Welcometothe

Space
TOUR
OF THE
UNIVERSE
Once upon a time. a man named Neil Armstrong stepped
onto the surface of the Moon claiming it to be One small step
for man, one giant leap for mankind." Join us as we take you
further than ever imagined across our Solar System and into
deep space. Explore the Milky Way from Earth's natural
satellite, the Moon. to learning all about the star at the centre
of our Solar System. Further your understanding of how the
human race is exploring the universe, as we search for life
and prepare to become tourists in space. Learn about the
science of space with the formation of the planets and the
Space Junk Crisis. Finally, you will head into the deepest
depths of the universe touring alien worlds and uncovering
the power of supernovas. In this book. you will also discover
some of the wonders of the universe. and what mysteries
they hold. Jump on board. and get ready to tour the universe.
space
TOUR
OF THE
UNIVERSE
IrnoIIno ""*'IisI1inIlt<l
Ai; __
33_....
-
Do<ool 6<12 &EZ
..
W_o: ........IrNor;.... TwItlor: __1lntC">o
r..-=-...faceIlooO.-<fl/rnotN_.
---
....ron_
Ho. 01 DnICJo
R... ......,......
_ ..... EdIt..

_Atldll..

....'
KaIloMapoos
--
-_.
2tl--,. _. W;.......... wes'ld_. WV13 lX!
010"-011110''''' & Eire bI'
."..... ................,._.<0,"". Ttl 01202 S8e2OO
Dlo'_odln .....,,_bI'
Go<Ooo1 , Got<fI. c.otre, 18 _. Foo-' ""'ost,
NSW 2OB6. '01.6129972 8800
Dlot_In II.- RNt 01 tho W_ "
_!or<e. e.... r;" _tre. 110 _ Stfe<'\. London. SE1 OSU
--
The p<IbIio.l>ef <:anrMlI """"pi _ <lroOC>kill matetioIlost <If n the
_t .... l<>.I_..,lis\l>t_ic"IoI .......... """..... ..... LoItnls_....,.
be _<>*lin _or .... _ thO _ ..n__-'01""' __......""1"..'''....
_ used ","""",.-rIO'"", WPOM'oIcri1l<;i$m..-.l _. "'tho\.I(l1 tho __"".
_to..-.. _IswtO<l rt 1.... Jlf'us_ ...-.,......,.""""...
This_is ILIIII' irMlepeOOen:_ ootll!f,lio1l in ""I' here..
.... ...- "poc. TOIl' oIl1lo 02010lmaiint PuOIiSIW\I ltd
ISllN 978-1909758971
Part of the
Space
bookazine series
I.AG'
PUILISHIN(j
From exploring our Solar System to the mysteries of deep
space, find out what makes our universe so amazing
9
on ers
of the
the
Discover the wonders of the Universe
The chilling discovery came to light in the Nineties
when astronomers realised the universe's expansion was
accelerating instead of slowing, as they'd predicted.
So little is currently known about the mystery. the tenn
'dark matter effectively exists dS a placeholder - a means
to explain an unfathomable problem in a barely more
comprehensible way. Thanks to more recent discoveries we
do at least have a rough idea of where dark matter resides.
Finding dark
matter
Dark matter mapping
The Hubble Telf:'S(opl:' helpl:'d create
a 3D map that provides the fir5t dire<;t
look at the largescale distribution of
dark matter in the universe
LikereguLn
Tl1iItler, 3D models
like this Hubble survey
pJedIct that dalk mailer
is distributed unevenly
throughout the universe
The globular image above depicts the distribution of
dark matter across the universe. The COSMOS survey, a
Hubble project studying the relationship between large scale
structure (LSS) in the universe and dark mattel. as well as
the formation of galaxies - hdS offered the most compelhng
l'VidellCl' yellhat known matter tends to cohabit the same
space as the densest concentrations of dark matter. lust don't
ask anyone what it is..,.
Gravity
cannot be
explained
Gravity is a mind-boggling
conundrum Despite being able
to predict its effect with enough
scientific accuracy to chart the
locations of celestial bodies
millions of years into the future,
we haven't yet entirely grasped
what makes it work.
We know that gravity operates
at the speed of light and attracts
clumps of matter with a lorce
directly proportional to their
mass and is unlike the other
three forces of nature, because it
has a fundamental relationship
With tIme and space, What we
don't know is what particles are
actually responsible lor creating
the force of gravity, Researchers at
particle accelerators on (,;arth like
the Large Hadron Collider near
Geneva, Switzerland are hoping
to find the answer soon,
Discover the wonders of the Universe
Who's

,---wEric Schmidt
Schmidl is lhe
exerullve ch.airman
of Google. He Is
i1lso a celebrilted
50ftwilre engineer.
, larry Page
Piige is the CEO of
Google and also
its co-founder.
He sped.alises in
computer sdence.
James Cameron
Director 01
and Tenni"1aror 2.
C.arTM!fOfl 41Iso helped

Ch.allencet
Peter Diamandis


..............,

spICe vehides.
mmers 10 harvesl them. Up 10 five Ofbuallelescopes are
eXpecled (() be launched by 2014 10 begin lhe survey.
Indeed. lhe exIStence of A.nelary Resourc:rs is fasemaung
because il is ltl il fOf lhe long haul. creating a oomplel:e1y
conceIVable roodmap 10 assel extr.JCIlOfl. If successtullhe
endeavour could prove very profilable Iof the company, wnh
suxlJes IndICating lhal mosl: a5111'fOOs are nch in mlllll'rais
such.as iron. niclceland Ulanium which are in resr.riellve
SUPIXY on Earth. II these eiemenlS could be eXtracted and
iAoc ed il would proYl" invaWble for fulure IndUSIry.
Whal ts mosIfasanatll18- though. is lhalln ils mlSSlOfl (()
mine asll'fOids. A.net.uy Resourc:rs could <IClually providl"
a v\lbIe base from which humans could expand mto lhe
SoI.at Syslem.1f watef. oxygen and coflSuuetion maten.als
can be .cqtllred from off-plane( SOUJC\5, lhen lhe speed
.and quanllly 01 any planned mIonisauon proiect would be
dramatic:.ally Increased.
It might sound and look like somethmg OUt of a seW film,
but asteroid mining Is very much a reallly, and one that could
greatly humanity_ for dec.-.d($ it has been nothing
but a pipe dream and. until recently, nobody had been able to
devise a clear plan for longterm minmg of an asteroid
Tholl all changed whc!n a new company called Planetary
RE'SOUfCeS. Inc outlined a clear goal In eally 2012 to mme
near-Earth asteroids for valuable minerals 5eI up by some
familiar and rich names. mcludll\8 James Cameron and
Goog1e's Eric Schmidt and Larry rage. the company aims to
supplement the E.1rth's nalural resources by developing and
depIaying robol:ic asteroldmlning vehicles,
RJghI now. Planet.lry Resources IS still in lIS very early
planning stages. oIltempung to ldenllly lhe key teehnoklgies
mal will allow lito produce the necessary machmery 10 forge
tl1ese large minlng droids. However,lhe ulumate aim - and
one In whKh its b.x:kefs readIly accept is $lIn a number at
decades iWiay - is 10 survey numerous asteroids for their
mmefil] and water COOlent. before disp':llehing aulomated
Mining asteroids
James Cameron and Google's Eric
Schmidt and Larry Page establish
the first asteroid-mining company
"The aim is to survey
asteroids for mineral
and water content
before dispatching"
automated mmers
12
Firing
lasers
on Mars
The Science Laboratory mission to land the
Curiosity rover on Mars blasted off on 26
November 2011 and is a simply phenomenal
project Once 11 has parachuted down to
Mars, the state-of-the-art vehicle has only one
purpose - to help assess the habitdbilily of
the Red Planet It will do this by performing
various tests in its onboard laboratory.
including large-scale chemical analysis of
its rocky surface. using a ChemCarn laser
to '1apoUlise pieces of the terrain for more
effective study.
Book a
ftightto
the ISS
Sp.JCeXs Dragon sp3Cl'Craft is
exciting for all the fight reasons.
As discussed earlier (see pilge
12) it has already begun cargo
missions 10 the International
Space Station. and in the next
fl'W YCdrs it is set to begin
manned expeditions to sp;!ce,
the first private sp<lCeCraft ever
to do so, It hilS already received
funding from NASA under the
COmmercial Crew Development
programme. and by lOIS olt the
earhest it is expected to stolrt
ferrying up to seven astron<luts
on each flight to Earth orbit.
First visit
to Pluto
Currently en roote to the dwarf
planet Pluto, NASA's New
Horizons spacecralt holds the
record for the highest-velocity
ejection speed from Earth's
atmosphere of any humanmade
object. It was fired directly
into an E,;arthand-solar escape
trajectory with the equivalent
speed of S8,536 kilometres per
hour (36.373 miles per hour)!
Upon re<lChing Pluto 10 201S
it will complete the flrstever
flybys of the super-rold planet
and its moons - ChMon, Nix
and Hydra - an<llysing them and
their environment with its seven
on-board sensors.
13
Saturn's moon Tit<ln is incredibly interesting
becaUSf' It Ius adense! nluosen-rich
aunosphere and a simiLlI to that on
f.arth, with wind. uin and clouds oi frequent
occunence.lndetod. its surface has
simiLilr fe.uures, 100. such..s und dunes.
riYerS,1akes and sus - ahhough the lauer's
Woller' is most likely liquid and
ethane. As such. il Is thought by scientists 10
poIentially be a habit.ll in which microbial
extulenestriallife could survtve. or 011 the
very 1N5l, act as a rich pl'ebiotk environment
for their future cre.lIion.
Titan's
Earth-lil<e
climate
Discover the wonders of the Universe
Discovering newEarths
Scientists are busy in their search for new, Earth-like
planets outside of our Solar System and new advances
in technology may help us find one soon
"Projects like the James Webb
Telescope will bring Earth-
sized exoplanets into view"
Planet hunting is a new and exciting
area 01 astronomy barely two decades
old that, thanks to missions such as
NASA:s Kepler telescope. is revealing
more ,lnd more data about intriguing
new worlds outside of OUT Solar
System, known as extrasolar planets
or exoplanets. Only in the Mst 20
years has suffident technology been
available to allow us to categorically
prove the existence of these planets.
While we're still some way of! seeing
detailed imagery of direct exoplanet
observations, projects like NASA's
James Webb Space Telescope and
the European Extremely Large
Telescope (I-.:-ELT) will bring Earth-size
exoplanets into view and {'\I('n study
the composinon of their atmospheres.
The number of bizarre and familiar
new worlds just waiting to be
discovered is staggering. if estimates
prove to be accurate. In our Milky
Way alone there could be hundreds
of billions of planets, and so far
we've found just a lew thousand. The
ullJmate goal for planet hunting is to
filld an Earth-analogous planet that
could help ascertain whether hIe could
potentially grab a foothold outside of
our Solar System.
The key to discovering an Earth
like plalll't is to find those that are
within the habitable or 'Goldtlocks'
zone of a star, the area within which
the conditions are thought to be 'just
right" for water to form. l(epler-22b was
the first such planet to be foulld and,
while it is now thought to have a thick
atm05phere that may be mhospitable
to life, it was very influential in helping
to spur the discovery of new Earth-like
planets. One example of these was
Gliese 581 g. a planet no mOle than
40-metre mirror .--
Not only wilt the E-ELT's 40m
(131ft) mirror take pictures of
larger known ex1fasolar planets,
it's also hoped il will observe
Earth-sized exoplanets, 100
Discover the wonders of the Universe
3 amazingEarth-like planets
four I.Jmes the mass of Earth silting
right in the middle 01 the habitable
zone of its host red dwarf star. While
a year on this plalll't is only 37 days.
observations suggest that GHese 581 g
may be a suitable planet on which life
could reside_
Another potentially life-harbouring
planet is tiD 85512 b, a so-called
'Super-Earth', like Gliese 581 g. with
a mass at least 3.6 times that of our
home planet but with a temperature
that could potenl.Jally allow for the
existence of liquid water, which
is thought to be one of the key
components for HIe to form or survive.
Over the next few years, as our
methods of finding and characterising
exoplanets become more allCl more
sophisticated, irs likely that more
Earth-like planets like these will be
discovered all over the Milky Way.
C"ese581g
DIIUnce frombrth: 20 19Iw: if'1""
Stu: (""Ioe"e SIll lb.
DI!Icovf!red: XlIO
Mua:37mbdl.... l3r
Tf:lllperature: .20"(
,

"":"';
. - -",,"


-
...
,
1ID85512b
DlsWKf: fromuth' 36lsh!,.,...
Stu: liD 85512 ConstelLation, ""'"
DI!Icovf!red: Xlll
Mus: 3lim bdlus: lXlIo:n<JMl
TempenllI.Je: 25"C
m .. massoftheEanh
I radius of the Earth
Kepler-22b
DlsWlCf: rrombrth: 620 iBhI)@ills
StM:
..........."""
MDs, IFl<nown bdlllS: 2.4<
T'empeRtu.re: -lIlS"[
Meteorite-sized nuggets of fantastic
space info that will blow your mind
10 fascinating
space facts you
need to l<now
BeleIJeuse could 10 RlperDOVil
The red super giant star Betelgeuse
is due to die at any moment. The
event could see the star reach a
comparable brightness to that of a
full moon.
TIle ~ e ShutUe Is _ more
NASA's youngest Space Shullie.
Endeavour. having flown its last
mission in May 2011 is now on dIsplay
at the California Science Center in LA.
There'.lI1Oft willer on Europ;l
....EMtb
Data acquired by NASA's Galileo
spacecraft suggests there is up to three
times morl.' water under the surface of
Saturn'S moon "urapa than on Earth.
The clgnce of extRlenutlUl
We Is 100 per ceDt
ThaI's accordmg to the Drake equation,
a mathematical equation used to
estimate the number of extraterrestrial
civilisations in our Milky Way galaxy.
Mr Drake's own estimate came to over
10,000 alien civilisations.
Vtrpn Gmct1c set to bke
tourbbmto Ip;aee
From late 2012 Spaceport America
began hosting the first-evcrspace
tourism fllghlS court<'Sy of Vilgin
Galactic. It has 400 accepted
rescrvalions already on the books.
A I4apun', wortb o( ~ neulroa
'louwould-IcbMore tUa the
MoonllM1(
Aneutron staris formed when a star
01 between eight and ten solar masses
dies. Ateaspoon of it would weigh
more than everyone on Earth. while
dsoup can would weigh morethan
the Moon.
World', blUftlldncope uny
HI (Of completion
In 2012 the Alacama Large Mill!mcter{
sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) m
Chile was complete<! and consist of
G6 twelve metre and sevenmetre
diameter radio telescopes, II will be
the bLgg<'St until thecomplction 01 the
SquMe Kilometre Array in 2019.
TIN: Moon .. movin. away
The Moon has been moving 38
millimelfes away from the Earth every
year since its formation.
Humans are:.oln& to Marl
NASA olnd Lockheed Martin hope to
send humans to Mars by 2035 with the
jointly created Orion spacecraft.
TIN: S_lose, a billion ldlop;lDll
everyHCoad
The sun burns through a billion
kilograms of its own mass each second.
Tholt works out olt olbout three Empire
State Buildings every second!.
"The Milley Way is a major component of
the Local Group - a small galaxy cluster
some 10 million light years across"
Explore the Galaxies
At the inner limit of the spiJal arms, the b.lr and
hub are surrounded by a structure known as the
5kHoparsec Ring (one Idloparsec is around 1260
light years). Although we cannot see it in visible light.
the ring seems to contain huge concentrations of star-
forming nebulas and young stars, it's probably the
mam generator of new stars in the Milky Way.
Above and below the main disc lies a relatively
empty regIon known as the halo. Many faint,
long-lived stars pass through this region on tilted
orbits, but the h.1la's most obvious occupants are
globular clusters - dense balls containing many tens
of thousands of old, red and yellow stars that are
generally found above and below the galactic hub.
Similar led and yellow SldfS dominate the hub and
bar - they are relatively poor in heavy elements.
which allows them to shine for billions of years
without evolving significdntly. As J result they are
known as 'Population J]' stars, in contrast to the
younger, fastelevolving and heavyelementenriched
'Population [' stars in the galactic disc.
Among aU these stars, the huge maJOrity are Jaw.
mass red and orange dwarfs - stars with a fraclion of
the mass of the Sun, which shine so faintly that they
Cdn only be seen when they are relatively nearby,
Brighter and more massive stars are much larel, but
tend to shine out over huge distances and so appear
mOIl' plOminemly in our skies. SimiLlrly, ageing but
brilliant red and orange giants are common among
the naked<'YC stats seen from Earth, but in fact fal
rarer than they might appear at first glance.
What's more, stats In our galaxy seem to be
gregarious - although they gradually drift apart from
the open clusters in which they form, many stars
remain together in binary 01 multiple stal systems.
Recent research also suggests thai planetary systems
all' also common there may be at least as many
planets as there are stars m the sky.
Within the hub, statS become mor{" densely packed
towards the centre of the Milky Way the galactic
core. Only Xrays. radio waves and some infrared
waves can pass through these dense star clouds
unaffected, but Ihey leveal an intriguing picture of
the strange and violent conditions in the core Itself,
Al radio wavelengths. the core is marked by a
complex radIO SOUI' known as 5.lgittarius A it
consists 01 a bubblelike structure (SagittariUS A
West) a few 1l'ns of light years across - probably
the remnant 01 an enormous supernova explosion.
Embedded within this is a threearmed spiral called
Sagittarius AEast roughly ten light years across.
The middle of the spiral coincide-s with the densest
concentration of stars In the Milky Way, and a third,
pointlike sourer of radio waves known as Sagittarius
A' that is believed to mark the Milky Way's cemre.
X'Tay emissions reveal huge bubbles and twisted
lobes of superhol gas across Ihe region' a mix 01
supernova rt'mnants and the effects of hot stellar
26
Explore the Galaxies
Ascent stage
This 2.8m (9.2ft) high and
4.0m x 4.3m (13.2ft x 14.lft)
wide, Irreguiilrshaped stage
is mounted on top of the
descent stage. It carr;es the
astronauts to and from the
surface of the Moon
Antenna
The parabolic SbiInd steerable
antenna provides avoice
and data communications
link with the Manned Space
Flight Network. The parabolic
rendezvous radar antenna is
used when docking with the
Apollo Command Module
Crew compartment
The pressurised compartment
h<ls <I volume of 6.7m
l
(235ft
l
); just big enough to
house two astronauts
Descent stage
The lower stage of the
spacecraft has an octagonal
prism shape, 3.9m (12.8ft)
across and 2.6m (8.6ft) tall
Egress platform
This allow<; the
astronauts to crawl out
of the ascent module
~ o r descending the
ladder attached to one
of the landing legs
landing legs
The four legs
have large
landing pads,
and hokl the
lunar Module
15m (4.9ft)
above the
lunar surface
Fuel tanks
Two fuel (aerozine 50) tanks
and two oxidiser (nrtrogen
tetroxide) tanks power the
descent engine
The 1969 Lunar lander
lDsidethe
Apollo lander
Fuel tanks
An oxidiser (nitrogen tetroxide)
lank and fuel (aerozine SO) tank
power the ascent engine
Reaction control
thl\JSter assembly
Four cll.lSters of thrusters C<ln
be individually fired for a few
milliseconds to make fine
attitude corrections, or longer
than 1second for 100 pounds
(445 newtons) of steady thrust
Ascent engine
Produces 3,SOOIb (16kN) of lixed
thrust to launch the ascent stage
olf the descent stage, and enables
it to rendezvous with the Apollo
Command Module
Storage
compartments
Aquadrant of
compartments
contain lunar surface
experiments,
spare batteries
and equipment.
On the Apollo 15,
16 and 17 missions,
the Quadrant 1bay
carried the lunar
Roving Vehicle
Descent engine
Can be gimballed, and throttled between
10,1251b (4S.04kN) and 1,0501b (4.7kN) of thrust
to enable the craft to descend from lunar orbit.
hover and land on the lunar surface
Explore the Galaxies
programme on ice. In 2003, just days after finalising
a plan to bring CNN reporter Miles O'Brien to the
International Space Station (ISS). the Columbia
disaster brought the programme to a stop again.
The era of true space tourism began in 2001, when
multimillionaire entrepreneur Dennis Tito, a former
NASA engineer. became the first private cilJzen to
pay his own wayan aspaceflight. The American
space tourism company Space Adventures r o ~ e r e
the deal wllh the Russian government to the
reponed tune of $20 million (12.7 million). Against
NASA's wishes, Tito flew with two cosmonauts
aboard a Soyuz rocket for a sevenday vISit to the ISS.
On his safe return, Space AdventUll'S got busy lining
up more wouldbe astronauts. It has since arranged
ISS visits for six more ddventurers, mcluding
billionaire Cirque du Solei! CEO Guy Laliberte, who
flew in 2009.
While Russia was happy to sell an extra Soyuz
seat when it had one available. it wasn't looking to
make space tourism its primary business, All signs
indicated the future of space tourism would be
privately owned spacecraft.
The private spacecraft era began with the Ansari X
Prize, a $10 million (6.3 million) reward for the first
private team who built a 'ship thai could carry three
people to space twice in three wreks. Inspired by the
early 20th Century prizes for aviation advances, the
XPrize Foundation issued the challenge to move lhe
world towards low-cost sparenight.
The plan worked_ Backed by funding from
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a team led by
aerospace engineer Bun Rutan completed !he
challenge on 4 October 2004, The winning vessel
SpaccShipOne, employed a number of Innovations to
minimise the danger and cost of launch and re-enlry,
Most notably, instead of launching !he 'craft vertically
from the ground, the team built a jet-powered
mothership to carry SpaceShipOne into high altitude,
Rek>ased at about 15 kilometres (nine miles). the 'ship
needed much less rocket IXIwer to reach space.
The X Prize Foundation set the bar at the Karm.1n
line, the conventional 'edge of space', While there's no
real specific borderline, an altitude of 100 kilometres
(62 miles) puts you slightly above the point where
the atmosphere is too thin for aeroplanes to generate
enough lift to fly. As difficult as It is to reach this
region of space, known as suborblt. it's far simpler
than climbing into orbit. The added thrust alld fuel
requirements make it much more challenging.
[t's no surprise then that most burgeoning space
tourism companies are fonowlng SpaceShipOne's lead
alld setting their sights on suborbital trips. Billionaire
entrepreneur Richard Branson was so impressed with
SpaceShipOne that he parmered with Burt Rutan to
make the concept the backbone of a new commercial
spaceflight company: Virgin Galactic.
Branson foullded the company in 2004 and
predicted his first customers would fly in 2007.
He pushed back the timeline, when he and Rutan
opted to create alarger version of the spacecraft
alld its mothership. dubbed SpaceShipTwo and
WhiteKnightTwo respectively.
After training exercises with the first 100
customers, Virgin Galactic has deemed the two-hour
Space tourism
trek safe for an adults in good health. The company
expects to begin commerdal flights by 2014. at
$200.000 (127.000) a seat. It has already taken $70
million (44.4 million) in delXlsits, from more than
536 astrollilut hopefuls. Branson offered William
Shatner a free ride on the inaugural flight. but he
declined. citing an aversion to vomiting and fiery
crashes. Branson has, however, mallilgcd to sign up
Tom Hanks. Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolle alld Katy Perry.
The American company XCOR Aerospace is
developing a promising commercial space plane as
well. Its design. the Lynx, forgoes the mothership
strategy. opting instead for a rocket-powered
Explore the Galaxies
horizontal takeoff. Wllhin a mmute of starting the
rockets. the Lynx will reach supersonic speeds. before
wring up for a 7S-degree shot to subOlbit.
XCOR is designing 1m.> 'ship for cargo and spact'
tourism missions, wIth space for one pilot, one
pass("nger and multiple payload areas The nonprofit
group Citizens in Space has already reserved 100m 101
both payload and passengers on len Lynx flights. Its
plan is to lake 100 or so cil.Jzl'nsc!ence experiments
Into suborbit in <lddltlon to training [en citll..,n
scil'nce astronauts to act as payload operators.
(,.:Urope's leading aerosp.lC(' contractor J::ADS
Astrium annoullCt"d its own space plane project In
2007. Its indudt'S the unique combination of
jet engines and rocket motors on a single spacecraft.
During takeoff. initial climb and landing. the 'craft
would operate Ilk!' a conventional private jet. At high
altitude, rockets would propel It through the upper
atmosphere to suborbit Astrium initially announced
pla.ns to begin flights in 2012, but the ecOl1Omk
downturn led to the project being put on hold.
While the immediate focus of space tourism is
reaching suborbit, trips U1IO orbit may not be far
behInd. Several plivate companies are working on
verticaltakeoff spacecraft to bring p.lssengers to
space stations and beyond,
When NASA shut down the Shuttle programme.
it lost its means of g<'ttlng astronauts to the [55.
opening lhe door for private firms to liIltlle void.
[n August 2012. NASA awarded contracts to thret'
comp.lnies to develop manned sp,u'Cfalt to replace
the Shuttle programme wlthm the next five y<-aTS,
Boemg received $460 million ([290 but
relative newcomer Sp.Kt'X wasn't far behind, wlth
S440 million ([280 million), Founded In 2002 by
Elon Musk (of PayPal fame), the company has already
seen greal success with its Falcon launch vehICles
and Dragon spacecraft. In May. SpaceX becolme the
first private company to bring Colrgo to the ISS,
SpaccX expects to launch Its first manned
sp.1ceflight in lOiS. Musk s.:tys l! WIll be olble to bring
seven J5!Tonauts to the ISS at a ume, at a cost of
$.20 million (1.2.7 million) pcr seat a roTlSlderable
discount over the $63 million (40 million) Russia
has been charging, While Sp.1ceX is currently focused
on serving government and fC'scarch clients, its
vehicles may be the future of commercial spdC("
travel. The designs cxcro:! NASA safety standards,
With mnovative features such as a launch pad release
system thal keeps the vehkJes grounded until all
first-stag<" engines are workIng correctly.
NASA also awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation
$21.2.5 millton (EllS million) to continue work on the
Dreilm Chaser, a vertical-takeoff. horiWnlal-ianding
spa<:eC"liIf1 resembling iI scaled-bilck Space Shuttle.
The spacecraft will serve as a backup in case the
larger Boelns .lnd SpaceX projects don't work out.
The Shutt.le-Iike Spill'e plane approach could prove a
great fit for commercial flights to orbit.
"SpaceX's Elon
Musk has vowed to
mount a manned
expedition to the
Red Planet in the
next 10-20 years"
When routine orbital flights are finally feJsible,
tourists wnl nro:! somewhere to go. The ISS is the
prime destination today. but it can only hold six
people, and those spots are typIcally reserved for
reseilrl:hers on offjcial business,
Bigelow Aerospace hopes to add many more
station options. After the successful launch of its
orbillng sp.lCe habirat modules. Genesis I ilnd II, it's
developing a production version Qlled the RA 330.
Nilmed for its 330 cubiC metres (11.650 cubic feet) of
useable space, the BA 330 is an expandable stallon
that inflates once in orbit. Each BA 330 will be able to
support six visitors at a tlme. or clients can l"Onnect
multiple units to create a la.rger station
Aecause lounder Robert Bigelow owns the hotel
Chain Budget Suites of America, reporters often
assume the new stations will be 'space hotels'. But
for the immediate future, the company is catering
to government and corporate chents lookmg for
microgravity research spilre.
Another tourist optton Imght be a tnp around the
Moon_ Spac:l' Adventures says it's already designed
a 17-dily tnp to the far side ilnd bilck. In May 2011, it
reported tha.t one pilssenger had alreildy signed up
for the $150 million ([95 milhon) tour, and thilt. it
hoped to begIn trips as early as 2015.
US company (,:xcaltbur Almaz, bilsed on the [sle
of Man, Is offering lunar trips on board refurbished
Soviet-era spilcccrilit. Tickets will cost around $158
million (100 and it hopes to begin flights
in 2015.
Beyond the Moon the next logical destination is
Mars.SpaceX"s Elon Musk hilS vowed to mount a
manned expedition to the Red Planet in lhe IlI'Xt
10-20 years, with 01 Without NASA's help. While some
experts estimate a Mars mission would cost $5 to
$30 billion (3 to 19 billion), Musk believ('s SpilceX
can get the ticket price down to $500,000 (317.000)
within ten years 01 the first tlip.
Throughout the commercial space exploration
industry, people share Musk's vision: that PJivate
companies will have the motivation and me.,ms to
advance space exploration laster than government
programmes, This is the reoll promlSI' of Sp.K('
tourism. And with so much recent progress,
there's fC'ason to be optimistic about tcchnological
advancemenls. The buslfless model shows promise,
too. A2012 study funded by the US Federal Avl.allon
Administlation and Space Florida predicted that the
space tourism industry could g<'nerate $600 million
(380 millton) In liS first decade_
Of course, we've had that just-on-the-cusp feeling
for a while now. In 1968, the airline Pan Am created a
lunar reservation desk in antkip.1tion of a new Sp.1Cl'
diVISIOn. More than 100,000 people reserved a spot.
and the airline sent them an a numbered 'first Moon
Flight' card, The tlekets arc worth a lot to collectors,
but they won't get you on a lunar cruise Pan Am's
been OUI of huSIllCSS lor over lO years, With any luck
todais astronauts in waiting will fare better..

