Table of contents for No. 94 in All About Space

Welcome © Alamy The European Space Agency has recently announced a brand-new ambitious mission to an interstellar object, making its way through our Solar System. They call it the Comet Interceptor. This issue we chat to the scientists behind the mission on what we can expect when the mission launches in 2028. Granted, that's quite a while away yet, but the excitement of a mission that's set to echo the achievements of mechanical duo Rosetta and Philae, which completed one tricky manoeuvre after another in order to successfully visit and study Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko up close in 2014, is prevalent – what will we find when we visit an interstellar world? Comet Interceptor could be the spacecraft to reveal the secrets of the Solar System's origin once and for all. Turn…

Mars 2020 gets its legs and wheels © NASA/JPL-Caltech Here are the hardworking engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, putting on the Mars 2020 rover’s legs and wheels – arguably the most important part of a rover – otherwise referred to as the mobility suspension. After the engineers tick that part off the list, they will next move onto installing the robotic arm, the SuperCam instrument and the Sample Caching System. This system includes 17 separate motors that will collect samples of Martian rock and soil that will be returned to Earth by a future mission.…

Protests continue against construction of Hawaiian telescope © TMT International Observatory Hundreds of protesters, including native Hawaiian community members, their elders (kupuna) and others have been gathering on the road leading to the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island to challenge the addition of another telescopic facility to the mountain that is sacred to many on the island. The group has been situated at the base of the mountain since 15 July, when construction gear was first scheduled to begin arriving for the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project, according to the Associated Press. There were about 500 people gathered at Mauna Kea on Monday, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Unarmed National Guard units have been on the scene since Monday; arrests began on the morning of…

Studying alien worlds Launching with Comet Interceptor, ARIEL will seek out and study exoplanets © Illustration by Adrian Mann ARIEL's telescope The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission will use a metre-class telescope that will operate at visible and infrared wavelengths. Exoplanet composition ARIEL's very first task is dedicated to measuring an exoplanet's chemical make-up, particularly of transiting stars. ARIEL's aims Using a mixture of instruments and a telescope, the spacecraft's key mission is to discover what conditions are required for planet formation and the emergence of life. Essential exoplanet ingredients ARIEL will seek out water vapour, methane and carbon dioxide, focusing on warm and hot worlds.…

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE NEMESIS THE SUN’S EVIL TWIN? Since the 1980s, astronomers have explored the possibility that our star was not born alone Reported by David Crookes Illustration © Tobais Roetsch What do you get if you cross the dinosaurs with millions of comets and an evil twin of our Sun that has not only wreaked havoc on Earth multiple times but has long been hidden from view? Anxious? Fearful? Maybe both? For while it may sound like a terrible joke. The intriguing punchline once caused some alarm – and raised a mystery that had astronomers hooked for quite some time. Welcome to Nemesis, the Sun's hypothetical long-lost companion which has been speculated to be circling in the edges of the Solar System. Proposed by Richard A. Muller, an…

Instant expert Why does E=Mc2 ? It's a familiar equation that saw Albert Einstein bridge the gap between mass and energy, revolutionising physics in the process ©Getty One of the most famous equations in the history of science is Albert Einstein's equation, E=mc², published in 1905, the year known as Einstein's ‘annus mirabilis’. In this work Einstein established the equivalence between mass and energy, two concepts disconnected until then. In such a simple and beautiful way, the theory of special relativity governing space, time, matter and energy came to be. In the subsequent decade Einstein expanded his theory to include gravity, thereby creating the theory of general relativity. Both theories are essential for the functionality of a lot of modern technology, for instance GPS navigation systems, without which we could…

The past and future of exploration Being part of the Jovian system has its benefits in terms of exploration. Although Europa hasn’t had the same close inspection as Enceladus, many spacecraft have made a flying visit of the moon as they use Jupiter’s enormous mass to provide a ‘gravity assist’ – when a spacecraft uses a planet’s mass to slingshot it to a faster speed. The first of these visits began with NASA’s Pioneer 10 and 11 in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Afterwards came the two Voyager spacecraft in 1979, sending back pictures of Europa’s icy surface in stunning resolution. This began speculation that the moon had a subsurface ocean, gathering traction when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft spent eight years at the Jovian system, starting in 1995. This long-duration study revealed…

