March 2012

MARCH 2012 ISSUE

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6.

Astrofest 2012

The Best Astronomical Exhibitions in the World.

e: lescop e T s e Faulk s nd Tip a s t n i H 13 PG 12-

WHAT’S UP IN SPACE

THE NORTHERN

THIS MONTH? PG 8-9 THE MOON LANDING CONSPIRACIES! PG 4-5

17 Page

7 s 6e g Pa

LIGHTS 14 Pages

NGC 134 –

ASTRONOMY NOW–

THE ISLAND

NEWS ROUND UP.

UNIVERSE

PG 10-11

-15

WORM HOLE TRAVEL

IN THE MIND OF PHIL WALLACE– This month’s feature writer. By Louisa Connolly Phil Wallace is well known amongst the astronomy students here at Glamorgan – usually for his enthusiasm in all things death and destruction based. But delving deeper into the mysterious mind of Mr Wallace reveals a softer, philosophical side as he answered some of my questions:

Editor: Chloe Partridge Copy Editor: Martin Griffiths Contributors: Chloe Partridge, Chrissy Birch, Daniel Cirelli,

Why the interest in doom and gloom?

Louisa Connolly, Kate Middleton

Faulkes Telescope Images: Sam Whitaker

I find it interesting because they teach us a lot about life, how to appreciate it while we can. It also reminds us of some of the best stories of heroism and survival against the odds. Plus, we’re all going to die sometime, best to be forewarned.

If you would like to contribute in any way, either by sending us

If time travel were possible, where would you go/what would you do?

Columnists: Phill Wallace, Martin Griffiths, Emily Baldwin, Sam Whitaker

your Faulkes images, or perhaps even writing an article , then

Editorial Contacts :

I would travel to either the far future when humanity travels the stars, or to around 1800 and join the Royal Navy, I fancy being captain of a frigate, lots of money in that.

10017607@glam.ac.uk

Phil Wallace is a 2nd year undergraduate student of Observational

mgriffi8@glam.ac.uk

Astronomy course, read his article on pages 4-5.

get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

EDITORIAL Welcome to the March 2012 edition of GLAM UNI-verse. We have an eclectic mix of articles ranging from galaxies to moon hoaxes and including a report on this year’s Astrofest conference in London. We also have the first of our monthly night sky notes and the continuation of digital photography and reduction. We also welcome articles from our first year students Daniel Cirelli and Christina Birch and hope that articles will flood in from students on both years of the BSc Observational Astronomy course.

In the wider world we have seen the discovery of a “water world” around a nearby star, the admission by the staff at OPERA that the errant neutrino problem may just be faulty wiring and the launch of the SETI Live website in an attempt to get public assistance on the search for extraterrestrial life. There is never a dull moment in astronomy! We hope that the range of articles this month will trigger the imagination and spur interest in this fascinating subject.

IMAGE REFERENCES: PG4-5. Moon Landing -www.buzzle.com Flag waving-Wkipedia.com PG6-7. Aurora Borealis-www.spacecentre.no Sun’s Magnetosphere -www.thesuntoday.org Aurora-apod.nasa.gov PG8-9. Moon, Leo, M66 - Wikipedia.com PG10-11. Articles 1-4 images - www.astronomynow.com PG12-13. Sam Whitaker- Faulkes Telescope PG14-15. Wormhole - casperium.deviantart.com PG16-17 Astrofest - Adam Johnson Tuning Fork - www.le.ac.uk NGC 134 - www.eso.org PG18 Albert Einstein - www.spaceandmotion.com

GLMAORGAN ASTRONOMY

MARCH 2012 ISSUE

CO SMO L O G ICA L

N EW S!

4-5 4-5. DID WE REALLY LAND ON T H E M O O N ? THE M OON LA ND ING HA S B EEN CA LLE D TH E S I N G L E G R EA TE S T A C H I E V E M E N T O F M A N KI N D . H OW E V E R S OM E P E OP LE SA Y I T NE VE R TOOK P LA CE. IN THIS M ON TH'S A R TIC LE WE L OOK A T W HY THE Y THINK THIS , A ND W HY THEY ARE WRONG.