:v
Tourist destination
What tourists can expect from
their trip to space
Space station
Excalibur Alman spilCC
station, based on Soviet Almaz
designs, would enable paying
tourists to live al'ld operate in
space for extended periods
Transportation
This transport capsule would
take the ailronauts to the
space station and. at the end
of their mission, it would
bring them back
Incredible views
Alarge wil'ldow at the
bottom of this section would
prO'llde incredible views of
Earth for the residents on
the space station
Crew
Three crewmembers will
be able to live lor periods
on the station, performing
both scientific al'ld
recreational activities
38
Space tourism
What is the Space
Tourism Society?
from Earth orbit could someciaybecome an Olympic
sport, and my concept for 'Ille Great wnar RcM!r Race'
Will be in the works.
What advice do you have for anyone who is looking
to work in space tourism?
Move to LA. Or join the Sp<K.t' Tourism Society and
start d chapter wherever you live. Join other space and
adventure tr.lvel groups and attend lTIE'l'tings. Just start!
Founded by lolln Spencer in 1995, the Space
Tourism Society is the first Olganisation specifically
focused OIl the space 10urism industry. Its goal
is to open the possibiJny 01 space trd\ll!l up to as
many people as possible by mtnxluctng the likes 01
the trd\ll!l and 10urism industry and the financial
community 10 lhe idea of realistic space tourism.
Howabout inlOOyears?
Beyond belief. Mars tourism will be in full swing. and
private exploratIOn of the outer planets w1l1 be the new
adventure for the rich and the bold.

Spencer created
the first interior
designs for NASA's
SpaceHab Module
What role do you want the Space TourismSociety to
play in those next steps?
The Space TourismSOciety is the visionary group
forecasting an extraolinary range of space expenences.
We focus on the experiellCl' and what it Il"lrons. That
is why, since 1982, Ihave modelled the space tourism
industry after the cruise lines, It's also why [created. and
am deslgrung a bl'auuful orbital super yacht STS is the
promotional ann of the space expel'iern' industry. Based
in Los Angeles, we have !POd access to the media.
aspect aOOlt space traveVexperiefK.'e. By goingout we
have a unique perspective inward.
What will space tourismbelike in 2S years?
It will be amazmg. We will see orbital super yachts,
private expeditions ialxling on the MOOI\ the St.lrt of
orbital cruise lil'll'S. the first movie alxl television studio
in orbit arxl a growing variety of space sports. Sky diving
What's next for space tourism?
BJgl'low"s lIlflat.lble space habltdt with SpaceX providing
space access to assemble it and then the people iPngto
and from iL Areally big deal will be Space Adventures
COIlducting the first private lunar nyby mission with tWO
prIVatesp<lCl' travellers. each paying $150 million (95
a Russian pilot. The next time humanity
vil.'wsa Earth rise [itl will be pnvately funded. This
should all happen within the next five years.
"There are ten billionaires
now investing in private
space tourism companies"
John Spencer, founder and president
of the Space Tourism Society
1=
What aspect of space tourismis most exciting to
yourightnow?
First, the fun or designing realspact' tourisms!llps
(yachts and cruiseships) and lunar resorts and spas, I
Iovc desigmng forzerogravity.lt's what I cdll pioneering
the design frontier. Second. the f.xt that going to space is
a tl"U{' hle-changing CKpcrience, and a grl.'al one. Almosl
('V('ryorlC who has gone wants to go back and has d far
gn>aWl appreciauon 01 howbedutilul our home work!
IS and how we nrod to work more clasl.'fy together. This
'Overview' ('fft'dls in my opinion the most impondnt
What are the mainadvantages or commercial space
expIoratiODover government space programmes?
Actually. wa-king together like we are doing nowwith
NASA paying SpaceX to supply CaTlP to the ISS is dgreat
thing. The map- advantage for !Xivatespace enterplise!
tourism companies lSthat they profit motivated so
very eUkient. and [here is no limit to how large they
can grow. The space industry is totally SCillable and had
limitless potential for bolh profit and prestige.
What's the biggest misconception about
space tourism?
That it'sin the future, On 28 April 2011. our Space
Tourism Sodery (S'1'S) hosted adinner in LAce1ebrating
the ten'year anniver.>ary of the liftoff intoEarth orbit of
Dennis Tiro, the work.!'s first private space travellet.lle
spent over a week on board the ISS. Since then. there
have been seven other private space traveller flights to
the ISS, with one person nying twice. There is a waiting
list of people who can pay the $45 million (28 million)
for a night but there is no room Cf1the ISS any 1l'lClre.
Why did you decide 10get involved inspace
tourisminthe first place?
[always Joved science. space and <In:hitecture design,
and In 1978, ll'Nlised J couJd be a space architect - one
of the first In 1982, Irealised that the way to sdmulate
space exploration and development was to create d
spaa' tourism indusuy so ITlOfl' and more people wouk:!
have a chance to go- to have that life-ehanging space
experience. So I JUst started it Never looked back.
What is the biul'st obstacle for space tourism at
this moment in time?
Passenger vehicles to orbit and places to stay. There
is a waiting hst plus kltteres. and there wIll soon be
suborbital flights. Ir"s not the Il1OI"lt'Y orthe regulations,
it's just doing iLThere are ten bUlionaJl'l'S now
investing in and building private spaa:- enterprlSel
10unsmcompanies.
41
Explore the Galaxies
TheArecibo
message
On 16 November 1974. astronomcrs Including Dr
rrank Drake and Carl Sagan devised a message
10 send Into thl' distant leaches of space. The
message was Intended to show the possibilitIeS of
communlc<ltion wllh a potcntlal Intelligenl ract'.
rather than actually attempting to make contacL
"We can't be the only instance of a
race, we just can't be" SirPatrickM""",
international endeavour to discover Signals from
an alien race drifling through the cosmos, Next is
the search for elCOplanets (worlds outside our Solar
System), an area of research that has only gained
credence in the last couple of decades. The field
of planet hunting may be young, but it is already
providing us with fascinating results that may soon
help us find an exoplanet just like Earth. The final
area of research is the search for microbial life.
foss!lised or alive, on other worlds inside our Solar
System. Until now this has largely focused on Mars.
but places like !:.uropa and Titan could also prove
fruitful to explore.
The oldest of the three areas of research is Sltl'l,
using antennas around the world to look for alien
signals, In 1959. Giuseppe Cocroni and PhilJp
Morrison, two physicists from Cornell University in
the USA, suggested for the first time that it might
be possible to communicate with another intelligent
race among the stars using microwave radio. "The
probability of success is difficult to estimate: they
wrote m the journal Nature, "but if we never search,
the chance of success is zero:
At around the same time a young radio astronomer
named frank Drake came to the same conclusion,
and in the following year he used a 26metre (85
foot) telescope in WeSl Virginia, USA, to conduct the
first se<lrch for alien signals outside our Solar System.
He found nothlllg, but hiS research (including the
Drake equation, whkh estimates that the chances 01
Ii/{- elsewhere in the universe is almost a ccrtalllty)
sparked an interest around the globe that lemams
prevalent to this day. It was 111 fact the Soviet Umon
mille Sixties that first dommated SETI. observing
huge portions of the sky ill once, They were sure Ihat
there would be many advance<! civilisations emitting
Every month we ht'JI of incredible new exoplanets
in planetary systems seemingly llkc our own. and we
leam more in the search for past 01 present microbial
life as missions like Curiosity gain worldwide
attention, but for some reason lhe nOlion that we
might be just one intelligent race among many is yet
to receive much support from the public atlargc,
Many people today still seem to have the same
opinion that was prevalent In the mid to late 20th
Century, that aliens are something that belong
only to the realm 01 science ficlion, but this is In
the facc of ovcrwhclmmg evk!cnCt' to the contrary,
With every passing yea!, every new discovery of
an exoplanet. every observation of frozen or liquid
watcr on othcr bodies in the Solar System, it lX'Comes
harder <lnd h,1mer to <lrgue that we <Ire alone in our
galaxy, let alone the emire umverse.
In fact. Ifs a position that cvt'n nOlable astronomers
art' taking up. "We c.ln'l be lhe only instance of a
race, we JUSt C<ln't bt': said the l<lte Sir P<ltrick Moore
when talking to us in 2012, and he is joined by many
others around the worid who <lre coming around to
the realisation that to think hum<lnity is the only
instance of mtelligem lift' is implausiblt', ignorant and
jusl plain naive.
For about half a century we h<lve begun to
seriously consider the possibility that we are not
alone, <lnd to prove thiS hypothcsis SCIentists h<lve
focused on three areas of research, each equally
capable of oo:omrng the first to dlscovt'r life outSide
of lhe confines 01 f.<lrth, Throughoul this fealUre
we've spokt'n to the Five most important people
within these fields 10 find out what progress lhey're
making in the search for life.
The first IS the Search for F.lraterrestrial
lmelligence, or SEn which is a pnvalely funded

4. Double helix
Agraphic of the double
l i ~ structure of DNA.
5. Population
Afigure of a human
and Earth's population.
6. Solar System
Agraphic depkting the
Solar System.
7. Dish
Agraphic oflhe Arecibo
dish and its dimensiofls.
1. Numbers
The numbers ooe to ten
written in binary.
2. DNA
These represent the
atomic numbers of the
elements that make
up DNA.
3. Formula
These are the formulas
for the sugars and
bases in DNA.

44
1. ~
III 1
1 3
\
~
~ 12 1 n
'JJ

.12 ~
31 'ld 1
1
14 1
1 3 I
1

1 1
I
I
huge amounts of power that would be easy to spot,
but this was not $0.
It was widely believed that 510.,.1 had a good
chance of success, though, $0 in the Seventies
NASA threw its hat into the ring. It established SETI
programmes in California at its Ames Research
Center in Mountam VlI!'W and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory!n Pasadena to look for signals around
stars like our Sun or otherwise.!n the midNinetK'S,
however,lunding was cut. and the srn Institute was
forced to go it alone.
srI'! uses a number of antennas and arrays
around the world. such as the Allen Telescope Array
in California, to observe distant stars and discern
whether they are emitting any artificial signals
produced by an intelligent race. Within minutes 01
observmg a star they have an answer, but to this
day they have yet to find any conclusive evidence of
extraterrestnaJ Intelligence. Undeterred, workers at
SETI continue to search for signs of life, and they're
extremely confident that they will find something.
To aid in SEn's study, the hunt for habitable
exoplanets might allow us to find worlds where
life could reasonably be thought to reside. Finding
habitable exaplanets that Slo.i'l can study for signals
is something that will prove of great importance. Of
course, planet hunting itself is an area of astronomy
that IS not even two decades old - the first exoplanet
was not discovered unti11995, But while planet
hunting might still be in its infancy, the results we
have obtained from lust a handful of telescopes are
astounding. NASA's Kepler space telescope, which
launched from Cape Canaveral in March 2009, has
found thousands of planet candidates in b.arely
four years of operations, and some of these offer
tantahsing hints of being habltabk>.
But KcplC'r is lookIng at just a tiny portion of
our gIant Milky Way, which mturn is r!'latively
small m th!' grand schem!' of the univC'rst'. Ba5l"d
on data from Kepler, astronomC'rs at the Harvard
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics t'Stimated m
January 2013 that there were at least 17 billion Earth
sized ('xoplanets in the MIlky Way, That's not a typo;
billion. not mtlll0n, Consider that there are about 100
billion galaXlCS in the known universe. and things
start to 8<'1 really cXClllng. Is It really possible that.
out of 1.7 trillion trillion pot('nllal planets in the 13.7
bl11ionyt'JroId universe only one, Earth, had the
necessary conditions 10 produce Intelligent life? Many
leadmg scientists bellcve thiS to be unlikely.
Kepler, holvt'vcr, can only reveal very basic data
about an exoplanet. includmg its size, mass and
orbit. Future telescopes. like NASA's Jamt'S Webb
Space Telescope, wln allow us to study these planets
1fl even more detJil TIns giam space observatory,
whkh will launch in 2018, might be able to directly
image exoplanets and ('V('n rcvealthe composltlon of
47
their atmosphere, a viLaI clue in discerning whether
they are habitable or llOt. Groundbreaking research
into the possibility of measuring the atmospheres of
exoplanets for signs of methane, oxygen and other
elements, or even looking for signs of artifKialllghts
(just as we can see the Earth at night from space) will
bring us closer to finding alien civilisations,
While we're searching for alien life, however, could
it be possible that other extraterrestrial races are also
doing the same thing? We've been broadcasting our
position, both intentionally and unintentionally, by
emitting radio waves for about a century. If anyone
is within 100 light years of Earth, they will be able to
hear us. In fact. in 1974 we sent out something called
the Arecibo message, abroadcast of radio waves that,
for the first time, contained data about humanity that
could be interpreted by an alien race and understood
to be a call from our civilisation to theirs. It's not
incol"ICeivable to think that other races might have
done the same thing; maybe there are thousands of
Arecibo messages streaming through the galaxy, but
we just haven't come across one yet.
With all this talk of exoplanets, habitable worlds
and aliens, however, you might be forgiven for having
one question burning in your mind; if there really
is intelligent life out there, then where is everyone?
You're not alone in thinking this, Way back in 1950,
astrophysicist Enrico Fermi asked this very question,
which became known as the Fermi paradox, He
argued that because the galaxy Isn't teeming with
spacecraft, or that we've never been sent a message
from aliens, then either interstellar travel must be
impossible (therefore dashing our hopes of ever
exploring the galaxy) or we are the only Intelligent
civilisation in the universe,
There are a number 01 explanations as to why this
is so, but the mOS1 plausible relates to the history of
a planet IJke Earth, Our pl.alK't is 4,6 billion years old,
but only in the last scvcral hundred million years
has it been inhabited by sophistIcated organisms,
Only in the last several thousand years has Intelligent
and senllentlife, namely humans, made its mark on
the globe, And only mtlle past one hundred years
have we seriously begun observing and exploring
the cosmos, and also sending out signals of our own.
Humanity won't be around forever: an extinction
event either natural or manmadc, could cut short
Have we already
found life?
There have been several instances where
controversial evidence suggested that we may
have already found life elsewhere in the umverse
Allan Hills 84001
In Antarctica on 17 oe>mber 1984, a team of
American scientists found a meteorite named
Allan Hills 84001 (AtH 84001) that shot to fame
12 years later when it was announced that it might
conLain microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria.
However, no conclusive evidence could prove
whether this was so,
The Viking probes
In 1976. NASA landed two probes on Mars,
Viking 1and 2, which had instruments to perform
biological experiments on the surface, Controversy
surrounded the results; early indications sugges1ed
they'd found evidence of organic compounds. but
some claimed that the nature of the
which heated soil samples, would have destroyed
organics, wggesting the results were erroneous
49

Get involved
withSETI
[f you're in 1)e(oming an alien hunter,
then there's never been iI beller time to gel
Involved With the SET] lnslitule_ Head over to the
website at WWW.seti0l8tofindOl.ll mOle,
You c<ln aJso s18n up for SET1@Home.a piece
of softwJle thai runs m the bdckground on your
computeJ and makes use of processmg power that
is Olherwise unused.
50
our ambitions to continue exploring. That would
mean that an intelligent civilisation hdS only a brief
period to make a mark In the liretlme of their planet
If we're going to find one, we're going to need to
continue our extensive search. as it may be that
every habltable planet has only a comparatively bnef
window in which Intelligent life thrives,
J lowever, searching for intelligent extraterrestnal
life isn't the only hunt currently on the go. As
mentioned earlier, our robotic exploration 01 the
Solar System is looking .lIthe possibility of microbial
Ufe residing on the surface of Mars, or perhaps one
of the pOtentially habitable moons such as Europa,
Ganymede or Titan. From Landl'rs to orbiters to
probE's, we've barely scratchl:'d tl\(> surface of the
secrets some of thl' orher destinauons In our Solar
System might be hiding,
In the midSl'venties, NASA conducted the first
asuoblology l'xperiment outside of Earth. sending
Its Viking I and 2 landers to Mars to dig into the
soil and look for signs 01 past Of prt'Sent life on the
Red Planet. 11K' results proved to be inconclusive
but they Sp.lrked a hunger to learn moreo; light now.
the Curiosity rover is makmg its way across thl'
Martian surface to answer the verySJme questJon.
And even here on Earth, research is provmg usl'fuL
We've found life in the deepest. darkest and coldest
places, whethel iI's dt the bottom of d frozen lake
or in highly (lCldk l'nvironment5. Research like
this could help us to one day look fOl life on hozen
worlds ilkI.' Europa or llqllldocanng pI..Kcs like Titan.
In this feg.nd. dstrobiologists ale hopeful of one day
discovering microbial life.
Thereforl." in our continued hunt to prove that
Earth is IUS! one world where ute has mack> a mark in
the universe, It Will be down to the work of various
people around the globe to make the vllal discoveries
that could mdicate the presence of intelhgcnt 01 baSIC
liJe elsewhere. Whether it"s experts at NASA working
on a highprofile, nextgeneratton planethunting
machme such as the JanlCS Webb Space Te1csrope,
or it's the valiant workers who are lookmg fOlslgnals
outside of our Solar System at SET!, or even the
asuobJologists searching for bactefia on another
world. these dedicated people Will continue to work
towards findmg alien life. They <lie convmced we arc
not alone in this universe and they aim to prove il.
one way or another.
The Dragon
space capsule
The first commercially produced and operated spacecraft
to successfully enter orbit and return to Earth, and the
first to deliver supplies to the International Space Station
Elan Musk, founder of SpaceK, named
this spacecraft <lIter the song Puff. The
MJglC Duson, because his c1etractOiS
regarded this as \)(>mg as
credible as a the mythical beast.
The Dragon is a reusable cone-
shaped space capsule. It has a
pressurised compartment to carry
cargo, which in future can be refilled
to carry seven crew members. An
unpressurised servIce module beneath
that section contains navigational
equIpment and propellant for the
Draco thrusters that enable the 'craft
to be manoeuvred in (,;arth orbit.
Underneath it is a PICA-X heat shield
that can Withstand feentry from
<Irtll orbit and even Lunar or Martian
re-entry velocities. An unpressurised
trunk on the outside carries the solar
arrays, and inside It contains additional
cargo. A nose cone covers the 'craft
when It is launched to protect it from
the aerodynamic lorces created during
lift-off. The nose cone IS jettisoned
when the Dragon enters orbit. and
the trunk is discarded shortly before
re-entry and is not recoverable.
At the moment the Dragon capsuk>
uses parachutes to land in the Pacinc
Ocean. and IS recovered to be reused
for futun:> missions. 1lK'n:> an:> plans,
however. to fit SupcrDraco thrusters
and L:mdmg gears to the capsule to
enable ilto 1.meI on solkl ground.
After being founded in June 2002,
SpaceX developed the two-stage
52
Falcon 1liqUld-luelled rocket It W.lS
the first commercial project olns tylJ'C'
to put a satellite into Earth orbu on 28
September 2008.
In the meantime. SpaccX began
work on the Dragon CJpsulc concept in
2004, Ayear later, NASA announced
its intention to lund privJte companies
to build spacecraft to resupply the
International Space Slatlon (ISS).
Under this Commercial Orbital
Transportation 5<'rviccs (COTS)
developmenl programme. SpaceX
was Jwarded $278 million USD (fJ7S
million) as 'seed money' to develop the
Falcon 9 rockl:'t.
In Oe1:embcr 2008. NASA selected
the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft
combmation 10 lcsupply lhe ISS under
J $1.6 billion ([ billion) Commercial
Resupply Services (CRSj contract,
ThiS would pay lor 12 r<'Supply
missions that will take at leasl 20,000
kilograms (44.000 pounds) of CJrgo_
Further lunding was promised for .lny
Jddltional missions.
AboilerplJte verskm of Dr.tgOn was
launched at Cdpe Canaveral. Florida
on 4 June 2010, This tested how
well the Falcon 9 rocket performed
and eVJluated the eflectiveness of
the Dragon deslgn. Afler}()() orbits
the capsule re-entered lhe F.arths
Jtmosphere on 29 Junl:' 1010.
The NASA COTS schedule CJIIed
for the IJunl;h of thl:' first Dragon
demonstration nighl to occur in IJle
2008. However_ development delays
meJnt thdt it wJsn't launched until
8 December 2010, when a Dragon
was senr into Earth orbit.
Alter rwo orbits it successfully
re-entenxl the E;anh's atmosphere and
splashed down in Ihe PaCIfic OCean.
In nself this was a historic as
it WJS lhe firsl time a commercial
company. as opposed to a government
space agency, had launched, orbited
and recovered Its own sp,lCecraft.
The next Dragon demonstration
missiOn was planned to rendezvous
with the space stJtion and the third
missiOn would actually rendezvous
and dock with the ISS. After some
dlscussion. NASA gave Jpprovalto
SpdteX to combine the two missions
so that the next Dragon could dock
WIth the ISS, Asenes of
tests and other delays meant that
instead of launching in the summer of
20U or early lOll, it <ltlUally lifted off
Irom cape on 22 May 2011,
As II rendezvoused with Ihe ISS on
25 May 2012. the station's Canadannl
robotic arm grabbed 1\ and enabled tI
to bcnh with the ISS. Alter supplying
the ISS with a few essentials. it
undocked and splJshed down in the
Pacific Ocean on 31 May 1012.
After that mission. the Dragon
officially entered the CRS programme_
The next mission was launched on
7 lOll. As it was grappled
and berthed with the ISS's Harmony
module, NASA's commander Sunila
Williams said that it "looks
tamed the Dragon: The 'craft dehv('[ed
crewsupplies. vehicle hardware,
eXlJ'C'riments and Jn ultracold freezer
for sclentinc samples. It returned to
Earth on 28 October 2012 with 7'>8
kilograms (1,700 pounds) of cargo
Three further missiOns to resupply
the ISS are plJnned and these wlll
include usmg the trunk compartment
of the DrJgon, llowever. other exciting
plans include the development of
J Launch Abort System and a lIle-
support system th,lt woukl enable
SpaceX to Sl'nd manned missions Into
orbn and to the ISS in 2015.
For Jongl:'r missions the DrJgonRider
would be abll:' 10 carry seven crew
members and be capable of docking
with the iSS lor 180 days or more,
Jnd It could Jlso incorporate a launch
escape systl:'m that can be used to
IJnd It on the ground rather thJn
splashing down in the ocean.
Unmanned DragonLab flights ale
also planned lor 1014 and lOIS that
will be able to cJrry pressuriscd or
unpressurised payloads into orbit.
Jnd beyond the immedlatl:' horizon
there are ambitIOUS plans to usc lhe
Dragon (apsull:' as an unmanned Mars
l.meIer cralt. The RedDragon would be
capabk> of delivering 998 kilograms
(2.100 pounds) of payload to the
surfaC(' and could search for water and
signs 01 MJrtian life.
The Dragon space capsule
The International Space Station's Canaclarm2 robotic
arm grabs lhe Dragon capsule and manoeuvres it to
dock wilh the station's Harmony module
sensor bay
The door of this unpressurlsed comp.lrtmeot opens
after it enters orbit and closes before re-entry
Heat shield
Backed by 5paceX
Proprietary
Ablative Material
(5PAM), this is the
best heat shield
currently available
for space capsules
Pressurised
compartment
This section hilS
a volume of 10m)
(353ft
l
) and Is
pressurised to enable
It to carry specialised
payloads or up to
seven aew members
Service module
Contains computers,
guidance navigation
equipment, eight
propellant tanks and two
pressurant tanks
Nose cone
The nose cone protecls the capwle
during launch and Is jettisoned
Thrusters before entering Earth orbit
Nitrogen tetroxide!
monomethylhydrallne
propellant provide<>
40kgf (90Ibf) of thrust
to 18 thrusters, to carry
out orbital manoeuvres
Pressurised
compartment
In cargo mode
this is fitted with
a modular fade
system to carry
standard-sired
payloitds
Trunk
This unpressurised
14m] (490ft') volume
carries
i1ddition<l1 (;lrgo. It
(an enlarged
to a volume of
34m] (I,200ft')
Solar array
There are two articulated
solar arrays, each with
four solar panels
Hatch
Docks with the
International
Space Station
using a
(ommon
Berthing
Mechanism
(PCBM)
Inside the capsule
Falcon 9 rocket
The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rockellhat
was spedfKally developed to launch
the Dragon space capsule. It measures
59.2m (227ft) high and has adiameter
of 3.6m (12Ft) and can carry payJoad.s
of 1360-6,BOOkg (3,OOO-15,OOOlb).
The first stage is IXlwert'd by nine
Merlin Ie engines that produce a
thrust of600,OOOkgf (l,320,OOOlbf)
atliftoff with a burn time of 170
seconds, while the shorler second
stage Is powered by a single Merlin
englill'. It has a bum time of 345
seconds and can be reignited lor two
extra bums.
The Merlm engines draw upon the
legacy of the rocket engines produced
for NASA's Apollo programme, and
incorpor.:Jle numerous safety features.
AtlJunch, the rockel is held down
when the first SlagI' is ignited and
it is only released if everything is
workmg correclly.1f lhere is J faultlhe
engines are ShUI down and the locket
IS drained of propellant. After launch il
can successfully operale even if one of
the firststage Merlin engines fails.
53
Explore the Galaxies

