The Sky at Night Patrick Moore The Sky at Night  Patrick Moore Farthings 39 West Street Selsey, West Sussex PO20 9AD UK ISBN 978-1-4419-6408-3 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6409-0 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6409-0 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934379 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword When I became the producer of the Sky at Night in 2002, I was given some friendly advice: “It’s a quiet little programme, not much happens in astronomy.” How wrong they were! It’s been a hectic and enthralling time ever since:, with missions arriving at distant planets; new discoveries in our Universe; and leaps in technology, which mean amateurs can take pictures as good as the Hubble Space Telescope What a privilege it is to work on a programme with such a huge heritage! I am constantly amazed looking back at the flotilla of excellent programmes which have gone out over the past five decades The Sky at Night has always been at the sharp end of science broadcasting, whether it’s showing the first view from the far side of the Moon or pictures of a new comet which has swept into our sky Viewers can depend on Sir Patrick to tell them the latest news and explain what it means It’s an outstanding achievement and Sir Patrick still holds the world record for being the same presenter on the longest running TV programme Our guests love coming down to Farthings, Sir Patrick’s home For them, meeting him is like meeting their astronomical hero Over the past five decades, the Sky at Night has managed to talk to the space scientists and astronomers making the landmark discoveries No matter how busy they are, they make room for Sir Patrick We have been privileged to record astronomical history as it is made For example, when NASA’s spacecraft hits comet Tempel 1, the Sky at Night was given exclusive access to film the astronomers using the Palomar Telescope, thanks to its Director, Professor Richard Ellis I will never forget the night the Huygens probe landed on Saturn’s moon, Titan Professor John Zarnecki, Principal Investigator for the surface science package on board Huygens, gave us the ‘nod’ to set up our camera in the dining room at ESA’s mission control The world’s media was camped out next to the press room, but we trusted John and moved our camera It paid off when the astronomers came rushing in to us for an impromptu presentation of the first images of Titan, from a distance of some 900 million miles Filming the Sky at Night every month is always a challenge First, there is the setting of our main interview with Sir Patrick and the guests To make room in Sir Patrick’s study for our three cameras and lights, we have to clear much of his furniture and move his work I always try to make sure that the Woodstock typewriter is in shot Patrick still uses it for the programme scripts and, of course, his many books v vi Foreword Secondly, there is the programme budget I like to remind my BBC colleagues that daytime TV programmes get more money than we We not have the money to commission CGI graphics; instead, we use simpler and much cheaper props to explain complex theories Professor Fred Watson rose to the challenge when explaining the transit of Venus with a lemon and two hoops Dr Dave Rothery juggled coloured ping pong balls to great aplomb when discussing the formation of the Solar System Professors Carlos Frenk and Derek Ward-Thompson resorted to dinner plates to illustrate the grand collision between our Galaxy and Andromeda When our dear friend Dr Allan Chapman from Oxford comes on the programme, he always steals the show He managed to cover Sir Patrick in sloppy plaster when creating craters on the Moon When Health and Safety said he couldn’t use sulphuric acid to recreate an historic Robert Hooke experiment about understanding comets, he used vinegar instead The bubbles may not have been as explosive, but they did the job! Another show stealer was comic and impersonator John Culshaw, who became Patrick Moore from the year 1957 for our ‘Time Lord’ programme Seeing him adopt Patrick’s mannerisms, including the monocle, was quite unnerving Sir Patrick, in 2007, was more than happy to admit that Patrick Moore in 1957 had got a few things wrong and told him so! There are many people I would like to thank on behalf of the programme First and foremost are the viewers, who search the schedules for our monthly time slot and stay up late to watch us Without their loyalty and dedication, we would not have had a programme There are the amateur astronomers who share images and observations, with their endless enthusiasm and good humour when the clouds role in on our observing sessions; the BBC team who work behind the scenes and who love the show, and put every effort to make it the best science programme that’s all year round I would like to thank the other man who presents the programme, Dr Chris Lintott He has been with the programme since 2003, and reports from far flung observatories, asking the astronomers all the right probing questions, and helping me understand the complexities of the Cosmos Finally, there is Sir Patrick himself The past few years have been the most exciting and most enjoyable period of my career It’s been a pleasure and honour to work with Sir Patrick