THE METHANE MYSTERY DOES IT EXIST OR IS IT JUST HIDING? Meteorites Martian meteorites that fell to Earth have been analysed and shown to have methane trapped within. Comet impacts Methane could form from the impact cloud after these dirty snowballs smash into the Martian surface. Methane clathrate Compounds known for trapping methane in crystal structures in water, but only occur when temperatures are low and water ice is common. Microbes The long-sought-after microbes produce methane as a product of mixing water and carbon dioxide. Subsurface vents If Mars has a liquid layer beneath the crust, then deeper interior activity could cause hydrothermal vents to disperse methane. Winds Astronomers were surprised by the lack of methane detected as wind should circulate the molecule and make its presence uniform globally. Frozen…

ASK Space Our experts answer your questions STARS If the Sun erupted with a 'superflare', how harmful would it be for life on Earth? ©NASA Superflares emit large amounts of dangerous high-energy particles, but life on Earth is protected by a thick atmosphere, and there are almost no effects. However, now is the space age, and there are astronauts in space, and maybe also on the Moon or Mars in the near future. Superflares can cause risks for them since they don’t have the shield of the thick atmosphere, so special preparations should be done. Although superflares do not affect survival for life directly – of course, no life extinction is expected to occur because of superflares – our daily life can be severely damaged by superflares. Now our society…

Water on the Moon Ideas of a bone-dry lunar surface have been overturned by detection of water within rock minerals, and as surface ice All photos © NASA Fra Mauro Highlands The samples collected from the Apollo 14 landing site were in 2008 found to include minerals containing water in the form of hydroxyl, a chemical that includes hydrogen and oxygen. Bullialdus crater In 2013 a team at John Hopkins University analysing spectroscopic data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper detected magmatic water in the central peak of this impact crater. Southern poles In 2009 a rocket from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite spacecraft deliberately crashed into the shadowed crater Cabeus. Within the material thrown up, 150 kilograms of water was detected. Shackleton Crater Perpetually in shadow, the crater…

STARGAZER This month’s planets While Mercury, Venus and Mars have all let us down this month, Jupiter is putting on a show, craving our attention Mercury 18:15 BST on 20 August Constellation: Cancer Magnitude: -0.5 AM/PM: AM At the start of our observing period you might be able to sneak a sighting of Mercury, but it will be very challenging: the closest world to the Sun, which swoops around it once in just 88 days, is technically a morning object, but is so close to the Sun that it will be very low in the sky at around four in the morning. Venus 19:00 BST on 19 August Constellation: Leo Magnitude: -3.9 AM/PM: PM Venus is not visible because it will be too close to the Sun. By the second…

HEROES OF SPACE Christopher C. Kraft NASA’s first flight director and sculptor of Mission Control ©NASA It's a room that has held the tensions of engineers, astronauts and other employees of NASA for decades: Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The man behind this historic establishment was Chris Kraft, who played a vital role in the history of NASA. Christopher C. Kraft Jr. was born on 28 February 1924 in Phoebus, Virginia. His early years were not centred around aviation, as many of the stories go for the astronauts during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Mechanical engineering came first, which he studied in 1941 at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. During this time he experienced the workings of the military Corps of Cadets, and he claims…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE The star that once shined so bright © NASA/ESA Hubble was once again on form as it captured another magnificent sight from the depths of the universe. This time, it snapped some stellar fireworks as the enormous, unstable star known as Eta Carinae continues to expel its contents into the cosmos. The double-star system Eta Carinae has been oozing hot gas and dust since the 1840s. In fact, when it first erupted, it was the second-brightest star in the night sky for a decade. These days though, it is not as noticeable in the night sky – but Hubble did a marvellous job in capturing its colourful contrast in vibrant and energetic ultraviolet.…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE Calibration is key © ESA The European Space Agency and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, will launch their first-ever Martian rover next year as part of the ExoMars 2020 mission. Recently engineers have been preparing its instruments to make sure it 'knows' what it is looking at. This picture here shows the Close-Up Imager (CLUPI), which will do as its names suggests – take close-up, high-resolution colour images of Martian rocks and soil. Sitting in front of it is its calibration sample. That is an actual piece of Mars that was ejected from the Red Planet millions, or maybe even billions, of years ago and made its way through the Earth’s atmosphere to the country of Oman in 2001.…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE NASA shakes up human space exploration leadership © NASA In a move that took most people in the space industry by surprise, NASA has reassigned two top officials in its exploration programme, including Bill Gerstenmaier, the longtime head of NASA's human spaceflight programmes. In a memo to NASA employees issued late 10 July, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, had been reassigned to serve as a special assistant to NASA deputy administrator Jim Morhard. Bridenstine said that Ken Bowersox, a former astronaut who rejoined the agency earlier this year as Gerstenmaier's deputy, would take over as acting associate administrator. Also reassigned was Bill Hill, who had been deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, who…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE This monster black hole’s disc shouldn’t exist © ESA Astronomers have discovered a thin disc of material spiralling into a supermassive black hole in a very faint galaxy – an unexpected finding that may provide further clues to the dynamic processes surrounding black holes. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers observed the black hole at the centre of the spiral galaxy NGC 3147, which is located around 130 million light years away in the Draco constellation. Black holes in low-luminosity galaxies like NGC 3147 usually lack sufficient material captured by the galaxy's gravity to feed from, and are therefore considered ‘starving’. The researchers were surprised to find a thin disc encircling the black hole at the centre of this galaxy because the…

