UNIverseJune 2013

HOW-TO: VIEW THE SUN

Find out which filters are best to use

when viewing our closest star

THE NIGHT SKY IN JUNE

Discover what’s hot and what’s not

on the viewing list this month

RED DWARFS

Terence Murphy asks why exactly

are they worth studying?

THE BOOK THAT NOBODY READ

Ana Gavrila discusses the Copernican model

and the popularity of De Revolutionibus

Editorial

Hello! Welcome to the June edition of UNIverse.

In this issue, it seems we explore the whole Universe, from the possibility for alien life to the significance of Red Dwarfs. With a quick pit-stop for a look around the June night sky, to a glance into the starship Enterprise.

We would also like to say many thanks to all those who take the time out of their busy academic and social sched-ules to contribute articles and pieces towards the magazine.

You all make this magazine a reality and we really couldn’t do it without your help, so please, I hope you will continue to support us and keep all of your fine submissions rolling in!

The UNIverse team

Dean TookeyEditor, Columnist

Doesn’t own a Facebook profile. How does he survive?

Amy MarklewEditor

Most Listened to Song on iTunes:Harry Potter OST - Lily’s Theme

Jason WotherspoonEditor

Known For:His witty and random

commentary.

Other Written Contributors:

Note from the Editors Jon Pratt

Editor, Design

Most Random Possession:A gramophone.

Faulkes Telescope North located at located at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Ana GavrilaTerence Murphy

Cover Image Credits

Student Astrophotography Image Credits:

Aaron Bond, Rosie Cane, Simon Shelford and Jason Wotherspoon

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Solar Eclipse by Earth Autumn 2012 Credit: NASAFront:

Back: Infrared view of the Horsehead Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

Copy Editor: Martin Griffiths

The Quartet of Editors

June 2013 UN

Iverse

2

Composite image of the Sun taken overthe course of 1 year. Credit: NASA

Contents2 Editorial4 News6 How to: Image The Sun by Dean Tookey

8 Red Dwarfs: Too Small To Bother About? by Terence Murphy

10 The Night Sky in June by Amy Marklew

12 Astrophotography14 The Book Nobody Read by Ana Gavrila

16 Media Reviews16 FUN.17 Cosmic Crossword

3

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

News 881 Confirmed Exoplanets

Goodbye Herschel...June 17th 8:25am EDT saw the inevitable turning off of the infrared telescope after it ceased taking observations in April. But not after being directed into a heliocentric orbit which will swing it around the Sun for it to reappear thirteen years later when it is once again closest to the Earth.

For three years, the telescope took images of the Universe at far infrared so “it’s like saying goodbye to an old friend,” said Micha Schmidt, the European Space Agency’s operation manager for Herschel.

Should We Fear The Supermoon?The Moon will reach perigee on the 23rd of June and there has been a bombardment of fear surrounding this event. Some people suggest that it may drive people mad and cause natural disasters, such as tsunamis, but according to NASA, none of these claims can be scientifically proven.

Although the tides may be just that little bit higher upon our Moon’s close approach, they will not make a notable difference on any of our lives.

“There should be no impact on anybody on the Earth,” reported Noah Petro, a Planetary Geologist at NASA, during a series of televised interviews on NASA TV. “There should be nothing unusual except maybe for more people staring up at the moon, which should be a wonderful thing.”

NASA’s “Grand Challenge”NASA’s new mission: Prevent Asteroids from destroying the Earth. Announced on the 18th of June, this “Grand Challenge” is to know the whereabouts of all the extinction-level sized asteroids and figure out how to prevent them from colliding with the Earth if ever one where to be on a collision course.

Several possible solutions to this problem are already in the minds of many of the world’s space agencies. Capture an asteroid, i.e. to pull it towards the Moon and have astronauts visit it, is one probable theory that could not only save the planet but also allow us to gain extensive knowl-edge on the chemistry of asteroids.

