ISSUE ONE
CONTENTS
04.
PLANET UPDATE APRIL –MAY -
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Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
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THEORIES OF THE FUTURE - Life on other planets theory on what has been discovered on planets other then earth - How will the world end theory how one way the world could possibly end - The creation of the universe science provides evidence that god was not the creater of earth
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CURRENT EVENTS OCCURING IN SPACE
- Cassini - a space mission experiment flying through the inner ring of saturn - Mars share orbit - mars is sharing an orbit with the remains of anceint planets - The Sun - the temperature of the sun and its future. - Mine the moon - plans for 2020 - Asteriods stikes mars - the asteriod creatd a tornadoes 3
04. PLANETS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM APRIL - MAY
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MERCURY
Mercury is the closest planet to our Sun, the smallest of the eight planets, and one of the most extreme worlds in our Solar Systems. Named after the Roman messenger of the gods, the planet is one of a handful that can be viewed without the aid of a telescope. As such, it has played an active role in the mythological and astrological systems of many cultures. In spite of that, Mercury is one of the least understood planets in our Solar System. Much like Venus, its orbit between Earth and the Sun means that it can be seen at both morning and evening (but never in the middle of the night ). And like Venus and the Moon, it also goes through phases; a characteristic which originally confounded astronomers, but eventually helped them to realize the true nature of the Solar System. Mercury, in the morning sky, rises 90 minutes before the Sun on May 1 and nearly 2 hours earlier than the Sun at the end of the month. With a low altitude and a magnitude 2.4 the planet will not be readily observable at the beginning of May. Things rapidly improve during the first half of May as Mercury brightens and moves further from the Sun. The planet reaches its greatest
elongation, 26° west of the Sun mid month. On the morning of May 18 at 6.20 am, hour before sunrise at Wellington, Mercury will be nearly 13° above the horizon with a magnitude 0.4. Venus will be some 19° above and a little to the left of the fainter planet. The middle of May will give the best opportunity to observe Mercury in the morning sky this year. By the end of May the planet will be brighter at magnitude -0.3 but getting little lower. Mercury stars May in Pisces, it crosses a corner of Cetus between May 19 and 22 before entering Aries. On the morning of May 24 a thin crescent moon will be 3.5° above Mercury
VENUS
As the morning star, the evening star, and the brightest natural object in the sky (after the Moon), human beings have been aware of Venus since time immemorial. Even though it would be many thousands of years before it was recognized as being a planet, its has been a part of human culture since the beginning of recorded history.
Because of this, the planet has played a vital role in the mythology and astrological systems of countless peoples. With the dawn of the modern age, interest in Venus has grown, and observations made about its position in the sky, changes in appearance, and similar characteristics to Earth have taught us much about our Solar System. Venus is an easy to find morning object in May. It rises over 3 hours before the Sun on the 1st increasing to almost 4 hours earlier by the 31st. Venus is following Mercury across Pisces and ends May quite close to the position in the stars that Mercury was in at the beginning of the month. On the morning of the 23rd the crescent moon will be about 3.5° to the lower right of Venus. On 31st, Venus will also be 3.5° above Uranus, so the two will be visible in a 5° binocular field.
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EARTH Earth between Jupiter and sun April - May In addition to being the birthplace of humanity and the cradle of human civilization, Earth is the only known planet in our Solar System that is capable of sustaining life. As a terrestrial planet, Earth is located within the Inner Solar System between between Venus and Mars (which are also terrestrial planets). This place Earth in a prime location with regards to our Sun’s Habitable Zone. Earth has a number of nicknames, including the Blue Planet, Gaia, Terra, and “the world” – which reflects its centrality to the creation stories of every single human culture that has ever existed. But the most remarkable thing about our planet is its diversity. Not only are there an endless array of plants, animals, avians, insects and mammals, but they exist in every terrestrial environment. On this date – April 7, 2017 – at 22 UTC (5 p.m. Central Time; translate to your time zone), our planet Earth passes most nearly between the sun and the outer planet Jupiter for this year. Earth’s faster movement places Jupiter opposite the sun. Astronomers call this event an opposition of Jupiter. Because Jupiter is opposite the sun, it’s now rising in the east around sunset, climbing highest in the sky at midnight and setting in the west around sunrise. It shines more brightly than any star in the evening sky, and is the second-brightest planet, after Venus. But Venus
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only shines for a short while before sunrise at present while Jupiter stays out all night long. Before dawn now, you might catch them both: Venus blazing low in the east and Jupiter, a bit fainter but still brighter than any star, shining in the west. Jupiter comes to opposition about every 13 months. That’s how long Earth takes to travel once around the sun relative to Jupiter. As a result – according to our earthly calendars – Jupiter’s opposition comes about a month later each year. Last year – in 2016 – Jupiter’s opposition date was March 8. Next year – in 2018 – it’ll be May 9. Jupiter’s closest approach to Earth for the year always falls on or near this planet’s opposition date. In 2017, Jupiter comes closest to Earth one day after its opposition date, on April 8, coming to within 414 million miles (666 million km) of Earth. At this 2017 opposition, Jupiter shines in front of the constellation Virgo the Maiden. The close 1st-magnitude star to Jupiter is Spica, the brightest light in Virgo. However, dazzling Jupiter – a planet in our own solar system, and therefore much closer to us – outshines this star by over 20 times.
