The word equinox comes from the Latin of ‘equal’ (equi) and ‘night’ (nox) because the day and night are equal in length, and the day marks the start of ‘astronomical spring’.
The second half of the month is a great time to spot Mercury in our evening skies. A week or so either side of 24 March is the optimal time to look for it, as the innermost planet will be above the western horizon for a couple of hours after the Sun has set.
Mercury orbits around the Sun once every 88 days, and this rapid movement means the planet travels from being completely obscured behind the Sun at the start of the month to reaching its greatest separation from the Sun (from our perspective here on Earth) in just three weeks.
Significantly brighter Jupiter also sits in our western evening skies, visible for three or four hours after the Sun has set. Following their conjunction last month, Mars and Venus are both still visible in the mornings as the sky starts to lighten before sunrise.
In the pre-dawn skies of 25 March, there’ll be a brief opportunity to see a partial penumbral lunar eclipse from UK skies. At around 5am, the amount of the Sun’s light hitting the surface of the Moon will be reduced slightly as our planet causes a slight shadow. However, because the Moon, Earth and the Sun are not perfectly aligned, sunlight reaching the Moon is diffused only slightly, so there’ll only be a subtle change in brightness.
The event takes place just minutes before the full Moon sets below the western horizon, so while the eclipse itself may not be prominent, it’ll be a great morning to enjoy watching the slightly eclipsed full Moon set and the Sun rise.
Astronomers are watching two comets for signs that they may become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye this month, as they approach the inner solar system.
These large bodies of rock, ice and dust tend to orbit the Sun with far more elliptical orbits than the planets, bringing them significantly closer to and further away from our star than the more circular (though still slightly elliptical) orbits of the planets.
As they get closer to the Sun’s radiation, interactions with the gas, dust and ice on the comet can cause outbursts on the surface, ejecting material into a plume or ‘tail’.
Predicting the brightness of comets is still a little unreliable, but both are already visible with the aid of binoculars or a telescope, and current forecasts suggest that comet 12P/Pons-Brooks may become visible to the naked eye later in the month.
Believed to be about 30km (18 miles) in diameter, comet 12P/Pons-Brooks has a fascinating history of flaring suddenly in brightness as it approaches the inner Solar System on its 70-year orbit of the Sun. This comet has earned the nickname of the ‘Devil Comet’ in recent months as one of several eruptions caused a second plume of material to stream from its surface, giving it the appearance of having horns.
Comet Pons-Brooks starts the month in the western evening sky just beneath the Andromeda Galaxy. It’ll move steadily through the tip of Pisces, just under Triangulum and end the month on the line of brighter stars in Aries, appearing to move in the direction of Jupiter. In reality the comet is moving toward the inner solar system where it will reach its closest point to the Sun next month.
If you have binoculars or a telescope, you may also want to try and spot the fainter comet C/2021 S3 PanSTARRS in the east in the early hours of the morning, where it will pass through the summer constellations of Aquila, Sagitta and Vulpecula.
If you’re planning to try and spot these comets, you can find their precise location on any given night, and if you manage to capture a photo please share your image with us!
]]>Twelve applicants have been awarded contracts for feasibility study projects as part of the UK Space Agency’s Unlocking Space for Business project.
Contracts are up to £200,000 each and aim to develop innovative and commercially viable feasibility studies that combine ground-based and satellite services for the transport, logistics and finance sectors. Each project will run for 6 months to July 2024.
Unlocking Space for Business is an 18-month project delivered by the UK Space Agency to foster innovation by combining satellite data and services with other data sources and technology to drive business benefits for those outside the space industry.
The funding competition was run by the UK Space Agency using Innovate UK’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), which supports research and development of solutions to public sector challenges. Organisations applied for a share of up to £2 million to develop feasibility studies aiming to combine terrestrial technologies with satellite data for the transport, logistics and financial services sectors.
Andrew Griffith MP, Minister for Space at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said:
As the UK space sector continues to grow and innovate, there is untapped potential for satellite services to benefit a wider range of businesses. These new UK Space Agency projects will help incentivise investment and increase adoption of space technology, with an initial focus on financial services, transport and logistics.
