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Stephen Hawking World Exclusive

Secrets of his life and unpublished theories

1942 2018

Special tribute issue

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He saw a Universe without limits Lucy Hawking

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Lucy Hawking, Brian Cox, Lord Martin Rees Sir Roger Penrose, Neil deGrasse Tyson and more on

Remembering

the world's greatest scientist Space Rocks • earth's biggest rockets • NIGHT SKY GUIDE

life on Venus DIY SPACE PROJECTS Dangerous missions part 2 Solved!

Is Jupiter Earth's protector? Issue 079

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Hawking experiences four minutes of weightlessness on a zero-g aircraft

Welcome

On 14 March we woke to the news that world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking had peacefully passed away at his home in Cambridge at the age of 76, succumbing to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as motor neurone disease (MND). Hawking had outlived the life expectancy of two years that doctors had given him back in 1963, going on to become one of the greatest minds of our time and, at the time of his death, a recipient of numerous awards, an author of exceedingly successful popular science books, the director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge and a former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. His scientific

work saw him – among other things – make the prediction that black holes emit radiation, and he was the first to put together a theory that unifies the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. I was extremely fortunate to meet Hawking in 2014 at a conference in Tenerife while working as the Senior Staff Writer for this very magazine; an interaction that I'll cherish for the rest of my life: Hawking had the perfect balance of inspiration, humour and approachability, he was a true star of science. This month we honour his memory with our special issue, with tributes from his daughter Lucy Hawking, friends and colleagues.

“ His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world”Lucy Hawking, Page 16 Our contributors include...

Gemma Lavender Editor

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Abigail Beall

Ninian Boyle

Lee Cavendish

Stuart Atkinson

Science reporter Could there be life on Venus? It seems that it's one of the top places to look according to recent research – despite its hostility. Turn to page 54 for Abigail's report.

Staff writer & astronomer Try Lee's selection of DIY space projects. There's something for everyone – from making your own telescope to building mission control.

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Astronomer & writer Ninian has the tutorials you need to try out this summer, from getting a young audience started in astronomy to the best deep-sky targets to be enjoyed with your scope.

Astronomer & author Seek out the planets this month with Stuart's guide to the wanderers of Earth's sky. Turn to page 80 for his tips on which are visible and how you can get the best views.

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Contents www.spaceanswers.com

Launch pad Your first contact

Pluto is suspected to be made from comets, Earth observation spacecraft GRACE-FO blasts off and a fleet of space and ground-based telescopes reveal more sights of the universe

16 World exclusive: Stephen Hawking

Lucy Hawking, Brian Cox, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lord Martin Rees and more remember the world's greatest scientist

32 Interview Space Rocks

All About Space heads to the space and music festival

36 DIY space projects

From building your own telescope to recreating mission control

42 Future Tech Super rockets

44 "Our most dangerous missions"

Part two of our exclusive new series, led by Chris Hadfield

54 Life on Venus? Why the hunt on the Solar System's most hostile planet is starting now

62 User Manual Kepler Space Telescope

As it runs low on fuel, All About Space uncovers how the spacecraft fought against all odds in its hunt for Earth 2.0

66 Jupiter: Earth's protector?

Boosters are set to get much bigger in the next decade or so

Around the anniversary of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact, the role of the gas giant in our Solar System still baffles scientists

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with the universe

Features

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Remembering

Stephen Hawking

54 Hunt for life on Venus

“ A future mission that I’d really like us to do would involve going to Titan”

Professor Mark McCaughrean Senior science advisor, ESA

Stargazer Your complete guide to the night sky

76 What’s in the sky?

While you may have to stay up a bit later, the sights are well worth the wait

80 Planets on display

Venus is a dazzing evening object, whilst Jupiter, Mars and Saturn muster good views

82 Moon tour

Timocharis isn't the biggest lunar impact crater, but it has an interesting story to tell

83 This month's naked eye targets

Look towards the Big Dipper for some easy targets

84 How to... Get children into stargazing

Encourage your child to have an interest in the stars

66 IS JUPITER EARTH'S PROTECTOR?

MOST DANGEROUS MISSIONS

PART 2

86 Deep sky challenge

Sagittarius and Scorpius are full of galactic wonders just waiting to be observed with a telescope

88 The Northern Hemisphere

Turn your eyes to the summer skies for impressive sights

90 Your astrophotos The best of our readers' astrophotography

96 In the shops

Our pick of the best books, apps, software and accessories for astronomy and space fans

worth

£349

94 WIN! Celestron

114 lcm computerised telescope

launch pad your first contact with the universe

In the firing line of telescope lasers

ÂŠESO

Four lasers shoot from the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility, a stateof-the-art component of the Adaptive Optics Facility of the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Its aim is to keep its seeing conditions under control since the turbulence of Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s atmosphere causes stars to twinkle, which ordinarily causes a blurry view of the night sky. With this instrument, the VLT achieves a crystal-clear view of the cosmos. Each of the intense orange beams is some 4,000-times more powerful than a standard laser pointer, creating an artificial guide star by exciting sodium atoms high in our planet's upper atmosphere and causing them to glow.

launch pad your first contact with the universe

GRACE-FO has liftoff! Blasting off into Earth orbit, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On – or GRACE-FO for short – makes a dramatic exit from our planet on 22 May from Space Launch Complex 4E at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The mission is a joint project between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences and will measure how mass is redistributed within and among Earth’s atmosphere, land, oceans and ice sheets, as well as within our planet itself. GRACE-FO isn’t on its own on its flight though, its sharing its ride with five Iridium NEXT communications satellites as part of a commercial rideshare agreement.