training in the NBL as they would for

the actual EVA
The suits each astronaut wears
for the NBL pool are very similar to
those used on an E,:VA. Many of the
suit components hal/{', in fact. been
salvaged from spacesuits that have
already seen some EVA action in orbit
on the ISS. Ap.m from the addition of
weights and neats to gIl/{' the suit with
its wearer Inside the properly of being
neutrally buoyant while in the water,
NBL suits are distinguished by their
life support and environmental control
systems. These are self-contained with
space EVAsuits but while traming
in the pool, they're provided by an
umbilical cord attached to an external
machme that supplies electricity, water
coolant arK! pressurised breathing gas
Naturally, safety and the health
of the astronautsintraining is
carefUlly observed while in the
pool. Although the dives aren't
partICUlarly deep (12 metres!40 feet.
while deep for a swimming pool is
considered a shallow dive) they arc
for long penods of time. So the NBL
has a full complement of medical
staff on hand consisting 01 two
physiaans, two paramedics and 12
physiology personnel. The NBL also
has a hyperbaric chamber onsue
to treat any dil/{'r suffering from
decompresSion sic1mess . otherwise
known as 'the bends'.
reasons, performing any tasks slowly
and an awareness of the NBL pool can
help minimise these limitations.
The 12,2'metre (40foot) deep pool
is primarily used for extravehicular
activlly (EVA) training. Astronauts,
particularly those embarking on a
mission to the International Space
Station, practice full spacewalks lasting
five hours at a time, manipulating
objects and moving around Largescale
mock-ups of the craft they will be
working on. The fully completed ISS,
at 107 x 73 metres (350 x 240 feet).
wouldn"l fit inSide the NBLS 52 x 31
metre (202 x 102 feet) pool. but smaller
replicas 01 the module the astronauts
will work on are effeclJve enough to
!fain With. The curren! standard for
NASA IS that astronauts. depending on
th(' difficulty of the EVA. spend fil/{'
to seven times the amount 01 lime
How astronauts are prepared for
danger-filled space missions in
NASi\s Neutral Buoyancy Lab
appears to hover in the same place
In water. This projX'ny of neutral
buoyancy is very simIlar to the
weightlessness endowed by the lack of
gravity in space: an astronaut wearing
a neutral buoyancy suit in the pool
is easily manipulated, just like they
would be in spdCt'. but there are some
key differences. The water drags on
the astronaut to make movement and
certain actions (like keeping an objo:t
still) more difficult than it would be in
space. while makmg it casicr to sct an
obJCCI in motion. Thc other problem is
that astronauts aren't truly wcJghtlc-ss
and can still feel the weight of their
bodies while in the suit. For both these
Training rOt the weightlessness of
space IS a major undertaking on
NASA's part thaI requires a dedicated
test facility and a ballery of cutling
edge equipment. As zero gravity
freefal1 on a specially adapted night
isn't practical for long training periods
and antigravity 'machines' are set
to remain the stuff of sciell(e fiction.
NASA uses the 23.Smlllion-Htre
(6.2milliongalJon) giant swimming
pool at its Neutral Buoyancy Lab in
Ilouston. Texas.
Neutral buoyancy itself is a property
of an object that gives it an equal
tendency to float to the surface as it
does to sink to the bottom, so that it
neater
space training
It was forme Apollo astronaut and
second man on the Moon Buzz Aldrin
who uttered the words, 'Forget the
Moon, let's head to Mars!" This is
something that mankilld has been
working to achieve since the Sixties.
of flyby missions, orbiters,
rovers and Llndes have been sent
on oneway missions to shape our
ullderstanding of the Red Planet.
setting down the groulldwork that
will one day lead to the moment an
astronaut sets foot on Martian soil.
At an average distance of around
225 million kilometres (140 million
miles). Mars might IlOt be as close to
the Earth as the Moon or Venus. but
the ruddycoloured pLanet's potential
to provide us with information to sate
our appetites for knowledge as well as
the opportunity to expand our species
to allOther world, today encourages
generations of scientists to overcome
this distance with reLative ease.
However, It was not always this way.
The Soviet Union was the rlrst
country to launch robotic missions
to Mars, with a number of failed
launches and probes in the Sixties.
By the Seventies, howeve, they had
compelllion from the Americans. With
two countries setting their sights on
I.hl' Red Planet, the race was wen and
truly on, but who would get there first?
On 19 May 1971. the USSR's Mars
2successfully raced through the last
of Earth's atmosphere with the Red
Planet In Its sights. Russia was In with
a good chance 01 winning this round
of the Spare Race. With the suCC't'SSful
launch of Mars 3laking place a mere
nme days later. thiS only reaffirmed
i.hl' Soviets' confidence.
However, on 30 May 1971 NASA
released Mariner 9 mto Till' skies above
Cape Canaveral. hot on the heels of
Mars 2 and Mars lIt reached Mars by
14 November of till' same year, beating
I.hl'sluggish Mars 2 and 3 by a few
weeks. Even so, Mariner 9 had to walt
out months of relentless dust storms
raging across Mars before it could take
any of the 7,329 clear Images of rhe
Red Planet that it uillmately beamed
back to anxiously waiting scientists
on Eanh. It saw river beds, craters.
canyons. grear extinct vokanoes such
as Olympus Mons, as well as obvious
signs of erosion from water and wind.
Following Mariner 9's sllccessful
visit. in 1975 NASA launched the twin
Viking missions, each one combmlng
an orbiter and landcr. But that was
It until the mId Nineties. Smce then
sever.1I robors have been senr to
Mars, determined to be the first ro
underpin the principles which will
one day allow humans to set foot on
the planet's Sllrface. Satellites have
included NASA's Mars Glob.l.l Surveyor
and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and
the ESA's Mars Express, <IS well as till'
successful Phoemx and Pathfinder
landers, while the Spirit. Opportunity
and Curiosity rovers touched down on
Mars to Inspeclthe Martian soil for
signs of life and to take a few snaps of
their new home.
However, as we push for greater
feats rhe rovers don'r seem ro be
enough. We need something more
sophisticated. according to adVOClre
of the manned exploration of Mars
and American aerosp.1ce engineer, Or
Robert lubrin of the Mars Society. We
need to go to Mars ourselves.
"I do favour sending robots to Mars
and I am very happy that we're doing
that: says Zubrin. 'They are just
the advance scouts and you know.
the rovers, I love them, but there's
nothing they can do that we [humans]
couldn't do a thousand times faster:
While the work of rhe rovels has
provided us with an incredible
of infoonation. signatures of past
life such 3S fossils could easily be
overlooked by the robots. 'You could
The Orion module replaces lhe C
nowcancelled Constellation
Programasourfurure hopes
to send man to Mars
p.1rachute 100 rovers [to Mars] and
you would IlE'Ver find a fossil: lubrin
explains. "Fmding fossils involves
hiking through lots of terrain, it
Involves pick and pickaxing work
and it involves diligent work such as
carefully splitting open shells to rind
preserved fossils. This is way beyond
th' abihty of robotic rovers and if
you're talking about whether humans
Destination Mars
could setlle on Mars, then clearly, you
have to send humans.'
So to Mars humans must go. And
in a change of dynamic, agencies
and organisations are looking p.1st
unmanned missions and instead are
focusing on landmg the first man on
the Red Planet in a step that makes
SCleJlce fiction a reality. The feat has
become a race onc' again.

Explore the Galaxies

3. NASA
4. Mars One
Adamant lhatlhl' ll'l'hnol"!,ll'S to
1,IIUI lht' filsi h"nhlll'i 011 M.HS nisI
lJukh ,t,m,up M,HS 011'-' dum T"
spt'nd .Ill e"TlIll,lll'd $f, hillioll 10
mill,llI ... s,'ml f"ullnt!l\'ldu,ll, I" lilt'
Ikd PI,IIlt't. Tlll'v Will I", T,.sh'd WITh
,...ttm!' up .I h,lblt,lbl .. "Utpl"t b,l>t'd
nil ll.Hdw,m' Ih,.1 willi""
,...Ilt to IIll' pl,lI11't III dtl'''1I1''',
IIlSl,.lIl11g tlll'1I hahlt,.T, Ilw nWllllwr,
p( till' (lI,t lok>n... "Uhldl' "f Llith
will bt' exp,"-.Wd to grow Ih"lf own
IO"ll. lIllIl<' l)ll'lI own ''",It.. 1,wd
oxygt'll, pt'lfolm 1""',lIcll ,HId, or
lOUI>t', ,I wholt' Ilt'''' pl,ll",t
I'h,' N,lti"llal Al'roll.l\lTllS am! SI'Jll'
,\dnlllll';tr,lllolt J"ASA, IS Iht' wuTld
1t',ldt'1 III M,n, 1l1',,,T
lell'nl d..velopl11"llt 10 ,...nd hum.IIl'
I" M,n, III ,I 21HO llIllt'franw i,
_.bn elml'IITlv ulldt'r rl'VI .. W, (JTW
I' tht' Olioll Mlllri-Plll)1llS"
Clt'W V.. th,11 W,IS ,1ImOlllll't'd
b\-' :-<ASA m201l.lt is Iwp<'d Th,1I til<'
Ollnll {',Ipsult' Will I,.. .Iblt, To ('.HrY
bt't,Vt't'n two ,lIld 'IX ,.sTrPlhlllls
sOITll'TlIlll' ,Iflt'r 202tl, It I'; IIlI .. nd..d
Ih,lt Ill(' O'l,bOO
rOil lid) 111",-hllt' will Ill'
10.> leturn T" M,utidll "Iblt lI,illg
1lll'lh.1I1C' pro)lt'11,1Il1 111''',1.. from
Mdl''> ,;<'IL lmag,,' J .,Iwws Ilw l..n'nT
(Jllnll dlop t... ,t wl,..l.. 'i<,wnTlsls
,I 1ll<.><.k-lIl' of till' (lll"n lIl'W modult'
to Slllllll,ltt' '"lTIO''' ""lier-I,mdlllg
... ,'11.111'" t" "ll(Ollnt fPl II,.. t1ltr,'rl'lli
\'!.'I"ull<'s, dl'plo.... ln.. nh
t'nTIY "Ilgll", "H,.. Il..lghts ,IIId wlI1d
COl1dltions on M.Hs.
The leading cand1dates m the new race to Mars
2.SpaceX
IS till' WLlIId'S llist I'rlv,lkly
)wld C"mp,1Il\' 1'-' ,...1l<1 l,1Ige,1 To Th..
Illtem,llloll,.1 Sp,Kt' SI,.llon ,md 1l0W
Tht' '-',ll11p,lIW', l"Ulld.. 1 ,md CEO Llnll
IIlh'mts 10 "'1)(1 miSSIOIl 10
M,II'_ Fil,T Will bc'" >.IIlII'It'-ll'tlllll
ml>SIOIl tJlll'tlllt'd [)r,l/:oll, th.11
Will 1'0 101 'Ign, of lif.. , It>
long-krill pl,IIIS, howl'ver,.H" Tn
,,-'nd ,l nlollllwd IlII",iOIl T" M,ns III ,I
modlhl'd H'r,IOIl of It, ,.iTe,ld\-, t",i1T
Ilr,lgon l,lp'lIlt', I Iw ill!<,lltl<lIl I';
for Th.. (,lps"ll' to thlo"gll
The M,IIII,.n ,111ll'l'iplwl" ,1m! 1,1Ild
Oil TIll' rOlly snrf.ll't' wltholll till'
!ll'l'd 101 ,I p,lI,ldlllle, Tlw l,lp,ul,',
OWIl dl,lg Ill,l\' ,low IT down "Ilnllgh
To ,1110w r.. tTn-pl<lpubi"ll thlll,tt'1'i
for ,I <,olllroll..d dl'Sll'lll
EVt'lllll,lllv Sp,llt'X w,lIlh To ,hultl,'
.'Itl,tlUU p... opl.. 10 M.HS With The
IIlll'nti"ll "f l"tllolll<;1I1!, th..
"SpaceX's long-term goal is
to colonise tfie Red Planet"
1. Inspiration Mars
Wllh thl' IIlll'llIl"n "I 'l'mJIIlJ' J
mJll ,llld ,I W(l]ll,lIl Oil wh,.1 ha'i lilt'
01 ,I hi,tOlil mi""i'>11 1,I,tlTl!,
501ll,IV,'i, 11l'llII,lllon M.H' Illtt'IId'i
te, sMt'11' rl'lul n ih lH'W tf' LlTTh
afTel Ilv Wllhlll IhO
(JOO lTlill's) of Ilw 11<;,1 PI,IIlt'1. L1,ing
T,'('lmologw, dl'rlw'l! from i'I,\S,\
dl1d 11ll' Illlt'111,IIIOll,11 Sp,lll' Sldli"ll
I'll<' pl"11 I' 10 lIW Tlw gr,lVll,IIIOlh.1
IIlfhlC'I1U' "f MJlS To Shll/:S)wl Ilwil
I1hlTlIWd >"('hltlt' onTo.1 l<'tllrn (OUIS('
t" E,mh, Tlll'\' wlii llol 1,lI1d'm
MJIs. Till' ship, mUaT,lbl.. h,.hltaT
"illl.... dt'plowd ,lft"l I,Hll1lh
_'Ild dt'I,KI,..d prior 10 1('-.. IlIT\{ IIlto
ollr pl"lwI's alllH''iI')wr..
Manned
missions to Mars
the crew out to Mars and because the
return vehicle is waiting on Mars, they
don't need to fly to Mars on agiant
spaceship, they Just ny to Mars in a
habitation module that lands in the
vicinity ot Earth-ri!turn vehicle:
After 18 momhs on til<' surface,
the astronauts then head home In
the Edrth-Ietum vehICle, leaving the
habitation module on the Red Planet.
But then a serond manned miSSIon
is LllffiChed, deHY<':ring another
habitauon module to the surfaCt', and
th('n a third .md a fourth, "&>fole long
you have the first human seulemem
on another wolld: says Zubrm. "TheI'C
is nothl11g in this that IS bl:'yond our
tcchnology: we can do this."
Ind('('(\, other organisations al('
clamouring to be the first. SpaceX's
Eion Musk has aheady staled that
he intends to go to MJIs, while
..,,;;::::.:--...
History of Mars exploration
The NDX-\ sp.KeSult designed by aerospace
engineer Pablo de l.eon for possible use on Mars.
was able to l"Ildure the Icy temperatures and
battering windsduJinglesls in Antarctica
Zubrln thinks he knows how to win
the race. In the he
a daring plan that he called Mars
Direct. lhe basic idea of the Mars
Direct mission is to explore Mars With
a travel-light philosophy: he says
'Rather than buildmg gl.lnt spaceships
loaded with all of the food. watt'L air,
fuel and Clygen required for a round-
trip mission, we lry to make the most
important of these on Mars,
ror example, Zubrin proposes thaI
an ullmanned mISsion go ahead first,
carrying with it an Earthreturn craft
and the ability to make rocket fuel on
Mars by reacting hydrogen with the
carbon dioxide in Mars's atmosphere
to create the methalll' and oxygen
rocket plOpellant and oxicllser. So
now you have a fully fuelled Earth-
return vehicle walting on the MartJdn
surface: he says. "Then you $hoot
"I do favour
sending robots
to Mars... but
they are just the
advance scouts"
1971
Mars3
This was the first spacecraft
to achieve a soft landing on
the surface of Mars but a
great dust storm (Jused a
communications failure.
1976
Viking 1& 2
The Viking programme
reWIIle<! hi-res images,
studied the surface and
atmosphere and allempted
10 sear<h for life on Mars.
1997
Sojourner
Sojourner was the first rover
to touch down on Mars, It
the atmosphere,
climate and make-up of the
planet's rocks and soil.
58
2004
Opportunity
The Opportunity rover has
found Martian meteorites.
looked into geological
processes and studied
surface composition.
2006
Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter (MRO)
With asuite of instruments,
the MRO c:ontinues to
analyse Mars's weather and
surface conditions.
2012
Curiosity
Curiosity is providing
information on the past
and present habitability of
Mars, as well as taking hi-res
images of the landscape.
59
Explore the GalaxIes
61
"The basic idea of the Mars
Direct mission is to explore
Mars with a travel-light
philosophy"
Destination Mars
be able to get [he- financial backing
that they need in the time required?
"Developing a transportation system
which brings people to Mars and back
safely is something that will probably
take more than the few years left to
the 2018 deadline: adds Gromer. 1
honestly wish them all the luck. but
I am pessimistic that they can really
achieve the super-tight schedule:
Another proposed privately funded
manned mission is that of Mars One. a
not-far-profit organisation based in the
Netherlands that intends to establish a
permanent human settlement on Mars
by 2023. by sending astronauts there
on a one-way trip. The-ir plan is to gel
funding by turning the adventure into
a reality TV show. However. Gromer is
less convinced by their plans than he
is 01 fnspiration MJrss.
Unlike the team of Dennis Tito. the
Mars One team lacks the expertise
and knowledge how to approach
such super-ambitious progrilmmes:
he says. "Just simply recruiting and
maintaining such iI Iilrge ilstronaut
corps is well beyond their cilpabilities.
not to speilk 01 launchers. hilbitats.
spaCt'Suits etc. Having big players like
SpaceX [behind theml certainly helps.
but there is no indication these are
doing it for free. Thilt meilns. that even
former pm'ate astronaut Dennis Tito
has launched Inspiration Mars, an
organisation that plans to send two
humans - a male and female. likely
married - on a flyby mission of Mars
in 2018. It's a plan that Zubrin himself
pltched to NASA in 1995. but they
didnt take him up on the idea.
"Really the key question of whether
Tito is going to pull this off is whether
he can raise the $2 billion needed:
says Zubrin. "NASA is funded to a level
of $18 billion per year. Now $2 billion
is nothing to the government but it
is a lot in the private world. but really
if NASA had the courage of Tito we
would have done this when I proposed
it to them In 1995.'
Dr Gernot Gromer of the University
of lnnsbruck and head of the
MARSl013 project agrees with Zubrin.
"This is a truly ambitious plan.' he
says. "If you look at their papers where
they describe the mission profile. it
is well thought through and written
by experts who are very good in
their subjects. However, for trajCClory
reasons they have to keep the 2018
deadline: That's the big problem.
says Gromer. Dennis Tito is only
lunding the first three years of that
profCl=t untllthe really high financial
demand kicks in. Will they then
"Inspiration Mars is a truly
ambitious plan. It is well
thought through and written
by experts who are very good
in their subjects"
Explore t
62
large TV companies won't be able to
alford such a multi-year programme,
not to mention lhl' challenge of
keeping the public interest going for
such d long time:
In the meantime, as the various
companies look to lind the funds
to reach the Red l'Ianel. full-blown
simulated t'x(X'ditiOllS 10 M.us .Ile
laking place. For example, Isolated
lor 510 days in a mock-up spact'Crilft
in Moscow. IiV(' crcwmcmbNs got
the full blunt 01 what )( would really
be like to be making their way to
Joothc-r planet. The Mars-5(X) project
sImulated Ihl' Earth to Mars shuttle
sp<lcccraft journey, the Jsct>ntdcsccnt
craft and the Martian surface- DelVing
deep into the psychologkal and
medical effects that long.aistance
spaceflight would cause. Mars5QO
Identified possible prolJlems and
solutions that cosmonauts were likely
to encounter. Subjected to peculiarities
such as alag in communication
between 'Mars' and 'Earth', ratloning
of food and having to live in an
enclosed space with others for a long
period of time, thl'Sl' Martian explorers
were tested to theIr limits, While
several crewmembers experienced
problems sleeping. avoided {'xerase
to counteract the effects of spac!"
trav!"l and would hide away from
theu crewmates, Mars-SOO, which r.an
between 2007 and 2011 and admitted
three separate crews, proved a success.
with most volunteers reportedly being
in good physical and psychological
condition, However, with simulated
missions to the Red Planet far from
over. experts want to put potential
astronauts to the test even more, How
would they deal with completmg
actual scientific experiments and
walkmg for miles across the tough
Martian terrain?
For such an occasion there was the
aforementioned MARS2013 project.
which took place in February 2013.
The monthlong simulation was
initially based at Camp Weyprecht
in the Mars-like Moroccan desert.
before a three-<lay excursion collecting
rock samples on the way to a second
'landing site' called Station Payer that
had been established by four of the
tenmember team of analog astronauts.
Led by GerrKlt Gr6mel. MARS2013
was the biggest Mars simulation ever
performed by a European organisation,
"The Mars One team lacks the expertise and
knowledge how to approach such super-
ambitious programmes"
64
The Marineris canyons.
iIlustr.dedhere. cook! be of interest
to future Martianexplorers
involving 23 nations and more th.:ln
100 scientists. The team performl'd
17 scientific experiments, as well as
fieldtesting new spacesuit designs
and deployable shelters, acting out an
astronaut-injury situation and testing
cHff.climbing robots. Like Mars500, a
20minute 'lime delay was lncludl'd
in all communications with 'I::arth',
simulating the wait as radio waves
travel at the speed of light from Mars
to I::arth and then back again. Data
collected from such simulations is
important in planning and preparing
for the real thing.
,
And when IS that 'real thing' likely
to occur? The Mars enthusiasts at
Inspiration Mars, Mars One, the Mars
Society and SpaceX would argue that
it could happen by the end of the
current decade, or the beginning of
next Others, howevel. are playing it I'
safer, and suggesting 2030 or later
as the most likely date for mankind ,i
to reach the Red Planet. In the end !
it will be decided by who can raise 's
the necessary money and have the
rourage that ZUbrin says is essential to f
make history by being the first to send
people to Mars..
65
"The core reaches a temperature of about
15 million degrees Celsius, hot enough for
thermonuclear fusion to take place"
Discover the Solar System
-
At about ISO million kilometres (93
mlllion mill.'s) from Earth lies a giant
mcandl.'SCl'nt ball of gas weighmg in at
almost 2,000 trillion trillion kilograms
and emitting power equivalent to
1million times the annual power
consumption of the United States
in a single second. Since the dawn
of Earth <1.6 billion years ago it has
been the one everpresent object in
the sky, basking our world and those
around us in energy and light and
providmg the means through whkh
environments, and ultimately life,
(In flourish. We see it every day and
rely on its energy to keep our planet
ticking, but what exad\y is this giant
nuclear reactor at the centre or the
Solar System that we call the Sun?
Over 5billion years ago a vast cJoud
of dust and gas was located where our
Solar System is now. Inside this nebula
something huge was happening
gravity was pulling together the debris,
likely the remnants of anothel star
going supernova. Into one central
mass. As the various metals and
clements were brought together they
began to fuse 1I1to an object at the
heart of thIS nebula. This dense clump
of matter, called a plOtostar: grew and
grew in size until It reached a critlCal
temperature due to fr\ctlon, aboul 1
mlllion degr('{'S Celsius (1.8 ml1lion
degrees Fahrenheit), At thIs POint
nuclear fusion kicked 111 and our Sun
was born.
At the heart of the Sun, hydrogm
atoms fused together to produCt'
helium. releasing photons of light in
the process thal extended LhlOUghoul
the Solar System, Eventually the
hydrogen and helium atoms began
to fuse and form heavier elements
such as carbon and oxygen, which in
tum formed key components 01 the
Solar System. including humans. To
us. it's the most important object in
the sky, An observcl watchmg from
afar, however. would see no discerning
qualities of our star that would make
it stand out from any of the ot her
hundreds of billions of stars in the
Milky Way. In the grand scheme of
things irs a fairly typical star that pales
in comparison (0 the size of others.
For instance Sirius, the brightest star
m the night sky. is twice as massive as
the Sun and 25 limes more luminous
while Arcturus, the fourth brightest
object m the night sky 15 almost 26
times the size of our closest star
The Sun is located at a mean
dist<lllCe of ISO million kilometres (93
million mlles) from Earth. a dIstance
known as one astronomical unit
(l AU). This giant nuclear furnace
Is composed mostly of ionised
gas and drives the seasons, ocean
currents. weather and climate on
Earth. Over a milhon Earths could fit
inside the Sun, which is itself held
together by gravltational attraction,
resulting in immense pressure and
temperature at its COll". In fact the
core reaches a temperature of about
15 million degrees Celsius (1:7 milhon
degrees Fahrenheit). hot enough for
thermonucle"l1 fusion to take plaet>.
The intense physical process taking
plJCe in the Sun produces heat and
light that radiates throughout the
Solar System. It's not a qUICk process,
though: it takes more than 170.000
years for energy hom the cole to
radiate outwards towards the outer
layers of the Sun.
Our Sun Is classlrlCd as a yellow
dwarf star and these stars range
in mass from about 80 per (ent to
100 pel cent the mass of the Sun,
meaning our star IS at the upper end
of thIs group. There are also thre<'
further groups IntO which stars arc
claSSIfied: Population I, II and Ill.
Our Sun Is a Population I star. whlCh
denotes thilt it contains more heavy
elements compared to other stars
(although still accounting for no more
thiln approximately 0.1 per cent of 1\S
total mass). Population 111 stars are
those that formed at the start of the
umvefSC, possibly just a few hundred
million years after the Big Bang, and
they are made from pure hydrogen
and hellum. Although hypothesised.
no such star has ever been found,
as the maJOTity of them exploded as
supernovae in the early universe and
led to the formation of Population I
and 1I stars. the laller of which .are
older, less luminous and colder than
the former.
By now you're probably thinking
our Sun is insignificant. but that's
anything but the case. Being our
closest st.ar, Jnd the only one we can
study with orbIting telescopes. it acts
.as one ot the grealestlaboratones
available to mankind. UndersJandlng
the Sun allows us to .apply our findings
to research here on F..mh, such as
nuclear reactors, and our observ.anons
of distant staTS. Over the next few
pages we'll delve into the reasons why
studying the Sun is so ImpCITlallt and
explore some of the amazing physics
gemg on inside and outside this vast
nuclear fuma.ce.
70
Discover the Solar System
-
Like the Earth, the Sun has an atmosphere, but the two are very different. The
Sun's canbe incredibly volatile with powerful magnetic activity that causes
phenomena referred to as solar storms here on Earth
Solar storms ale violent outbUists
of activity on the Sun that interfere
with the Earth's magnetic field and
inundate our planet with particles.
They are the result of outpourings
of energy from the Sun, either in the
form of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
or a solar nare. The former is a release
of a large amount of materia!. mostly
plasma. from the Sun while the latter
is a sudden release of electromagnetic
radiation commonly associated with a
sunspot. While no dlJ'l'C1 connl'Ction
has been found between CMEs alld
solar flares. both are responsible for
causing solar storms on Earth. The
reason why these two events occur
is due to the Sun's atmosphere and
its turbulent interior. with dll of Its
components playing a part in bathing
our planet in bursts of energy.
The lowest part of the atmosphere.
the part dirl'Ctly above the Sun's
radiative zone, is the photosphere.
This is the visible part of the Sun that
we can see, it is 300-400 kilometres
(180-240 miles) thick and has a
temperature of about 5530 degrees
Celsius (9,980 degrees Fahrenhelt).
This produces a white glow although
from Earth this usually appears yellow
or orange due to our own atmosphere.
As you travel through the
photosphere away from the Sun's
core the temperature begins to drop
and the gases become cooler. in turn
emining lesslighl. This makes the
photosphere appear darker at its outer
edges and gives the Sun an apparently
clearly defined outer boundary,
although this is certainly not the case
as the atmosphere extends outwards
much further.
Once you pass through the
photosphere you enter the
chromosphere. which is about 2.000
kilometres 0.240 miles) thick. The
temperature rises to about 9,730
degrees Celsius (17,540 degrees
Fahrenheit), surpassing that of the
photosphere. The reason for this is
that the conve<:tion currents in the
underlymg photosphere heal1.he
chromosphere above, producing shock
waves that heat the surrounding
gas and send it flying out of the
chromosphere as tiny spikes of
supersonic plasma known as spicules.
The final layer of !he Sun's
atmosphere is the corona. This huge
--- Intensity
SOlar wind typiCally
travels at 1.6 milliOn kph
(one million mph). but
the aplosive event that
emits a solar flare can
send it hlKtling towards
t/l@ Earth up to four
limes faster.
73
----.Cyd.
Solar flares peak.,
Iona The
of these cydes is
unknown. In petil;xh of
inactivity there un be
less thMI one flare week
but when the Sun is at
its busiest there an be
severall!Wf}' clay.
-- Explosion
A solar can relea5e
up 10 joules of
energy .n it explodes
from tnc SlriKe of the
Sun. The giant clouds of
r.lJon Ill partick5 can
wke up to two d.ys to
tr.Jvel to the Em.
-. Magnetosphere
The magnelic: fl'tld
StnOUndinc the E<lrth
acts as I from the
Surfs activity, but
of the partides IrIYtl
along the rNgrWtic field
lines and exdtf' pMtides