Every time I meet him, I am bowled over by the enormous breadth of knowledge, grasp of the subject and his ability to explain it simply and succinctly He is a wonderful broadcaster I look forward to many, many more Sky at Night programmes, with Sir Patrick at the helm presenting the show, reminding us why we should step outside and look up at the night sky There is a whole universe out there, and Sir Patrick Moore is going to tell us all about it Jane Fletcher Producer, the Sky at Night Introduction This new book, the Sky at Night series is the 13th – I hope this is not an omen! It covers an eventful period, and I hope that we have managed to cover it successfully It is interesting to look back to the early days of the Sky at Night; after all, our programme goes back to before the start of the Space Age There has been one important change Chris Lintott who helped me join as copresenter, now plays a more major role than I – which is exactly how I planned it Unlike me, he is now a leading research astronomer It is good to have him with me, and he will still be around long after I have faded from view My special thanks go to Jane Fletcher (in private life Mrs Segar) for guiding the programme throughout this period, and for masterminding that never-to-be-forgotten Fiftieth Anniversary Well, here’s to the next half-century … Patrick Moore vii About the Author Sir Patrick Moore is one of the world’s leading popularisers of astronomy He has written more than 100 books and presented his BBC TV programme The Sky at Night every weeks since 1957, making it the world’s longest running television program of any kind While still in school, he became a member of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) and was later appointed director of Brockhurst Observatory He served as director of the Armagh Planetarium between 1965 and 1968 He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (and a Jackson Gwillt medallist), a member of the International Astronomical Union, a holder of the Goodacre medal, and former president and current vice president of the BAA A minor planet (# 2602) has been named after him He was knighted in November 2000 He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society As the presenter of the record-breaking The Sky at Night series, Patrick was awarded a BAFTA in 2000 The most important research Patrick has carried out has been about the Moon He is credited with independently discovering the Mare Orientale He did this with his “traditional” 12½-in reflector, which still sits proudly in his front garden His maps of the Moon were among those used by the Russians in 1959 to correlate the first Lunik pictures of the far side He was also at NASA for the lunar mapping prior to the Apollo missions Chris Lintott, the co-star of the latest episodes of The Sky at Night, has a massive fan base that derives equally from The Sky at Night and from his paradigmshifting astronomy website Galaxy Zoo, which has some 150,000 members ix Acknowledgements My most grateful thanks to those who have joined me on the programme during this period I give them in order of first appearance – of course many have joined me in several programmes I hope I have not turned professors into doctors, or doctors into professors – if I have, please forgive me! Dr Chris Lintott Prof Gerry Gilmore Prof John Brown Mr Ninian Boyle Mr Alan Clitheroe Mr Keith Johnson Prof Richard Ellis Dr James Bauer Prof Iwan Williams Prof Andrew Coates Prof Monica Grady Dr Simon Conway-Morris Prof Carlos Frenk Dr Robert Nicoll Prof John Zarnecki Dr Carolyn Porco Prof Michelle Dougherty Prof Bernard Foing Dr Steven Squyres Dr Mark Kidger Mr Damian Peach Mr Pete Lawrence Mr Ian Sharp Mr David Tyler Prof Richard Harrison Prof Lucie Green Dr John Mason Dr Harriet Jones xi xii Prof Michael A’Hearn Dr Andrew Adamson Dr Geoff Marcy Mr Bruce Kingsley Mr Alan Schultz Mr Tim Wright Dr Carl Murray Prof Niall Tanvir Dr Julian Osborne Dr Helen Fraser Mr Tom Boles Prof Richard Nelson Dr David Rothery Prof Fred Taylor Dr Don Kurtz Dr Yvonne Elsworthy Dr Piers Sellers Mr John Culshaw Prof Andrew Collier-Cameron Dr Fiona Spiritz Prof Sir Bernard Lovell Dr Ian Morrison Dr Phil Diamond Mr Bernard Baruch Prof Derek Ward-Thompson Mr Nik Szymanek Dr Eugene Cernan Acknowledgements Contents   1  Eye on the Universe   2  The Turbulent Sun   3  Comet Crash   4  The Search for Life Elsewhere 13   5  Mapping the Sky 17   6  News from the Planets 19   7  Spanish Ring 25   8  The Sizes of the Stars 29   9  The Edge of the Solar System 33 10  The Telescopes of Mauna Kea 37 11  Turkish Delight 41 12  Ringed World 45 13  Matter We Cannot See 49 14  Gamma-Ray Bursters 53 15  Wandering Giants 57 16  The Problem of Pluto 61 xiii xiv Contents 17  Non-identical Twins 65 18  The Sounds of the Stars 69 19  Space-Man 73 20  Exploring Mars 77 21  The Lakes of Titan 81 22  Fiftieth Anniversary 87 23  SuperWASP 91 24  Scorpion in the Sky 95 25  The August Perseids 99 26  Black Holes: And Black Magic 103 27  Jodrell Bank: Fiftieth Anniversary 107 28  The Grand Collision 109 29  Holmes’ Comet 113 30  Cosmic Debris 117 31  Nearest Star 121 32  The Flight of the Phoenix 125 33  Devil’s Advocate 129 34  Galaxy Zoo 133 35  Four Hundred Years of the Telescope 137 36  The Merry Dancers 141 37  The Fountains of Enceladus 145 38  The Herschel Telescope 149 39  Onward to the Moon 153 Contents xv 40  Forty Years on 159 41  Impact! 