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KEEP IN TOUCH /AllAboutSpaceMagazine @spaceanswers space@spaceanswers.com 3

 INSIDE
20 SECRETS OF SATURN

LAUNCHPAD FOCUS ON

06 News from around

the universe 48 Scientists doubt the
proposed detection of
the first exomoons 28
FUTURE TECH

28 New Worlds mission

By putting a huge
50 Betelgeuse
The mysteries of this red
supergiant star have baffled
umbrella into space, we
astronomers for centuries, but
could come closer to finding
have we moved a step closer
extraterrestrial life
to solving them?

INTERVIEW FOCUS ON FOCUS ON

30 Chris Lintott
Lintott speaks to All
About Space about his popular
56 Halley’s Comet has
begun its 38-year 70 Space Force plans
a global radar to
project, the Zooniverse, and
journey back towards Earth ‘identify emerging threats’
how it’s continuing citizen
in distant Earth orbit

58 Why
science with great success
are there free-
FOCUS ON
floating gas giants?
Astronomers are baffled by the 72 Astronomy
a telescope
without

34 ‘Dark force’ theory presence of planetary-mass You don’t always need optical
objects without a host star aid to see beautiful things in
could solve two open the night sky… just wrap up
cosmic mysteries
FOCUS ON warm, go outside and look up

FOCUS ON
64 Colliding space junk
makes ‘noise’ that FOCUS ON
38 A DARPA Moon study
selects 14 companies
to develop a lunar economy
could be heard from Earth
78 Strange underground
polygons on Mars hint
at the planet’s wet past

40 Moments 66 Ask Space

Your questions answered
from disaster by our panel of experts 30
The stories behind space’s most
tragic photos

4
 Inside

88

STARGAZER
80 What’s in
the sky?

82 Planetarium

84 Month’s planets

86 Moon tour

87 Naked eye &

binocular targets

88 Deep sky challenge

90 The Northern
Hemisphere

92 Review

96 In the shops

72
40

WIN! MEADE
POLARIS
130MD
19

5
6
 Amazing images

12 December

Perseverance
celebrates 1,000 Mars
days on the Red Planet
NASA’s Perseverance rover just rolled past
a big milestone on the Red Planet. The
car-sized Perseverance has now been
exploring its exotic environs for 1,000 Mars
days, or sols. One sol is slightly longer than
an Earth day at 24 hours and 37 minutes.
“Sol in, sol out! I completed 1,000 Martian
days … and my work is far from done,” said
Perseverance team members writing from
the rover’s perspective. The mission team
celebrated 12 December as the official
landmark day, though sol 1,000 extended
into 13 December as well.
The Perseverance rover and its tiny
robotic partner, the Ingenuity helicopter,
landed inside Mars’ Jezero crater on 18
February 2021. Ever since, the big rover
has been hunting for signs of ancient
Mars life on the floor of the 45-kilometre
(28-mile) wide Jezero, which is a great
place to do such work. “We picked Jezero
crater as a landing site because orbital
imagery showed a delta – clear evidence
that a large lake once filled the crater,”
Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley
of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena said. “A lake is a potentially
habitable environment, and delta rocks are
a great environment for entombing signs of
ancient life as fossils in the geologic record,”
Farley added. “After thorough exploration,
we’ve pieced together the crater’s geologic
history, charting its lake and river phase
© NASA

from beginning to end.”

7
8
 Amazing images

13 December 2023

The James Webb

Space Telescope spies
a record-breaking
‘failed star’ that
shouldn’t exist
The James Webb Space Telescope has
spotted a record-breaking free-floating
brown dwarf and two other so-called
‘failed stars’ in a young star cluster just
1,000 light years from Earth. The record-
breaking brown dwarf is not associated
with a parent star and has a mass around
eight times that of Jupiter. Meanwhile, the
smallest one has a mass around three
times that of Jupiter, making it a challenge
to current theories about how these
celestial objects are born. The discovery
could help astronomers better determine
where the line between planets and
stars is drawn. “One basic question you’ll
find in every astronomy textbook is what
are the smallest stars? That’s what we’re
trying to answer,” research lead author
and Pennsylvania State University scientist
Kevin Luhman said.
The team discovered these three brown
dwarfs, including this new record breaker,
when they trained Webb’s Near-Infrared
Camera (NIRCam) on the heart of the wispy
gas and dust of the star cluster IC 348,
which lies within the larger star-birthing
Perseus star-forming region. Because of the
youth of this cluster, the brown dwarfs within
it are still glowing with infrared light, which
is the result of heat left behind from their
formation. The most promising targets from
this investigation were selected for a deep-
dive follow-up investigation with Webb’s
Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec)
array. Sensitive enough to detect fainter
objects than ground-based telescopes,
NIRSpec allowed the team to distinguish
brown dwarfs from background galaxies,
narrowing eight potential brown dwarfs
© ESA

down to three.

9
10
 Amazing images

27 November 2023

The Milky Way lights

up the Valley of the
Moon in a magical
new night sky photo
The stars of the Milky Way glisten in the
night sky above Chile’s Valle de la Luna in
a new photo from the European Southern
Observatory (ESO). The photo captures the
Milky Way illuminating the picturesque Valle
de la Luna, meaning ‘Valley of the Moon’,
which is located in the Chilean Atacama
Desert. Known for its Moon-like landscapes
and rock formations, Valle de la Luna offers
a mystical scene in an otherwise desolate
area. “The strange geological formations
protruding out of the desert floor are
twisted and gnarled like old wizards’ hats,
while the sky above is filled with thousands
of stars and a myriad of mesmerising
colours,” ESO officials said.
Valle de la Luna is located near the ESO’s
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter
Array (ALMA) – a network of 66 radio
telescopes that study light from some of
the coldest objects in the universe. The
area is a great place for stargazing, given
the high altitude, dry air and distance
from civilisation and its inherent light
pollution. The area’s climate aids in ALMA’s
observations, as water vapour in Earth’s
atmosphere can absorb the invisible light
collected by the radio telescope. “It’s easy
to see where the valley gets its name
from; the Moon-like formations on the
dried-up salt beds have been eroded by
aeons of exposure to the elements and
feel far more out of this world than of it,”
© ESO

ESO officials said.

11
12
 Amazing images

28 November 2023

A newborn star in
its cosmic crib
Using the James Webb Space Telescope,
astronomers have observed the luminous
cloud of material that surrounds a newborn
star, cocooning it in a crib of gas and dust.
These so-called Herbig-Haro objects are
created when stellar winds and jets of
gas billow from newborn stars, causing
shock waves that slam into the gas and
dust from which the star was born at high
speeds. This particular Herbig-Haro object,
which can be seen dominating the bottom
half of this stunning new Webb image,
captured with the telescope’s Near-Infrared
Camera (NIRCam) instrument, is designated
HH 797. The stellar ‘cocoon’ is located
around 1,000 light years away, close to
the young open star cluster IC 348, which
itself is situated at the eastern edge of the
Perseus dark cloud complex.
Infrared instruments like NIRCam are
perfect for studying young stars and
probing Herbig-Haro objects because
these cosmic bodies are often surrounded
by remnants of the gas and dust that
initially formed them, which absorb and
block other wavelengths of light being
emitted from these stars. Infrared light, on
the other hand, can shine through these
cocoons. By peering into the newborn
star with its NIRCam, Webb has revealed
molecules that have been heated to
thousands of degrees by shock collisions,
allowing astronomers to determine the
structures of outflows from infant stars.
HH 797 has been studied extensively
by ground telescopes, with previous
observations showing its gas moving away
from Earth, thus having its wavelength
stretched, or ‘redshifted’, at its south, while
gas to the north is being ‘blueshifted’,
indicating it is moving towards Earth. The
expansion of the universe stretches the
wavelengths of light travelling through
it, moving it towards the ‘red’, or lower
frequency end of the electromagnetic
spectrum. Astronomers also found more
gas at the eastern edge of HH 797 is
being redshifted than gas at the western
© ESA

edge is.

13
 KEEP IN TOUCH /AllAboutSpaceMagazine @spaceanswers space@spaceanswers.com

US Congress says that some

UFO records must be released
Reported by Brett Tingley

he United States Congress just passed the original amendment as written is a serious

T
legislation that directs the US government disappointment for those who feel the truth is out there,
to release records related to UFOs – some and that the US government has a responsibility to
UFO records, anyway. According to new reveal it to the public. “The most important components
provisions in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense of the Schumer-Rounds language were dropped – an
Authorization Act, the law that funds the US military independent Senate-confirmed review board with
and related activities, the US National Archives must subpoena power, professional staff to search out
collect for release all documents that “pertain to records and other serious resources,” said Douglas
unidentified anomalous phenomena, technologies of Dean Johnson, an independent researcher who writes
unknown origin and non-human intelligence.” None of on various aspects relating to UAP. “What is being
those terms are defined in the bill, however. Unidentified enacted instead is a modest mechanism that is far less
anomalous phenomena, or UAP, is a relatively newly likely to result in the location, extraction and disclosure
adopted and broadly defined term that encompasses of important UAP-related records that may be tightly
UFOs in the sky in addition to unidentified objects held or even long forgotten,” Johnson said.
underwater, in space or that appear to travel between Christopher Mellon, deputy assistant secretary of
these domains. defense for intelligence in the Clinton and George
The records are to be released once 25 years have W. Bush administrations, called the bipartisan back-
passed since their creation, unless the president directs and-forth over the NDAA “shockingly dysfunctional.
them to remain classified, and newer records can Regarding the UAP issue, DoD and the [intelligence
be released sooner if the agency that created them community] clearly have a serious trust issue with
allows it. The language directing these records is known important members of Congress who are not backing
as the UAP Disclosure Act, or the Schumer-Rounds down and likely to escalate,” Mellon said. “I’ve seen this
Amendment. An earlier version of the amendment pattern many times. Although the executive branch
contained much stronger language that ordered the feels they dodged a bullet on the Schumer language,
Department of Defense (DoD) to declassify records until they earn Congress’ trust, they are going to be
“relating to publicly known sightings” of UFOs without fighting a prolonged and likely losing battle.”
review, but the measure was removed from the As word began to trickle out on social media that
legislation that eventually passed. the Schumer-Rounds amendment was not going to
Despite the mandate in the bill, some UAP pass as originally written, many UAP transparency
transparency advocates say the failure to pass advocates claimed that lobbyists working for
© Getty

UFOs have
been reported for
decades now

14
 News

aerospace contractors were working to kill

the language in the bill in order to protect
an alleged decades-long cover-up of
Startup True Anomaly
snags $100 million for
crashed UFO technologies. “An extremely
powerful defence aerospace lobby is
pushing key politicians in Congress to block
the Schumer Amendment to the NDAA,”
Australian journalist and UFO transparency
space security work
advocate Ross Coulthart wrote.
However, those familiar with the NDAA Reported by Mike Wall
amendment and the legislative process that
eventually passed it think those claims are True Anomaly just scored a big chunk of change to continue
merely hearsay. “I have seen no evidence developing its space security technology. The Colorado-based
of any substantial lobbying activity by startup announced that it raised $100 million (£78.6 million) in
aerospace firms against the UAPDA over the a ‘Series B’ round of funding led by Riot Ventures. The money
past five months. You cannot completely “will be used for continued investment in people, products and
exclude some such influence, but any services to further advance True Anomaly’s national security
sizable campaign would leave tracks. I don’t space technology offerings at the intersection of hardware,
see them, and nobody has produced a software and AI,” True Anomaly representatives said.
single named congressmember who has True Anomaly, which was founded in 2022, aims to help make
referred to such activity, nor any document space a safer and more sustainable environment for a wide
to support the notion,” Johnson said. Instead, range of stakeholders. The company also wants to help the
resistance appears to have come from the United States retain its status as the world’s preeminent space
DoD. According to the New York Times, a power in the face of increasing competition with China. Though
“person familiar with the talks who insisted the company is young, it has already secured an impressive
on anonymity to describe them noted that amount of funding through investments and contracts. For
the DoD also pushed back forcefully on example, True Anomaly representatives announced in April that
wider measures” in the bill. they had raised $30 million (£23.6 million) to date, including
Much of the current movement to $17 million (£13.4 million) in ‘Series A’ funding. In September,
pass legislation that could release US the company revealed it had won a $17.4 million (£13.7 million)
government UFO records stems from a Small Business Innovation Research contract from the US Space
broader disclosure movement that has Force. Under that award, True Anomaly will provide the Space
been building momentum in recent years, Force with “a suite of space domain awareness applications
both on social media and in the halls of that will leverage powerful analytics and scalable AI to support
Congress, thanks to claims made by former human-machine teaming for improved efficiency across the
US military and intelligence community spectrum of space domain awareness operations,” True Anomaly
personnel. In July 2022, the DoD formed representatives said. “This will be delivered through True
the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Anomaly’s Mosaic software – an integrated operating system for
or AARO, an office established within every aspect of space domain awareness and security.”
the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense True Anomaly also builds spacecraft – specifically an
for Intelligence and Security that was tasked autonomous vehicle called Jackal that’s “designed for live and
with collecting and studying reports of UFOs simulated rendezvous and proximity operations,” according
and UAPs near US military installations or to the company’s website. The first two Jackals are scheduled
“other areas of interest.” to launch to Earth orbit next year on SpaceX’s Transporter 10
In April 2023, the office’s director told the rideshare mission.
United States Senate Committee on Armed
Services that AARO had found “no credible A diagram of True Anomaly’s Jackal
evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, autonomous orbital vehicle, which is designed
to study orbiting objects at close range
off-world technology or objects that defy
the known laws of physics.” Even NASA
commissioned an independent panel to
inform the US government how the agency
might help better collect and analyse data
related to UAPs. “The top takeaway from
the study is that there is a lot more to
learn,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in
September 2023 when the panel released its
first public report. “The NASA independent
© True Anomaly

study team did not find any evidence that

UAPs have an extraterrestrial origin, but we
don’t know what these UAPs are.”

15
 Potentially hazardous
asteroid Bennu
stumps scientists
with its odd make-up
Reported by Sharmila Kuthunur

Tasked with finding clues about the origins of life on head and let the material escape into the A view of the
Earth, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft scooped up pieces lid. Two faulty fasteners continue to prevent outside of the
OSIRIS-REx
of a rugged rubble-pile asteroid named Bennu in late technicians from removing the lid to access
sample collector
2020 and delivered them to Earth about a few months and catalogue the bulk of the collected sample
ago. On 11 December, scientists got their first detailed that’s still trapped within the head. While they An artist’s
description of some of that extraterrestrial collection. wait for new tools to be approved for use on impression of
Dante Lauretta, the mission’s principal investigator and the precious rocks, they are using tweezers to a black hole
a professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry pick tiny rocks through the partially open flap.
at the University of Arizona, said the bits of the ancient Initial findings using spectroscopy, a scientific
asteroid that have been retrieved so far are rich in technique that reveals a material’s make-up by
carbon and organic molecules. All the particles are studying how it reflects different wavelengths

© NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

very dark in colour and consist of centimetre- and of light, show a dominant spectral signature in
millimetre-sized “hummocky boulders” that have a blue. This azure hue is currently unexplained, but
rough “cauliflower-like texture,” said Lauretta. “They cling may mean the space rocks contain even more
to everything we touch them with.” water than scientists initially predicted, Lauretta
OSIRIS-REx dug out so much material that particles said, adding that more results will be shared at
began leaking out of the sample collector’s head – but a scientific meeting in spring. The material also
they were still protected inside its outer lid. Lauretta hosts high amounts of magnesium, sodium and
blamed a 3.5-centimetre (1.3-inch) Bennu stone that phosphorus, a combination that so far puzzles
appeared to have jammed open a small flap on the the team.

A physics paper claims

that humans could use
black holes as batteries
Reported by Jacklin Kwan

The gravitational pull from black holes is so strong that they attempted to inject, the scientists explained
that nothing can escape their grasp. But could we ever in the study. When this electromagnetic repulsion was
harness the gargantuan power of black holes as a source greater than the gravitational pull of the black hole,
of energy? In a new study, scientists propose two ways scientists would consider it ‘fully charged’. In keeping
to use black holes as energy sources in the future. with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which says that
They predicted processes for extracting energy from mass can be treated as equivalent to energy, the black
black holes by using their rotational and gravitational hole’s available energy would come from a combination
properties. “We know that we can extract energies from of the electrical charges injected into it as well as the
black holes, and we also know that we can inject energy mass of those electrical charges. “The black hole battery is
into them, which almost sounds like a battery,” lead transforming the energy of the particle’s mass into charge
author Zhan Feng Mai, a postdoctoral researcher at the energy,” Mai said.
Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking The researchers calculated the efficiency of the
University, said. recharging process to be 25 per cent, meaning that black
In the first hypothetical scenario, scientists would hole batteries could transform about a quarter of the
‘charge’ the black hole by injecting it with massive mass inputted into available energy in the form of an
electrically charged particles. These charges would electric field. This would make the efficiency of the battery
continue being sucked in until the black hole itself had an around 250 times higher than that of an atomic bomb,
© Getty

electric field that began repelling any additional charges the team calculated.

16
 News

Saturn’s moon Enceladus

harbours a key ingredient for life
Reported by Robert Lea

A new investigation of data collected by NASA’s Cassini serve as fuel sources for terrestrial organisms. This
mission, which ended six years ago, has revealed indicates that there may be more energy available for
that the spacecraft spotted a key ingredient needed life on Enceladus than was previously thought. “Our
for life on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. The Cassini work provides further evidence that Enceladus is host
observations have revealed a powerful energy source to some of the most important molecules for both
for potential life forms deep below the icy shell of this creating the building blocks of life and for sustaining
moon. Enceladus blasts out plumes of ice and water that life through metabolic reactions,” lead scientist
from fissures in its icy shell, and scientists have known and Harvard University doctoral student Jonah Peter
for some time that organic molecules – some of said. “Not only does Enceladus seem to meet the basic
which may have the right chemistry to be important requirements for habitability, we now have an idea
for life as we know it – are contained in these jets. about how complex biomolecules could form there, and
In 2017, scientists detected carbon dioxide, methane what sort of chemical pathways might be involved.”
and hydrogen in Enceladus’ plumes, indicative of To get started, life as we know it needs compounds
a metabolic process called methanogenesis. As its like amino acids as its essential building blocks. The
name suggests, methanogenesis produces methane, team behind the new findings describes hydrogen
which is widespread here on Earth, and could be a cyanide as the Swiss army knife of amino acids
sign of life on other worlds. because of the variety of ways the molecule can be
The new confirmation of hydrogen cyanide – a stacked to help construct amino acids. “The discovery
crucial precursor for some molecules that needed to of hydrogen cyanide was particularly exciting because
be present on Earth for life to arise – takes the concept it’s the starting point for most theories on the origin
that Enceladus could be habitable to a whole new of life,” Peter said. “The more we tried to poke holes in
level. The same research team also discovered that our results by testing alternative models, the stronger
the subsurface ocean of Enceladus, from which the the evidence became. Eventually, it became clear
plumes apparently originate, could be the source of that there is no way to match the plume composition
several other organic compounds, some of which without including hydrogen cyanide.”

Enceladus blasts
out plumes of ice “Enceladus is host to some of the most
and water, detected
by Cassini important molecules for both creating the
building blocks of life and for sustaining
that life through metabolic reactions”
Jonah Peter
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

17
 An illustration shows
sound waves rippling
through a star

How the songs of stars can help perfect

Gaia’s sweeping map of our galaxy
Reported by Robert Lea

Astronomers have developed a new researcher at the EPFL Standard Candles Once the team used this method to
way of measuring cosmic distances by and Distances group who led the latest calculate the size of a star, its brightness
listening to the frequencies of ‘music’ work, said. could be calculated as well. That
played by vibrating stars that collectively The team’s analysis of stellar brightness could further be compared to
act as a vast orchestra of different cosmic oscillations is called ‘asteroseismology’ how bright the star appears to us as we
instruments. The results could help the and is similar to how geologists stand here on Earth. This information was
European Space Agency (ESA) satellite Gaia investigate Earth’s structure by tracking combined with observations that show
better measure the positions of about 2 patterns in earthquakes. Khan and the stars’ temperatures and chemical
billion stars, as well as their distances her colleagues used the vibrations make-up to calculate the final distance.
from Earth and movements, while building and oscillations of their sample stars, This calculated distance was then used to
a precise, three-dimensional map of the which can be seen as tiny variations determine parallax, which could be checked
Milky Way. in light intensity, by turning them into against the parallaxes obtained by Gaia
Scientists typically use a process called sound waves. In turn, they were able during its data gathering. It was like a large-
parallax, the apparent shift in an object’s to detect a spectrum of associated scale check of the mission’s measurement
position when seen from two different sound frequencies. These stellar sound accuracy. “Gaia increased by a factor of
locations, to measure the distance to frequencies were then possible to convert 10,000 the number of stars whose parallaxes
various stars. They measure the angles of into distance measurements. “The are measured thanks to a massive gain in
the star itself using Gaia’s position in space frequency spectrum lets us determine how accuracy over its predecessor, the Hipparcos
and attempt to triangulate. The problem, far away a star is, enabling us to obtain mission,” Richard Anderson, leader of the
however, is that the more distant a star is, asteroseismic parallaxes,” Khan said. “In EPFL Standard Candles and Distances
the smaller the apparent displacement of our study, we listened to the ‘music’ of research group, said. “Asteroseismology is
parallax is. And the smaller the parallax a vast number of stars – some of them the only way we can check Gaia’s parallax
displacement, the more likely minute 15,000 light years away.” accuracy across the full sky – that is, for
systematic errors are to creep in, potentially The range of sounds also told the team both low and high-intensity stars.”
creating bias in the measurements. more about the stars in their sample, The future could be bright for this stellar
A team of researchers, including helping them pick out the cosmic distance measurement method. “Space
scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute instruments in this celestial orchestra. missions like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey
of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the “By analysing the frequency spectrum of Satellite intended to detect and survey
University of Bologna, has been working stellar oscillations, we can estimate the exoplanets will employ asteroseismology
to eliminate those errors. In short, they size of a star, much like you can identify and deliver the required datasets across
developed the most precise observations the size of a musical instrument by the increasingly large regions of the sky,” Khan
ever of over 12,000 oscillating red giant kind of sound it makes – think of the concluded. “Methods similar to ours will
stars. “We measured the Gaia biases difference in pitch between a violin and therefore play a crucial role in improving
by comparing the parallaxes reported a cello,” Andrea Miglio, one of the study Gaia’s parallax measurements, which will
by the satellite with parallaxes of the authors and a scientist at the University help us pinpoint our place in the universe
same stars that we determined using of Bologna’s Department of Physics and and benefit a plethora of subfields of
© ESA

asteroseismology,” Saniya Khan, a Astronomy, said. astronomy and astrophysics.”

