TY - JOUR
AU - Bowler,, Sue
AB - Competition to name that planet EXOPLANETS Young people in the UK are being invited to suggest names for an exoplanet and its star, as part of a competition to celebrate the centenary of the International Astronomical Union. The IAU has assigned a star and its exoplanet to each member nation for young people of that country to name. The UK's planet has the scientific designation WASP-13b, a gas giant around one third of the mass of Jupiter, orbiting its star every four days. The star WASP-13 is hotter and older than the Sun and lies 740 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lynx; it is visible with a small telescope. The exoplanet was discovered in 2009. The competition is to choose the publicly used name for these bodies. “We hope that teachers and youth leaders will embrace this competition as a way to engage young people in science by exploring the wonders beyond our own solar system,” said Robert Walsh (University of Central Lancashire), who is running the UK competition. “We're expecting to see lots of creativity from the next generation of astronomers and scientists when it comes to naming these celestial bodies. In fact, we're hoping the suggestions will be out of this world!” Open in new tabDownload slide Can you think of better names for the star WASP-13 and planet WASP-13b? Open in new tabDownload slide Can you think of better names for the star WASP-13 and planet WASP-13b? Schools and youth organizations can suggest names for the star and exoplanet on the UK Exoworld website until Friday 18 October. The suggestions will be considered by a panel of astronomers and a shortlist put up for a public vote in November; the winning names from all the national competitions will be announced in December. The panel will be looking for names that suit celestial objects, perhaps celebrating a thing, person or place of cultural or historical significance and, ideally, related to the UK in some way. The names for the two bodies should have some sort of common theme that allows for the discovery of more planets around the star, say, or a stellar companion. There are full rules on the wesbite. bit.ly/2k7OPta Blue plaque honours instrument maker in York HISTORY The observatory in Museum Gardens, York, now bears a plaque commemorating Thomas Cooke (1807–68), an instrument maker of international renown. The plaque was unveiled on 23 August 2019; the observatory itself houses an 1850 telescope by Cooke. Open in new tabDownload slide (Photo: Iona Miles/York Civic Trust) Open in new tabDownload slide (Photo: Iona Miles/York Civic Trust) Cooke was born in a Yorkshire village and studied mathematics and optics, inspired by Captain James Cook. He moved to York and gained a reputation as a maker of telescopes, among other things. He exhibited a steam-driven car in the York Exhibition of 1866 and was elected a Fellow of the RAS in 1852. The plaque was arranged by York Civic Trust, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and York Museums Trust and was unveiled by one of Cooke's descendants. bit.ly/2lI7rjW Big data helps measure mass of small particle PARTICLE PHYSICS The mass of the lightest neutrino now has an upper limit, thanks to research using astronomical big data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles that come in three flavours made up of a mix of three neutrino masses, according to lead author Arthur Loureiro (University College London). The differences between the three masses were known, but this is the first measure of the highest mass of the lightest of the three. The team used astronomical data including data from 1.1 million galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), the cosmic microwave background and supernovae to measure the rate of expansion of the universe and, in combination with particle accelerator data, modelled potential neutrino mass. They found that the lightest neutrino mass could be up to 0.086 eV and the three neutrino masses together had an upper bound of 0.26 eV. Co-author Ofer Lahav (also UCL), said: “This new study demonstrates that we are on the path to actually measuring the neutrino masses with the next generation of large spectroscopic galaxy surveys, such as DESI, Euclid and others.” The research was funded in part by the RAS; Loureiro et al. published these results in Physical Review Letters. bit.ly/2kFjZbJ Visitors explore Sun and Moon at Courtyard Late Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide MEETING More than 100 visitors attended the annual Courtyard Late event at Burlington House in July, to hear Mark Holborn give a series of short talks about his new book, Sun and Moon. This features many early astronomical photographs from the RAS collections, many of which were on display in the Library. (Lynda Laird/RAS) RAS to celebrate 1919 eclipse MEETING One hundred years ago, Einstein and his general theory of relativity hit the headlines worldwide when expeditions organized by the RAS and the Royal Society made observations that confirmed predictions of the theory. The results were announced at a meeting in November 1919 