Table of contents for No. 120 in All About Space

WELCOME Have you ever wanted to know everything about the universe? This month, All About Space has the full guide to our cosmos, from its birth in the Big Bang and the objects within it to how we suspect it’s going to end – turn to page 14 for our complete guide. The evenings might be lighter, but if you wait long enough until it gets dark, now is the perfect time to explore our very own galaxy – the Milky Way – with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. There are plenty of targets within its dusty path across the night sky, so we’ve provided guides beyond the summer and into autumn and winter to offer you the very best advice on capturing the most stunning gems of…

CURIOSITY ROVER DISCOVERS THAT EVIDENCE OF PAST LIFE ON MARS MAY HAVE BEEN ERASED Words by Ben Turner © NASA/JPL Curiosity made a surprising discovery while investigating clay-rich sedimentary rocks around Gale crater, a former lake that was made when an asteroid struck the Red Planet roughly 3.6 billion years ago. Clay is a good signpost towards evidence of life because it’s usually created when rocky minerals weather away and rot after contact with water – a key ingredient for life. It’s also an excellent material for storing microbial fossils. But when Curiosity took two samples of ancient mudstone, a sedimentary rock containing clay, from patches of the dried-out lake bed – dated to 3.5 billion years ago and just 400 metres (1,312 feet) apart – researchers found one patch…

Future tech Other-world greenhouses OTHER-WORLD GREENHOUSES To settle on another planet we will need to grow plants there, but how? © Adrian Mann “PLANTS WILL BE CRITICAL TO CREATING SELF-SUSTAINING COLONIES THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM” 1 COMMUNICATIONS It doesn’t take much power to communicate with Mars, but it takes between 3 and 22 minutes for signals to travel each way, making normal conversations impossible. 2 ROVER GARAGE Rovers and other equipment may be stored in low-pressure enclosures. The slight pressurisation would make it easy to build and help keep dust out. 3 REPURPOSED SPACECRAFT Everything taken to Mars will need to have as many uses as possible; in this illustration, the cargo landers have been converted into crew quarters. 4 FIVE A DAY Colonists will need to grow a wide…

Focus on NASA WANTS TO CHANGE THE WAY IT PROTECTS ASTRONAUTS FROM RADIATION With long-term missions in the pipeline, safety is paramount Reported by Rahul Rao ©NASA Astronauts face constant radiation as particles streaming off the Sun and high-energy cosmic rays bombard their bodies. Left unchecked, radiation can trigger all sorts of health issues, most notably boosting the danger of developing cancer. When NASA plans missions, the agency uses a radiation exposure cap to determine how long astronauts can stay in space. But that cap isn’t equal for all astronauts. NASA calculates the cap based on a risk estimate. The limit is the amount of total exposure that would give an astronaut a three per cent higher chance of dying of cancer. However, susceptibility to the types of cancer that…

Focus on NEWLY FOUND MEGA COMET MAY BE THE LARGEST SEEN IN RECORDED HISTORY The comet is truly a behemoth, beating other known comets thousandfold Reported by Elizabeth Howell ©NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Agiant comet found far out in the Solar System may be 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it the largest ever found in modern times. Officially designated on 23 June, it’s called C/2014 UN271, or Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its discoverers, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Pedro Bernardinelli and astronomer Gary Bernstein. Astronomers estimate this icy body has a diameter of 100 to 200 kilometres (62 to 124 miles), making it about ten times wider than a typical comet. This estimate is quite rough, however, as the comet remains far away from Earth, and its size was calculated based…

STARGAZER Planets THIS MONTH’S PLANETS Track down the ringed giant in the evening sky throughout the warmer months – you’ll be glad that you did PLANET OF THE MONTH SATURN Constellation: Capricornus Magnitude: +0.3 AM/PM: PM Saturn is our Planet of the Month this issue, not because it’s particularly bright or well-placed, but because it’s in danger of being overlooked otherwise. The Ringed Planet will be visible in the southern part of the sky all through the long, light summer nights, but with much brighter and more obvious Jupiter as a close neighbour, Saturn risks being overshadowed. But even though it will be low in the sky this month, and less obvious than other planets, Saturn will still be an attractive target for summer stargazers. At the start of our…

STARGAZER DEEP SKY CHALLENGE THE GREAT SQUARE OF PEGASUS AND ANDROMEDA The skies are getting darker now as we head towards the equinox, giving astronomers longer to enjoy the deep sky Source: Wikipedia Commons © Adam Evans During late August and September, the Great Square of Pegasus swings into view. Although the inside of the ‘square’ seems rather barren, it can be a good test of how clear your skies are – in other words, how much light pollution you suffer from. If you can see seven or more stars with the naked eye, you’re doing quite well. The constellation of Pegasus is attached, as it were, to the neighbouring constellation of Andromeda, which is home to the famous spiral galaxy of the same name. There’s also another galaxy to see…

