All About Space 101 (Sampler) by Future PLC

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SOLAR SYSTEM CLIMATE CHANGE Earth isn’t the only world affected by global warming

SPACEX’S STARLINK VS ASTRONOMY Why Elon Musk’s latest venture could spell trouble for stargazing

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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

“It’s unstable. It’s doing something that it has never done before” • 10,000-times brighter than our Sun • Betelgeuse’s odd behaviour explained

FUTURE TECH GRAVITATIONAL WAVES WIN! CELESTRON BINOCULARS

ISSUE 101

REVEALED!

JOURNEY TO ANOTHER WORLD

FIRST IMAGES OF ASTEROID BENNU

SECRET SPACE MISSIONS

The stealth spacecraft carrying out undercover plans

The next supernova

THE NEXT We’re overdue a spectacular display of stellar fireworks, so where will it come from?

Reported by James Romero

The next supernova

n the near future, the full Moon will have a luminous rival as a cataclysmic event 650 light years away will momentarily shine with the brightness of 10 billion Suns. The aftereffects will hang in our sky for many months, and permanently alter our night sky in a way not witnessed in recent human history. Betelgeuse is one of our most recognisable stars. Forming part of the Orion constellation, its bright-red appearance, due to its vast size, has been noted by stargazers since antiquity. Place Betelgeuse in the exact location of our Sun and the star’s equator would extend out to the orbit of Jupiter, with all the inner rocky planets moving along inside its fiery outer atmosphere. For the majority of people living under light-polluted city skies without a telescope, Betelgeuse is likely the largest object they will ever set their eyes on.

In recent months, however, it has been trickier to spot. The star described by the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy and named by medieval Islamic astronomers has started to fade from view. A notice posted in December by astronomer Edward Guinan at Villanova University described it as about half as bright as it was in September. Subsequent measurements by the same team have shown it has rapidly become the faintest, dimmest and reddest it has been in at least 40 years. It was off their charts. “We changed the graph scale because I was plotting points in open space,” says Guinan. However, any reports of Betelgeuse’s demise are much exaggerated… or at least premature. One thing we know for certain about this supergiant star is that it won’t be going out with a whimper. In fact, our models of stellar evolution show it will end its life in a huge supernova that is due anytime in the next 100,000 years. And some

have speculated Betelgeuse’s winter retreat might actually be preparation for an imminent grand finale. When Betelgeuse does go supernova, whoever is around to see it will witness one of the greatest astronomical events of that decade, century and perhaps even millennium. If human civilisation is still going, the star will write its name in our astronomical history in a way that only a few others have. One example can be found in ancient Chinese manuscripts. These describe the appearance of a ‘guest star’ in the year 1054, an event since linked to the supernova that formed the famous Crab Nebula. Its appearance as a new light in the night sky, six-times brighter than Venus, was also noted in the Arab world, and more controversially has been linked to cave art in North America.

OSIRIS-REx NASA’s asteroid explorer has been at Bennu for over a year now, but the best part is yet to come

Mission type Sample return

Operator

NASA

Launch date

8 September 2016

Target

101955 Bennu

Arrival at target 3 December 2018

Primary objective Survey and collect a sample from a carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid

Status

Operational

Professor Dante Lauretta

Principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission Lauretta is a professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. He specialises in near-Earth asteroid formation and evolution.

SIRIS-REx is the third part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, succeeding the likes of New Horizons and Juno. All three are completely reshaping our understanding of the Solar System, and OSIRIS-REx is doing so at the asteroid 101955 Bennu. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRISREx) spacecraft was launched with a game plan to break records and do something that hasn’t been done since the Apollo era. “It’s a mission to reach out to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu and survey that object in great detail, ultimately selecting a single location on the asteroid surface to send the spacecraft down for a brief contact to collect material that we will return to Earth for analysis in our laboratories,” explains Lauretta. When the spacecraft sends its return capsule to Earth from Bennu in September 2023, carrying at the very least 60 grams (2.1 ounces) of asteroid regolith, it will deliver a sample from space in a quantity that hasn’t been seen since the Apollo astronauts returned lunar samples in the 1960s and 1970s. But what makes Bennu so special? First is that Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid, and being in close proximity to Earth means the spacecraft doesn’t have to journey to the outskirts of the Solar System to sample it. Secondly, the asteroid is small enough – with a diameter of roughly 500 metres (1,600 feet) – and rotates slowly enough that it enables OSIRIS-REx to enter its orbit and conduct close-up observations without orbital complications. Thirdly, Bennu is a rare B-type carbon-rich asteroid that astronomers believe could hold clues about the Solar System’s inception. Bennu can be thought of as a frozen time capsule, left over from the formation of the planets. “We chose Bennu specifically because we knew a lot about it and intriguing hints about its composition,” says Laurette. “We think Bennu may have water in the form of clay minerals and organic molecules that we think may have represented the seeds for the origin of life on Earth.”