18
 Competition

WIN A MEADE POLARIS

130MD TELESCOPE
WORTH £250!
Kick-start your stargazing hobby
with this month’s competition
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To be in with a chance of
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Competition ends on 25 January 2024
Enter via email at space@spaceanswers.com
Visit the website for full terms and conditions at
futureplc.com/terms-conditions

19
 SECRETS OF

SATURN IS OUR SOLAR SYSTEM’S RINGED WONDER.

HERE’S WHAT EVERY ASTRONOMY ENTHUSIAST
SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT
Written by Giles Sparrow

20
 Secrets of Saturn

SATURN: THE BASICS

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, the second most under their own weight to form a mostly liquid interior.
massive world in the Solar System and the most distant With less than one-third the mass of its inner neighbour
that can easily be seen without a telescope. It orbits Jupiter, it keeps a weaker hold on its outer layers, which
the Sun at an average distance of 1.43 billion kilometres expand further, resulting in a planet that has roughly 80
(890 million miles) and appears to the naked eye as per cent of Jupiter’s diameter, but an average density
a moderately bright yellowish star. It’s only when seen lower than water. What’s more, Saturn’s rapid rotation
through a telescope that the planet reveals its most period of just under 10 hours and 34 minutes means
impressive secret – a system of bright rings around its that gas around its equator can attempt to escape
equator that present different views to Earth as Saturn its weak gravity, creating a substantial equatorial
circles the Sun once every 29.45 years. Unlike the rocky bulge that makes the planet’s diameter almost 12,000
worlds of the inner Solar System, Saturn is a gas giant kilometres (7,500 miles) greater measured across its
– a huge ball of lightweight gases that compress equator than from pole to pole.

ATMOSPHERE 1 Ammonia haze

Cold conditions
in the upper
2 Deeper clouds
As pressure
increases further,
3 Liquefied gas
At a depth
of about 1,000
At first glance, Saturn’s atmosphere looks atmosphere other chemicals kilometres
rather dull compared to the colourful allow ammonia condense into (621 miles),
storms of its inner neighbour Jupiter. to condense and droplets and pressures reach
However, this is more to do with its muted form bright, hazy form clouds – 1,000 Earth
colours than a lack of activity. Orbiting clouds at pressures in particular atmospheres
further from the Sun, a combination of between roughly ammonium – enough for
chilly temperatures and low pressures 0.4 and 1.7 times hydrosulfide and hydrogen to
allow ammonia gas to condense in the Earth’s atmospheric a water ice and condense
uppermost cloud layer, forming a white pressure. ammonia mix. into its liquid
haze that may conceal more colourful molecular form.

4 5 6
clouds below. Beneath the ammonia ice lies
Metallic ocean Fuzzy core Solid centre?
a deeper zone in which clouds are made
Here pressures Recent studies The scientific
of water ice, mixed for part of its depth
reach 2 million suggest Saturn has jury is still out on
with clouds of ammonium hydrosulfide ice.
Earth atmospheres a fuzzy core that whether Saturn has
Deep beneath the surface, at atmospheric
and temperatures begins where heavy a distinct solid core
pressures 10 to 20 times greater than
rival the surface of elements mix with of rock and metal.
Earth’s, clouds of liquid water and ammonia
the Sun. Hydrogen the liquid metallic
droplets can form.
molecules split layer, and it grows
Clouds account for just a small proportion
© Getty; Alamy
apart to form a denser towards
of Saturn’s atmospheric chemistry, and in
sea of electrically the centre.
general the atmosphere is dominated by
charged metallic
gaseous molecular hydrogen, the lightest
hydrogen.
element in the universe. Hydrogen accounts
for over 96 per cent of the atmosphere,
with helium, the next lightest
element, accounting for another
1 4
3.25 per cent. These gases
condense into liquid roughly
9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles)
6
below the surface, making
Saturn’s gaseous outer layers
about three times deeper 5
than Jupiter’s.

2 3

21
 Feature

BELTS AND ZONES

Weather on Saturn is largely driven by energy escaping
from inside the planet. Thanks to the processes at work in its
deep interior, Saturn pumps out 2.5 times more energy than
it receives from the Sun. Heat from inside the planet creates
convection cells in which atmospheric gases rise towards the
surface, shed their excess heat and then sink again. Saturn’s
rapid rotation stretches these systems out in bands parallel
to the equator, creating alternating regions called belts and
zones. Along their boundaries, strong ‘zonal winds’ blow in
opposite directions around the planet. In general, Saturn’s belts
and zones are broader and less sharply defined than those
of Jupiter, but there’s still a distinction between darker clouds
in the belts and lighter ones in the zones. These names might
imply that the belts are higher regions above the zones, but the
zones mark regions of upwelling warm material where lighter
clouds form at high levels, while the belts are downwelling
cooling material whose cloud tops sit lower in the atmosphere.

POLAR
MYSTERIES
The polar regions of Saturn are home to long-lived
weather systems forever out of sight from Earth. The
north polar vortex is a roughly Earth-sized storm whose
hexagonal sides precisely match a hexagonal cloud
pattern that surrounds the pole at latitude 78 degrees
north. This outer hexagon, about 14,500 kilometres
(9,000 miles) along each side, is probably a ‘standing
wave’ similar to those produced in stringed musical
instruments, but its precise cause – and its link to the
polar vortex – are still uncertain. The 8,000-kilometre
(4,970-mile) wide south polar vortex, meanwhile, is a
circular storm with a vast clearing at its centre, similar
to the eye of an Earth hurricane. It marks a spot where
rising heat inhibits cloud formation, providing a window
into Saturn’s deep atmosphere.
Just like Earth and Jupiter, Saturn’s poles are also
the site of aurorae - brilliant displays of northern
and southern lights created as particles trapped by
Saturn’s magnetic field collide with gases in the upper
atmosphere and release energy. Saturn’s aurorae are
unique in several ways. Electrically charged particles
escaping from the icy moon Enceladus leave a distinct
© NASA/JPL-Caltech

‘footprint’ in the auroral patterns, while high-speed

winds blowing across the north pole at high altitudes
are capable of warping the planet’s magnetic field
and twisting the aurorae out of shape.

22
 Secrets of Saturn

SATURN BY
NUMBERS
120,536
kilometres
Saturn’s equatorial
diameter

26.7
degrees
The planet’s axial tilt,
which creates its
Earth-like seasons

0.0000027
per cent
The mass of Saturn’s
rings in comparison to
the planet

1,800
kilometres
per hour
Fastest wind speeds
recorded on Saturn

95.16x
Saturn’s mass in
terms of Earth

STORMY WEATHER 61.6

kilograms
Although Saturn has no obvious permanent
weather systems to match Jupiter’s
visible flare-ups in the form of prominent
white cloud outbreaks.
per cubic
centuries-old Great Red Spot, it frequently Saturn’s most impressive storm is its metre
produces shorter lived storms in the form ‘Great White Spot’ – an eruption of brilliant Saturn’s average
of white or brown ovals – still hundreds of clouds in northern latitudes that occurs density, just over two-
thousands of kilometres across – which roughly every Saturnian year during thirds that of water
are often seen to occur in chains in certain northern spring or early summer. Great
regions, such as ‘Storm Alley’, which is
around 30 to 40 degrees south of Saturn’s
White Spot outbreaks frequently wrap
themselves all the way around the planet;
9.05 to
equator. The activity in Storm Alley may their cause is probably something to do 10.12 AU
itself be driven by a vast and long-lived with seasonal changes to Saturn’s internal Distance from the Sun
electrical storm called the Dragon Storm, temperature and chemistry, and they leave in astronomical units
which rages largely unseen deep inside chemical changes in their wake that can
Saturn’s atmosphere, but can be detected still be traced decades later. 1.1%
as countless bolts of lightning generate Heating power of
strong radio signals. For reasons that are
poorly understood, the Dragon Storm is
“The activity in Storm Alley the Sun at Saturn
compared to Earth
only active when it lies on Saturn’s night may be driven by a vast and
side, becoming dormant in the daytime.
Its activity also varies considerably over
long-lived electrical storm -178°C
time, but it can sometimes produce called the Dragon Storm” The average
temperature at
Saturn’s cloud tops

23
 Feature

Tail lobe Plasma sheet

Magnetopause
Polar wind

Cusp

8 Titan neutral
Bow shock torus
7 Satellite and
2 1
ring neutrals

Dust
4
3
Energetic
neutral atom

6
Ring current
Hot plasma
5
Titan wake

Magnetopause

THE DEEP INTERIOR Bow shock

AND MAGNETOSPHERE
About 9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles) below the visible enormous electric currents that generate a powerful
surface, pressures from the overlying atmosphere magnetic field. This field is the most organised and
become strong enough that hydrogen molecules symmetrical in the entire Solar System, erupting almost
condense from gas into liquid, creating a vast global precisely at Saturn’s north pole, wrapping around the
ocean that accounts for the bulk of Saturn’s interior planet and re-entering at the south pole. The result
volume. Deeper inside the planet, hydrogen molecules is an extensive magnetosphere that extends to the
break down further to create a layer of liquid metallic orbit of the giant moon Titan on Saturn’s sunward
hydrogen, within which helium forms dense ‘raindrops’ side – where it meets and is overwhelmed by the solar
that fall inwards and help generate the planet’s magnetic field – and streams away into space in a long
internal heat. ‘magnetotail’ on the opposite side.
The density of Saturn’s interior can be measured
through the influence of gravity on spacecraft and
structures in the planet’s rings. Studies suggest that
“Deeper inside the planet,
beneath the liquid-metallic layer sits a concentrated hydrogen molecules break
core of rock and ice with a mass of up to 18 Earths – a
distinct contrast to the ‘fuzzy’ deep interior of Jupiter.
down further to create a layer
As Saturn’s metallic-hydrogen ocean spins, it carries of liquid metallic hydrogen”

24
 Secrets of Saturn

1 LORD OF THE RINGS

Axial alignment
Cassini’s measurements
confirmed that Saturn’s
magnetic field is curiously
Saturn’s bright inner rings extend from about 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) to
well aligned to its axis
some 76,500 kilometres (47,500 miles) above its cloud tops. From the outside in, the
of rotation.
prominent structures are the A and B rings – with B the brightest of all – the C Ring

2
and the near-transparent D Ring. The Cassini Division between the A and B ring is
Shaped by the Sun
the most obvious of several apparent ‘gaps’. Despite their solid appearance, the
Saturn’s magnetosphere
rings are in fact made from countless particles in independent circular orbits above
is sculpted into a teardrop
Saturn’s equator. These particles are made almost entirely from bright water-ice,
shape by interactions with
so variations in the rings are due to differences in the number and size of particles
the Sun’s own magnetic field
– ranging from house-sized boulders down to specks of microscopic dust – in
and the solar wind.
different regions. Just beyond the A Ring lies the bright, narrow F ring, while several

3
faint and tenuous outer rings matching the orbits of specific moons are formed
Radiation belts
from material knocked off their surfaces by micrometeorite impacts – or in the
Weak radiation belts
case of the E ring around Enceladus, ejected by geysers. Despite their breadth, the
lie just inside and outside
brightest rings are very thin, between one kilometre (0.6 miles) and just ten metres
the rings; the ring particles
(32.8 feet) thick. Twice in each Saturnian year, as they lie edge-on to Earth, they can
and moons tend to soak
disappear completely from view. The next such ‘ring plane crossing’ will occur in
up the energetic particles
March 2025.
that would otherwise create
more intense belts.

4 Internal generator
The magnetic field is

RING DYNAMICS
generated by masses of
electrically charged fluid
rotating inside the planet.

Ring particles mostly follow circular orbits narrow F Ring, meanwhile, is governed by

5 Magnetic disc
The outer reaches of the
magnetic field are flattened
aligned with Saturn’s equator because
such orbits keep collisions to a minimum,
and collisions themselves tend to ‘damp
a ‘shepherd moon’ called Prometheus,
which orbits near its inner edge and
keeps particles tightly confined, while also
into a disc-like structure out’ the motion of those which stray out tugging on them to produce intricate twists,
with a ‘ring current’ flowing of line. Nevertheless, the rings are in a knots and braids. Similar effects occur
around it. constant state of change and evolution, inside the other major rings as particles
largely due to the gravitational influence of gently clump together, forming temporary

6 Shielding Titan
Saturn’s giant moon has
no intrinsic magnetism of
Saturn’s many moons. Particles in ‘resonant’
orbits, whose orbital periods are a simple
fraction of the period of a more distant
moonlets or propeller-shaped clouds whose
weak gravity further shepherds nearby
particles. Around Saturn’s equinoxes, when
its own, but its atmosphere moon, can be regularly influenced by that the rings lie edge-on to the Sun, short-
is protected by an induced moon’s gravity. The effects can be complex, lived dark features called ‘spokes’ spread
magnetic field as it herding particles together in some orbits to radially across them. They are thought to
moves through Saturn’s create dense, narrow ringlets, and clearing be a sign of particles being influenced by
magnetosphere. them out of others to create gaps. The Saturn’s magnetic field.

7 Puzzling rotation
As the magnetosphere
is aligned with Saturn’s CASSINI DIVISION E RING
polar axis, it can’t be used
to measure the planet’s ENCKE GAP
rotation. Even after Cassini F RING B RING
we still don’t know how fast
Saturn’s interior spins.
G RING

8 Plasma cavity
The magnetosphere is
filled with plasma containing
A RING
© NASA/JPL-Caltech

electrically charged particles

from a variety of sources –
MAXWELL GAP C RING ROCHE DIVISION
mostly water vapour from
the moon Enceladus.

25
Feature

SATURN’S MOONS
Saturn is parent to a vast family of satellites, with 146 the rings, but there are eight larger worlds -
Daphnis

confirmed as of 2023. The vast majority are comet- Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea,
like objects a few kilometres across, captured by Titan, Hyperion and Iapetus – that formed
Saturn’s gravity and orbiting in tilted and eccentric alongside Saturn itself from varied amounts
orbits at great distances. Of these ‘irregular’ moons, of rock and ice. The largest Saturnian moon
the largest by far is Phoebe, a 213-kilometres (132- of all, Titan, is larger than the planet Mercury
mile) world that is thought to be a captured centaur and blanketed in a hazy atmosphere of
– an icy world that probably originated in the Kuiper nitrogen and methane. Its surface is shaped
Belt beyond Neptune. Closer in lie 24 moons with by the recycling of methane between icy, Mimas
more intimate links to Saturn. Many of these are liquid and vapour forms, and it may also
small moons and moonlets orbiting in and around have active cryovolcanoes.

EXPLORING
Pioneer 11 Voyager 1 Voyager 2
Type: Jupiter and Type: Jupiter Type: Multi-
Saturn flyby and Saturn flyby planet flyby

SATURN
Launched: Launched: Launched:
6 April 1973 5 September 1977 20 August 1977
Saturn flyby: Saturn flyby: Saturn flyby:
1 September 1979 12 November 1980 26 August 1981
Only a handful of spacecraft have visited
Key discoveries: Key discoveries: Key discoveries:
Saturn, each adding to our understanding
First close-up Analysis of Saturn’s Measurement of
of the ringed planet. Pioneer 11’s initial
images of Saturn. upper atmosphere. temperature in the
flyby in September 1979 provided the first
Measurements Discovery of complex upper atmosphere.
measurements of the magnetosphere,
of the magnetic structure in the rings Images of more
discovered the F ring and revealed ring
field. Measured the of Saturn. Close-up structure in the rings
material orbiting within the system’s
temperature of Titan images of Titan and and the first close-
apparent dark ‘gaps’. Voyager 1 followed in
and photographed other moons. up views of moons,
November 1980, delivering high-resolution
the unlit underside Status: Entered including Enceladus.
images of Saturn’s atmosphere, rings and
of the rings. interstellar space Status: Entered
moons, and measuring the atmospheric
Status: Contact in 2012 and is still interstellar space in
gases and high wind speeds. In August
lost; now entering returning data about 2018; still returning
1981, Voyager 2 observed changes in the
interstellar space. its conditions to Earth. data to Earth.
atmosphere and ring system from the
previous year, and took the temperature
of Saturn’s atmosphere for the first time. Cassini Huygens Dragonfly
However, most of what we know about Type: Saturn orbiter Type: Titan lander Type: Titan lander
Saturn today comes from NASA’s Cassini Launched: Launched: Launch: 2027
mission, which orbited the planet between 15 October 1997 15 October 1997 Titan landing: 2034
2004 and 2017. Still the largest space probe Saturn orbit: Titan descent: Key goals: A robotic
to successfully fulfil its mission, the bus- 1 July 2004 14 January 2005 explorer designed
sized Cassini was equipped with a dozen Key discoveries: Key discoveries: First to fly across Titan’s
separate instruments to measure all Detailed survey of images from the surface to several
aspects of Saturn, its rings and moons, as Saturn, its rings and surface of Titan. locations, studying
well as carrying the European-built Huygens moons. Imaged Titan Status: Contact the moon’s complex
lander and deploying it for a landing on through its clouds lost with Cassini 72 surface chemistry
Titan in January 2005. Observations over and discovered minutes after landing. and potential for life.
more than a decade allowed Cassini to water plumes
study seasonal changes throughout Saturn’s above Enceladus.
northern winter and spring, culminating with Status: Destroyed
a series of passes between the planet and during a controlled
© NASA/ESA

its inner rings and a final plunge to burn up plunge into Saturn in
in the atmosphere in September 2017. September 2017.

26
 Secrets of Saturn

Dione
Iapetus
Titan
Enceladus

Phoebe
Rhea
Tethys
Hyperion

© NASA
RING AGE AND ORIGINS
The age of Saturn’s rings is still hotly debated, though after the planet’s own formation. Material
the strongest recent evidence suggests that they far enough from Saturn clumped together
are fairly young - perhaps just 100 million years old to create moons, but within a certain
compared to the 4.5-billion-year age of Saturn itself. distance called the Roche limit, powerful
The chief evidence for their youth comes from their tidal forces prevented large objects from
pristine appearance, coupled with estimates of how forming. The leading explanations for a
fast their particles should darken with age as they are recent ring origin involve the breakup of a
‘polluted’ by a steady rain of dusty micrometeorites. lost icy moon, perhaps after its orbit was
However, some scientists argue that the ring particles disrupted by another moon, or in a chance
are rejuvenated by collisions and breakups that expose collision with a comet or a second lost
fresh new surfaces, allowing for a much greater age. moon. This moon or its debris then strayed
Some advocates for ancient rings suggest they could inside the Roche limit and was further
have formed from a thick disc of material remaining broken up to create the ring particles.