6-7. THE NORTHERN LIGHT A N E XC I TI N G A R TI C L E O N TH E W O ND E RS O F TH E A UR ORA B ORE A L IS ; H OW IT I S F OR M E D A ND I TS A NC IE N T HIS TOR Y.

8-9. THE NIGHT SKY IN MARCH

8-9.

TH I S M ON TH W E HA V E A S E C TI O N D E TA I L I N G W HA T C A N B E OB S E R VE D IN THE NIG H T S KY , FR OM P LA NE TS TO C ONS TE L LA TI ONS A ND IN TE RES TING OB JEC TS FOR B INOC ULA RS OR SMA LL TE LESC OP ES.

10-11. ASTRONOMY NOW NEWS ROUND UP FOR FEBRUARY A S TR ONOM Y NOW ’S WE BSI TE E D I TOR E M ILY BA LDWIN P IC KS OU T THE TOP NEWS S TOR IE S FR OM THE M ON TH G ONE B Y.

12-13. FAULKES: A MONTH IN IMAGES WE W IL L B E L OOKING A T S OM E OF THE FUNC TI ONS OF FI TS L IBE RA TOR A ND A LS O THE USE OF D I F F E R E N T C O L O U R A SS IG N M E N TS TO F I L TE R S .

14-15 14-15. A THOUGHT ON LIGHT W O N D E R I N G W HE TH E R TH E S P E E D O F L I G H T C A N B E B E A TE N ? W E L O O K A T H OW I T M I G H T A C TU A L L Y B E P OS S I B LE W I TH THE A SS IS TA N C E O F WORMHOLES.

16. GLAMORGAN AT ASTROFEST 2012 W E TA KE A L O O K A T S OM E O F TH E HI G H L I G H TS O F TH I S Y EA R S A S TR OFE S T A ND G LA M ORGA N UNIVE RS I TIE S P RESE N TS.

17.THE ISLAND UNIVERSE W E D I S C US S N G C 13 4 , A GA LA XI Y I N S C U LP TO R A N D I TS C HA RA C TE R I S TI C F E A TU R E S .

COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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Did We Really Land on the Moon?

July 20th, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin

“There are no stars in any of the Moon photostep out of the Lunar Module Eagle and onto the graphs.” This is a good one, but it is easily

containers to prevent this effect. Also, film

Moon’s surface. On Earth, the Americans cele-

dealt with. Although there is no atmosphere on

from Soviet probes of the era was not fogged

brated and the Soviets commiserated. It has

the Moon, the landings all took place during the either.

been called “the day the whole world looked

lunar daytime, when the Sun is high in the sky.

up.” A single event that brought an end to the

And like on Earth, light from the Sun and re-

‘60’s Space Race and fulfilled the seemingly

flected from the lunar surface washes out the

impossible wish of President Kennedy. And yet, stars. You get the same effect when looking at according to some theorists, this historic event pictures of the ISS or Space Shuttle taken in witnessed by billions, never happened.

space.

radiation.” Film was deliberately kept in metal

“The US Flag flutters in the breeze of the studio used.” The famous argument. The flag appears to flutter, and shake and so on, as it only could if there was a breeze and hence an atmosphere. However, the flags were held on a inverted L-shaped rod, with a plastic wire

It’s perhaps the most famous conspiracy theory “If Neil Armstrong was the first man on the

through the top of the flag to hold it up. Without

in history (alongside, ironically, the JFK assas- Moon, who held the TV camera to record it?”

any atmosphere, the flags would fall down due

sination) and it has spread and grown and

This is a less than brilliant “problem.” The Lunar to gravity. Finally, the “flutter” is the same from

changed in the forty-three years since the

Module had a TV camera mounted on its lower

moon landing happened. It all began with Bill

section for exactly this purpose; to film the

Kaysing’s self-published book We Never Went to historic moment and allow all Mankind to share

the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle. The cause was taken up by the Flat Earth Society, who accused NASA of faking it at Hollywood, sponsored by Walt Disney, filmed by Stanley Kubrick and scripted by Arthur C. Clarke. If only that were true, it would probably be cooler than the reality.

the experience.

