Christmas magic from Tinkerbell

Astronomers have captured a festive photo of Tinkerbell scattering fairydust in the night, just in time for the panto season. Their magical image looks remarkably like the favourite Peter Pan character with her delicate wings outstretched. In reality, it is a rare example of three galaxies colliding, around 650 million light-years away from Earth. Tinkerbell was found hiding amongst veils of dust by an international team of astronomers from a European observatory called the Very Large Telescope on a Chilean mountaintop. It had already been recognised as a merger of two galaxies, one a barred spiral and one more irregular. But the third component - an irregular galaxy in which stars are forming at a fantastic rate - was revealed using an instrument on the telescope called NACO that records fine detail via the technique of adaptive optics. Further observations using Nasa's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes were combined to help confirm the real nature of the cosmic fairy, which is also being likened to a bird. Astronomers estimate that, from tip to tip, Tinkerbell's wings stretch the same width as our own Milky Way galaxy, or around 100,000 light-years. Picture produced by Henri Boffin (ESO). • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Galaxy turns ray gun on neighbour

A real life Death Star has been discovered pulverising other suns and planets with its "ray gun" in the depths of space. In scenes reminiscent of the Star Wars movies, the attacker is firing a powerful jet at a nearby galaxy. Astronomers say it is cosmic violence on a scale rarely seen. UK astronomers helped confirm the discovery, made using three Nasa telescopes working together in space - Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer. Networks of radio telescopes in the UK and USA were brought in to provide extra evidence. The "Death Star" is really a supermassive black hole in a pair of galaxies orbiting each other, 20,000 light-years apart, in a system called 3C321. Both galaxies have giant black holes at their centres, but the larger has a powerful jet aimed straight at its smaller neighbour. The jet is delivering lethal levels of X-rays and gamma rays. Experts say the jet could have a destructive effect on planets in its path but could also trigger the birth of a burst of new stars in its wake. Chief discoverer Dan Evans, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said: "This is the first time we've seen a jet punch into another galaxy like we're seeing here. This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummelling." Co-investigator Martin Hardcastle, of the University of Hertfordshire, said: "We see jets all over the universe, but we're still struggling to understand some of their basic properties. "This system of 3C321 gives us a chance to learn how they're affected when they slam into something like a galaxy and what they do after that." Picture: This is a composite image built up from the different observatories. The blue jet eminates from the bigger galaxy that is the blob at lower left. • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Lost comet forces Nasa switch

Space scientists have scrapped a $40 million mission to a distant comet because astronomers have lost it. Nasa were due to send their Deep Impact spacecraft to intercept Comet Boethin as it headed through the solar system in December next year. But astronomers cannot find any trace of their target and speculate that it might have broken up into tiny pieces. Now Nasa have approved a plan to send the unmanned probe, which is already in space, to another comet instead. Their new target is called Comet Hartley 2 after Malcolm Hartley, the British astronomer who discovered it. The new encounter for the mission, which has been renamed Epoxi, will happen two years later than originally planned. The spacecraft will rendezvous with Comet Hartley on October 11, 2010. In 2005, the Deep Impact probe scored a spectacular success when it attacked another comet, Tempel 1, with a missile. The resulting explosion blew a crater the size of Wembley stadium and was visible back on Earth. Epoxi will also point the larger of its two telescopes at nearby stars to observe other solar systems. It will be able to detect planets as small as three times the size of the Earth and may detect rings and moons too. • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Sunsets and sunspots in the Fox

