DISCOVER THE WONDERS ABOVE STARGAZING LIVE CALENDAR 2014 bbc.co.uk/stargazing STARGAZING LIVE CALENDAR 2014 DISCOVER THE WONDERS ABOVE We hope you enjoy your BBC Stargazing Live calendar throughout the year. Each month has suggestions for what to look for in the night sky along with fantastic photographs and facts to inspire you to find out more. You’ll be able to see many of the features that we mention in the calendar by looking up to the night sky. However, using binoculars or a telescope will often give you a better view and we’ve noted when they’re required. Visit bbc.co.uk/stargazing to find more guides and content to help you get started. We have also included links to further sources of information in the calendar. (Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites). Happy stargazing for 2014! YOUR STARGAZING LIVE TEAM Professor Brian Cox Dara O Briain Liz Bonnin Mark Thompson Hi, Hello: Ben Canales, Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year. JANUARY IT’S THE EARTH In early January, Earth will be nearly 5 million kilometres BEST closer to the Sun than it will be in early July. THE GAIA MISSION MONTH will help test theories about our galaxy, the Milky Way, by measuring around one billion of its stars. This is still less to observe Jupiter this year than 1% of all the stars in the Milky Way. IRON The iron in your blood comes from the stars. Iron (and other heavy elements) are created and spread through space when a star dies in a supernova explosion. THE UK’S SPACE SECTOR contributes £9.1 billion a year to the economy and directly VENUS employs almost 29,000 people. is the hottest planet in our Solar System, with an average temperature of 462°C. The surface pressure on Venus is equal to what you’d experience 1km under the sea. MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT SUN 1 2 3 4 5 Visit bbc.co.uk/stargazing Jupiter is currently opposite to find events near you. the Sun so it appears larger and brighter than usual. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Stargazing Live BBC Two 8pm 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition opens. See Mark Thompson’s Space Photography Guide 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 The Moon and Venus appear close together just before sunrise bbc.co.uk/stargazing The Milky Way over Paranal: G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO. FEBRUARY 1 SAT 2 SUN 3 MON Find the thin crescent Crescent Moon Moon low in the west- southwest at around 18:00 GMT 4 TUES 5 WED 6 THURS and see if you can spot the elusive planet Mercury below it. 7 FRI 8 SAT 9 SUN 10 MON 11 TUES 12 WED QUESTION It’s predicted that in 4 billion years our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the larger Andromeda galaxy. What do you think will happen? 13 THURS 14 FRI 15 SAT 16 SUN 17 MON 18 TUES Despite its thin atmosphere, Mars has dust devils, whirlwinds that can be 20km high and can circulate sand at speeds greater than 100km per hour. Watch the Stargazing Live film Short guide to Mars. 19 WED 20 THURS 21 FRI The Moon, Mars and star Spica will form a triangle as they rise tonight. THE MILKY WAY GALAXY 22 SAT 23 SUN 24 MON The bright centre of the Milky Way galaxy is 27,000 light years away. The best views of it are from the Southern Hemisphere. In the UK, the Milky Way is best seen during the winter and summer when it passes high across the sky. Find the best place to stargaze near you using the Dark Sky Discovery sites. 25 TUES 26 WED 27 THURS ONE LIGHT YEAR measures just under 10 million million km. Find out more about astronomical distances with BBC Science 28 FRI 1 SAT 2 SUN WEIGHTLESS CONDITIONS aboard the International Space Station (ISS) occur because the station and astronauts are all falling towards Earth at the same rate. The ISS doesn’t hit the ground because, as it travels forward, the Earth’s surface curves away below it. ANSWER Both spiral galaxies will eventually become one giant elliptical galaxy (nicknamed Milkdromeda). Milkdromeda). become one giant elliptical galaxy (nicknamed galaxies will eventually Both spiral them. distances between due to the vast Individual star collisions are unlikely bbc.co.uk/stargazing The Sun MARCH QUESTION The Sun is believed to be 4.5 billion years old. ENERGY How old do you think the changes direction randomly for the first part of its journey after oldest known star is? leaving