“Some suggest they could have

formed from a thick disc of
material remaining after the
planet’s own formation”

27
 FUTURE TECH

NEW WORLDS MISSION

By putting a huge umbrella into space, we could
come closer to finding extraterrestrial life

he question of whether life exists on other orbiting their parent star are brought into

T
planets is one that scientists frequently view when the brighter light is blocked.
ponder, but have so far failed to answer. In 2013, NASA created a mock-up of the
But hoping to change this is the New starshade. The initial plan had been to
3
Worlds mission. While it’s still in the early phases of produce a round disc, but this caused a
development following years of research, it’s likely to problem with diffraction. When light from
bear fruit in the near future. the parent star hits a round circle, it will
One of the problems with observing extrasolar diffract around the edge. Not only does this
planets is the amount of light emitted by the parent give a halo-like glow, but it also drowns out
star they orbit. When scientists use a telescope to the dimmer light of the smaller terrestrial
look deep into space, they find the brightness of these exoplanets being sought, because it remains
stars drowns out the light from the orbiting planets. so bright.
They still see the more intense glow of larger planets, The idea is to make the starshade look
but the smaller ones are virtually impossible to spot. like a series of petals, with each one sitting
Since those tinier planets are, like Earth, more likely around the inner disc. Since the perimeter
to contain signs of life, it means experts risk missing shape of the object that the light is hitting
potential life-supporting worlds. governs diffraction, this design controls
Dr Webster Cash of the University of Colorado at the way the light waves of the star behave,
Boulder has devised a method to combat this problem. drastically cutting diffraction. Because the
He proposes using a starshade, effectively a large starshade will be tilted when put into space,
blocker spacecraft that would be placed between the the light from our Sun will not disrupt the
telescope and the target star. It would prevent light telescope’s view of any extrasolar planetary
from the star reaching the telescope, which would in systems either.
effect be cast within a shadow. Just as a ball heading Although the proposal is to fly the
your way from up high on a bright day is better seen if starshade and the telescope into space in
you hold your hand to block the sunlight, so the planets formation, it’s more likely that the telescope

2
© Jay Wong

28
 New Worlds mission

1 The telescope
A telescope
will sit behind
2 Distances
Obtaining the
right distance
the starshade. The between the stars,
starshade acts as starshade and
a barrier between telescope is vital,
the telescope and and there’s little
the star. room for error.

4
3 Viewable planets
This planet
wouldn’t be seen
4 The star
When using a
telescope to find
if the starshade exoplanets, the
weren’t placed in incredible glare
front of it. Instead it from the parent
would emit a dim star makes it
glow that would be impossible to see
outshone by the star. smaller planets.

5 Starshade
The mission will
fly the starshade
6 Petals
If the starshade
is round, diffraction
into space. Once it will occur and the
unfurls, it will look rippling light would
like a gigantic flower, still hamper views.
casting a large Adding petals solves
shadow behind it. the issue.

7 8
5 Starlight Taking images
The petal shapes The starshade
prevent bright blocks light for the
spots that would telescope. It can
otherwise mask the take images of the
planets orbiting the planets that it spots
star, creating a far at the sides of the
dimmer glow. starshade.

6
7

will be sent up first and the starshade will follow at

a later date. Though a launch date is far from being
confirmed, the mission concept is being put together.
The team behind it is conscious of cost – with a budget
of around £2.4 billion ($3 billion) – so it’ll either work with
an existing collector, such as the James Webb Space
Telescope, or a four-metre (13-foot) telescope likely to
be built in the future. This won’t be an easy mission, as
the starshade will be sent to space in a folded state
before unfurling. It also needs to be aligned with a 8
telescope around 200,000 kilometres (124,000 miles)
away. With little room for error and the need to maintain
alignment, so much could go wrong. But if the mission
enables scientists to see planets they’d otherwise miss,
enabling them be to analysed for water vapour, carbon
dioxide and oxygen, the big question of the universe
could be answered soon.

29
Interview

BIO
Professor Chris Lintott
Lintott is a professor
of astrophysics at the
University of Oxford,
and also the founder
of Galaxy Zoo and
the Zooniverse. This
is the world’s most
successful citizen
science project, with
over a million people
worldwide contributing
to a variety of science
and history projects.

30
 Professor Chris Lintott

Professor Chris Lintott

“I’m the world’s

most distracted
astronomer”
Citizen science is the backbone of astronomical discovery. Professor
Chris Lintott speaks to All About Space about his popular project, the
Zooniverse, and how it’s continuing the tradition with great success

Interviewed by Lee Cavendish

How would you explain ‘citizen science’ to someone astronomer. We didn’t set out to do this
that isn’t aware of it? deliberately. We were just trying to solve
I think to astronomers in some sense it’s old news, an astronomy problem. But it turns out
because astronomers of all stripes have been that we’re not the only ones who have had
contributing to science for centuries. You can go right this problem of creating too much data.
the way back to the first studies of variable stars, or Pretty much as soon as we launched the
the people who kept an eye on storms on Jupiter in project, we started to get other people
the 19th century, and you discover that there were approaching us. Now we’ve done all sorts Lintott believes
plenty of people who were well resourced and had of things, from working with amazing that astronomy
and ecology have
telescopes in their backyard. microscopes to historical texts and other
similarities, using
I remember growing up, realising that I was sort things. I think my favourites, or at least the colliding galaxies
of getting interested in astronomy at the time and as an example
that amateurs were getting serious about supernova
hunting. People like Tom Boles and Mark Armstrong were
discovering the first British supernovae. Citizen science
is as simple as the idea that anyone can do science,
whereas what has happened now is that we all have
access to large datasets produced by professional
astronomers and professionalised observatories. We
need help sorting through the data, and that’s really
the new thing that’s happened in the last few years.
We’ve got professionals who have got so good at
collecting data that they are overwhelmed – that’s
where we need help.
© NASA; ESA

Could you tell us a bit about the variety of the

projects on the Zooniverse website?
I usually describe myself as the world’s most distracted

31
 Interview

Zooniverse area that is instinctively interesting, are the

participants ecology projects. Ecology is fascinating,
are better at
partly because the science is interesting,
identifying bars
in spiral galaxies but I hadn’t really realised it’s a bit like
than artificial astronomy in that it’s a science where
intelligence it’s hard to do experiments. If I want to
understand how galaxies merge, I can
Amateur
simulate them on a computer, but I can’t
astronomers
have provided really crash Andromeda and Triangulum
important together tomorrow and see what
observations happens… probably just as well. If I want to Getting the first Galaxy Zoo paper accepted was a
of the night sky
understand a cheetah’s behaviour, yes, I big deal, because we had this idea that this had to
for centuries
can simulate them on a computer, but I’m be real science – it had to be authentic science. I had
not allowed to put a cheetah in a park with a quarter of a million collaborators whom I promised
seven antelope and see what happens. we would make use of this data, so being able to see
You’ve got the same sort of problem. other astronomers take on that data and use it was
You’ve got a set of information that you’ve really good.
observed. There are all sorts of biases and I think the moment I really realised that this wasn’t
so on, and the scientific trick is to make going to be a flash in the pan was when the Planet
use of that information. Hunters project launched. I have a long track record
© Wikipedia Commons © Ilan Shimony, NASA/ESA/The Hubble Heritage Team

of being wrong about many things, and this was

When you look back over the last decade one of the things I was wrong about. I remember
or so since Galaxy Zoo’s inception, what sending an email to the team saying that I was
have been some major milestones in not sure we should be launching this project. I’m
the project? not sure that we’re going to find anything. But I had
Day one of Galaxy Zoo was the most talked myself into launching it because if we fail, we’ll
surprising day of my life. We thought we learn something about what we can and can’t do.
were launching a tiny project that a few Then pretty quickly after launch we had a couple of
thousand amateur astronomers might help candidate exoplanets, and Planet Hunters is still an
us with. I just remember sitting looking at enormous success.
the email inbox and realising that in the Just as a personal high point, the projects we
first half an hour of a project, we had got did with Stargazing Live where we set ourselves the
20,000 emails. Now, most of those emails challenge of producing results in two days. I don’t
said the site isn’t working because it was know how it comes across on camera. Dara [O’Briain]
buckling under the pressure, so day one and Brian [Cox] are great fun, and it has been good to
was very important. do those things. But I didn’t sleep for those two days.

32
 Professor Chris Lintott

What are the advantages of citizen scientists over We have citizen science in the loop. We will take the
using artificial intelligence? weirdest stuff that the machine doesn’t understand
There are a few. One of them is that there are and we will pass those to people. There’s some
still many places where humans are better than urgency, because one of the things that’s happening
computers. I had a call with my PhD student Mike in astronomy is we’re realising things in the sky
Walmsley, who’s our artificial-intelligence expert. We change faster than we expect. But I think we’re ready.
were arguing about why humans are better at finding We’ve got a solution. And then I think the task will be to
bars in spiral galaxies than his machine. And one of be as flexible as possible. I haven’t, for example, tried
the reasons is that our visual system is very good at to bet on which specific science cases will need citizen
taking in information on different scales at once. science in five years time; I’m just pretty sure there will
Another answer is that people are distractible, that be some.
people can be distracted by the unusual and the
unexpected. Lots of the great discoveries have come What are your thoughts on making, for example
from when people have found things that they weren’t Planet Hunters, into a game interface to try and
expecting, or that we didn’t ask them to look for. And make it more interactive?
that goes all the way back to Galaxy Zoo, but it’s still I think that it’s an interesting route. There are people
happening today. The ability to be doing one task and who’ve done this, but not particularly in astronomy.
then going ‘hang on. There’s something weird here’ is But my sense is partly fear. Writing a good computer
very natural and very human. It’s actually something game is really hard. I’d say writing a good game that
that volunteers are better at than experts. Experts have also happens to find planets is really hard, so partly
a hard-coded understanding of what they should be we’ve avoided it for that. Also, we found that people
looking at. take part in these projects because they want to help.
That was the big surprise early on. When we tried
Do you think artificial intelligence will ever get to a this sort of thing, we found that people changed how
point where it’s up to that standard? they talked about the project. Instead, when you don’t
I think that’s an open question. My flippant answer make it a game, and specifically when you don’t make
is that I’ve spent ten years with machine-learning it a competition, people talk about the project as
people telling me that if they had an afternoon, something joyful and inspiring. Then the moment you
they could solve these problems. And it always turns make it a competition, they talk about it as if it’s work.
out that they can get 80 per cent of the way there. It becomes stressful – ‘I had to log on this morning’ as
What we’re really finding, though, is that because the opposed to ‘I was excited to’.
datasets keep growing, a combination of human and Games are really powerful. As a species, we like
machine is really powerful. playing games and competitions. I try and keep the
For many of the problems that we’re dealing with, two a bit separate and make sure that people know
as the datasets get larger and larger, we definitely that they’re doing science. We’re not seriously sitting
need machine learning to do most of the work for in ranks all during our science work, but there is a 20 terabytes of
data will be taken
us. There’s no way we’re going to cope with the seriousness of purpose there that I think is really,
and stored by the
information that’s coming from future telescopes really important. Rubin Observatory
without machines doing the bulk of the work. But if every night
you take humans and put them in the loop, not only
do you get a better result by combining them, your
machine can also do better. My bet is that we are
going to have hybrid systems.

The upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and its

Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) are going to
produce ridiculous amounts of data in just a single
night. Do you have plans to collaborate and use this
data for citizen science projects?
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is an amazing project.
I’ve been involved with it for most of the time I’ve been
doing Zooniverse, and it’s the first observatory that’s
© Wikipedia Commons © LSST Corporation

planning, from the start, to have citizen science. For

astronomers using the data, it will be really simple
for them to connect to Zooniverse and talk to our
volunteers. There’s an army of postdocs around the
world building routines for their special subject, so
if you study Type II supernovae and you write good
code, you’ll be able to get it to give you more Type II
supernovae than you’ve ever dreamed of. And that’s
cool. The problem is if you want to be surprised.

33
 FOCUS ON

‘DARK FORCE’ THEORY

COULD SOLVE TWO OPEN
COSMIC MYSTERIES
Dark matter may be more complex
and vibrant than we expected
Reported by Robert Lea

new theory suggests dark matter is made More specifically, when light travels past these dark

A
up of particles that strongly interact with matter-wrapped galaxies from background sources,
each other via a so-called ‘dark force’. If the substance’s influence on the fabric of space diverts
true, this may finally explain the extreme the light’s path, and in turn makes the background
densities we see in dark matter halos surrounding sources appear ‘shifted’ to new locations in space. This
galaxies. The existence of particles called self- effect, dubbed gravitational lensing, is what originally
interacting dark matter (SIDM) acts as an alternative allowed scientists to determine that most, if not all,
to cold dark matter theories which suggest the elusive galaxies are surrounded by halos of dark matter in
stuff is made up of massive, slow-moving and thus the first place. And these halos are believed to extend
cold weakly interacting particles that don’t collide. The far beyond the limits of those galaxies’ visible matter
problem with those cold dark matter models is that objects like stars, gas and dust. Gravitational lensing
they struggle to explain two puzzles surrounding what has also allowed astronomers to measure the density
are known as dark matter halos. of dark matter halos. Denser halos are responsible
“The first is a high-density dark matter halo in a for stronger lensing than less dense halos around
massive elliptical galaxy. The halo was detected ultra-diffuse galaxies – low-brightness galaxies with
through observations of strong gravitational lensing, scattered gas and stars. However, researchers have
and its density is so high that it is extremely unlikely in struggled to explain the extremes of dark matter
the prevailing cold dark matter theory,” Hai-Bo Yu, team halo densities.
leader and a professor of physics and astronomy at To tackle this puzzle, Yu and his colleagues, including
the University of California, Riverside, said. “The second the University of Southern California postdoctoral
is that dark matter halos of ultra-diffuse galaxies have researchers Ethan Nadler and Daneng Yang,
extremely low densities, and they are difficult to explain constructed high-resolution simulations of cosmic
by the cold dark matter theory.” structures that are based on actual astronomical
Dark matter presents a major conundrum for observations. They factored into these simulations
scientists, because despite making up around 85 per strong dark matter self-interactions on mass scales
cent of the matter in the cosmos, it does not interact relating to strong lensing halos and ultra-diffuse
with light and therefore remains virtually invisible to galaxies. “These self-interactions lead to heat transfer
us. This tells researchers that dark matter can’t just in the halo, which diversifies the halo density in the
be unseen conglomerations of matter made up of central regions of galaxies,” Nadler explained. “In other
electrons, protons and neutrons – so-called baryonic words, some halos have higher central densities, and
matter that comprises stars, planets, our bodies others have lower central densities, compared to their
and pretty much everything we see around us on a cold dark matter counterparts, with details depending
day-to-day basis. No, dark matter has to be made on the cosmic evolution history and environment of
of something else. The only way that researchers individual halos.”
can infer the existence of dark matter at all, in fact, is The team concluded that SIDM interacting through a
because it has mass and thus interacts with gravity. ‘dark force’ – just as baryonic particles interact through
This effect can be ‘felt’ by baryonic matter we can the force of electromagnetism and via the strong and
indeed see and by light, which astronomers are weak nuclear forces – could offer a solution that cold
definitely able to observe. dark matter theories don’t deliver. “Cold dark matter is

34
 Dark force theory

1 In the dark
Dark matter
is non-luminous,
2 Lending
extra mass
At the speeds
3 War in the
cosmos
Dark matter ‘battles’
4 Space’s
scaffolding
As well as binding
5 Perplexing
matter
Astronomers still
6 A galactic glue
Dark matter
has a gravitational
meaning they rotate, with dark energy. clusters, dark matter know little about attraction which
astronomers can galaxies should As dark matter acts as a kind of dark matter, though enables it to
study its effects tear themselves seeks to bond, dark skeleton to hold the most believe it is hold clusters of
but are unable to apart. Dark matter energy is pushing universe together in not made up of galaxies together.
directly observe it. lends extra mass, the universe into a web-like structure. photons, electrons
It does not emit or generating the an accelerated and atoms.
absorb light. gravity needed to expansion.
keep them intact.

6
2

WHAT IS DARK
MATTER?
5

challenged to explain these puzzles. SIDM is arguably with each new generation of telescope, with the
the compelling candidate to reconcile the two opposite burgeoning power of artificial intelligence. “We hope
extremes,” Yang added. “Now there is an intriguing our work encourages more studies in this promising
possibility that dark matter may be more complex and research area,” Yu said. “It will be a particularly timely
vibrant than we expected.” development given the expected influx of data in the
The team thinks their research also provides an near future from astronomical observatories, including
example of the analytical power of uniting real the James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming
observations of the universe, which grow in detail Rubin Observatory.”

35
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 FOCUS ON e’ve seen the movies and read

W
A DARPA MOON
the books about what it would
be like to have a habitat on
the Moon, but in order to turn
our sci-fi fantasy into a reality, scientists

STUDY SELECTS
must lay out some groundwork. That’s
what the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), a US organisation

14 COMPANIES
that aims to develop advancements in
National Security technology, will be doing
while working closely with 14 companies
as part of its 10-Year Lunar Architecture

TO DEVELOP A
(LunA-10) capability study. This study is
meant to make significant progress in the
development of future lunar habitats, the
agency says. A recent statement released

LUNAR ECONOMY
by DARPA announced that the companies
selected are Blue Origin, CisLunar Industries,
Crescent Space Services, Fibertek, Firefly
Aerospace, GITAI, Helios, Honeybee

The seven-month-long study will include Robotics, ICON, Nokia of America, Northrop
Grumman, Redwire Corporation, Sierra
input from 14 companies concerning Space and SpaceX.

humanity’s future on the Moon’s suface “LunA-10 has the potential to upend
how the civil space community thinks
Reported by Meredith Garofalo

38
 Lunar economy

about spurring widespread commercial activity on times from years to days with scalable spacecraft Artist’s impression
and around the Moon within the next ten years,” hubs that can host and service spacecraft across of a Moon base
Michael Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic cislunar space.”
Technology Office, said. “LunA-10 performers include Experts across the space community, ranging
companies both big and small, domestic and from scientists to engineers, will team up during
international, each of which brought a clear vision and this seven-month-long study to combine their
technically rigorous plan for advancing quickly towards knowledge and skills and ultimately develop a future
our goal: a self-sustaining, monetisable, commercially civil lunar framework that DARPA says the US can
owned-and-operated lunar infrastructure. We’re use “diplomatically”. In other words, a structure that
excited to get started and to share results with the can peacefully be shared with the US’ international
lunar community at large.” relationships once complete. With this effort, the
Contributions from these companies will each agency will focus on creating advancements in
add unique perspectives leading to the advancement technology that will allow the nation to hold an
of lunar services in areas such as lunar power; important leadership role with future technology
mining and commercial in-situ resource utilisation; initiatives. “DARPA finally did what the industry
communications, navigation and timing; transit, was waiting for,” Gary Calnan, CEO of CisLunar
mobility and logistics and construction and robotics. Industries, said. “The LunA-10 team has done a great
A few examples include creating a Material Extraction, job bringing together 14 companies representing
Treatment, Assembly and Logistics (METAL) framework complementary parts of the future lunar economy.
using robots to help with lunar construction, and This effort will lay the foundation for a marketplace
developing ‘on-orbit’ spacecraft hubs. “Firefly is best where the entire space domain can participate.”
known for finding innovative solutions to some of the The companies are expected to share their work
most complex challenges in the industry,” Bill Weber, at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC)
CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said. “We’ve identified a spring meeting in April 2024, with final reports to be
path to drastically improve on-orbit mission response released in June 2024.

© ESA

39
 BEHIND SPACE’S MOST TRAGIC PHOTOS Written by Robert Lea

he human exploration tragedy, with many pioneering space

T
of space is one of the explorers sacrificing their lives while
crowning achievements endeavouring to see humanity
of our species, with become a true spacefaring species.
humankind not content merely to There are also incidents and events in
gaze at the stars, but determined to the history of space exploration during
walk among them. Yet humanity’s which the quick thinking, ingenuity
exploration of space has not been and bravery of astronauts, scientists,
all glory. The history of spaceflight engineers and others have saved
is also littered with disaster and lives and averted disaster.

40
 Moments from disaster

Challenger
launched from
launchpad 39B at
Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, at
the start of the
STS-51-L mission

CHALLENGER
DISASTER
28 January 1986
Space Shuttle Challenger
launched carrying seven
crew members, including
civilian school teacher Christa
McAuliffe, commander Francis
Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith,
mission specialists Ronald
McNair, Ellison Onizuka and
Judith Resnik and payload
specialist Gregory Jarvis.
The aim of the mission was
for Challenger to launch the
Spartan Halley spacecraft,
a small satellite designed to
study Halley’s Comet upon its
close approach to the Sun that
year. Tragically, just 73 seconds
into its flight, the Space Shuttle
disintegrated over the Atlantic,
killing the entire crew. The
accident was discovered to be
the result of cold temperatures
stiffening O-ring joints in
Challenger’s solid rocket
booster, causing them to fail.
© NASA

41
Feature

SOYUZ 1
23 April 1967
Cosmonaut Vladimir
Komarov had been
selected to fly the
first mission of the
Soyuz program,
which was intended
to carry cosmonauts
to the Moon, and the
spacecraft he piloted reached orbit as planned.
Once Soyuz 1 was out of communications range,
however, the problems began. First, its left solar
panel failed to deploy, meaning the craft was
operating on half power, and its view of the Sun
was obscured, interfering with altitude control.
Komarov attempted to rectify these issues, even
kicking the side of the craft in an attempt to free
the panel, but ground control decided to bring the
mission home early. After two parachutes failed,
Soyuz 1 struck Earth at incredible speed, exploding
into molten wreckage and killing Komarov.