Successful applicants propose studies that could combine terrestrial data and services (such as AI, quantum, machine learning and geospatial data) with satellite data and services, and provide deeper analysis to develop insights and present new solutions to UK customers.
For example, Reading-based company Assimila are developing an Earth observation and climate-based service to understand how the scale of wildfires impacts insurance portfolios, whereas One Big Circle is developing an infrastructure monitoring system using satellite and ground-based data and AI to map areas of geographical challenge across the UK rail network.
The diversity of contracts awarded demonstrates the wide range of applications of space services can provide innovative solutions for UK customers.
The following organisations have been awarded contracts under the SBRI competition:
Development of a new Earth observation and climate-based service to help insurers, insurance brokers and risk managers to understand the scale of wildfires and how this affects their portfolio of insurance coverage.
Development of a maritime trade vessel monitoring and logistics risk assessment ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) platform. It combines AI and machine learning with Earth observation data to provide near real-time tracking of trade vessels to identify unusual shipping behaviour.
Development of an AI-powered maritime software application using Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) data.
Development of an end-to-end service for ordering, delivery and validation of satellite data solutions for customers in the financial services sector.
Development of a prototype On Board Unit for use on transport and logistic applications, using satellite connectivity and communications, and position, navigation and timing technologies.
Integrating Ordnance Survey data into a commercial Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) service called GMV GSharp®. It aims to increase the precision and assurance of position data for the autonomous transport and logistics sector.
Combining satellite data with tidal data to produce intertidal elevation maps and accompanying uncertainty plots.
Development of an Advanced Infrastructure Monitoring by Satellite system that fuses terrestrial and satellite data with AI to produce a condition map of UK rail and known critical geographical areas of challenge.
Integrating geospatial and Earth observation data for use in financial services to support improved outcomes for investors, environment and society.
A platform to measure and monitor biodiversity in line with requirements established in the Environment Act 2021, leveraging space and aerial data to address the needs of councils, landowners, biodiversity credit sellers, buyers and registry operators.
Development of an algorithm to enable access to timely analysis of satellite-derived nature data, supporting banks and asset managers to improve operational efficiency of due diligence processes and risk reporting.
Development of an online software platform conducting automated analysis on vegetated natural capital assets, enabling financial institutions to more confidently and transparently invest in nature.
]]>The UK Space Agency has provided up to £500,000 funding to support specialist projects, helping to accelerate high potential UK companies and support them on their investment journey.
Accelerating Investment is a pilot programme to offer additional value and opportunities to the next generation of space entrepreneurs, in partnership with a range of organisations. It is designed to complement other investment focused-initiatives provided by UK Space Agency.
Four projects have been selected, which will provide private investment focused acceleration to some of the UK’s most promising and innovative growing companies.
Craig Brown, Director of Investment at UK Space Agency said:
The UK Space Agency is committed to nurturing early-stage space ventures and strengthening the UK's position in the global space sector. The successful investor accelerators who will be funded through the UK Space Agency's new Accelerating Investment initiative will help a range of new companies scale, grow and raise new private capital.
The SETsquared Partnership is the enterprise partnership of six leading research universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton, and Surrey). Its mission is to turn ideas and innovation into thriving businesses and support the commercialisation of research from its university partners to create economic, environmental, and social impact. It does this by providing world-leading business incubation, innovation, and growth support services. Since 2002, it has helped companies raise £4.4 billion of investment, and these businesses' economic impact is estimated to be £15.7 billion.
Seraphim Space Accelerator UK is a world leader in early-stage space tech innovation and has run 12 accelerator programmes since 2018 across three continents.
Seraphim Space Accelerator has enabled alumni teams to secure over $320 million (approx. £255 million) in fundraising from more than 110 global investors.
Through Accelerating Investment, Seraphim will support 8-10 UK businesses through their core accelerator programme that lasts for three months and is run twice per annum. Seraphim will also introduce a new programme of activity, the Seraphim Space Academy, which will support high-potential, Series A UK companies following their completion of the Seraphim Space Accelerator programme. The Academy will include workshops and tailored networking to support the selected UK teams in achieving the milestones crucial to their fundraising and market traction success.