the Sun’s core. It’s estimated that it takes anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of years for it to finally emerge from the Sun’s surface. THE ORION SPACECRAFT will be the first since Apollo 17 in 1972 with the ability to carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit. An uncrewed test flight is planned this year. STARS EQUINOX Some stars that we can see now may have already exploded The Sun moves from the southern and been destroyed, but they are so distant that the light from to the northern half of the sky. Day the explosion hasn’t reached us yet. See the Stargazing Live and night are of equal length several Short guide to the stars. days before at the equilux. ANSWER The Methuselah Star (HD 140283) is believed to be 14.5 billion years old, almost 3 times the age to be 14.5 billion years The Methuselah Star (HD 140283) is believed can see it with binoculars. the Scales and you The star is in the constellation of Libra of the Sun. SAT SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 National Astronomy Week 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Jupiter is at its highest point in National Science and the night sky for many years. It Engineering Week takes 11.86 years to orbit the 14 - 23 March. Sun and it will be 2025 before it reaches this point again. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Spring Equinox 16:57 GMT 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 bbc.co.uk/stargazing Hebes Chasma (Mars): ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) IT’S THE BEST MONTH APRIL for views of Mars 1 TUES 2 WED 3 THURS Jupiter’s four largest moons can be seen through a small telescope or with binoculars, if you have a steady hand. 4 FRI 5 SAT 6 SUN The crescent Moon sits below the bright planet Jupiter this evening. 7 MON 8 TUES 9 WED Mars is opposite the Sun MARS so it will be visible all night Through a telescope it’s possible to see and at its highest, due south, Mars’ frozen north polar cap, its bright around 01:00 BST. deserts and dark features caused by exposed rock. 10 THURS 11 FRI 12 SAT 13 SUN 14 MON 15 TUES 16 WED 17 THURS 18 FRI QUESTION What’s the average size of a rock that produces a meteor trail? 19 SAT 20 SUN 21 MON 22 TUES 23 WED 24 THURS -248˚C The lowest recorded temperature in the Solar System is in the permanently shadowed regions of Hermite, a crater Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition closes. on the Moon. 25 FRI 26 SAT 27 SUN SATELLITES The night sky is constantly criss-crossed by artificial satellites. They usually appear as single, moving dots of light without a trail. The International Space Station is one of the brightest. Find the location of the ISS using NASA’s Spot the Station. 28 MON 29 TUES 30 WED SAGITTARIUS A* It’s thought that a black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, lies at the heart of our galaxy. It’s estimated to be 44 million km wide, with a mass 4 million times greater than the Sun. It’s usually the size of a grain of sand. A brightwould typically fireball of sand. of a grain usually the size It’s or golf ball. of a grape the size a rock be caused by ANSWER bbc.co.uk/stargazing The crescent Moon and earthshine over ESO’s Paranal Observatory: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org) MAY QUESTION The average Earth-Sun LIGHTNING STORMS distance is called an on Jupiter and Saturn create soot (carbon). As this falls Astronomical Unit (AU). through the planets’ atmosphere, it gets compressed into How far away do you hailstones of diamond. think the Solar System’s outermost planet Neptune is in AU? VOYAGER 1 The planetary probe Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now beyond our Solar System and in interstellar space. It’s the furthest manmade object from Earth. GALAXIES Light from a distant galaxy can be bent by gravity from a foreground object such as another galaxy or cluster of galaxies. Called gravitational lensing, this can help improve Neptune is around 30 AU from the Sun Neptune is around 30 AU measurements of the more distant galaxy. Find out how you ANSWER. can improve our knowledge of the universe by taking part in citizen science projects. This year a new, and possibly Look at the crescent closely and intense, meteor shower may you’ll see a dimly lit outline of be visible, peaking towards the Moon’s full disc. This effect, EARTH AND MOON dawn.