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MARS Mars, otherwise known as the “Red Planet”, is the fourth planet of our Solar System and the second smallest (after Mercury). Named after the Roman God of war, its nickname comes from its reddish appearance, which has to do with the amount of iron oxide prevalent on its surface. Every couple of years, when Mars is at opposition to Earth (i.e. when the planet is closest to us), it is most visible in the night sky. Because of this, humans have been observing it for millennia, and its appearance in the heavens has played a large role in the mythology and astrological systems of many cultures. And in the modern era, it has been a veritable treasure trove of scientific discoveries, which have informed our understanding of our Solar System and its history. Mars slowly gets lower in the early evening sky. At magnitude 1.6 to 1.7 and a low altitude it will be a difficult object in the twilight. It sets 75 minutes after the Sun on the 1st, an hour after the Sun on the 31st. On the evening of the 27th a very thin crescent moon will be about 4.5° above Mars. But at 5.45 pm when the Sun is only 8° below the horizon, Mars? altitude at Wellington will be slightly less than 4°
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JUPITER Ever since the invention of the telescope four hundred years ago, astronomers have been fascinated by the gas giant known as Jupiter. Between its constant, swirling clouds, its many, many moons, and its Giant Red Spot, there are many things about this planet that are both delightful and fascinating. But perhaps the most impressive feature about Jupiter is its sheer size. In terms of mass, volume, and surface area, Jupiter is the biggest planet in our Solar System by a wide margin. And since people have been aware of its existence for thousands of years, it has played an active role in the cosmological systems many cultures. But just what makes Jupiter so massive, and what else do we know about it? Jupiter will be prominent in the evening sky with Saturn appearing later to the east. Mars is getting too close to the Sun for easy observation. Mercury will be at its morning sky best for the year in the 2nd part of the month, well placed an hour before sunrise. It will very much outshone by Venus some way above it Jupiter will be a prominent object throughout the evening sky following its opposition at the beginning of April. Early evening in May will find the planet just under 10° to the left of the first magnitude star Spica, alpha Virginis. Some 8 hours later the anticlockwise rotation of the sky will bring Spica to a position directly above Jupiter. The nearly full moon will be 5° to the lower right of Jupiter on May 8.
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SATURN
Saturn will rise at 8 pm on the 1st of May and a good 2 hours earlier by the 31st. It brightens slightly during the month from 0.3 to 0.1 making it the brightest object to the east. There are a number of the brighter, 2nd magnitude stars in Sagittarius some 10 to 20° to its Saturn?s left. The planet itself starts the month in Sagittarius. It moves only slowly to the west through the stars, less than 2° during the month. Even so this is sufficient to take it into Ophiuchus mid month. Currently Saturn is 22° south of the equator. As a result when due north it will be very high in NZ skies. This will be about 3.30 am early May, advancing to 1.30 late May. The moon, a little past full, will be some 7° from Saturn on the evenings of May 13 and 14. The position of the moon with reference to Saturn on the two night will be very different. Moon and planet are closest about 10 am on the morning while they are below the horizon for NZ. Titan is so large that it affects the orbits of other near-by moons. At 5,150 km (3,200 miles) across, it is the second largest moon in the solar system. Titan hides its surface with a thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Titan’s atmosphere is similar to the Earth’s atmosphere of long ago, before biology took hold on our home planet. Titan’s atmosphere is approximately 95% nitrogen with traces of methane. While the Earth’s atmosphere extends about 60 km (37 miles) into space, Titan’s extends nearly 600 km (ten times that of the Earth’s atmosphere) into space. Iapetus has one side as bright as snow and one side as dark as black velvet, with a huge ridge running around most of its dark-side equator. Phoebe orbits the planet in a direction opposite that of Saturn’s larger moons, as do several of the more recently discovered moons. Mimas has an enormous crater on one side, the result of an impact that nearly split the moon apart. Enceladus displays evidence of active ice volcanism: Cassini observed warm fractures where evaporating ice evidently escapes and forms a huge cloud of water vapor over the south pole. Hyperion has an odd flattened shape and rotates chaotically, probably due to a recent collision. Pan orbits within the main rings and helps sweep materials out of a narrow space known as the Encke Gap. Tethys has a huge rift zone called Ithaca Chasma that runs nearly three-quarters of the way around the moon. Four moons orbit in stable places around Saturn called Lagrangian points. These places lie 60 degrees ahead of or behind a larger moon and in the same orbit. Telesto and Calypso occupy the two Lagrangian points of Tethys in its orbit; Helene and Polydeuces occupy the corresponding Lagrangian points of Dione. Sixteen of Saturn’s moons keep the same face toward the planet as they orbit. Called “tidal locking,” this is the same phenomenon that keeps our Moon always facing toward Earth.