Mandala Space Ventures (Mandala), a California-based venture studio and incubator focused on the emerging space ecosystem, will be tapping into their Southern Californian (SoCal) network to deliver an accelerator programme for high-potential UK space companies interested in creating close ties to the SoCal space ecosystem. Mandala will be attracting capital investment from the US private investors, venture capital firms and other financial institutions, identifying SoCal supply chain partners and technology collaborations, building connections with world class SoCal universities and national laboratories, and providing mentorship from the SoCal technical experts with decades of spaceflight experience, successful space entrepreneurs, innovators, and business professionals. Following a launch event in London, selected businesses will benefit from an eight-week virtual accelerator programme with Mandala experts and that will culminate in a demo day in Southern California USA.
"Mandala Space Ventures is honoured and excited to partner with the UK Space Agency to provide space accelerator services to early-stage startups in the UK'', said Mandala CEO and Founder, Dr Leon Alkalai, retired Technical Fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
The UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) and Type One Ventures are joining forces in a mission to activate their extensive investor communities as part of the newly launched Venture into Space programme. This programme will upskill high-potential, high-growth SMEs developing innovative space tech solutions to prepare them for successful investment raises.
UKBAA is the trade body for angel and early-stage investment. It reaches over 15,000 “angels” across the UK and 220 organisations, including angel networks, syndicates, investment funds, equity crowdfunding platforms, accelerators and professional advisors that collectively invest over £2 billion per annum. It has devised a variety of novel formats through which the cohort will benefit from the expertise of their network.
Venture into Space: Accelerating UK Space Tech will support selected businesses to engage with future buyers who are likely to procure their services and technologies, facilitating dialogue so participants can obtain pre-market engagement with potential revenue-generating sources.
UKBAA’s Managing Director Roderick Beer said: “We are delighted to have partnered with Type One Ventures and the UK Space Agency to unlock investment capital across our combined investment communities. We look forward to helping investors to actively engage with the exciting opportunities in the UK’s growing space industry.”
The Accelerating Investment projects will deliver throughout 2024 and we look forward to seeing their impacts.
]]>
The UK and Australia have a longstanding relationship when it comes to space, from the Black Arrow rocket launches from Woomera in the late 1960s, to the signing of the UK-Australia Space Bridge framework agreement half a century later.
Today (23rd February 2024) marks another milestone as we celebrate the third anniversary of the UK-Australia Space Bridge.
A world first, the Space Bridge is a framework that aims to strengthen the relationship between the UK and Australian space sectors by opening doors, starting conversations, and uniting over shared goals.
Supported by the UK Space Agency, Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Australian Space Agency and Austrade, the Space Bridge Framework focuses on areas such as:
Since the framework was signed, it has increased engagement and significantly improved access for public and private stakeholders across both space sectors. As the Space Bridge enters its fourth year, this is an apt opportunity to look back at the successes it has generated so far, including:
The most recent highlight was UK Space Agency colleagues joining DBT’s trade mission to Australia in December 2023, where they attended the 16th Australian Space Forum - with UK Space Agency CEO Dr Paul Bate delivering an international keynote speech - and travelled across states to engage with the Australian space sector; sharing ideas and identifying new opportunities to work together.
Reflecting on the achievements of the Space Bridge, Dr Paul Bate said:
The UK-Australia Space Bridge connects us with our Australian colleagues. It has unlocked greater innovation, promoted the exchange of knowledge, and forged new partnerships. Above all, it has bolstered a sense of collaborative ambition to strengthen both space sectors, as the team that recently went out to Australia saw first-hand.
"The UK-Australia partnership is a priority for the UK, and we look forward to driving forward initiatives via the Space Bridge.
Head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo, says the partnership supports space sector growth in applications that positively impact our planet:
Space Bridge activities are demonstrating how working together in space drives outcomes across our economies.
"In three years this partnership has driven investment and established new connections that are helping our respective space sectors develop applications that benefit life on Earth.
