park, East Dunbartonshire, 3 February, 7pm Bring your binoculars, spot constellations and learn facts about space. Venus, Mars and Jupiter may be on show too, and there's an indoor presentation if it's cloudy. £7 plus booking fee. www.mugdock-country-park.org.uk/things-to-do Is There Anybody Out There?…

The cameras that are built in our smartphones are incredible pieces of technology. Today, many people use their smartphone cameras to capture images of the night sky using ‘Night’ or Low Light’ settings, or even dedicated apps. These are great for photos of bright things, such as lunar haloes, planetary conjunctions and bright comets, but eventually anyone wanting to take astrophotos of constellations, nebulae and other celestial delights will have to consider a better option. They need to bite the bullet and buy what many people still consider ‘a proper camera’ – a DSLR, or Digital Single Lens Reflex camera. The only problem is, then they have to use it… This feature is going to take you by the hand and lead you gently through the minefield of taking and…

At 9:20am on 15 February 2013, the people of the industrial town Chelyabinsk in Russia were starting their mornings when a light streaked across the sky. Bright enough to outshine the Sun, people ran to windows to see the trail it left in the sky. A few minutes later, a boom swept through the town, shattering windows, bringing down walls and knocking people to the ground. That shocking sound was a meteor exploding overhead, but it wasn't just the noise. Fragments of rock were blasted across the landscape by the blast, falling down on the snow like rain. Videos from dashcams and CCTV cameras soon appeared on news channels around the world, sending meteorite hunters and researchers flocking to the town. Among those who arrived after the airblast was a…

Whether or not you like the idea of the Plough asterism being referred to as ‘the Saucepan’, the name works well in modern times – so well that the Saucepan can be extended to become the Frying Pan by incorporating 23 and Upsilon (υ) Ursae Majoris into the arrangement. Keep going and eventually you'll arrive at Muscida (Omicron (ο) Ursae Majoris), the star that represents the nose of the Great Bear. The name Muscida comes directly from the Latin for ‘muzzle’. Muscida has a spectral classification of G4 II-III; a yellow (G4) star between the bright-giant (II) and normalgiant (III) stages of stellar evolution. It lies at a distance of 182 lightyears and is 138 times more luminous than our Sun. It is estimated to be 15 times larger than…

Betelgeuse (Alpha (α) Orionis) An easy to find, long-period variable, sometimes tricky to estimate. It has semi-regular variation, typically mag. 0.0 to +1.6. Mira (Omicron (o) Ceti) The prototype of Mira-type pulsating variables. The magnitude range is +2.0 to +10.1 but can deviate, with a period of 332 days. SS-Cygni A dwarf nova, with a magnitude of+7.7 to +12, it typically peaks for 1-2 days every 7-8 weeks. Algol (Beta (β) Persei) An eclipsing binary system, which varies between mag. +2.1 to +3.4, with a period of 2.86 days. R-Coronae Borealis (R CrB) An irregular eruptive variable, with a typical magnitude of+5.7 to +14.8. Its light curve can be very unpredictable Delta (δ) Cephei With a magnitude of +3.5 to +4.4 and a period of 5.3662 days, its rise to…

STEP 1 The best cameras for star colour are those which offer good manual control, such as DSLRs or MILCs. Most lenses will work, or consider attaching the camera to a telescope. The extra lightgathering power also helps to emphasise colour. You can also use a remote shutter release to avoid camera shake. STEP 2 If you intend to take longer exposures, consider using a tracking mount to keep the stars sharp. This is true of a camera attached to a scope unless you intend to capture trails. However, this isn't essential for capturing star colour, a fixed tripod being ideal for star trails. A tripod also works well for defocused star images. STEP 3 A correctly focused star will typically show an over-exposed inner core region which appears pure…

VITAL STATS 2259 Airspacedaposextuplet 100mm 550mmf55 34-inchdual-speedrackand pinion; 1:10 ratio fine adjustment knob Dovetailbartuberings, adaptors, carry case, handle, retractable dew shield 43kg FirstLightOptics 01392791000 The Sharpstar Z4 is the latest offering from the Sharpstar family of astrograph refractors geared specially towards astrophotography. With a 100mm front element, it is second in size only to the Sharpstar 140PH. However, while its sibling boasts greater aperture and focal length, the Z4 arguably packs a significant punch with a six-element optical system. By virtue of this sextuplet design, the Z4 is developed to go above and beyond conventional doublet and triplet apochromatic refractors, by further minimising image distortions including vignette, field curvature and colour fringing. Upon opening the box, we were greeted by…

You have identified organic molecules in protoplanetary discs circling newly formed stars. Where are these discs? These discs are located between about 300 to 500 lightyears from Earth, so we are actually seeing the discs as they appeared 300 to 500 years ago. The regions in which these discs exist are some of the closest star-forming regions to our Solar System, which means we can get an excellent view of them. How did you identify organic molecules from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) data? Compared to previous instruments, ALMA has hugely increased our observational capability. It combines extremely high sensitivity with a high spatial resolution. This means we can detect faint emission on small scales, which was essential for our study. We searched for the unique ‘fingerprints’ of these…