LIBERTY BELL Russian cosmonaut Vladimir

Komarov took his final steps at Baikonur
Cosmodrome on 23 April 1967
A helicopter attempt
to rescue the Liberty
Bell spacecraft
Komarov preparing for
the Soyuz 1 flight that
would be his last
21 July 1961
As part of the NASA Mercury-
Redstone program and the
second American human
spaceflight, Virgil “Gus” Grissom
flew the Liberty Bell 7 space
capsule for 15 minutes and 30
seconds after launching from
Cape Canaveral, reaching an
altitude almost 190 kilometres
(118 miles) over Earth and a
speed of 8,262 kilometres
(5,134 miles) per hour. Disaster
came for Liberty Bell 7 after the
spacecraft reentered Earth’s
atmosphere and its parachutes
successfully deployed. As the
craft was due to be recovered
by helicopter, the hatch blew
early, resulting in seawater
pouring into the capsule.
Grissom survived by throwing
himself from Liberty Bell 7, but
the craft was too heavy to be
lifted and sank to the bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean.

42
 Moments from disaster

APOLLO 1
27 January 1967
During a preflight test of Apollo 204

MICHAEL (AS-204) – set to be the first crewed

flight of the Apollo program – a fire

ADAMS’ swept through the Apollo Command

Module, killing astronauts Gus Grissom,

X-15
15 November 1967
Edward White and Roger Chaffee. The
mission would have blasted off on
21 February 1967, but the tragedy not
only postponed this launch, but also
The purpose of the X-15
led to the suspension of the program
was to fly so high and
for a year, allowing for an extensive
fast that it would subject
investigation and a reworking of the
pilots to conditions that
Apollo Command Module. When
astronauts would face
AS-204 was eventually launched, it
during future space
was known as the Apollo 5 mission,
missions. The joint US
and no missions were ever officially
Air Force, Navy and
designated Apollo 2 or Apollo 3.
NASA project flew 199
times between 1959
and 1968, reaching the
very edge of space.
The 12th and final
pilot of the X-15 program was
Michael Adams, who, during
his seventh flight in the plane,
conducted a wing-rocking
experiment at an altitude of
81,077 metres (266,000 feet).
Due to an instrument error, the
pilot was unaware the yaw
of the X-15 had drifted, which
resulted in a chain reaction
that caused it to break up over
Earth while travelling at around
4,184 kilometres (2,600 miles)
per hour, eventually crashing
to the desert floor near
Johannesburg, California.

Adams by the Apollo 1 being lifted onto The Apollo 1 crew posing for
X-15-3 aircraft the Saturn IB rocket at the media with the LC-34 rocket
that would Cape Canaveral Launch in the background
claim his life Complex 34B
© Getty / NASA

43
Feature

SOYUZ 11 Georgy
Dobrovolsky,
29 June 1971
Vladislav Volkov
The Soyuz 11 mission left Earth on 6 June 1971 and Viktor
Patsayev in the
from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the central
Soyuz simulator
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, arriving at before embarking
the world’s first space station, Salyut 1, and on the tragic
successfully docking a day later. Its crew of mission that
Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor claimed their lives
Patsayev departed the space station on 29
June 1971. After an apparently normal return to
Earth the same day, the craft landed southwest
of Karazhal in Kazakhstan. When it was opened, the recovery team found the crew
dead, with the cause of death apparently suffocation. There was no outward damage
to the craft. The cosmonauts of Soyuz 11 remain the only humans to have died in space.

SOYUZ 5
MARINER 1
18 January 1969
Soyuz 5, piloted by cosmonauts
Boris Volynov, Aleksei Yeliseyev
22 July 1962
and Yevgeny Khrunov,
Mariner 1 was set to be the first successfully met and linked
American spacecraft to reach up with the Soyuz 4 vehicle in
another planet and explore Earth’s space. The docking procedure
‘twin’, the violent and inhospitable went off without a hitch,
world of Venus. Unfortunately, and Yeliseyev and Khrunov
Mariner 1 never even left Earth. transferred over to Soyuz 4. It
The Atlas rocket carrying the was the return of Soyuz 5 and
craft began behaving erratically Volynov to Earth that flirted with
around four minutes after launch disaster. A failure to orientate
and had to be destroyed before properly caused the heat of
reaching space. The cause re-entry to be focused on the
of the mission failure was a craft’s bulkhead rather than its
minor programming error – heat shield. Also, though the
allegedly no more significant parachute of Soyuz 5 deployed
than a missing hyphen or a as expected during descent, the
misplaced decimal point – craft was spinning as it raced
that caused the Atlas-Agena towards the ground, causing
booster to lose contact with the cables to twist. The craft
ground control. This may slammed into the ground so
have been the world’s hard in the Ural Mountains
most expensive – and that Volynov broke his teeth,
explosive – typo. narrowly escaping death.

The Atlas-Agena rocket A model shows what

carrying the Mariner 1 the meet between Soyuz 4
spacecraft lifted off from and 5 would have looked
Cape Canaveral Launch like prior to the latter’s
Complex 12 rocky re-entry

44
 Moments from disaster

MIR FIRE
24 February 1997
The six crew members of the Russian
Mir space station faced disaster
when a fire broke out in the station’s
oxygen-generating system. The
flames lasted for several minutes
and cut off the crew’s access to the
two Soyuz escape vehicles as Mir
gradually filled with toxic smoke.
The team donned oxygen masks
and was able to fight the fire as the
station’s life-support systems cleared
the smoke. Mir was undamaged
structurally, and lessons learned here
were applied to the development of
the International Space Station. This
is still classed as the worst in-orbit
fire incident in the history of space
exploration, but no lives were lost.

The Kvant-1 NASA An image taken by the The Apollo 13

module of astronaut Jerry Apollo 13 astronauts from mission blasted off
the Mir space Linenger using the lunar lander shows from Launch Pad
station, where a a respirator the mission’s damaged 39A at NASA’s
fire broke out in following the Service Module, with a Kennedy Space
February 1997 Mir space panel missing after an Center in Florida
station fire explosion on board on 11 April 1970

APOLLO 13
11 to 17 April 1970
© NASA / RKK Energia / Wiki Commons: Lunokhod 2; Alamy

Set to be NASA’s third Moon-landing mission,

Apollo 13 was rife with problems. The most dramatic
of these was an oxygen tank explosion 56 hours
into the mission that scuppered all thoughts
of a lunar landing. To escape the damaged
Command Module, Odyssey, the three members
of the Apollo 13 crew crammed in the two-person
lunar lander Aquarius to return to Earth. Because
Aquarius lacked a heat shield, however, they were
forced to return to Odyssey for re-entry into Earth’s
atmosphere. The crew survived the splashdown in
the Pacific Ocean near Samoa on 17 April 1970.

45
 Feature

SOYUZ T-10A
The two crew
members of the
doomed Soyuz T-10A
26 September 1983 mission, Vladimir
Titov and Gennadi
The Soyuz T-10a mission was Strekalov, with
supposed to carry a crew of fellow cosmonaut
astronauts to the Salyut 7 space Aleksandr Serebrov
station. The mission was scrubbed Debris fell from
when, 90 seconds before launch, an external tank,
nitrogen gas escaped a bad valve striking Columbia’s
and caused a pump to rupture, wing 81.9 seconds
after launch
spraying out RP-1 propellant – a
form of kerosene. This started a fire
that engulfed the base of the Soyuz
launch vehicle. The crew was saved
by the launch escape system firing
just six seconds before the launch
vehicle exploded.

DISASTER AVERTED
GEMINI 8
In March 1966, while performing the first
space docking manoeuvre in history, Gemini 8
began spinning and gyrating, threatening the
lives of its crew and the crew of the target
vehicle. The quick thinking and actions of
mission commander Neil Armstrong halted
the spin and saved lives.

APOLLO 12
Lightning definitely does strike twice, as the
crew of Apollo 12, launched on 14 November
1969, will tell you. Around 37 seconds after
launch, a bolt of lightning struck the Saturn V
launch vehicle. A second bolt hit 16 seconds
later, blacking out the control panel. Quick
thinking from the crew and Mission Control
prevented this from being a disaster.

ISS EXPEDITION 36
In July 2013, during a spacewalk outside the
ISS performed by Chris Cassidy and Luca
Parmitano, it was discovered that water was

COLUMBIA
leaking into Parmitano’s helmet, threatening
to asphyxiate him. The cause of this leak was
1 February 2003
contamination and a blockage in his spacesuit.
The 28th flight of Space Shuttle the accident happened upon reentry,
Columbia ended in tragedy when,
upon re-entry over Texas and
it was actually caused when a piece
of insulating foam broke away from
SOYUZ 18A
Launched on 5 April 1975, this was meant to be
Louisiana, it disintegrated, killing its an external tank during launch and
the second mission to send cosmonauts to the
seven astronaut crew – commander struck its left wing, causing serious
© NASA / RKK Energia

Salyut 4 space station. The mission failed when

Rick Husband, pilot William C. McCool, damage. This allowed atmospheric
extra strain on a booster altered the craft’s
mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, gases to enter Columbia upon reentry,
trajectory. The mission was aborted by safety
David M. Brown and Laurel Clark and bypassing the heat shield of the craft
systems after just 21 minutes.
payload specialist Ilan Ramon. Though and destroying its wing.

46
 FOCUS ON

SCIENTISTS DOUBT THE

PROPOSED DETECTION OF
THE FIRST EXOMOONS
While the exoplanet catalogue burgeons to over 5,000
known worlds, exomoon discovery is another story
Reported by Robert Lea

ew research has a duo of far away that we cannot see them directly, even with

N
scientists unsure that humanity’s the most powerful modern telescopes,” René Heller,
first-ever exomoon detections team leader and a scientist at the Max Planck Institute
are accurate. In fact, the same for Solar System Research, said. “We would have
findings also showed that exomoons in liked to confirm the discovery of exomoons around
general may only show themselves if they Kepler-1625 b and Kepler-1708 b, but unfortunately our
are extremely large. The new research analyses show otherwise.”
demonstrates that while there is no reason Exoplanets are often spotted orbiting their host stars
to suggest moons aren’t orbiting worlds when they cross in front of, or ‘transit’, that star, causing
in other planetary systems, finding them a tiny dip in the star’s light output. This method should
is a tricky business. In the three decades work on exomoons too, but because these satellites are
since the first detection of an extrasolar much smaller than the worlds they orbit, any possible
planet, or ‘exoplanet’, the catalogue of dip in light they cause would be far less significant.
worlds around other stars has burgeoned, Additionally, an exomoon would need to be at a precise
with well over 5,000 examples confirmed point in its orbit while scientists watch it transit as
to date. Yet any possible extrasolar moons, its host planet transits the star too. Essentially, that
or ‘exomoons’, orbiting these worlds have moon must be in a very specific position in relation
evaded astronomers. to the planet so it can block some of its own starlight.
That was until 2018, when astronomers This is actually one of the reasons that evidence
believed they had finally spotted an of the Kepler-1625 b exomoon appeared and then
exomoon around the planet Kepler-1625 b, disappeared in Kepler Space Telescope data, only to
a Jupiter-like world located around 8,000 reappear in later Hubble Space Telescope observations.
light years from Earth. Then, in January 2022, Heller and his colleagues arrived at the disappointing
astronomers believed they had spotted news regarding the exomoons of Kepler-1625 b
a second exomoon, this time orbiting the and Kepler-1708 b using a computer algorithm they
exoplanet Kepler-1708 b, a gas giant 4.6 developed called Pandora. Applying Pandora –
times the mass of Jupiter located 5,400 designed to accelerate the discovery of exomoons
light years from Earth. Kepler-1708 b itself – to data collected by NASA’s Kepler of Kepler-1708 b
was only discovered in 2021. But still this revealed that scenarios lacking an exomoon were
meant that of the 5,000 known exoplanets just as likely to explain observations of that exoplanet
or so, just two had been found with moons. and its star alone. “The probability of a moon
This wasn’t too much of a concern for orbiting Kepler-1708b is clearly lower than previously
astronomers because they reasoned the reported. The data does not suggest the existence of
worlds themselves are incredibly distant, an exomoon around Kepler-1708b,” Michael Hippke,
and the exomoons must be much smaller research co-author and an astronomer at Sonneberg
than the exoplanets, so they should be Observatory, said.
much tougher to find. Yet now, even those For Kepler-1625 b, Hippke and Heller suggest that an
detections are in doubt. “Exomoons are so effect called ‘stellar limb darkening’, which can cause

48
 Exomoons

TYPES OF
EXOMOON
How we can categorise
the alien moons we
hope to find
SNOWBALL EXOMOON
A snowball exomoon is one
where the entire moon is
permanently frozen, and less
than one-tenth is habitable.
These worlds are likely
to have been born
variations in brightening across a star, far from their
impacted the proposed exomoon signal. stars, or were
Stellar limb darkening, they say, would perhaps moved
actually better explain observations of there from a
position nearer
the parent star than darkening caused by the star.
the presence of a potential alien moon.
Further, the team’s research also presented
HABITABLE EXOMOON
bad news for exomoon hunters in general. Habitable exomoons are
When the duo used Pandora to predict the defined as those where at
types of exomoons that could be detected least a tenth of the surface
from dips in light by Kepler and other could support liquid water.
These will need to
space telescopes, they found that only
be in the star’s
particularly huge moons – around twice habitable zone, as
the size of Ganymede, the largest moon in well as the right
our Solar System – in wide orbits around distance from
their planet can be seen with current the planet, but
could be great
technology. If other planetary systems bets for finding
are like the Solar System, then this kind of life elsewhere.
extreme moon would be very odd indeed.
We know of around 290 Solar System TRANSIENT EXOMOON
moons, and none fit this bill, meaning that A transient exomoon is
said to be sort of habitable,
exomoon detection could be even less
but its habitability changes
likely than it already was. dramatically over time.
The idea that a moon
may shift in and
out of habitability
“We would have liked to will need careful
consideration
confirm the discovery when we look
for and study
of exomoons, but exomoons.

our analyses show

HOT EXOMOON
otherwise” René Heller Researchers Duncan Forgan
and Vergil Yotov came up
with a system for classifying
exomoons in 2014. One class
was a hot exomoon, defined
as one with an average
surface temperature
of more than 100
degrees Celsius
(210 degrees
Fahrenheit),
© Tobias Roetsch

with less than

one-tenth
being habitable.

49
 The mysteries of this red supergiant star have baffled
astronomers for centuries, but have we moved a
step closer to solving them?
Reported by Libby Plummer

50
 Betelgeuse

etelgeuse was first observed centuries ago,

B
but our knowledge of the orange-red star is
still surprisingly vague. The red supergiant,
which is in the twilight years of its life, is the
second-brightest star in Orion, marking the Hunter’s
right shoulder. Red supergiants are the largest known
type of star, and Betelgeuse is the closest one to Earth
– roughly 600 light years away. Although the star’s
intense brightness means that it’s been observed for
centuries, its mysterious behaviour continues to leave
scientists baffled. One of the latest bizarre findings
was revealed in a study that suggested that the star
is spinning much faster than previously thought, and
may have even swallowed up a companion star some
100,000 years ago. This is odd because usually as a
star grows to become a supergiant, its rotation slows
down. However, the research found that Betelgeuse The companion star would then transfer This composite
is actually spinning much faster than expected. “We the momentum of its orbit around of Betelgeuse was
made using images
cannot account for the rotation of Betelgeuse,” says J. Betelgeuse to the red supergiant’s outer
from the Digitized
Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas at Austin. “It’s envelope, speeding up its rotation. But could Sky Survey II
spinning 150 times faster than any plausible single star, Betelgeuse really have swallowed another
just rotating and doing its thing.” star? “Yes,” Eric Mamajek, deputy program
It was this puzzlingly high rotation speed that led chief scientist at the NASA Exoplanet
the researchers to speculate that Betelgeuse may Exploration Program, explains. “The
have had a companion star when it was first born. The majority of high-mass stars have stellar
researchers estimate that the nearby star would have companions, so it isn’t hard to believe that
had roughly the same mass as our Sun to account as the star grew to become a supergiant,
for Betelgeuse’s current spin rate of 15 kilometres (9.3 it might have had a close companion
miles) per second. Given this scenario, “when it finished that was enveloped. The star appears
burning hydrogen in its centre, the core of Betelgeuse to be rotating too quickly compared to
contracted and the outer envelope of unburned predictions. When stars grow very large,
hydrogen expanded drastically. It is this expansion their rotation should slow, just as a spinning
that we envisage might have engulfed its companion,” skater would slow down their rotation by
Wheeler tells All About Space. extending their arms.”

AFromSTRANGE SUPERGIANT
many angles, Betelgeuse doesn’t behave like it should

It’s spinning much faster Betelgeuse may have It should have Its upper atmosphere is
than previously thought swallowed a companion exploded by now much cooler than expected
Usually, as a star expands To account for the Betelgeuse is ready to Betelgeuse spews massive
to become a supergiant, inexplicable rotation speed, explode, but it’s difficult amounts of gas into space,
its rotation slows down, like researchers speculate that to pinpoint exactly when despite the fact that its
a spinning skater putting the supergiant may have that will be. When it does upper atmosphere is a lot
their arms out to reduce swallowed up a nearby star detonate, the red supergiant cooler than expected. It’s so
speed. However, Betelgeuse 100,000 years ago as a result will be visible from Earth cool there that it shouldn’t
is inexplicably spinning 150 of Betelgeuse’s core burning during the daytime and for be capable of ejecting the
©ESO

times faster than expected. up its hydrogen supplies. several weeks. gas, but somehow it does.

51
Feature

HOW FAR AWAY IS IT?

HOW BIG IS
BETELGEUSE?
Betelgeuse is the closest red
Saturn
supergiant to Earth, roughly 642
light years away
Pollux
Betelgeuse Capella
Aldebaran
Vega
Gacrux
Beta
Gruis Mirach
Scheat Bellatrix
Mimosa
Mercury
Canopus
Sirius A
Alpha Centauri A
Earth
Suhail
Mirfak Antares

Betelgeuse
Venus Aspidiske

Rigel
Regor A Regor B
Alnitak
Mintaka

Mars

Jupiter Alnilam
Naos

Wezen

HOW BETELGEUSE WILL EXPLODE Sadr

The giant star is expected to explode in a spectacular
supernova in around 100,000 years

A dwindling supply A core packed with Fuel deficit leads The death of a star
of gas heavy elements to collapse After collapsing
A supernova The star will then No one’s exactly sure inwards, the star will
happens when create increasingly when, but probably rebound, causing
there is a change heavy elements in in at least 100,000 a spectacular
in the core of a star. its core, including years from now, the explosion known Aludra
Because Betelgeuse nickel and iron, until core will eventually as a supernova,
is so massive, it has the core is too heavy run out of fuel and spewing a mass of
already used up its to withstand its own collapse under its material roughly
natural supply of gravitational force. own weight. equivalent to the
hydrogen gas. size of the Sun. Deneb

52
 Betelgeuse

It’s not just the red supergiant’s speed that raises

questions; Betelgeuse also seems to be spewing huge
amounts of gas into the universe. The star’s upper
atmosphere is a lot cooler than expected – so cool that
it shouldn’t have the energy to eject gas out from its
gravitational pull and into space. Astrophysicist Graham
Harper at the University of Colorado Boulder is keen to
uncover what exactly is going on. But the find is just
the latest in a series of surprising discoveries related
to Betelgeuse, as other astronomers step forward to
present their results. An image taken in 2013 appeared
to show mysterious hotspots on the cool red supergiant.
Captured by an array of radio telescopes that includes
the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, the
NASA’s retired
image shows the star’s atmosphere extending out to Stratospheric
five times the size of the visual surface of the star. It Observatory for
also reveals two ‘hotspots’ in the outer atmosphere with Infrared Astronomy
temperatures of 4,000 to 5,000 Kelvin – much higher (SOFIA), which took
measurements of
than the 1,200 Kelvin of the radio surface of the star – Betelgeuse, was a
along with a faint arc of cool gas even farther out. modified Boeing 747
While the hotspots turned out to be not quite as hot carrying a telescope
as first thought, they’re definitely there. Dr Anita Richards
SOFIA flight
from the University of Manchester, who headed up
crew tracking the
the research, explains the significance of the hotspots: craft’s flight path
“Stars in general are spotty. Galileo discovered sunspots, matter into space, which is not very well in the Southern
which typically have widths about one per cent the understood. “They produce winds – which Hemisphere during
width of the Sun. The actual diameter of Betelgeuse, amount to about the mass of Earth expelled the program’s first
deployment in
as seen in visible light, is almost 1,000 times that of the every year – in the form of gases such as July 2013
Sun,” she says. “At radio wavelengths we see a cooler molecular hydrogen, carbon monoxide
layer which is even more extended – a size equivalent and water and tiny dust grains which form
to the orbit of Uranus. We found up to seven spots that outside the radio surface,” says Richards.
are five to ten per cent hotter or colder than the surface “Once these have formed, radiation
temperature, which vary on time scales of a few pressure on the dust drives the wind, but
months, and are also five to ten per cent of the star’s how is matter expelled from the surface of
diameter in size.” the star?” The researchers aim to carry on
The findings are significant because they relate to monitoring Betelgeuse at various different
the process by which supergiants like Betelgeuse lose wavelengths, probing different layers of the

