Table of contents for No. 116 in All About Space

Mars is leaking water into space during dust storms and warmer seasons Words by Chelsea Gohd Water is leaking from Mars’ atmosphere through changing seasons and swirling Martian storms. There is water on Mars, but it seems to only exist either in ice caps at the planet’s poles or as gas in the thin atmosphere. Water has been escaping the planet for billions of years since Mars lost its magnetic field – and subsequently much of its air and water. Researchers using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars orbiter and Mars Express orbiter are investigating the escape rate of Mars’ water. They’ve found that when Mars and the Sun are farther apart, the cold makes the water vapour at a certain altitude in Mars’ atmosphere freeze out, but…

Russia and China just agreed to build a research station on the Moon together Words by Mike Wall Leaders of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, signed a memorandum of understanding on 9 March on the construction of a Moon outpost called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). “The ILRS is a comprehensive scientific experiment base with the capability of long-term autonomous operation, built on the lunar surface and/or lunar orbit that will carry out multi-disciplinary and multi-objective scientific research activities such as lunar exploration and utilisation, lunar-based observation, basic scientific experiments and technical verification,” said CNSA officials. The CNSA announcement did not provide a targeted timeline for the lunar research station, nor did a similar release put out by Roscosmos. The United States is…

WHAT HAPPENED? Who knows what actually crashed in 1947? All we know is that something ended up on the ground near Roswell 1 Crash landing Rancher William Brazel discovered strange-looking debris scattered across his ranch sometime after 14 June. Whatever it was, everyone has since agreed that something crashed overnight. 2 Examining the wreckage Having pondered his find, Brazel took his family to look at the wreckage to see what they made of it. There were also reported sightings of UFOs across the United States. 3 Reporting the find Brazel reported the find to the police sheriff of Roswell, driving over to the police station to show evidence of some debris. The army was then informed of the incident. 4 Gathering some debris Major Marcel was sent to the scene…

WHAT WAS THE OBJECT? A flying saucer Some would label the proponents of this argument as UFO conspiracists, but research based on the accounts of military personnel and apparent witnesses to the Roswell event ensures this theory won’t go away and is now seared into the public consciousness. ©Getty Weather balloon The remains of a weather balloon was the explanation given the day after the US Army sought to quickly play down a press release claiming a UFO had been found. Authorities have since admitted this claim was false. ©weather.gov Project Mogul In 1994, the National Security Agency published a report which connected Roswell to Project Mogul, a top-secret Army project that launched high-altitude balloons into the ionosphere above the desert. They were built to monitor Russian nuclear tests. ©USGov…

COMPARISON OF SPACE STATIONS INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION Maximum length: 109 metres (357.6 feet) Mass: 420 tonnes Life span: 26 years if deorbited in 2024 Crew size: Six normally, or nine short-term Initial launch date: 1998 CHINESE SPACE STATION Maximum length: 37 metres (121.4 feet) Mass: 90 tonnes Life span: Ten years or more Crew size: Three normally, or six short-term Initial launch date: 2021 MIR Maximum length: 31 metres (101.7 feet) Mass: 130 tonnes Life span: 15 years Crew size: Three normally, or six short-term Initial launch date: 1986…

Planet Nine MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE IS THERE A PLANET NINE? Mike Brown is the man who killed Pluto, but have the tables turned to leave his own theory of a ninth world in doubt? Reported by David Crookes © Tobias Roetsch Mike Brown is a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), but he is also known as the ‘Pluto killer’. It was 2006 when the International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto’s planetary status to that of a dwarf. Brown led the charge following his discovery of Eris in January the previous year, and it meant the Solar System was back to having just eight planets. For some, the move was unthinkable. Dr Alan Stern, who headed up the New Horizons mission that sent a spacecraft…