STARGAZER IN THE SHOPS The latest books, apps, software, tech and accessories for space and astronomy fans alike FOR FUN NASA MOON MINER GAME Cost: £9.99 (approx. $13.75) From: thumbsup.com 1 Do you think you have what it takes to mine the surface of the Moon while keeping your astronaut safe and making sure your opponents don’t receive a bigger haul of the lunar bounty than you? If so, this suspense strategy game is for you. The integrity of the lunar surface is compromised with every lunar rock you mine. Will you choose to play it safe and go for the non-integral pieces, or be a mining maverick and go for the structurally important pieces and hope that it’s your opponent that suffers the consequences of your risky behaviour? The…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE © ESO 6 JULY 2021 Opening night for CONCERTO This stunning portrait of NGC 6334, also known as the Cat’s Paw Nebula, is one of the first images taken by the CONCERTO instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX). The white and pink tones have been combined with an image of the same region taken by the ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) in near-infrared light. CONCERTO is designed to study cosmic bodies that formed between 600 million and 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang to aid our understanding of the first generation of stars. © ESA/Hubble & NASA 9 JULY 2021 Galactic giants This impressive image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3,…

ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER A QUARTET OF TEENAGE ALIEN PLANETS FAR, FAR AWAY Words by Rahul Rao Astronomers have discovered a quartet of teenage exoplanets in data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The planets in question lie a little over 130 light years away from Earth. They orbit a pair of little orange dwarf stars, each smaller than the Sun, named TOI 2076 and TOI 1808 – TOI is short for TESS Object of Interest. Even though the two stars are not close – they’re actually a whole 30 light years apart – they’re moving in the same direction, and both stars are around the same age, suggesting that they formed in the same place. “The planets in both systems are in a transitional – or teenage – phase of…

UNISTELLAR TEAMS UP WITH NIKON TO INCREASE ACCESS TO HIGH-TECH SKY-WATCHING Words by Alexander Cox Telescope maker Unistellar and camera company Nikon have announced a new partnership to give a wider public of amateur astronomers a chance to use high-end equipment and enjoy the wonders of the night sky just like astronomy professionals. A lot of the cameras used by astronauts to photograph Earth from above on the International Space Station are made by Nikon, and through the new partnership the optics icon will help Unistellar by sharing its cutting-edge technologies and industrial know-how. “Like Nikon has done and continues to do in many fields related with optics and imaging, we see Unistellar’s products spark joy and excitement on an important and meaningful topic that was previously difficult to grasp…

STAR PROFILE POLARIS The more we find out about our guiding star, the more it fascinates us ©Getty Polaris, the North Star, is a single point in the night sky which the entire consortium of stars appears to revolve around. Despite being one of the most well-known stars in the sky, Polaris continues to confuse scientists. We still don’t know for sure how old the star is, or even exactly how far away it is from Earth. The yellow supergiant is a Cepheid variable star, which means its brightness fluctuates by less than a tenth of a magnitude every few days. A common misconception is that Polaris is the brightest star in the sky, but this position is actually held by Sirius, with Polaris only ranking 48th in terms of…

PLANTS IN SPACE PLANTS ARE UNSUNG HEROES, ESSENTIAL FOR LONGER TERM DEEP-SPACE EXPLORATION BY CREWED SPACECRAFT Reported by Daisy Dobrijevic © NASA; Getty Plants have played a pivotal role in space exploration efforts and will be critical for future space travel. From humble beginnings of just a handful of seeds hitching a ride into orbit to sophisticated plant-cultivation systems on the International Space Station (ISS), space-based plant research has come a long way. Astrobotany is not only integral for long-term space travel endeavours, it has also significantly benefited our lives here on Earth. 15 years before Yuri Gagarin embarked on his historic first flight into space, a very different kind of pioneer made the trip. Scientists wanted to observe the effects of space on biological material, sending a handful of…

Plants in space HOW DOES A SPACE GARDEN GROW? Explore the different experiments growing life on the ISS There’s a variety of plant-growth experiments currently being conducted on the ISS. These studies are mainly designed to investigate how microgravity affects plant growth and development in order to assess the logistics of plant production during long-term space missions. There are also a couple of side benefits. In return for their hard work, astronauts receive a refreshing boost to their freeze-dried diet and experience the simple pleasures of gardening, which enhances their general happiness and wellbeing. The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) is perhaps the most well-known growth unit on the ISS. The space garden has featured in many photographs taken on the ISS, showing astronauts proudly presenting the fruits of their labour.…

