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HOW-TO WITH TELESCOPES

Dean Tookey explains the basics behind

observing at night

LOOKING BEYOND THE NORM

If life does exist out there, will it be like

anything we’ve ever encountered?

THE MARS THAT NEVER WAS

Martin Griffiths shares the dreams of man-

kind invoked by the Red Planet

ASTROFEST 2013

Review and highlights of this year’s event

SCIENCE IN FICTION

Will we ever travel faster than light?

The science behind Star Trek’s warp drive

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Editorial

Hello,

And welcome to the first publication of the revamped Glam UNIverse maga-zine. Over the coming months we hope to inform, infatuate and entertain you on all things astronomical.

However, before we go any further, we would all like to thank Chloe and Phil for the remarkable work they have achieved in starting (and maintaining) Glam UNIverse over the past year. Our only hope is that we will do them proud and we wish them the best of luck for the future and also hope to hear from them in articles over the coming months.

For now however, we look ever space-ward.

The Quartet of Editors

The Glam UNIverse team

Dean TookeyEditor and Columnist.

Favourite Game:Kerbal Space Program

Amy MarklewEditor.

Most precious possession:The One Ring

Jason WotherspoonEditor.

Favourite Show:Star Trek

Written Contributors:

Note from the Editor Jon Pratt

Editor and Designer.

Favourite book:The Time Traveler’s Wife

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Faulkes Telescope North located at located at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii

Image Credits

All cover (inside/outside) and article images are gratefully credited to Wikimedia Commons and NASA.

Martin GriffithsOlly Walker

Student Astrophotography Image Credits:

Helen Usher, Paul Merriman and Simon Shelford.

Contents2 Editorial

3 Contents

4 News

6 The Mars that Never Was

10 How-to

12 The Night Sky in March

14 Astrophotography

16 Looking Beyond the Norm

19 Ask an Astronomer

20 Science in Fiction

21 Events

22 Media Reviews

22 FUN.

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Close-up of a tower of gas and dust; a region of star formation within M16, the Eagle Nebula.

Image taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

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News 909 Confirmed Exoplanets

Halo around Milky Way sheds light on galaxy’s evolutionRecent research by the Hubble telescope has found that the stellar halo, a halo of stars and globular clusters that don’t lie in the plane of the galaxy, may come from a cannibalised galaxy. The team using Hubble tracked the motions of stars in the halo which appear to point to the Milky Way cannibalising another galaxy billions of years ago, giving validity to the theory that our own galaxy was formed from many other smaller galaxies.

Meteorite hits RussiaOn February 15th 2013, a meteorite came down and exploded over Russia at about 9.20am, local time. The meteorite caused an estimated 33 million pounds worth of damage as windows were broken with over 100,000 buildings being affected by the shockwaves from the meteor passing overhead. The meteor also caused injuries to around 1200 people. The meteor-ite was seen by many people in the provinces of Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, and Orenburg Oblasts, the Republic of Bashkortostan, and in neigh-bouring regions in Kazakhstan and is believed to have come down in the frozen lake of Chebarkul. Some meteor fragments have been found and the meteorite is believed to be mainly stony with around a 10% iron content.

Cassini Satellite Observes a Cosmic Particle AcceleratorThe Cassini satellite around Saturn viewed a new phenomenon as a chance encounter with a strong solar blast, the spacecraft then detected particles being accelerated to very high speeds. This is very similar to what happens in supernova explosions with particles being accelerated to nearly the speed of light. This phenomenon occurs under certain magnetic field orientations and depending on the strength of the shock, particles can be accelerated. The importance of this discovery is that measuring these phenomenon is difficult as they are only seen in supernova which occur at a large distance from earth meaning that it is difficult to study the exact conditions at which the phenomenon occurs. Seeing this phenomenon in our own solar system allows for easier and more accurate study.

Smoke trail left by the meteorite paints the sky

Path of the meteorite across Russia

Stellar motions as observed from Hubble indicate the presence of a shell

Artists impression of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detecting the acceleration of charged particles around Saturn

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Amateur and professional astrono-mers have been working together to unravel some of the secrets that M106, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici, may be hiding. M106 shows some interestingly odd behaviour such as an extremely active central supermassive black hole which is sending out a tremendous amount of microwaves. Thanks to amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany, by combining their images with images obtained by Hubble, they have spotted what appear to be two extra spiral arms made up, not of stars, but of hot gas. The spiral arms may have something to do with the matter being churned around the black hole at the centre of the galaxy.

Galaxy appears to have a secret

First drilled rock on MarsThe latest mars rover, Curiosity, has confirmed it has drilled into a sample of rock from the Martian surface. This is the first time in history that mankind has had a chance to look on the inside of a rock on another planet. The sample taken, on the 8th of February, will be first processed onboard the rover inside CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis), to sieve out any particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 microns) across, before testing commences by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

Earth-like planets are all aroundUsing data from NASA, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found that 6% of all red dwarf stars have likely habitable Earth-sized planets around them. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away. Since there are at least 75 billion red dwarfs in our galaxy and if 6% of them do have habitable Earth-like planets, the number of habitable planets would be around 4.5 billion, so plenty of places to look for new life or a new home.

Kepler finds planet only slightly larger than our own moonThe Kepler Space Telescope has been very successful at spotting extrasolar planets since its launch on March 7th 2009. One of its newest discoveries, Kepler 37b, turns out to be only a little bigger than our own moon and has a radius less than a third of Earth. It is 215 light years away from Earth in the constellation Lyra and is much closer to its star than even Mercury to ours and orbits in just over 13 days with a very eccentric orbit. Due to its small size and closeness to its parent star, it is assumed to be rocky, hot with little or no atmos-phere, making it unlikely to support life as we know it.

Drilled rock sample is deposited into Curiosity’s sample tray

Spiral galaxy M106, as imaged by Hubble

Artist impression of an exoplanet around a red dwarf

Scale comparison

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The Mars that Never Was“The party moved out into the moonlight, silently. They made their way to the outer rim of the dreaming dead city in the light of the racing twin moons. Their shadows, under them, were double shadows. They did not breathe, or seemed not to, perhaps, for several minutes. They were waiting for something to stir in the dead city, some gray form to rise, some ancient ancestral shape to come galloping across the vacant sea bottom on an ancient, armored steed of impossible lineage, of unbelievable derivation…..”

by Martin Griffiths

This excerpt from Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is hauntingly wonderful, yearning for a Mars that seemed so real yet so illusory. Written at a time when the Martian canal hypothesis was still a controversial issue in the public mind, Bradbury managed to catch the romance and heroism of a bygone age whilst heralding secrets yet to be revealed.