Far Infrared image of the Andromeda Galaxy taken by Herchel.Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Proposed Asteroid-Capture Satellite Credit: NASA

‘Supermoon’ - Credit: NASA/ESA

4

June 2013 UN

Iverse

The Chinese media reported that the final few tests had begun on the Chang’e 3 probe last month. Named after its destination, Chang’e 3 was put through 40 day long ground tests in order to see how it would cope of the lunar surface.

Made up of two main parts, lunar landing vehicle and the service module itself, it is proposed that the probe will land softly on the Moon’s surface while the vehicle will explore the surrounding areas.

This mission is seen as a stepping stone into the future where China hope to send another probe to the Moon, which will inevitably return to Earth with lunar samples. Named Chang’e 5, this sample-return mission is scheduled to bring back lunar rock before 2020.

Final Test For China’s First Moon Rover

Russian Probe Set To Land on GanymedeBy 2022, with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) help, Russia are designing a probe suitable not only to land on Ganymede’s volatile icy surface, but to explore its icy ocean as well.

Nicknamed JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), the mission is expected to reach Jupiter by 2030 and spend three years studying all of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Supplied with a radar and mapping cameras, JUICE will enter into an orbit around Ganymede and produce both terrain and mineral maps of the icy moon before landing.

Why not Europa? The environment of Ganymede is a lot less severe than that on Europa which lies closer to Jupiter; and being closer could also effect the gravitational effect Jupiter with have on the space craft.

Penguin In SpaceThe image opposite shows two galaxies within the constellation Hydra. NGC 2936 was once a stand-ard spiral galaxy but as it interacts with NGC 2937, a smaller elliptical galaxy, the resulting image looks more and more like a penguin and its egg.

Collectively known as Arp 142, the eye of the penguin is all what remains of the spiral galaxy with the blue and red dust lanes having been contorted out of shape, colliding into one another to create new star-forming regions giving astronomers an even greater insight into stellar formation.

NASA’s Lunar Rec. Orbiter will look out for China’s first landing on the Moon. Credit: NASA

The planned Russian Lander, JUICE. Credit: ESA/Roscosmos

(Right) Credit: NASA/ESA and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

5

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

How to: by Dean Tookey

Image The Sun

Observing the sun can be very interesting; however it can also be very dangerous so great care must be taken. Solar observing should be high on your list to do in the following summer months seeing where the days are long with the sun high in the sky and little to no cloud.

There are three ways to go about viewing the sun. The first involves using a dedicated solar scope, using special solar filters, and the other utilises the projection method. The main difference between the two methods is cost a dedicated solar scope can cost thousands whereas a filter can cost as little as tens of pounds.

FiltersFilters are usually either Mylar film or hydrogen alpha fil-ters. Mylar filters are the cheapest option and allow for the sun and sun spots to be observed. Hydrogen alpha filters allow for much more detail but the extra detail comes with a much higher price tag. Hydrogen alpha filters allow for not only sun spots to be viewed but also solar flares and other surface phenomenon.

When fitting a filter, it is very important to check the filter is working properly and is not damaged. Make sure the filter is fitted properly and that it cannot be knocked off. Also to be noted is that using small in front of the eye piece filters is not recommended as they can become easily damaged by the magnified sun light which can burn though them and injure the eye.

(Below) Segments from a Sun filter sequence. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

(Above) Annular eclipse, taken from a 8” Reflectorwith a solar filter. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Solar surface activity. Credit: NASA

6

June 2013 UN

Iverse

M42 (Orion’s nebula) as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Solar Telescopes

Image of the Sun and transit of Venus through Mylar Filter.Credit: Wikimedia Commons

(Right) Solar Telecope at the Czech Astronomical Institutein Ondřejov. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Solar scopes are similar in design but have a built in hydrogen alpha filter and are generally compact refractors.

The projection method involves placing a unfiltered telescope in front of a blank board or piece of paper with a image being projected onto it.