lum auWla to
form ill the poles.
All about the Sun
Howsolar stonns work
Vast amounts of radiation heading for Earth
va Vl'ISiL so the process oIlTWrenal
moving out of Sun beyond the
photosphere is 1101 urdt:rstood.
On phoI:osphere, dar\: and cool
regIOllS known as sunspots appear in
pairs as a result of Intense magnetic
fields. The magnetic fields, caused by
gases moving in the Sun's Interior,
leave one sunspot and enter another.
Sunspot activity rises and falls on an
lIyear cycle, as discussed In the next
section. Someumes clouds of gases
from the chromosphere will follow
these magnetic field lines In and
out of a pair of sunspots, forming
an arch of gas known as a solar
prominence. A prominence can Jast up
to three months and may extend up
to 50.000 kilometres 00.000 mill'S)
above the surface of the Sun. Onct'
they reach theil maximum height
they break and erupt. in turn sending
massive amounts of material racmg
outwards through the ccrona.. an ('Vcnt
whICh IS known as a coronal mass
ejection (eME).
When the sun's magnet.ic lick! is
concentrated In sunspot areas. the
resultanl magnetic fick! hnes can
extend and snap. causmg a violent
explosion on the surface of the Sun
called a solar flare. At the 1T1OtllCf1\ of
eruptlOll vast amounts of radlatlOll
are emitted mto space. wtuch we call
a solar storm when It reaches Earth.
The parudes within a solar storm
often Intcr.JCI WIth panicles m the
at pIancts In the SoLu
System. c:ausmg fantasllC dISplays of
lighl al then poles as the gases in the
pl.anefs allllospl.... e are heated by lhe
pamcles.. On Earth we Jr;ooo,y these as
the aurora borealIS m the Northern
Hemisphere and the aurora australis In
the SOJrhem HemISphere..
Particles ejected from the Sun cancause
fantastic light dlspbys at Earth's pok's. known
as the auron borealis (Of Nortlwm
tl>e._
"Once you pass through
the photosphere you enter
the chromosphere, which is
about Z,OOOkm thick"
expanse ollTWteri.l1 can stretch as fal
as Sf'\'eral milliOn miles outwards from
surface. Oddly. the templ!fiJlure
01 the corona averages 2 million
degrees celsIUS 0.6 million degrees
Fahrenheit), lar hoIter than that of
the phol:osphere and chromosphere.
The reason for this is unknown; as far
as we are aware, aroms tend to ITl(;M!
from hLgh to low temperatures and nor
_..:..Di::,:scover the Solar System
capalje ol detoomg mcom1ll8 sola'
flares lhal could be potenually
ha.zardous 10 satelhle5 and OIheJ
eleruomcs on E.uth.
Of the 12 InstIUments on board
SOHO one of tile' most InterestlJ18 is
tile' Larse Angle and Specnomemc
Coronagraph (LASCOl wlUch
studies tile' Sun"s mona by
creallllg an a.mrlCiaJ solar eclipse.
The LASCO mSirumelll has been
latJeIy responsible lor lnadvcrtCfltly
dl.SOM'nJ18 many cometS near the
Sun. wilh OYer 1.800 lound 10 date.
5OHO has three pnrnary ob,ectlve5
that It has been carrying OUI since
ItS launch. One of these was to
invesllgate the outer regions of the
Sun. speorlCally the corona.
At the momentlt IS still unknown
why the corona is hotler than the
photosphere and chromosphere of
the Sun, so it is hoped thai SOHO
might help to provide the answer in
the future. $OHO has also been used
to observe the solar wind. and also
to study the interior struClure of the
Sun through a process known
as helioselSlllology.
ThL> Solar and
Ob:servalDry. also known as 50110. was
bunched on 2 December 1995.11 was
built In Europe by prime COOlJaCtOr
Matra Marroru Space. whICh IS now
!::ADS AslJium. The spacecraft is
operated JOIntly by the and NASA.
It studll'S the Sun In depth. a.1I the way
from its deep COIl.' to ItS oute1 corona
and its soIa.J Wind.
50110 is ma.de of two modules,
the Servire Module and the Payload
Module. The lormer prov1des SOlID
with power. while the Ianer houses aU
of the mstrumeTtls on the spacecraft.
Ovl'rallihere are 12 instrumeT1lS on
board 50110. mne of which are run
by Europe as well as Ihree from the
Umted srales.
SOIlO is located nea.r to Lagrangian
point I. which IS a point bel:ween the
Earth and the Sun about 15 million
kilometres (930.000 miles) from
our planet. It is the point where the
gravitational allraet.lon of the Sun and
the Earth cancel out. so a telescope
such as SOHO can remain In a stabl<'
orbit to observe the Sun. SOHO is
one of the only telescopes currently
On the scak' ofsa.ar fLues. X-dass storms are most pl7Ntfful. SOHO took this ima8eon
Navember 2003 showing the most powerlul t'o'eJ wflich reiIChed X28
erview
SOHO
project
scientist
Bernhard
Fleck tells us why
studying the Sun is
important to Earth
1. Understand life
"ThE> Sun provides lhe energy for
on Earth. It seems quite natural
tl1<It we .ne curious to know more
about the Slilf from which we live:
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory was launched in
December 1995 and is helping us explore the Sun
The SORa mission
2. Understand dimate
"SOlar radiation is the dominant
@O@fgylnputlntotheterrestrial
ecosystem. The Sun provides a
nalurallnfkJen<:e on the Earth's
atmosphere and Climate. To
understand mankind's roles In
climate change. the Sun's Impact
must be understood:
3. Predict space weather
Our Sun is very dynamic dnd
produces the largest eruptions
in the SOlilr System, The5t' solal
uorms can reach 01,11 planet and
.x!wrsely affect technologies such
OK satellites and power ,rids. Space
weather becomes
imporUnt as our society depends
more 011 modern technologies."
4. Learn about stars
"If we want to under'sund the
lriverse. we h.iWe to undefsUind
the evolution fA plu:iei. To
LRHnt.nt pLaxlft. we need 10
LRlersUnd the evolution of sun
that IIWke up the p1aJties. If we
WMlI to sun. we betler
tn1erst41Od the Sun. the only stM
we can resolve In II'M
5. physics
""Tht! Sun lets us study basic physbI
pbsma pnxesses under conditions
tNt can't be reproduced on EOIIth."
Discover the Solar System
-
Observing
the Sun
Hwnanity has been fascinated by the
Sun for thousands of years and even
primitive records still prove useful.
Discover more about the past, present
and future of studying the Sun
Solar edlpses are.l
popular time tDviewtlR
SUn but USinJllhe CU1t'Ct
viewin&equipment is very
ImpOl1anl for
"Civilisations have used the
Sun to keep an accurate
count of days. months and
years since at least 300BC
Qbse",ations of the Sun have
been used lor both scientific and
religious lor mlllennia.
Civilisations havt' used the Sun
to kPep an accurate count Of days.
months and years since at least
3OOBC. while scientists such as G<!liIeo
studied th{' Sun through telescopes to
discern some of its characteristics.
At the Chanklilo archaeological sil{o
in Peru can be found the oldeSt SOlJl
observatory in the Americas, a group
of 2.300year-old structures used 10
track the motion of Ihe Sun known
as the Thirteen Towers. These towers
provide J rudimentary solar calend.u
through which the Sun can be traced.
The towers, ('Jell between 7S and
125 square ml'lres (807 and 1.345
square feet) in Slle, run from north
to west along a ridge along a low IIlll
from an observation (XltnllO the west
of the ridge the Sun call be seen to
nse and set Jt different points along
the ridge, which allowed ancient
civilisations to track the number of
days 11 takes the Sun to mO\!(' from
lower to towel.
Much later. In 161l. the renowned
Italian astronomer Gahleo Galilei
(1564164l) use<l his telescope to
make one of the first observations of
sunspots on the surface of the Sun, In
1749 daily observations began at the
Zurich Obsl.'rvatory and, sincr 1849.
continuous observations have be<.-n
made to count the number of sunspots
plesent on the Sun's sUiface at any
onetimt>.
Fast forward to today and. aside
from SCI-IO. one of the primary
telescoPE'S used to abservt> the sun
is the Japanese Jlinode spacecrafL
Hinode is a telescope in sun
synchronous 8arth orbit, which allows
for nearly continuous obS(>rvation
of the Sun. It was launched on II
September lOO6 and was initially
planrK'd as a threerlllssion study of
the magnetic rlClds of the Sun, but itS
mission has since been extended as it
contInues to operate nominally.
Another important Sun-<lbservmg
telescope is the Solar Dynamics
Observatory (SDOl. launched by NASA
in 2010. The goal of the SDO is to
study the influence of the Sun near
!::anh. predominantly how the Sun's
magnelic field IS responSible for the
solar wind once it IS released into the
tK'hosphere.lt should help scientists
funher understand the SUn's influence
on the Solar System.
In the future. NASA's Solar Probe
Plus will be the c1OS('St spaceaaft to
the Sun, approaching to within just 8.5
solar rawl (5,9 milhon km, 167 million
miles. 0.04 AU) after its launch In
lOiB. It will probe the outet corona of
the Sun In unpr('('('(Jented detail while
also becoming the fastest spaceClaft of
aU time in the process at up to 200km
per second (1l0 miles per second),
Apart from million dollar
many amateur asttonomers around
the globe today observe the Sun either
for entertainment or educational
benefit, Using specially designed
glasses people can look at tlK' Sun
from Earth. although caution must be
taken to lima time spent looking ar.
the Sun and it should never be Jooked
at with the naked eye. Other methods
of SOlar obselVation include using a
telescope to produce a trace of the
Sun, J method Similar to that used by
AristOtle and his camera obscura in
the 4th Century BC. Again, precautlOns
muSt be taken hen', as under no
circumstances should the Sun be
directly observed through a telescope.
Whatever the method. and whatever
the mISsion. observations 01 the Sun
have been a long tradition Jnd will
continue to be so for the foreseeable
future. ASllooomkal events such as
planetary transits and solar eelipses
provide amateur astronomers WIth
opportunities to S('(' extraordinary
solar phenomena, while agencies
throughout the world will continlK' to
study the Sun and learn more about
how the fantastic star works.
The history of
observing the Sun
7B
.400BC
The world's oldest solar
observatory, the Thirteen Towers
of ChJnkillo, is built in Peru to
track the motion of the Sun.
350BC
Aristotle uses a CJmera
obscura to project an
imJge of the Sun and
observe a partial eclipse,
.1612
Galileo Galilel uses his
telescope to make one of the
first observJtlons of sunspots
on the surface of the Sun,
All about the Sun
--
Different ways to
observe the Sun
On Earth we ))elceive the- Sun to
be (I yellow ball of gas in the sky
but like anything as hot as the
Sun. it is olCluiilly closer to being
white hot when viewed from
sp;:!Ce. The!e ,ne several telescopes
currently observing the Sun but
the large majority of our images come
from the STEREO telescope and
the solla observatory, both in orbit
around the Sun. By viewing the Sun in
different wavelengths we can study its
different characteristics and see some
of its main features in a diffe/entlight
Infrared
Infrared light is responsible for more than
half of the Sun's power output, typically
around wavelengths of 1,080 nanometres.
Infrared Images show features of the Sun's
chromosphere and corona. The dark features
on the image are areas where the gas is more
dense, absorbing more infrared light than in
other areas.
X-ray
Light with awavelength shorter than ten
nanometres (ten billionths of ametre) Is known
as Xray light. Xrays are emitted from the Sun's
corona, the hottest visible layer of the Sun's
atmosphere, The visible areas of brightness are
places where more Xrays are being emitted,
around areas of increased ilCtivity on the
Sun's surf.lCe.
Ultraviolet
Images of the Sun in light are
between wdvelengths of aboot 19.5 and 30.4
nanometres. Such an im<lge of the Sun is at the
lower end of this scdle. and .lllows us to see
where the lower part of the corona and upper
part of the chromosphere combine. The light
in this imilge comes (rom active regions in the
Sun's chromosphere,
Visible
ViSible light images commonly refer to those
viewing the Sun in white light. which shows
the true colour of the whiuhot Sun. In visible
light images we can see the Sun's photosphere,
which is about 6,000 degrees Celsius (10,832
degreE' Fahrenheit) and therefore appears
whltehot. Here, we can see dark spots on the
Stlrface of the Sun, known as Stlnspots.
I
.1749
Oaily obsef\/atlons of the
Sun begin at the Zurich
Observatory in Swiuerland.
I
.1849
New observatories
around the world allow
continuous obsef\/ations
of sunspots to be made.
I
.2006
The Japanese telescope
Hinode is launched to study
the magnetic fields and
atmosphere of the Sun.
I
.2010
NASA launches the Solar
Dynamics Observatory. its
primary goal being to study the
Influence of the Sun near Earth,
.2018
NASA's new Sunobserving
telescope Solar Probe Plus will
launch and become the dosest
spacecraft to the Sun.
79

-

. ,
.. !".
'"
..
..
!;cover the,
Moon colonies
"America's challen,ge 01 t0d3y has
forged man's destiny of 1OlTlOrTOW:
said Apollo 17 astronaut Gene ~ l i n
as he stepped back into the Lunar
Mcxlule wllh fellow astronaut .Jack
Schmllt on 14 December 1972. The
Apollo llUSSlortS were expected 10
IOCkslart an of human ~
explor.ltion. indudtng lunar colonies.
manned Mars missions an:! posstiy
ventures beyond. But four decades
Ial:et:. and IIx! PIPE' dll'ams of 2OI:h
Cenl:ury V!SlOOo)nes seem funher away
than that fateful firsl: Sl:ep in 1969
Irs no exagger.ltJOO to say thaI. in
the year 2012. many had pt'dicred
space to be teemmg WIth human hll!.
The fact thaI irs not s.M' fa oil handful
of astronauts aboard an orbnlns space
SLltion. is a disappomlI11el1l to many
a space enthusiast. 8m is it really
all doom and gloom? Are we truly
destlJlE'd 10 remam COflSlr.lined to our
Blue PLmet left (0 observe the Moon
from afar rather than sel:lilli i0oi:. and
wing. where only a dozen men have
done so befon!?
'If somethmg can be done. II
ub.unalely Will be done: Silys Dr
Paul SpudIS. talking 10 us about
the possibility of a future Moon
settlemcnt. "If Oil SOlTll.' pomt il makes
scnse for the Moon to be IX'Tmal'l('ntly
inhabited. then it will happen:
Dr Spudls is somewhat of an expefl
when it comes to lunar exploration.
He is currently a senior staff scientist
.:It the Lunar and Planetary InstItute
in Houston, Texas. and has worked
on both the Indian Chand!Jyaan
Moon programme and NASA's Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter. H{' also
served on a Whiw House panel 10
analyse a return to tix' Moon and the
estabhshment of a lunar base.
From tix' outsidl' Iookmg in a
posslble Moon colony might SC('m
improbable. if 001 Impossible. but irs
an Idea that has been sttggested by
scientists SIJ1Cl' Iix' dawn of the space
age. includmg Dr SpudlS himself
1 advocate a TC'lum to the Moon
to use n for the creation of a new
5p<lCe-fanng capability: says Dr Spudis.
"That essenually means thai we hope
10 exlr.lCllhe material and energy
resources 01 the Moon 10 buik! a
pemlanent. spilCl!'""faring capability. In
pr.lCIical terms thai means. 'nltlally,
(he exU....I ..... of water from the
deposus near the lunar poles and lIS
use fcc' a vanety of purposes. mostly
rocket propeIlaru but also human hfe
support and power storase. E\'rolUally.
we can bulk! structures from lunar
materials. but water IS the easlt'5t and
most useful subslaTlCt' 10lit! at first.
83
.11 Dec19n
Apollo 17
While the last humalls on the
surface were Americans Gene
Cernan and Jack Schmitt.
_ 22 Aug 1976
Luna 24
This was the last spacecraft to
date to land on the Moon and
return lunar samples to Earth.
r
-8 Nov 2008
Chandrayaan-1
This Indian probe found water
olllhe Moon. and released an
impactor to Ihe surface.
History
of Moon
exploration
r
3 Feb 1966
luna 9
This Soviet 'cralt was the lirst
probe 10 land on the Moon
al'ld return surtlce Images.
r
30 May 1966
Surveyor 1
The first StKcesslul unmanl'led
American Moon landing
returned 11,000 pictures.
l. 20 July 1969
Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong and BUll
Aldrin were the first humans
to set foot on the Moon,
Dr Spudis highlights the need
to quantify how much waler icc Is
available to ensure the success of a
lunar colony: "Although we koow thaI
water exists on lhe Moon, we have
many questions "boDr Its physical stare
and how It varies in conc:entli1tion. We
need ro prOSpl'(t and map ice deposlrs,
eXIT..,ct some water to delermine how
dlfficulrlt may be, and use il in space
to completely demonstrate the use
of lunar water from an endtoend
systems engineering basis,'
Whatever the true qUilnrlty of
water on the Moon, the possibility
of colomslng rhe Moon ls not only
exciting but also incredibly useful.
From a purely fmaada.! perspel:tive.
the plOSpectS misht set'm bleak.
F..stlmatcs suggest a lunar colony
would cost upwards of tens of bIllions
of dollars. an amount of moneysimply
not available to any space agency in
the world. But the parenti"l returns are
huge. in the form of job creation, new
mventlOns and bener rechnologl('5.
POI every dollar invt'lited in the Apollo
miSSion, it 15 saJd that around 20
dollars were remmed to the American
economy. The prospect of a permanent
residence on the Moon would only
Increase the porenl1a] rerum, And
rhis is befole we even consider the
exislence of helium-3 on rhe lunar
surfa>. an isotope blasted across the
Moon by solar wind rhal could be
the key ingredient to creating fusion
reaclors, and Iherefore huge sources of
powl'r, on Ealth.
lIumanity is not JUSt a species
drivl'n by money. though, despite
what some would have yO\.! believe.
We are inquisitive, curi01.1S, and we
constantly strlve 10 furthel understand
the natural world Mound us and
the umvelSE' as a whole. COnfining
to our world and failing to
invest lJl manned sp.lCe e.xplorallon
wO\.!ld be akm to giving up on OUI
natural habits. to learn, and would
relegate us b.lck to an age where
humans merely looked upon the
stars with fondness, rather than the
rhought that rhey could be explored.
The refelence of water on the Moon
is an important one. and is onl' of thl"
primary T&\5Cln5 Ihatlunar eltp!orauon
has such an intriguing talking
point once agam. TIlE' discovery
ofwat(>f on the lunar surface was
fOimally announced by NASA on
24 St'ptember 2009. Found by thi:'
Chandrayaan-l orbiter and impact
probe, it was a huge announceml'nt
wIth faHeaching ramifiutlons.
As Dr Spudis mentions, water
IS a vItal ingredient for any form
or manMd space explOration. It's
!'55ential for llfe, and its conStlluents
(hydr<)g('n and oxygen) also happl'n
to be the primary components of
rocket fuel Previous vislorls of a lunar
base envisioned oJ colony constantly
resupplied by missions from Eanh.
a rostly and tUlIt']y endeavour that a
multinational mission would suugg\l.>
to accomplish, Ie! alone one nation
going it alone. Ttli' discovery of water
on the Moon, hidmg as Ice in the
shadowed and cold rroches of the
deepest JunJl craters. raised the very
real possibility of a lunar colony being
Sl'lf-sustaming. rather than rehant on
resupplies from Earth,
'Water on the- Moon is tlll' most
important discovery for spacenlght
since thi.' rocket equation: explams
Dr Spudls, 'It means that we can
learn how to 'hvc off lhe land' on the
Moon, an essential sklU for any SpJCC'-
Fanng species.'
It's not quite as easy as l.Jndlng on
the Moon and scooping up buckelFuls
of waler, however. While water ICt'
('xist.s, us quantities are up for deb.lte.
The !owest estimates place 11 at
makmg up lust 0.00001 per cent of
a portion of lunar soil. sparser thJn
the driest deserts on E.1rth Upper
estimates suggest a quanllty of 85 per
rent, a much more uselul..,mount If
COllect. In March 2010. Chandrayaan1
agam mdde.m Important discovery,
this time llnding 40 permanently
darkened craters neaJ the Moon's poles
with a potentiaJ 600 million metric
tons (1.3 trillion pounds) of Willer ice If
the upper eslimate holds uue.
84
"Technically, we're
not far away from
returning man to the
Moon ana creating a
Moon base"
Dr Paul Spudls. seniorstaffsdentist.
LunarandPlanetary Institute
Discover the Solar System
-
Moon colonies
-
Privatising
the Moon
The besl: WiJY to coIorusl' the Moon
mighl be ID INhse the commen::ial
benefItS of il, seulement
expl'ft AI Globus told us. Globus has
(l"evxlUSIy woRed on the ISS from
Earth and. alongside betng chairman
of the N.a11Ollil1 Space Sooety's Space
Setllefneont Advocacy Commlltee. he
IS a big proponent of seulement
and has WYil:ten many paJX'fS on
lhe subject.
By the end of the 2010s. Globus
said. governments around the
wiD haw a number of landers and
orollers OIl and around the Moon.
The big change in manned space
exploration, however. will be the huge
growth of the private sector. Sub-
orbtlaltourism (with the hkes ol Virgin
Galactic') willl4ke-off. with O'Ier LOOO
people a Y\'ar reaching space by 2020.
The next two decades will see luna.r
mming companies begm to spring up
on the Moon. he continued. although
they cook! struggle financially at
first The key For their success will
be the growth of the space tounsm
Industry; even though the ISS will be
d<'COmmissioned in the early 20205,
space hotels will be launched into
Earth OIbil and expand the priville
space SC'Ctor. Over the next 50 years
the number of spdCe tounsts could
grow to millions. no! jusllhouSolnds
This. Globus saKI. IS where
privatismg the Moon will be key.
Mining rt'SOUrces from the IUndf
surface. such as water, could provide
essential supp1Jes for these hol.els.lt11
lake a while lor IUThlf mInes to become
profitable. but by the 2070s they could
be supplying mosI of the m.Jten.l1s
IX'Cl'SSolry lor spact' hotels.
Furthermore. If NASA or aoother
agency mnsuucts a lunar m.JSS dm'el'
on the' Moon. whICh would allow for
cargo to be sentlwck to Eanh. then
Gtobus s.u:I the kmar mmlf13 business
wd\ become exlremdy profitable.
a1k:Iwi.ng I( to potentially dormNte the
metal markets on Eanh.ln ttlt 2050s
these mines would need a crew of
jus( 20 people. b.rt by the 2080s
could be lhoosaods fA people hVlng on
ttlt Moon.loti Oper.lllng them.
"From a policy perspective, we are light years
away, mainly because few people recognise
the value of the Moon" DrPaulSpudis
The colonisation of the Moon IS a vital
stepping stone in our grandel scheme
of E.'xploratiOll.
That's not to mention thE.' constant
threat our planet is under from
extinction. It's easy to forget that
lust 65 million years ago, a mE.'rE.' 1.<1
per CE.'nt of our planet's 4.5 billion
year E.'XlStE.'nce, an asteroid Wiped
out almost every liVing thing on the
surface. We know that there's no
impending impact event, but one is
likE.'ly to OCCUi at some point With no
otherworld colonies to inhabit. we are
doomed to extinction.
'The Moon SE'rves as our nrst off
shore CO.lling station' on the oct'an
of space: agrees Dr Spudis, 'We can
USE' its material to fUE.'l a permanem
transportation system. one that
allows us to not only access the Moon
and explorE.' it in detail. but more
importantly, to routinely acct'SS all of
cislunar space [thE.' zone between thE.'
arth and thE.' Moon], whE.'rE.' all of OUi
satellite assets reside, The Moon is also
a maiOl scientific fCSOUlce lx>cauS("
it records in detail a period of Solar
System history thal has Ix>en erased
from the Earth:
So. If IV(' IV('re to decide to build
a lunar colony. could it be done?
'Technically, we're not far away from
returning man to thE.' Moon and
creaung a Moon baSE' at all: says Dr
Spudis. 'We have all the individual
piecE'S and tcchnology IV(' would neE.'d
to live and work on the Moon right
now: Technology, however, is 1101 the
problem, explains Dr Spudis: 'From a
policy perspective, we are light yeaJs
away, mainly bE.'cause f{'W people
recogniSE' the value of the Moon as 1
have described it here. I am trying to
change those mispercepuons:
Many agencies have carried out
studies into the feasibihty of a lunar
colony, reaching as far back as 1959
wt\{'n the US Army first established a
plan to build a fort all the Moon with
two astronauts. Known as Project
llorizon, it would have required about
150 separate rocket launches, maklOg
it unattractive from a cost perspective.
Various proposals have followed,
and in the 21st Century numerous
countries have at least announced
their intentions to build a base on
the Moon {see 'A small step' baxout
on page ~ including Japall. Russia
and ttK' USA.lt is NASA, however,
that has carried out the most research
in the area. For example, it has bE.'en
testing its Lunar f,.lectr!c Rover for
several years now and, while it might
be repurposed for use on an asteroid
rather than the Moon, it could providE.'
weeks of habitation lor astronauts on
ttK' Moon if deployed.
All forms of research, though, have
focused on visits longer than the
Apollo missions (so over three days)
but nO!: quite at a level of permanent
habitation. As Dr Spudts E.'xplains, we
still havE.' problems to overcome If WE.'
are to coloniSE' the Moon. "Although
we understand how to extract and
use lunar resources in throry, IV('
have not done so in practice: he
says, "The biggest need right now is
experience: in aCct'SSing and surveymg
thE.' lee deposits. in digging up the
Ice and processing It into water, in
converting that water into its gaseous
components, in cryogemcally freezing
the gases into liquids and, finally,
using the producl in a variety of
applications, We understand how to do
all these thmgs in theory, we simply
IlE'ed to learn to do them to learn
where the problems are:
Overcoming these problems and
testing key technologies are imperallve
goals if IV(' are to achieve the ultimate
dream of building a settlement or
colony on the Moon. There's littJe
doubt, however, that positive progress
is being made in many of the
necE'Ssary areas by several nations
around the world. Lunar COlonies are
I10l just the fancy of space vlsionalles
any more; they will playa useful
and important role in our continued
exploration of the Solar System, and
provide us wlth an offworld habitat
the likes of which have never been
seen befofl'. 'J beheve that the Moon
is a critical enabling step into the
Solar System: says Or SpUdlS. It is a
stepping stone to space capability:.
as
The rings of Jupiter
--
::::.mown
What are Jupiter's rings
made of. how big are
they and how were
they formed?
Halo ring
The mennost hiIo m, wetehei
from around 92.000km (57.000
miles) tojust over 12O.000Iun
(78.000) and is the ttQest of
Jupiter's mgs tkough the verticA n's
stwped like oj tOf\l5 Id is slgMlCMltly
less bright tNn the rWl& despite
nwny Unes wider and lhickel'.
The dust PficIes that the H.JIo
mg is oomposed of are less llyn
15 rricrometres in diameter.mll are
mostly derived from the main ring.
Main ring
TN!; narrow ring is just 6.SOOkm
(4,000 miles) wide and slfetches
from 122.500km {76.000 miles} and
129.000km (80,OOO miles). It's the
brightest of the rings and fringes on
the smallesl of Jupiter's rOOf
innef moons. The main ring's dusty
composition isn't evenly dlslrlbuted
and is divided into regions of varied
thickness mal saner Nghl more
effectively than the other rings. Still, it
W3S faint enough to be missed by the
Hubble SpiKe Telescope and witSn',
detected until Keck viewed it in 2002.
Amalthea gossamer ring
The Innermost gossamer ring runs
from the border of the main ring 10
around 182.000km (113,000 miles),
decreasing in thickness towards
Jupiter. The ring gets its name from
the Jovian moon Amalth@a,a 160km
(99 mile) diameter rock that orbits
right through the Cefltre of the
Amalthea gossamer ring. AS it passed
through the gossal1'lE!r rings in 2002,
the Galilro spacecraft detected snwll
bodies of than Hun (0.6 miles)
near Amalthl!a, whid1 are likely the
debris caused by numerous colliSionS.
Thebe gossamer ring
Lil:e Jupiter's other rings, the Thebe
gossamer ring is composed of
dust from imp.Jcts with the ..IoYian
mooos. h's the faintest of the rings
aod stretches far out to the orbit of
the moon of Thebe u n6.000km
(140,000 miles). However, scientists
are to the extensb'1
of the Thebe ring's orbit. which couIcl
be due to the int\.Ience of Jupiter's
magnetosphere or even objects on the
outside of the Thebe ring that are as f