Images from the

European Southern
Observatory’s Very
Large Telescope
(VLT) show the
dramatic ‘rainbow’
© NASA

nebula surrounding
Betelgeuse

53
Feature

this century, but this trend then levelled Among other

off, and in our 2012 to 2015 observations space telescopes,
it recovered its old brightness. These the European Space
Agency’s infrared
changes could be due to either changes Herschel has
in the star’s temperature or size, or both. imaged Betelgeuse
Measuring the diameter directly is even
more difficult, and there is no conclusive A Herschel
Space Observatory
evidence for long-term shrinking from the
image reveals the
precise observations possible in the last red supergiant’s
star’s atmosphere to try and shed more light on exactly few decades.” stellar wind
how this process works. The ‘shrinkage’ could be explained by
Another perplexing study of Betelgeuse – the first variations in their radii, explains Mamajek.
star ever to have its size measured – revealed that it “Stars near the end of their life – even if
could be shrinking. University of California, Berkeley, that ‘end’ is hundreds of thousands of years
researchers using the Infrared Spatial Interferometer or even millions of years in the future – do
(ISI) on top of Mount Wilson in Southern California go through some cycles where their radii
showed that the star’s diameter had shrunk by more expand and contract as their nuclear
than 15 per cent over the course of 15 years. Among the burning evolves in their interiors, as fuels
researchers was the late Charles Townes, a UC Berkeley run out and the core contracts and heats
professor emeritus of physics who shared the 1964 up and initiates new rounds of nuclear
Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the laser and maser. burning,” he explains.
While the apparent shrinking phenomenon couldn’t be While packed with baffling processes that
definitively explained, co-researcher Edward Wishnow we don’t yet fully understand, Betelgeuse
speculated that the measurements could be affected is in the final years of its life – though it will
by convection cells on the star’s surface that are so probably outlive us all. While no one is able
large that they bulge outwards. to pinpoint exactly when it will happen, the
Years on from the study, do the experts still think consensus is that the star will spectacularly
that the red supergiant is getting smaller? “Betelgeuse explode in around 100,000 years, or
is certainly variable,” says Richards. “At a five to six maybe even longer. “It should explode as
centimetre (1.9 to 2.3 inch) wavelength, it seemed a Type IIP [core collapse] supernova and
to get dimmer by almost a half between the first eventually leave a neutron star remnant,”
measurements around 1970 and the first few years of says Mamajek. “This is the usual end state

54
 Betelgeuse

THE STAR THAT SWALLOWED ITS COMPANION

To explain the supergiant’s high rotation speed, one theory suggests it once had a companion star

1 A smaller companion
star nearby
To explain its strangely rapid
2 The giant star’s
core shrinks
When the red supergiant
3 The red supergiant
begins to expand
Following the contraction
4 The companion star
is totally engulfed
When Betelgeuse expanded,
rotation speed, researchers had exhausted all of the of Betelgeuse’s core, the it completely absorbed the
have suggested that when hydrogen fuel supplies in its outer envelope of unburned nearby star. The momentum
it was first born, Betelgeuse centre, the core of Betelgeuse hydrogen expanded of the companion star’s orbit
may have had a companion contracted, triggering a drastically, bloating the giant transferred to Betelgeuse’s
star roughly the mass of our chain reaction of events that star outward towards its outer envelope, speeding up
own Sun. will lead to its inevitable end. companion star. its rotation.

for most stars over eight solar masses. Although the While Betelgeuse may not pose a
highest mass stars may leave black holes behind, problem, are we at risk from any other
Betelgeuse is probably not massive enough to form massive star explosions? “Basic estimates
a black hole.” say that a supernova would have to
The 100,000-year estimate is how long it will take for be about ten light years away to do us
Betelgeuse to exhaust its fuel supplies for nuclear fusion. damage by, for instance, wrecking the
When the supply runs out, the star’s inner layers will no ionosphere,” says Wheeler. “We have
longer be supported by radiation pressure. For a star as a good census of all the stars at that
massive as Betelgeuse, the core – which at this point distance and beyond. None endanger us.”
is composed mainly of elements heavier than carbon
– will collapse under its own gravity, causing immense
pressure that will merge electrons and protons to form Libby Plummer An infrared
neutrons. “This releases roughly as much energy in an Space science writer image of Orion
shows Betelgeuse
instant as the Sun radiates in 8,000 million years – a Libby specialises in writing about
in blue in the
supernova,” explains Richards. science. She has contributed to a variety bottom-left corner,
Wheeler agrees: “We are pretty confident that a star of publications, including Stuff, Wired, depicting its
the mass of Betelgeuse will eventually form an inner Wareable and Metro. immense heat
core of iron that will collapse to form a neutron star
and trigger the explosion.” SN 1604 was the most recent
supernova to be observed by the naked eye in our
own galaxy, occurring around 20,000 light years away.
And with Betelgeuse being much closer at around 600
light years away, that should mean a pretty good view
of the event from Earth. “You’ll see a bright light in the
night sky. And you’ll see it during the day as well. It will
remain visible for weeks to months,” explains Mamajek.
The supernova is expected to be as bright as a quarter
Moon, and be visible in the sky for several months
before fading.
If any of us are still around to see it, the supernova
© NASA/JPL-Caltech; ESA/Herschel

would be visible from Earth, but could it cause us – or

more likely our descendants – any harm? It’s unlikely,
explains Craig Wheeler. “Betelgeuse is sufficiently far
away that it will be dramatic, but it is not likely to harm
us in any concrete way. In roughly 100,000 years from
now, we may have merged with our machines and not
be as susceptible,” he predicts.

55
 FOCUS ON

HALLEY’S COMET HAS BEGUN

ITS 38-YEAR JOURNEY BACK
TOWARDS EARTH
The world’s most famous comet is on its
way back through the Solar System
Reported by Joe Rao

alley’s Comet is coming back. The most

H
Halley’s Comet
famous of all comets travels around the passes through
space, as seen
Sun in a flattened elliptical orbit that brings
in 1986
it near the Sun and then takes it far out to
beyond the outer limits of the Solar System. Ever since
9 February 1986, when it arrived at perihelion – the
comet’s closest approach to the Sun – it then began its
long journey back out into distant space. And from that
time up until the present, the comet has been moving
away from the Sun. But at 01:00 (GMT) on 9 December
that came to an end. At that moment, Halley’s Comet
arrived at aphelion, the far end of its orbit – a location
in space that places the comet at its farthest point
from the Sun at 5.26 billion kilometres (3.27 billion miles)
distant. The comet was also 759.8 million kilometres
(472.2 million miles) beyond the orbit of Neptune, the
most distant known planet. The last time Halley was at
that point in its orbit was in April 1948.
Now the comet is again – for the first time in nearly
38 years – approaching the Sun. In concert with
Kepler’s second law of motion, a celestial body moves
fastest when it is at perihelion and slowest at aphelion.
Now Halley has passed through aphelion, its orbital
velocity has begun to – very slowly at first – increase,
on its way inbound towards the Sun. Halley’s Comet
will again arrive at perihelion on 28 July 2061. So what
can we expect from Halley’s next appearance 38 years
from now? With the current average life expectancy
for Americans close to 79 years, and 81 in the UK, if you
were born after 1982, you have a better than 50/50
chance to witness Halley’s return in the summer of 2061.
On its way towards the Sun, during the late spring and
early summer it will be visible in the morning sky and
favour viewers in the Northern Hemisphere.
© Getty

56
 BUY
YOUR ISSUE
TODAY!

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MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

58
 Free-floating gas giants

Astronomers are baffled by the presence of planetary-

mass objects without a host star
Reported by David Crookes

ust when scientists believed Stars in the range of 0.08 to 0.6 times the mass of

J
they had a handle on how the Sun are called M dwarfs, and they’re everywhere.
stars and planets form, along Like the Sun, they fuse hydrogen into helium in their
come celestial bodies that cores and reach a steady-state brightness that lasts
might turn existing theories on their head. for billions of years. But below 0.08 solar masses, an
In this case, around 540 planetary-mass object doesn’t have enough pressure in its core to fuse
objects roughly the size of Jupiter that are hydrogen – we call these failed stars ‘brown dwarfs’,
freely floating in space. Discovered in the and they cool down and get fainter. But the star-
Orion Nebula using the James Webb Space formation process involving fragmentation can make
Telescope, astronomers have found they’re even smaller objects. “The clouds are still breaking
not tied to a star. What’s more baffling is into little chunks and they can create bodies with
that some of them happen to be moving in less than eight per cent the mass of the Sun, but the
pairs. In theory, they shouldn’t exist. “There’s question is, where does it end?” McCaughrean asks.
a fair degree of scepticism about them “Does fragmentation have a lowest possible mass?
because the find was totally unpredicted,” Since the 1970s, basic physics has said it does.” At
says Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor for this point, it’s useful to start talking in different units.
science and exploration at the European “Jupiter has roughly one-thousandth the mass of the
Space Agency (ESA), who worked with Sun,” explains McCaughrean. “So Jupiter is 0.001 of the
Samuel Pearson, also at the ESA, on the mass of the Sun, and the Sun has 1,000 times the mass
study. But they, and many others, are of Jupiter. More precisely, the mass of the Sun is 1047.57
convinced they’re real. times the mass of Jupiter, but 1,000 is close enough
To better understand the significance for current purposes.”
of this discovery, it’s important to know Although brown dwarfs cannot fuse hydrogen
the established rules of star formation like stars, they can fuse deuterium, a heavy isotope
which take place when giant clouds of of hydrogen, early in their lives. But below 13 Jupiter
dust and molecular gas in a nebula cool, masses, even that’s not possible, and we enter the
fragment and then slowly collapse under
their own gravitational attraction. It’s
common knowledge that the universe is
filled with stars of different masses. There
are relatively few large ones, but there are
many more as you go to lower masses,
a trend that continues into the regime
of substellar objects known as brown
dwarfs. The fragmentation process tends
to generate more small objects than large
ones, and that keeps happening as long
as the gas and dust can cool down as it
becomes more dense.

Some of the
© NASA/ESA

mysterious objects
seem to form
binary pairs

59
Feature

JUMBOS BY
domain of planetary-mass objects. “Old-school
models predicted that fragmentation shouldn’t

NUMBERS
be able to form objects below seven Jupiter
masses – that’s 0.007 times the mass of the

540
Sun, and thus sometimes known as the ‘James
Bond’ mass”, McCaughrean continues. “With
some modifications, objects as low as three
Jupiter masses might be possible, but with
planetary-mass objects Webb we are now seeing free-floating objects
have been found in the which could be one Jupiter mass or lower, so
Orion Nebula
just 0.1 per cent the mass of the Sun.”
They’re around But how are such objects forming? And,

1,270
more to the point, how are they also forming
in pairs? McCaughrean and Pearson found
42 pairs of what they call Jupiter Mass Binary
light years away Objects, or JuMBOs for short. The discovery has

42
been a long time coming. “I’ve been involved
in the Webb project since 1998, and when I became a it can’t look at much sky at the same time,”
member of the science working group, I proposed to McCaughrean explains. “You either have a
are in pairs, spend some of my observing time looking at the Orion wide-field camera which can look at lots
called JuMBOs Nebula,” he says. “It’s a place I’ve been studying since of the sky with a low resolution or a high-
my PhD thesis in the 1980s, and as the nearest region resolution camera which zooms in on small
1,000,000 of massive star formation, it’s almost obligatory to
point every new telescope towards it.”
areas.” Moving the telescope around and
building up a mosaic can help with such
They’re about a
million years old In particular, it’s an excellent place to look for brown limitations. A total of almost 3,600 images
dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. Just a million years had to be stitched together, resulting in an
0.1 TO 1.0% old, they haven’t cooled down much after their birth and image over 21,000 pixels wide that could
the mass of the Sun remain relatively bright, at least at infrared wavelengths. then be studied in close detail.

1,000
Since Webb is a very cold telescope far from Earth, it’s “One of the things that stood out to us
ideally placed to make extremely sensitive observations early on when we were working through the
in the infrared. “Fast forward to October 2022 and one of data is that there were indeed very faint
Surface temperature my first projects with Webb was to make a large survey objects in the nebula, much fainter than we
in Kelvin of the Orion Nebula using its main infrared camera, had seen from ground-based telescopes
NIRCam, spanning the wavelength range from one to in the past,” McCaughrean says. “They were
JuMBOs are typically
spaced by about five microns,” McCaughrean says. candidates for the really low-mass objects

100
The scientists observed the inner Orion Nebula for below three times the mass of Jupiter we’d
a total of 35 hours, making a mosaic in 12 different been hoping for, and some seemed to be
wavelengths. “Although Webb can see very fine detail, perhaps just one Jupiter mass.” However,
astronomical units it was important to establish whether they
were really very low-mass objects in Orion
or just much more distant stars seen in
the background. “We deliberately chose
Webb was used to
NIRCam filters which could give us at least
observe the Orion
Nebula in infrared a preliminary idea about the properties
of the atmospheres of these objects,”
The objects, McCaughrean explains. “In particular,
roughly the mass
when you get below about 2,000 Kelvin, so
of Jupiter, are cool
because they’re not absolute temperatures, you start seeing
tied to a host star some of the light absorbed by water vapour
in the atmosphere. When you get closer to
1,000 Kelvin you get the same effect, but
from methane.
“The absorption by water and methane
occurs at specific wavelengths, so we chose
filters to measure that. Objects without dips
at those wavelengths will likely be hotter
regular stars, but far beyond Orion and
thus faint. But those with dips in brightness
from one filter to another must have water
and methane absorption, and thus are
© NASA

intrinsically faint, cool, very low-mass objects

in Orion. By comparing models, we think

60
 Free-floating gas giants

2 3

FINDING THE JUMBO PAIRINGS

They’re JuMBO only by name, yet scientists still discovered them

1 Observing the sky

Webb observed the Orion
Nebula, finding objects as small
2 Floating in pairs
Upon closer inspection – and
having pieced together almost
3 Different wavelengths
By using filters, scientists have
been able to explore this region of
as 0.6 times the mass of Jupiter – 3,600 images to create one of the space in detail. They have traced
defying conventional astrophysics. largest Webb mosaics yet created the ionised, atomic and molecular
© NASA/ESA

None of them were seen to be – it was discovered that some of gas, dust and organic compounds
orbiting a host star, meaning they these free-floating objects were in and revealed details in planet-
are free-floating in space. pairs, dubbed JuMBOs. forming discs and outflows.

61
 © NASA/ESA

62
Feature
 Free-floating gas giants

HOW DO JUMBOS FORM?

some are even below one Jupiter mass.
That’s kind of mysterious. But seeing them in
binaries… that was completely unpredicted.”
Of course, some of the JuMBOs could just be There are two leading theories for how these objects came into existence
chance alignments along the line of sight
between pairs of planetary-mass objects They formed directly from the Orion They were formed as binary planets that
not held together by gravity. But given the Nebula’s gas and dust got kicked out
overall density of objects in the Webb survey, It’s possible that free-floating planetary- The alternative is that JuMBOs formed
it’s possible to calculate that the chances mass objects and JuMBOs formed through around stars as regular gas giant planets
of that happening are pretty low. “There’s fragmentation from the gas and dust of but were then kicked out into space through
no way that all of those pairs are chance the Orion Nebula, just like brown dwarfs. interactions with other bodies. However, the
alignments,” McCaughrean says. “Even if only But quite why some of these objects were fact that they are far apart and still floating
half of them are really gravitationally bound, made in pairs at only the very low masses in tandem cannot be explained by present
it still would be remarkable.” observed by the James Webb Space models. It’s turning accepted science on
Pairs of stars in themselves are not Telescope would need to be explained. its head.
unusual. Most stars are part of a binary
pair – some 85 per cent – and there are Since JuMBOs are so far apart,
triple and quadruple star systems. But the it can take between 20,000 and
lower the mass of a star, the lower the 80,000 years for them to orbit
chance it will be in a binary. “And when each other
you get down to low-mass brown dwarfs,
the fraction of them in wide binaries is
effectively zero,” McCaughrean adds. Seeing
so many planetary-mass binaries in Orion
is odd. “The fraction of planetary-mass
objects in Orion that are JuMBOs appears
to be around ten per cent. Even if some
© NASA/ESA

of our candidates turn out to be chance

alignments or background stars and it’s
only five per cent, that’s still way more than
predicted based on observations at higher
masses. Some new processes must come in they make these binaries at all, suggest they other stars – typically a couple of kilometres
here: something else is happening to make should be closer than that, so we really don’t per second in Orion – then you would tend
these binaries.” know what’s going on. This is a wonderful to favour the theory that they were also
Astronomers are now searching for situation because we’ve made the discovery born by the cloud falling apart. But if we
potential explanations for how JuMBOs and now the theoreticians can fight it out.” see that they’ve moving, let’s say, five times
came into being. “There are two possibilities,” McCaughrean and Pearson’s discovery faster than the average, that might be a
McCaughrean affirms. “Perhaps there is is already proving disruptive, and further strong indication that they’ve been kicked
a way for fragmentation to make objects investigations will be needed by theorists out from somewhere. You might also ask
below three Jupiter masses straight out of and observers. McCaughrean is now looking whether we’d ever see the two objects in a
the cloud after all, or perhaps there’s some to discover more information about the JuMBO orbiting around each other as proof
as-yet-unknown mechanism which can planetary-mass objects and JuMBOs in that they are real binaries, but unfortunately
make some come in pairs. But both things Orion. The team will be using some more it would take tens of thousands of years to
run counter to current theory, so that’ll need of their observing time with Webb to obtain see that.”
some work. Alternatively, they could be spectroscopic measurements and get a Finally, the team is also keen to find
made as planets orbiting an ordinary young more detailed look at their atmospheric more such binaries elsewhere. “If they
star somewhere in the Orion Nebula. They properties. “We hope to confirm that these exist in Orion, perhaps we can find them
could then get ejected by interactions with really are cool objects at around 1,000 in other star-forming regions with Webb,”
other planets in the same system or during Kelvin and to gather more detail,” he says. McCaughrean says. “If so, are they also
an encounter with another system as they “To do this, we’ve had to pick a sample of floating elsewhere in the Milky Way? They
buzz around in the nebula. That possibility key objects, and it’s quite complicated to would be much older, much colder and
has been suggested as one way to end program the telescope in this mode, but extremely hard to find, but the idea that
up with freely floating objects below three we’re hopeful that we’ll get good data.” JuMBOs might be common is challenging
Jupiter masses. Forming a pair of planets as Beyond that, longer term observations the way we think stars and planets form.”
a binary in a disc is theoretically possible, may help distinguish between the two
as is ejecting them together. But if that did possible mechanisms which might form the
happen, they should be very close together, JuMBOs. “It’s possible that, over a ten-year David Crookes
and the JuMBOs aren’t.” timescale, say, we’ll be able to go back to Science and technology journalist
Observations have shown that the Orion, and by comparing new images with David has been reporting on space,
JuMBOs are typically separated by 100 the ones we already have, measure the science and technology for many years,
astronomical units – 100 times the distance motion of the objects. If they are buzzing has contributed to many books and is a
between Earth and the Sun. “Most models, if around at the same speed as most of the producer for BBC Radio 5 Live.