On today’s occasion of celebrating this historic agreement, we are excited to launch our joint ‘Soft Landing Zones’ guide, which provides more information on hubs and clusters to individuals and companies that are exploring working in the UK or Australia and look forward to working closely our Australian counterparts on further collaboration.
Email spacebridgeuk-au@austrade.gov.au for more information.
]]>Launched in 1995, the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2) was the European Space Agency’s second Earth Observation spacecraft – its mission to study the temperature and winds of our planet’s oceans, as well as ozone in the atmosphere.
Four years before, in 1991, I had just started working in managing Earth Observation space projects, and remember how excited I was by the prospect of the developing ERS-2 mission.
The UK had a key role in the mission, with scientists and engineers from a range of UK institutions, including Astrium (now known as Airbus), Science and Technology Facilities Council RAL Space, Mullard Space Science Lab (MSSL), and the University of Oxford helping design and build scientific instruments onboard, including the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR).
The ASTR was a cutting-edge bit of kit, and I was bitten by the excitement of the new data on our planet that it would be able to gather from space.
My role in ERS-2 was around organising funding to support mission operations at RAL, MSSL and Oxford, as well as organising the peer review of scientists to use the data the satellite would gather from space.
I could see at the time Earth Observation was an important, growing field and I worked to help grow the UK science community around it.
Six years after it launched, busy gathering high-quality data about our oceans and atmosphere, ERS-2 ran into problems.
Several of its onboard gyro systems – which helped keep the spacecraft in the right position – started failing. Similar issues had struck ERS-2’s predecessor, ERS-1, the year before, which sadly put an end to that mission.
But a group of engineers in the European Space Agency and across industry came together to develop an innovative new technique for flying and controlling ERS-2 in orbit, without gyros.
Two years later, in 2003, ERS-2 was struck again by an issue, this time with its onboard storage system, meaning it could not store the data it was collecting. Instead, it could only act as a “real-time” satellite, beaming its data down to Earth as soon as it collected it.
With these innovations and adaptations, ERS-2 managed to continue operating all the way up to 2011, when it was finally switched off, with the aim to de-orbit it and reduce space debris.
I had stopped working directly on the mission in 1994, but I had continued to follow the mission’s progress, and it was a poignant day when it finally came to an end.
And now we come to the second end for the mission, when the inexorable pull of gravity brings the spacecraft lower into the Earth’s atmosphere, where friction creates intense heat that burns it up in the sky.
Just as it played a key role in the mission’s design and development, the UK is now a part of the end of the mission too, working with ESA to track its re-entry under the ERS-2 Inter-Agency Debris Coordination Committee task.
The UK Space Agency’s Space Surveillance and Tracking team are using their world-class analysis capability to track the satellite and predict how and where it will re-enter – demonstrating a key part of the UK Space Agency’s purpose: to protect our planet and outer space. For more information about the UK Space Agency’s re-entry service, you can read our blog on Aeolus.
The UK Space Agency is also working on a project with HEO Robotics, an Australian company with a presence in the UK, which has taken images of the re-entry from space.
Witnessing ERS-2 re-enter Earth’s atmosphere fills me with mixed emotions.
On one hand, it is sad to see something I worked on all those years ago come to an end – but I am also incredibly proud of what it has achieved and what it has taught us about our planet, from floods to the ozone layer.
33 years on, and having worked on a number of missions in between – including Cassini/Huygens, Beagle 2 and JWST – I have seen the highs and lows of space.
ERS-2 perfectly encapsulates to me that space missions are only possible through the endeavours of a huge team of people – not just scientists and engineers.
I am proud to have been part of those teams, and I feel it is rather appropriate that, as I approach retirement, my career will have started and ended with ERS-2.
]]>Credit: Artwork by Max Alexander/Steve Kelly. This image was created from 250 individual photographs that feature examples of debris in orbit.
When we talk about space debris, you may remember the fleck of paint-sized debris that hit the ISS (International Space Station) whilst Tim Peake was onboard in 2016, or more recently, the lost bag of tools which floated away from ISS astronauts on a spacewalk.
But a bigger concern is the larger pieces of debris in orbit - such as upper-stage rocket bodies.