95
99
and bruised by Jupiter and its other
moons. 10 sits at a distance of 420,000
kilometres (260.000 miles) from
Jupiter, which might sound quite far
away but consider that our own Moon
sits 385.000 kilometres (240.000
miles) away from us and that Jupiter is
almost 318 times more massive than
Earth, while 10 is almost exactly the
same size as our Moon. For this reason
it"s obvious that while the Eanh
exerts a small but OOliceablc force
on the Moon, causing it to become
gravitationally locked to our planet
only a billion or so years ago, Jupiter is
elrerting a huge force on 10. This moon,
which itself is gravitationally locked to
Volcanic plumes on 10 can tower JOOkm (t9O miles) in height and reiCh
half the speed thai would be needed to escape the gravkydtheIDOOD
Alien volcanoes on 10
--
and present are as clear as day,
with large volcanic rings the size of
California encirding either dormant
or active vokanocs.
While data lrom the Voyager probes.
and later the Galilco spacecraft, has
shown us volcanic plumes erupting
from the surface of the moon, we
are also able to discern some of lo's
erupting monsters from observations
on Earth. Some vokanoes have even
been active for over two decades,
meaning that the driving force below
lo's surface is even more violent and
ferocious than once thought.
The reason for lo's outbursts of
activity is that it is being battered
In 1979, NASA's two Voyager
spacecraft flew by [0. the fourth
largest moon in the Solar System and
the innennOSI of Jupiter's four main
Galilean moons. and returned some
staTlEng information. While moons in
the Solar System were once thought
to be lifeless hunks of space rock.
both spacecraft had directly observed
vokanic features on 10. Bearing more
resemblance to a pepperoni pin.a than
a giant moon. it was apparent thalIa
was one of the most fascinating ilnd
significant objects in our Solar System.
Our own Moon is one that appears
to have been active in the past but
has quietened down to become
almost entirely dormant. retaining
little to none of the volcanic activity
that once sculpted its surface. Indeed
only a few planets. Earth included.
have changeable environments at
all. making the discovery of 10 all
the more exciting, Where once our
Solar System was regarded as an ever
present museum of the past. moons
such as this one have proven that it is
still a lively and effervescent place. So
what is it that makes 10 so amazing?
To date. 10 has more than 400
known active vokanoes, making it
the most volcanically active object In
the Solar System, even more so than
Earth. Dozens of vents are strewn
across its surface leaking gas into the
atmosphere, while at its poles and
even occasionally close to the moon's
equator vast icy plains can be found.
The remnants of lo's volcanic past
Discover the Solar System
-

Stretched
10 experiences more
tidal stretching from
its host planet than
our own Moon due to
Jupiter's massive size

The tidal heats
lo's interior in the
same way a paperclip
warms when you
bend it, The heat
escapes through
powerful eruptions
10H,000 GW .n-l00 GW .1'10 GW

Biggest volcanoes on 10
The strength of volcanoes on 10 is measured using the
gigawatt a unit of power equal to a billion watts. For
comparison, ten gigawatts is approximately equal to the
power the Space Shuttle produced at lift-off
e>10,000 GW (gigawatts) .1,001'10,000 GW
Europa
la's orbit is not
circular due to
the gravity of
neighbouring
moons Europa
and Ganymede
Tidal
flexing
on 10
Emptical. _---''<-_J
Because of its
elliptical orbit. 10
is stretched
and twisted
over regular
time periods
Jupiter, is being constantly pushed and
pulled by the huge gas giant. which
in tum is churning ltS Insides. Add
into this that the OI:her three Galilean
moons, of which 10 is the second
smallest but the closesllo Jupiter,
also ('xeT{ a gravltational influence on
the poor moon, and you might start
feeling sorry lor this troubled spare
rock. The influence of the other moons
means that lo's orbit around Jupiter is
eccentric. with adifference of 3,400
kilometres (2,100 miles} between its
closest and furthest points. So, l'Ven
though the same face always pomts
towards Jupiter, 10 experiences huge
changes in gravItational force from this
big bully of a planet.
In fact, the force on 10 is so intense
thaI its solid surface acts in a similar
manner to oceans on (,;arth. It bulges
up and down by as much as 100
metres (330 feet) in places, compared
to 18 metres (GO feet) for the highest
udes on Earth. Bear in mind that lo's
tides are made of solid rock and those
on Edrth are made of water, and you
might realise just how tough a time
this moon IS having.
These tidal forces neate a huge
amount of heat in lo's Interior. and
therefore the majority of its
subsurface crust is a liquid. This
liquid is under intense pressure and
looks for any escape route possible
out onto lo's surface, be it In the
form of a volcano, geyser or vent
This makes the surface a constantly
changing place, with plumes of
sulphur dioxide snow ejccl1ng all
over it. Any meteorites that hit the
moon instantly set' their impact
craters filled with lakes 01 molten
lava from the interior, The
composition of this lava is still
somewhat of a mystery but the two
main throries suggestlhat it is
either made from various compounds
of molten sulphur or silicate rock.
The former would account for the odd
colouring olthc moon, while
the latter would belter explain the
hot temperatures under the surface
where it may be too hot for sulphur
to exist.
As more missions are sent to
the Jupiter system we will learn
more about this fascinating and
mysterious moon. NASA's solar
powered space<raft Juno. which
launched in August lOll, will enter
orbit around the largest planet in
our Solar System in July .2016. This
will be followed by the ESA's Jupiter
fcy Moon Explorer, which is set to
launch in 2012 and arrive at Jupiter
in l03O,.
100
r' .
,---. Temperature
The surface
temperature on 10
ranges from -180'(
(-290"F) to
-140'( (-220'F)
Ughtning storms
lo's orbit sees it cut across Jupiter's
magnetic field lines, turning
the moon into agiant electric
generoltor.ln fact. 10 generates
about 400,000 volts across itself,
in turn creating 3 million amperes
of current. This makes its woly bade
along Jupiter's magnetic field lines
olnd causes lightning storms in its
upper atmosphere,
Magnetic field
The magnetic field of Jupiter also
has another effect on 10. As it
sweeps past the moon it actually
strips off about I,OOOkg (2,200Ib)
of molterial per second. which in
turn becomes ionised and formsol
ring-shaped cloud of radioltion. The
ions in this ring create auroras at
the planet's poles, and also inflate
Jupiter's magnetosphere to twice
its expected size,
IO'sother
~
features
l---.Size
10 is slightly ~ r r than
our own Moon with
adiameter of about
3.600km (2,240 miles)
Freezing (old
One of the most astounding
things about 10 is that, despite the
number of active volcolnoes on its
surfolce, it holsol molximum surfolce
temperolture of -140'( (-220'F)
This is becoluse lo's oltmosphere is
incredibly thin, with volcolnic gol5es
instolntly freezing and condensing
upon eruption rather than adding to
the atmosphere like on Earth.
Alien volcanoes on 10
--
. Uthosphere
The upper portion of the mantle,
the lithosphere, is made of basalt
and sulphur deposited from the
various volcanoes on 10
Mantle-i
The mantle of 10 is thought to
be made of a magnesium-rich
mineral called forsterite_ while ......--.......
up to 20% of it may be molten
Core
Measurements made by the
Voyager and Galileo spacecraft
suggest that at lo's centre is an
Iron-rich core
101
Inler.lClions with other SlOmI5 could give
the Great Red Spot its monslrous t'neIJY
3, Shifting and
merging eddies
Created eddies iIIe i1bll!
to move i1round i1nd
ITM!fge into OOII! MICIIher.
creating bigger and more
powerful storms
as,CXKJ..mdl') dlametel thai 11 had
around 100 yeaB before. If the Gre.al
Red Spec CCI'IllnutS to downsIZe at
Ihls rare. II could morph
from an ov.al shape UllD a more
drcuLtr Sl:orrn by 204Q You mighl
IhUlk lhallhls wellkOO'Nfl leature
won'l bt st.::klng around lor long as I
bomes sm.tller. bul experts belJe\o1!
lhat thie great.age-dd storm is here 10
51011)' 51nct' II Is strongly powered by
numelOUS other pheilOU1t'n.1 in lhe
atmosphere .around if.
5Iorms like these.are 00l out of
place 00 Jupller. whose atmosphere Is
a zigzag paltem 0112 jelSlreams. with
blemlshts of warmer brown and cooler
white ovals In the alTT10sphere owm
[0 5lOrTTlS as young as a few houB Of
Slrel:chlng mto centuries.
1---,-,1-,.--- 2, Falling cool gas
Cooler gas falls
down through the
atmosphere, and what
Is known as a (orlolis
force causes the area
to start whirling,
creilting eddies that
Ciln last for a long time
since there is no solid
ground on Jupiter to
creilte frictlon
1. Aconstant twirl
Hot pses in the psgiaot's
atmosphere are constantly swirling
around and rising and falling
5ln.'am 10 its south and a suong
wt'SIward jet flowing info its north. the
Grt'at Red Spol: bas uilvelled several
limes around Juptler. bur how dxl such
a behemoth 01 a S10rm come ID ilppl'aT
on the gas gIaIlt's surface?
The answer is nor tINT aI this
time despite the efforts 01 pIanewy
scienllsls auempung to unravel the
answers.. HoweYer. whaI experts do
theonse is that the storm IS dnven by
an internal heat SOlIret'. and it absorbs
smaller storms that fallmlO its path.
passing over lhem and swallowing
them whole. Anolher thIng that
also know 15 thallhe Great Red
Spol hasn't ..!ways been Its current
diameter. In 2004.
oouced lhal the greal. storm had
around half the 4QOOOkilometre
4. High wind
speeds
Winds of the
Great Red
Spot (i1n readl
DV@f400lunJh
(2SOmphl
E.1sIly of IT105l famous SUlrmS
in SoI.ar SysI:em. JupUer'S Gre.J(
Red SpolIS so larae lhal II IS vISible
through many Eanh-b.lsed feIescqJes.
The Greal Red Spol is lhougtllio
been in uiSlera lor ar
340 years. The oval red t')'e lOlal.es in
an antkIockwiSe direction dul! 10 the
crushing tugh pressure on the planet
Winds an O'<'ef 400 kllornetres
per Inn (250 miles per hour) oIrnund
lhespot. howeYer.lnsicIe the
they seem to be l'IOneXJS(ent
And that's nor all thiS mmpliclled
weather system has an average
temperalUrt of about 162 degrees
CelsiUS (,260 degrees Fahrenheill
At around eight kilometres (fi'o"!
mIles) above the surrounding clouds
..nd hekl in place by an eastward jeI:
The science of the
Great Red Spot
Hurricanes
bigger than Earth
109
Deadly weather in space
Deadly methane rain
Titan's lakes and rivers of liquid
hydrocaJbon are thought to be fed by
methanerains brought about by the
moon's complex met.hane cycle
only experiencing rainfall around once
every 1.000 years on its ,uid equator.
/lowever. these rain showers certainly
make up for the lack of activity by
dumping tens of centimetres or even
metres of methane rain on to the
Titanian surface.
..._ .... At the poles of the moon
its a completely different
story, however. Methane
rain falls much more
frequently, replenishing
the lakes of organic
liquid covering the
Titanian land.
methane -liquid hydrocarbons that
add more fluid to the many lakes
and oceans thal already cover the
surface. And it is thanks to the moon's
complex methane cycle, similar to the
natural processes found on Earth, that
this is possible.
Rain fans quite frequently on
Earth, however, the same
can't be said for some
regions on Titan.
Springtime brings
rain clouds and
showers to Titan's
desert with tll<> moon
With a surface pressure almost one
and a half urnes that of E,;arth's. Titan's
atmosphere is slightly more massive
than our planers overall laking on
an almost chokingly opaque haze of
orange layers that block out any light
thalllies to penetrate the SJturnian
moon's thick rover
Titan is the only other world. other
than Earth, where liquid rains on a
solid surface. llQW{'ver. rather than
the water that we are used to falling
from the skies above us, pooling into
puddles and flowing as streams and
rivers. this moon's rains fall as liquid
111
Sights of the Universe
Winds at twice the
speed of sound
The gas giant's alTnosphere as imaged by
the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989
Long brighl clouds on NeplUne's surface
are similar 10 cirrus clouds on Earth
So what causes these winds?
Neptune might be extremely frosty,
but astronomers think that the
freezing temperatures might be
responsible: decreasing friction in the
gas giant to the point where there's no
stopping those superfast winds once
they get going.
Delving into its layers of gas, we
filld another possibility pointing to
just how these active storms came
about as the temperature starts to rise.
As things get more snug closer to the
centre, the internal energy could be
just what is driving the most violent
storms that we'Ve ever Witnessed.
reach maximum speeds of around
2,400 kilometres per hour (1,500 miles
per hour), making this dark horse
probably the most violently stormy
world in the Solar System. and making
our most powerful winds look like
light breezes.
Neptune's fastest storms take
the form of dark spots, such as the
anticyclonic Great Dark Spot in the
planet's southern hemisphere and
the Small Dark Spot further south -
thought to be vortex structures due to
their stable features that can persist for
several months - as well as the white
cloud group, Scooter.
"The most violently: stormy
world in the Solar System'
We've all got slUek out in or witnessed
very strong willd.s here on Earth, from
gusts that turn your umbrella inside
out to tornadoes that rip up everything
in their path. You might think these
winds are a force to be reckoned with
but unless you've had a day floating
around the gaseous atmosphere of
ice giant Neptune you haven't seen
anything yell
You might think that Neptune's
distance from the Sun. which creates
temperatures as low as 218 degrees
Celsius (-360 degrees Fahrenheit),
would mean a world frozen solid by
the subzero climate with not much
going on in terms of weatheLliowever,
you would be incorrect. The winds
that race through its hydrogen. helium
and ammonialaden atmosphere can
What happens inside a star?
While the surface of a star - known as its photosphere
- appears a busy place, it is nothing compared to its
interior, which is a hive of physical processes
Helium nucleus
+-
+ '. N N)
'NN. +
+
+ Protonproton
ill