63
 FOCUS ON

COLLIDING SPACE JUNK

MAKES ‘NOISE’ THAT COULD
BE HEARD FROM EARTH
It could help researchers keep tabs on the growing cloud of orbital debris
Reported by Tereza Pultarova

rbital smash-ups cause tiny pieces of electrical bursts that can be spotted by

O
space junk to emit signals that could be Earth-based radio telescopes.
detected from Earth, a new study has Space is huge, so even with all of the
found. Space junk is a growing problem. clutter up there, things don’t collide that
As of November 2023, the world’s space surveillance often. But when there is a smash-up,
networks were tracking about 35,610 pieces of space the tiny fragments that result from it are
debris larger than ten centimetres (four inches). That electrically charged. Whenever two of
stuff is old satellites, used rocket stages and fragments these charged fragments approach each
spawned in orbital collisions and explosions. These other, they give off detectable sparks. The
tracked objects are just the tip of the iceberg, however. researchers compare this effect to the
About a million fragments between one and ten static electricity generated by rubbing
centimetres (0.4 inches and 4.0 inches) in size are certain types of materials against each
believed to hurtle around Earth at enormous speeds. other, like a balloon against your hair.
The estimated number of fragments in orbit that are The researchers admit that these signals
smaller than this is 130 million. These bits are mostly are short-lived and rather weak. But they
invisible to current debris-tracking methods, such as think that with some extra work, the method
ground-based radars and optical telescopes. Yet they could help track the so-far invisible, yet
pack enough power to destroy or seriously damage dangerous tiny pieces of space debris
operating satellites if they hit them. that zoom around our planet. “Right now
A new method devised by researchers from the we detect space debris by looking for
University of Michigan might help solve the problem. objects that reflect light or radar signals,”
Using computer simulations, the researchers found
that when two objects collide at orbital speeds
– enormous velocities that can approach 30,000
kilometres (20,000 miles) per hour – they produce

64
 Space junk

Nilton Renno, a professor of climate, space sciences

and aerospace engineering at the University of
Michigan and the principal investigator behind the new
research, said. “The smaller the objects get, the harder
it becomes to get sunlight or radar signals strong
enough to detect them from the ground.”
The team’s modelling work suggests that the nature
of the signal emitted by the charged debris pieces
depends on the material the object is made of and the
speed at which the collision happens. The detection of
weaker signals may be obscured by the electrical noise
generated by the detecting antennae. In addition to
that, signals that are too weak may not be able to pass
through Earth’s atmosphere. But the researchers think
that the method could eventually detect debris pieces
as small as one millimetre (0.04 inches).
The team plans to conduct further computer
simulations and compare their results with real signals
measured by NASA’s Deep Space
Network, a worldwide network
of antennae that helps the US “The increase in
space agency communicate with
its far-flung space probes. They
orbital debris is
hope the nature of the signals a big concern
could ultimately reveal a lot
more about the debris fragments
for the space
than just their position. The community”
researchers think they might be
able to deduce a fragment’s shape and state from the
measurements. “We want to know if an object is hard
or soft, because that will impact how it orbits and how
damaging it can be,” Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti, a research
scientist at the University of Michigan, said.
The increase in orbital debris is a big concern for
the space community. The quantity of orbital debris is
growing, but so is the number of operational satellites.
The odds of devastating collisions are getting ever
higher. Researchers fear that a few unfortunate orbital
smashes could lead to an out-of-control situation
called Kessler syndrome. Predicted in the late 1970s
by NASA physicist Donald Kessler, the syndrome is
an unstoppable cascade of collisions in which every
new crash produces fragments that threaten other
spacecraft. The syndrome only stops when there are
no big objects left to be destroyed.

LOST IN SPACE What’s floating around in orbit?

200 rubbish Glove Tool bag 300,000 128 kilograms of Mysterious
bags Lost by Ed It contains fragments nuclear reactor metallic
Ejected by White on 3 June grease Produced when coolant spherical
cosmonauts on 1965 during guns lost by the upper stage Leaked from objects
the Mir space the Gemini 4 Heidemarie of a Pegasus inactive Soviet Identified as
station from mission. Stefanyshyn- rocket exploded Radar Ocean being from
1986 to 2001. Piper during in 1996. Reconnaissance the Gemini
a spacewalk Satellites. spacecraft.
in 2008.

65
 SOLAR SYSTEM

Where is the centre

of the Solar System?
One answer considered especially useful by solar core – in fact, it lies ‘inside’ the Sun about half
astronomers is the barycentre, the point where of the time. However, the balancing is very sensitive
the masses of the Sun, the planets and all bodies to distant masses. The 2003 discovery of Sedna, the
in the system balance out. Imagine placing those planetoid in the outer reaches of the Solar System,
masses on a huge platform supported by a single moved the barycentre by more than 16 kilometres
pin; slide the platform until you find the place where (ten miles). Indeed, locating the barycentre requires
it remains perfectly balanced on the pin, and that our best knowledge of the masses and orbits of all
is the barycentre. Now generalise your intuition the planets and their moons, which we obtain with
to three dimensions. The barycentre is important careful astronomical observations and by bouncing
because the equations of gravitation guarantee that radio signals off the spacecraft that we sent cruising
it remains still while all bodies move in their orbits through the Solar System.
subject to their mutual attraction. Because the Sun is Michele Vallisneri, astrophysicist at NASA’s
so massive, the barycentre lies relatively close to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
© Getty

66
 Ask Space

The Sun is not

the true centre of
the Solar System
SOLAR SYSTEM

Solar activity How is space weather predicted?

can produce
aurorae on Earth The Sun and interplanetary space are monitored for notable
changes in solar-related phenomena that can provide
Blue dwarfs are forecasters clues about the chances for space storms. Space
a hypothetical
weather generally refers to activity on the Sun, in the large
stage of stellar
evolution vacuum of space between Earth and the Sun and ultimately
here at and around Earth. The Space Weather Prediction Center
(SWPC) in Boulder, Colorado, is continuously staffed to monitor
space weather and provide daily forecasts. Additionally, the
SWPC issues warnings and alerts about substantial space
weather storms and events, because they may impact
technologies we rely upon today. The Sun goes through an
11-year cycle whereby solar activity is less common at solar
minimum and more frequent at solar maximum. We are now
heading towards solar maximum, so not only will solar activity
increase, but strong space weather storms will become more
probable. You can visit swpc.noaa.gov for all sorts of current
space weather information and forecasts.
Shawn Dahl, space weather forecaster at the Space
Weather Prediction Center

STARS

How are blue

dwarfs formed?
A blue dwarf is a theoretical
stage in the stellar evolution of a
red dwarf star. It’s predicted that
when the small, cool stars that we
call red dwarfs begin to run out
of fuel, they will transform into a
‘bluer’ variety of this pint-sized star.
Larger stars expand and cool when
they run out of fuel, but scientists
have predicted that a star about
a quarter of the size of the Sun or
smaller would instead increase its
surface temperature while staying
at a fairly constant size. The bluer
the star, the warmer it is, and so
these small, dying stars would turn
blue. As the life span of a red dwarf
is currently longer than the age of
the universe, we have yet to see
this happen.
Megan Whewell, former
presenter at the National
Space Centre

67
 ASTROPHYSICS

How is dark matter

located if we can’t
see it?
Dark matter is invisible, but gives itself away by moving
other things. You can’t see the wind, but it must be
blowing because leaves are twitching. Stars and
galaxies are leaves in the cosmic wind. The distance
between galaxies was gradually controlled after the
Big Bang by the gravitational tug from dark matter. The
largest clumps still fling galaxies around today, faster
than galaxies could move if pulled only by each other’s
gravity. A clump of dark matter in our Milky Way whips
SOLAR SYSTEM individual stars into fast orbits. Smaller clumps of dark
matter have pulled stars away from streams that used Dark matter is
an invisible mass
From the dark to be orbiting together. The cosmic soup is lumpy. But
the lumpiness depends on its ingredients. If dark matter Mercury is the
side of Mercury, feels forces other than gravity, or is made of certain
particles, lumps just smaller than those known would
Solar System’s
smallest planet

which would be have dissolved. To learn what dark matter is, we are
watching faint stars, and even rays of light, for
Solar flares
send particles
brighter: Earth’s the indirect flutter of the tiniest breeze.
Professor Richard Massey, Durham University
into space

Moon or Mars?
Either could appear brightest
depending on where Mercury is in
its orbit compared to the Moon and
Mars. The apparent magnitude of an
object is a measure of how bright it
appears to you, defined by the actual
or absolute brightness of the object.
Since Mercury, Mars and the Moon STARS
are all taking part in an orbital dance
around the Sun, the distances between
What causes a solar flare?
Mercury and the Moon or Mars vary Solar flares originate from highly complex and unstable strong magnetic fields that
greatly over the course of time. arc out over sunspots. Flares are driven by the so-called magnetic reconnection
When the Moon is at its closest process between opposite-polarity magnetic fields. The magnetic field lines can
approach to Mercury, it will appear meet, fuse and also break apart to create new connections. During the reconnection
brighter than Mars at its closest process of magnetic field lines, the released magnetic energy is converted into
point. However, when the Moon is kinetic energy, thermal energy and particle acceleration that manifests in a burst of
at its furthest, it will appear dimmer radiation across a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves,
than Mars at its furthest point. As a through optical emission to X-rays and gamma rays.
result, they will both be very close in Solar flares erupt outwards with speeds of up to a few million miles an hour,
apparent brightness, but will alternate releasing massive amounts of energy. This can be equivalent to millions of nuclear
for the title of brightest. bombs exploding simultaneously. Flares are categorised according to their brightness
Josh Barker, education and in X-ray wavelengths. The most powerful eruptions are X-class flares that can trigger
outreach officer at Space radio blackouts on Earth, and result in long-lasting radiation storms in Earth’s upper
Park Leicester atmosphere. An M-class flare is about ten times weaker than an X-class one, and
these flares could cause brief radio blackouts that affect only Earth’s polar regions.
“ The distances between The X-class and M-class flares are often accompanied by coronal mass ejections

Mercury and the (CMEs) that hurl enormous clouds of superheated plasma into space. Compared
to X and M-class events, C, B and A-classes are small, without any noticeable
Moon or Mars vary consequences on Earth.

greatly over the Dr Marianna Korsos, post-doctoral research assistant at Aberystwyth

University, Wales
© Getty

course of time”

68
 Ask Space

ASTROPHYSICS

Can a black hole disappear?

Surprisingly, yes, a black hole could disappear. It again. When this happens right at the event Not even light
would take a very, very long time though. Black holes horizon of a black hole, there’s a chance can escape the pull
are regions of space which have so much mass in that one of these particles falls into the of a black hole
such a small volume that the escape velocity – the black hole, while the other escapes. Without
speed you need to go to escape the gravitational pull its virtual ‘partner’, the escaping particle
of the body – becomes greater than the speed of cannot disappear again – to conserve
light. These cosmic behemoths can grow in mass as mass and energy, the black hole thus loses
material falls onto them. If a black hole finds itself in mass. This process is very unlikely, so this
a quiet region of the universe, however, the strange evaporation is very slow. A black hole the
world of quantum mechanics and the extreme mass of our Sun would take 1067 years to
gravity of the black hole cause a phenomenon evaporate. Given that our entire universe
named Hawking Radiation’ – one of the discoveries is approximately 13.8 billion years old, this
of the late Stephen Hawking. isn’t something we have to worry about for
In quantum mechanics, space is full of entangled a while.
‘virtual’ particle pairs that spring into existence from Dr Timothy Davis, astronomer and
quantum fluctuations and just as rapidly disappear reader at Cardiff University

69
 FOCUS ON

SPACE FORCE PLANS A

GLOBAL RADAR TO ‘IDENTIFY
EMERGING THREATS’ IN
DISTANT EARTH ORBIT
The announcement adds to Space Force’s
increased focus on space domain awareness
Reported by Brett Tingley

T
he United States, United in space. The announcement adds to Space Force’s
The three nations
Kingdom and Australia have all increased focus on what is known as space domain will work together to
signed an agreement to develop awareness, which boils down to the ability to identify, keep an eye on
a deep-space radar capable track and keep watch over the various objects in orbit space activities
of keeping an eye on what’s happening in around Earth. “As the space domain rapidly evolves,
geosynchronous orbit. Found around 35,786 we must continue taking deliberate steps to ensure
kilometres (22,236 miles) above Earth, this our collective ability to operate safely, and our nations
region is one of the most distant areas are uniquely positioned to provide that capability on a
in which satellites operate. Interestingly, global scale,” said US chief of space operations General
each spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit B. Chance Saltzman in a Space Force statement.
always hovers over the same area of Earth Space Force conducted tests of a technology
by matching the duration of its orbit to demonstrator for the upcoming DARC system in 2021
the rate at which our planet rotates once at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, while
relative to stars in the background. Northrop Grumman was awarded a contract to develop
The new system planned to watch over technologies for the program. The first of three DARC
this part of space is known as the Deep sites is planned for Western Australia and is expected
Space Advanced Radar Capability, or DARC. to be online by 2026. All three sites should be online
DARC will provide 24-hour, all-weather by 2030. “From its Australian site, DARC will integrate
radar coverage around the globe for the with other DARC sites. This will provide a space domain
three nations that make up what’s known awareness capability to deter nations from undertaking
as the AUKUS security partnership. The activities that are against Australia’s interests by
agreement is accelerating capabilities that providing continuous global detection and observation
provide trilateral partners with advanced of satellites in space,” said Australian Lieutenant General
technology to identify emerging threats John Frewen, chief of joint capabilities.

70
 Global radar
x

The choice of Australia for the first DARC site comes

as military tensions continue to rise in the Indo-Pacific
region that covers both the Indian and Pacific oceans;
the mechanism in this location will largely be aimed
at countering a rising Chinese military presence. China
currently owns and operates roughly half of the world’s
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) spy
satellites, “most of which could support monitoring,
tracking and targeting of US and allied forces
worldwide, especially throughout the Indo-Pacific
region,” according to a 2023 Department of Defense
report issued to the US congress. “Recent improvements
to the People’s Republic of China’s space-based ISR
capabilities emphasise the development, procurement
and use of increasingly capable satellites with digital
camera technology as well as space-based radar for
all-weather, 24-hour coverage,” the report continues.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC), China’s military has been using hundreds of
these satellites to collect intelligence about military
training exercises the US has conducted with its
partners in the region. In October 2023, some of these
satellites were manoeuvred “within hundreds of metres
of colliding with an Australian satellite,” ABC reported.
“We were worried about the potential for creating
debris,” an Australian military official told ABC at the
time. “It was an interesting situation to work out.”
Other Chinese satellites high in geosynchronous
orbits have been making close approaches to
American satellites suspected to be operated by the
US Space Force. To keep an eye on these specific types
of activities in geosynchronous orbit, Space Force
has launched secretive spacecraft designed to serve
as ‘watchdogs’ over its own satellites and is tapping
private companies to help it accelerate technologies
to help it respond to emerging threats in space, from
China or elsewhere.

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF THE SPACE FORCE?

What is this department of the US military involved in?

Missile warning Satellite operations Space domain Space support Space superiority
The Space Force Assets like GPS are awareness This includes making The Space Force is
continues developing looked after by The Space Force sure that military designed to make
© ESA; SpaceX; Getty

satellites to monitor the Space Force tracks and monitors services on the sure the US remains
any missile launches to make sure that satellites in orbit ground that rely a leader in all space
that might threaten the US doesn’t lose and tries to make on space-based activities. This means
the US, its forces access to some of sure they are not at capabilities like access to space,
deployed around its important space risk of colliding with satellites are not including the launch
the world or any of capabilities. any others. interrupted. and operation
its allies. of satellites.

71
 You don’t always need optical aid to see beautiful things in the
night sky… just wrap up warm, go outside and look up
Written by Stuart Atkinson

72
 Astronomy without a telescope

W
hen people hear the term
‘astronomer’, most automatically
picture someone peering into a
telescope. But you don’t need a
telescope to see many of the amazing and
beautiful things in the night sky. You can
see many of the wonders of the universe
using just your own eyes or binoculars.
The telescope has allowed astronomers
to see the planets of our Solar System in
stunning detail and observe stars, nebulae
and galaxies so far away that their dim
light has taken millions or even billions of
years to reach us. Telescopes make such
2 faint objects look bigger and brighter, but
they are totally useless for observing the
big things beginners start out looking for,
such as the shapes, or constellations, the
brightest stars make in the night sky.

TOP NAKED-
EYE TARGETS
The Milky Way
Observable: All year round, but best seen
in summer and autumn

1 Late on a clear summer night, the sky

is cut in half by a misty river of light.
This is the Milky Way, a band of so many
millions of stars that they appear to merge
into one long, mottled trail. It looks at its
best in summer and early autumn, when its
brightest parts are highest in the sky.

The Pleiades (Messier 45)

Constellation: Taurus
Observable: Best seen in winter

3 2 This small, knotty cluster of icy-blue

stars looks like a mini Big Dipper
shimmering to the upper right of Orion. Its
nickname is the ‘Seven Sisters’ because
people with good eyesight can see its seven
brightest members with their naked eye.

LEARN THE The International

CONSTELLATIONS Space Station (ISS)
Observable: Throughout the year
You can use smartphone
and tablet planetarium
apps to help you identify
3 On any clear night, countless artificial
satellites can be seen drifting slowly
© Stuart Atkinson / Getty

through the constellations, looking like faint

the constellations
stars. The International Space Station is
much brighter, and can sometimes shine
almost as brightly as Venus as it arcs
gracefully across the sky from west to east.

73
 4 5 6 7

8 9

10

Orion Nebula Mars Andromeda Orion’s Belt Venus The Big Polaris
Constellation:
Orion
Observable:
Different times
Galaxy Constellation:
Orion
Observable:
Different times
Dipper Constellation:
Ursa Minor
Constellation: Constellation:
Observable: of the year Observable: of the year Observable:

5 8
Andromeda Ursa Major
Winter Mars is visible Winter Venus is the Year round

4 7 10
Observable: Observable:
Hanging to the naked This striking brightest Many
Autumn Year round

6 9
down from eye as a star-like diagonal line planet in the sky. think the
When you Probably the
Orion’s famous object. Although of three blue- It is known as Pole Star is the
see this tiny, most famous
belt is his sword its called the white stars draws both the ‘evening brightest star in
oval-shaped star pattern in the
of three much Red Planet, it the eye to Orion star’ and ‘morning the whole sky,
misty patch, sky, the Big Dipper
fainter stars. has more of on chilly winter star’ because it is but it is only the
you’re looking at is not actually a
Under a dark sky an orange hue. nights. It is one of only seen low in 48th brightest.
another galaxy so constellation – it
the middle ‘star’ is Every two years the most famous the twilight after It’s the only star
far away in space is a pattern of
revealed to be a it becomes asterisms – sunset or before that doesn’t move
that its faint light stars within the
small hazy patch much brighter obvious patterns sunrise, and never noticeably during
took more than constellation
where stars are as it makes a of stars – visible high in the dark the night and
2 million years to Ursa Major.
being born. close approach in the sky. sky late at night. through the year.
reach us.
to Earth.

Once a beginner has MAKE SURE Telescopes are expensive, bright objects whirling around the Earth. In
learned the names
YOUR EYES ARE take time to set up and
align and can be very
fact, stars are balls of very hot gas, almost
unimaginably far away out in space, and
DARK ADAPTED
and positions of the
brightest stars and the complicated to operate. are so enormous they dwarf our planet.
constellations they form, After going outside, allow Naked-eye astronomy is Not all stars are far away, however – we
like giant join-the-dot at least half an hour for absolutely free, you can have one on our cosmic doorstep. The Sun
puzzles, they can move on your eyes to adapt to do it as soon as you step is a star, the closest one to Earth. When you
to a telescope, zooming in the darkness out your front door and your see the Sun shining you’re seeing a star, and
on thrilling sights such as the eyes are very simple to operate the stars that appear after our Sun has set
rings of Saturn, Jupiter’s moons and – you use them every day! The first are all essentially just different versions of
the ice caps of Mars, as well as countless things you’ll see in the sky on a clear night it – some bigger, some smaller, some hotter,
glittering star clusters, misty nebulae and – unless the Moon is on view – are the stars, some cooler and some much further away.
frost-swirl galaxies, but before that there’s a and astronomy is the study of stars: how Although their huge distances mean we can
wealth of wonderful things to see with just they are born, live and die and the groups only ever see them as pinpoints of light with
your naked eye, from your own garden. and structures they make. Even after all our naked eyes, if you look up at the stars
There are many advantages to naked- these years, many people don’t know what on a clear night you’ll notice two things
eye astronomy over using a telescope. stars actually are. Some still think they are about them straight away: some are much

74
 Astronomy without a telescope
1

TOP BINOCULAR
TARGETS
The Andromeda Galaxy’s dwarfs
Constellation: Andromeda
Observable: Autumn

1 Through binoculars on a dark, Moon-free

night, the full size of this beautiful lens-
shaped galaxy can be fully appreciated.
Under good observing conditions you will
2 even see its two smaller satellite galaxies.

Jupiter
Observable: Different times of the year

2 Through even a small binocular Jupiter

will look much brighter than it appears
to the naked eye. You will also see some tiny
pinpoints of light shining close to it. These
are the largest members of its extended
family of moons.

Trapezium Cluster
Constellation: Orion
Observable: Winter

3 If you hold your binocular really steady,

it’ll show you that the ‘fuzzy star’ in the
3 4 centre of Orion’s sword is actually a misty
cloud of blue-grey haze with pinprick stars
embedded within it.