Aim the telescope, without looking through either the scope or finder scope, in the general direction of the sun until the shadow behind the scope becomes shortest. when pointed in the general direction of the sun place your hand behind the finder scope and move the telescope until the dot of light produced by the scope on your hand becomes brightest, once the spot is brightest cover the finder scope.

If using a solar scope or filtered telescope the eye can then be placed behind the eye piece and the sun can be fully centred and observed.

Using a low powered eye piece and a flat sheet perpendicular to this the sun should appear on the sheet . This method allows for drawing and sketches to be done along with being able to be shown to a large group of people.

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

7

Red Dwarfs: Too Small To Bother About?by Terence Murphy

(Background) Palomar 2 - Globular ClusterCredit: ESA/NASA, Hubble

No. Type:2 Type A Stars1 Type F Star6 Type G Stars16 Type K Stars78 Type M Stars1 Type M Brown Dwarf1 Type L Brown Dwarf6 Type T Brown Dwarfs6 White Dwarf Stars

Red Dwarfs are everywhere, they are easily the most numerous stars in our galaxy and presumably all the other galaxies as well. The "Atlas of the Universe" gives a census of all the stars found so far within 20 light years of the Sun and the results are shown below :

From this, it can clearly be seen that the preponderance of stars are red dwarfs.

Red dwarfs have not attracted the number of studies that their more illustrious larger cousins do. Undoubtedly one of the reasons for this is that they are perceived to be small and boring and just sit there doing the same slow thing for immense lengths of time. However, the last few years has seen an increase in red dwarf studies associated with exoplanet searches.

The same nuclear reactions occur in red dwarfs as in larger stars and the same physical processes that go on in the Sun can be seen in red dwarfs. They can help us understand the way that the universe ages with a different perspective from that of looking at mass ejection in stars and the formation of planetary nebulae and supernovae.

Stars form from the gravitational collapse of large clouds of gas and dust that receive an impetus from some outside source and at differ-ent stages of collapse, the matter within the cloud separates and forms different smaller clouds that eventually end up as many different centres of collapse resulting in many separate stars, either as singletons or in multiple systems. It would appear then that, for some reason, that is still the subject of intense research efforts, more smaller stars result than larger ones.

With the advent of some of the large-scale star surveys carried out within the last decade, it has also become apparent that small red dwarfs are much more likely to be singletons rather than members of multiple orbiting systems as is the case for larger stars. It has also become apparent that there are considerably more red dwarfs at large than was previously thought.

Main SequenceHydrogen fusion produces an outward pressure that is balanced by the inward gravitational force due to the mass of the star. Now because of its comparatively low mass, the central temperature of a red dwarf is in the region of 3.5 million K to 4 million K whereas the Sun's core temperature is around 15 million K. The nuclear reaction rate is

8

June 2013 UN

Iverse

low and the outward pressure is low. The resulting balance of matter in the star is one in which the density of the matter is much greater than that of a star as large as the Sun. In fact, the density of the matter is something like 40 times greater than that in the Sun. This high density figure results in the heat generated within the star becoming more constrained than that of larger stars. The material is more opaque, and it has a high opacity.

Consequently, the material has a tendency to expand and move even under the high pressures. A small red dwarf is convective from its centre to the surface. This mixes the Helium produced during fusion into the body of the star and new hydrogen moves into the core. So, the two factors of low nuclear reaction rates and constant mixing means that red dwarfs have very long lifetimes.

(Below) The H-R diagram for red dwarfs with masses in the range M = 0:08 to 0:25 Mass of Sun taken from “Red Dwarfs - end of the

Main Sequence” by Adams, Laughlin and Graves 2004

After some-thing like 800

billion years, the only main sequence

stars that are left in the Milky way are Red Dwarfs with

masses less than 0.3MO. Stars less mas-sive than this live considerably longer as the inset diagram shows. The overall quantity of radiation emitted from the Milky Way does not start to fall until something like 8000 billion years have elapsed, i.e. 8 trillion years. By the time the very smallest red dwarfs have become less than blue dwarfs and then white dwarfs, the Milky Way is no longer a stelliferous entity. All things, good and bad, come to an end.