Astronomers have used the Hubble space telescope to make the first ever study of sunset on a planet orbiting another star. They observed that the sky turns red and hazy - just as it does here on Earth - when dusk falls on the faraway world of HD 189733b. The remarkable result came by watching tiny changes in light from the planet's own sun, which lies 63 light-years away in the constellation of Vulpecula, the Fox. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys revealed not only the presence of the Jupiter-like planet, but also its atmosphere. As the planet began to move in front of the star, on each orbit, a team from Geneva University Observatory were able to identify the gases around its limb. A previous team of researchers has picked out clouds in the planet's atmosphere - but the giant world cannot be home to life as we know it. It is so close to its star that a year lasts just 2.2 days and temperatures reach several hundred degrees Celsius. Discovery team leader Frédéric Pont said: “One of the long-term goals of studying extrasolar planets is to measure the atmosphere of an Earth- like planet, this present result is a step in this direction. "HD 189733b is the first extrasolar planet for which we are piecing together a complete idea of what it really looks like." Impressively, the astronomers also found that the star HD 189733 also suffers sunspots - a kind of cosmic acne that shows as dark blotches on our own sun. Their presence was deduced from changing levels of the star's brightness as the planet travelled in front of its disk. One starspot was measured to be 50,000 miles (80,000 km across). • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

New evidence for life on Mars

Scientists have discovered exciting new evidence that life could have developed on Mars. Interestingly, it comes from fresh analysis of the same meteorite in which Nasa once said they had found fossils of alien microbes. Those "Martians" were later found to be due to contamination caused after it landed in the Antarctic. But experts now say it shows that the building blocks of life formed on Mars early in the planet's history. Furthermore, they say it suggests life can form on any cold, rocky world in the universe. A team from the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington has made a detailed analysis of organic material and minerals in the meteorite, called Allan Hills 84001. They compared the results with data from similar rocks found in Svalbard, Norway which were created in volcanoes that erupted a million years ago. Team leader Andrew Steele said last night: "Organic material occurs within tiny spheres of carbonate minerals in both the Martian and Earth rocks. "We found that the organic material is closely associated with the iron oxide mineral magnetite, which is the key to understanding how these compounds formed." Colleague Hans Amundsen said: "The results of this study show that volcanic activity in a freezing climate can produce organic compounds. This implies that building blocks of life can form on cold rocky planets throughout the universe." • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Journey to the centre of the Moon

Space scientists have announced a journey to explore the centre of the Moon. Nasa's $375 million mission will, for the first time ever, unlock the secrets of what lies deep beneath the lunar soil. But instead of actually digging into the moonrock, Nasa will collect their information using twin satellites which will be put into orbit around the Moon. They will help Nasa prepare for the return of astronauts to the Moon by 2020 and the establishment of the first manned colonies near one of the lunar poles. The two spacecraft will work like an X-ray machine, measuring variations in the Moon's gravity to reveal what lies within from the crust to the core. They will also both carry cameras. The mission is called GRAIL - the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory - and is due to launch aboard a single rocket in 2011. Nasa say that, as well as telling us more about the Moon, it will also give scientists a better understanding of how the Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. Similar techniques have previously been used to probe the Earth's interior. Nasa science chief Alan Stern said they could one day be used to study Mars and other planets too. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Isle of Man is first in Moon race

It's one small step for the Isle of Man - but a giant leap for a British-based bid to win the first private race to the Moon. Odyssey Moon, based on the island 60 miles off England's north-west coast, has become the first team to register for the £15 million ($20 million) Google Lunar X Prize announced by the internet giant in September. To win, they will have to land an unmanned probe on the Moon's surface and then send a robotic rover at least 500 metres and transmit a Mooncast of photos, videos and emails back to Earth. Google's awards, in conjunction with the X Prize Foundation, are just the first part of a treasure trove which Odyssey Moon says can be recovered by a successful private program of lunar exploration. Company chief Robert Richards believes the real prize is that the Moon holds a fortune in energy and minerals just waiting to be extracted by go-ahead entrepreneurs. He predicts they could set off a lunar goldrush of low-cost missions to Earth's natural satellite, which he describes as "an eighth continent rich in energy and resources floating just offshore." Registering for the Moon race at a space summit in California, Dr Richards said: "We have a long term vision and now with the Google Lunar X Prize we have a short term goal. Odyssey Moon is setting its eyes on the prize. "Future generations will view the Google Lunar X Prize as the turning point of the 21st century, when humanity realised the Moon’s critical role for prosperity and survival in space and on Earth." The Isle of Man, which is independent of the UK, may seem an unlikely base for a major space mission - and its rockets will certainly not be launched from there. But since 2004, the island has wooed companies eager to explore the final frontier by offering big incentives including zero corporate income tax. Leading space companies Sea Launch, Inmarsat and Loral Skynet have already set up subsidiaries there. The Isle of Man's Odyssey Moon program will be international in scope. Prime contractor will be MDA Space Missions of Canada, who built the robotic arms used by Nasa's shuttles and the International Space Station. And the bid is being supported by the world's largest space interest group, the Planetary Society, which was co-founded by Carl Sagan. Its Executive Director Dr Louis Friedman said: "The Moon is a stepping stone into the solar system, for governments and for the private sector. Odyssey Moon's leap forward to this stepping stone could presage a new day of commercial ventures beyond Earth." Apart from the £15 million first prize, there is a £2.5 million ($5 million) prize for second place, plus £2.5 million in bonuses for achievements such as photographing old spacecraft on the Moon, discovering lunar ice and surviving the 14-day long lunar night. The missions must be concluded by December 31, 2012 to win the big prizes, or by 2014 to win smaller awards. Google have been busy improving their own online maps of the Moon. The photo is from the launch of the Google Lunar X Prize in September. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Was wet Venus once home to life?