Comet Interceptor MISSION TO CATCH A COMET Comet Interceptor will make history by visiting a distant 'space snowball' – or an interstellar object Reported by Jonathan O'Callaghan © Illustration by Adrian Mann Every so often in our Solar System, a comet swings in from the outer reaches and makes a brief visit to the inner portion of the system before heading out again – either on a long sweeping orbit, or never to be seen again. Such comets, known as long-period comets, are of great interest to scientists, but we’ve only ever seen them from afar. What if we could see one up close? That’s the idea behind a new mission called Comet Interceptor, which in June 2019 was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for further development, with…

Comet Interceptor: how it will work How the various components of this mission will operate and what it will do in space © Illustration by Adrian Mann © ESA Release time The two smaller spacecraft will be released between one day and three weeks before the flyby with the comet. More spacecraft The mission could also include more small spacecraft, like CubeSats, possibly one being supplied by NASA. Into the coma The smaller spacecraft will fly within the coma of the comet, the active region where material surrounds it. Waiting for the right moment The mission will remain parked at Lagrange point 2 (L2) for up to three years while the team hunts for a suitable target. Size of the spacecraft Comet Interceptor will weigh about 850 kilograms (1,900 pounds)…

Interview Apollo lessons REAPING THE REWARDS OF THE APOLLO PROGRAM Much has come from the manned lunar missions, but it’s important to look to the future. The UK Space Agency's Libby Jackson and the Open University's Dr Mahesh Anand reveal what’s next in shooting for the Moon Interviewed by Lee Cavendish © BBC Studios © NASA You're sudying some of the rocks collected from the Apollo missions, how's that going? MA: Only yesterday we were looking at those same rocks that Neil [Armstrong] and Buzz [Aldrin] were collecting in this [8 Days: To the Moon and Back] documentary. I study rocks from all the Apollo missions and to me, I mean, even right now as I speak, I’ve got hairs rising on my back because I'm just so privileged to…

Where is Nemesis located? Nemesis has never been seen, but some astronomers have theorised its potential orbit in relation to the Solar System Elliptical orbit The Nemesis theory says a hypothetical red dwarf takes a highly elliptical orbit around our Sun some 1.5 light years away. Oort Cloud Every 26 million years, Nemesis approaches and passes though the hypothetical Oort Cloud where icy planetesimals reside in the far reaches of the trans-Neptunian region. Past Pluto To put this into perspective, the Oort Cloud is way past the Kuiper Belt where Pluto orbits and also beyond the scattered disc, home to Eris. Boundary of the Solar System If proven to be true, Nemesis would be closer than Alpha Centauri, which is accepted as the Sun's nearest neighbour. Disrupting influence When Nemesis…