Mars draws, demands attention. Of all the planets of our solar system not one has the stature of Mars in science, myth or fantasy. Mars is a magic name, heavy with allusions, aspirations and grand dreams unfulfilled. Carl Sagan once asked rhetorically, “why so many eager speculations and ardent fantasies about Martians, rather than Saturnians or Plutonians?” Why does Mars have this affect on humanity? In our imaginations, we have trod the Martian landscape many times, have experienced the desolation of the dry surface; looked across the mighty ramparts of the Valles Marineris or climbed the slopes of Olympus Mons; drank fresh cold water from the polar ice-caps and discovered all kinds of Martian biota.

Mars is a place that inspires; it stirs the emotions and kindles the mind. It is a new frontier where man or woman can find a new beginning, a new adventure away from the cares of an old and corrupt world. That is the appeal of Mars, a planet of dreams where we can be reborn and renewed, dreams that art, culture, literature and science have fired in our imaginations, a fire that refuses to die whilst tantalizing glimpses of hope continue to stoke the embers.

Scene from Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Mars as FantasyThere is no writer that captures this sense of Mars and all its human aspects than Ray Bradbury. His passing, in June 2012 at a time when his vision of Mars had not yet faded, takes humanity one step further away from the kind of planet that stirred the imaginations of countless rocket scientists, engineers and technologists that paved the way for landings on the red planet. He was not the only writer to eulogize the red planet but he was one of the finest.

He was the perhaps the least “hard” science fiction writer, but his stories wove together a pattern of science and fantasy that echoes

in our culture as the Mars of our desires. His stories stood out from a long series of fictional tales and drew upon the public image of the planet to construct a world beloved by many. He was a natural successor to Edgar Rice Burroughs, who took the idea of life on Mars and twisted it across 10 books into a world of imagination like no other.

Starting with A Princess of Mars in 1912, Burroughs protagonist John Carter encounters human-o i d p r i n c e s s e s , w a r r i o r s o f different species and animals with such distinct body structures as to be impossible on earth. It was a world that played with the imagination throughout the depression years in America and became synonymous in the eyes of many in the west as the unsurpassed description of what the red planet should be.Burroughs of course was not alone.

Mars in ScienceEven the ancients recognised Mars to be a body with a strange orbit, resulting in oppositions of differing brightness and distance. This situation was explained away by the inclusions of epicycles in Ptolemy’s cosmology, wherein the planet was attached to a small sphere, moving in a prescribed circle on the deferent of its orbit. The new cosmology of Copernicus with its heliocentric model replaced the complex cycles of Ptolemy, but still did not sufficiently explain the orbit of Mars. Observational data compiled by the Dane Tycho Brahe eventually led to Johannes Kepler finally destroying the conception of the universe based upon Ptolmaic thinking and Platonic spherical orbits.

All of the past 1500 years of astronomical thinking had to be abandoned in favour of a new movement of the

Martian City and Canal: The dream of SF writers– and most of the 20th century public

1896 Map of Mars and its canals

“Martian” fiction has a long pedigree stretching back beyond the 19th century, though not culminating in anything outstanding until H G Wells wrote The War of the Worlds (1898). This tale of invading Martian armies in impossible machines with advanced technology is as fresh today as when it was written and has spawned countless imitators. Stanley Weinbaum’s Martian Odyssey (1935) has intelligent Martians in the plot, as does the more theologi-cal work of C S Lewis in Out of the Silent Planet (1938). One of the first female SF writers Catherine L Moore took Mars as her backdrop in her Northwest Smith (1933-36) series, which features the Martians and their ancient culture, and of course, inevitable wars between Earthmen and Martians was the staple diet of Jack Williamson’s Legion of Space

(1934 – 1982) stories. This fantastic Mars reached a mythical zenith in The Martian Chronicles.

Bradbury’s epic tale weaves the mysticism of Martian life and human concerns into a romance unlike no other. It draws on the best of what we hoped Mars to be – and the worst of how we would act. Although it may describe the Mars that never was, to many of the last generations of the 20th century, it is the Mars that should have been.

Mars has never really faded from the public consciousness; science fiction stories from the 1920s to the present day have kept the dream alive and the impression of Mars as a repository of life has never been monotonous. However, did the fictional approach mirror scientific discovery?

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heavens, which Kepler achieved in his realisation of orbits as ellipses rather than circles. If it were not for the orbital eccentricity of Mars, this new synthesis may have been longer delayed. The study of the heavens by means of the telescope, initiated by Galileo, enabled humans for the first time to examine the planet from a scientific point of view. By 1665, astronomers such as Christiaan Huygens were amongst the first to describe and draw details on the Martian surface. A new mythology accompanied the scientific revela-tions. A mythology of intelligent beings certainly, but as mortal and anthropomorphic as our own as can be seen from Bernard Bouvier de Fontanelle’s Conversations of the Plurality of Worlds (1686) where Mars was inhabited by a species different to ours in appearance yet all the hallmarks of being stamped with the same problems.

Enlightenment astronomers soon determined that Mars is a small planet, only about one half of the size of the Earth, but larger than any other in mystique and wonder. Discoveries of the outer Solar System planets, Uranus and Neptune, in 1781 and 1846 took nothing away from the wonder of the red planet. Mars observers ascertained the exist-ence of an atmosphere, determined that its day was just over 24 hours and that the axial tilt was similar to Earth’s. They drew maps of the planet; watched as the polar ice caps

shrank in the Martian summer and grew in winter, accompanied by a “wave of darkening” that compelled astronomers to conjecture on the parallels between seasonal vegeta-tion changes on Earth and that of Mars, speculating that at least plant life was in evidence on our neigh-bouring World.

Observations in the late 19th century by Schiapparelli, changed specula-tion into more strident forms of expression. The reporting of “canali” (grooves or channels) was misinter-preted in the English-speaking world to the more presumptive “canals”, intimating that there could be intel-ligent life on the planet, which had a superior knowledge of engineering.