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URANUS Uranus, which takes its name from the Greek God of the sky, is a gas giant and the seventh planet from our Sun. It is also the third largest planet in our Solar System, ranking behind Jupiter and Saturn. Like its fellow gas giants, it has many moons, a ring system, and is primarily composed of gases that are believed to surround a solid core. Though it can be seen with the naked eye, the realization that Uranus is a planet was a relatively recent one. Though there are indications that it was spotted several times over the course of the past two thousands years, it was not until the 18th century that it was recognized 12
for what it was. Since that time, the full-extent of the planet’s moons, ring system, and mysterious nature have come to be known. Uranus begins to move up into the morning sky shortly before sunrise, following its conjunction with the Sun mid April. At the beginning of May Uranus will be close to Mercury but too low for easy observation. At the end of May a much brighter marker, Venus, will be 3° above the outer planet. By then Uranus will rise just before 4 am, with Venus rising 15 minutes earlier. So at 6.30 am, an hour before sunrise, the two will be at a comfortable 25° altitude.
NEPTUNE Neptune is the eight planet from our Sun, one of the four gas giants, and one of the four outer planets in our Solar System. Since the “demotion” of Pluto by the IAU to the status of a dwarf planet – and/or Plutoid and Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) – Neptune is now considered to be the farthest planet in our Solar System. As one of the planets that cannot be seen with the naked eye, Neptune was not discovered until relatively recently. And given its distance, it has only been observed up close on one occasion – in 1989 by the Voyager 2 spaceprobe. Nevertheless, what we’ve come to know about this gas (and ice) giant in that
time has taught us much about the outer Solar System and the history of its formation. Neptune rises early into the morning sky, soon after 2am on May 1 and 2 hours earlier on May 31. The planet remains in Aquarius at magnitude 7.9, moving only half a degree during the month. On the 1st it will be 18.5° above and a little left of Venus.
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NEPTUNE
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15. CURRENT EVENTS IN SPACE
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CASSINI As its Grand Finale mission gets underway, Cassini continues to push boundaries as it took its first-ever dive through the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings, to come within around 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) of Saturn’s cloud tops. The gap between the rings and the top of Saturn’s atmosphere is about 2,000 kilometres (1,500 miles) wide and Cassini travelled within about 300 kilometres (200 miles) of the innermost visible edge of Saturn’s rings to get closer than any other spacecraft has done before. The air pressure at Saturn’s cloud tops is 1 bar – comparable to the atmospheric pressure of Earth at sea level – and while mission managers were confident Cassini would complete the manoeuvre successfully, extra precautions were taken with this first dive, as the region had never been explored before. “No spacecraft has ever been this close to Saturn before. We could only rely on predictions, based on our experience with Saturn’s other rings, of what we thought this gap between the rings and Saturn would be like,” said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “I am delighted to report that Cassini shot through the gap just as we planned and has come out the other side in excellent shape.”