KEY PEOPLE Source:WikipediaCommons©PublicDomain; Source:Wikipedia Commons ©PublicDomain; Source:Wikipedia Commons©PublicDomain; Source:Wikipedia Commons ©PublicDomain; Source:Wikipedia Commons © Public Domain; Source:WikipediaCommons©PublicDomain; Source:Wikipedia Commons © SMG2019; Source:Wikipedia Commons©PublicDomain William Brazel Owner of a ranch near Corona, New Mexico Brazel discovered the scattered debris and reported it to the authorities, believing it to be evidence of a flying disc. George Wilcox Sheriff of Roswell Wilcox met with Brazel and saw some of the gathered debris, prompting him to call upon the military. Jesse Marcel Intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group Marcel was sent to view the crash site. He collected debris, becoming convinced that it was from another planet. Sheridan Cavitt Head of counterintelligence Accompanied Marcel on the site visit on 8 July 1947, saying what was found was consistent with a balloon having crashed.…

WORMHOLE CANDIDATES Active galactic nuclei The supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies are candidates for investigators looking for wormholes. The motions of their orbiting stars and their gamma ray output are being scrutinised for anything that doesn’t fit. © NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESO Quantum foam If you were able to put space-time under a powerful microscope, there’s no reason that it should appear smooth. Quantum mechanics holds that particles spontaneously appear and disappear, and the same could be true of wormholes. © NASA Ordinary black holes According to the Penrose diagram of a Schwarzschild black hole, an object that is already travelling faster than light when it enters a black hole will emerge in a different space, time or universe, effectively turning it into a wormhole. © NASA Entanglement One theory…

ACCEPTED EXPERIMENTS POLAR-2: GAMMA-RAY BURST POLARIMETRY ON THE CHINA SPACE STATION POLAR-2 will build on a previous investigation from Tiangong-2 and will continue the study of gamma-ray bursts. This astronomy project involves four institutions from four countries: the University of Geneva, Switzerland; the National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland; the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OF NEBULAR GAS (SING) The SING instrument’s primary goal is to generate spectral maps of the sky using an ultraviolet long-slit spectrograph, though it will be constrained by the orbital inclination of the space station. This experiment will be carried out by two institutions from two countries: the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and the Institute of Astronomy of…

ORBITS IN THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM The behaviour of a set of Kuiper Belt Objects is fuelling the thinking behind the existence of Planet Nine © Caltech; © Tobias Roetsch 1 Orbit of Neptune Here in the centre is the orbit of Neptune, which takes 165 Earth years to complete a single rotation around the Sun. 2 Planet Nine’s orbit As you can see, the orbit of Planet Nine is much farther away than Neptune. Indeed, the highly elongated orbit is far beyond Pluto, and it could be about 20 times farther from the Sun on average than Neptune. 3 Effect on other objects Six distant trans-Neptunian objects have orbits that line up in a peculiar way. According to Brown and Batygin, only the gravity of a massive unknown planet…

STARGAZER MOON TOUR APOLLO 16 LANDING SITE Track down the landing site of the penultimate Apollo mission in the rugged lunar highlands Two years ago we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which saw the first humans walk on the surface of the Moon. One thing that became clear during those anniversary celebrations was that many people seem to believe that Apollo ended with the Eagle’s landing, and that everything which followed was just a postscript. That’s just not true. Every subsequent mission had its own highlights and its own firsts, even if they have now been largely forgotten by everyone except space historians and Apollo fanatics. And if any mission deserves the title of ‘the forgotten Apollo mission’, it would be Apollo 16, which went to…

STARGAZER THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE Spring lets us gaze out of our galaxy’s plane, revealing new targets Bright yellow-white star Capella of Auriga (the Charioteer) sits low in the northwestern sky this month, a striking sight at magnitude +0.08 alongside easy-to-locate Castor and Pollux of Gemini (the Twins). Ursa Major’s ‘Big Dipper’ is the simplest asterism to find as soon as darkness falls, making it easy to use its pointer stars to find Polaris. Follow the pointers in the other direction and you will find bright-white star Regulus in Leo (the Lion); trace your finger along the bowl and you’ll find yourself led to brilliant yellow-orange star Arcturus in the constellation of Boötes (the Herdsman). Nearby, just northeast of Arcturus, you’ll be greeted by the unmistakable semi-circle of the Northern Crown,…