“The spacecraft would have passed through the Van Allen Belts and given the astronauts a fatal dose of radiation.” The orbital transfer trajectory was chosen to limit radiation exposure, but according to Dr. James van Allen - the discoverer of the radiation belts- has said publicly

Today, the theories take two forms: that the

that the total dose was about the same as a

landings did not happen at all and NASA lied to

nuclear power plant worker receives in a year.

the world, and that the landings did happen, but In fact, the radiation doses are good evidence not as NASA showed them. The first case is

that the missions did occur. Of the 36 astro-

more common and the most entertaining to

nauts to fly to the Moon, 33 of them have (or

debunk, so we’ll focus on that for this article.

had) developed cataracts consistent with expo-

Most of the “evidence” comes from looking at

sure to cosmic rays.

NASA photographs, videos and other data, so

“Camera film would have been fogged by the

let’s look at some of the claims.

one photo to the next:

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same as average human blood pressure or Ultimately, there is a very good argument that we did land on the Moon. Over 400,000 Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag. The photo 1/10th atmospheric pressure. people worked on or were involved with the below it is taken several seconds later; “The ascent stage shows no rocket flame Apollo program. In more than forty years, Aldrin has turned towards Armstrong to when returning the command module.” The somebody would have spilled the beans if it see if he has finished taking the picture. ascent stage, like the Saturn-V upper stag- were a hoax. In fact, it’s actually easier to And the flag flutter remains the same, as go to the Moon than fake it convincingly and es, used hypergolic propellants that burn we would expect from an airless lunar survery hot and very efficiently, giving a nearly keep it secret for forty years. face. transparent flame, which would be difficult The first image on the previous page is of

“There is no dust scatter or blast crater below the LM Descent Stage.” Nor should

to see in the reflected sunlight.

“The Moon lander weighed 17 tonnes yet there be. The descent engine was throttled makes not imprint on the dust, but footback almost to zero for the last stage of the prints can be clearly seen.” Once down, the

landing; it only had to balance the lander’s weight, which was reduced by the 1/6th gravity and nearly exhausted propellant tanks. In fact, the pressure exerted by the engine at landing was only 1.5 PSI; about the

lander weighed less than 3 tonnes having expended most of its propellant. The astronauts weighed less but exerted more pressure. This is because their boots are much smaller than the lander footprints.

BY PHIL ‘STARMAN’ WALLACE

COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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The Northern Lights The Magical Dance of Particles

The celestial lights of the north have for

the field of modern research with regards to green or yellowish-green, however when

thousands of year’s mystified and enthralled the northern lights. It was in this year that

extremely active it moves farther south ap-

people. Its spectacular and fearful display,

Sir Edmund Halley published the first detailed pearing mainly red. It is from this colour

which can extend up 250 km and on rare

description of the aurora. He thought

that the word aurora borealis, first used by

occasions 500-800 km, is ravelled in stories “auroral rays are due to the particles, which Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), originates- mean-

are affected by the magnetic field; the rays ing “red dawn of the north”. vast expanse of these lights across the night are parallel to earth’s magnetic field.” Krisof mystery and legend. Perhaps it is the sky which lead the ancient people to be

tian Birkeland , a Norwegian Scientist, then in

fearful of allowing their children to play out- 1867-1917 expanded on Halley’s work anside in its presence in case they died.

The Vikings thought the lights were a reflection of the dead, whilst the Inuits in the northernmost parts of Canada believed that the northern lights were created by spiritsspirits which dressed in mystical lights and played football with a walrus skull while the Sun was away. When the auroras moved rapidly they were called the dance of death.