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Modelling of this region predicted that Cassini might come into contact with ring particles where the craft crossed the ring plane, however it was calculated that hopefully the material would be no bigger than the size of a smoke particle. As Cassini was due to dash through this region at 124, 000 kilometres per hour (77,000 mph), as a protective measure, the spacecraft used its large, four metre-dish-shaped highgain antenna as a shield, against the flurry of oncoming ring particles. This meant that Cassini was out of contact with Earth while its shield was orientated at an angle to protect it. The craft, which is now back in contact with mission control, is in the process of beaming back science and engineering data, via NASA’s Deep Space Network Goldstone Complex in California’s Mojave Desert. During this final chapter, Cassini will make a total of 22 dives between Saturn and its rings, as it loops around the planet approximately once per week. The spacecraft’s final act will be to eventually plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere on 15 Sept, 2017, thus putting an end to Cassini’s spectacular 13 year mission.
MARS SHARES ORBIT Mars shares orbit with remains of ancient mini planets The planet Mars shares its orbit with a handful of small asteroids, the so-called Trojans. Now an international team of astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile have found that most of these objects share a common composition; they are likely the remains of a mini-planet that was destroyed by a collision long ago. The findings are reported in a paper to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in April. Trojan asteroids move in orbits with the same average distance from the Sun as a planet, trapped within gravitational “safe havens” 60 degrees in front of and behind the planet. The special significance of these locations was worked out by 18th century French Mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange. In his honour, they are now known as “Lagrange points”; the point leading the planet is L4; that trailing the planet is L5. About 6000 such Trojans have been found at the orbit of Jupiter and about 10 at Neptune’s. They are believed to date from the solar system’s earliest times when the distribution of planets, asteroids and comets was very
different than the one we observe today. Mars is so far the only terrestrial planet known to have Trojan companions in stable orbits. The first Mars Trojan was discovered over 25 years ago at L5 and named “Eureka” in reference to the famous exclamation by Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes. The present tally is nine, a factor of 600 fewer than Jupiter Trojans, but even this relatively puny sample shows interesting structure not seen elsewhere in the solar system. April 3, 2017 Armagh Observatory
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The Sun is the center of the Solar System and the source of all life and energy here on Earth. It accounts for more than 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System and it’s gravity dominates all the planets and objects that orbit it. Since the beginning of history, human beings have understood the Sun’s importance to our world, it’s seasons, the diurnal cycle, and the life-cycle of plants. Because of this, the Sun has been at the center of many ancient culture’s mythologies and systems of worship. From the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas to the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Druids, the Sun was a central deity because it was seen as the bringer of all light and life. In time, our understanding of the Sun has changed and become increasingly empirical. But that has done nothing to diminish it’s significance.
The name “The Sun”
SUN
The name “The Sun” is a proper English noun which evolved from the Old English sunne, which may be related to the word south. Other Germanic forms of the name – ranging from sunne and sonne in Old Frisian to sunna in Old High German and Old Norse to sunno in Gothic. All Germanic terms for the Sun stem from the Proto-Germanic “sunnon“, which is in turn derived from the sauel or sauol of Proto-Indo-European. The English name for Sunday stems from the Old English Sunnandæg (literally “Sun’s day”) which was in use before 700 CE. This name resulted from the Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis, which is itself a translation of the Greek heméra helíou. The Latin name for the Sun, Sol, is widely known but is not in common use. However, the adjectival form solar is used widely to refer to phenomena or attributes pertaining to the Sun. billion years, and is increasing in brightness at a rate of about 1% every 100 million years. At the end of its main sequence phase, the Sun will not go supernova since it does not have sufficient mass. Instead, once the hydrogen in the core is exhausted in 5.4 billion years, the Sun will begin to expand and become a red giant. It is hypothe-
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sized that it will grow large enough to encompass the orbit’s of Mercury, Venus, and maybe even Earth. Once it reaches the Red-GiantBranch (RGB) phase, the Sun will haves approximately 120 million years of active life left. But much will happen in this amount of time. First, the core (full of degenerate helium), will ignite violently in a helium flash – where approximately 6% of the core and 40% of the Sun’s mass will be converted into carbon within a matter of minutes.
Time it takes for the sunlight to travel to earth The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements hydrogen and helium, which account for 74.9% and 23.8% of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere, respectively. All heavier elements account for less than 2% of the Sun’s mass, with oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun’s mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%) being the most abundant. The interior of the Sun is differentiated between multiple layers, which includes a core, a radiative zone, a convective zone, a photosphere, and an atmosphere. The core is the most dense and hottest region of the Sun (150 g/cm³/15.7 million K) and accounts for about 20–25% of the Sun’s overall radius. The Sun takes about 1 month to rotate once on its axis; however, this is a rough estimate because the Sun is a ball of plasma. Recent analysis has indicated that the core has a rotation rate that is faster than the outer layers of the Sun. At the outer layers, near the equator, it rotates about once every 25.4 days; whereas nearer to the poles, it takes up to 36 days to complete a single rotation. It is also in the core where the majority of the Sun’s energy is produced through nuclear fusion, which converts hydrogen into helium. Nearly 99% of the thermal energy created by the Sun occurs within this region – which accounts for 24% of the Sun’s interior. By 30% of the radius, fusion processes have nearly ceased. The rest of the Sun is heated by this energy, which is transferred outwards to the solar photosphere before escaping into space as sunlight or high-energy particles.