Europa Moon profile Europa One of the Solar System’s famous ocean worlds is an exciting prospect for further exploration Europa is one of the four Galilean moons that orbit the Solar System’s largest planet, Jupiter. Although Europa is the smallest of its satellite siblings – Io, Callisto and Ganymede, carrying on in that order from smallest to largest – it is certainly the one with the most potential for exciting scientific discovery. Underneath its icy, scarred surface could lie a salty ocean, just like the oceans that make up 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface. “Underneath its icy, scarred surface could lie a salty ocean” The Galilean moons were discovered in 1610 by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, and through the ages astronomers have been fixating their telescopes on the…

How to find Tabby’s Star See the 'megastructure star' yourself – if you have dark skies and a good telescope Landmark: Deneb This is the brightest star in Cygnus, at the tail end of the Swan. To its east is Delta Cygni, marking one wing tip. Physical characteristics Tabby’s Star is a main sequence star like the Sun, but F-type rather than G-type – making it about 40 per cent more massive and a thousand degrees hotter. Where to point your telescope Tabby’s Star is about two-thirds of the way along from Deneb to Delta Cygni. It’s quite close to a small star cluster, NGC 6866. What to look for Tabby’s Star is faint at magnitude 11.7, but should be visible with a good amateur telescope if you’re lucky enough…

Future tech Chinese Space Station CHINA’S NEXT SPACE STATION Low-Earth orbit construction will hopefully begin in 2020, where it will eventually accommodate three astronauts ©NASA; Adrian Mann Manned spacecraft Astronauts will be transported to and from the CSS by the Shenzhou spacecraft, which roughly translates to ‘divine vessel’. This vessel has been taking astronauts to space since 2003. Experimental modules Wentian and Mengtain will have an array of scientific and medical experiments conducted on board, with potentially nine experiments already decided upon. Tianhe core module The core module will facilitate the living quarters, as well as the complete control department for the station, making it arguably the most important module. Cargo spacecraft The CSS will be restocked by the automated Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, which literally translates to ‘heavenly vessel’. Robotic…

THE MOON IS ALIVE The lunar surface is home to more activity than its barren appearance lets on Reported by James Romero © Alamy From the 4-billion-year-old, 230-kilometre (143-mile) wide Clavius impact crater to Neil Armstrong’s 50-year-old, size-nine-and-a-half ‘one small step’, the Moon has recorded momentous episodes across much of our Solar System’s history. For scientists its surface provides a 4-billion-year-old astronomical archive of events that shaped both its own peppered surface and our planet too. A passive observer, its record-keeping value lies in the fact that things tend to happen to it, rather than it showing signs of its own activity. And yet it seems we might have missed something. Something small in size but larger in significance. Located right between the eyes of the ‘Man in the Moon’,…

Planet of the month Jupiter Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the Solar System. A bloated gas giant world so huge it could contain a thousand Earths with room to spare, this behemoth of a world is so far from the Sun it takes a dozen years to orbit it. This actually works out quite well for us because that means it moves very slowly across our night sky, lingering in one of the zodiacal constellations for a year at a time. At the moment it is in Ophiuchus, the ‘forgotten’ zodiacal constellation, forgotten because you’ll never see it featured in any astrologer’s horoscope even though the Sun and planets move through it just as they do through more famous constellations such as neighbouring Sagittarius and Scorpius. All…

Deep sky challenge Diving deep into the summer sky This month’s targets: the ghostly remains of dead stars, glittering, ancient star clusters and a spectacular galaxy far, far away © NASA\JPL-Caltech © NASA\ESA © Göran Nilsson & The Liverpool Telescope © Wil Tirion; Astronomy is, very generally speaking, the study of the stars and everything to do with them – how they are born, live and die; how they work; the objects that go around them and much, much more. The sky in August and September offers the naked-eye observer some of the most beautiful stars in the sky, and the mottled band of the Milky Way too, itself made out of countless billions of stars. But beyond the stars, through their misty veil, lie objects that are as fascinating…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE Chile’s total solar eclipse © ESA On 2 July 2019, South America welcomed a total solar eclipse where totality – the term used for when the Moon appears to completely eclipse the Sun – was visible above the Pacific Ocean, Chile and Argentina. This spectacle was conveniently placed for the European Southern Observatory (ESO), sweeping over the La Silla Observatory in Chile. For the special occasion, ESO opened its doors to the public, giving individuals the opportunity to watch and capture remarkable images such as this one. Visitors could even conduct real science in observing the Sun’s corona, which is virtually impossible to see without the aid of a total solar eclipse.…