The prime champion of this hypoth-esis was Percival Lowell, who built an observatory in Flagstaff Arizona in order to ascertain the likelihood of such a race. Lowell’s treatise in popular literature, Mars (1895) Mars and its Canals (1906) and Mars as the Abode of Life (1908) led to a number of speculative literary and scientific spin-offs; the Red planet being hailed as the birthplace of alternate, yet advanced civilisations, with benevolent or martial ideals depending upon the nature of the authorship of the work. The shadow of Lowell was to fall over the early 20th century development of both planetary theory and science fiction. Despite the evident public fascina-tion for the Martian canals, most

astronomers attempted to maintain an unbiased viewpoint. By 1924, observations by E M Antoniadi laid the canal hypothesis to rest; fine networks of craters or dark areas were revealed to be “linked” by the eye, leading to a false interpreta-tion of “canals” rather than evident features on the Martian surface. Antoniadi ’s published f indings dissuaded planetary astronomers from following Lowell ’s line of reasoning, although in the minds of both scientist and public alike, the persistent idea of Martian life had taken a hold that was difficult to relinquish. This new mythology was all pervasive as a scientific and cultural ideology.

Until the advent of spacecraft, the hypothesis of Martian life went through stages, retreating from intelligent superior beings to plant life, lichens and low order vegeta-tion, finally succumbing in the 1950s to the idea that perhaps only bacte-ria would be viable on the surface of Mars, if at all. This retreat was due in part to an increasing scientific aware-ness that the planet has a very thin atmosphere consisting of carbon dioxide, very little free oxygen, no ozone layer, which resulted in a surface bathed in UV radiation and little atmospheric or surface water. The successive “waves of darkening” were now interpreted (correctly) to be super-saturation of the atmos-phere and soil by liberated water from the melting polar caps.

Future explorers at Valles Marineris (Painting by NASA artists)

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The Fall and Rise of Mars

In 1964, after the fast fly-by of Mariner 4, there could be little doubt that Mars did not resemble the romantic world so beloved of science fiction writers. Those who longed for a lost world of canals, seas and cities had their interest rekindled in the findings of Mariner 9. Since then, Pathfinder, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the spacecraft Mars Express have revealed a world almost synonymous with Bradbury’s imagination. Mars does indeed have old, dry riverbeds and lakes and even ancient sea basins. Water exists in sub-surface aquifers and in some places in open, iced over pools standing stark against the desert. If these were remnants of a past great age, could there also have been life, cities, culture and technology? Have all these things crumbled into the Martian dust, only to be recalled by the ghosts of those that lived there? When humans walk the surface in some future age, will they encoun-ter the phantom remnants of some Martian civilization? Bradbury craves this parallel ideology, as described in the chapter Night Meeting in The Martian Chronicles:

“Who wants to see the Future”? Gomez asked. “A man can face the past, but to think - the pillars crumbled, you say? And the sea empty, and the canals dry, and the maidens dead, and the flowers withered?” The Martian was silent, but then he looked ahead and said “But there they are. I see them. Isn’t that enough for me? They wait for me now, no matter what you say.”

Exploration since the 1960s have almost destroyed the red world so beloved by SF writers. Investigation shows no trace of the Mars that they brought to life. Nevertheless, this negative image has not dimmed many wonder ful yarns about

Noctis Labyrinthus, West of Valles Marineris, as imaged by Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter

humans on Mars. Tales such as Arthur C Clarke’s The Sands of Mars (1951) covered the problems of spaceflight, terraforming, problem solving and exploration of the red planet. Successors such as Ben Bova and Kim Stanley Robinson have continued the “hard” SF approach to Martian exploration and human colonisation in such works as Mars (1992) and the trilogy; Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars (1992-96). The engineering and technology to accomplish this, described by Robert Zubrin in First Landing (2002) is an accurate depiction of how Mars could be colonized in the not too distant future. The realism and outstanding imagination contained within these books give the reader a foretaste of a world to come.

If their dreams transpire, if one day we investigate the red planet as human explorers, we need to remind ourselves that we have a duty to our planetary neighbour. We need to be wiser and more appre-ciative of our impact, not only in a scientific and industrial sense but also in a wider philosophical, and even spiritual sense. Mars is not yet a place for humans. Still, the first Martian explorers will carry the dreams and hopes of many on Earth. Such dreams are the culmina-tion of our long cultural relationship with the red planet and whatever we find there will become incorpo-rated into a new mythology of Mars. Those who tread the red soil for the first time must do so with a sense of propriety, a comprehension of the almost hallowed ground that Mars has become in the public conscious-ness.

“It wouldn’t be right, the first night on Mars, to make a noise, to intro-duce a strange, silly bright thing like a stove. It would be a kind of imported blasphemy. There’d be time for that later; to throw empty condensed

milk cans into the proud Martian canals; time for copies of the New York Times to blow and caper and rustle across the lone grey Martian sea-bottoms; time for banana-peels and picnic remains in the delicate, fluted ruins of the old Martian towns. Plenty of time for that………”

Bradbury’s Martian legacy is poign-ant. At the end of the Martian Chronicles, his weary colonist takes his excitable children to see the Martians they have heard so much about in their history lessons. After many hours of travel they land by one of the canals, still flowing with water after all those centuries. They get out and look excitedly to where their father points downward…

“The Martians were there - in the canal - reflected in the water.... The Martians stared back up at them for a long, long silent time from the rippling water....”

We have the technology to live the dream. Do we have the spirit? Our science, culture, literature and desires impel us to the red planet. That science, those myths, those legends, those stories of adventure and cultural leanings will only find repose when Mars is ours.

(Quotes from The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Flamingo Modern Classics 2001)

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How-toWelcome to the first issue of the how-to guide, over the following months we shall cover everything to do with observing from a beginners level to an advanced level. In this issue, we’ll start with the very basics about observ-ing.

To begin with, we’ll look at the basic equipment you’ll need to begin to view the beauty of the night sky. The basic equipment you’ll need is:

• A telescope• A mount• Eyepieces

Telescopes

There are many different types of telescopes out there and the one you choose is down to personal preference and budget. There are two main types of telescope; reflectors, which use mirrors, and refractors, which use lenses. In general, refractors give better images for their size but do tend to cost more, however, if you’re interested in astrophotography, a refractor is probably for you. Reflectors are generally cheaper and more compact.

...do The Basicsby Dean Tookey

Mount

There are two main types of mount that can be brought an alt-azimuth and a equatorial mount. An alt-azimuth mount is a simple two-axis mount for supporting and rotating a telescope about two mutually-perpendicular axes; one vertical and the other horizontal. An equato-rial mount is a mount for telescopes that follow the rotation of the sky, the celestial sphere, by having one rotational axis parallel to the Earth’s axis of rotation. Choosing a mount is down to individual taste. The advantage of equatorial mounts over alt-azimuth is their ability to track objects across the sky smoothly, however an alt-azimuth is a cheaper option.