Future The current scientific consensus is that the Sun formed around 4.57 billion years ago from the collapse of part of a giant molecular cloud that consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium, and probably gave birth to many other stars. As one fragment of the cloud collapsed, it also began to rotate (because of conservation of angular momentum) and heated up with the increasing pressure.
Much of the mass became concentrated in the center, whereas the rest flattened out into a disk that would eventually accrete to form the planets and other Solar System bodies. Gravity and pressure within the core of the cloud generated a lot of heat as it accreted more matter from the surrounding disk, eventually triggering nuclear fusion. From this grand explosion, the Sun was formed. The Sun is presently in it’s main sequence phase, which is charac-
terized by the ongoing production of thermal energy through nuclear fusion. Currently, more than four million tonnes of matter is converted into energy within the core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation. At this rate, the Sun has converted 200 times the mass of our Earth into energy (about 0.03% of its total mass). - Matt Williams
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MINE THE MOON Forty-five years have passed since humans last set foot on an extraterrestrial body. Now, the moon is back at the center of efforts not only to explore space, but to create a permanent, independent space-faring society. Planning expeditions to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor is no longer just a NASA effort, though the U.S. space agency has plans for a moon-orbiting space station that would serve as a staging ground for Mars missions in the early 2030s. The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is planning a lunar fueling station for spacecraft, capable of supporting 1,000 people living in space within 30 years. Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Robert Bigelow all have companies aiming to deliver people or goods to the moon. Several teams competing for a share of Google’s US$30 million cash prize are planning to launch rovers to the moon. We and 27 other students from around the world recently participated in the 2017 Caltech Space Challenge, proposing designs of what a lunar launch and supply station for deep space missions might look like, and how it would work. 20
The raw materials for rocket fuel Right now all space missions are based on, and launched from, Earth. But Earth’s gravitational pull is strong. To get into orbit, a rocket has to be traveling 11 kilometers a second – 25,000 miles per hour! Any rocket leaving Earth has to carry all the fuel it will ever use to get to its destination and, if needed, back again. That fuel is heavy – and getting it moving at such high speeds takes a lot of energy. If we could refuel in orbit, that launch energy could lift more people or cargo or scientific equipment into orbit. Then the spacecraft could refuel in space, where Earth’s gravity is less powerful.
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ASTERIOD STRIKES MARS The study of another planet’s surface features can provide a window into its deep past. Take Mars for example, a planet whose surface is a mishmash of features that speak volumes. In addition to ancient volcanoes and alluvial fans that are indications of past geological activity and liquid water once flowing on the surface, there are also the many impact craters that dot its surface. In some cases, these impact craters have strange bright streaks emanating from them, ones which reach much farther than basic ejecta patterns would allow. According to a new research study by a team from Brown University, these features are the result of large impacts that generated massive plumes. These would have interacted with Mars’ atmosphere, they argue, causing supersonic winds that scoured the surface. These features were noticed years ago by Professor Peter H. Schultz, a professor of geological science with the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS) at Brown University. When studying images taken at night by the Mars Odyssey orbiter using its THEMIS instrument, he noticed steaks that only appeared when imaged in the infrared wavelength. These streaks were only visible in IR because it was only at this wavelength that contrasts in heat retention on the surface were visible. Essentially, brighter regions at night indicate
surfaces that retain more heat during the day and take longer to cool. As Schultz explained in a Brown University press release, this allowed for features to be discerned that would otherwise not be noticed: “You couldn’t see these things at all in visible wavelength images, but in the nighttime infrared they’re very bright. Brightness in the infrared indicates blocky surfaces, which retain more heat than surfaces covered by powder and debris. That tells us that something came along and scoured those surfaces bare.” Along with Stephanie N. Quintana, a graduate student from DEEPS, the two began to consider other explanations that went beyond basic ejecta patterns. As they indicate in their study – which recently appeared in the journal Icarus under the title “Impact-generated winds on Mars” – this consisted of combining geological observations, laboratory impact experiments and computer modeling of impact processes. Ultimately, Schultz and Quintana concluded that crater-forming impacts led to vortex-like storms that reached speeds of up to 800 km/h (500 mph) – in other words, the equivalent of an F8 tornado here on Earth. These storms would have scoured the surface and ultimately led to the observed streak patterns. This conclusion was based in part on work Schultz has done in the past at NASA’s Vertical Gun Range.
