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Ww W.Havastro.Co.Uk th A Happy 24 Anniversary to all of our members and organisers www.havastro.co.uk This M onth Hubble uncovers the farthest star ever seen We welcome Konrad Malin-Smith on the ocassion of our 24th More than halfway across the Universe, an enormous blue star Anniversary and look forward to his talk, “In The Beginning”. nicknamed Icarus is the farthest individual star ever seen. We are also looking forward to having some drinks, nibbles Normally, it would be much too faint to view, even with the and, of course , a wonderful cake from Liz Watson, who world’s largest telescopes. But through a quirk of nature that never ceases to amaze us with her creations. tremendously amplifies the star’s feeble glow, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope were able to pinpoint Last Month this faraway star and set a new distance record. They also used Icarus to test one theory of dark matter, and to probe the We had a very good talk by Jerry Stone, a leading speaker on make-up of a foreground galaxy cluster. The star, harboured in space explorationwho gave a talk on “The Way to The Stars”. a very distant spiral galaxy, is so far away that its light has taken nine billion years to reach Earth. It appears to us as it did Members News when the universe was about 30 percent of its current age. The team of astronomers dubbed the star “Icarus,” after the We are pleased to have Sid join us this evening for our Greek mythological character who flew too near the Sun on anniversary and we thank Tony for collecting him from his wings of feathers and wax that melted. (Its official name is home and Les Jones who will be taking him home. MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star-1.) Much like Icarus, the background star had only fleeting glory as seen from Earth: It Please Note: from next month we will be holding our momentarily skyrocketed to 2,000 times its true brightness meetings in Room 5 of the Community Centre which is when temporarily magnified. When NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is launched, astronomers expect to find many more situated on your right as you enter the Main Entrance. stars like Icarus. Webb’s extraordinary sensitivity will allow measurement of even more details, including whether these distant stars are rotating. Such magnified stars may even be found to be fairly common. Next Meeting ~ May 16th We welcome Chris Woodhouse who will speak on Astrophotography . We are grateful to Les Brand for arranging this. There will also be a raffle which we hope members will donate and participate. NIGHT SKY The Lyrid Meteor Shower: can best be see on the night of 22nd April from 1900 BST to about 03:30 BST radiating from Lyra high in the Northeast. The Lyrids are pieces of debris from the Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher and have been observed for more than 2,700 years which makes them one of the oldest known showers. The Zenithal Hourly Rate will be about 18 meteors per hour and with the Moon out of the way viewing conditions hopefully will be good. Venus: can best be seen on 30th April at 21:00 BST in Taurus in the West-northwest. Venus is optimally positioned setting nearly 3 hours after sunset. The planet is a dominant object in the west after sunset, shining at mag -3.8 and a telescope will show an 11 arcsecond, 88% lit disc. The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower: can be seen on the night of 5th / 6th May in Aquarius low in the East. The shower is named after the brightest star of the constellation, Eta Aquarii and is one of two meteor showers created by debris from Comet Halley. Eta Aquarids are very swift meteors, often with long paths because of their low radiant, and fine persistent trains. They will be best visible before the Moon rises at 01:30 BST. Jupiter: can best be seen on 9th May at 01:10 BST in Libra in the South. Jupiter at this time will be at opposition which is when the planet is in the opposite part of the sky to the Sun making it an excellent time to observe it. The planet will be shining at mag. -2.4 and will present a disc 44 arcseconds across. A small telescope will be able to show the planet’s complex banded atmosphere, it’s Great Red Spot and the Galilean Moons. Thank you to everyone who Spaceflight News helps with NASA could extend space station stays as hedge against refreshments. commercial crew delays Observing at South Weald NASA is working with the Russian space agency to potentially extend crew stays on the International Space Station, Robert Lightfoot the agency’s Weather permitting, we will meet at the acting administrator said last week, as a cushion against expected delays Visitor’s Centre on either Friday April 20th in the development of commercial crew capsules by Boeing and SpaceX. or Saturday April 21st. Please contact Kerry NASA is looking for ways to ensure U.S. astronauts can fly to the space on 07515 445240 or Les Brand on 07867 station in case commercial spaceships designed by Boeing and SpaceX are 832760 nearer the time to confirm. not operational by the time a transportation contract with Russia expires in late 2019. One option already under study is potentially extending the first piloted test flights of the commercial crew ships from two days up to six months. NASA recently updated its commercial crew contract with Boeing, giving officials the option to lengthen the first piloted test flight of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft from two weeks to six months, along with the possible addition of a third crew member The space agency said it would consider a similar arrangement with SpaceX if the company proposes it. Space station crews typically spend around six Young Astronomers months in orbit, but some crew members have stayed longer. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko spent 340 John spoke about Professor Stephen days on the space station in 2015 and 2016. Astronaut Peggy Whitson Hawking and his work and discoveries returned from an extended 288-day mission in September. Scientists are eager for more astronauts to stay on the space station for longer missions. and in particular his Theory of The long-duration missions give researchers important data about how Everything. extended exposure to microgravity and radiation affects the human body. “Regardless of what is going on in the rest of the world, our space cooperation with the Russians has been very good,” Lightfoot said. “It’s a good team. We’re ready to get our flights from U.S. soil though. We’re ready to get back to that.” .
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