Eyepieces

Eyepieces come in many sizes and the size you pick is down to many different things such as size of the object and the size of your telescope. Basically eyepieces come in sizes measured in millimetres with the smaller the size, the more magnification you’ll have on the object. Now magnification isn’t everything in astronomy as many objects in the night sky are actually quite big. I’d recommend to begin with that you buy a 25mm and a 10-12mm, this will do for the majority of objects in the sky. Remember the greater the magnification, the less light that gets into the eyepiece, making dimmer objects harder or even impossible to view.

Basic Setup

Alt-azimuth mount with refractor (left) and equatorial mount with reflecting telescope (right)

A selection of eyepieces and filters

The basic setup of a scope is pretty much the same for any scope and I shall guide you through the basic steps. To begin with, set up your mount so that it is stable and won’t fall over. Then secure the telescope onto the mount and make sure everything is secure. Then take a larger eyepiece such as the 25mm and place it into the telescope, the reason for picking a larger one is to make it easier to find objects.

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3Observing

Observing is the fun part but one thing to keep in mind is that objects DO NOT look like images taken with the Hubble space telescope. In the eyepiece, they’ll be black and white and be fairly undefined.

There are some basics techniques when looking at objects in sky. One of the first techniques to learn is to actually observe the object you’re looking at, not just taking a quick look as you’ll get no definition and detail if you do this. Instead, look around the eyepiece and take time for your eye to adapt to the image. Using adverted vision, looking at the object with the peripheral vision of your eye, it allows you to see more detail and makes the object much easier to see. Make sure you’re dark-adapted before you look down the telescope as this is very important. Wait at least 20 minutes for your eyes to get used to the dark and refrain from using any light other than red light. Let objects drift through the eyepiece rather than trying to constantly track them as doing this will reveal much more of the object to your eye.

To start off, one of the best objects to view is the Moon, it’s bright and big and easy to find. To point your telescope, move it so that it appears to be facing the object then use the finder scope to centre on the object. Then look through the eyepiece of the telescope and then centre the object in that. At this point, you’ll want to check that the finder scope is aligned to the telescope if it’s not. There’ll be a way to adjust it and align it to the telescope so you’ll want to do this to save time and effort later on.

Once pointing at the Moon, there are many craters and other surface features to view, and if you want, you can identify them. Try looking at parts in shadow, this is where the detail really comes through. There are many maps of the Moon, these can be useful if you want to see specific areas of the Moon, just remember these might appear to be upside down as the telescope will invert.

One last thing to remember is to have fun. Observing is a popular hobby for a reason, it’s enjoyable and can be a good solo, as well as social, activity too.

M42 (Orion’s nebula) as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

A naked eye view of M42 (Orion’s nebula) as seen through the eyepiece of an amateur telescope

Our galaxy - the Milky Way

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The Night Sky in Marchby Martin Griffiths

Lighter evenings are drawing on but observers should make the most of March before the clocks go forward. Saturn is becoming a major feature of the late evening sky as Jupiter begins its descent in the west. Winter and Spring groups contest for attention with their varied deep sky objects.

Moon In March:First quarter: 19th MarchFull: 27th MarchLast Quarter: 4th MarchNew: 11th March

southwest after dark. The planet will be shining at magnitude -1.9 and is dimming.• Saturn: Rising in the east by 21:30 in March in the constellation of Libra. It shines at magnitude 1 and its

rings continue to open throughout 2013. Its large satellite Titan is close to the planet, easily visible through a telescope.

• Uranus: Is not well placed for observation this month.• Neptune: The planet is in conjunction with the Sun during March. Not visible.

The Sky in March: Constellation of the month: Cancer

The constellation of Cancer, the “Crab” is an undefined grouping of faint stars in an area between Gemini and Leo. It is an ancient constellation, although why it should have been given such prominence is not known, perhaps early astrologers created the aster-ism to fit in with their theories that the monthly movement of the Sun through various constellations had some bearing on Earthly life. Legends abound regarding this little creature; the Greeks thought the crab came to the assistance of Zeus when he wrestled with his brother Poseidon for mastery of the Earth. Poseidon killed the crab, whereupon a victorious Zeus rewarded it with a place in the heavens. It also features in the myth of Orion and that of Hercules as an unfortunate creature sent by Hera to antagonize the heroes, but being killed and placed in the sky.

Cancer contains two of the most absorb-ing star clusters in the heavens; one of them is a treat for binocular observers. Disappointingly, Cancer contains few other objects of note despite it astrological promi-nence.

The sky as it would appear at 7:00pm on the 12th

The cluster that most casual observers will be familiar with is the wonderful M 44, the Beehive or “Praesepe” or “Manger” as it is called. Praesepe is one of the closest clusters to the Earth lying 525 light years away and is visible

On the evening of the 18th March, an almost first quarter Moon will accompany Jupiter in the west, passing each other by just 1 degree.

Planets in March:• Mercury: Visible in the east before dawn and at greatest elonga-

tion on the 31st shining at magnitude 0.7• Venus: Is in conjunction with the Sun and not well placed for

observation this month.• Mars: Visible in the evening in Pisces as a dull red star shining at

magnitude 1.2 and setting rapidly after the Sun. Not well placed for observation.

• Jupiter: Still visible as a bright starry object high in the

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3as a small cloudy patch of light to the naked eye. Due to its visual appearance it has been remarked upon by every ancient civilization, being known as the “cloudy one” or “misty one” by famous astronomers of ages past. This may be a reference to the fact that its appearance was used to forecast weather, the poet Aratus, writing in the

Prognostica:

“A murky manger with both stars shining unaltered is a sign of rain”

The beehive contains over 200 recognised members, but for the most part these are faint dwarf like stars that are impossible to see in binoculars. The stars that give Praesepe its lovely visual appearance are all white and blue “O” and “B” type suns shining with luminosities of up to 150 times that of our Sun.

Praesepe is brilliant in binoculars, as these instruments define the cluster rather well and show the central condensation of stars plus the doubles at the core of

the cluster. A telescope will not show Praesepe to great effect because its high magnifying power tends to look “through” the cluster rather than at it. Telescopes will however resolve the central binaries well. The cluster core has a diameter of 13 light years, and contains over 60 stars that can be seen with a modest telescope. Societies such as the famous Webb society are currently measuring proper motions within the cluster, proving that amateurs can have a major share in astronomical work.