+
Helium fusion
If the core temperature of a star
exceeds 100 million Kelvin, as is
typical of red supergiant stars, then
heliumhelium can become the
dominant reaction. This Involves
two helium nucleuses fusing to
create berylliumS and emilting
gamma rays, before the berylliumS
fuses with another helium nucleus
and generates carbon12, which
unlike beryllium is stable.
Carbon fusion
For StiUS with central temperatures
over lS million Kelvin, carbon fusion
tends to be the dominant process,
It reVQlves around adding protons
to carbon <Jnd then nitrogen over
multiple sequences, The end result
is the generation of an oxygen16
atom, which emits an energetic
alpha particle, This is not a major
part of the Sun's reKtion cycle, but
is prevalent in the star Sirill5
Fusion
power
explained
Proton-proton fusion
Anuclear fusion process that fuels
stars with core temperatures less
than IS million Kelvin, proton
proton fusion Is a common
reaction, It entails two protons
fusing, with one being transmuted
to a neutron. forming deuterium.
The deuterium then fuses with
another proton, generating a
helium nuclei, two of which then
fuse to generate an alpha particle
and the release of two protons.
high densities greater than hundreds
of grams per cubic centimetre.
Interestingly, the more massiY<' a stal
is the shafter its life sp.ln becomes, as
the nuclear fusion in its core occurs at
a far quickellate despite the Increased
quantity of fusionable matena!. As
such, stars of similar size to our
Sun will haY<' a main sequence of
apprOXImately 10 billion years, while a
star ten times as massive would only
last around 20 million years.
energy within stars can happen via
two processes, either by radiation or
convection. In main sequence stars
such as our Sun - these processes are
typically localised in radius to speafic
zones. with their position determined
by the star's mass and shell opacity.
Stars with masses over seven times
thaI of the Sun are convective in their
inner layers, while radiative in their
outer onl'S due 10 their high inlernal
mass. In contrast stars with iow mass,
tend to be radiallve In their Inner
layers but convective in the outer
layers as their opacity is lessened due
to theIr lower mternal mass.
Finally, the third key process
within stars is nuclear fusion, a series
of reactions which occur prim.nily
in the star's core (see the 'Fusion
power explained' boxout for mort'
These fusion reactions
necessitate high tempelatures In
excess of 10 million degrees Celsius
(18 million degrees Fahrenheit) and
first, ther' is the process of hydrostallc
equilibrium. which largely determines
the star's denslly structure and IS a
counteracting sequellCe where the
star's Intern.l] pressure gradient pushes
against and counteracts the force of
gravlty. In E'SSence. this determines the
stability of the star's shell structure,
its various rings of material (such as
plasma) and forces emanating from
the core. Without this stability, the
various shells of the star will either
contract or {'x.pand. For a star like OUt
Solar System's Sun, the hydrostatic
balance is finely tuned. as the stdf
has been stable for over 7 billion
years. However, for a star such as red
supergiant Betelgeuse. it is not. hence
the uneven shell structure.
The second key physical process
within stars is energy transportation,
which is important as the temperature
of its gas determines the denslly
structure via its hydrostatic
equilibrium. The transportation of
What happens
inside astar?
115
Sights of the Universe
many collISions along with radioactive
milterial ifs accreted heal everylhlng
to melting pomt. As a melled mass. the
planetesimal's SUUClUIl!' GIn reform.
In a procl5S called dlfferentlillJOl\,
me fa're of gravily c:oncenmlle5 the
mell:ed metals into dn mner COle,
sunounded by an OU!el' crust of
lighter rocky 5ihcate:s.. The result IS
a pIOOlpIanet an mass
with dIStinct LJyt'fS. CM!r 1I1nl!, gravity
evens 01.11 the pnxopIanefs shape.
formu18 II mID .. sphere
Atem5l.nal plane!: mighl form an
atnlOSlllE.t Ia)w through olltgasSIIlg.
Essentially. heat from the planet'S
mteoor C<R unlocks gases trapped
in the solid .-md molten
intenor !'tanets might then iUI to thIS
allllosphElE through encotll'lleB WIlli
other sdar system bodIeS.
A5 rhe dM'rSity of our own Solar
SysleITI ."no5pheres
vary a greal deal Any pdnicular
aIlTlosi'II", ... recipe requires TlOl only
me right mix 01 planetary mailer. btu
0I1so aprease ba1.lnce of planetary
size imd proximity 10 the central loW.
When;1 sm.Jlll!t planet OfbIlS very
dose to il slar, hke Mercury. the sun's
he,)! b!.lsls aw,)y any atmosphere,
leaving a oorren rocl Meanwhile.. a
planet like Mars IS so far from the Sun
that aJ11ts waler Is locked up In ice.
But Just a hI! further 10, you gel Earth
- a planet [mrS the right size and in
1M nght positIOn to form a robust
atmosphere that could support nfe.
While there is gencral agreemcnt
among astronomcrs that terrestrial
planets formed along these lines, the
origins of Jovl.iln gas giJnt planets, like
Jupiter and Saturn. arc less certain.
One possibility Is they start out the
Sdlfl(' basic way as terrestrial plancts.
steadily accreung solid mailer to form
a massive protoplanct. If it grows large
cnoogh aboul15 umes the slzc of
Eanh such a protoplallCl a
strong enough gravitational poU to
capture hydrogen and hehum gas In
the propIyd. The gaseous mass then
sweeps up rT'IOle maleri.ll growing Into
a Jov1an behemoth..
Thefe Is a relauvcly small supply of
heavy metals and siliCate in a proplyd.
makU\g It unhkely tNt a prOloplanel:
coukl accumulate CTlOIJ&h metal
and rocky lTIdlenalto reach the SIZE'
necessary 10 hokI on 10 and
hebum gas. InsteacllhlS modcI says.
the iniual planeury core of a JovIan
pI.met forms WI cJ ftozen hydrogen
tnllpoo.nds. such as methane.
ammoma and Woller Neal Iht
cJ a proplyd. the deveIoptns proiOSlilr
makes I tOO hot: for hydrosen
118
Sights of the Universe
compounds to condense into frozen
solids. They remain in g.J.SE'OUS form
and so do not accrete to developing
planC'teslmals. But if you mow lar
enough away from the hot prolostar.
past what's called the froslline. the
temperature drops low enough that
hydrogen compounds can freeU'.
With a much more abundant supply
of solid material. large icy protoplallets
can form and capl:ure the swirling
hydrogen alld helium gas.
The organisation of our Solal
System supports this theory. The
inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth
and Mars are all relatively small and
rocky, suggesting forming glam icy or
gaseous planets wasn't possible close
to the Sun. whIle the outer planets,
Jupiter. Saturn, Uranus and Neptune,
are much larger.
The chief argument against the
accretion model for Jovian planets is
timing. In well-supported models of
solar system evolution, there sImply
isn't enough lime to grow lhe massive
icy cores before Ihe developing solar
system loses the bulk of its hydrogen
and helium gas supply. While the
lighter gases are the dominanl
material dunng the proplyd's early lile,
their days are numbered. In the case of
our own Solar System, some 10 million
years afler the Sun first formed as a
protoslal, the energy of nuclear fusion
reactions likely produced powerful
solal wrnds that would have cleared
out the remarning gas in the proplyd.
That's a tight wmdow fOl Jovian gas
giants to form.
And neighbouring stars may
lead to the window shrinking even
furl her. Asuonomers believe that
stars generally form In c!uslefS thaI
conlain massive, hot slars. Calculations
say radiation from these stars would
accelelate the evapofdtion of gaseous
material in nearby proplyds. shrinking
the period of plentiful hydrogen and
helium to betwC{'n 100,000 and 1
million years, Thai doesn'l appeal to
be enough time for a Jovian gas giant
to form through the accretion model,
yet observJnons of distilnt soIJr
systems show that tht'SC gJs giants are
very common,
An alternative theory, known as the
gas collapse model. presents a fasler
formation scenalio. According to Ihis
model. gas giilnts form dirC1:tly from
the swirling hydrogen aocl helium
in iI developing proplyd, As the
matertal revolves around the pro!oslar,
turbulence In the diSC distributes II
unevenly. ThIS unevenness forms
kT10ls of dense gas. When enough
gas is concentrated tightly eoough,
its dense mass causes it to collapse
in on ilself, fonning a gIant gas baU.
To put il another way, the gas giant
is like a failed star, It forms the same
basic way as the protestJr, but doesn't
have sufficient mass and energy for a
nuclear fusion reaction,
The embryonic planet's gravUational
pull takes over from there, sweeping
up massive amounts of gas, as well
as any solids in the vicinily, quickly
adding to us bulk. Collet'ted iet' and
metals condense althe planel's et'ntre.
forming a solid cote after Ihe gas
has acromulated, rather than before.
The whole process might happen as
quickly as a lew hundred years,
Observations of Jovian exoplanets
(planets located outside OUI Solar
System) have given some credenet' to
Ihis model- or at least challenged Ihe
Jovian accretion model In the wave
of exoplanet dISCOVeries over the past
25 years, one of the biggest sutprises
has bl>en the socalled 'hot Jupiters',
Jovian gas giants that orbit very close
to their suns. Tht'SC planets would
seem to conttadictthe notion that
gas giants only lorm beyoocl the frost
line. Ilowever, they may have formed
further ~ but then migrated towards
their suns.
Aho5t of exoplanet dlSCovenes have
given astronomers a much bigger
picture 01 the tilflge 01 possible
planets, which has yielded new
clues about how planets mlghtlorm,
But examlmng the end results can
only tell them so much, Fortunately,
we're likely entering a IWWera of
diTect proplyd observation, thanks
to advances In telescopic technology.
The new Atacama Large Millimeter!
submi1limeter Array (ALMA) radio
tclescope in Chile, which should be
fully operational III March, has already
yielded unprecedented Images of
planet formation in progress. As new
disoovefles follow. astronomets expect
to fill in morc piCl:es of the puzzle,
taking us ever closer to undelstanding
how our planet. and by extension all of
us, came to be.
Types of planets
Terrestrial
Terrestrial planets like
Earth and Mars are rocky
planets with metal cores
and high densities.
They are smaller than
gas giants and have
slower rotation periods.
In addition, their smaller
size means they are less
likely to have moons.
120
Gas giant
At a further distance
from their orbiting star,
gas giants are able to
accrete more matter In
their formation, giving
them a large size and
mass. For example,
Jupiter is 11 times larger
than Earth, and has a
volume 1.300 times greater.
Dwarf planet
Smaller than a true planet.
the difference between
an asteroid and a dwarf
planet comes down to
its shape. To be a dwarf
planet. a body must
have sufflcient mass
to achieve hydrostatic
equilibrium, when it will
become spherical.
Protecting Earth is one of the main reasons why
scientists keep aclose on asteroids, which are
space rocks of all shapes and sizes that can be found
scattered throughout the Solar System.
Irs unclear how meteoroids, the rocks that become
meteors when they crash Into Earth's atmosphere,
were generated from asteroids. Still. NASA isn't ruling
a link out and is examining asteroids to learn more
about how the Solar System was formed.
Since planetary scientIsts believe planets gradually
grew from rocks crashing mto each other, the asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter could be made up of
the leftovers of the early Solar System.
Therefore, ferreting out the secrets of asteroids
could also give scientists clues dS to how the Solar
System came to be. Possibly, it could even reveal how
the Earth was born.
Studying asteroids is a challenge for scientists,
however, because they are so small. A typical space
rock is perhaps just a few metres across. However,
the largest known asteroid in our Solar System,
Ceres, is 950 kilometres (590 miles) in diameter
and makes up a third of the mass of the known
asteroid bell. However, through a telescope sitting on
Earth. an asteroid of this siT.!' looks Incredibly small.
This makes asteroids difflcult to see and study, but
sdenlists are prclly cralty when it comes to gelling
information from a distance.
Most asteroids, according to NASA. can be
classified in three groups: C-type (carbonaceous),
S-type (siliceous) and X-type (VdriOUS compositions).
Around 75 per cent are C-type asteroids that lurk
In Ihe outer asteroid belt. They all' very dark and
probably lack helium. hydrogen and other lighter
What are asteroids made of?
"In 1995, there were only 335 known
near-Earth asteroids, however, today
there are more than 9,700 catalogued"
Explainingthe elements
Samarium
This element.
which is rare on
Vestd. is used on
Earth for industrial
magnets. cancer-
fighting drugs and
nuclear reilCtors
..(=-------;;;;;.Titanium
.... This element could
come in useful for
building lightweight
alloys for use in
spacecraft
..'-",,-.-t. Magnesium
A very common
element In
the universe.
it Is used In
fertilisers
aod to make
magnesium-
aluminium alloys
Manganese
An important
element for
stainless steel
Ag - Silver
AI - Aluminium
B- Boron
Bi - Bismuth
C- Carbon
Cd -Cadmium
CI - Chlorine
Mn - Manganese
0- Oxygen
P - Phosphorus
Pb -lead
Pr-Praseodymium
S- Sulphur
Sb - Antimony
Sc - Scandium
Si - Silicon
Th - Thorium
Tm - Thulium
U- Uranium Ba - Barium
Co - Cobalt
d - Chlorine
Eu - Europium
Fe - Iron
Mg - Magnesium
Mn - Manganese
Na - Sodium
Rb - Rubidium
Sc - Scandium
Si - Silicon
Sm - Samarium
Sr - Strontium
Th - Thorium
Ti - Titanium
U- Uranium
Y- Yttrium
Zr - Zirconium
123
'volatile' elements, S-type asteroids, aboutl7 per
cent of the population, make up most of the inner
belt rocks in the asteroid belt. They're a little
more renective and are usually made 01 metallic
iron mixed with silicates of iron and magnesium.
Squeezed in between these asteroids are Xtypes,
whICh are mostly made up of metallic iron asteroids
and the like. These are found in the middle of the
asteroid belt.
While most asteroids sit safely between Mars and
Jupiter, some appfOdch Earth and sometimes cross
its orbit. Scientists think most of these asteroids were
'dlStUIbE'd' into different orbits due to Jupitel's gravity
or collisions with other asteroids.
There are three types of nearEanh asteroids.
Amors cross the olbit of Mars. but don't get very close
to E.lIth. Apollos cross Earth's orbit in a peliod of one
year or longer, while Atens also cross the orbit but in
a shorter time frame - a year or less.
In the past two decades, space agendes and
observatories around the world have discovered
thousands of these types of asteroids. In 1995,
there were only ]]5 known nealEarth asteloids,
however. today there are more than 9,700 catalogued.
according to NASA.
Since scientists believe we have now found more
Ihan 90 per cent of threatening astCToids that are
more than one kilomt'lre (0.6 miles) in diameter,
NASA is now emphasising the search for finding
nearEarth objects of 140 metres (460 feet) or greater.
Still a much smaller object can cause a lot of
damage. The dinosaurs were probably wiped out by a
small body just ten kilometres (6.2 miles) in diameter
that hit the Mexico area about 66 million years ago.
In Russia this yeal, more than 1.000 people were
injured when a housesized asteroid - 17 metres wide
(56 feet) - detonated in the atmosphere. The cvent
caught both the public and astronomers by surprise,
demonstrating we still have a lotto learn about
predicting meteor strikes on Earth.
In more recent years, several space missions have
ventured out to asteroids to get more information
from closeup. NASA's Dawn mission, for example,
scooted by the asteroid Vesta In 2011 and IS flOW en
route to Ceres.
Its closeup views rcvealed a battered world that.
surprisingly, has some links to how the Moon was
124
formed. Vesta and the Moon were each peppered by
a population of space rocks ejected into the inner
Solal System early in the Earth's history.
Both Jupiter and Saturn shifted their orbits in less
than a million years. Theil motions perturbed the
asteroid belt and sent the rocks into planetcrashing
orbits. This bombaldment had been known about
lor decades - astronauts on the Apollo missions
even discovered evidence of II on the Moon - but
What lies inside
Asteroid Vesta. ------,
Vesta, the second
mostmassive aSleroid
in the Solar System,
stands in a class of
its own called Vtype
asteroids. They tend
to contain more
pyroxene than
Stype asteroids
Crust of Vesta
Vesta melted at some
point early in its history,
producing a 'differentialed'
core and a basaltic crust
scientists didn't know until recently that Vesta had
also experienced it.
The next step will be obtaining a sample of an
asteroid and studying it here on Earth. Origins
Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification
Security Regollth Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will journey
into space in 2016, scoop up a bit of din from the
Apollo asteroid (l0l955) 1999 RQ]6, and return it to
Earth by 202] for further investigation.
,-----------. Core
Data from the Dawn
mission showed that
Vesta has iI core of
110km (68ml) in radius.
The core Is mostly
made up of iron
Mantle
Vesta's mantle, wedged
between the core and
crust. likely includes
olivine and diogenite
Launchmg stuff into spaa' IS
inherently messy business. You end
up behind rocket
structures. fuel. nuts. bolts othN
miscellaneous equipment. PIeces fall
away. collisions turn bigger pieces into
plea'S. and unspent
propellants cause jettisoned rocket
structures to explode. In the Sixties,
the US even dumped 480 million
pieces of copper wire into OIbit in an
effort to create an aruflclal meteor (fail
that would reflect Tadio signals.
All olthis poses a realthr{'at to the
International Space Station (155), active
satellites and. to a far lesser extent. all
of us on the ground. Even very small
pieces, such as tiny chips of metal or
paint. can wreak considerabk> damage.
Space debris in low Earth orbit (LEO)
typically travels at about sev{'n to {'jgtll
kilometres per second (4.3-4.9 miles
per second), about seven times fast{'r
than a rifle bullet. Acollision with a
onecentlmetre (OAinch) object at that
speed Is the equivak>nt of bE'!ng hit
by a bowhng ball travellmg about 480
kilometres per hour (298 miles per
hour), Sueh an imp.u:1 could smgle
handedly destroy a satellite,
F'ortunately. most of the junk poses
no physical threat to us on E3rth.
Almospheric friction easily vaporises
smaller debris. On average. Olll'
of lTacked space debriS dIps mto
our Jtmosphere every day, and the
vast majority of il never makes ilto
the Earth's surface. Larger piect'S,
such as intacl rocket structures. can
make it through without burning up
completely, but tlK> odds are It WIll end
up in the ocean. which covers 7\ per
cent of the EdTth'S surface.
In th{' {'atly days of space
exploration, orbital debris wasn't a big
concem. But once the risks of space
debris becam{' clear, agencies started
to address m{' problem.
"NASA pioneered mitigation
procedures for minimISing c\{'bris:
says Eugene Stansbery, program
manager of th{' NASA Orbital Debris
Program Office, "Now, many space
agencies hav{' adopted mitigation
standards or r{'(]lllrem{'nts, There is
also a set of United Nations Space
Debris Mitigation Guidelines (that) c\{'al
with mimmising debris during routine
operations. limiting tl\{' potential for
collisions by reducing the lifetim{'
spent In crowdro orbits, reducing the
risk of explosion by ehmlnating stored
{'nergy at endofoperationallife, and
limiting risk to humans on the ground
from re{'mering satellltes:
Akey strategy Is to ensur{' upper
stage rockets end up at a lower'altitude
OIbil.leading them to dIp into the
Earth's aunosphere more qUICkly,
Debns left at altitudes below 600
kilometres (372 mIles) will burn up
withm about thrre to four years,
Debris left al 800 kilometres (497
mIles) may be in oTbitlor decades. Any
debris above 1.000 kilometres (621
mtles) wtlilake a century or more to
Teach II\{' atmosphere,
Today, Stansbery explains, all we
can do is keep track of the most
dangerous debris in orba so we
can stay clear of it: "In the US, thC'
Department of Defense (DoD) operates
the Space Survelflance Network (SSNj,
which consists of a worldwide network
of radar and optical sensors. 1Ilclud1llg
one spacebased sensor, WhICh tracks
satefhtes, includmg orbital debris. ThIS
network is controlled and tasked by
the loint Space Operations Center
(JSpOC) located at Vandenberg Air
F'orce Base, 10 Calilorma:
The network is eqUipped to observe
debris in low Earth orbit (LEO) as
well as geosynchronous orbit (GEOj,
"Norm,dly lilct.Jrs are used 10 track
ICS & SPACE ADMIN/S1
low Earth orbital debris: Stansbery
",lnd optical reJcscopes are
used for geosynchronous debris.
Optical telescopes provide 'angles
only' data whereas radar typically
provides an addillonal measure of the
range to the debris, Perturbations to
the orbits are also different for the two
regimes. Therefore, the algorithms
and software used to determine and
maintain the orbits are different for the
tWO regimes:
KeepingsateJlites and spacecraft
safe depends on precisely charting
the debriS' path in relation to aJithe
operational obje<:ts In orbit.
"A series of observations is taken
on an objectl.'ither by radar or by
optical telescope: StansbE'ry says.
"An mitial orbit is estimated from
these observations. That orbit IS then
propagated forward in time 10 prediCt
its location when it is in view of other
sensors. These sensors will look for
the ob}ect and use its posinon to refine
the orbit. DnC<.' the orbit [of the object!
is sufficiently determined, sensors are
129
Dunng the buiklup to a mallOE'Uvre,
the tca.m momtors any addnional
triKking mlormauon lrom JSpOC and
can ul1Cl'l the manoeuvre II later data
lf1Chcales a reduced nsk.'
On avt"rJ;ge. the ISS has to ITIlM'
out of the way of tracked debris tWICt'
year, about double the frequency of
several years ago. There isn't always
ttl1"le' to ITIlM' dear of the debns.
"'Someomes. the warnmg of a
con;...ncoon does IJO( come soon
enough to safely pian and execute a
IThlr'lOl."UVre: Stansbery says. "ThIS has
resulted in whal15 termed
'sale where the ISS crew Will
ITIlM' to the!.r Soyuz return capsule
umilthe COf\JUncoon has passed:
In the event of a ooIllSlOrl space
JUnk trackers suddenly have a hosl of
new debns to catalogue.
'NASA's OrbIlal Debns Program
Office performs several tasks:
Stansbery says. "Fim. 'Nt' uSt" a
software package that takes the
information on the time, location, and
masses of the ob;ects and calculates
near and mid-term risk: toaher
spacemh. ffiOS( lJO(abIy. the Iss. These
risk: esumates tell the crew if they
shoukltake action. Then. NASA begins
to ooI\e(t as much data 00 the coIhsion
as it can in order to characterise the
colliSIOn bett('r and evalwte Iongterm
damage to the environment:
Stansbery says the Space
Surveillance NetWOik has some
upgrades on the horizon: 'There are
a couple of new 5ellSOrs thill promise
ImprO\'ed senSItIvity. DoD Is plannmg
a new 'Space Fence' phased array radal
that will be able to detect and lI3Ck
debris as small ilS tWO cenumeues
(0,8 inches) elfectlve at
The 'Space Fence' mission control will track pieces 01
space junk that are in orbit alOUnd the Ea.rth
Sights of the Universe
then routmely Llsked to upddte the
object's orbit as needed:
Irs I'lOI possible (() lfack ..11 debns.
SW1sbefy says: 'The pmnary obsI:acle
to IrackIng debns IS the small SIze
ollhl> debns. Radars and opl:k.ll
teJesmpes are limited by then
sensrtlVUY In low I::.tnh OfbIL the' SSN
can only detect debns bigger lhotn flYt'
lC len cenlimeues (two 10 lour inc!ll'sl
efferuve diameter At geosynchronous
ahlludes, It only deltas debns Lu8'f
than about one metre (12 ffft)
diameler. These 5IteS are a small
fracllOll of the orbaaJ debns 1Mun
damagr a typICal sp.iICKlafL"
Slambery says compwm are key to
avoiding collisions: "T'he JSpOC runs
a product thaI predlC!S close
between actIVe s.nelbU5
and OIbdal ob,tcts.lf a close
dpJlR)iICh is predicted. the JSpOC will
an Otbral Conjuncllon Message
(OCM). whICh has the muons 0100
WlceH,unll('S In Iocauon lor the
conjuoctmg obtects. An opet'aror un
then dC'lennine what aetl()l'ls, such as
moving the SilteUlte. are prudent:
The lop pnonly IS aVOldmg
catastrophic collisions with manned
spacecraft, such as the ISS.
"For the ISS and relatC'd spacecraft,
there IS a group ilt Johnson 5p.lce
Center tnat receives the OCM:
Stansbery says. "This group takes
the orbit and orbit uncemllntics and
calculates a probability or collisIOn.
Based on this probabIlity, there ale
nIght ruk's that dictate what must
be done when certain probabl1lty
thlcsholds all' l'xceeded. Thl' action
would normally be a maOOl'Uvre
givl'n l'Ilough time. Tlml' is fll'('(je(\
to pla.n alld {')ll'CUtc a maTlOl'Uvre.
The AN{FI'S'SS radar in Florida is one of 29sensors in
the Sp.ace Surveillance Network (SSN)
The Kiernan Reemry Measurement Sire (KREMS).a US lacilityon Kwajalein Atoll in the Pac:ificOcean. includes
foor one-of-.akind radar systems that play integJal roles in the Space Surveillance NefWOrk (SSN)
Collisions
and near
misses
January 1997
It's raining junk
An Oklahoma woman on a Jate-
night stroll saw a streak of light in
the sky and then felt something
brush her shoulder - a piece of
metal from a us Delta II rocket
launched in 1996. The same night,
a 260kg steel fuel tank narrowly
missed an occupied farmhouse.
FebnJary 2009
The first manmade
satellite collision
A560kg satelille operated by the
US company Iridium was just one
month away from retirement when
II smashed into a 950kg Russian
Kosmos military ~ t e l l i t e The
collision added more than 2,000
pieces of debris to Earth orbit.
June20n
Buzzing the International
Space Station
With only 15 hours notice, the ISS
crew didn't have time to move clear
of a piece of junk hurtling towards
them, The 1in 360 chance of
impact sent the crew to their SoyUl
sPilce capsules, ready to undock
and escape to Earth, but thankfully,
the object missed by 260m,
January 1978
Radioactive landing
When the SoViets lost control of
the;r surveillance satellite Kosmos
954, its erratic orbit took it back
to Earth, spreading debris over
(anada's Northwest Territories, The
(dnadian and US military initiated a
124,OOOkm' search for radiQdctive
material from the satellite,
debris-producing collision ('\Iery t('n
years: there would be linle possibility
that we'd notice any 'colliSIOnal
cascadmg' unril perhaps nea.r lhe eoo
of the renlury, when the frequency of
calastrophicro11iSlOns would become
mOle frequent, dependmg on the
success of previous actions to slow the
growth In the debris populahon that
are already in place (eg minimising
tho:' posSiblllly of explosions In orbit
and requiring new spacecraft ro be OUI
of orbit within 25 years at the end of
their operational hfe)"
Because we're beyond lhe polOt
where more conscientious launches
will ev('ntually solve rh(' problem,
we'll end up locking ourselves in with
a wall of rubbish il we don't start
cleaning up after ourselves,
Kessler sees an Immedklte need
lor action: 'Without the begmning of
mOle aggressive actions wllhin the
neXilew decades to reduce the curlt'nr
populauon of large intact oblects 1Il
LEO, the glOwth in the debris will
acrelerat('. and not stop Increasmg
for hundreds, if not thousands, of
years. making LEO too hazardous an
environment for any spacecraft to
operate lor any slgnlf[cantlength of
time befOle it will become another
source of del:Jns."
Things might also progress
mOle quickly, Kessler s ~ "ThIS
scenario could become much worse
if some entity were to place a large
constellation. consisting of thousands
01 dcbris can creatc thouSdnds of
smaller pieces of debris. which can
then collide wIth other debris. cleaung
thousands of new pieces. Destroymg
lust one large satellite could double, or
poSSibly Lriple the amount of debris in
low Earth orbiL
Today, Kessler has a clear Vision
01 the course we're on; 'Unless some
country or OIganisation 5lgnitkdntJy
increases the rate that ob)l"Cts art'
hemg placed mto the vanous regions
01 Eanh Orbit. the rat!.' of debrIS growth
is fairly predictable: one can expect
il 10 slowly increase in reglons of
F.mh OIbit below 2.000 kilomelTes
[1.240 ml!<'5) (l.EO), regardless 01 what
actions iIIe raken to rry ro prevent that
growth, as .I result of random collisions
involving large, intact objects,"
Kessler prediClS re<:hnology will
have ro evolve to keep up wilh rhe
increased junk: 'Ovt'J the next 100
years, we (an expect to see .I slow
increase in lhe ratc of sp.Jcecraft
failult's due 10 an increasing number
01 hyperve1OC1ty ImpaClS of small
debris fragmcnrs resulting from
these collisions. Sp.acecraft operarors
will slowly realise rhey need to i1dd
shielding to crItical componentS,
increaSing rhe weight of their
sp.Jcecralt even though the added
weight will be undesirable, ahhough It
will be manageable for many de<:ades:
The rdle of milJOr colhsions will
increase 100, he says: "During this time,
we can expect about one catilsllopJUC,
"The primary obstacle to tracking
debns is the small size of the debris.
Radars and optical telescol?es are
limited by their sensitivity'
_ stansbery. programlIW1i1ller of the NASA0IbIWDebris ProgIam0fIIce
space station altitudes, The DoD is
also testing the Spdce SUlvt'l1\ance
Telescope (SSI') which will Improve
sensillvity fOl geosynchronous OIblts.
Up until recently, the biggest SOUlce
of indIVidual debris plcces was rocket
explosions, In its early days, NASA
routinely let upper-stage rockets enter
orbit with unspent fuel. leadlllg them
to blow up, scattering bits of shrapnel
Into orbit. In the Ddst six years, two
unfortundte events put satellite PieceS
at the top of the debris list
First, in 2007, Chind tested Its anti
satellite capabilities by destroying
one of its own weather satellites
with a missile, The explosion created
more than 1'iO,OOO pieces of sp.ace
debris, making it the WOlSt Sp..lCe junk
event m history. Then, in 2009, an
accidental collision ooween a defunct
Russian mJHtdty satellite and a US
communications satellite added mon."
than 2,000 additional pieces.
These colUsions illustrate<! a
sobering. vety real danger: the threat
of a chaln rt'dction of collisions. NASA
astrophysicist Donald Kessler predicted
lhis sccnario, dubbed the Kesslcr
Syndrome, In 1978. He SdW that at the
rdt!.' WE' WE'rt' going. we would rt'dch a
pomt where lhe volume of sp.are lunk
In orbit would be large enough thaI
collisions would yield smaller pieces of
debris faster than the rate all the junk
could burn up in the atmosphelt'.
The crux of the problem Is that
a smgle bump betwccn two pieces
131
"One option being looked into by scientists in
a bid to remove space debris from orbit is to
target the junk WIth a ground-based laser"
Sights of the Universe
of satellites in LEO, as was proposed
for our 'Star Wars' defence programme
in the Eighties. J lopefully, we ,ne wise
enough today to avoid that. There
is also a possibility that the natural
orbital decay rate 01 satellites in LEO
will decrease if we should experience
the kind of low sunspot acUvity as
was observed In the late 17th Century,
thinning the upper atmosphere and
increasing the need to physically
remove more satellites from orbit."
The first order of business is
planning ahead with Ill'W objects we
put into orbit going forward
"There are two other popular
regions of Earth orbital space:
Kessler says. 'Mid Earth orbit (MEG),
where CPS satellites arE' located, dnd
gt'OSynchronous orbit (CEO). when..
satellite TV transmitters are located.
Both wlll suffer the same late (as LEm
but over a longer time period. We
could avoid this fate in CEO if there is
widesprrod agreement to place objects
in an inclined mba that significantly
reduces comsion velocities betW('Cn
uncontrolled satellites_ If adopted,
such an orbit also has the advanlage
of saving station-keeping fuel for
spacecraft operators, Objects in both
LEO and MEO must bcon paths that
cover large areas of the Earth's surface
In order to meet their operational
goals. Consequently, the only solution
to the orbital debris issue In those
regions IS to not leave objects In orbit
after they've fulfilled their operational
roles. Asmall, pre-planned, propulSion
capability is sulfiaent to remove
objects from LEO, and many futUle
payloads and upper-stage rockets are
planned 10 have this capability:
The big questton now, however, is
how to deal with all the debris that's
already In orbit.
"There have been a number 01
proposals for removing existing
debris: Stansbery says. "At present no
system that is both technologically
matUlI.' and economically feaslbll.'
has bl.'en proposed, 1I0wevl.'r, the
United Statl'S and other countries are
pursuing research and dE'Vl"lopment
of technologies and techniques to
remove in-orbit debris."
Stansbery E.'xplains thl.' challenge is
twofold: "It Is really a combination of
physics and economics. The classical
way of removing large satE.'llltes
from orbit is to rendezvous with the
ooJ'Ct, matching velocities so that the
E.'ncounter doesn't result ma collision.
Then you attach to the satellite and
move illO eilher a graveyard orbil
or cause the satellile to re-enlerlhe
Earths atmosphere wilhout unduE.'
hazard 10 people on the ground This
is a very energyintensiV(' scenario.
Also, economically, removing one
large satellill.' can be very expensive
when launch costs and operations are
considered. The removal of one, or a
handful. of large satelliles, does nOI
Significantly reduce Ihe risk. Many,
many satelliles need to be removed via
a Iongterm, sustamed effort:
In the face of Ihese obstacles,
scientists have been lookmg into
alternative measures. One option is
10 target deblis With a ground-based
laser, ThE.' laser would heat the df>bris
jusl enough 10 produce a small plasma
jet. which would act as a rockf>1 10 slow
the debris down so that It falls into
Earth atmospherf>.
Boeing is exploring a rocket design
that would release aboullf>n tons of
inert cryogenic gas, such as xenon or
kryplon, into a debris-heavy areas. In
the seconds before It dISSipated, the
cloud of gas would theorf>lically slow
the debris enough for It 10 fall OUI
of orbit. ThaI'S right Ihf> solution to
cleamng up space junk might just be
launching more junk inlO space.