It’s just another extraordinary view of gas giant Jupiter captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its 12th close flyby of the planet. The new perspective of the king of the Solar System from the south makes the Great Red Spot appear as though its in the gas giant's northern territory. Juno snapped the colour-enhanced image on 1 April. At the time of the planetary photoshoot, the spacecraft was between 17,329 kilometres (10,768 miles) to 68,959 kilometres (42,849 miles) above the Jovian cloud tops.

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Jupiter’s new perspective

Hidden secrets of a stellar cradle This is the 12,000-light-year distant G305 star-forming complex, a stellar nursery which is a cloudy and dusty place. Since they’re so cold, these nebulae shine best in infrared light – a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that’s invisible to the human eye. In this particular image that was captured by ESA’s Herschel space observatory, a number of bright, intricate gas clouds can be seen, heated by the infant stars in their midst. The bursts of star-forming hotspots stand out in blue tones, while cooler regions glow in red-brown.

launch pad your first contact with the universe

Hubble captures a cornucopia of galaxies

A brief glance at this stunning image captured by the longserving Hubble Space Telescope and you’ll immediately realise that it’s dominated by the bright swirling spiral in the lower left. However, look closely and you’ll see a galaxy cluster behind it. It’s known as SDSS J0333+0651 and it helps astronomers get an understanding of the distant – and therefore early – universe. In particular, allowing researchers to look at star-formation regions up close. Clusters where galaxies swarm together are quite common, gathered up by gravity to form groups. In fact, our very own Milky Way is a member of the Local Group, which is part of the Virgo Cluster and, in turn, is part of the impressive 100,000-galaxy-strong Laniakea supercluster.

This visually arresting view of Saturn’s largest moon Titan is just one of many stunning images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before the mission ended in September 2017. The world, which is larger than the planet Mercury, measures 5,150 kilometres (3,200 miles) across – in this close-up, some of Titan’s intriguing features are plain to see. Cassini’s camera looks toward the dune-filled region known as Shangri-La, where the Huygens probe’s landing site sits. Look closely, and you’ll be able to see the detached haze that surrounds Titan. Behind the moon are Saturn's rings.

Titan: a world of its own

Antares takes supplies to the Space Station

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On board the Orbital ATK Antares rocket, the Cygnus spacecraft launches from Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on 21 May. This is Orbital ATK’s ninth contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver approximately 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbiting outpost and its astronauts.

NGC 5643 is a Seyfert galaxy – structures that have luminous centres, which are thought to be powered by material falling onto a supermassive black hole. The centres of Seyfert galaxies can be difficult to observe since they can be obscured by clouds of dust and intergalactic material. NGC 5643 in particular has posed the extra challenge of being orientated at a highly-inclined angle, making its centre tricky to see. However, with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA), combined with data from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have been able to catch a glimpse, complete with an energetic outflowing of ionised gas pouring out into space caused by matter being ejected from the cosmic monster at the core.

Revealing a galaxy’s centre

LAUNCH PAD YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE

Pluto could be ‘one giant comet’

Researchers say the dwarf planet has stark similarities with Comet 67P, forcing them to review its status once again

Pluto's status has already changed once in recent times – from planet to dwarf planet – but now scientists are suggesting it may not be either of those. Instead, they hypothesise that Pluto may actually be a giant ball of comets, throwing a curve ball in the debate over the body's origins that is already proving controversial. The claim is being made by Dr Christopher Glein, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, USA, and it centres on the nitrogen-rich ice in a large glacier called Sputnik Planitia, formed on the left lobe of the dwarf planet's heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio. By taking data from the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which orbited Comet 67P between 2014 and 2016, and combining it

with information from NASA's New Horizons 2015 mission to Pluto, the scientists were able to make a comparison. “We found an intriguing consistency between the estimated amount of nitrogen inside the glacier and the amount that would be expected if Pluto was formed by the agglomeration of roughly a billion comets or other Kuiper Belt objects similar in chemical composition to 67P,” Dr Glein says. “We’ve developed what we call ‘the giant comet’ cosmochemical model of Pluto formation.”

Described online in the journal Icarus, the study suggests the low abundance of carbon monoxide at Pluto points to burial in surface ices or to destruction from liquid water. “Our research suggests that Pluto’s initial chemical make-up, inherited from cometary building blocks, was chemically modified by liquid water, perhaps even in a subsurface ocean,” Dr Glein says. The study also assessed a solar model which hypothesises that Pluto formed from very cold ices that would have had a chemical

“ This leads to a new appreciation of the richness of Pluto’s ‘life story’”

composition more closely matching our Sun. But scientists say the levels of nitrogen and carbon monoxide on Pluto are better explained by the comet theory. “Using chemistry as a detective’s tool, we are able to trace certain features we see on Pluto today to formation processes from long ago,” Dr Glein continues. “This leads to a new appreciation of the richness of Pluto’s ‘life story', which we are only starting to grasp.” This theory has already come under fire. Alan Stern, who led the New Horizons mission, took to Twitter and called it a “silly conversation.” “Pluto,” he added, “is the size of a continent. Comets are the size of a mountain. If we categorised Pluto as a comet because its composition is like a comet then we'd call the Earth an asteroid.”

New Horizons captured this image of Sputnik Planitia — a glacial expanse rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ices

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