Praesepe is a curious object in that it shares some common qualities with the Hyades in Taurus. Studies of the cluster show that their common proper motions are very similar, it is possible that they were born around the same time and place in our galaxy and have become slowly separated, although this assumption is total conjecture. The cluster however, is a real showpiece object, one of the kind that make a cold Spring night in the darkness worth the effort. Another cluster of particular interest is M67, lying east of alpha Cancri. This is a lovely compressed gathering of stars numbering over 500 suns in total. However, to a binocular observer it looks just like a hazy smudge of 7th magnitude light, whilst telescopes will reveal the 70 or so central bright members of this awesome cluster. The main attraction of M67 is that it appears to be the oldest star cluster yet found in our galaxy - at least 10 billion years old!

Most of the stars within M67 are “K” type giants evolving away from, or already evolved from the main sequence. In addition, the luminosity of these giants appears to be far below that of usual stars of this type. This could be due to the fact that we are looking at Population II stars, very old halo objects rather than disc Population I stars. Therefore, the chemical compositions of the stars are slightly different; these being deficient in metals compared to stars such as our Sun, and this may be the reason for their low luminosity.

M67 lies at a great distance from us, 2500 light years, and some 1500 light years above the galactic plane. The cluster appears more like the globular clusters in composition than the normal galactic clusters. NGC 188 in Cepheus has a similar life history and composition. M67 is not difficult to pick out with a telescope as it lies close to some 5th magnitude stars that act as stepping stones to it from Alpha Cancri. Another object worth viewing in this small constellation is the star Zeta Cancri, which is a multiple system. However, most observers will only spot the one companion as the closer companion to Zeta is not well resolved, lying very close to the primary and visible only in very large telescopes.

The star 55 Cancri has a number of worlds in orbit around it, including one with an orbit comparable to Jupiter’s at a distance of 5.5 AU from the star. This planet has a 13 year orbit and is 3.5 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter. It is a fascinating system as it represents the closest astronomers have come to date in finding a planetary system that most resembles our own, though the word resembles should be taken with a pinch of salt perhaps. The innermost gas giant was discovered in 1996 and has a 14.6-day orbit. The middle world orbits the star in 44.3 days, making both these planets very “hot” Jupiter’s indeed.

Cancer can become a fascinating constellation due to the fact that it lies along the “Zodiac” or the plane of the ecliptic. The bright planets can then pass close by such famous objects such as M44 making an interesting contrast and a good target for astrophotographers.

Messier 67

Messier 44 - the Beehive

Astrophotography

Object: M51 - The Whirlpool GalaxyEquipment used: Atik460 Colour CCD William Optics 123FLT scope Light pollution filterExposure Time: 13 x 300 secondsTaken by Helen Usher

Object: M5 (Globular Cluster)Equipment used: SLOOH TelescopeTaken by Simon Shelford

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Showcasing some of the best monthly images submitted by theBSc Observational Astronomy students of the University of Glamorgan

Object: Jupiter (with moons; Callisto and Ganymede)Equipment used: SLOOH TelescopeTaken by Simon Shelford

Object: M63 - the Sunflower GalaxyEquipment used: SLOOH telescopeTaken by Paul Merriman

Object: M1 - the Crab NebulaEquipment used: SLOOH TelescopeTaken by Paul Merriman

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As our gaze turns to the stars and begins to stretch out beyond our atmosphere, and even further still out of our own Solar System with the help of great technological advances as the Kepler and Hubble telescopes, the human condition causes us to beg the questions; Are we the only life in the Universe? And if not, then what form will it take?

Life As We Know It?Our understanding of life hangs essentially on what humanity has previously observed or discovered on Earth, from the darkest depths of our oceans to the gardens of any domes-tic residence. You might say in a way, that this has limited our scope as to what we might classify as ‘life’.

Looking Beyond the NormConsidering types of life besides our own

whichever fashion this may take the form of. Of course, this definition does have its exceptions. Mules are unable to reproduce as they are born sterile, so will neither reproduce or evolve any further.

Building BlocksAll life on Earth as far as we cur-rently have observed is carbon-based. Therefore, for what we understand so far, it is currently an essential element for life. So why carbon any-way?

This may seem like a complicated question but it has two relatively simple answers. First, it’s an abun-dant material. In fact, the 6th most so in the Universe (see Fig 4). It’s also able to break apart and bond with practical ease with up to four other atoms making it an extremely versatile element, able to form long,

complex chains of molecules with other elements such as hydrogen and oxygen. These are known as ‘organic molecules’ and believe them to be a fundamental staple in what we think to be the building blocks of life as we know it. 99% of the mass of the human body in fact consists of only 6 elements; Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Calcium and Phosphorous. Sounds like a rela-tively simple chemistry but these alone, however, aren’t enough to jus-tify life.

The problem is that life, which has evolved outside of our solar system, might not necessarily adhere to the same structures and requirements that we are so familiar with, so then it begs another question; What is life and how can we define it?

Broken down into its simplest char-acteristics, it is the possession of both the ability to evolve and replicate, in

Fig. 2 - An alien as conceived by director George Lucas

It isn’t just about having the right start-ing materials but also to have these react with each other in such a way as to make life. Liquid water, for us, is a big clue, as it acts as an excellent solvent and medium for chemical reactions. It also exists over a moderate temperature range, generally not somewhere so hot as to cause molecu-lar bonds to break down completely or not allow them to form but not so cold that bio-logical reactions can’t take place.

Fig. 1 - Mono Lake - home to GFAJ-1, a bacterium scientists found to be able to utilise arsenic in its DNA chemistry

Fig.3 - DNA strands separated by gel electrophoresis

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by Jon Pratt

Fig. 4 - A logarithmically scaled graph showing the percentage

availability of elements in the Universe, the top contributors

being Hydrogen (H) at 75%, Helium (He) at 23%, Oxygen (O) at

1%, and Carbon (C) at 0.5%

Fig. 5 - The very similar structures of RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic

acid) and their associated nitrogenous base pairs.

Life EvolvedThe large majority of what we class as ‘alive’ has something in common; nucleic acid, or more specifically deoxyribonucleic acid - DNA as it is better known. This contains the genetic infor-mation for the production of proteins, although it does utilise RNA (ribonucleic acid) for this purpose. Viruses, in some cases however, can be seen to only use RNA but it has been debated as to whether these should be classed as ‘alive’.