The Aurora of March 6th, 1716, gave birth to

nouncing that charged particles from the sun ‘ignited’ the aurora. He even set up his own Earth- Sun model which showed how particles were captured by the earth’s magnetic field and channelled down towards the Earths poles. His work was so well regarded that not only are the electrical currents he described still called Birkeland currents ,his face is also depicted on the Norwegian 200 kroner bill.

The main glowing colour of the aurora is

Kristian Birkeland on the Norwegian 200 Kroner bill.

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The Auroral light occurs when atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere are struck by high -energy electrons. This excites the atoms to a higher energy level, when they return to their original energy state, they release a photon of light; depending on the different energies that the atoms are given via collisions with the electrons, they will release different colours of light. The highest part of the auroral curtain emits red light, the middle emits greenish-white and the lower edge pink.

The cause of these interactions in the upper atmosphere is as a result of the Sun’s coronal mass ejections, otherwise known as solar flares.

These short, intense explosions accelerate billions of tons of particles and intense X-ray radiation into space and speeds up to 8 million kilometres per hour. Although the particles are heading straight towards Earth, we are protected from the harmful effects by our planets internal magnetic field—the magnetosphere – which shields us from most of the sun’s particles; deflecting them around the earth. However, the Auroras

The biggest concern in the modern world occur when the solar winds push on this magne- today is the impact that these solar storms will have if they become so big that the partitosphere so that particles already inside the cles surge the Earth. As most of the world is magnetosphere are injected into the Earth’s up- run using electrical technology, if these ejectper atmosphere where they collide with gas par- ed particles surge the Earth they can interfere with these technological systems creatticles causing the dancing aurora. ing all sorts of turmoil. This is why coronal mass ejections are monitored by Norway— as they are located right beneath the auroral zone, and have studied it for may years. They measure the speed of the solar wind particles to predict the strength and the location of the aurora. This way they can provide space weather information to various companies which need alerting about increases in auroral strength, companies such as power grid providers, radio communication teams as well as helicopter operations in the polar night, which have especially strong needs for space weather information.

The Suns Coronal Mass Ejections

Inspired by Pål Brekke, a solar scientist, and senior adviser for space science coordination at the Norwegian Space Centre. Astrofest 2012

BY CHLOE PARTRIDGE

COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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The Night Sky in March Although the nights are getting lighter, March is still a great time to catch the last of the constellations of Winter, with Orion, Gemini, Taurus, Perseus and Auriga still visible after evening twilight. In 2012 it is also a great month to see 5 of the Planets of our solar system in one night!

Moon In March: On the evening of the 26th March a 4day old Moon will accompany Venus and Jupiter in the west. They will be within 6 degrees of each other making a very pleasant photographic opportunity.

First quarter: 1st and 29th March Full: 8th March Last Quarter: 15 th March New: 22nd March

comes to opposition on March 3rd and is visible of Virgo. It shines at magnitude +0.4 and its all night from that date on. A telescope should rings continue to open throughout 2012. Its Mercury: Just visible in the west at the end of reveal its polar caps and some slight shading. large satellite Titan is easily visible viewed the month with a magnitude of 2 through a telescope close to the planet look Jupiter: Still visible as a bright starry object Venus: Visible in the southwest after dark and high in the southwest after dark and will be for the Cassini division in the rings. continuing to move eastward during the only 3 degrees away from Venus on the 16th. Uranus: is in conjunction with the Sun on the month. It is very bright achieving magnitude - The planet will be shining at magnitude -2.2 24th March and is very low in the west before4.3 by the end of the month. It will reach and the two equatorial belts are striking. hand. Not really visible this month greatest elongation on the 27th.

Saturn: Rising in the east about 2 hours after Neptune: The planet is in conjunction with the Mars: Visible in the evening rising in the east Mars Saturn is low in the sky to the east of the Sun this month. Not visible as a bright red star shining at magnitude -1 It first magnitude star Spica in the constellation Pluto: It’s not a planet! Fooled you!