161 42  Life? 163 Index 167 Chapter Eye on the Universe Hubble Space Telescope (NASA) The Hubble Space Telescope – named after the great American astronomer who proved that our Galaxy is only one of many – was launched on 24 April 1990 and was put into a near-circular path 366 miles above Earth Ever since then, it has been orbiting the world, moving at a speed of 16,800 mph, and completing one circuit every 96.5 min It seemed appropriate to devote a programme to it on its 15th anniversary, and I was joined by Dr Gerry Gilmore, who has long been associated with it The Hubble Space Telescope is now 15 years old and working almost as well as ever I say “almost” because there are some parts which need attention, and this would have been carried out by a servicing mission, but at the moment no manned flights have been authorised, mainly because of the risks involved The Columbia tragedy, when the returning capsule broke-up on entering the atmosphere, is still P Moore, The Sky at Night, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6409-0_1, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 1  Eye on the Universe fresh in everyone’s minds The astronauts are all prepared to go up, and have said so, but of course the NASA authorities have the last word Hubble did not have an auspicious beginning I well remember sitting with the audience in 1990 and watching the telescope launched; that was a great moment, but a few weeks later it became painfully clear that something was wrong The images were blurred It was found that mirror had been wrongly made – not by much (less then the width of a human hair) but enough to ruin the telescope’s performance It was a straightforward case of human error, one of the most embarrassing in the history of science, and some sections of the media made the most of it I am delighted to say that the Sky at Night took a very different view Hubble might be flawed, but it was still an instrument of immense value Then came a daring repair mission Astronauts went to the telescope, and to all intents and purposes fitted it with spectacles The results were amazing Hubble was not only repaired, but was also performing better than had ever been expected Regular servicing missions have kept it in peak condition, until now Some people not realise that by the standards of the present day, Hubble is not a giant telescope It has “only” a 94 in mirror and is dwarfed by the reflectors such as the Keck twins in Hawaii and the VLT ( Very Large Telescope) in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which is made up of four 8-m mirrors working together But Hubble is above the main part of our atmosphere so that there are no problems caused by the unsteadiness of the air – and it can receive all radiations from space, whereas on terra firma many wavelengths are blocked, leaving astronomers in the unenviable position of a pianist who is trying to play a concerto on an instrument that lacks everything apart from its middle octave and a few isolated notes in the treble and the bass For many investigations, then, Hubble is supreme There is nothing particularly unusual about its optical system, and there are no real problems in sending the images and data down to the Earth Also, there have so far been no major hits from meteoroids and harmful interplanetary “dust” The planners have always been worried about the possibility of a collision with a piece of debris the size of say, a teapot – which would cause serious damage and might even put Hubble out of commission permanently After 15 years, it is starting to look as if the risk was overestimated I remember making the comments before Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space; in 1961, pessimists were sure that he would be seared by cosmic rays and battered to pieces by meteoroids, as well as being hopelessly space-sick None of these “Bogeys” happened Hubble has paid attention to all branches of astronomy Until the recent Mars rockets, the Hubble pictures of the Red Planet surpassed all others and the famous “canals” were finally laid to rest (though by 1990 I doubt if anyone still believed in Percival Lowell’s brilliant-brained Martians) Amazing views were obtained of Jupiter and Saturn, and for the first time a certain amount of surface detail was seen on Pluto Hubble was also ready to monitor an exceptional event When Comet Shoemaker-Levy crashed into Jupiter in 1994, leaving vast scars on the Jovian clouds, Hubble was able to obtain the best pictures, and when the Deep Impact probe was aimed at Tempel in 2005, Hubble was very much a part of the observational programme But it was in “deep space” that .. .The Sky at Night Patrick Moore The Sky at Night  Patrick Moore Farthings 39 West Street Selsey, West Sussex PO20 9AD UK ISBN 978 -1- 4 419 -6408-3 e-ISBN 978 -1- 4 419 -6409-0 DOI 10 .10 07/978 -1- 4 419 -6409-0... correlate the first Lunik pictures of the far side He was also at NASA for the lunar mapping prior to the Apollo missions Chris Lintott, the co-star of the latest episodes of The Sky at Night, ... 10 7 28  The Grand Collision 10 9 29  Holmes’ Comet 11 3 30  Cosmic Debris 11 7 31? ?? Nearest Star 12 1 32  The Flight of the Phoenix 12 5 33