Red Dwarf EvolutionPeter Bodenheimer spent his early career at UC Berkeley and developed mod-

els and computer codes, with others, which predict red dwarf evolution. The description below owes much to his work.

The diagram below shows what happens to red dwarfs with a range of masses. From this it can be clearly seen that none of these stars with

a mass that is below 0.25 that of the Sun ever attains a luminosity that is 10 times that of the Sun.

This means that they never become giant stars. The diagram shows that their surface temperature does increase with the

smaller stars peaking at around 8000K with the larger red dwarfs peaking above that in the blue part of the spectrum. Consequently, these yet to form stars have been given the name ‘blue dwarfs’.

Obviously, there aren’t any blue dwarfs in the Universe yet, the Universe isn’t old enough. The inset diagram shows the lifetime of these very small stars as a function of their mass. The consideration of the long lifetimes of red dwarf stars naturally leads to questioning the life-time of our and other galaxies.

Large stars live fast and die young. The matter expelled into the interstellar medium by these stars is reincor-

porated into new stars, large and small. The Milky Way continues to make new stars while it has the necessary gas

and dust. The star-making material can be added to by inter-galactic infall and as material is used up slowly then the rate

of new star formation falls.

9

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

The Night Sky in Juneby Amy Marklew

By the 1st of April, the last of the winter constellations have set and the spring constellations have come into their own. Of course, by now the clocks have gone forward an hour, signalling the beginning of British Summer Time. The nights may be shorter now but there are still some great opportunities to go observing. Saturn is perfectly placed to look at in between the constellations of Libra and Virgo. There are also a myriad of deep sky objects that are well worth observing.

The sky as it would appear at midnight on the 15th of June from London.Credit: heavensabove.com

The Moon in June

New: 8th JuneFirst Quarter: 16th JuneFull: 23rd JuneLast Quarter: 29th June

The full moon appearing on the 23rd is not just any full moon; it is a ‘supermoon’. At 11:32 UTC on the 23rd of June, the moon shall be in perigee and so will also be the largest full moon of the year. The summer solstice also lands on the 21st so prepare for the longest observing night of the year.

The Planets in June

Mercury: As Mercury is at greatest eastern elongation (24°) on the 12th the planet will be visible low on the north-western evening horizon for the first 3 weeks of June, though difficult to observe as its magnitude with decrease from -0.3 to +1.4.

Venus:With a magnitude of -3.9 this month, Venus is becoming easier to locate along the west-north-western sky at dusk, though more difficult to see in the northern hemisphere due to the longer days. Venus will be very close to Mercury between the 20th - 21st of June so very handy when you want to find the fainter planet.

Mars: It was in superior conjunction to the Sun on the 18th of April so is still not going to be visible this month.

Jupiter:Is in conjunction with the Sun on the 19th so consequently will not be viewable this month.

Saturn: Is visible in the southern sky as soon as darkness falls and is observable through-out the night until the early hours. The planet will move retrograde in Virgo and fades from magnitude +0.3 to +0.5 as the month goes on.

Uranus and Neptune: Are both visible in June and are high enough for decent telescopic viewing in the pre-dawn sky.

Full moon as viewed by SLOOH. Credit: Aaron Bond

10

June 2013 UN

Iverse

Deep Sky Objects in JuneJune evenings are perfect for skywatching, the temperature is mild, the nights are long and the midges haven’t arrived yet.

M104 lies below Porrima and to the right of Spica. M104 is an 8th magni-tude spiral galaxy about 30 million light years away from us. Its spiral arms are edge on to us so in a small telescope it appears as an ellipti-cal galaxy. It is also known as the ‘Sombrero Galaxy’ as it looks like a wide brimmed hat in long exposure photographs. With a magnitude of 9, the Sombrero Galaxy will just be visible through a pair of binoculars but not much detail will be visible. You are best trying to catch a glimpse of this object in early June as it lies low on the horizon and continues to set throughout the month.

