Institute of Astronomy PUBLIC OPEN EVENING outreach — 5 October 2016 — A Your next holiday destination? TONIGHT’S SPEAKER Proxima b The talk schedule for can be viewed this term at:

Gerry Gilmore An artist’s impression of the view from the surface of The Latest Results from Gaia Proxima Centauri b. Credit: O/M. Kornmesser Our weekly welcome A PLANET has recently been discovered Proxima b is probably tidally locked so ELCOME everyone to the first in orbit around the closest star to the that one side of the planet always faces of our weekly public open eve- Earth, Proxima Centauri – that’s ‘only’ 40 its host. This side will become blazing W nings for the 2016/17 season. Each trillion km away! hot while the opposite side remains in night there will be a half-hour talk Designated ‘Proxima b’, the newly- permanent darkness and freezing cold. which begins promptly at 7.15pm: found exoplanet is most likely a rocky In addition, Proxima Centauri produces tonight we are delighted to have world that is both a little larger, and a strong flares of high-energy UV and little more massive than the Earth. It X-ray radiation that would to be harmful Gerry Gilmore telling us all about The orbits its parent star once every 11 days to life, and which are far more intense Latest Results from Gaia which have at a distance of 7 million km, which is than the flares the Earth receives from featured in the news recently. www.ast.cam.ac.uk/public/public_observing/current much closer than Mercury’s orbit around the Sun. There is no doubt that the The talk is followed by an the Sun. But as Proxima Centauri itself planet will be the target of extensive opportunity to observe if (and only is much cooler and dimmer than our further observations seeking evidence if…) the weather is clear. Sun, Proxima b lies well within the star’s of life. We can expect that future large The Cambridge Astronomical ‘habitable zone’, where the temperature is telescopes will be able to inform us more Association will provide a floorshow such that water on its surface could be in about the composition of the planet and outdoors on the Observatory lawns, liquid form. any atmosphere it has. And you never relaying live images from modern While it is the nearest Earth-like know, its relative closeness could make telescopes with a commentary. planet outside of the Solar System, Proxima b the first destination if and The IoA’s historical Northumber- whether or not it could actually host life when humanity ever attempts to travel to land and Thorrowgood telescopes is debatable. So close to its parent star, another planetary system. will be open for unaided eye Want to know more? Come along next week on the 12th October to hear Ryan observations, along with the 16-inch MacDonald’s talk all about Proxima b telescope. If we’re unlucky and it’s cloudy, we’ll offer you a cup of tea as Art on Mars: Beagle 2 and Damien Hirst compensation after the talk, with perhaps some more astro- THE SPOT painting prepared for the Bea- information in the lecture theatre for gle 2 space mission by artist Damien Hirst those who want to stay on. (image left) is on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum until the 20th November. The painting is (obviously!) not the one that If you have any questions, suggestions or rode to Mars on Beagle 2 to become the comments about the IoA Open Evenings first work of art from Earth to land on – please contact Carolin Crawford at another planet – but it is the ‘flight spare’ [email protected]. We tweet current astro- news and events as IOACOA. designed to remain here to provide the colour calibration of the instruments. www.ast.cam.ac.uk/public 2 — IOA PUBLIC OPEN EVENING — 5 October 2016

ART ON MARS: AFTER HOURS Philae found... THERE is also a chance to view the EARLIER this month, the Philae lander Art on Mars display and the COLOUR was finally located on the surface of exhibition after hours, followed by an comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. illustrated lecture on Colour in the Deployed from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft solar system: what does it tell us and to land on the surface of the icy duck- how do we see it? given by Prof Andrew shaped nucleus in 2014, Philae bounced Coates, a Principal Investigator on the away from its intended landing place to PanCam camera on the ESA ExoMars become stuck in a dark, shadowed part of 2020 mission. the comet. Unable to charge its solar- powered batteries, its scientific lifetime The event starts at 6pm tomorrow was limited to 60 hours of experiments. evening, Thursday 6th Oct. Booking is Once its power supply was exhausted, all Close-up of the Philae lander, imaged by essential, either online at contact with the lander was lost, and its Rosetta’s camera on 2 September 2016 from cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/tickets/ resting place remained a mystery. a distance of 2.7 km. Philae’s 1 m-wide body events/art-mars-illustrated-lecture, The Rosetta spacecraft has spent the and two of its three legs can be seen extended or by phone at 01223 357851. Tickets last two years in orbit around 67P, and has from the body. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for include a glass of wine or a soft drink. finally located Philae using its high-res- OSIRIS Team/NavCam olution camera at the final hour. The lander is clearly identifiable from its wide during its orbit around the Sun. “Mission complete” boxy shape and extended legs. The new Even though it has been found, Credit: ESA pictures confirm that it bounced down there is no chance of re-establishing into a dark crevasse, to become wedged communication with Philae. Knowing its lying on its side. It is probable that it has precise location and orientation, however, only just been found because this section will now give scientists the proper context of the comet has recently become better for interpretation of the experimental illuminated as the nucleus has swivelled data it returned. ...and Rosetta lost! mission with a deliberate collision, as it has confirmed our picture of comets as enabled the cameras on the spacecraft ancient leftovers of early Solar System to relay detailed high-resolution images formation, giving us insight into the very of the comet in the final hours of the cold regions of the proto-planetary cloud descent. It also presented the opportunity that surrounded the very young Sun, to study the gas, dust and plasma content some 4.6 billion years ago. Numerous in the immediate environment of the elements and organic compounds were surface, particularly as it was aimed at a also detected, including key components relatively active region of outgassing pits of DNA, proteins and cell membranes, on the comet. fuelling the debate about whether similar In the two years that it has followed comets could have provided Earth with the comet to study and investigate it from ingredients regarded as crucial for the a distance, Rosetta has returned much origin of life. One of the images taken during Rosetta’s about its behaviour, its structure and its The final landing has damaged Rosetta final descent, from about 16km above the chemistry. The data have shown that the so that it is now beyond any communi- cation, and further use; it will continue surface. The scene covers a region about 600m curious two-lobed shape of the comet re- to ride the comet quietly as a passenger, in width. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS sults from two separate snowballs sticking as it heads out again beyond the orbit of together in a low speed collision, in the Team/NavCam Jupiter. And while the operational mission early days of the Solar System. We have may have come to an end last week, anal- LITTLE Philae is no longer alone. It was seen how the comet evolves as it moves ysis of the data the spacecraft returned joined by the Rosetta spacecraft last closer to the Sun along its orbit and heats will continue for many years yet. Friday, which concluded its mission to up; and the gases streaming from the Comet 67P with a controlled crash-land- nucleus have been discovered to contain Scott’s joke of the week ing onto the icy surface at the ‘head’ of the molecular oxygen, nitrogen, and water – 4km-wide icy nucleus. albeit water that is significantly different My parents want me to be the first astronaut The Rosetta team decided to end the from that in Earth’s oceans. The mission in our family when I grow up – no pressure.