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22. SCIENTIST THEORIES
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LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS For centuries, men have pondered the possibility of life on other planets and tried to prove its existence. Even before the first shuttle or probe was launched, stories of life on other planets and life invading our own planet, were published prolifically. Whether it’s a desire to connect with others or a burning curiosity to know whether we are truly alone, the question of life on other planets fascinates people from every walk of life. An article on extraterrestrial life would not be complete without discussing Mars. Mars has been the biggest focus of the ongoing search for life on other planets for decades. This is not just a wild assumption or fancy; there are several reasons why scientists consider Mars the best place to look for extraterrestrial life. One reason why many people, including scientists, look to Mars as a possible source of life is because they believe there may be water on the planet. Since the telescope was first invented, astronomers have been able to see the channels in the terrain that look like canals or canyons. Finding water on a planet is vitally important to proving that life exists there because it acts as a solvent in chemical reactions for carbon-based life. Another reason astronomers consider Mars as a likely location for life is because there is a good possibility that Mars is in the habitable zone. The habitable zone is a theoretical band of space a certain distance from the Sun in which conditions are optimal for the existence of carbon-based life. Unsurprisingly, Earth is in the middle of the habitable zone. Although astronomers do not know how far this zone could extend, some think that Mars could be in it.
Most astronomers are looking for life that is carbon-based and similar to life on Earth. For instance, the habitable zone only applies to favorable conditions for supporting carbon-based life, and it is definitely possible for forms of life that do not need water to exist. Astronomers do not limit themselves to our Solar System either, suggesting that we should look at different solar systems. Scientists are planning to use interferome-
try–an investigative technique that implements lasers, which is used in astronomy as well as other fields– to find planets in the habitable zones of other solar systems. Astronomers believe that there are hundreds of solar systems and thousands of planets, which means that statistically the odds are favorable for finding another planet that supports life. While NASA develops better probes, the search for life continues.
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HOW THE WORLD ENDS arth’s final days are in the distant future, but the the death of a far-off solar system revealed in images from Kepler 2 shows how the world might end The destruction of a solar system has been captured for the first time by astronomers who said the violent events provide a grim glimpse of Earth’s ultimate fate. Images taken by Nasa’s Kepler 2 space mission reveal the rocky remains of a world that is being torn apart as it spirals around a dead star, or white dwarf, in the constellation of Virgo, 570 light years from Earth. Scientists spotted chunks of shredded planet swinging around the white dwarf every 4.5 to five hours, placing them in an orbit about 520,000 miles from the star, about twice the distance between the Earth and the moon. “This is something no human has seen before,” said Andrew Vanderburg at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “We’re watching a solar system get destroyed.” Sun-like stars are driven by nuclear reactions that transform hydrogen into helium. But when the hydrogen runs out, they burn heavier elements, such as helium, carbon and oxygen, and expand dramatically. Eventually, the star sheds its outer layers to leave an Earth-sized core known as a white dwarf.
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THE UNIVERSE God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain’s most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book. In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity. In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. But in the new text, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed a creator is “not necessary”. The Grand Design, an extract of which appears in the Times today, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos. “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,” he writes. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.” In the forthcoming book, published on 9 September, Hawking says that M-theory, a form of string theory, will achieve this goal: “M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find,” he theorises. “The fact that we human beings – who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph.” Hawking says the first blow to Newton’s belief that the universe could not have arisen from chaos was the observation in 1992 of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun. “That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single sun, the lucky combination of Earth-
sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings,” he writes. Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. Writing in his bestseller A Brief History Of Time in 1988, he said: “If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God.”
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NEXT MONTH...
ISSUE TWO
PLANET UPDATE - Mercury
- Jupiter
- Venus
- Saturn
- Earth
- Uranus
- Mars
- Neptune
CURRENT EVENTS OCCURING IN SPACE - There are thousands of other planets out there - Mercury and Venus are the only planets in our solar system without moons
THEORIES OF THE FUTURE - One million earths can fit in the sun - The hottest planet is not the closet planet to the sun
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