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Chapter One

SPACE

CONTENTS

DEEP SPACE 3

EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS 9

EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM 12

MARS 16

DEEP SPACE

HOldest brown dwarf Brown dwarfs are "failed stars," much like gas supergiants that never became large enough to produce the internal pressures necessary for nuclear fusion. One brown dwarf in the sparse halo surrounding our galaxy (the Milky Way) is 2MASS 1626+3925. Measurements of the weak infrared light it emits suggest that this failed star is around 10 billion years old: more than twice as old as our Solar System.

HShortest distance between two black holes In March 2009, astronomers reported that the quasar (short for "quasi-stellar object") SDSS J153636.22+044127.0, a galaxy emitting vast quantities of electromagnetic energy, appears to contain two black holes (a binary black hole) at its center. The black holes weigh the equivalent of around 50 million and 20 million Suns, respectively, yet are separated by only one-third of a light-year.

HDensest galaxies Ultra Compact Dwarf (UCD) galaxies are a class of galaxy discovered in 1999 by a team of astrophysicists led by Dr. Michael Drinkwater (Australia). Dozens of UCD galaxies, which are possibly leftover building blocks that once formed much larger galaxies, are now known to astronomers. These small galaxies contain around a hundred million stars in a space just 200 light-years across, but astronomers suggest that billions of years ago these galaxies had a density of perhaps one million stars per cubic light year-one million times higher than the density of the Milky Way.

HGalaxy with the highest level of star formation Astronomers studying the light from the galaxy J1148+5251 have estimated that stars are being formed there at a rate of around 1,000 solar masses per year- roughly a thousand times greater than the rate of star formation in our own galaxy. J1148+5251 is a distant active galaxy known as a quasar. At 12.8 billion light years away, astronomers are watching its star-forming activity as it was 12.8 billion years ago.

HFastest approaching galaxy Despite the overall expansion of the Universe, there are only a small number of galaxies that are approaching our own. M86, a lenticular (lens-shaped) galaxy around 52 million light years away in the Virgo Cluster, is moving toward the Milky Way at 260 miles/s (419 km/s).

IHeaviest black hole In February 2008, astronomers announced their discovery of a black hole in the dwarf galaxy IC 10, which has a mass estimated to be as much as 33 times that of the Sun. With the exception of the supermassive class of black holes at the heart of galaxies, this is more than double the size of any known black hole.

Nearest pulsar Pulsars are a type of neutron star that emit beams of radiation as they rotate. They are formed in supernova explosions where protons and electrons in the atoms of a star's core are fused together into neutrons. Since neutrons comprise much of an atom's mass, neutron stars are small and dense, usually the size of a large city, but containing as much mass as the Sun. Pulsar PSRJ0108-1431, in the constellation of Cetus, is just 280 light-years away from the Earth.

IMost distant object in the universe On April 23, 2009, NASA's Swift satellite detected a 10-second-long gamma-ray burst and its subsequent X-ray afterglow eminating from star GRB 090423. Later analysis revealed GRB 090423 to be roughly 13.035 billion light-years away, which means the explosion occurred close to when the Universe is estimated to have formed (see page 7). This also makes GRB 090423 the Holdest object in the Universe yet detected.

EXTRASOLAR PLANETS

ILightest extrasolar planet Gliese 581e, whose discovery was announced in April 2009, is the fourth planet discovered to date orbiting the star Gliese 581. Estimates of its properties reveal that it could have the same mass as just 1.9 Earths; however, this rocky planet orbits too close to its star to have conditions suitable for life.

Generally, extrasolar planets are named after the star they orbit in the order that they are discovered. ("A" is not used as it refers to the star itself.) So, the first planet detected orbiting Gliese 581 is Gliese 581b, and so forth. There are many ways of naming stars, but the system of adding a letter at the end to denote objects in the orbit is standard.

HMost elongated extrasolar planet orbit HD 80606b, the first extrasolar planet on which real-time weather changes have been observed (see below), is 190 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a highly elliptical (oval-shaped) orbit, similar to that of a short period comet. During each orbit, the planet ranges in distance from its star from just 2.8 million miles (4.5 million km) at its closest point to 78 million miles (125 million km) at its most distant point. HD 80606b's solar year-that is, the time it takes the planet to orbit its star-lasts a mere 111 days.

HHottest extrasolar planet HD 149026b is a gas giant orbiting a yellow sub-giant star 257 light years away. Orbiting close to its parent star, it achieves a temperature of around 3,7048F (2,0408C), well above the melting point of iron. The planet is probably metal- rich and very dark and likely to have dark clouds of metal oxides that absorb the star's radiation efficiently, contributing to its immensely high temperature.

Oldest extrasolar planet The oldest planet yet discovered is an extrasolar planet in the globular cluster M4, some 5,600 light-years from Earth. With an estimated age of at least 10 billion years, this distant planet is more than twice as old as our Solar System. Its discovery was announced in July 2003.

HLargest star with a planet In January 2003, astronomers announced their discovery of a planet orbiting the orange giant star HD 47536. This star is expanding at the end of its life and currently measures around 20 million miles (33 million km) across. HD 47536b, one of two planets spotted in the system, is 186 million miles (300 million km) from its star but will eventually be consumed in a few tens of millions of years as the star continues to expand into a red giant.

HFirst map of an extrasolar planet In 2007, NASA's Spitzer infrared space telescope was pointed at the star HD 189733, and its accompanying planet, HD 189733b, and observed the system for 33 hours. The resulting observations were converted into a temperature map showing a range from 1,292 to 1,7248F (700 to 9408C). The planet was discovered by the transit method, in which the planet passes between the Earth and the planet's star, reducing the light visible from the star by 3%.

HColdest extrasolar planet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, named in part from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) observatory that played a role in its discovery in 2006, orbits a cool red dwarf star 21,000 light-years from Earth. The low energy of its star coupled with the size of its orbit, farther out from its star than Mars is from our Sun, means its surface temperature is just -3648F (-2208C). Its mass is estimated at around five times that of Earth's and it probably has an icy surface, rocky core, and thin atmosphere.

HWindiest exoplanets HD179949b, HD209458b, and 51 Pegasi b are all gas giants orbiting different stars within 150 light years of Earth. Each orbits its star within around 4.5 million miles (8 million km)- far closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Results released in January 2007 show that the temperature difference between day and night on these planets is tiny. To explain this, some scientists suggest that supersonic winds of up to 9,000 mph (14,500 km/h) are constantly transferring heat from the planets' day sides to their night sides.

First detection of an exoplanet atmosphere In November 2001, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to detect light passing through the...