Messier 81 and Messier 82

Constellation: Ursa Major
Observable: Autumn and winter

4 This very close pair of galaxies both

fit easily in the same binocular field of
view. The larger and brighter of the two,
Messier 81, is a spiral galaxy that appears
round, while the smaller and fainter
Messier 82 is short and elongated.

brighter than others, and they’re not all the Although they all appear CHOOSE 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,232

THE RIGHT
same colour. to be the same white degrees Fahrenheit), while
You might think that a star is bright colour at first glance, if blue stars are 10,000 degrees
because it is close to us, but it’s not as
simple as that. In a way, stars are like light
you look carefully you’ll
see there are yellow, red
BINOCULAR Celsius (18,032 degrees
Fahrenheit) or higher. You
The best binoculars to
bulbs – some are very luminous, while and blue stars. These use for astronomy are can tell how hot a star in the
others are much less luminous. If all of colours tell us how hot the 7x35 and 10x50 sky is just by looking for its
the stars were the same distance from stars are. Just as a glowing colour with your naked eye.
us, then the most powerful would indeed red ember rising out of a Even people who have never
© Stuart Atkinson / NASA / Getty / ESO

appear the brightest. But because they are fire is cooler than a roaring blue looked at the sky in detail know that the
all different distances away, a bright star blowtorch flame, red stars are cooler than stars make patterns called constellations.
might actually be a low-power star that is blue stars. If you could find a thermometer There are 88 official constellations in
close to us, and a faint star might actually big and strong enough to take the Sun’s the sky, named after animals – real and
be a very luminous star that only appears surface temperature, it would read 6,000 imaginary – as well as mythical heroes,
faint because it is so far away. The brightest degrees Celsius (10,832 degrees Fahrenheit), scientific and musical instruments and
stars have their own names, while the fairly typical for a yellow star. Red stars are other things. Unfortunately, only a handful
fainter ones don’t. cooler, with surface temperatures of around of them look anything like the thing they’re

75
 7

10
5 6

8 9

Beehive Cluster The Pleiades Double Cluster Crab Nebula Great Hercules Whirlpool
Constellation:
Cancer
Constellation:
Taurus
Constellation:
Perseus
Constellation:
Taurus
Cluster Galaxy
Constellation: Constellation:
Observable: Spring Observable: Winter Observable: Autumn Observable: Winter

5 6 7 8
Hercules Canes Venatici
This ancient Pretty to the In binoculars this Just off the tip
Observable: Observable: Spring

10
star cluster in naked eye, this intriguing object of one of the
Summer This spiral

9
the centre of the star cluster is a looks like two piles of horns of Taurus,
Messier 13 is galaxy, found
constellation of wonderful sight in salt or sugar close the Bull, is a tiny
a globular just off the end of
the Crab is visible binoculars. They together. However, pale-grey smudge.
cluster, a densely the curved handle
to the naked eye will show dozens the two star clusters This is actually the
packed ball of of the Big Dipper, is
as a smudge, but of icy-blue stars are not actually ghostly remains of
many hundreds of more than 30 million
binoculars resolve crammed up tightly related physically. a star that blew up
thousands of stars light years away and
it into a full Moon- together, making a One is much further thousands of years
23,000 light years is far too faint to see
sized collection of pattern that looks away than the other; ago in a cataclysmic
away from Earth. without binoculars.
dozens of tiny stars. like a miniature, they just happen to explosion called a
It looks like an out- Even then it only
Its nickname comes squashed-up version lie along the same supernova.
of-focus star in looks like a tiny,
from its resemblance of the Big Dipper. line of sight as seen
binoculars. round smudge.
to a swarm of bees. from Earth.

AVOID LIGHT
POLLUTION
meant to be; stargazers need a lot of constellations, but a few are across the sky. These streaks
imagination to see the unicorns, winged visible all year round. of light aren’t actually
horses and sea serpents. Although the Only one star stays in Find somewhere well stars – they’re grains of
shapes of the constellations never change, the same position all night away from street space dust burning up in
their visibility does. As the Earth turns, the every night: Polaris, which lamps, security Earth’s atmosphere.
stars are carried across the sky from east lies directly above Earth’s lights and exterior Most nights you can
to west. Not just the stars, but the Sun, too, northern polar axis. As Earth lighting see a meteor every half
which is why we have sunrise and sunset, turns, the whole sky appears hour or so just by chance, but
or day and night. The appearance of the to wheel around the famous around a dozen times each year
night sky changes through the night, with ‘Pole Star’. But it’s not just stars you can a predictable ‘meteor shower’ sends many
some stars and constellations rising as see without a telescope. Five of the Solar more zipping across the sky, sometimes
others set. It also changes through the System’s eight planets are visible to the dozens or even hundreds every hour for one
year too. As Earth orbits the Sun we look naked eye, but usually not all at the same special night. Most meteors are just bright
© NASA / ESA; ESO

out into different parts of the universe and time, and sometimes they are too close to enough to catch your eye, but occasionally
see different constellations. Each season the Sun to be seen at all. On a clear night a much brighter ‘fireball’ crosses the sky,
has its own distinctive sky with its own you can also see shooting stars skimming flaring before fading away.

76
 GET READY TO BLAST OFF ON
A JOURNEY ACROSS THE STARS!
Hop aboard the Future Genius spaceship and explore the wonders of our
universe. Learn all about planets, stars, galaxies, black holes and more, plus
we’ll even travel back in time and discover how it all began with the Big Bang.

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 FOCUS ON

STRANGE
UNDERGROUND
POLYGONS ON
MARS HINT AT THE
PLANET’S WET PAST
The newfound honeycomb fractures are evidence that Mars
was once tilted more extremely than it is today
Reported by Sharmila Kuthunur

uried dozens of metres under the equator healing, causing the surface to eventually split further.

B
of Mars is a large honeycomb pattern A similar process on Mars in its ancient past would
similar to what’s found near Earth’s frigid have caused the newly detected crevasses, which are
poles. Each crevasse spans 70 metres (230 tens of metres larger than any found on our planet.
feet) – about half a football field – and is bordered by “These polygons are huge,” said study lead Lei Zhang of
30-metre (98-feet) wide slurries of ice and mud. It’s the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
likely that this material is somewhere between 2 billion This discovery provides fresh evidence that the Red
and 3.5 billion years old. The patterns were spotted in Planet once hosted water and a friendly climate to
the data sent home by China’s now-incommunicado life as we know it. Puzzlingly, the pattern also suggests
Zhurong rover, which explored an expansive, bumpy tropical regions on Mars were cold enough to cause
region north of Mars’ equator named Utopia Planitia. cracks similar to those seen near Earth’s icy pole. The
Zhurong rolled just a little over one kilometre (0.6 mystery could be answered by an existing – but as yet
miles) towards Mars’ southern region in one year unproven – theory that suggests Mars was once a lot
of operations, but even during such a short trip, its more tilted on its axis than it is today, up to 40 degrees
radar had sensed a continuous pattern of 15 buried or more, approximately 5 million years ago. “Such an
polygons – suggesting there may be more waiting extremely tilted scenario muddies the waters between
to be found. On Earth, similar patterns are known to thinking of polar regions as cold and low latitudes as
form only in Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica when warm,” Zhang said.
drastic temperature dips caused by seasonal changes William Rapin, a scientist at the Institut de Recherche
contract and fracture the ground. Ice and mud that en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, who was
sometimes fill these cracks stop them from ever not affiliated with the research, says the newfound

78
 Martian polygons

polygon pattern is “an interesting find” and would help

us understand the inner workings of a critical period
on Mars which may have been hospitable towards life.
Rapin was part of a team that recently found similarly
shaped, centimetre-sized mud cracks on the Martian
surface near the Gale crater presently being explored
by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Accessing areas from a
similarly ancient period on Earth is difficult because our
planet routinely recycles its surface. But on Mars, “we
have all those strata in very good condition,” Rapin said.
“We can investigate an era that was maybe favourable
for the origin of life itself.”
Mars’ tilt, or obliquity, has shifted over the past 3.5
billion years. If it weren’t tilted at all, its equator would
be the warmest due to receiving the most direct
sunlight, and temperature would dip towards the poles.
But computer models show the wobbly planet was
excessively tipped a few million years ago, meaning not have experienced the same temperature swings, A network of
that where sunlight landed changed throughout the causing it to layer on top of those crevices. “The time polygon-shaped
cracks were
year. For half of its orbit around the Sun, about six that the polygons stopped might be a time that the
detected dozens of
months, Mars in this epoch experienced nights that climate changed – suddenly shifting from a quite metres below Utopia
reached as far as its equator. cold to a quite nice temperate climate.” Planitia on Mars
Mars’ tilt has been known to vary more than Earth’s The Zhurong rover went silent in December 2022
does, having shifted by more than ten degrees over after it failed to wake up from its scheduled hibernation,
100,000 years. In fact, that change is what scientists and scientists presume it succumbed to Mars’ heavy
believe caused such dramatic changes to its climate, dust storms. Meanwhile, NASA’s Curiosity rover, which
turning it from a once-blue oasis to the arid red land notched 4,000 days on Mars last month, will reach
we presently see. But the newly detected polygon a terrain next year pockmarked with fractures large
pattern could help scientists narrow down exactly when enough to be seen from orbit. Rapin hypotheses that
those drastic climate changes occurred. these may represent the occurrence of an ancient
The fact that the pattern was detected 35 metres (115 extreme drought and hopes to compare them to
feet) below the surface “means the polygons formed, the newfound polygons at Utopia Planitia. “They are
developed over some time, but then stopped suddenly,” pretty far,” said Rapin. “It’s kind of a dream that we
Zhang explained. Martian soil in the recent past must reach them.”

79
WHAT’S IN THE SKY?
What to look out for during this observing period

In this issue... 27JANUARY 31 JANUARY 7 FEBRUARY

80
Uranus will reach the end of its The Beehive open star cluster Conjunction between
What’s in the sky? retrograde motion, ending its (Messier 44) is well placed the Moon and Venus
Get fully prepared for westward movement in Cancer in Sagittarius
a cold night under the stars with
our observing guides

82 Planetarium
Where you can find
the planets this month and the
phases of the Moon

84 Month’s planets
Saturn makes a
breathtaking appearance for
those observing in the evening

86 Moon tour
Small but perfectly
formed, Lacus Spei and Lacus
Temporis are worth a look at
full Moon

87 Naked eye and

binocular targets
February’s night sky is rich in
pretty star clusters and bright,
colourful stars

88 Deep sky challenge

Dig deep in the
constellation of the Twins and
you’ll find some of winter’s best-
kept secrets

90 The Northern

16FEBRUARY 18 FEBRUARY 19FEBRUARY

Hemisphere
Make the most of the February
skies with these night-sky gems
The Moon and the Pleiades The Moon will pass in front of Bode’s Galaxy (Messier 81) is

92
(Messier 45) pass within 30.9’ Beta Tauri in a lunar occultation well placed in Ursa Major
Review of each other in Taurus from some parts of the world
We put the National
Park Foundation FirstScope to
the test

“Uranus will reach the end of its Red-light

96 In the shops
Our pick of the best retrograde motion, ending its friendly
gifts and accessories for
astronomy and space fans
westward movement” In order to preserve your
night vision, you should
read our observing
guide under
red light

80
 What’s in the sky?

Jargon buster
Conjunction
TAKE CARE!
An alignment of objects at the
Naked eye Naked eye Binoculars Small Medium Large Solar Solstice
warning telescope telescope telescope eclipse 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.

Declination (Dec)
How high an object will rise
in the sky. Like Earth’s latitude,
Dec measures north and
south in degrees, arcminutes
and arcseconds. There are 60
arcseconds in an arcminute
and 60 arcminutes in a degree.

Opposition
When a celestial body is in line
with Earth and the Sun. During
opposition, an object is visible
for the whole night, rising at
sunset and setting at sunrise. At
this point in its orbit, the celestial
object is closest to Earth, making

12 FEBRUARY 14 FEBRUARY 15 FEBRUARY

The Moon will pass in front of Comet C/2021 S3 (PanSTARRS) The Moon and Jupiter make
it appear bigger and brighter.

Right Ascension (RA)

Neptune in a lunar occultation will make its closest approach a close approach, within RA is to the sky what longitude
visible in some parts of the world to the Sun, predicted at +8.8 2°53’ of each other in Aries
is to Earth, corresponding to
east and west. It’s measured in
hours, minutes and seconds, as
since Earth rotates on its axis
we see different parts of the sky
throughout the night.

Magnitude
An object’s magnitude tells
you how bright it appears
from Earth, represented on a
numbered scale. The lower the
number, the brighter the object.
A magnitude of -1.0 is brighter
than +2.0.

Greatest elongation
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 evening stars at
greatest eastern elongation
and as morning stars during
© Getty

western elongation.

81
 Lacerta

Cygnus
Andromeda
Auriga
Perseus
Triangulum
Gemini

Aries
URANUS
Pegasus
JUPITER Delphinus

Taurus
Orion Pisces
Equuleus
Canis Minor
NEPTUNE
Monceros

Cetus

SUN
Canis Major Aquarius SATURN
Eridanus MERCUR

PLANETARIUM Lepus Capricornus

8 FEBRUARY 2024
Fornax
Microscopium
Sculptor
Piscis Austrinus
Columba
Puppis Caelum Grus

EVENING SKY DAYLIGHT

25
MOON CALENDAR JAN
26
JAN
27
JAN
28
JAN
* The Moon does not pass the meridian on 25 January FM
--:-%* 99.8% 98.3% 95.0%
08:20 15:59 08:43 17:14 09:00 18:27 09:13 19:39

29 30 31 1 2 3 4
JAN JAN JAN FEB FEB FEB FEB
TQ
90.0% 83.5% 75.8% 67.1% 57.5% 47.3% 37.0%
09:24 20:49 09:33 21:58 09:43 23:08 09:53 --:-- 00:20 10:06 01:36 10:21 02:55 10:43

5 6 7 8 9 10 11
FEB FEB FEB FEB FEB FEB FEB
NM
26.8% 17.4% 9.4% 3.5% 0.5% 0.6% 4.0%
04:15 11:15 05:29 12:04 06:31 13:12 07:16 14:38 07:47 16:13 08:09 17:49 08:25 19:22
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
FEB FEB FEB FEB FEB FEB FEB
FQ
10.3% 19.0% 29.2% 40.2% 51.5% 62.3% 72.2%
08:39 20:52 08:52 22:20 09:06 23:47 09:21 --:-- 01:14 09:41 02:38 10:07 03:54 10:44

19 20 21 22 % Illumination FM Full Moon

FEB FEB FEB FEB Moonrise time NM New Moon
Moonset time FQ First quarter
81.0% 88.3% 93.9% 97.7% TQ Third quarter
04:59 11:34 05:49 12:36 06:24 13:47 06:49 15:01
All figures are given for 00h at midnight (local times for London, UK)

82
 Positions

Canes Venatici
Lyra Boötes
Leo Minor

Coma Berenices Cancer

Vulpecula Corona Borealis
Hercules Leo

Sagitta

Aquila

Ophiuchus Serpens Sextans

Virgo

Scutum
Crater
RY
VENUS Corvus
Hydra
Libra

MARS Pyxis
Antlia
Sagittarius MOON
Lupus
Scorpius

Corona Austrina Centaurus

Norma MORNING SKY OPPOSITION Vela

ILLUMINATION PERCENTAGE PLANET POSITIONS All rise and set times are given in GMT

1 FEB 8 FEB 15 FEB 22 FEB DATE RA DEC CONSTELLATION MAG RISE SET
25 JAN 19h 03m 53s -22° 58’ 36” Ophiuchus -0.2 06:48 14:37
MERCURY

1 FEB 19h 47m 47s -22° 17’ 43” Capricornus -0.3 07:00 14:56
90% 90% 100% 100% 8 FEB 20h 33m 31s -20° 33’ 23” Capricornus -0.5 07:07 15:25
15 FEB 21h 20m 20s -17° 42’ 25” Capricornus -0.8 07:09 16:01
22 FEB 22h 07m 54s -13° 43’ 33” Aquarius -1.3 07:06 16:43

25 JAN 18h 12m 34s -22° 28’ 22” Sagittarius -4.0 05:53 13:50
1 FEB 18h 49m 56s -22° 20’ 58” Sagittarius -4.0 06:03 14:00
VENUS

8 FEB 19h 27m 09s -21° 40’ 50” Sagittarius -4.0 06:09 14:14
90% 90% 90% 90%
15 FEB 20h 03m 56s -20° 29’ 02” Sagittarius -3.9 06:10 14:30
22 FEB 20h 40m 02s -18° 47’ 43” Capricornus -3.9 06:09 14:49

25 JAN 19h 08m 39s -23° 17’ 21” Sagittarius +1.3 06:58 14:41
1 FEB 19h 31m 35s -22° 37’ 31” Sagittarius +1.3 06:49 14:41
MARS

8 FEB 19h 54m 24s -21° 45’ 33” Sagittarius +1.3 06:38 14:42
100% 100% 100% 100%
15 FEB 20h 17m 00s -20° 41’ 59” Capricornus +1.3 06:27 14:44
22 FEB 20h 39m 21s -19° 27’ 31” Capricornus +1.3 06:13 14:47

25 JAN 02h 17m 39s +12° 38’ 36” Aries -2.4 10:51 01:10
1 FEB 02h 20m 12s +12° 53’ 33” Aries -2.4 10:24 00:47
JUPITER

8 FEB 02h 23m 17s +13° 10’ 58” Aries -2.3 09:58 00:24
100% 100% 100% 100% 15 FEB 02h 26m 53s +13° 30’ 33” Aries -2.3 09:32 00:02
22 FEB 02h 30m 55s +13° 51’ 58” Aries -2.3 09:07 23:40

25 JAN 22h 31m 22s -11° 01’ 14” Aquarius +1.0 09:08 19:21
1 FEB 22h 34m 22s -10° 43’ 35” Aquarius +1.0 08:42 18:58
SATURN

8 FEB 22h 37m 27s -10° 25’ 21” Aquarius +1.0 08:16 18:35
100% 100% 100% 100% 15 FEB 22h 40m 36s -10° 06’ 42” Aquarius +1.0 07:50 18:13
22 FEB 22h 43m 48s -09° 47’ 48” Aquarius +1.0 07:24 17:50

83
THIS MONTH’S PLANETS
Saturn makes a breathtaking appearance for those observing in the evening

PLANET OF THE MONTH

NEPTUNE

MOON

SATURN
Constellation: Aquarius EQUULEUS
Magnitude: +1.0 AQUARIUS
AM/PM: PM SATURN

SW W
wsw W

17:00 GMT on 11 February

D
uring February Saturn will be an have almost closed up altogether, and will westwards until it sets a little over three
evening object, but well past look like little more than a pencil-thin line hours after the Sun.
its best. At the end of January around its middle. In the spring of 2025 As the days pass Saturn’s visibility will
it will already be quite low in we will see the rings edge-on, making gradually worsen as it moves a little
the southwest as the Sun sets, looking them hard to see in anything but large closer to the setting Sun each evening. By
like a yellow-white ‘star’ in the setting telescopes. When robbed of its beautiful 1 February Saturn will set two hours after
constellation of Aquarius. Saturn will set just rings, Saturn will look like Jupiter for a while, the Sun. Make sure to look for a very thin
a few hours after the Sun, so you won’t have very odd indeed. So even though Saturn isn’t crescent Moon shining close to Saturn in
long to see it. And by the end of February it particularly bright or well placed this month the deepening twilight on 11 February. On
won’t be visible at all. you really need to get out and enjoy looking Valentine’s Day evening on 14 February,
But if you are a fan of this distant, at it while you can. Saturn will set less than an hour after the
magical ringed world, you should make Towards the end of the month Saturn Sun, and will be hard to see in the glow of
every effort to see it as often as you can, will be visible in the evening twilight as a twilight, very low in the west. By 22 February
because it will soon be a lot fainter and golden-hued star low in the southwest, to Saturn will be too close to the Sun to be
will look a lot less impressive in telescopes. the lower right of much brighter Jupiter, seen, and the two will essentially set at the
This is because from our point of view here low enough that if you have any tall trees, same time. Once it has fallen into the Sun’s
on Earth, Saturn is tilting up, so its rings will buildings or hills on your horizon in that glare, we won’t see Saturn well again until
appear narrower and less obvious for the direction they might hide it from your view. next May, when it will be a morning star, still
next few years. By next July the rings will As darkness deepens, Saturn will drop in the constellation of Aquarius.

84
 Planets

MERCURY 16:00 GMT on 27 February VENUS 07:00 GMT on 28 February

NEPTUNE PEGASUS

SATURN VENUS PLUTO

AQUARIUS
EQUULEUS MARS
MERCURY SUN CAPRICORNUS

sw wsw W ESE SE SSE

Constellation: Sagittarius Magnitude: -0.2 AM/PM: AM Constellation: Libra Magnitude: -4.0 AM/PM: AM
At the start of our observing period, Mercury, the closest planet to At the end of January Venus will be rising some two hours before
the Sun, will be a ‘morning star’, visible low in the east before sunrise. the Sun, and with a magnitude of -4.0 will dominate the predawn
However, as January draws to a close Mercury will be rising less sky. By Valentine’s Day morning Venus and Mars will be less than
than an hour before the Sun, so the combination of its low altitude four degrees apart, but Mars might be too faint to see with the
and a bright dawn sky will make it challenging to spot. naked eye in the brightening sky.