When I was a teenager in the Sixties, one of my favourite books was Exploring The Planets by Roy A. Gallant. Particularly intriguing seemed Venus. We already knew by then what Mars looked like - covered with canals and fast-growing lichen :-) - but Earth's inner neighbour was a complete mystery. The book presented two splendid pieces of artwork offering completely contrasting views of what might lie beneath Venus's permanent cloud cover. Across one two-page spread was a vision of a baking desert. Turn the page and you could view the alternative, a raging sea which I recall being particularly green and stormy. For many years, thanks to visiting spaceprobes, we have known that the desert view is more correct (just as we have discovered that Mars has no canals and no vegetation). Venus is completely devoid of water. Surprisingly, however, scientists now believe that Earth and Venus began as similar worlds and that there was a time when Venus might indeed have been covered with vast oceans of water. Conditions could even have been right for life. But our two worlds took the wildly different evolutionary paths that have led to Venus being described as Earth's "Evil Twin". Scientists are beginning to understand why, thanks to the work of Europe's Venus Express probe which has been in orbit around the planet for one and a half years. A special report in the journal Nature suggests that Venus's lack of a magnetic field left it vulnerable to the solar wind. This stream of charged particles stripped away the water by breaking molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms that then escaped into space. Another surprise was the discovery that lightning is a regular feature on Venus, but unlike our lightning, it is produced from clouds of sulphuric acid and not water. The only other planet where lightning has been observed is giant Jupiter. Announcing the latest findings in Paris, Professor Fred Taylor, of Oxford University, said, "It is now becoming clearer why the climate on Venus is so very different from that on Earth, despite the planets themselves being very similar in many ways. "There are many common processes at work, such as a carbon-dioxide driven greenhouse effect, volcanic activity, and atmospheric erosion by solar particles and radiation. On Venus, these have worked to virtually eliminate water from the planet while maintaining high levels of carbon dioxide, while Earth has retained much of its water and lost most of its atmospheric carbon dioxide." Professor Taylor added: "In the light of the new data it is possible to construct a scenario in which the climates on Venus and Earth were very similar when they started out, and then evolved to the state we see now, like twins separated at birth. Billions of years ago there is even the possibility that Venus would have been habitable." Co-investigator Professor Andrew Coates of University College London, said: "One of the evolutionary differences that has made Venus the Earth's 'evil twin' is that present-day Venus lacks a magnetic shield. This means that its atmosphere feels the onslaught of the solar wind and cosmic radiation, and has done for billions of years. "We already know that Venus is a dry planet as the surface is so hot, but what we've found now is that Venus is still getting dryer. It loses hydrogen, helium and oxygen through its wake at a rate faster than similar escape from Mars." Picture: An ESA artist's impression of a lightning storm above the baking surface of Venus. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Check out our new guide to Mars too. And support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.