Most objects in space need to collide with one another to create more debris. Although not ideal, working satellites in space can move out of the way if they are in danger. But with old, retired rocket bodies, there is no way to manoeuvre them easily.
The biggest danger with rocket bodies is their batteries and fuel tanks onboard. These can unexpectedly explode with no contact from other space objects, and due to the enormous size of rocket bodies, a large amount of space debris can easily be created.
In 2019, the break-up of an upper-stage rocket body caused over 70 pieces of trackable space debris, one of which came dangerously close to the ISS in September 2022 and caused it to make a manoeuvre out of the way. Also remember that small debris (under 10cm) is not trackable from Earth, so there are more pieces of debris than what we can see!
The last decade has seen a rise in space sustainability companies dedicated to ensuring that space remains accessible for future generations. Headquartered in Japan and with an established UK office, labs and cleanroom at Harwell Campus, Astroscale is working on technologies to help clean up space. The Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan — or ADRAS-J — mission is the start of fully-fledged debris removal services.
Astroscale is targeting an actual piece of debris, a Japanese upper-stage rocket body, using tested and enhanced technologies from their ELSA-d mission, working in partnership with JAXA (Japanese Space Agency).
ADRAS-J is the world’s first attempt to safely approach an actual piece of large debris, and it will showcase the essential capabilities for delivering in-orbit services such as Active Debris Removal (ADR), which Astroscale aims to have routine by 2030.
ADRAS-J will carry out Phase I of JAXA’s Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration, or CRD2, mission. Phase II, which has yet to be contracted, will involve capturing and removing space debris.
The mission needs to be split into two stages to gather data on the rocket body, such as its condition and spin rate. This data will be vital for successfully capturing and removing the rocket body during Phase II.
Astroscale hopes ADRAS-J will kickstart discussions on how to make Active Debris Removal an achievable reality for governments and space businesses worldwide and work towards a cleaner and more sustainable space for us now and for future generations.
The mission is set to launch from New Zealand with Rocket Lab on an Electron rocket on 18 February UTC. You can watch the live stream of the launch from this link, which will start 20 minutes before launch.
To know more about the ADRAS-J mission, visit Astroscale’s website. Check out our other UK Space Agency blog, which talks about our other ongoing missions to tackle space debris.
]]>
Space exploration is high on the agenda for much of the world, and humanity aims to travel further and further into space with each passing year. As part of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), 21 space agencies now hope to explore Mars as part of their long-term plans. With time and cooperation, this goal will one day become a reality. A journey to Mars could take around seven months, and presents many challenges that need solutions well before take-off. One of the biggest is looking after the health of astronauts during such long journeys, and working out how to bring medicines on missions.
VITA, an Astropharmacy team at the University of Nottingham, are working on a solution. They aim to create a light, room-temperature storage and multi-use system that will allow medicines to be transported in space. Given the storage space limitations, extreme conditions of space and long storage time needed, this is a tricky task.
The team are developing a system that can store the proteins that make up medicines for long periods of time, without taking up much space. The system works by sticking the medicine to cellulose and freeze-drying it, then rehydrating it when the medicine is needed, without the need for a full medical laboratory. This system could also have uses on Earth in similar situations where transport and storage options for medicines are limited, such as while mountaineering, on submarines or in areas of conflict.
This project is slated to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in July 2024 as part of the European Space Agency’s Orbit Your Thesis! (OYT) programme , to carry out experiments in space.
OYT provides Masters and PhD students the chance to design and build a project that can be flown to the ISS for experiments in microgravity. Having been accepted onto the programme, VITA then applied for the UK Space Agency’s "Support for Student Teams selected for ESA Microgravity Student programmes", which offers up to £5,000 funding towards building the experiments.
The protein production system will use E. coli cells which have undergone lysis (where the outside of the cell is broken down) so that their internal components can be harvested for making proteins. These components are then ‘hijacked’ by adding DNA coding for the proteins needed for the desired medicine, and turning those components into the needed proteins.
This process is called ‘expression’, where the information encoded in a gene is turned into reality, in structures such as cells.