BLOCKING THE LIGHT How light from VVV-WIT-08 was prevented from reaching Earth 1 RECONSTRUCTED IMAGE Data from the Via Lactea survey is used here to show the effect of the occulting disc on the giant star VVV-WIT-08. The star is pictured in the centre, dimmed slightly because the disc is moving across it. 2 THE MYSTERY HOST Although the object that has obscured the star when viewed from Earth looks huge, the host itself is much smaller. 3 THE SURROUNDING DISC The host is surrounded by a huge, opaque disc, illustrated here in grey, and it is this which blocked more than 97 per cent of the star’s light. 4 A LONG PERIOD This reconstruction shows the state of the eclipse in February 2012. It peaked in April and then…

Milky Way tour EXPLORE THE MILKY WAY Be a cosmic tourist and take All About Space’s tour of our home galaxy © Alamy “WHAT YOU’LL SEE WILL BE A FAINT BAND OF LIGHT SNAKING ITS WAY THROUGH A BACKDROP OF STARS” It’s easy to forget the true beauty and splendour of the Milky Way. With acres of countryside being torn apart in favour of cities, the change in our planet’s landscape can only really mean one thing in this regard: light pollution. This yellow to orange hue plagues many astronomers by washing out the stunning gems that our night sky has to offer, with only the brightest objects managing to shine through the haze. And with the added appearance of the bright Moon, it can be very tough to get…

STARGAZER MOON TOUR MAJOR CRATERS OF THE MOON Take a tour of the Moon’s most fascinating impacts ©NASA Each lunar phase offers different visual treats and delights. A crescent Moon – whether it’s a very young new Moon hanging in the western sky after sunset or an old waning Moon glowing above the eastern horizon before sunrise – is a beautiful sight. It can look particularly striking if it happens to be shining close to a bright planet. And if the bright, sunlit crescent is quite thin you can often see the rest of the Earth-facing side of the Moon glowing with the subtle, lavender light of ‘earthshine’. Despite what many observers will tell you, the full Moon is not the worst phase to observe. True, with the Sun beating…

STARGAZER THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE Galaxies and globular star clusters are easy pickings for well-equipped astronomers in late summer As we head into late summer, the night sky is alive with a selection of galaxies and star clusters. Starburst galaxy Messier 82, Messier 106 and neighbouring spiral Messier 94 all offer splendid views. If you’re quick, naked-eye planets Saturn and Mars are also visible at dusk before setting within a few hours, while star clusters such as Messier 10, Messier 12 and Messier 14 are ideal for those who aren’t looking to stay up too late. For those keen to stay awake into the early hours of the morning, the galaxies of the constellations of Andromeda and Triangulum wheel into view, as well as a variety of open and globular star…

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE RARE ‘TEARDROP’ STAR AND ITS INVISIBLE PARTNER ARE DOOMED TO EXPLODE IN A MASSIVE SUPERNOVA Words by Brandon Specktor Astronomers have discovered a rare, teardropshaped star swirling through the cosmos some 1,500 light years from the Sun. Why does the star have this unusual shape? Because it’s in a toxic relationship with a partner, which is ripping the life from its body. In stellar relationships like these, there is no amicable uncoupling; the romance only ends when both stars explode in a violent, thermonuclear explosion that’s visible across the galaxy. But astronomers are fired up about this twisted stellar relationship. The system, HD265435, is one of only three known binary star systems in the universe – and the closest one to Earth…

Universe COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE …FROM HOW IT BEGAN TO ITS ULITIMATE FATE OUR UNIVERSE ENCOMPASSES EVERYTHING AROUND US, COUNTLESS STARS, PLANETS AND GALAXIES STRETCHING AS FAR AS OUR TELESCOPES CAN SEE, WITH VAST EXPANSES BEYOND THEM THAT LIE FOREVER OUT OF SIGHT. IT’S A BIG SUBJECT – THE BIGGEST OF ALL – SO JOIN US AS WE BREAK DOWN THE BASICS Reported by Giles Sparrow ©Getty; Tobias Roetsch WHAT IS THE UNIVERSE? The universe is a vast expanse of space and time filled with matter and energy. The word comes from the Latin universus, meaning ‘all things’, although ours may in fact be just one of many universes in a so-called multiverse. Over the course of billions of years, the simple atoms that formed in the early history…