DNA, put in its simplest form, is made up of chains of paired nucleotides (organic molecules consisting of sugar, a phosphate and a nitrog-enous base) arranged in pairs in the familiar ‘double-helix’ structure by the way of sugar-phosphate bonds (See Fig. 6). Nitrogenous bases come in a number of different f lavours; A (Adenine), C (Cytosine), G (Guanine) and T (Thymine). It is the sequence that these are arranged in which provides the genetic instruc-tions (See Fig. 5).

RNA, is very similar in structure to DNA, but with the exception of one nitrogenous base (Uracil instead of Thymine). The properties of RNA come in use for the creation of proteins. DNA utilises RNA by breaking its pair bonds and bonding with RNA nucleotides to create an mRNA (messenger-RNA) strand before again breaking its pair bond. This allows a ‘transla-tion’ of the DNA sequence from the DNA to mRNA strand as bases will only bond with another specific base (i.e. G-C). Ribosomes (cell protein ‘factories’) can then use the newly sequenced mRNA strand to create protein chains from free-floating amino acids. It is these which are the basis for complex life as we understand it.

A Happy Alternative?This doesn’t mean however that organic matter couldn’t be formed from other elements. Silicon isn’t as abundant in the Universe as car-bon but it still exists in a reasonable quantity. Most importantly, it shares a similar attribute to carbon atoms in the fact that it is also able to bond with up to four others. So could this give rise to a silicon-based lifeform?

Fig. 6 - The structures of A-, B- and Z-DNA

It would suggest that it would, like carbon-based organic molecules, also be able to form long, complex chains of molecules. However, sili-con is a little more reluctant to bond with other atoms and long chains of silicon-based organic molecules are much less stable in liquid water so

the likelihood of such chains form-ing is low. In a liquid sulphur-rich environment (such as Io), it would however be much more stable, so it is essential that we consider alter-nate planetary chemistries, although we can still search for life completely unlike our own right here on Earth.

Living in the ShadowsSome scientists believe in the exist-ence of a “Shadow Biosphere” on Earth, in which a form of life with a completely different biochemistry to that of which we know may have arisen and is still in existence where we are unable to observe or that we are just not aware of, or one that may have been eliminated already in events such as the Late Terminal Bombardment between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago (Ga) when the Earth was subject to many impacts from asteroids or comets, which could have easily ended any existing life at the time.

Searching for a shadow biosphere of a life that has a largely different bio-chemistry requires thinking outside

Fig. 7 - Phylogenetic ‘Tree of Life’ proposing Shadow Biosphere

the box; looking in environments where life would not be expected. So, a list of criteria was drawn up in which this shadow sphere of alter-nate life may possibly be found;1) Low sulphur environments (sulphur features in the chemistry of most living things, although organisms have been found to exist which have supplemented this for Selenium), 2) Spatially constrained (under 1µm)3) Environments that cycle between hot and cold.4) Amino acids of an opposite chirality (all life on Earth use left-handed)5) Different DNA base materials.and 6) Different amino acids.

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Fig. 9 - Stellar debris of the Large Magellenic Cloud

One of the places to search for life that may be part of the shadow bio-sphere is in extreme conditions. Studying hydrothermal vents on the ocean bed, even organisms have found a way to adapt and survive here; thermophiles - able to handle the high temperatures. In analysis however, we still find they share a similar biochemistry.

Same Planet?Conditions on an early Earth weren’t always suited to life that we are famil-liar with today. Approximately 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth’s atmos-phere underwent sudden oxygenation as a byproduct of an adaptation to the current environment by an organism. In this case, cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) using photosynthesis, initiating a mass extinction of organ-isms not reliant on oxygen. Survival of the fittest, or in this case, the most suited.

A microbia l genet ic ist at t he University of Maryland, Shiladitya D a s S a r m a , a l s o s u g ge s t e d a

hypothesis that early Earth was actually more purple in colour, than green. He remarked on the oddity of current photosynthetic life’s choice to absorb red and blue light and ref lect green light, even though it contains the most energy, as the peak of the Sun’s electromagnetic is in the visible green band of the spectrum. An answer, he believes in which Retinal-based (a form of Vitamin A) life, reflecting red and blue light so appearing purple in colour and absorbing green was actually the dominant photosynthetic. Therefore, chlorophyll filled the leftover niche to collect the red and blue wavelengths of light. However Retinol-based life obviously did not remain the domi-nant photosynthetic, possibly due to efficiency.

Made Of Star StuffFollowing the words of astrono-mer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan, it could be likely that alien life may follow a linked biochemistry to our-selves. With the same abundant materials around the universe, the same manufacture of organic chem-istry doesn’t just happen here in our neighbourhood; stars manufacturing complex organic chemistry within circumstellar clouds and supernovae (See Fig. 9), interstellar clouds can form complex molecules where the likelihood of collisions is lower so the chances of being undisturbed is increased, and the surface of icy dust grains allow molecules to gather and react. UV and gamma rays travelling through space can also play a part in chemical reactions. If these end up in suitable conditions, life could very well arise elsewhere.

Fig. 8 - the Purple Earth

Fig. 8 - Tube worms surviving near a hydrothermal vent

So What Next? What is the future of life biochemically and are we sure we have the imagination to recognise it when we see it? There is a lot of scope for the possibil-ity of life in the cosmos and with the amazing degree of variables to consider regarding “habitable” con-ditions and the available materials from which life can form, the realms of possibility could be endless and make it difficult to nail

down what potential alien biochem-istry is likely to exist. The definition of life has been constantly redefined as we have discovered more exotic life that perhaps doesn’t fit with what we first conceived.

Although the discovery of life is a constantly tackled topic of discussion, with huge technological advances, it may be true that we could soon end up creating life of our own. Artificial intelligence in machines is an ever-growing field and it is very possible in the near future, that these may fulfill our rudimentary definition for life. We already know of programs and viruses that can replicate and evolve so why does life just have to be biochemical?

There are also concepts and theories that go far beyond simple machin-ery. In 1994, Leonard Adleman (a Professor of Computer Science and Molecular Biology at the University of South California) came up with the concept of ‘DNA computing’, utilising strands of DNA to solve a complex mathematics problem. It is this same concept that scientists believe that, in the same way infor-mation can be stored in our genes and transmitted, we will hopefully be able synthesise computing functions from DNA and also further decrease the size needed for a multitude of technology, down to a nano-scale.