Planets in March:

Constellation of the month: Leo Leo is one of the most beautiful constellations in the sky from a visual point of view. Its grouping of bright stars provides an outline of the mythical Nemean lion, which Hercules destroyed as one of his twelve labours. The delineation is unmistakeable; Leo appears to be taking his ease, lying contentedly in the spring sky like the Sphinx near the pyramids of Egypt. His mane and head are distinguished by a train of stars that resemble a reversed question mark, or a "sickle" shape, whilst its tail is well marked by a triangle of stars, of which Denebola is the brightest.

Leo

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The sky in March: The sky as it would appear at 9:00pm on the 1st

Regulus, or alpha Leonis, lies right on the path of the ecliptic, and can therefore be occulted by the Moon and even the planets during certain periods. This is one of the closest of the bright stars as it is positioned about 85 light years away and has a luminosity of 160 times that of our Sun. If the observer follows the "sickle" up towards the top of the mane, then you will encounter one of the loveliest binary systems in the spring sky.

The star is gamma Leonis, the brightest star of this part of the mane; it can be seen well in a small telescope, the companion star is of 3rd magnitude and is fairly close to the primary. The stars are both yellow in colour, but various observers have described the stars as orange or even greenish!

Leo is found in that part of the sky where we are looking out into deep space rather than at our own galaxy. Therefore it is only to be expected that we will find some bright galaxies to examine with binoculars or a small telescope. The first such galaxies that must be visited are the bright pair known as M 65 and M 66, located just below the body of the lion. Observers with a pair of binoculars can see the pair as a faint smear of light lying close together in a field of sparse stars, whereas a telescope will show a little more detail. These galaxies are spirals of Sb type, and if you look closely at M 65, you may be able to discern a thick lane of dust bisecting the arms of this object. Just to the north of these galaxies can be found the fainter NGC 3628, which is an

11th magnitude sliver of light, unfortunately, it cannot be seen in binoculars, but a small telescope may well reveal it. These three galaxies, known as the “Leo triplet� appear to be outlying members of the Virgo cluster, the closest of the great galaxy clusters to our Milky Way. Their distance is therefore in the region of 38 million light years, making M 65 and M 66 quite luminous objects.

Observers with larger telescopes will find Leo a good hunting ground for galaxies. What could be more rewarding than contemplating the gulfs that lies between us, allowing the imagination to soar, faster than light, to these majestic islands of stars that populate the universe in which we live.

M 66

BY MARTIN GRIFFITHS

COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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Astronomy Now News RoundRound-Up "Ping-pong" planets bounce between stars A gravitational ping-pong match lasting up to one million years could be in play between nearby binary stars. The phenomenon requires two key elements: the stars need to be on a wide enough orbit so that one is not interfering with planet formation around the other, and there needs to be multiple planets around one of the stars to initiate a gravitational instability. Computer models, conducted by scientists at the University of Cambridge, show that the effect occurs for stars separated by between six and 25 times the distance between the Sun and Pluto, and say this could be one way to explain exoplanets seen on very eccentric orbits.

Planets could be kicked out of one star's clutches only to be sent careening around – or even into – its binary companion.

Super-Earth orbits in habitable zone of cool star

The newly discovered super-Earth is part of a triple-star system.

A 4.5 Earth-mass planet has been found within the habitable zone of a nearby star, which itself is a member of a triple star system. The planet, which takes 28 days to orbit its host star, has at least one superEarth companion orbiting on a tighter orbit in just 7.2 days. There is also evidence for a gas giant planet and another super-Earth in the same system. The stars are depleted in some of the metal-rich ingredients thought to be needed for planet building so the discovery is surprising. Although the super -Earth orbits in a zone where liquid water is stable, it receives infrared radiation, which could have repercussions for the way plants and animal life develop, should the planet be habitable.