Roswell files THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ROSWELL FILES DID A FLYING SAUCER REALLY CRASH LAND IN AMERICA IN 1947, ONLY TO BE HUSHED UP BY THE GOVERNMENT? Reported by David Crookes © Getty: Alamy There is a spaceship that looks like a flying saucer in Roswell. Thousands of motorists drive past it every day, and hundreds of people pop inside. It’s on North Main Street in this southeastern New Mexico city, its metal skin gleaming as it basks in the glow of the Sun. Its neon lighting burns into the retinae of those who view it throughout the evening, and it’s rather hard not to admire it. After all, quite aside from its striking looks, who doesn’t fancy a burger every now and then? This spacecraft is one of the…

Roswell files IS THE TRUTH REALLY OUT THERE? Former CIA operative Ben Smith investigated the crash which took place in Roswell in 1947 for a television documentary aired on the History Channel, or Sky History in the UK, called Roswell: The First Witness. He spoke to the grandchildren of Major Jesse Marcel, the person sent to the crash site to gather debris for analysis. He also visited the site with aviation crash experts, studied a journal found among Marcel’s possessions for clues and spoke to other witnesses. Was Marcel right? Was the evidence gathered that day really not of this Earth? © Ben Smith Before you began investigating, were you sceptical about what happened that day in 1947? I think my initial attitude was one of not scepticism, but healthy…

INTERVIEW DR QUEENIE HOI SHAN CHAN SEEKING THE ORIGINS OF LIFE A planetary scientist with a very steady hand, Queenie Chan speaks to All About Space about her work on tiny specks of asteroid samples collected by the Hayabusa mission Interviewed by Daisy Dobrijevic © Queenie Chan BIO Dr Queenie Hoi Shan Chan Chan is a planetary scientist whose research focuses on investigating early chemical reactions involving liquid water in the Solar System and how the complex molecules that ultimately led to life formed. Chan’s work enables her to analyse some of the most pristine samples of comets and asteroids returned by space missions such as JAXA’s Hayabusa. Why do we have to look at asteroids in space rather than breaking open a meteorite on Earth? We have already learned…

SEEKING OUT WORMHOLES It’s currently impossible to tell the difference between a wormhole and a black hole, but there are ways it could be done 1 Gravitational lensing In 2008, two scientists from Gurucharan College, Silchar, India, investigated whether wormholes could, like black holes, exhibit gravitational lensing of light that passes by them. They discovered that one type of wormhole, the Ellis drainhole, the earliest known complete mathematical model of a traversable wormhole by Homer G. Ellis, and separately Kirill A. Bronnikov, does not exhibit this lensing. Therefore a black hole-like structure that doesn’t bend light might well be a wormhole. ©NASA 2 Leaky gravity If a wormhole enters our universe, or our part of the universe, and there is mass on the other side of it, then it will…

Focus on RARE SUPERNOVA RELIC FOUND IN OUR GALAXY NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered the remains of something quite unusual within the Milky Way’s heart ©NASA Supernovae are stellar explosions that seed the galaxy with the elements vital for life. Sagittarius A East (Sgr A East) is a supernova remnant that lies near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. According to a statement from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, this supernova remnant is the first known example of an unusual type of white dwarf stellar explosion called a Type Iax supernova. “While we’ve found Type Iax supernovae in other galaxies, we haven’t identified evidence for one in the Milky Way until now,” said Ping Zhou from Nanjing University in China. “This discovery is…

CONDITIONALLY ACCEPTED EXPERIMENTS MID-INFRARED PLATFORM FOR EARTH OBSERVATIONS This Earth science project will use two mid-infrared cameras for Earth observation. The research aims to build on our knowledge of atmospheric humidity flows and improve the forecasting of heavy precipitation and hurricanes. The project will be jointly run by two organisations from Mexico: the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics and Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. DEVELOPMENT OF MULTI-JUNCTION GAAS SOLAR CELLS FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS The main aim of this project is to develop high-efficiency solar cells for future space applications. This space-utilisation technology project will be jointly implemented by two institutions from Saudi Arabia: the National Centre for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. RIDI SANA: HIGH-PERFORMANCE MICRO TWO-PHASE COOLING SYSTEM FOR…