If and when humanity does end up engineering organic mol-ecules such as DNA, the building blocks of our own life, into technol-ogy for our own uses, are we further blurring the lines of what defines life? I think the answer is yes but as so rightly put by Carl Sagan; “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”

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3Ask an AstronomerWhy don’t we see any green stars when looking through a telescope with the naked eye?

Good question, and one that requires some tricky physics to explain. We look up into the night sky and see all manner of col-ours, but never green. Why is this? Well the reasoning lies not within the stars, but within us. Our eyes contain light sensitive cells called cones. There are three kinds of colour that the cones detect: ones sensitive to red, others to blue, and finally to green. Because celestial objects don’t just emit one wavelength of light (they emit photons in a range of wavelengths) the colours get mixed up and we see them as white. If you refer to graphs known as ‘blackbody curves’: that is, relative brightness of an object against its wavelength, you can see that an object will emit a majority of light at a certain colour. But as there are other colours too, our eyes blend them together. As green is in the middle of the spectrum, even if a star peaks in the green it will still emit other colours, making it appear white. The only way we’d see a green star is if it emitted only green light, and that is seem-ingly impossible. (Credit: Olly Walker)

How do we know what the internal structure of the Sun is like?

vibrations that travel through it, which are usually propa-gated as a result of earthquakes and are monitored using seismographs stationed at various points on the Earth’s sur-face. It is the timing, strength and properties of these waves at these locations that give us clues to our planet’s internal structure. Unfortunately we cannot measure vibrations in the same way with our Sun, but it is still possible to do so. This can be done by monitoring surface wave oscillations using an instrument such as the Michelson Doppler Imager from the SoHO spacecraft launched by NASA and ESA in 1995, which uses the principle of the Doppler shift of spec-tral lines to detect the rise and falls of waves on its surface by calculating their velocities. By determining the motion of these waves and how they are affected by propagation within the Sun and across its surface, scientists can start to build a picture of what the Sun’s interior is really like. (Credit: Jon Pratt)

Where is the Sun in relation to the Galactic Plane?

In the eighteenth century William Herschel found through observation that the dis-tribution of stars throughout the Milky Way was approximately the same from centre to edge; he therefore (wrongly) deduced that the Solar System was located at the centre. Up until the early 20th century Herschel’s theory was widely accepted until Robert J. Trumpler realised that space isn’t in fact a perfect vacuum. He found that interstellar dust from the spiral arms of the Milky Way concentrates along the galactic plane, dimming the light from stars at the centre; a phenomenon called interstellar extinction. From Trumpler’s study of the distances to the known globular clusters in our galaxy which we know lie outside the galactic plane, we now know that we are situated approximately 25,000 light-years from the galactic centre in the Orion arm of the Milky Way. And by sight, we see that the galactic plane is orientated by roughly 60 degrees to the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, and currently it is known that we are above the galactic plane heading towards the north Galactic pole. However, every 33 million years or so the Solar System crosses over the galactic plane as we ‘bob’ our way up and down within the disk around the galactic core whilst still completing our 250 million year orbit. (Credit: Amy Marklew)

A mosaic of the extreme ultraviolet, first, images from STEREO-A’s SECCHI/Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope

The best ideas as to what the interior of the Sun is like have been formulated using a method known as ‘helioseismology’. As on Earth, we gather evidence regarding our own planet’s interior by measuring the

Internal structure of the Sun and propogation of waves within

Shape of our Galaxy as deduced from star counts by William Herschel in 1785

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Gene Roddenberry has inspired a number of generations with his creations, namely Star Trek, and I for one am no exception (zooming around the living room pretending to be the Starship Enterprise… or maybe that was just me…) and as I get older, I start to wonder a little more about the plausibility of it all, could someone one day sit in a chair not unlike the ones on the show and say ‘Engage!’ to a disgruntled man wearing a hairband over his eyes (me again I’m thinking). Obviously first thing’s first, you need to make your ship move; the legendary warp drive that can take you from one place to another faster than the speed of light, and you don’t even have to worry about the G’s, as you can continue on inside your ship as if you weren’t going at trillions of miles an hour.

Science in FictionStar Trek: Warp Speed

by Jason Wotherspoon

That’s because you technically you wouldn’t be moving at tril-lions of mph, the ‘gravimetric field displacement manifold’ (warp core to you and I) would create a bubble of ‘nor-mal’ space in which the ship existed. The Alcubierre drive/Alcubierre metric is a theory that states that if you create a device that can manipulate the geometry of space, and com-press the space infront of a ‘bubble’ of ‘normal’ space, and expand the space behind, and in essence your ship would surf through space, not only that, but this Alcubierre drive would adhere to and manipulate Einstein’s theory of general relativ-ity.Harold White whom is currently investigating the drive has stated that the 4.3 light year journey to Alpha Centauri could be undertaken in just two weeks. The ‘warp’ drive would liter-ally warp the space around it.

“So, we can make the Starship Enterprise!” Not that easily I’m afraid, as with all good theories,when you put them into prac-tice, there starts to be problems, and unfortunately there are a number of big ones related to the Alcubierre drive, although estimates for power consumption have admittedly dropped (they were larger than anything human-kind had ever produced and about the same as the planet Jupiter), they are still very large (however, scientists [at NASA none-the-less] involved have been lowering this steadily to a more manageable number [to just over 700 kg cur-rently, which is approximately the mass of Voyager-1]). Another large problem is that there has to be a negative energy density for this to work, and in doing so you’d require some sort of exotic (not normal) material in which to construct the drive, which is the real clincher as no such material has ever been found. There are many other difficulties to be overcome by the Alcubierre drive, and undoubtedly scientists will continue to pursue them, and Gene has many other methods of travel available to choose from, which may one day be our means of extra-solar travel. However, until we find any dilithium for our drive, I’m afraid we’re stuck at impulse, and although there are a lot of maybes, ifs and buts, it still needs something that doesn’t exist (yet). So only a select few will be able to sit in that big chair, at least as far as we can see at the moment.