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Asteroids cause black hole's X-ray hiccups The supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy may be swallowing large asteroids and comets almost daily, generating bursts of X-ray light visible to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A cloud containing hundreds of trillions of asteroids and comets surrounding the black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, were likely pulled from their parent stars and thrust on trajectories toward the black hole, which then pulls apart the objects with immense tidal forces as they pass nearby, sparking a bright flare similar to the effect of a meteor streaking through Earth's atmosphere.

Chandra collected this mosaic of Sgr A* with 43 observations from 1999 through 2009. Red represents low-energy X-rays, green indicates medium X-rays, while the highest-energy Xrays visible to Chandra register as blue

Planck’s new all-sky views of the Universe

This all-sky image shows the distribution of the galactic haze seen by ESA's Planck at microwave frequencies (red and yellow) superimposed over the high-energy sky, as seen by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (blue). The map reveals two bubble-shaped, gamma-ray emitting structures extending from the galactic centre.

New all-sky maps from the ESA-led Planck space telescope reveal a haze of microwave emissions around the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and the first whole-sky map of carbon monoxide, which points to cold clouds of star formation. Planck's primary goal is to observe the relic radiation of the big bang known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), but before that can be accurately measured, all sources of foreground emission have to be removed. A first announcement of CMB results is expected in 2013.

Read more at : www.astronomynow.com

BY DR EMILY BALDWIN

IBEX measures interstellar matter NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has detected neutral atoms of hydrogen, helium, oxygen and neon breaching the Solar System’s magnetic barrier and reaching Earth. The new results show that the Local Cloud, which is a thin cloud of dust and gas that the Solar System is passing through, has a shortage of oxygen. One explanation is that the Galaxy had regional variations in chemistry, or that oxygen may be locked up in dust grains within star- and planet-forming regions.

COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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Hints and tips for improving your images.

Continuing on from last months article on noise reduction, we will be looking at some of the functions of Fits Liberator and what happens when different filters are assigned colours that may be contrary to thought.

This is a standard RGB image, where each colour is assigned to its natural filter.

The Fits Liberator program is a free program developed by NASA, ESA and the ESO to read all FITS files from all their collected telescopes in the same manner. Though there are many options to change the look of your image I find that only two of the functions are of use. Image 1 is the linear function, the standard selection when opening a FITS file. We can see that it is much brighter and the stars and jets are clearer, but we do not get any detail for the interior of this planetary nebula. So instead we reveal this detail by using the ArcSinh(x) function. By combining this with slight movement on the histogram we can pull now see better detail in the interior. If the ArcSinh(x) function makes your images too dark or lose too many stars, then it may be necessary to use both images, cutting out the better developed center of the second image and imposing it on to the first.

Blue filter – Blue.

Making the images pretty means adding colour in different combinations until you find the desired image. In this example the high detail of the H Alpha and OIII filters dictate the overall colour of the nebula. Try mixing and matching with your own images.

Next month we will take a look at bringing out further detail in your images; smoothing out any left over noise.

Red filter – Red. Green filter – Green.

Again each filter here has been given its natural colour but includes two narrow band images.

Red, H Alpha - Red Green filter – Green.

Blue filter – Blue OIII - Teal This image uses two narrow band filters and green, which was chosen to the high detail content.

Green here is blue and the OIII and H Alpha are both Red.

This is my favorite of the set. Red was chosen for this as it is the closest to Sulpher we can get with the FT filter set.

Red filter – Red. H Alpha – Green.

OIII – Blue.

This is the first image to use the none standard colour. It uses the H-Alpha with orange, while OIII and Red are both blue in colour.

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MARCH 2012 ISSUE

This Months Images and Descriptions by Sam Whitaker.

This month we have two planetary nebulae images from the Faulkes Telescope. Ordinary stars like our sun live undistinguished and boring lives.

They steadily burn through their fuel producing light and heat for billions of years and once they have exhausted their prodigious supply of Hydrogen they become far more interesting. As the star dies it puffs up and cools, becoming a red giant. At this point the star begins to eject its outer layers of gas and fast stellar winds spread this material out from the star and form the planetary nebula. The gas particles are then excited by the ultraviolet radiation from the star causing the nebula to glow.