Space Shuttle astronaut
Piers Sellers lost a spatula
on a spacewalk In July
2006 while spreading
material on the shuttle's
heat shields,
Glove
Astronaut Ed White lost
aglove on the Gemini 4
mission in 1965 during
the first-ever Amerign
spacewalk. It stayed in
for a month.
Tool bag
Astronaut Heide
Stefanyshyn-Plper lost a
14kg tool bag on an ISS
spacewalk In November
2008. which could be
seen in orbit from Earth.
Lost in space
132
OrbIting functIonal satellites.
Orbrtlng dysftlflctlonal satellites.

Orbllmg space Junk "f> IOcm d,ameter
Sights of the Universe
The ESA:s Gaia spacecraft is set to bring us new discoveries
Howwe see the
Over the last few decades we've
seen a vartety of Ial"g{' and amazing
telescopes. From the Hubble Space
Telescope to the Herschel Space
Observatory. we've been able to
observe our Solar System, the Milky
Way and even the universe in
unprecedented detail.
Now, the ESA wants to attempt
something new. Using the
revolutionary Gaia spacecraft. it will
track the motion and position of 1%
of the 100 billion stars In OUT own
galaxy. Irs a daunting prospect but
one thaI could provide us with a fresh
new insight into the formation and
structure of the Milky Way, and also
gle.m new information about asteroids.
exoplanets and our Solar System.
The Gaia spacecraft will ny the
largest camera ever with a total 01
about 1,000 mIllion pixels. This
revolutionary pil'Cl' of equipment will
be performing wide-angle astrometry
- the science of delennining the
1X)S1tion of ob}ects in the sky - to
complete its fiveyear mission. Until
now. astrometry has largely bct'n
confined to Earth, and It has lx>cn
difficult. The Sun and the Moon
aft' both a nUisance for Earthbased
astrometry. which IS what makes Gaia
so Important
This spacecraft won't be placed
in orbil around Earth, but flown OUI
to the SunEarth L.agrangc Point
2, a position i5 mIllion kilometrcs
(930.000 milcs) away in line wIth the
Earth and Sun that provides a shielded
view of the entire cosmos. An the
'bad things'. the Sun, the Earth and
the Moon. are roughly in the same
dirl'Ction" says Gaia Pro}cct Scientist
Timo Prusti. "So if you shield that 'bad,'
dirl'Ction, then you are free to look the
other side:
The 1.2 position wUl enable Gaia
to use its incredible camera to make
the largest and most precise three
dimension map of our galaxy. Every
star it observes will be acrurately
measured to determine its motion
around the centre of the galaxy. Most
stars gained their motion from the
birth of the MHky Way so, by studying
this, Gaia will enable astronomers to
peer back in the history olthe galaxy.
Gaia will observe each of its one billion
stars about 100 times
Gaia is also expected to make
other discoveries. It "wlll also address
questions concerning our own
Solar System, extra galactic ob)eCts
(some half a million quasars will be
observed and several million g l x l s ~
stellar astrophysics (by providing
the distances to ob}ects) and general
relativity: explains Prusti. Gaia will
also provlde several thousand new
planets, but the strength is in the area
01 Jupiterlike planets in five to ten
year periods around their stars:
The spacecraft itself is composed
01 three main components tOTaling
about two tons in launch mass. The
first is the payload module, which
provIdes support and eJl'CIronics
for lhe camera and also processes
the raw data. The mCl:hankal
service module houses mCl:hanical.
structural and thermal elements
that support the camera and Ihe
spacecrafts electronics. Finally the
ell'Ctrical service module manages
the dala and provides communicatIOn
with Earth, amongst other tasks.
Gaia's camera isn't IJke a traditional
camera, though. 'Gaia will provide
roughly the same spatial prt'Cision
as Hubble, but for tlK> whole sky:
explaIns Prusti. However, Gaia is
only doing point sources. So you will
not get the prelly pICtures Hubble IS
providing. Gaia provides an all sky
map with high precision positions
and movements of objects
Gaia is eXpl'Cted to launch in
August 2013 atop a Soyuz rocket.
While its initial mIssion will last untll
2018, it could be extended. "Hardware
and propellant is seoped nominally
for a one year extension: SilyS Prusti,
and clearly if everything works it
is 00 problem to find a seience Cilse
lO support applications for further
eKtensions: However long il lasts.
you can be sure that Gala's mission
will provide some groundbreaking
SClenrific discoveries that wHl
increase our undersranding of the
Milky Way and its resident objects..
II
l11e learn from Astriurn gather
round lhe supper! panel

;.
,
.,
"
",-.,M",.
..\
IISTRIUH
,
he energy of
a billion suns
__Inlllllto ...Deep Space
When we <iN1 wIth 1Tle3SUre5 of Ilme in thIS
article. it is worth beanng In mind the IimnaOOlls of
the speed of light. When SN 185 was rllst observed
In 185 AD, Chll'lese ....'(!Ie ac1ually
observ1l18 an event ,hat happened 8.200 yealS poor.
as SN 185 is 8.200 hght yem away or when
the light fiMilLly INChes us we ..m.. able to obsen.'t' the
events in then entite(y. but n is imlXll'lanl to INlise
thallhe$e are COSITUC OCC\Urt'l1Cl!5 thai happened
kln8 in the past. from thousands 01 yealS to billions
In some Instances..
Thai doesn't from the SCil'nlific
mem a observUlg them. however They might be
snapshols mto the uniVerse's p.lst bullhey SllD
hokl key InIormauon into SlriLtr hfe cydes and the
regeOE'r.llion of ttlt COSl'1XlS.ln fact supernovas are
thwghllO be aroong tilt Il"lOlSl import.mt e'o'eflLS
in the umverse for a number of re.asons. Before Wi'
rackk! thai., though. we need to under5land the basKs
ol how a supernova
Al the heart of Sl:al'S iI process cdlled fusion rakes
pI.ace. where hgh! elements such as hydrogen and
hebum fuse together 10 Iorm he,wJef elements.
anythill8 from carbon 10 1I0I'l 10 oxygen. The process
of nudeAr fuskln releases d vast ,UTlounl of energy
in the form of many dllfererK types cl radiation.
locWmg heal and VISible light, boI h 01 whICh we
directly observt' and feel ourselves every day from
the Sun. 5(dTS .ut' abundant In lxlth hydrogen and
helJum. but their supplies are not endltss. Whtk> it
vanes from Slat to star, eventually a star's source of
flK'l runs out In most cases the predominant ek:'fTlent
left at the star's rorl.' Is non, which no st<1r IS <1ble to
fUS(' Wh.lt Mppens next is sImply astoundmg.
Eventually, so much iron WIll bl.uld up that
the st<1r can no longer support its own Weight
Until this point, and indeed for the majonty of <1
st<1r's mel1ml.'. the force of gravity pulling the st<lr
inw<1rds is dl.'hcalC'ly balanced by the pressure oJ the
star's gases radl<1tmg oulwards. Once the fuel is gorlC',
howevC'!, this pressure suddenly diSSIpates. In JUSI <1
millisecond, the rore (which Is now rich in Iron <1nd
more massive lhan lhe Sun) collapses In on Itself.
shrinking in size by up to a thousand times from the
size of the Earth to a ball only Jbout 20 klloffil.'1res
(12 milcs) acl'O!l&
Incredibly, though. the collapse is so quICk that the
layers of gas surrounding the core dont ha\ll' time
to rt'iICt lust a Spilt serond later, before these layers
haw eYC'n had a eMnet' to begln coIlapsmg as wt'IL
the now ultr<1-d1!n5l.' ilOIHICh core WIth
more melBY lhan a quanl1ly of TNT the size of Earth
bemg inslanlly del:on.lled. The energy OUtput d a
supernova IS Similarly astoundmg.
In most cases a supernova will shine as bog/lt as
10 billion suns.. and. WIll release 10"" joules, whieh
IS roughly the 1010111 output of the Sun in its eTlllle 10
blllion year IJfeume. lbe resultant shodcwaYe can
travel. 0111 \'l.'b:lbeS approhing h.llf!.he speed of light
and il: wtIl contlilue expandmg IllUllhe SUrrotlndlng
mteTSl:eIlar fix lhous.nds of yeilS. The filte of
expal\.SlOO is such thal a supl."rJllwa's effects can be
reI lI.'f\S or hundfl."ds of lighr yealS If you
think thai all staTS met'! this same explosive end.
however, you'd be wrong.
rwo main types of supemo\'a. Type I.
or companion star supernovas. and Type Il or core
140
collapse supernovas. The former typically occur
in stars their mass exceeds 14 solar masses.
known as the Olandrasekhar llffill. due 10 the
acc:mion of IlliIller In a binary star system wllh a
white dwarf star, while the latter Involve the collapse
of stars between eighI: and IS solar masses.
Both types are further to denote
the pankular dwactenstlcs of the supetnova.
The light of Type II-l supernovas Sl:eadlly drease:s
aflel' the expiosJon. whereas Type Il-P SUpern::NolS
emit 1Jght much lTXXl' steldJly Type la supernovas
involve a white dwarf and a larger star In a bmary
system. whereas Type Ib and Ie supernovas are more
sunilar 10 !.he c."Cn' collapse scenam. bUllhey will
have already kl5I most 01 then OUta layers before
"",'""""""-
One of the few supemovas to be obser....ed was
SN 2OO8D m the spraI galaxy NGC 1770 back in
early 2008. By chance. It'St'archC'fs usmg NASA's
orbIUng Swift teIesrope noIiced an Increase In
from the star, and ImmedlOltely alerted
olher ground and spac'I.' lelescopes to the
The resultmg blast lasted JUSl five mInuteS, but the
research will surely last a ltfl.'l:ime. The expanSlOl'l
rail' was estlmolled at IO,O(X) kiJometres (6,000
miJes) per second. allhough one side of the star
expanded faster than the othC'r, suggestIng th.lt the
expbsion was oCkefllred.
The U01\11.'tSe IS abundanl Ln hydrosen and
helium but noI so much in hC'avll.'f elements such
as carbon and oxygen, hfe-esscntlOll elements Without
which planets lilte Earth roulcl not be<:orrte h.lbltable.
The only place where these heavier elements are
known to be made is mthe' Yery hean of stars.
where they arC' stored unul the star as a
supernova and scatters them Into the surroundmg
space. Without supernovas, IhC'Se elements would
remam locked away, unable to contribute to the
formation of mC'LlI-rich obj(-'Cts like planets and
asteroids, It's "Vf!ry likely thai planetarysystems.
like our own Solar System, were born 10 this way,
from a cloud of dUSt and gas left behind after a stJr
went supernova,
Another important consequence of supernovas
IS the formation of new stars. One of the oldest stalS
Into Deep Space
--
lila! we know of is HE IS23-090L a. red gWnl sur
7.500 light years from Eanh. It was thought to have
formed about 132 bl1ban years ago. 500 million
yeal5 alter the estUTlaled begmmng dille univefse
Clearly (hIS means thai mosI SlaI5 thal we know ol
were formed aller the BIg Bang. In some cases <such
as our own Sun) many bl1bons of ye.ars alief TIle
only wiI'f new stars couki have been born was II oIc:\e
stars lhal survived from the b1nh oIlhe universe
e'o'efltually weOl supemcwa, releaSing thelr various
elements and eventually k>admg the way 10 the
formation fA new stars.
The fiMl major contribution of supernovas to rhe
universe Is the continued addition of heavy elementS
to the interstellar medium. The gradual growth In
abundance of these heavier elements. ones thaI were
only found in tfaces before, has had ,:In odd effect
on some SIJl5. Those like our own Sun undergo a
somewhat different fusion process to those SEars born
nearer the stan of the universe. as the former all'
moder-lied Il'IO' by the presence of carbon. IllS likely
that fmure st.1!S will corninue to be altered by the
presence of more heavy elements. funher allemtg the
fusion pmcess: Wllhm stars.
So. 11"5 safe 10 QIj that supemavas are really
quite importalll. bU! how do we know so mu:::h
.lbout them? Aller all _\'to only observed very
few. mstead normally CiltChing only the aftermath
or the resultant f1.'fT1I\oUW.. Well fortunately by
obsefVIll8 the .tftenn.tth we're able to dlSCem a
kJ( about the expklsut Itself. For roe thing, most
Type la supemov.lS seem to undefBo very SImilar
final moments. If we see one expkxie we are able
to calculate how far iJWay It is thanks to SOITlething
known.lS the "standard candle" ITlClhod. where all
Type la explosions expk:de with pretty much the
same magnitude. In addition. using spectroscopy, we
ca.n analyse the resultant remnant and. by observing
its SIze and composition. we can work OUt what the
original star might have been hke.
Supernovas will continue to be one 01 the most
fascinating and exhilarating events in the universe.
provlchng us with iI view into stellilr formation and
the death of stilTS. It is thanks to these events that we
know 50 much ilbout the mner compositlOO ol stilts.
ilOO by COrtllnuing to study them we Will uncilrth
mcxe secrets ol the umverse..
Wbat is a
remnant?
A supemovil remnant is the expilnSlOll oCthe
blast wave from the supernova.lS II moves
through sp.-.ce. pushing maten.ll out aioflg with
it that we can observe- m dlfferefll wavelengths
from Eanh.l11e expilnsklrl rate olil remnant can
be up to severalthous.:tnd kilornetres pet second.
approaching the speed of light. and It may
continue for hundreds or thouSilndS of years.
Many nebulas we ciln see hom eilrth are the
result of the eXpilnsion of supernova remnants,
and they Ciln often meilsure several hundred light
years across.
Most spectacular
supernovas
Crab Nebula
Exploded: 7.500 years ago
Distance: 6.500 light years
This famous supernova remnant has arapidly rotating
star known as the Crab Pulsar at its centre. left behind
after the original star exploded. This nebula is now
11 light years across but is stili expanding at a rate of
1.500 km (930 miles) per second. 0.5% the speed of
light. It is part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way
Galaxy and the nebula is also referred to as Messier 1
or Ml. being the first Messler Object catalogued in
1758. The explosion of the supernova that created this
nebula. SN 1054, was recorded around the world In
1054 AD.
Kepler's Supernova
Exploded: 24,000 years ago
Distance: 20,000 light years
Observed by astronomer Johannes Kepler In October
1604. hence the name. Kepler's Supernova (SN 1604)
is the most recent stellar explosioo that was visible to
the naked eye on Earth. althoogh evidence exists for a
Milky Way supernova whose signal would have reached
earth around 1868. but was flOt visible to the unaided
human eye. Kepler's Supernova was brighter in the
night sky for three weeks than any other star or planet.
except for the Sun and Venus. and could even be seen
during the day.
RCW86
Exploded: 11.000 years ago
Distaoce: 9.100 light years
This supernova remnant is thought to be thaI left
behilld after star SN 18S blew up in 18S AO. It was
recorded by Chinese astrOflOmerS and remained visible
for some eight weeks. Recent Xray studies show a
good match for this estimated age. As such. RCW 86
is the oldest recorded superflOva. and was thought to
be acompanion star supernova. The remnant Is bigger
than scientists would expect from such asupernova.
suggesting the initial dwarf star created a 'cavity' in
space before it exploded into which ejected material
could quickly traverse.
COming soon to a galaxy near you..
IK Pegasi
Will explode: Smillion years from now
Oistaoce: ISO light years
IK Pegasi A is expected to evolve into ared giant.
whic.h will traosfer matter to the smaller IK Pegasi e
white dwarf star and cause it to explode In aType la
supernova. IK Pegasi is moving away. so while It is
currently the closest star to us that can go superflOva.
when it does in a few million years it will no longer be.
Betelgeuse
Will explode: 0 to 1million years from flOW
Oistaoce: 640 light years
Currently in the later stages of its life. it is expected to
explode as a Type II supernova within the next million
years. although it could explode at any minute. The
star is a red supergiant and is less than ten million
years old. aminiscule amount in astronomical terms.
and thus it has passed through Its life rapidly.
Antares
Will explode: 0 to 1million years from now
Oistaoce: SSO light years
The red supergiant Antares has acompanion star.
Antares e, that Is thought will contribute to aType 1a
supernova event in the coming years. However. the
exact timing of the supernova is unknown. Antares is
more than 880 times bigger than our Sun ilnd thus
the explosion is expected to be quite an event.
145
"It's the first time we've been
able to peer across space and
detect a possible planet that
would be similar to our own"
Usa Kaltenegger. asIIOphysIdst at Hatv3rd UnIvenlty
Cllifornia. Santa Cruz used 11 years
or telescope observations at Keck to
find Gliese 581 g, using a spectrometer
that watched over its parent star. ThI'>
spectrometer was used to measure the
star's radial ve!oclty, or its movement
relatlve to .mh'sline of slghtlf a
star has planets that are large enough
and close enough, the planets tug at
the star's gravity ever so slightly, With
multiple planets orbiting the star, the
star begins to WObble.
Planet hunters have become so
sophisticated in their techniques that
they can take a star's wobble and lOfer
how many planets arE' orblting it, as
wen as the masses of those planets.
Keck's Iongterm observations of
the wobble of nearby stars enabled
the de\l!'(tion of this multiplanetary
system: stated Mario Perez, a
programme scientist at the Keel:
Observatory, in the news release
collCl!'rning Planet G's discovery
However, a team from Geneva (led
by Francesco Pepe) analysed over
six years 01 data concerning Gliese
581 using a spcctromttef atl.a Silla
Telescope in Chile,
Also in 2010.lhey announced at
an exoplanet conference in Italy that
they had not found any evidence of
Glicse 581 g, That said, the preciSion of
the instrument IS not sharp enough to
definillvely rule Glicse 581 gout
Subsequent wams of astronomers
have been arguing back and forth for
years now whether 581 g is actually
there. or if the wobblc dctected around
the star needs to have a new model
made to explain 11. It wil1take more
observations of the star before anyone
can say for sure what lies withm that
system and a definitive answer may
not come fOl years 01 even decades.
The planet 581 d lies slightly further
from the star tnan 581 g. It's also.:l bit
larger than our world.:lt five
and seven Earth masses, In a science
paper posted on Arxlv, K.:IItencggefs
team cans it.:l potcnti.:llly habitable
rocky SuperEarth,
Also, Irs a little on rhe cold side
when IT comes to habitabilitY, but
some asrronomers believe a thick layer
of carbon dioxide in the armosphere
could shield 581 d from the cold, Of
course. that's assuming the planet has
.:In Earrhlike composiTion, which is
not a guarantee.
The theory. as Kahenegger explains
it, is c.:lrbon dIOxide gets emitted from
volcanoes on 581 d's surface. In the
carty days of the planet's formation,
r.:lin would wash the carbon dioliide
OUt of the atmosphere so It couldn't
accumulate. But as the planet cooled,
that rain would tum imosnow. Snow
doesn't have the same power to w.:lsh
carbon dioxide away, so the gas would
accumulate in the annosph<'re.
'It builds up in the atmosphere.
Increases your greenhouse effcct.
and warms umil you have water:
Kaltencgger says. This makes it easier
to believe that life would exist there.
Even if planets 58\ g and 58\ d
were vegetated, though, it would look
a lot diffelent from Earth. The cool
light from Gliese 581 would balely be
enough for plants to phOTosyntheslse,
50 the plants would not be green like
you would see here on Earth_ The
colour would take tOO much energy,
AdditIOnally, the light would look
differem than what we are used to on
Earth, as a red dwarf mostly gives off
its enelgy 10 red light,
In 20ll, Australian astrooomt'rs
who are involved In the search for
extraterresttial Ufe trained their
cosmic ears at Glit>se 581. They linked
togetller three radIO telescopes 1n
Australia in an attempt to hear radiO
signals coming from the system_
The asrronomels didn't hear
anything. but that's not to say that hfe
is absent Irom the system. Gliese
581 dand 581 g are both in or within
tt\{> habitable zones, and it will take
many years of lutme study to learn
mOle about their climanccondiltons.
In the meantime, Gliese 58l's system
provides plenty fOf astlOoomers to
study. There are up to SIX planets
orbiting the star, each with.:l
envilOnment worth ClOseT study_
While 581 f and 581 g are oot
universally accepted, there are lour
others that are receiving further
attention from astlonomers.
581 e is the closest to the star and
would appear as a big Mercury il you
well' standingon the surface. It's about
double the mass of Earth.
Next out is 581 b. which would be a
gas planet - at 15.6 Earth masses - that
is apPlOilching the size of Jupiter
Third in the system, and befOle 581
g and 581 d, is 581 c. Planet C, more
than five limes Earth's mass, ....,ouJd
actually look a lot like Venus, in that
any water would have evaporated from
the surface and it would probably be
coveled in a thick atmosphere If It had
any available to it.
Kaltenegger says we are just at the
beginning of understanding the Ghese
581 system. "Pl.:lnets are so hard to find
because they look tiny near the star:
she explams, "(What's) excitmg 1S we're
finding more and mon" planets with
this SImple wOOble method_ we can
even find the small ones that don't
have much mass or are not very big.'
Surely as telescopic observations
.:Ind computeT technology continue to
improve, we'll have the opportunitY to
spot more candidates for supporting
life like Gliese 581 d or 581 g. We'll be
.:Ihle to more prectsely predict how
planets move about their stars, and
.:Ilso be .:Ible to infer the composiuon of
their atmospheres.
Learning more about the way
her solar systems formed brings
us to a better understanding of what
happened here on Earth. Gliese S8l's
system, even though It is 20 light
years away from us. will therefon"
teach us more about our own home.
147
1-',

Into Deep Space
-

,
'I
..

'-
,-
M!I
..

,
..

"
,
-
.

.'
,
/ ..

.'
'-
-

\.
'.
; ... .J
iii/'
,
,
,
,
"
..

Deepe?t

of
.'
ever VIew
,
0(
the

unIverse

Hubble scientists have recorded the history of
galaxies in this one image, from soon after the first
galaxies were formed to their huge contemporaries
j"" ,]!<' ,.,>t. "III,,' Cl""\
\ I"'" '. ,Ill', "11:\ ,'r_,' ,'I ,'I ,I'-,lh'd II, (.,II,d : 11,-
,-\lh'III'- I f ",1,1, 'I \1 'r ,11,,1 \\,,' ,''''''T11,!,c1
b' ( t"" \",01' ,,1 II,,),-,k
[,-1,-",,;,, 1" .. ,-,' "I., I','hl- "I '., ,n
1'1<' ,,'nT',- ,I 11,,- 11,,1,1, '0 \ Itt" f ,,1,1
I'll' ',q, .'"1 1 J ,,'I., I ,'-",' ,-1 'j'''''' '" !'h'
"'1,1,- 1.'IL.n j-, '"I'," lJ'I"'; IL:bt,lt 'I'," "
[,.;,.", -,;". ,I..T., I', 1:' :' " .,-,,1 :,,, 'I T'J<' :""" tlll
. \: 'I ,Ii, ,',\ I' )"'h' " ..... , ,Ii, 1111", ".,1
'1""I'L"l " It'J,'1 In ,I' .;"1.",,,, "-1.,),1""
',,"',\ ,Ill, I,,, ,,111'.' ",Il ,,,,I ,;,d.I\I'" "' ')", :I"',,',,,'
I "', -,." )">'-\1 ,I, '11"'. "': ),\ 'h': I"" ,,10"'; ",.: ,',,"
"\1" "".;1'" I" ;I,;I')'L'" ,,, ];."::
(,"""',h II'. -\,1\ .111< ",: I '1"'1,' 1", 'lll\ ,",' '" hi,
has f.,>" I 'I',>,n ':1 __ 1'1'1, ..,hl :1", \\ Id,' r,,),.)
150

1',1111<'1.1 J \\h:ch \\.h W,:.lll,'cI Iii .. "'1\ I.,,'

..... 1\ I", "j I)l<' h>I,'" '. 'I'" 1"-' I, 'n,,! ". "I
II", "'I''''''-lIh" \ ,lIn"I'),- .h: I' 'II, 'I'",.li
:,. ,) '" """" 1.11-0.' LI""! <', ,,1,'III,,!s Il" -11,'""
n.", ,11, ," '11'1,- '11,11' '" h 'i'
"hl,11 " " "",dl,Llr.- I< " '11'- tn' ,,1 e1,,1 ,,'11 \ \..t
,11..-'<:'" ,",-d "LI,: I hh h., (, ,'11 1\1'",) II",
:,,,, ,"" ." I [J, I' ""'-1 1",1 ,If",
",,1)",'11 It... , "ll.>' lh,' k.,; I" f.., I "1o',T ,,1
111,' ,;.,I."L,' \ hi)'), In Ill<' \[1]- -'h' '>-'-\1 "h"n '1,,,
,,,. '" IIlt'Ll ",T,''', \ ,,11,"1, ,11,,l,n.:
.. lh, Ih,'''' ,.n I... , 1 'li. "I'''' T,,
,,:1>,-- '11, ''''',I.LI :";,-,, 'j"''' ,"Ii,' '"T .1'" 'l', h
.h TIi, \\,"--{' 'I',', ,. I,""" 'j .... '" )11, I' ,I' 11.1
f.,. ,;,,,,111' '11,11 "', ,,,,e1 ft'-I, '.. ,., \ ",''.'
nT, TIlt'I::,I'."" ,j 'h,' ,''"' ,>,,,.