MARS 07:00 GMT on 22 February JUPITER 20:00 GMT on 22 February

JUPITER
SAGITTARIUS

PLUTO
MARS
ERIS
CAPRICORNUS CETUS

ESE SE SSE SW WSW W

Constellation: Sagittarius Magnitude: +1.3 AM/PM: AM Constellation: Aries Magnitude: -2.4 AM/PM: PM
Unfortunately, Mars is nowhere near its best right now. At the end of Jupiter is an evening star during the month ahead, and by far the
January Mars is very low in the east before sunrise, to the lower left brightest planet visible after sunset. At the end of January it will be
of Mercury and Venus which will both be much brighter. Mars will be visible to the naked eye soon after sunset as a bright blue-white
rising less than an hour before the Sun, so its faint magnitude in a ‘star’ quite low in the south. You’ll have all evening to observe it
bright morning sky will make it challenging to find. because it won’t set until the early hours of the next morning.

URANUS 22:00 GMT on 30 January NEPTUNE 19:00 GMT on 12 February

PISCES
URANUS
ERIS
CETUS
ERIDANUS JUPITER

PISCES MOON

CETUS ERIS NEPTUNE

SW WSW W SW WSW W

Constellation: Aries Magnitude: +5.7 AM/PM: PM Constellation: Pisces Magnitude: 7.9 AM/PM: PM
All through our observing period Uranus will be found close to During the month ahead, Neptune, the farthest planet from the
Jupiter in the evening sky, between it and the much loved and easily Sun, will be a tiny speck of blue-green light embedded in the
found Pleiades star cluster. At the end of January Uranus will already constellation of Pisces. On the evening of 12 February a very slender
be high in the southeast as darkness falls, and will be visible all waxing crescent Moon will shine six-and-a-half degrees away from
through the night before setting at around 03:00. Neptune, to its upper left, which might help you identify it.

85
MOON TOUR

LUNAR LAKES
Small but perfectly
formed, Lacus Spei and
Lacus Temporis are worth
a look at full Moon
he Moon is famous for its dark

T
seas, or mare, and even non-
astronomers know the name
of one: the Sea of Tranquillity is
where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed
in July 1969 on the Apollo 11 mission. Many of
the seas have equally romantic names – the
Sea of Crises, the Sea of Dreams, the Sea of
Serenity – which is rather ironic considering
they aren’t beautiful seas at all, but huge
plains of ancient, dark, frozen lava. The
largest lunar mare are clearly visible even to
the naked eye, looking like dark blotches on
the Moon’s bright face, and are especially
prominent at full Moon. Much smaller and
harder to see than the seas are the lunar
lakes, or lacus. These are essentially ‘mini
mare’, visually more like ink splashes on
a white shirt than vast spills of oil on the
ocean, and are so small you generally
need a telescope to see them.
This month’s tour takes in not one, but
two lakes. Lacus Spei, the Lake of Hope,
lies up near the top right of the lunar disc, TOP TIP!
around the one o’clock position, to the
Look for Lacus Spei
upper left of the circular and much larger
and Lacus Temporis
Mare Crisium. It’s a small, flat splash of dark at or near full Moon,
lava sandwiched between the two craters when they will look
Mercurius and Messala. Just 77 kilometres their most obvious
(48 miles) across, it’s so near the lunar limb through your
telescope’s eyepiece.
that foreshortening makes it appear as a
stubby, dark line, but overhead views taken
by orbiting space probes have shown it is of Lake Fear, Lake Sorrow or Lake Death. Moon, and they’re pale imitations of the
actually an hourglass shape. Our two lakes are not as large or as dark as lakes found elsewhere in the Solar System.
Slightly to the lower left of Lacus Spei, a some of those, but that makes them worth Unlike the terrestrial tourist traps of Lake
larger lake, Lacus Temporis, the Lake of Time, hunting down all the more. Windermere, Grasmere and Ullswater, they
can also be seen. It’s a solidified pool of lava Unlike the Moon’s craters, mountains or have no gift shops, no canoes for hire or
some 205 kilometres (127 miles) across, and valleys, these are features best seen near or flocks of geese. They are puny compared to
if it was closer to the centre of the Moon’s during a full Moon, when the Sun is shining the red-hot lakes of bubbling orange and
disc it would appear quite obvious even in straight down on them from overhead. Then purple sulphur that fester and flow around
binoculars, but like neighbouring Spei its the contrast between their darkness and the the violently beautiful volcanoes of Io, and
proximity to the Moon’s limb vastly reduces brightness of the surrounding terrain is most are tiny compared to the deep, dark lakes of
its visibility and profile. There are many other obvious. The best time to go out and look liquid methane that are spattered around
lakes on the Moon, and many have names for these two lakes is between 25 and 26 the north polar regions of Saturn’s largest
that are frankly quite gloomy – we’re not January, or 24 and 25 February. moon, Titan, but they are still worth hunting
sure many future lunar colonists will want Lacus Spei and Lacus Temporis might down with your telescope on one of January
© NASA

to go for a romantic stroll along the shores not be the most dramatic features on the or February’s beautiful moonlit nights.

86
 Naked eye and binocular targets

TAURUS 1

GEMINI ORION

NAKED EYE AND BINOCULAR TARGETS

February’s night sky is rich in pretty star clusters and bright, colourful stars

1 Hyades (Caldwell 41)

The Hyades is a
distinctive V-shaped
2 Messier 35
Messier 35 is an
open star cluster 3,000
3 Procyon (Alpha
Canis Minoris)
Magnitude +0.3
4 Orion’s Belt
One of the most
famous patterns of
5 Rigel (Beta Orionis)
Shining at
magnitude +0.18 in
star cluster representing light years away and Procyon is the eighth- stars in the entire sky, Orion’s bottom-right
the shoulder of Taurus, more than 24 light brightest star in the sky. Orion’s Belt is made corner, Rigel is the
the Bull. It’s only 142 light years wide. It contains Its name means ‘before up of three blue-white brightest star in Orion
years away, contains perhaps 3,200 stars, the dog’ in Greek, and stars of approximately and the seventh-
between 300 and 400 and although it can be it does indeed rise into the same brightness. brightest in the sky.
stars and is easy to seen as a tiny smudge the sky before Sirius, Astronomers use it as a About 860 light years
see with the naked to the naked eye, it the much brighter pointer to guide them from Earth, it’s a blue-
eye. However, dazzling is a striking sight in ‘Dog Star’. It is 14 light to other sky sights. It white ‘supergiant’ star
bright-red Aldebaran is binoculars and most years away, making it gestures down to Sirius, 17 times more massive
not a cluster member, small telescopes. the 14th-closest star the brightest star in than our Sun and an
as it lies between us to our Sun. the sky, and up to the amazing 40,000 times
and the cluster. Hyades star cluster. more luminous.

87
 5 The Eskimo Nebula
(NGC 2392)

DEEP SKY CHALLENGE

THE EXOTIC NIGHT SKY

OBJECTS OF GEMINI
Dig deep in the constellation of the Twins and you’ll
find some of winter’s best kept secrets
emini, also known as the Twins, are interesting, too. Alpha Geminorum,

G
sits nicely about halfway up known as Castor, is a lovely star system
the sky at this time of year and composed of three binary pairs all linked
contains many lovely objects for together by gravity, and Beta Geminorum,
those armed with a telescope. These vary known as Pollux, is an orange giant star

6
from open star clusters to faint nebulae and is known to have an extrasolar planet
NGC 2420
and even a supernova remnant. The two orbiting about it. Though it’s a simple
bright stars that mark out the constellation constellation, there’s plenty to see.

88
 Deep sky challenge

1 Messier 35
You only need a
CASTOR
small telescope with low POLLUX
magnification or a suitable
binocular to enjoy Messier 35,
which is scattered over a large,
elongated area. Averted vision
can reveal some of the stars
under dark skies.
6

2 NGC 2129
Use a medium-power
telescope to thoroughly observe
5
GEMINI

this small but attractive star

cluster. It’s very young – its age
has been estimated at around
10 million years, so you’ll be
feasting your eyes on blue-
white stars.

3 Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443)

Showing up in long-
exposure images, this beautiful 4
nebula is the remains of a 1
supernova, an exploded star
that shed its outer layers. An 3
OIII filter will assist in observing, 2
and should reveal a bright arc
of gas and dust.
ORION
4 IC 444
This reflection nebula
is quite close to IC 443, and
yet is distinctly separate.
Despite not taking up a large
proportion of sky, it’s much
easier to image due to its higher
surface brightness, shining at a
magnitude of around +7.0.

5 Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392)

Looking like a person’s head
in a hood, this lovely object is a
planetary nebula – a star that
has ejected its outer layers. With
a magnitude of roughly +10.0,
locating the Eskimo Nebula
is easy with a telescope of at
least a medium aperture and
favourable night sky conditions.

6 NGC 2420
Within the grasp of a
small to medium telescope,
this cluster can appear as
a smudge in averted vision.
Around 25 stars can be viewed
with amateur equipment,
© NASA; NOAO

although at least 650 members

are suspected to exist there.
3 The Jellyfish
Nebula (IC 443)

89
NORTHERN
HEMISPHERE
Make the most of the February skies
with these night-sky gems
he Dog Star, Sirius, which shines at magnitude -1.46 in

T
Canis Major, is an unmissable sight for those who are
content with gazing at the sky without the need for
binoculars or a telescope. Meanwhile, red supergiant
Betelgeuse on the shoulder of Orion is also an easy target for the
naked eye, glowing with a reddish hue. If you have a binocular of at
least 10x50 magnification, then sweep across the stellar members The Pleiades (Messier 45)
that make up the Pleiades (Messier 45) and Hyades star clusters.
If you have a telescope with at least a small aperture, then head
to the tip of Taurus’ bottom horn and you should be able to spot
a stunning supernova remnant, the Crab Nebula (Messier 1), under
favourable conditions.

urus
Using the sky chart
This chart is for use at 22:00 mid-month and
is set for 52 degrees latitude.

1 Hold the chart above your

EAST
head with the bottom of the
page in front of you.

VIRGO
Face south and notice
that north on the chart is
behind you.

3 The constellations on the

chart should now match
what you see in the sky. Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101)

Magnitudes Spectral types The winter sky in the direction of Orion

Sirius (-1.4) O-B G

-0.5 to 0.0
A K
0.0 to +0.5
F M
+0.5 to +1.0
+1.0 to +1.5
+1.5 to +2.0
Deep-sky objects
+2.0 to +2.5
Open star clusters
+2.5 to +3.0
Globular
+3.0 to +3.5
star clusters
+3.5 to +4.0
Bright diffuse
+4.0 to +4.5 nebulae

Fainter Planetary nebulae

Variable star Galaxies

90
 Northern Hemisphere

NORTH

LYRA
Vega S
CYGNU

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NW
NE

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AS
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MINOR

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D
URSA

AN
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Polaris

ub er
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le
DA
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M
TES

CA
VENANES

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M34
M10

M8
TICI

GU
1
6

RIAN
MAJ SA

ARIES
U

Algol

T
PERSEUS
BERENICES

R
OR

a
COMA

Capell

PISCES

WEST
AURIGA

URANUS
Pleiade

LYNX
M36
MINO
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1
Feb 1
R

Casto NI
37

r MI
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GE

Mira
Pollux
M1

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CETU
b
RUS

16
LEO

M44
ara

TAU
eb

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SE
OR

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AN MINOR
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S
ER

2
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M48 Rig
EROS
MONOC
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AN LEP
SW
SE

TLI R
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Adhara MBA
PUPPIS
COLU

FEBRUARY 2022
Observer’s note
The night sky as it appears
SOUTH on 17 February 2024 at
© Getty

approximately 22:00 (GMT)

91
REVIEW

NATIONAL PARK
FOUNDATION FIRSTSCOPE
This spin on the Celestron FirstScope 76 offers great portability
and provides fair night-sky views
he National Park Foundation is supplied with two eyepieces – one 20mm

T
Reviewed by Gemma Lavender
FirstScope ticks all of the boxes and one 4mm – and possesses a fast

DETAILS on a novice sky-watcher’s wish

list when choosing their very
focal ratio to provide a wide field of view
that’s ideal for not only viewing the planets
Cost: £59.99 / $79.95
first telescope: portability, ease of use and and the lunar surface, but also allows the
From: Celestron a price that’s not going to break the bank. observer to view diffuse, wide-angle targets
Type: Newtonian What’s more, this tabletop telescope is such as star clusters.
reflector supplied with all of the accessories you Weighing in at a mere 1.95 kilograms,
Aperture: 2.99” need for a fuss-free tour of the night sky, the FirstScope is ideal for those looking
Focal length: 11.81” providing improved and more comfortable for a ‘grab-and-go’ instrument. On
views of the planets and lunar surface close inspection of the overall build, we
BEST FOR... compared to straining the unaided eye or discovered that the finish isn’t perfect,
arm fatigue brought about from supporting with traces of glue apparent on the tube.
BEGINNERS
binoculars for long periods of time. However, considering what you get for
£ SMALL BUDGETS When unpacking the FirstScope, you’ll the price, we did note that the telescope’s
notice that it is already preassembled, with plastics are not glossy and cheap
PLANETARY VIEWING only a finderscope needing to be affixed to compared to other instruments that fall
the telescope tube. The Newtonian reflector in a similar price range. You’ll notice that
LUNAR VIEWING
the telescope’s base is short, meaning
that you’ll need to place it on a table in
This telescope is
perfectly portable order to use it comfortably. This may be a
due to its small size hindrance for some observers, but if you
have children who have been pestering you
for a telescope, the FirstScope is the perfect
solution, especially given its small build and
ease of use.
With a Newtonian design, the two
mirrors within the tube should be aligned.
Astronomers usually achieve this process –
known as collimation – using thumbscrews
to adjust the optical system. Unfortunately,
these aids are only usually on the more
expensive models, meaning it was quite
a task trying to collimate the FirstScope;
the primary mirror isn’t adjustable and
a collimation cap or eyepiece isn’t
included with the telescope. Navigation
will be tricky, too, since a finderscope isn’t
supplied either. Despite the package’s
shortcomings, however, we couldn’t wait to
see what the FirstScope was capable of –
especially given that we could get started
in astronomy with a quick slew of the
telescope tube.
A clear sky offered a gaggle of Solar
System targets, including Jupiter, Venus,
Saturn and the Moon, for us to test out

92
 National Park Foundation FirstScope

With no
finderscope
included, hunting
down targets is
challenging

“If you have children

who have been
pestering you
for a telescope,
the FirstScope is the
perfect solution”

the telescope’s optical system. Our lunar

companion was at 22 per cent illumination,
meaning that there wasn’t too much
natural light pollution to hinder our view of
other targets.
With the eyepieces supplied by Celestron,
you won’t get hugely close-up views of the
The special surface of the Moon, but you’ll be able to
design of the tube is see craters and get a feel for the rugged
very attractive –
terrain along the terminator – the point
much better than
the standard greys where night meets day. The optics don’t
and blues provide pin-sharp sights through the field
of view since the focuser tube is quite loose,
but even such basic observations are sure
to delight those who have always wanted
to get a closer look at the lunar surface
without straining their eyes.
Turning to the second planet from the
Sun, Venus made for an easy target, shining
at a stunning magnitude of -4.9. Visible
as a bright-white ‘star’ to the unaided eye,
we hoped for good views through the
FirstScope, but as suspected we didn’t see
a great deal of detail, with glare making it
difficult to distinguish a phase. Saturn was
small, faint and fuzzy in the field of view,
yet it was possible to make out the gas

93
 FOR
giant’s rings and yellow colouration. The offerings aren’t as impressive as those
FirstScope’s wide-angle views did manage achieved through a dedicated telescope,
Portable
to provide fair sights of the Pleiades star they are sure to provide a ‘wow factor’ for
Easy to use
cluster (Messier 45) in the constellation of first-time and younger observers.
Robust build
Taurus. Each of the young, hot member The FirstScope promotes fuss-free
Low investment for casual
stars in this open cluster sat neatly and observing, but provides views that will
or young astronomers
clearly in the field of view with some minor disappoint astronomers looking for an
Fast focal ratio for easy
adjustments of the focuser. additional piece of kit to supplement
observations of wide-
Navigating without a finderscope their hobby. Better suited as a beginner
angle targets
did prove quite cumbersome during telescope, this Newtonian reflector is
our observations, making star-hopping a worthwhile low-budget purchase for
especially difficult. The FirstScope needs to children – especially if you suspect that AGAINST
be equipped with a light finderscope, but astronomy is likely to be a passing phase or Loose focuser
given that the least overbearing optical if basic but fair views of the Moon, planets Some observations lack
finderscopes fail to pick up stars with and stars are suitable before investing in clarity and detail
magnitudes below naked-eye visibility, an upgrade. For the price, the FirstScope is A challenge to collimate
we recommend using a red-dot finder, supplied with a basic build that’s suitable Finderscope not supplied
especially in light-polluted areas. to begin casual tours of the night sky.
Jupiter, which shone at magnitude -1.9, However, if you’re looking to make the
was our next planetary target. While it most of its optical system while improving
was difficult to spot any details on the navigation, we recommend getting a red-
gas giant, such as its belts and Great Red dot finder, investing in a set of eyepieces
Spot, without the use of a filter, the Galilean that are respectful of the telescope’s
moons – Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto highest useful magnification of 180x and
– appeared as bright points of light either filters that will improve the contrast of
side of its equator. While the FirstScope’s Solar System targets.

“Saturn was small, faint and

fuzzy in the field of view, yet
it was possible to make out
the gas giant’s rings”
The two supplied
eyepieces are
comfortable to use,
and more can be
bought for
the telescope

94
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 IN THE SHOPS: LEGO SETS
Pick your next set from this excellent
space-themed selection

Space Shuttle Discovery Rocket Launch Centre NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander
Cost: £169.99 / $199.99 Cost: £124.99 / $159.99 Cost: £89.99 / $99.99
From: LEGO From: LEGO From: LEGO

1 If you’re a space fan, then there’s no

denying that this LEGO NASA Space
Shuttle Discovery is one of the best LEGO
2 This 1,010-piece set includes a rocket,
launch tower, observatory, control
centre, truck, rover, drone and seven
3 LEGO has spared almost no detail in
bringing Apollo 11 to life, looking as
close to the real thing as a set of plastic
space sets you can get your hands on right Minifigures. You do get a lot included for bricks could allow. The result is a wonderful
now. It’s an authentic recreation of NASA’s the price, including the realistic rocket display piece, capturing the moment that
real Discovery shuttle, featuring realistic that’s inspired by Artemis, NASA’s return to humans stepped on the Moon back in 1969
elements such as an opening payload bay, the Moon. The nice selection of Minifigures brilliantly. The lander itself is expertly crafted,
retractable landing gear and five seats includes astronauts, scientists and workmen. although the intricacy of the model means
for the crew. Unfortunately, you’ll have to There’s basically everything here a kid needs there are a few fiddly parts. It’s also a little
use your imagination there since this set to stage their own rocket launch. disappointing that some of the decorations
doesn’t come with Minifigures, but it’s a are stickers rather than printed bricks. It’s
small price to pay for something that’s not quite enough to stop this being one of
otherwise so detailed. As an added bonus, the best LEGO space sets out there, though.
it also includes a model of the Hubble We particularly love the included display
Space Telescope, which can be handily base, designed to replicate the surface
stowed away inside the payload bay. of the Moon – even complete with little
Minifigure footprints.

96
 In the shops

International Space Station Lunar Space Station NASA Apollo Saturn V

Cost: £59.99 / $69.99 Cost: £44.99 / $59.99 Cost: £109.99 / $119.99
From: LEGO From: LEGO From: LEGO

4 When LEGO first announced the

International Space Station (ISS) – a
fan-designed model from the LEGO Ideas
5 This Lunar Space Station is based on
NASA’s Artemis Lunar Gateway, which
gives some educational value to its play.
6 The LEGO NASA Apollo Saturn V is an
interesting set. It was first released in
2017 as part of the LEGO Ideas range, but
range – we were a little concerned. It And there’s a lot to like here, including the after being discontinued at the end of 2019, it
seemed that all of those solar panels could realistic docking capsule, the science and was brought back in 2020 – the exact same
all be stickers. Thankfully, there isn’t a single botany labs, and the separate sleeping product, but with a different model number.
sticker to be seen on this model. What is to quarters. You can almost imagine it floating Clearly, it was so popular that LEGO decided
be seen, though, is a glorious replica of the through space. Our only concern is that it’s it was worth keeping on the shelves much
ISS, squeezing in more details than we could just a little cheaper than the ultra-realistic longer than a set’s usual shelf life. And it’s not
have imagined. Real-life features, such as International Space Station model. Still, this hard to see why. This replica of the Saturn V
the Integrated Truss Structure, habitation one is Minifigure-scale, so for younger LEGO is incredibly detailed and epic in scale – it’s
modules and logistics carriers, have been space fans it has much more playability. a metre tall. For space fans, there’s an awful
faithfully recreated. Putting the solar panels lot of realistic detail thrown in, such as fuel
together is repetitive, though, and by their tanks, rocket fins and engines. Inevitably, the
very nature they’re a little flimsy and easily build is a little repetitive, but for something
knocked out of place. But when it’s all built, so magnificent, it’s worth it.
this is very impressive.

97
 HEROES OF SPACE Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

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degree in English and physics and later a PhD in Challenger, Ride served as part of the
Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Limited, 26 Planetary
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