BIGGER AND BIGGER The scale of the universe is so vast that it can be hard to grasp. One of the best ways to comprehend it is by starting on a relatively small scale with our home planet, Earth, and working outwards ©Nicholas Forder “THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE IS EXPANDING” 1 EARTH Earth’s diameter is 12,756 kilometres (7,926 miles). The Moon orbits Earth at an average of 384,400 kilometres (238,855 miles). 2 SOLAR SYSTEM The outermost planet in the Solar System, Neptune, orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.5 billion kilometres (2.8 billion miles). 3 LIVING LOCAL Stars in our local region of space are separated by light years – tens of trillions of kilometres. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is 8.6 light years away. 4…

EXTREME EXOPLANETS THE MORE WE LEARN ABOUT EXOPLANETS, THE MORE WE REALISE THE UNIVERSE IS STRANGER THAN WE EVER IMAGINED Reported by Robert Lea © Tobias Roetsch It’s almost hard to believe that until the early years of the 1990s, astronomers had yet to discover a planet outside the Solar System. Even though scientists were certain that planets orbited other stars, there was little evidence of other planetary systems until the discovery of two extrasolar planets – or exoplanets – orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1992 by Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. This initial discovery was soon followed by the observation of 51 Pegasi b – the first exoplanet discovered around a Sun-like star – in 1995, for which astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz were awarded the 2019…

Black holes RETHINKING BLACK HOLES Delving deep into the workings of these high-gravity objects could turn our theories on their head Reported by Leo Bear-McGuinness ©Tobias Roetsch Almost every diagram of a black hole highlights two key parts of these behemoth beasts: the singularity (the centre) and event horizon (the perimeter). But there’s a chance some black holes don’t actually look like this. Some black holes may not have an event horizon at all. If they exist, these naked singularities wouldn’t just call every black hole illustration into question, but many of our established notions of the universe, too. A standard black hole is thought to be the consequence of a large star collapsing in on itself. Once compressed into a point of infinite density, the forces of gravity are…

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE Vanishing star WHY DID A STAR NEARLY VANISH FROM THE SKY? A star close to the heart of the Milky Way dimmed by 97 per cent for 200 days, and no one quite knows how Reported by David Crookes ©Getty More than 25,000 light years away, there’s an enormous star that’s 100 times the size of the Sun. It’s in the constellation of Sagittarius, close to the heart of the Milky Way. Yet for about 200 days in 2012, it virtually vanished from the night sky. For those studying stars in this dense region of the galaxy, it was understandably something of a surprise. Astronomers had been working their way through data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey in 2019, but they had…

OTHER STELLAR VANISHING ACTS How does VVV-WIT-08 compare with other long-lasting stellar eclipses? TYC 2505-672-1 Distance from Earth: 10,000 light years Time cycle: Every 69 years Duration of near total eclipse: Three-and-a-half years Dims by: 98.4 per cent Next eclipse due: 2080 © Jeremy Teaford. Vanderbilt University EPSILON AURIGAE Distance from Earth: 2,200 light years Time cycle: Every 27 years Duration of near total eclipse: 640 to 730 days Dims by: 50 per cent Next eclipse due: 2036 © NASA VVV-WIT-08 Distance from Earth: 25,000 light years Time cycle: Unknown Duration of near total eclipse: 200 days Dims by: 97 per cent Next eclipse due: Unknown © Saito et al…

STARGAZER WHAT’S IN THE SKY? © Getty; © ESO; Source: Wiki Commons © Astronomical Institute of the Charles University “THE START OF OUR OBSERVING PERIOD IS THE PERFECT TIME TO SPOT SOME PERSEIDS” RED LIGHT FRIENDLY In order to preserve your night vision, you should read our observing guide under red light JARGON BUSTER Conjunction A conjunction is an alignment of objects at the same celestial longitude. The conjunction of the Moon and the planets is determined with reference to the Sun. A planet is in conjunction with the Sun when it and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of the Sun. Right Ascension (RA) Right Ascension is to the sky what longitude is to the surface of the Earth, corresponding to east and west directions. It is measured in…

Astroshots STARGAZER ASTROSHOTS OF THE MONTH Get featured in All About Space by sending your astrophotography images to space@spaceanswers.com “I WANTED TO GET A BETTER RECORD OF MY OBSERVATIONS, WHICH LED TO AN INTEREST IN ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY” Denise Ametbay Location: Republic of Kazakhstan, Central Asia Telescope: Celestron SkyProdigy 6 Schmidt-Cassegrain “I shot this image of the supermoon with my brother Omar when we were on vacation in Turkey. My hometown of Almaty is surrounded by mountains, so there was no possibility of capturing the Moon near the horizon, so we shot the supermoon on our return flight. We used a six-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope as well as a Canon 1DX DSLR camera and Moon filter.” Alastair Woodward Location: Derby, UK Telescope: Sky-Watcher 130PDS “When I initially began observing the night sky, in…