4.5 billion years ago, asteroids, comets and other pieces of space rock began to accumulate until they formed the planets and dwarf planets that are seen today. In the process, some of these planets acquired liquid water on the surface, such as Earth and Mars, and Earth was even blessed with organic compounds that provided the building blocks for human life. Scientists believe that asteroids such as Bennu are the key to understanding how chemistry created biology. “OSIRIS-REx really seeks to answer some of the most fundamental questions that we ask ourselves,” says Laurette. “It’s a great example of what humanity can accomplish when a talented group of dedicated people put their minds on a single objective.” This sample-return mission has another goal in understanding the current nature of near-Earth asteroids. When it comes to around-the-clock asteroid observations, modern techniques have brought to light just how hazardous these objects can be. By scrutinising Bennu, the mission could provide vigilant astronomers with important information about a future Earth-bound asteroid. Not only that, but asteroids could soon become utilised in space mining. Companies could soon be sending mining missions to asteroids to extract their rare resources, and OSIRIS-REx can provide a more complete understanding of what resources might be hidden within. OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu on 3 December 2018, beginning an in-depth survey of the entire surface, mapping from pole to pole. While doing so it has been slowly decreasing the altitude of its orbit, and it will continue until it hovers just 240 metres (800 feet) over the asteroid’s surface. In July 2020 OSIRIS-REx will perform NASA’s first-ever robotic sample collection of a celestial object using the Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling manoeuvre. After collecting an adequate sample the spacecraft will depart from Bennu in March 2021, where it will cruise back to Earth and drop off an uncontaminated sample – fresh from the vacuum of space – in the Utah Desert in September 2023.

OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-RExâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kit

Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) This is a student experiment that will scrutinise which elements are present on the surface and their abundances. Solar X-rays and the solar wind interact with the surface regolith to reveal the elements that are present.

SamCam One of three, this camera will continuously image and document the entire TAG sampling manoeuvre performed by OSIRIS-REx using its close-range capabilities.

MapCam MapCam maps the surface in colour and will provide the images that then create topographic maps. It will observe the area around the asteroid for satellites and outgassing plumes.

OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES) The spectrometer will acquire infrared data between 5.71 and 100 micrometres, which will provide important information about temperatures and the mineralogy of several regions.

PolyCam OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS)

This long-range telescope was the first to see the asteroid from afar. It identifies any hazardous areas and creates high-resolution images of the surface.

As the name suggests, this particular spectrometer will acquire data in the visible and infrared light spectrum to find the spectral signatures of a range of materials.

Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) The sampler head and arm will retrieve the surface sample that astronomers are eagerly awaiting. TAGSAM has three separate bottles of gas which will allow up to three attempts of collecting a sample.

OLA is a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) instrument that uses light, in the form of laser pulses, to measure distances. This provides high-resolution topographic data of the surface of Bennu.

ÂŠ NASA/ University of Arizona

OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA)

Â© Tobias Roetsch

G objects

IES MYSTERE UNIV RSE OF THE

WHAT’S ORBITING OUR GALAXY’S BLACK HOLE? Six strange objects have been found in the vicinity of Sagittarius A* – and there may be more Reported by David Crookes

t the heart of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. We know it is 26,000 light years from Earth and that it has 4 million times the mass of the Sun. We also found out last year that it is surrounded by a cool gas halo and is perhaps quieter than its counterparts in other galaxies because of magnetic fields. What we’re less certain about, however, is the make-up of six strange objects that have been discovered relatively close by. Found to orbit Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* as it is also known, they are a few hundred astronomical units away from the galactic centre and take anywhere between 170 and 1,600 years to complete their circuit. “These objects look like gas and behave like stars,” says Andrea Ghez, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, who co-authored a recent study into the objects. Yet the exact identification of what is said to be a new class of object is still being worked on, and teams coming up with potential theories appear to be split. The objects began to truly puzzle astronomers after one of them, named G2, was seen to make