Curiosity from above © NASA/JPL-Caltech While NASA's Curiosity rover performs its close inspection of Mars, searching for signs of life and navigating the alien terrain, some spacecraft are able to look down on it from Martian orbit – as shown in this image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The Curiosity rover has been shot here as a blue flash in the ‘Woodland Bay’ on the side of Mouth Sharp in the Gale Crater. Just at the top of the picture is the Vera Rubin Ridge, a region Curiosity has already visited.…

New Hubble constant stokes mystery of universe’s expansion Words by Passant Rabie © NASA/ESA Scientists have come up with a new measurement for the expansion rate of the universe, leading to questions regarding the discrepancies between current observations and the model of the universe that astronomers have relied on for years. New observations made using the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that the universe is expanding at the rate of just under 70 kilometres (43 miles) per second per megaparsec, a distance equivalent to 3.26 million light years. This expansion rate is slightly slower than previous measurements taken by Hubble and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia satellite, which indicated that the universe is expanding at 73.5 kilometres (45.6 miles) per second per megaparsec. Another earlier measurement by the ESA's Planck…

Astronaut cancer deaths not caused by space radiation Words by Rachael Rettner © NASA Outer space is a notoriously harsh environment, exposing astronauts to high levels of radiation. And radiation exposure can increase cancer and heart disease rates in earthbound humans. But a new study has some good news: space radiation doesn't seem to increase astronauts' risk of death from cancer or heart disease, at least not at the doses they experienced during historical missions. Still, longer missions – such as a mission to Mars – will likely come with much greater radiation doses that could pose larger health risks. Space travel exposes the body to higher levels of ionising radiation than those typically experienced on Earth. At high doses that radiation has been tied not just to cancer and…

Sequence of events Just what did happen in Prague, October 1601, over the 11 days leading up to Tycho Brahe’s death? Illustrations © Ed Crooks 1 Fateful invitation Tycho Brahe and his friend Councillor Minckwicz attend the banquet of spendthrift and libertine Baron Peter Vok von Rosenberg in Prague. Also present is Tycho's distant Swedish cousin Erik Brahe. 2 Politeness kills Tycho typically overindulged at the dinner table. However, unable to leave the table to relieve himself due to strict courtly etiquette, he suffers acute bladder pain. 3 Not a drop On returning home, Tycho is unable to urinate. Kepler reports that he attempts various remedies using medical treatments of the time without success. He is also, understandably, unable to sleep. 4 Unexpected visitor On 20 October Erik Brahe makes…

Chameleon theory CHAMELEON THEORY Testing an alternate method to Einstein's general relativity © Christian Arnold/Baojiu Li/Durham University. A group of scientists has created a computer simulation of the universe in order to test out an alternative theory to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. Their study found that galaxies similar to our own Milky Way could still form in the universe with modified laws of gravity, suggesting that the theory of relativity is not the only way to explain gravity's role in the evolution of the universe. Physicists from Durham University in England created the computer simulations using a leading alternative model for gravity called ‘f(R) gravity’, also known as ‘Chameleon Theory’, which alters the behaviour of gravity according to the surrounding environment. The simulations showed that the modified gravity…

What’s been happening at Europa? Table salt found sprinkled on the surface Europa has had visitors in the past, notably NASA’s Voyager and Galileo spacecraft. On their flybys of the moon, analyses showed that the icy crust consisted of water ice and a substance originally thought to be magnesium sulphate. After recently revisiting the surface using the W. M. Keck Observatory based in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now know that it wasn’t magnesium sulphate and was actually sodium chloride – more commonly known as table salt. As Voyager and Galileo had only an infrared spectrometer to work with, they couldn’t see what was hiding in the visible light spectrum. Keck and Hubble were able to unveil the hidden secret. “We thought that we might be seeing sodium…

The weirdest star THE WEIRDEST STAR IN THE UNIVERSE Tabby’s Star made headlines with its mysterious behaviour, but is it still the strangest? Reported by Andrew May © Nicholas Forder There are at least 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and some of them are pretty weird in appearance or behaviour. But only a limited number of natural processes are at work, so nature has a way of repeating itself. For a star to be uniquely weird, there would have to be something artificial about it – the product, not of nature, but of an alien civilisation. That’s not to say the star itself has to be artificial, just that our view of it is somehow altered as a consequence of alien technology. If we could find something like that,…