A visualization of a warp field as a bubble in normal space

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EventsAstrofest 2013 (8-9th Feb) Review

“The Universe comes to London,” the tagline from the banner hanging outside the Conference and Events Centre in Kensington. Not necessar-ily bringing the Universe to London, but definitely some of an amateur astronomer’s best chances to go and marvel at its wonder. Upon enter-ing the fray, members of the public and astronomers alike were greeted immediately with an astonishing array of telescopes, lenses, and a variety of other optical and space products and books. Everything you could ask for under one roof, spread over 3 floors, with scope designs var-ying from Newtonian to Dobsonian, from the smallest to a few relatively large scopes, one costing a measly £47,000.

This truly is a festival where everyone appreciates the sentiment “Bigger is better”, as long as you have the wallet to match. Brian May and Chris Lintott were in attendance for book signings, in light of their latest publication ‘The Cosmic Tourist,’ co-written by the late Patrick Moore. Even Brian Cox showed his face, albeit for a brief moment,

appeasing fans of the public faces of stargazing but leav-ing many disappointed due to an abrupt retreat.

An eclectic mix of lectures were also available to those interested covering a variety of astronomy-related sub-jects, a few topics including, ‘the molecule that made the Universe,’ ‘The night sky in 37,440 exposures,’ and such profiles as ‘A Brief History of Stephen Hawking’ by daughter Lucy and ‘Remembering Patrick Moore’ in which close friends and colleagues shared the life and times of the late, great astronomer. One of the public highlights of the festival, ‘Cox and Ince,’ featuring physi-cist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince engaging in their own blend of scientific discussion and humour, touching upon quantum physics, parallels universes, and much more.

Post-lecture inside the Grand HallAn attendee determined not to miss

out on one of the many stimulating lectures

Whether you wish to buy a new telescope, upgrade your kit, engage in the frequent lectures, buy a book or just window-shop, Astrofest is an event of stellar proportions not to be missed. Returning again early next year.

Kids in a candy store - Telescopes of all sizes available to purchase

A very shiny and pretty refracting telescope I properly cannot affordOutside foyer of the Kensington Conference & Events Centre

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Media Reviews

FUN.Class O or Class T?A profile project to create an H-R diagram of Astronomy’s ‘hottest and nottest,’ rating from the hottest - Class O, to the coldest - Class T, and to discuss and recognise their contributions to the field of astronomical science. Oh, and how attractive they are.

Lucianne WalkowiczA New York-born astrophysicist, Lucianne started off her path to a stellar career as an undergradu-ate at the John Hopkins University, a research institute located in Baltimore (USA), testing detec-tors for one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s replacement cameras, which was installed in 2002. She then also went onto complete a PhD doctorate on red dwarfs at the University of Washington.

She is a Henry Norris Russell Fellow in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and a 2013 TED Senior Fellow (TED talks). She currently works on NASA’s Kepler mission, studying starspots and ‘the tempestuous tantrums’ of stellar flares to determine the effects of stellar magnetic activity by high energy EM radiation emitted by stars on the habitability of orbiting planets around them.

The 34 year old scientist is also a collaborative leader with the Large Synoptic Sky Survey Telescope (LSST), an 8.4 metre ground-based telescope located on a mountain in Chile, which hopes to produce a wide-field survey of the night sky, capturing an image of the entire available sky every few nights for 10 years. It looks to create a movie depicting an amazing dynamic view of our Universe, as well as pursuing a number of other scientific goals.

As well as being an astrophysicist, she also enjoys creating art using a multitude of mediums; including comic, oil and sound, on occasion using astronomical data to achieve this. As our favourite multi-talented planet hunter, we feel she’s easily earned herself her B2 stellar spectral class.

Kerbal Space Program (PC)Ever wanted to build your own rocket or run your space program and die many times in the process? Yes? Then this may be the game for you. Still very much in development (only at version 0.18) but still so much more than a game, KSP allows you the freedom to conduct your own missions in space and explore a fictional solar system by constructing craft utilising many stock parts based on current technologies. Want to build a rocket? Sure. Design a space plane? Go for it. Do you want to construct rovers, satellites and space stations to place in orbit or use to explore other planets and moons? Be my guest. The sky (space) is the limit, but do try to your astronauts alive. This is taxingly difficult but equally rewarding. With 6 planets, a dwarf planet and 9 moons to explore, demonstrate your knowledge of orbital physics (or lack of) and rocket design and challenge yourself to show why you would’ve won the space race. An amazing game for space-enthusiasts and the like. Available for purchase online at www.kerbalspaceprogram.com.

A space station orbiting the ‘earth-like’ planet of Kerbin A well-deserved EVA after a successful landing on the Mun (one of Kerbin’s moon)

*****

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Cosmic Crossword

Across1. Abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium (11)4. Proportion of the incident light or radiation reflected by a surface (6)5. Emission of light when charged particles from the solar wind slam into and excite atoms and molecules in a planet’s upper atmosphere (6)7. Particular cycle of eclipses that recur every 18 years (5)8. Extent to which a body’s elliptical orbit deviates from a circle (12)12. Point farthest from the sun in an object’s orbit (8)15. Average distance of an orbiting body from its parent body (4,5,4)16. 300,000 km per second (5,2,5)17. Absorption and scattering of EM radiation by matter (10)18. Perfect emitter and absorber of EM radiation (9)19. Elementary particle such as protons and neutrons composed of three quarks (6)20. Plane defined by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun (8)24. Cloud of interstellar gas (6)27. Quality of observing conditions induced by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere (6)28. Theorised source of long period comets (4,5)

29. Power source of stars (6)30. Period between New Moon and Full Moon (6)31. Closest planet to the sun (7)34. Highly energetic core of a young galaxy thought to be powered by a supermassive black hole (6)

Down2. System of telescopes, computers, and deformable mirrors used to compensate for atmospheric blurring (8,6)3. Measurement of stars distance using angles (8)6. A slow change in the orientation of an object’s axis of rotation (10)9. Explosion on a stellar scale (9)10. Low mass star off the main sequence (5,5)11. Study of spectra and spectral lines (12)13. Moon with large crater (5)14. Small body that orbits a planet or asteroid (9)18. A very dense object, such as that found at the center of the Milky Way (5,4)21. Sun’s outer most atmosphere (6)22. Hot ionised gas (6)23. Space telescope searching for extrasolar planets (6)25. Directly overhead (6)26. Rapidly rotating neutron star that bathes Earth in regular pulses of electromagnetic radiation (6)32. An icy body, often seen with a characteristic tail (5)33. Name of first animal in space (5)

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“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”

Carl Sagan

Written and published by the BSc Observational Astronomy students of the University of Glamorgan

© 2013 UoG