THE EVOLUTION OF ETA CARINAE • Age: 0 years Activity: As with any star, Eta Carinae formed when the clouds of gas and dust scattered in the Milky Way accumulated, then collapsed due to gravity. • Age: 290,000 years Activity: At this point Eta Carinae was a protostar, having accreted more mass over time. There is a theory that all stars are born with a twin, or even a third sibling. • Age: 3 million years Activity: The stars of Eta Carinae fused hydrogen to form helium, and the energy that was released caused them to shine bright. • Date: 1837 Activity: About 180 years ago, the star is observed to have erupted with such ferocity that it became the second-brightest star in the sky. • Date: 1887 Activity: After…

JARGON BUSTER Conjunction This 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. Greatest elongation This is when the inner planets, Mercury and Venus, are at their maximum distance from the Sun. During greatest elongation, the inner planets can be observed as bright evening…

NAKED EYE & BINOCULAR TARGETS Find the brightest stars of Boötes and Virgo and explore the sky around them 1 Arcturus (Alpha Boötis) Only 37 light years away, Arcturus is the closest giant star to Earth. With a diameter 25-times greater than our own Sun’s, it shines at magnitude +0.15 in the sky, making it the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere – Sirius, the brightest star in the entire sky, is in the Southern Hemisphere, though it is sometimes visible in northern latitudes in winter. 2 Spica (Alpha Virginis) 250 light years away from our Solar System, first-magnitude Spica is a very hot, blue star, more than 2,300-times more luminous than the Sun. The 15th-brightest star in the sky, it’s a binary pair that swoop around each other every…

STARGAZER Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ REVIEW CELESTRON STARSENSE EXPLORER DX 102AZ This telescope’s innovative technology provides the simplest and quickest solution yet to finding objects to observe Reviewed by Robin Scagell TELESCOPE ADVICE Cost: £349.99 ($480) From: Celestron Type: Refractor Aperture: 4” Focal length: 25” BEST FOR… There are four instruments in the Celestron StarSense Explorer range: an 80mm refractor, a 114mm reflector, the 102mm refractor under test and a 130mm reflector. All these instruments are standard members of the Celestron range and are available in other mounting packages. In this range, the 80mm and 114mm are supplied on lighter weight mountings, while the 102mm and 130mm have the same heavier mounting. The alt-azimuth mounting means you can move the instrument around two axes – up and down and from…

STARGAZER IN THE SHOPS The latest books, apps, software, tech and accessories for space and astronomy fans alike FOR KEEPING WARM ESA PATCH BEANIE Cost: €22.90 (approx. £19.70 / $27.10) From: esaspaceshop.com 1 A fitting beanie for space enthusiasts, it features the official European Space Agency patch worn by ESA astronauts. Made from 100 per cent acrylic, with a one-size-fits-all approach this beanie is designed with everyone in mind. The beanie is available in either royal blue or navy blue, and the patch includes the flags of 22 ESA Member States. The ESA patch was redesigned in 2020 to also include two Associate Members, Latvia and Slovenia, and one Cooperating State, Canada. It can keep your head warm while you’re out observing! FOR EASY NIGHT-SKY NAVIGATION STELLARSCOPE STAR FINDER Cost:…

HEROES OF SPACE NORMAN E.THAGARD The first American to board Mir, Thagard paved the way for the Shuttle-Mir program ©NASA When Thagard boarded the Mir space station alongside cosmosnauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadi Strekalov, the culture of space exploration was changed forever. The mission demonstrated that space exploration and discovery was now well and truly a multinational enterprise. Prior to the pioneering Mir 18 mission, Thagard only had one year of intense training under the Russian teaching system to prepare him for life on board Mir. Though Thagard was a seasoned Space Shuttle flyer, having flown on four previous Space Shuttle missions – as a mission specialist on STS-7, STS-51-B, and STS-30 and a payload commander on STS-42 – his stint aboard Mir be very different. The training was intense,…