...

Into Deep Space

Red dwarfs are the most common
type of stilr in our galaxy. but they're
impossible to observe from the Earth
with the naked eye because they're
the dimmest Slars. They're also very
small and re1.J.tively cool due to their
low mass. The red dwarf Proxima
Centauri is among the smallest
and dimmest but it has the special
signjflcance of being the closest star to
us other than the Sun.
Proxima Centauri is approximately
4.24 light years (268.000 AU) away.
located in the Centaurus constellation.
The star is estimated to remain
the dosest star to ours for another
30,000 years or so. at which point
the star Ross 248 in the Andromeda
constellatIOn will come closer (irs
currently about 10.3 light years away).
Proxima Centauri is located about
15,000 AU from the nextclosest star,
the binary system Alpha Centauri
This relative closeness is how Proxima
came to be discovered. In 1915,
ScottishSouth African astronomer
Robert Innes observed a star that had
the same proper motion - the apparent
change of a stafs position on the
celestial sphere - as Alpha Centauri.
which had been first observed in 1689.
Depending on who you ask. Proxima is
either a companion to Alpha Centauri
or a thmi star In the system.
Since its discovCly, Proxima has
been closely observed. Because irs a
led dwarf. it will be around for much
longer than our Sun - at least four
trillion more years - thanks to its slow
consumption of fuel. And unlike the
Sun. Proxima will completely use
up its hydrogen dunng the fusion
process. 5.lwlhte X-ray IClcscopt'S haw
provided crucial information about its
activities. The Einstein Observatory,
an X-ray telescope that orbited the
E.1rth from 1978 to 1982, took the first
X-ray Images of the star and recorded
a solar flare - nashes of brightness
and heat caused by magnetic actIvity.
This confirmed astronomer Howard
Shapley's announcemcnt in 1951
that Proxima Centauri was a narc
star. The European Space Agency's
European X-ray Observatory Satellite
(EXOSAT), German ROSAT, and the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and
Astrophysics (ASCA) have all observed
numerous solar llares on Proxima.
Landbased telescopes have
also given us data about Proxima.
Operated by the European Southern
Observatory, the Very Large Telescope
(VLT) helped to determine Proximas
distance and size. The star has a mass
about oneeighth that of the Suns, but
Ii's about '10 times denser. Proxima's
corona, or plasma atmosphere'
extending Into space beyond the
surface, can actual1y be hotter than
that of the Sun - 3.5 million Kelvin
as opposed to 2 mi11ton KelVin. On
average, its overall temperature is
about 1000 KelVin. Observations of
Proxima's chromosphere indicate
that it has a rotation period of about
31 days.
Although the closeness of Proxima
Centauri has made for plenty of
observation, there are' still some
burning quesllons. Are there any
planets orbiting the star? And If so,
arc they h.abitable? The Hubble Space
Telescope hinted at the possibility
of a planet near Proxima Centauri
during observations in 1998, but
no further evidence has appeared
upon subsequent imaging. Proxima
was to have been a target of the
Space Interferometry Mission (SIMl
a NASA space telescope mISSion
that ultimately got cancelled. The
star's closeness continues to make
it a promising destination lor both
observation and actual interstellar
uavel. and eventually wc'n gel a bettcr
look at our neighbouring star.
All about Proxima Centauri
Into Deep Space
The closest star to our Solar Systemis also
one of the dimmest and smallest red dwarfs
Proxima:
inside and out
"It's one of the most active
flare stars ever observed"
Proxima Centaur! isn't just a led dwarf:
it's on the lower end 01 lange for late-
type Mc!.lSS stars with a mass of just
0.123 that of the Sun. They have dense,
opaque interiors. Because of this,
latetype red dwarfs have no radiative
zone - an area outsIde the COil' where
energy is transferred via radiation
present in other types of stars. Instead.
both the core and the outer layer.
or envelope, are convective. Energy
and hydrogen circulate freely. These
types of red dwarfs contlnue to fuse
hydrogen into helium in their cores
unt11 it's depleted. In contrast. the Sun
will only use up about ten per cent of
its hydrogen supply before it leaves
the main sequence and goes into a red
giant phase.
Compared to larger, mOle massive
stars, the fusion process in red dwarfs
is incredibly slow. As a result, the
estimated lire span of red dwarfs is
longer than the age of the universe.
The lower the mass of the star, the
longer its llfellme, so Proxima's
estimated life span is approximately
4 trillion years, As the hydrogen fuel
is depleted, tile core will contract
and It will become a blue dwarf as
its temperature rist'S to up to 8.200
degree; Celsius (]4,800 degrres
Fahrenhen) and its luminosity
increases, giving il a blue appearance.
Once the fuel is gone. Proxima
Centauri will become a stellar remnant
- first a white dwarf. and then a black
dwarf as II 00 longer emits heat or
lIghl. Due to their lengthy Hie span, the
Me cycle of a red dwarf is theoretical.
Proxima Centauri IS also one of the
most active flare stars ever observed,
gencratmg Xray ('missions similar
to those that come from the Sun.
This means that on occasion it can
suddenly have flashes of int('llSC
brightness. Proxima Centauri's flart'S
are a release from its magn('\1C field,
generated by the convection in the
star's interior.
Some scientists have speculated
that there is a habitable zone around
Proxima Centauri, which would
theoretically be a range of about 3.4
mIllion to 8 million kilometres (2
million and 5 million miles) from the
Stoll, with an orbital periexl between
16 and 14 days. Red dwarfs emit very
llttle light. and any planet in this ?one
would probably be tidally locked to
the star - with one side remaining in
perpetual darkness. This means that
there may just be a small region on
the planer that is actually habitable, or
there would need to be a very thick
atmosphere to keep the 'dark' side's
temperatures up. In addition, a planet
orbiting Proxima Centaun would
need to have d slTOng magnetic field
to counteract the effects of the star's
flales on its atmosphere.
Other potential challenges include
weather and winds, both of whICh may
be harsh: and photosynthesls, which
could be a very dIfferent process
slnce red dwarfs emit most of their
radiation in infrarcct light instedd of
vislble hghl. One thing that red dWdrfs
have gemg for them is their long life;
perhaps even if tlu.'re lsn't d habitable
zone around Proxima Centauri now,
thefl' could be m the futufl'. During
the blue dwarf phase th(' stal will be
hotter dOO brighter, possibly allowing
for previously uninhabitable planets to
become habitable.
158
Although it's
smaller than the
Sun in mass and
diameter, Proxima
is 40 times denser
than the Sun

Light takes this manyyears to

reach the Earthfrom Proxima
All about Proxima Centauri
Proxima
Centauri
innwnbers
Quick facts and figures about
our nearest stellar neighbour
Proxima Centauri is around 6.800 times
further from the Slll1 than Pluto
4 trillion years
Red dwarfstars like Proxima Centawi
can last this long because they burn fuel
at a slower rate
0.0017
Proxima's total 7
luminosity over all
wavelengths is 0.17"10
that of the Sun
~
million
Kelvin
The flares on
Proxima Centauri
can reach this
temperature -
hot enough to
radiate X-rays
Convective zone
The cooler outer layer
of the slar also contains
hydrogen as well as helium
(generated as a fl:'Sl.llt of
the fusion procl:'SS). Thl:'
hydrogen circulates bi:lck
to the core. where fusion
continues for the lengthy
main seQuence of the slar
Core ~
Because red dWilrf stars have a low mass. they
are entirely convective (without the filcHative
zone of other stars). Hydrogen fusion takes
place within the core and energy moves via
circular currents to the outer envelope
15.
All about Proxima Centauri
; ~ ~ ~ ;
Into Deep Space
They're the biggest stars in the universe - cosmic
monsters up to a million times brighter than the
Sun - so how do supergiant and hypergiant stars
push the limits of astrophysics?

Look up at the sky on a dark night,

and you'll see hundreds of stars. But
only a fl'W will really stand out - have
you ever wondered why? For some, it's
simply because they're quite close to
Earth. For instance, Sirius is just 8.6
light years away - so. even though irs
a fairly average star (though stil125
times more luminous than our Sun) it
appears as the brightest star in our sky.
But other stars appear bright
because they really are. The second
brightest star in the sky, Canopus, is
one such star - llO light years from
Earth and some 15,000 times more
luminous than the Sun.
Stars in this class are usually known
as supergiants - they have the mass
of ten or more Suns, and evolve in a
very different way from lower-mass
'Sun-like' stars, living fast, squandering
their nuclear fuel and dying young in
spectacular supernova explosions. The
most massive stars of all, containing
many tens or even hundreds of solar
masses of material. are hypergiants,
the most extrem{' stars known.
'In astronomy I think there's a
natural tendency to be attracted to
extremes: explains Professor Paul
Crowther from Sheffield Univ{,fSlty.
-Whether that's the most {'xtreme
by physical size, which arc generally
tlK> cool red supergiants, or the most
extreme by mass, which are the
hott<'St and bright<'St blue hypergiants:
And Crowther should know-
he's devoted much of his career to
studying these st{'llar monsters, and
in 2010 discovered the most extreme
hypergiant so far, a stellar beacon
165,000 light years from Earth in the
indelJ('ndent Large MageHanic Cloud
galaxy, an incredible 9 million times
more luminous and 265 times more
massive than the Sun (see Interview).
Supergiants and hypergiants were
first discovered through the throretical
tools of astronomy - In particular the
Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram
which allows astronomers to visualise
thl- properties of stars en masse.
However, the word 'giant' can be
soml'What confusing, because in this
case it combines concepts of mass and
Size. The largest stars by diameter can
all be loosely defined as 'red giants'-
an evolutionary phase that most stars
pass through near the end of their
lives, during which they swell to huge
diameters (often larger than F..arth's
orbit around the Sun) and become
far more luminous as they pump out
more energy, but conversely tum red
thanks to the coolness of their vast
outer surfaces. The more massIve a
star is, the bigger it will grow as a red
Hypergiant stars
giant, and red supergiants with tens
of solar masses (such as VY Canis
Majoris, with a diameter larger than
Jupiter's orbit around the Sun) are
indeed the largest stars of all. However,
really monstrous heavyweight stars
Il{'Yer actually reach this stage, so
while the larger a red giant is, the more
massive it Will be, the most massive
stars of all ar{'n't actually the largest.
The most massive stars are born at
the heart of collapsing stat-forming
nebulas, wher{' gas and dust are most
readily available. UnHk{' the mor{'
sedate, Sun-like stars, which form
around the edges and coalesce ov{'r
many millions of years, these stellar
heavyweights grow to their enormous
proportions in just a hundred
thousand years. The overall amount 01
raw material in the nebula (reflected
in the size of the star cluster that
('merges from it) also has a role to play_
'There seems to be a broad
relationship Jx>tween the tOlal mass
of a cluster, and the most massive star
within it - so for instance the Orion
Nebula has a mass 011.000 Suns,
and its most massive stars are about
30 times that of the Sun, while the
NGC 3603 cluster has about 10,000
solar masses of material, and its most
massiv{' stars weigh around 100 soIat
masses. We don't know quite why
thiS 'mass function' is the way it is In
young star dusters, but it seems to be
a univetsal rule: says Crowther
Competition betwccn the massive
central stars seems to act as a throttle
to tht> formation process, ensuring that
really massive stars are increasingly
rare. "The next obvious question is
whether if you had an even more
massive cluster, would the mass of its
biggest star keep going higher?" says
Crowther. -And the answer seems
to be no - we suspect there's a limit
and it's linked to the star formation
process. Astar forms in a collapsing
nebula. full of competing stellar 'seeds',
and it has a limited lime to grab as
much material as it can, or else its
neighbours will. It's a bit like throwing
a handful of sweets into a crowd 01
children - the ones nearest the centre
will grab most of them really quickly,
while those at the edges hardly get
any. It's a competitive environment,
and that probably puts an upper limit
on how massive a star can get:
Another major difference between
normal and monster stars lies in the
nuclear reactions that keep them
shinin.g.ln low-mass stars. these
reactions are dominated by the
'prQ(onprOlon (pop) chaIn', a process
in which individual hydrogen nuclei
169
Into Deep Space
fuse togeIher one reaction al a Ilme. to
eventually prodlJCe nuclei cl helium.
the next !leavl('Sl: element The pop
chain Il'leases small amounts of
energy at every step. but proceeds
1l'J.altvely slowly allowing SUn-like Sial'S
to keep stumng for bllhons of years.
In more
anorhef process called tht CNO cycle
becomes Imponant. ThIS fusion chain
also convertS hydmeen nuclei Into
hehum. bul il: uses carbon I'l.Idet .ts a
sotl of 'calalysf, i1lowlllg ltv! re.JCtIOnS
to happen at a much folSl:er rate. The
CNO cydt Incre.lSlngly
dominam at hiihef and
causes
SIMS 10 shine many thousands of
l1me5 more boghlly INn their less
mass....l" neighbours. 8Ul the &rte lor
this hnlbara is a drastally shonened
Iilfo span - even lhough their ares
contam much It'IOIt' nude,)r futI than
rhose of SunlIke stars.lTl<lSSlVe $lars
exhaust m lust a few
million years and begm 10 s-II into
supergiants or hypergiants.
This short hfe span means lhal
supergiants are almost always found
at IhI.' heart of newborn star cluSlt'TS
1JK>se C]US[('fS diSintegrate over
ffillbons of years. cwnluaJly scattering
theIr StiUS over a broad
region of spat'('. but supergiants simply
don', live long enough [0 make It OUI
of their s[{'lJar nUfS('rics.
'Thl.'Se stars are incredibly rare
ttK>y only form in a few places and
hall{' very shoTt lifetimes. so even if
you find a star cluster thaI's just 5
millton yt"ars old, its most massive
stars will already ha\l(' died: says
Crowttxor. i'l'x're's only a handful of
really young, massive clusters close-
enough to Earth for us to look for
thl>se guys and ttK>y're losing mass at
a terrific late, 50 ttxo mass we measure
dl'pcnds on just how okl ttxo stars
happen to tx>. The places wtxore you
usually find these really massive
clustCfS tend to have enhanced star
This imasr shows spir.ll $lJUC!ure In

I
Rigel
Type: Bluewhite
~
Solar Radii: 74
Hypergiant stars
-
I
V509 C ; iae
Type: Yelow IJypefplt
Solar bdil: 650
Into Deep Space
Red dwarf. _
Proxma Centauri
Alpha Centauri B
Most 01 the rare soc.llled 'yellow
hypcrglanlS', desplle their name,
actually seem to be red supergiants
that are shedding their outer layers
"nd heating up. And, as we've seen,
aStronomers also dlffer about whether
red hypergianls even exist! Depending
on thelr featurE'S displayed in their
light. other categor!es of supelgiant 01
hypcrgi.lnl bear eltolic n.lmes such as
WolfRayet stars and Ofpe stars,
However, until recently, the only
certall'l means of weighing really
massive Slars, and ldentlfyll'lg
sUpt'rgianls and hypt'rgial'lls. was to
pkk them OUt in binary systems. Here,
the orbital motions of the tWO stals
can be used to calculale thell masses.
Fortunately, arecent breakthrough in
modelling the 'oehaviour of really high-
mass stars promises to remove some
of thest' hmitations (see IntervieW).
Supergiolm and hyperglJnt star>
live fasr and die young. but what
fate awaits them at the end of theh
Uves? Once asrar has exhausted the
hydrogen fuelll'l its COte, it has reached
the end of liS main sequence hfetlme
R'd,!a
ArcturuS.
,,,
SPECTRAL CLASS
Sirius
Btue supergiant.
Alnil.:lm
.
!
S
TEMPERATURE
3. White dwarfs i 4. Supergiants
These hot stars are faint IThese high mass stars are
Decause of their tiny size - brilliantly luminous and
they are the burnt<oot, sloWly display a variety of colours
cooling cores of stars like oof ! as they move back and forth
own Sun. i ilCross the H'R diagram.
II
_White Dwarf,
Sirius B
the end 01 then liv{'S. Red supergiants
are even further along their life cycle,
and are the largest StMS of all.
But lor really massive hypcrgiam
stars, there's a different story, Thl.'SC
stars never make it across to the red
side of the HR diagram mste3d
theIr brilliant radiation generates
such huge pressure that II blows their
outer layers aWJy Into sp.lcc. exposing
thl' interior and ensuring that such
stars remain hot, maintaining blue or
whltehot surfaCE'S thlOughoulthcir
ltves. ThIS strong outnow of hydfOll{'n
lich material gives Itself away In a
hypergiant's spe'Ctrum and Is one of
the key means of disl1nguishlng them
from really bright supergiants.
The borderland between supergiants
and hypergiantS is filled with astrange
variety of unusual stars. and no
tWO astronomers really agree on the
plecise divkhng lines between them.
For luminous blue variabl('S
are extremely bright stars that show
long, slow changes mbrightness with
oa:asional outbursts, and include
both supergi.lnl and hypergiant stars.
Blue giant
Eta Aurigae
"The borderland between
supergiants and hypergiants
is fillea with unusual stars"
1. Main sequence I' 2. Red giants
This is the region where stars Most stars pass through
spend the majority of their this phase near the end of
lives - a star's position on their lives, brightening and
the main sequence is largely ! developing an atmosphere
determined by Its mass. i with a cool surface.
One of the most useful tools
for classifying stars is the
Hertzsprun.g-Russell (H-m
diolgram, It plots stars according
to their surfa'
and roloul or 'spedlid type'
(on the horizontal axis) and
their luminosity (on the
vertical a.xis). When a large
number of randomly selected
stars are plotted, a pattern
soon emerges: most stals .lre
arranged along a diagonal
ribbon known as thE.' 'main
sequE.'l'lCe, that runs betW('{'ll
the faint cool and red and the
bright, hot and blue. Luminous
cool stMS and faint hot ones
('led giants' and 'white dwalfs')
occupy regions to either side
of the main sequencE.' and are
comparatively lare.
Star classification
formation ratE'S, usually dUl! 10 galactiC
collisions or interactions."
So what do supergiants and
hyperglanrs look like? TIN! truth is that
they're surprisingly varied - while thl!
H-R diagram might suggest thai they'd
all have E.':memely hot surfaCE'S and
appear bluE.' in colour, in reality thE.'Y
rangl! across the sjX"Ctrum of colours.
Supergiants show the most
and it seems that their colours simply
reflect the preciSl:' balance bl!tween thl!
inward pull of gravity and the outward
pressure generated by its radiation at
a pallicular phase in thl'il ltVl'S. 11l1s
b.llancing act. known as 'hydrostatic
eqUilibrium' governs a star's overall
diameter and therefore its surface
arE.'a, even highly luminous Slars can
display Sunlike yellow, or {'\len rooler
red surfaces if they arE.' largE.' E.'nough
for thE.' heating effect of thE.'ir E'SCaping
radiation to be thinly spread.
Most stars retain more 01 Jess the
same mass throughout their lives, and
therefore maintain the same gravity,
so their equilibrium is mostly affected
by chan,ges to their luminosity as the
nuclear reactions In lhelr corE'S change
and evolve from this, we can work
out that bIll(' supergiants arc still
close to the 'main scqlll'nre' of stellar
evolution, while yellow onE'S have
begun to swell In size as tlK;r reach
Yellow supergiant
Yellow supergiants seem to be a
rare intermediate stage. though
again they get their Il<1me from
their size and brightness rather
than their mass. They seem to be
red supergiants that have shed
large amounts of their outer gas
as they head towards asupernova
v:plosion, In this photo of the
'Fried Egg Nebula', rings of ejected
material (,In be Sl't'n surrounding
the central star.
Red supergiant
The biggest red giants are the
largest stars in the universe.
swollen to diameters of a billion
kilometres or more by changes in
their cores as they near the end of
their lives. As they swell in size and
brighten to hundreds of thousands
of times solar luminosity, their
surfaces cool to a distinctive red
colour. But many scientists
these stars are supergiants rather
than true hypergianls.
Blue hypergiant
Blue hypergiants are the real
heavyweights of the universe-
tens or even hundreds of timl"$
more massive than the Sun, and
millions of times more luminoos.
Their powerful gravity limits their
so their surfaces are intl!nsely
hot Thl! young star c1ustl!r NGC
3603, shown herl!, contains onl!
binary systl!m whoSl:' st,us contain
astaggl!ring 90 and 120 solar
masses of matl!rial,

gJantstars
172
Monster star
The largest red supergiants can grow
to diameters larger than Jupiter's
orbit around the Sun
Structure of
a supergiant
Red supergiant.
Afed is a
high-mass star that is
nearing the end of its
life and has long Since
exhausted the supplies
of hydrogen fuel for
fusion in its core
Cool surface
The star's enormous
size gives it a huge
surface area. so
despite pumping out
huge amounts of
energy. the surface
remains relatively cool
and appears red
Iron core. ----------,
JUSl before the star dies. a core of solid
iron begins to build up. Unlil<e the lighter
elements. iron fusion absorbs. rather
than releases energy. triggering the core's
collapse and a Stlpernova explosion
Heavier shells.
Closer to the core. heavy elements
continue to fuse into still heavier ones.
allowing the supergiant to keep shining
Helium fusion.
A second shell of helium fusion
follows the hydrogen shell out into
the star, creating heavy elements
such as carbon and oxygen
Hydrogen fusion shell ----'
Changes in the star's density and
temperature allow hydrogen fusion to
continue in an expanding shell around
the core after hydrogen in the very
centre has been exhausted
'\
Still burning
The star's core keeps
generating energy
by fusion of heavier
elements, growing
denser over time
Hypergiant stars
Fusion shells
Meanwhile. nuclear fusion of
lighter elements spreads out
in aseries of shells around
the core
Outer envelope
The huge amounts of
energy coming from the
core and its surrounding
shells cause the star's upper
to balloon in size
Convection cells
Huge currents within the
outer envelope create
rising and sinking masses
of hot and cool gas, often
giving the star's surface a
blotchy appearance
m
Into Deep Space
<lnd c.an ooly contmue to stunt' by
burning hydrogen from the shell
surroundIng the core. and heavier
ek'menlS in the rore itself. These'
pIllCeSSeS cause the dying SlitT 10
brighlen and SWl:':IL shilling illowards
'red suPE'fBlo1nf lerT1lOfy. whde core
develops OJ complex Llyered smnure
of tnCre.lsmgly heavy elements. Each
new phase of fusion produces Itss
energy tlwn the prevIOUS Olle'. oind
is exhausted man! Wt the
liIIl:lIatlon thal conllnues to pout from
the core sUll helps 10 support I: .agaInst
ItS own enormous griMly
ThaI all change; when {he SIal
altempu; to fuse Iron lhe
eEmenl fusion ilbsc:xbs tnergy
AbruiXJy. the Sla(s supply
falters and dIeS. and (he hu8e wetghl
oIllS Olliei' \ayers comes cr.uhing
down. In wh.:Il is known
coI1apse supemo.... (he irorHICh core
is compressed 10 01 uny SlU,
a uemendous rebounds
through the remainder of lhe S1M.
he.:mng and compressllli It untlilhe
whole star ignius In it blaze of nuclear
luSlOfl mol.! lThly lasl ror months
and outshine,) billion stars. As the
SUPCH1OVoJ fades and (he debns dears.
the compressed rt'rn.lIllS of the COrt'
may be rcvcaled as a super-dcnse
neutron stilr. or even a black hole
But. lor the most massive stars
of illL there may be a third option.
"ThronslS lell us lhal if a star dies with
roughly 200 solar masses of material
remaining. It could juSt blow up it
wouldn't be the usual core-rollapse
event. but.l 'p.:lirinstabllity supernova',
which would blow itself to bits before
It could form asuper-dense core. These
things would be alThlzlngly bright and
there have been a lew observations
of events that might be this kmd of
'superlumlnous supernovi:
So. while they may be r.lre, these
monster SI'US are certainly makmg
their presence felt and interest Is
only likely to increase in the next
few years. Astronomers believe that
supergiants and hypergiants wcukl
have been far more wklespread mthe
early umverse, when the 1ac:k of heilvy
elements wcukl gwen them a
more compact structure with a hol:ter
surfin'. Thanks to the exparwon 01
the umverse. the ulttoiMOk't: r.ldJalIOll
that poored from the surface 01
these superhot stars shoukl now
be Of 'Doppler-shifted' to
mfrared waY'Clengths. Here it shoukl
be VlSibie 10 NASA's James Webb
$pin Telescope when it launches In
2018 to us OUt first YteW 01 the
stellar generallons,
U4
Enjoyed
this book?
Exclusive rfornew
* This offer entities newUK Direct Debit subscnbers to receive their first 3 Issues for 5. After these Issues. subscnbers will then pay
17.95 every 6 Issues. Subscnbers can cancel this subscnptlon at any time, New subscnptlons will start from the next available Issue.
Offer code 'ZGGZIN' must be quoted to receive this special subscnptlon pnce. Direct Debit Guarantee available on request.
** This 15 a US subscnptlon offer. The USA Issue rate IS based on an annual subscnptlon pnce of 50 for 13 Issues which IS equivalent to
$78 at the time ofwntlng compared with the ne'NSstand pnce of $9.99 for 13 Issues being $129.87. Your subscnptlon will start from the
next available Issue.
Ii
---

The ultimate
astron9my
magazine
The latest news
Stay up to date in the world of space with
informative news articles packed with useful facts
and inspirational images
,,' In-depth features
Learn about deep space, the solar system. space
I exploration and much. much more
subscribers to...
All About
.
DEEP SPACE I SOLAR SYSTEM IEXPLORATION
Try 3 issues for 5 in the UK*
or just $6 per issue in the USA**
(saving 40% off the newsstand price)
For amazing offers please visit
www.imaginesubs.co.uk/space
Quote code ZGGZIN
Or telephone: UK0844 826 7321 Overseas +44 (0) 1795414836

eunlVe
our an
All About

In
s
BUYYOUR COPYTODAY
Print edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk
Digital edition available at www.greatdigitalmags.com
Ijlacebook.COmflmagineBookazines Wtwilter.comlBooks_lmagine