The sample is freeze-dried onto discs of cellulose. Freeze-drying the sample puts it into hibernation, which allows it to be stored for a long time. When the medicine needs to be administered, the sample is rehydrated to activate the production of therapeutic proteins for the desired medicine.
Once on board the ISS, there will be experiments to test the project in the microgravity environment in space. During these experiments, fluorescent proteins (which simulate proteins used for medicines) and nanobodies (which bind the fluorescent proteins to the cellulose and preserve them) will be ‘expressed’ in space to recreate the conditions in which an astronaut would need medicine.
The aim of the project is to create and then freeze-dry the samples onto cellulose paper with molecules that will preserve them, to prove that the process works and that proteins needed for medicine can be produced this way in a space environment. Once samples return to Earth, the VITA team will look at how well the fluorescent proteins and nanobodies bind to each other. This is an important step, because nanobodies act as a purifier for the proteins needed for medicine, stopping other, unwanted proteins made in the process being given to the astronauts.
The experiment will take place in the Ice Cubes facility onboard the ISS. The experiment will begin when the Experiment Cube, containing the VITA team’s experiment is plugged into the Ice Cubes facility.
Discs that have been freeze-dried to take out moisture (‘cell-free lyophilised’) will be stored within four science units. These are standardised units supporting four wells each. Each well has different DNA to produce different proteins. Below each well, there are reservoirs containing the liquid solutions which will be used for rehydrating the samples.
Once the Experiment Cube is plugged in and the experiment is ready to start, the liquid will be pushed towards wells by plungers. The solution will be absorbed by each sample, reviving them from their freeze-dried hibernation and starting the production of fluorescent proteins and nanobodies. This process is similar to how we make instant coffee!
Once the sample is rehydrated, LED lights and sensors pointing towards the wells will be activated, which will enable “fluorescence spectroscopy” of the samples. If the molecules are fluorescent proteins, the LEDs will excite them, causing them to emit light in certain wavelengths. The spectrometer sensors will determine the wavelength of the emitted light determining whether samples in each well are fluorescent proteins or not. This will show whether the experiment is working, and how well it is working.
These samples need a certain temperature range to stay active, so the Experiment Cube must perform accurate thermal control of a biological experiment. The team has come up with a solution using home-built heater control units and thermal sensors that will semi-autonomously handle the temperature of the science units.
A follow-up analysis of the samples will be completed back on Earth once they are delivered back to the students. The binding of the nanobodies and the produced fluorescent proteins will be analysed using the western blotting technique, used to separate and identify proteins. The fluorescence of the fluorescent proteins will also be measured. These will then be compared to the results of the same experiment carried out on Earth, which will show how the experiment differs when carried out in space.
]]>I imagine time flies for the astronauts on the International Space Station. It certainly has for Annelies and me since we began as jobshare Deputy CEO at the UK Space Agency. The view out of our windows will never beat that from the space station, but the first six months of our journey in space have had plenty of highlights.
The beauty of jobshare is that we really can be in two places at once! In our first week I was the most northerly person in the British Isles seeing progress building the Saxavord spaceport in Shetland. Meanwhile Annelies was at Edinburgh’s Higgs Innovation Centre celebrating the world-class academics who have given the UK a leading role in the LISA and Euclid missions.
We then met the Scottish Minister for small business and innovation and heard his commitment to building a space economy in Scotland. Inspirational small Scottish companies told us about how they are forging new markets in space. The week was a lovely illustration of the truly national space effort that we had just joined.
It has gone on from there.
The MOU with Axiom Space lays the path towards a commercially-sponsored UK astronaut mission which will carry out important scientific research and help develop new technologies. Rejoining Copernicus puts the UK back at the heart of international Earth observation. The National Space Conference in Belfast attracted over 1500 attendees from around the world. We invested £47 million to help build the infrastructure to make products mission-ready. Inside the Agency we’re transforming how we operate so that we focus relentlessly on doing the right things, doing things right and providing the leadership and support the UK space sector needs to thrive.
What has surprised me most in our first six months? I have been very struck by the importance of sustainability in space and that this is not more widely recognised. Before joining the Agency I was only dimly aware of the dangers and risks. I suspect I am not alone. This is a field where the UK can show global thought leadership. And UK companies are innovating and pushing the boundaries of technology, for example as we take the next steps towards active debris removal.