a close approach to the supermassive black hole in 2014. It had originally been discovered in 2011 by a team based in Germany, and the expectation was that it would be ripped to shreds and cause a flash of radiation. Instead it was observed becoming elongated, and while much of its gassy outer shell was torn apart, it survived and continued on its way, becoming more compact once again. “It went from being a pretty innocuous object when it was far from the black hole to one that was really stretched out and distorted at its closest approach,” Ghez explains.

Mercury

WHAT’S NEW AT

MERC Scientists are still busy analysing data from the MESSENGER mission – and it has plenty of surprises Reported by Andrew May

Ice on a hot planet

Prokofiev

Kandinsky

A view of the area around Mercury’s north pole, with regions that permanently lie in shadow shown in red and suspected traces of ice shown in yellow.

Mercury

Â© Getty

URY? 39

Animal astronauts

LIVES OF THE ANIMAL ASTRONAUTS These creatures boldly went where few humans have gone before

Written by Benjamin Skuse

Muttnik orbits Earth Perished

day s

Enos’ agonising spaceflight Survived

19 6

1/ 3

urs ho

Laika the dog was the first living creature to orbit the Earth

Enos the chimpanzee being prepared for his fateful mission that orbited Earth twice in a Mercury spacecraft

Enos was not the first primate in space – that accolade went to Ham earlier in 1961. He was not even the first hominid to orbit the Earth, also pipped to that distinction in 1961 by cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov. His spaceflight was simply intended to test equipment and procedures before risking a NASA astronaut. Enos’ 1,263 hours of training for the flight included ‘avoidance conditioning’, during which electric shocks were administered to the soles of his feet if he responded incorrectly to simple tasks. This training aimed to get Enos to pull one of three levers in order to pick the odd one out from three presented shapes. In space, Enos began well during his first battery of tests. However, at the start of the second, the central lever malfunctioned. As a result, Enos was subjected to 76 unwarranted shocks. During the second orbit of an intended three, the flight encountered further problems. Alongside faulty equipment causing Enos’ body temperature to rise, a stuck thruster was haemorrhaging fuel. This prompted NASA to terminate the flight early. Though an uneventful re-entry and landing, the stuck thruster caused the capsule to touch down hundreds of kilometres from where it should have. This meant Enos was stuck inside for 3 hours and 20 minutes. By the time he was extracted, Enos had broken through the protective belly panel, stripped off most of his physiological sensors and had forcibly and undoubtedly painfully removed his catheter while the balloon was still inflated. A little less than a year later, Enos died of dysentery – a sad end to an unlucky space chimp.

29 November

In the mid-20th century, the USSR launched dozens of hardy stray dogs above Earth’s atmosphere to test whether humans could handle the rigours of space. The most famous of these is Laika – the first living creature to go into orbit. Captured wandering the streets of Moscow, Laika – which means ‘Barker’ in Russian – was strapped into a tiny space dog safety module and launched aboard Sputnik 2. Though Soviet scientists never intended Laika to return to Earth alive, at the time they suggested she had survived in space for between four days and a week before dying peacefully. It was later revealed in 2002 that her demise had been rather more harrowing. Laika had died from overheating and panic no more than seven hours after the mission began because a fan had failed. Her capsule orbited Earth 2,570 times before burning up in the atmosphere five months after blast off. In August 1960 a canine pair named Belka, or ‘Squirrel’, and Strelka, or ‘Little Arrow’ – joined by a rabbit, 42 mice and two rats – were strapped into Sputnik 5. These animals came to a less grisly end, launching into space and safely returning unharmed. Eight months later cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin famously followed in their pawsteps. Strelka went on to have six puppies, one of which – named Pushinka, or ‘Fluffy’ – was given to US president John F. Kennedy in 1961 by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Pushinka had four puppies with one of Kennedy’s dogs, which the president affectionately referred to as pupniks.

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Animal astronauts