A very beautiful galaxy, M101 which looks rather like a pinwheel firework, hence its other name the ‘Pinwheel Galaxy’. It was discovered in 1781 and was a late entry to Messier’s catalogue of nebulous objects. It is a type Sc spiral galaxy seen face on which is at a distance of about 24 million light years. Type Sc galaxies have a relatively small nucleus and open spiral arms. With an overall diameter of 170,000 light years, it is one of the largest spirals known (the Milky Way has a diameter of 130,000 light years). At 8th magnitude, this galaxy will be pretty easy to locate with a decent telescope.

Lying just below M101 in Ursa Major, the Owl Nebula is situated about 2000 light years away. Discovered in 1781 by French astronomer Pierre Méchain, this 8000 year old plane-tary nebula is circular in shape with two less concentrated circles in its centre which resemble the eyes of an owl. With a magnitude of 10, the Owl Nebula will appear as any ordinary star through a pair of binoc-ulars so it is best to use a telescope if you wish to see all its owly detail.

M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) taken with Faulkes Telescope North operated by Las Cumbres

Observatory Global Telescope Networkand taken by IFA Maui.

M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy) taken with Faulkes Telescope North operated by Las Cumbres

Observatory Global Telescope Network and taken by St. Francis of Assisi Technology Collage.

M97 (Owl Nebula) taken with FaulkesTelescope North operated by Las Cumbres

Observatory Global Telescope Networkand taken by Rosie Cane.

The square reticles show the positions of each of the above astronomical objects; 1) M104 between Virgo and Corvus, 2) M101 in Hercules, and 3) M97 in Ursa Major. Credit: Stellarium 0.11.4

11

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

Astrophotography

Object: M83 - Southern Pinwheel GalaxyFilters applied: Colour Composite (R, V, B)Taken with Faulkes Telescope NorthOperated by Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and taken by Simon Shelford

Object: The MoonFilters applied: Colour

Taken with SLOOH Telescope By Aaron Bond on the 24th April 2013

Object: NGC 2613 Spiral GalaxyFilters applied: Colour Composite (R, V, B)

Taken with Faulkes Telescope SouthOperated by Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope

Network and taken by Jason Wotherspoon

Object: The MoonFilters applied: Colour

Taken with SLOOH Telescope By Aaron Bond on the 24th April 2013

12

June 2013 UN

Iverse

Showcasing some of the best monthly images submitted by theBSc Observational Astronomy students of the University of South Wales

Object: The MoonFilters applied: Colour

Taken with SLOOH Telescope By Aaron Bond on the 24th April 2013

Object: NGC 4261 Spiral GalaxyFilters applied: Colour Composite (R, V, B)Taken with Faulkes Telescope NorthOperated by Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and taken by Jason Wotherspoon

Object: The MoonFilters applied: Colour

Taken with SLOOH Telescope By Aaron Bond on the 24th April 2013

Object: M1 - Crab NebulaFilters applied: Colour Composite (R, V, B)

Taken with Faulkes Telescope North Operated by Las Cumbres Observatory Global

Telescope Network and taken by Rosie Cane

13

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres - is the magnum opus of the incredibly talented, reclusive genius, Nicolaus Copernicus. It is known as the writing that began the Copernican Revolution and also the catalyst for the Scientific Revolution of the 16th Century, inspiring Kepler, Galileo and Newton. De Revolutionibus was a revolutionary new blueprint for the planetary system, in which the Earth no longer rested solidly in the centre of the cosmos, but spun on its axis, revolving around a distant, fixed Sun.

The Book that Nobody Read

by Ana Gavrila

Arthur Koestler was a Hungarian born polymath, who emigrated in the UK in the 1940s. He renounced his Jewish religious heritage and became an outspoken critic of communism; he was knighted 30 years later. He was an advocate of voluntary euthanasia and took his own life, together with his wife, by a drug overdose, on March 3rd, 1983.