Thank you to all of you across the sector who have made us feel welcome and in particular for embracing our jobshare. In the competition for talent the space sector needs to be an innovative employer. So I re-issue the challenge I gave industry, government and academia at the Appleton Space Conference last year. Where are your jobshares at board level and across your organisations? Let us know how we can help you.
After six months – and unlike the astronauts on the ISS – Annelies and I are staying in space. We’re excited about the journey ahead and working together with you to boost UK prosperity, understand the universe and protect our planet and outer space.
Thank you for being part of our journey so far.
]]>The Orion Nebula lies around 1,400 light years away and is the brightest nebula in our night skies. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team
The constellations of Orion and Taurus both dominate the southern sky, hosting astronomical treats that are visible with the naked eye.
Look for the Orion Nebula just below the three stars that form the line of Orion’s belt. It may look similar to a faint star from towns and cities, but darker skies will reveal it to be a larger, fuzzy patch of light. It’s actually an enormous cloud of interstellar gas and dust around 1,400 light years away.
Taurus hosts the Pleiades star cluster, a group of around 1,000 stars that lie around 440 light years away.
While it’s nicknamed the ‘Seven Sisters’ because of the brighter stars in the cluster, more are visible to the naked eye and the cluster is even more beautiful to look at through binoculars or a telescope. Look at the Pleiades on the evening of 16 Feb as they get a visit from the 50%-illuminated Moon.
The constellation of Andromeda is also still high in the south-western sky as darkness falls, with the Andromeda Galaxy visible to the naked eye from darker skies as a faint, fuzzy patch of light. The galaxy lies over two and a half million light years away and is believed to consist of around a trillion stars.
There’s a conjunction of Mars and Venus in the pre-dawn skies in the second half of this month.
Early risers will see the two planets appearing to move closer to each other in the south-eastern sky over the next couple of weeks, with the planets appearing closest on the mornings of 21 and 22 Feb.
The two planets are actually around 120 million kilometres (75 million miles) apart, but will appear close to each other for rest of the month.
Over the last couple of months we have looked at some of the prominent stars in our winter night skies.
We continue that journey here looking at some of the stars in the constellations of Auriga and Perseus. You can use the sky-map above to locate these stars in the night sky.
Capella is the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (the charioteer) and the sixth brightest star in our skies.
Capella is actually a star system of four stars that lie around 40 light years away, where two of the stars, both around 10 times larger than our star, orbit each other at about the same distance as Venus orbits the Sun.
There are several notable adventures of Perseus in ancient Greek mythology, and the brighter stars in this constellation are no less remarkable.
The brightest star in Perseus is Mirfak, a super-giant star around 60-times the size of our Sun and over 5,000 times as luminous. It lies over 500 light years away and is part of a cluster of around 500 stars, some of which are visible to the naked eye from darker skies, and many of which can be seen through binoculars or a small telescope.
One of Perseus’ adventures in Greek mythology was to slay Medusa, a gorgon with snakes for hair.
Many constellation artworks depict Perseus holding the head of Medusa, represented by the star Algol, often known as the ‘Ghoul’ or ‘Demon star’. It appears this name arises from the star appearing to ‘blink’ and even change colour regularly, dimming noticeably for around ten hours every two days.
Today we understand that Algol is a star system of three (and possibly five) stars, and the ‘blinking’ is due to a large dimmer orange star passing in front of a brighter blue-ish star as the two orbit each other.
While the Algol star system is currently around 90 light years away, scientists tracking its path around our galaxy have discovered it passed just 10 light years away just seven million years ago, likely making Algol the brightest star in our skies at that time.
The constellations of Auriga and Perseus both lie within the band of stars that make up the outer spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. When seen from darker skies (areas less affected by the ground light of our towns and cities), these constellations appear to glow faintly with the sheer number of faint stars and the numerous star clusters that lie within them.