NGC 7293

NGC 7293 NGC 7293, more commonly known as the Helix Nebula, is the closest planetary nebula to our solar system at around 650 Light years and is found in the constellation of Aquarius. At the centre of the planetary nebula we can see the remnant stellar core of the parent star, an object known as a white dwarf. We can also see that the nebula is ringed by Cometary Knots, these cold strands of gas are shaped by the powerful winds and radiation coming from the star and as such are all pointed away from the core.

This false colour image is a composite the Hydrogen Alpha filter, Oxygen III and the Red filter each and 660 seconds.

NGC 2440.

NGC 2440

This planetary nebula is around 4000 light years away in the constellation of Puppis in the southern hemisphere. Compared to the Helix nebula -with its diameter of just over two light years, this nebula is only 1 light year in size- so is far younger. Astronomers think that the white dwarf at the centre is the hottest to be found so far, with a temperature of over 200 000 kelvin!

This is two simple RGB images with a 90 second exposure taken by Angela Keen and processed by myself.

BY SAM WHITAKER

COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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A Thought on Light People are fascinated by the poten al of travelling faster than the speed of light . It is men oned in popular TV series, films and books.

It’s present in Red Dwarf, Star Trek, Star Wars. In Stargate a device is used (aka, surprisingly enough, the Stargates) as a portal, allowing immediate access to regions which are unreachable with the ability to travel great distances quickly. Within the last year the possibility of mysterious neutrinos defying our basic knowledge on the actual ranges of speeds caused a lot of interest in the general public. While such a phenomena seemingly cannot exist with Einstein’s famous law, we must conclude that either:

dence), the idea on how the use of a wormhole can get us travelling faster than light seems like an interes ng one. Nothing can escape from a black hole, even rays of light. But could those photons successfully pass through it? A wormhole in essence is a distor on of space and me – a tunnel connec ng two points. Apparently if you were to enter a wormhole, you could end up in a completely new galaxy or even universe. It’s theore cally possible but to do this you must presume that one black hole is connected to another forming that tunnel-like structure. In effect you’d ‘hop’ in one and out the other were it physically achievable.

-Light speed is constant and is unbeatable for objects with any mass -Einstein’s law must be modified

The idea of a wormhole is an en cing one for many reasons. It allows us the possibility to explore new realms, where similar planets to Earth may exist (although these can be found in our own Universe already). It allows us to stretch our understandings of science – were a wormhole possible, and you could get through it, would the laws of physics e different? Probably not in the most part -but could beings of an ma/er live on an an ma/er world? But the main point, the reason of this ar cle, is to see whether you could beat the speed of light?

And why not, you’ve prac cally distorted space and me to your own will anyway in this situa on.

Only massless objects can a/ain the speed of light. We struggle with running at over 15mph so reaching the light target is not going to happen to animal life – even with assistance from modern technology (although we can always hope for the fantas c devices of the future). In the Large Hadron Collider protons are shot out at ridiculous speeds, yet these too can’t reach or be greater than what Einstein predicted. So what can?

Rather than claiming that neutrinos are able to transport themselves quicker than light (as quite a lot of people seem to do without evi-

Roy Kerr suggested that the shape of

a black hole was a spinning ring – providing stability to the black hole to which, if you managed to get near the middle, would transport you to a different universe. But is such a feat really possible? Most people know that when you get near a black hole you’re not going to leave in your previous (or any) form. To make this journey possible you would need a large amount of nega ve energy to keep the wormhole open enough for any cosmic travellers to get through.

This in itself is a huge achievement to be able to do, for how can nega ve energy be contained and used?

The components behind it cannot be simply reversed as you might imagine an ma/er compared to ma/er.

An electron and an an electron are the complete opposite to one another yet nega ve energy is not considered to be the opposite of normal energy.

At the moment we just don’t know but if you really could successfully get through a wormhole, you’ve just beaten the speed of light.

BY CHRISSY BIRCH

MARCH 2012 ISSUE

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COSMOLOGICAL NEWS!