He wrote many books and novels on social philosophy, politics and science. In 1959, he published The Sleepwalkers: A history of a Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe, a book concerned with the scientific history of astronomy and that focuses mainly on the European changes during the Renaissance.

In his cosmological history, The Sleepwalkers, he called De Revolutionibus “the book that nobody read” and said it “was and is an all-time worst seller.” He argued that the book’s supreme unreadability is the main reason for this neglection.

The book’s title page stands as a warning - ‘Let no one untrained in geometry enter here’. This shows that the target audience was not very large, but maybe Copernicus wrote the work in his dense style and disorganised fashion to actually minimise the potential audience. He is not drawing specific conclusions and he is making claims he is not following later in the text. The book has, as Koestler phrases it, “destroyed itself in the process.”

His argument is quite convincing. Many modern scientists betray the fact they have either not fully read or fully understood his work when writing about it. One of the most obvious reasons is the confusion rising from the number of epicycles in the Copernican system. Copernicus claims to reduce the number of epicycles from the 40 of the Ptolemaic system to 34 in his Commentariolus, but in the Revolutionibus, he uses nearly 50 (more exactly 48) according to Koestler. Many scientists have stated that Copernicus’ system consisted of 34 epicycles, when, in fact, he increased the original number to 48.

Another common misinterpretation is that the Copernican system is a heliocentric one. Koestler states in his book that it is not, “it is a vacuocentric one, so to speak.” Copernicus did not consider the Sun as the centre of the Universe, but a point in the vicinity of the Sun. This was a much more elegant and simple vision of the Universe, as it explained the retrograde motions of the planets.

Koestler refers to Copernicus as the last of the Aristotelians, as the physics he built his work on was purely Aristotelian. He was not familiar with the new discoveries in dynamics of the Paris school and this drawback materialized in his work. He returned home and dedicated his time trying to use Aristotelian and Ptolemaic physics to explain the only modern age idea that he embraced - Pythagoras’ motion of the Earth. Koestler argues that the errors in the Copernican system originate from his trying to interpret “Ptolemy rather than nature”, as Kepler himself later was to notice. He had relied on the data he collected from Ptolemy, Hipparchus and other Greek and Arab astronomers, as only 27 observations were his own, and

Arthur Koestler in 1948.Credit: Wikimedia Commons

De Revolutionibus Orbium CoelestiumCredit: Wikimedia Commons

Heliocentric model from Nicolaus Copernicus’De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

14

June 2013 UN

Iverse

perhaps that is the reason why he was so reluctant when it came to publishing his book. He did not know whether or not the orbital movement he predicted was accurate, as the foundation of his entire work was based on the observational data he had not verified.

As the Revolutionibus had not raised any controversy until the beginning of the 17th Century when Kepler and Galileo brought the idea of Copernicus’ heliocen-tric system into public attention, his book was, in a way, indifferent to most of his contemporaries or, most likely, too difficult to tackle for most of them. This is Koestler’s opinion on the matter, as even the reaction of the Church was indiffer-ent until 1616 when Copernicus’ book was prohibited by the Catholic Church, 73 years after its publication. So it can be said that it had a delayed impact.

The matter of infinite space is implied in Copernicus’ work. He had a vision of a Universe that “expanded towards the infinite” as Koestler stated, an anarchic universe where each element had no more the assigned place it has had before. It was a book that brought change into a static world, yet its author had not predicted the impact it was to have on Science. At the beginning of the 17th Century, it was brought in the spotlight and caused “the greatest revolution in human thought since the heroic age of Greece,” as Koestler agrees at the end of his last chapter on Copernicus’ life and work, The Timid Canon.

be very heavily annotated. The marginal notes left behind a “precious legacy in the way in which the book was perceived and read during the scientific Renaissance,” as Gingerich thinks, unlike today, when writing in a book is considered utter desecration. The author discovered that the book was not only widely owned, but also widely read and carefully studied all over Europe, as the extensive notes on the copies showed. Later famous owners of the book included Giordano Bruno, Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo, this proving that many people, including some of those who helped shape the scientific revolution, at least read enough to take notes.