If you get chance to view this patch of sky through binoculars or a telescope, particularly from darker skies, see if you can find the wonderful ‘Double Cluster’ (known as NGC 884 and 869), which lies on the border between Perseus and Cassiopeia, and the several star clusters that lie in Auriga (known as messier 36, 37 and 38).
Three years ago in this blog we touched on the arrival of NASA’s small and autonomous helicopter that accompanied their Perseverance rover to Mars.
The 1.8kg experimental helicopter, named ‘Ingenuity’ quickly became the first object to conduct powered, controlled flight on another planet in April 2021, and went on to far exceed its anticipated five-flight mission.
Sadly last month, after a remarkable 72 flights on Mars, NASA announced that Ingenuity had conducted its last flight after its rotor blades were damaged in a landing following a malfunction. The mission far exceeded all expectations, exploring the Jezero Crater, helping to scout areas of interest for the Perseverance rover and providing great information on how such a vehicle can operate in the harsh Martian environment. Congratulations to the Ingenuity team!
You can find out more about this remarkable mission here.
]]>A huge achievement by all of those recognised, and a massive congratulations from us all at the UK Space Agency.
Chancellor, University of Leicester. For services to science education and diversity.
A space scientist, science communicator, author and BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, Maggie is a well-known and loved figure in the UK space sector. As well as being known in the astronomy community for her significant contributions to instrumentation, such as the optical subsystem for the James Webb Space Telescope launched in 2021, her public engagement work has also brought her into the public eye. Audiences have enjoyed her co-hosting The Sky at Night, and she has reached many others through shows like Later with Jools Holland, 8 out of 10 Cats and The Clangers, as well as regular appearances on The One Show, Newsnight and Woman’s Hour. In 2023, Mattel created her Barbie doll, celebrating STEM and International Women's Day, and she became Chancellor of the University of Leicester.
Since being awarded her MBE she has continued to spread her message of encouragement to young people to not be afraid to dream big in their goals and aspirations. She has shown commitment to inspiring new generations of astronauts, engineers, and scientists through her public engagement company Science Innovation Ltd with the aim of increasing diversity in science, especially in terms of gender, neurodiversity and ethnic balance.
In 2023, Maggie co-hosted the UK Space Agency’s Space for Everyone online tour with ESA UK Astronaut Meganne Christian.
Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics, University of Leicester. For services to astronomy and science education.
Emma is one of the foremost scientists in her field of planetary plasma physics, cited by EarthSky 2021 as one of the world’s most influential women in astronomy. Her research has been recognised with a series of awards, she has held several leading roles in space missions and in 2020 she became the 4th female President of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and was also appointed Head of School, Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester. She has used these positions promote issues of equality, diversity and inclusion and to make positive changes in local, national and international science communities.
She is keen to promote science to a wider audience and act as a role model for young women considering a career in sciences. She gives regular public talks on the solar system, contributes to TV programmes such as The Sky at Night and sat on a panel as part of Parliamentary Links Day 2019, designed to link parliamentarians with researchers to discuss the future of UK science.
Director General, Square Kilometre Array Organisation. For services to Global Radio Astronomy.
Phil has led the Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO) for over 2 decades. The SKA is a next-generation radio astronomy observatory which will operate across 3 continents, with radio telescopes in South Africa, Australia and its global headquarters in the UK. In that time it has developed from a small team to an intergovernmental organisation involving 16 countries in 2021. When completed it will be the largest scientific facility on the planet and will provide transformational science capabilities which will positively benefit the global astronomy community for decades to come.
He continues to be engaged in research and holds a professorship in astrophysics at the University of Manchester, where he pursues interests in star-formation and stellar evolution, starburst galaxies, supernovae and the environments of super-massive black-holes, for which he predominately uses radio interferometry facilities.
Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics and Space Research at the University of Birmingham. For Services to space.
Mike has played a significant role in making the UK an international leader in space science research, particularly in gravitational wave physics. At the University of Birmingham, where he is currently Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics and Space Research, he established gravitational wave research and made contributions to the first confirmed detection of gravitational waves in 2015.
Throughout his career Mike has also been involved in the UK Space Agency’s work, contributing to policy making and chairing a number of our committees and project management boards.
]]>