Investigating Tabby’s Star With the tantalising suggestion of a megastructure, astronomers have searched the stellar object for other technosignatures ©Getty Allen Telescope Array This is an array of 42 radio telescope dishes in California, operated by the SETI Institute, with the aim of detecting signals from extraterrestrial civilisations. Soon after the Kepler results were published in 2015, it was pointed at Tabby’s Star. What the mission discovered Over a three-week period the telescope array was focused exclusively on Tabby’s Star. It scoured a wide range of frequencies, but failed to discover any artificial signals. Automated Planet Finder This is a large optical telescope at the Lick Observatory in California which is used, among other things, by the ‘Breakthrough Listen’ project to search for laser signals that might emanate from an…

Mars THE EVER-CHANGING RED PLANET A host of robots have journeyed to the Red Planet, and with each our understanding of Mars has altered Reported by Lee Cavendish © Nicholas Forder Before the arrival of NASA’s Mariner 4, Mars was thought to be a world similar to Earth – possibly even harbouring alien life. Astronomers suggested that Mars was painted red because that was the colour of its vegetation, and that the streaks along the planet were canals of water – a popular theory proposed by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877. However, ever since Mariner 4’s arrival in 1965, Mars has been studied intensely, and astronomers have figured out that it is actually a barren wasteland. Continued exploration of Mars has shown it to have a deep,…

EARTHQUAKES VS MARSQUAKES How will InSight understand the inner workings of our neighbouring planet? ©Illustration by Tobias Roetsch Plate tectonics Earthquakes and volcanic activity are caused by activity under our planet’s crust. The churning, molten rock underneath drives the Earth's plates to clash, collide and grind against each other. Measuring earthquakes The main instrument used on Earth to measure earthquakes, volcanic activity and explosions is a seismometer, which uses a detection sensor that measures the motion of the ground. The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) NASA’s InSight lander depolyed its seismometer on the surface of Mars on 19 December 2018, placed there by its robotic arm. A protective dome was placed over the instrument earlier this year. This will measure any marsquakes, volcanic activity or meteor impacts. Mars’ deep…

Volcanoes on the Moon The Moon has been volcanically active for most of its history Pre-Nectarian period Lunar crust formed via mineral crystallisation of a global magma ocean, forming the lunar highlands. With liquid surface volcanism not possible, hot vapour release did create an atmosphere, however. Early Imbrian epoch The mantle lying below the lunar basins melted due to frequent giant meteorite impacts that came with the late heavy bombardment and thinned the overlying crust. Late Imbrian epoch The thinned crust led to peak rates of effusive wide-ranging basalt eruptions, creating the famous mare, the dark, smooth lowlands of the Moon. There is also evidence of occasional pyroclastic eruptions. Eratosthenian period The massive basaltic volcanism of the Imbrian period tapered off and ceased. During this era late-stage volcanism filled low-lying…

Moon tour Schiller After celebrating Neil Armstrong’s small step, see a giant ‘lunar footprint’ It was fun while it lasted, but the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission is now behind us. Soon Apollo will revert back to being a historical event, as distant to some as the end of World War II or the Queen’s coronation, and in schools across the country – and across the world – children will learn about the glory days of Apollo in the same way they learn about the times of the Victorians or the Vikings. So, half a century after Neil Armstrong took that “one small step”, let’s take a look at another footprint on the Moon – or at least a lunar feature that observers think looks like one… The…

STARGAZER In the shops The latest books, apps, software, tech and accessories for space and astronomy fans alike Book 2020 Guide to the Night Sky Cost: £6.99 (approx. $8.50/€7.60) From: HarperCollins The bestselling practical guide to the planets, stars and constellations visible from the Northern Hemisphere, the 2020 Guide to the Night Sky is your complete reference to what’s visible in the night sky from January through to December 2020. The 2020 Guide to the Night Sky is an easy introduction to astronomy for those just starting out in the hobby, but it also serves as a useful reference for those who are much more seasoned in observing the heavens. The book is wonderfully written and illustrated by astronomers Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion, providing advice on where to start…