Owen Gingerich’s The Book Nobody Read tells the story of his quest to find and document all the existing editions of Copernicus’ ultimate work. He published his results in his An Annotated Census of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus, which is a scientific census of his work. As he mentioned, he had probably seen “about half a billion dollars worth of copies of Copernicus’ book.” In his census, Gingerich does show that most of the astronomers and

HOW CAN A BOOK REVOLUTIONISE SCIENCE IF NOBODY ACTUALLY READS IT?

This is the idea that had determined Dr. Owen Gingerich, a Harvard Professor of Astronomy and History of Science, to estab-lish whether or not the myth put forward by Arthur Koestler is false. He had spent more than three decades tracking down and cataloguing all the surviving copies of the first and second edition of the Revolutionibus, finding hundreds of copies to

mathematicians of the second half of the 16th Century and of the early 17th Century, had read and annotated copies of De Revolutionibus. The second book he published on this topic, The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus, detailed many of his adventures, the people he met, the places he visited and the clues that led him, step by step, to a better understanding of the place of De Revolutionibus in the history of astronomy.

intellectual elite, as in the Golden Age of the Renaissance, anyone who was studying astronomy or who wished to be seen as well read, considered Nicolaus’ tome essential. It was, most likely, a book that not many people understood, or even if they thought they did, their opinion on the matter could have incorporated a misunder-standing of a particular fact and the result was that the information trans-mitted to the following generations of disciples was altered.

Gingerich’s Census accounts for many of the copies of the Copernicus’ masterpiece. Some of them were owned by movie stars, some of

them by astronomers, humanists or financiers. “Of course not all of these owners actually read the book,” Dr. Gingerich writes. It is highly possible that actually very few people had read De Revolutionibus and understood the disorganised and complicated techni-cal part. However the ones who have read it, carried on the work, further into the depths of knowledge. That is why it is considered to be a pedes-tal of science - it was a seed that led to further accomplishments, more important to our world today, more grand and exact than the original work. But if it was not for the seed, then no plant that would flower today, under our very eyes, would exist.

In 1632, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. This is the book that actually instigated the Copernican Revolution. Galileo favoured the Copernican system, so he must have had at least some understand-ing of what Copernicus had written in order to argue his case in such a way that would produce a major impact at a time when everything regarding science seemed not to be very elastic when it came to change, contrary to Koestler’s affirmation that “not even Galileo seems to have read it [De Revolutionibus].” The book was read, but not widely due to its technical nature. It was read by the

Dr. Owen GingerichCredit: Harvard University

Sculpture of Copernicus in Warsaw, Poland.Credit: Wikimedia Commons

15

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

Media Reviews

FUN.Class O or Class T?A profile project to create an H-R diagram of Astronomy’s ‘hottest and nottest,’ rating from the hottest - Class O, to the coldest - Class T, and to discuss and recognise their contributions to the field of astronomical science. Oh, and how attractive they are.

Bobak Ferdowski

Since his instant polularity as the Mohawk Guy, Ferdowski has helped popularise the Curiosity mission by appear-ing on television and radio in an effort to modernise the public’s perception of NASA scientists and engineers, so we believe that he has earned himself a respectable class of A5.

Ferdowsi is a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and has made valuable contributions to both the Curiosity and Cassini-Huygens missions. But Ferdowsi moved to Japan at the age of eleven and started his education at the American School in Japan before majoring in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Washington. He joined JPL in 2003 and has worked on Curiosity for nine years.

Known as NASA’s “Mohawk Guy”, the Pennsylvanian-born 33 year old Bobak Ferdowsi became an overnight internet sensation when NASA live-streamed mission control during the landing of the Mar Curiosity Rover on the 6th August, 2012.

Film: Star Trek Into DarknessWhat can we say about J.J Abrams’ most recent dive into the Star Trek universe that will not make me come across as some gushing fangirl/boy type who loved the film before they even saw it? The simple answer: We can’t.