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Glamorgan visit Astrofest is an exhibition that brings together

and Galaxies and even the big bang for begin-

the largest collection of professional and ama-

ners. Each lecture was given by a speaker, who interest at our stand including the likes of Sir

teur astronomers in Europe. The event is set

had a great insight into their topic and included Patrick Moore.

out over 2 days and this year the event fell on

lecturers from Oxford University, NASA and the

th

th

the 10 and 11 of February and was held in Kensington Conference and Events Centre, London. Astrofest is a yearly event that attracts not only keen astronomers but also some wellknown stars too.

Norwegian Space Centre.

interested in astronomy but also a place to

tronomy and allowed us to meet some influential

come to get some great astronomical kit. Many

figures as well as picking up some cool freebies

telescope manufacturers and publishers come

along the way.

Brian May attended, allowing many of the stu-

books to the public at exhibition

dents to meet their childhood heroes. As many

prices, which is often a lot cheaper

already know Sir Patrick Moore is the host of

than retail prices.

50 years. Brian May is better known as the guitarist from the popular band Queen however many do not know that he has a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College. Both of the stars were also signing books at the event as well as attending the exhibition, so some of the students took the opportunity to meet them and get their books signed.

ly for the University stand and the students. It allowed us to get a great view of modern as-

to Astrofest to sell telescopes, binoculars and

and his career in astronomy has spanned over

Overall Astrofest was a great success especial-

Astrofest is not only a place to come if you’re

This year at the event Sir Patrick Moore and

the popular BBC programme The Sky at Night

ing. However once resolved we had some keen

This year, as well as last, The University of Glamorgan had a stand at the exhibition. This allowed the staff and students from the observational astronomy BSc to talk to the public about the course as well as the Faulkes telescope Project, of which the University is part of. This year at our stand we had some live Faulkes telescope time, which allowed students and staff to use the 2m telescope in

As well as the exhibition the event also held

Hawaii via the internet. This went down very well

lectures on some of the hottest topics in as-

with the public as it allowed them to see an

tronomy currently. Some of the conferences

actual research telescope in use, with a few

included: Planets and Pulsations, Black holes

minor hiccups including the internet not work-

BY DANIEL CIRELLI

MARCH 2012 ISSUE

Page 17

The Island Universe NGC 134 - with its prominent lanes of dust.

Discovered by John Herschel at the Cape of

situated in the constellation Sculptor and can

produce tails of materials, gas and stars, caus-

Good Hope in South Africa, Sixty-two million

be seen through small telescopes.

ing them to be ripped out from the galaxy.

light years from the Earth lies NGC 134, centred

Dark lanes of dust are prominent in parts of the galactic disk, with small red features locatastronomers are the emission lines that run named "The Island in the Universe". From using through it and appearance that it is warped, or ed along the spiral of the galaxy, indicating that De Vaucouleurs system (an extended version of there is ionising gas (or hot gas) where star perhaps slightly 'bent' like a vinyl record left formation is present. These red features are the Hubble classification of galaxy types shown out too long in the sun. Such warps however known as HII regions. The image above shows below) NGC 134 's morphology of SAB(s)bc, are not unusual to see; our own Milky Way for features such as the star formation of this indicates that it is a barred-spiral galaxy with example has a slight warp. They can be found beautiful galaxy , its slight warp and its localspiral arms wrapped loosely around a bright with several galaxies that appear to have an ised galaxies surrounding the parent galaxy. but very small nucleus hidden by a series of interacting companion, which suggests that a dark dust lanes that delineate the galaxy's neighbour galaxy had interacted with NGC 134 spiral arms. The barred spiral galaxy NGC 134 is at some point in time. These interactions can Features of this galaxy widely recognised by

in the impressive Sculptor group and nick-

The "Tuning Fork" diagram, showing morphologies of galaxies.

BY KATE MIDDLETON

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

-Albert Einstein

BSc (Hons) Observational Astronomy