Directed once again by J.J Abrams, Star Trek Into Darkness produces even more of the humour, special effects, action and lens flare as was seen his first instalment of the Star Trek film franchise reboot all the way back in 2009. And whilst still staying true to the original television series, Abrams applies an excellent twist on what is considered ‘the best Star

5 out of 5 stars

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Flight Engineer

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Trek movie.’

This time around, the now established characters; Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Bones, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov are all given their own moments in the sun; moments in which all characters show extraordinary strength be it from clinging onto gangways to reciting perfect Klingon.

But throughout the epic battles most of the best moments in Star Trek Into Darkness are the more affection-ate human moments. Between Kirk and Spock. Spock and Uhura. Scotty and his little strange green friend. The Darkness part of the film places each of these characters in some sort of life threatening danger which aims for each of them to save the other. A raging battle of emotion which still stays true to the original series, Star Trek Into Darkness is a summer must-see!

Star Trek: Into Darkness Cast and DirectorCredit: Wikimedia Commons

16

June 2013 UN

Iverse

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Flight Engineer

Cosmic Crossword

Across1. Ursa Minor10. Planck11. Terminator12. Ionisation13. Dark matter16. Lenticular18. Edwin Hubble

19. Opposition20. Edmund Halley22. Earthlight25. Cygnus26. Lagrange point28. Magnetosphere31. Van Allen

32. Event horizon35. Mantle36. Hydrogen burning

Down2. Solar flare3. Meteorite4. Latitude5. Schwarzchild6. Waning7. Retrograde8. Variable

9. Balmer12. Inflation14. Radiometric15. Interstellar17. Light year21. Averted vision23. Vesta

24. Inferior27. Transit29. Igneous30. Rayleigh33. Voyager34. Tachyon

Answers to May’s Crossword

15. A very energetic supernova thought to result from an extreme core-collapse scenario (9)16. V = Ho x D (7,3)17. A failed star, not massive enough to sustain stable hydrogen fusion in its core (5,5)18. An extremely small rocky or metallic body in orbit around the Sun (9)19. The new general catalogue (3)24. A bowl-shaped geological feature (6)

extraterrestrial life (4)26. Small (0.08-0.5 M?), low surface temperature (2500-4000 K),main sequence stars with a spectral type of K or M (3,5)

Down1. Celestial body thought to be the remnants of a star’s protoplanetary disk (8)2. A homogeneous energy density that causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate (12,8)3. The distance from a lens or mirror to the focal point (5,6)4. A measure of its intrinsic brightness (10)5. Defect in the image formed by a lens, mirror or optical system (10)7. Known for his study of certain physical characteristics of black holes, work that led to greater understanding of the origin of the universe (7,7)10. The visible or invisible radiation produced from certain substances as a result of incident radiation of a shorter wavelength (12)12. A measure of an objects resistance to a change in the state of its motion (7)

Across6. The science devoted to the study of the motion of the celestial bodies on the basis of the laws of gravitation (9,9)8. The parallel of latitude on the Earth at 0 degrees (7)9. Name given to the unknown physics causing the current acceleration of the cosmic expansion (4,6)11. Region of space where the density of matter, or the curvature of spacetime, becomes infinite (11)13. When an object has the same right ascension as the Sun as seen from the Earth (11)14. The science which deals with the positions and motions of celestial objects (10)20. The tenth brightest star in the sky, in the constellation Orion (10)21. The science concerned with life in space (12)22. The amount of kinetic energy gained by an electron as it passes through an electric potential difference of 1 Volt (8,4)23. The distance at which 1 AU (perpendicu-lar to the line of sight) subtends an angle of 1 arcsecond (6)25. The collective name for a number of activities undertaken to search for intelligent

17

UN

Iver

se

Jun

e 20

13

Written and published by the BSc ObservationalAstronomy students of the University of South Wales

© 2013 USW

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

- Vincent Van Gogh

18

June 2013 UN

Iverse