and, on 6 November 2019, the RAS is celebrating the centenary with a special evening event to commemorate Einstein's work. All are welcome to come along and hear from a panel of renowned astronomers, historians and science writers about the origins of general relativity, the observational tests at the total solar eclipse of 1919, how it changed our world – and the part it plays in both research and everyday life today. Speakers include Dr Carolin Crawford of the University of Cambridge, author Ron Cowen, Dr Meghan Gray of the University of Nottingham and Prof. Daniel Kennefick of the University of Arkansas. The event runs from 18.30–21.00. There is limited space at this event, which is for over-16s only; tickets cost £5 and you are advised to book early. Find out more on the RAS website. bit.ly/2lGioCL Open in new tabDownload slide This image of the 1919 eclipse is the result of applying modern image processing techniques to a copy of an original glass plate. (ESO/Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl/F W Dyson, A S Eddington, & C Davidson) Open in new tabDownload slide This image of the 1919 eclipse is the result of applying modern image processing techniques to a copy of an original glass plate. (ESO/Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl/F W Dyson, A S Eddington, & C Davidson) India makes it to the Moon… LUNAR EXPLORATION The ambitious Indian space programme is continuing to explore the Moon with orbiter Chandrayaan-2 after loss of contact with lander Vikram during its descent to the lunar surface on 7 September. Vikram was planned to explore the Moon at around 70°S, but communications failed when it was at an altitude of around 2 km. The landing was streamed live and the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, was present at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission control. Modi later praised the scientists, saying: “India is proud of each and every one of you.” ISRO announced on 10 September that they had located the lander on the surface, and would continue to try to establish communications. www.isro.gov.in AIDA mission will deflect asteroids PLANETARY DEFENCE Space scientists from Europe and the USA are collaborating on a mission to test a technique for planetary defence. The Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission comprises a spacecraft, NASA's DART, which will collide with the smaller of the binary pair of asteroids Didymos, watched by an Italian CubeSat called LICIACube; afterwards a second craft, ESA's Hera, with two CubeSats, will examine the effects of the impact. The impact is scheduled for September 2022. Hera is part of ESA's proposed Space Safety Programme, ahead of approval by ESA's Space19+ Ministerial Conference in November this year. bit.ly/2lGd4iL Burgundy tells warming story GLOBAL WARMING A study of grape harvests has revealed how unusual the climate in Burgundy has been over the past 30 years, compared to the preceeding 600. The study used the dates of the grape harvest in Beaune going back to 1354. It shows that grapes have been picked on average 13 days earlier since 1987 than the average date over the past six centuries. Grapes are very sensitive to temperature and rainfall; the team validated their record using detailed temperature records from the past 360 years recorded in Paris. Their analysis indicates that very hot, dry years were uncommon for most of the past six centuries, but have become the norm over the last 30 years. The study was published in Climate of the Past. clim-past.net/15/1485/2019 Lighting up Cen A Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide YOUNG STARS This is Centaurus A (NGC 5128), a bright feature of southern skies and a powerful radio source, as the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. Its peculiar shape is ascribed to a collision between a spiral galaxy and the original elliptical. This is one of the first light images from the European Southern Observatory's new SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) telescope at the Paranal Observatory, Chile. It shows red and pink star-forming regions to the lower left of the galaxy, and young blue star clusters to the top right. (ESO/SPECULOOS Team/E Jehin) eso.org/public/images/potw1930a Fellow recognized for cultural contribution AWARDS Congratulations to RAS Fellow Virginia Trimble on the award of the 2019 Andrew Gemant Award, an annual prize of the American Institute of Physics recognizing contributions to the cultural, artistic and humanistic dimension of physics. The award recognizes Trimble's lifelong successes in the physical sciences and “for taking the broader view of how physics and astronomy is accomplished, creatively engaging physical scientists and the public throughout her lifetime, and commitment to establishing science within the social perspective”. bit.ly/2ku5Wpu Breakthrough Prize for Event Horizon team AWARDS The 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics has been awarded to the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration led by Shep Doeleman (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics); the 347 researchers who were authors of the six related discovery papers will share the $3m prize. Jo Dunkeley (Princeton University), Samaya Nissanke (University of Amsterdam) and Kendrick Smith (Perimeter Institute) shared a 2020 New Horizons in Physics Prize (worth $100 000) for their novel ways to extract fundamental physics from astronomical data. breakthroughprize.org/News/54 Follow ESA spacecraft and ground stations TRACKING If you have ever wondered where particular spacecraft are and how they are linked to the ground, then ESA has a website for you. ESTRACK displays both the spacecraft and the ground stations that are tracking them, in real time and back into the past. You can pick a mission – such as XMM-Newton – and see mission data plus the ground stations in use; or you can explore the capabilities of the ground stations themselves. estracknow.esa.int Rosalind Franklin ready for Mars tests EXOMARS ESA's ExoMars rover, Rosalind Franklin, has completed its 18 months of construction at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage in the UK and is on its way to France for testing under martian conditions. This includes operating in an environment where the temperature drops to 150 K and atmospheric pressure is less than 1% of Earth's – and that atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide. The joint ESA–Roscosmos mission is set for launch from 26 July – 13 August 2020. bit.ly/2kDDQYN Europa Clipper sails into final stages JUPITER NASA's mission to investigate Jupiter's icy moon Europa has been confirmed, moving the design into its final stage. Europa is a prime target for astrobiological investigations, with its icy surface and probably subsurface ocean of salty water. NASA has a target for launch in 2023 at best and in 2025 at worst. Europa Clipper will circle the moon every fortnight, imaging and investigating the surface and signs of a liquid lower layer. nasa.gov/europa Machine learning models the universe AI Modelling the evolution of the universe demands a trade-off between accuracy and efficiency. Numerical N-body models simulate structure formation accurately but slowly, while analytical methods are quicker, but don't always do the job. The first neural network model of the universe combines the best of both, using machine learning to link the two methods. It is based on pattern detection; training a neural network with large simulation data sets in order to build a deep learning model that was able to mimic the structure formation process. The work was published by He et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. www.ipmu.jp/en/20190828-AI_model Norman Lockyer Fellowship deadline FUNDING The RAS is seeking applicants for the Norman Lockyer Fellowship, a three-year research fellowship intended to support an outstanding researcher in astronomy, including solar system and planetary science. Applications for the fellowship to start in 2020 must be emailed to the RAS by 18 October 2019. Full details are on the RAS website. bit.ly/2lQeoPR Researchers propose volcanic exomoon EXOPLANETS An extreme version of Jupiter's moon Io has been postulated by researchers examining an exoplanet orbiting the yellow dwarf WASP-49. They found neutral sodium at high altitude near the planet WASP-49b, too far from the planet to have simply escaped from the atmosphere. By analogy with Io and Jupiter, volcanoes on the moon may be the source. Apurva Oza (University of Bern) modelled a giant planet and moon orbiting a star at close quarters, and found that a small volcanic moon could emit more sodium and potassium than the gas giant. WASP-49b fits this scenario, although there are others, such as an exoplanet surrounded by a ring of ionized gas. Oza et al. published their work in the Astrophysical Journal. bit.ly/2kgnTaU College seeking second-hand kit EDUCATION RAS Fellow Shamim A Sheikh is appealing for help for proposed College of Education for Science in Khari Shareef, Mirpur, in Pakistan-held Kashmir. It is a community school to be funded by donations. Sheikh said: “We plan to have astronomy and science subjects in the main curriculum at sixth-form level. We are in the very early stages of the project and any help and guidance will be greatly appreciated. We are asking for any used or new astronomical and scientific instruments as well as school equipment.” For more details, please email shaminsa@aol.com Martian methane measurement refined MARS The inconsistency between martian methane emissions measured at the surface by the NASA rover Curiosity, and in orbit by the ESA Trace Gas Orbiter, can be resolved if emissions vary with time of day as well as with season. Research led by John Moores, an Australian National University visiting fellow based at York University, Canada, showed that methane is seeping out of Gale crater – where Curiosity is exploring – at a rate of 2.8 kg per martian day. Moores said the team reconciled the orbital and surface data “by showing how concentrations of methane were much lower in the atmosphere during the day and significantly higher near the planet's surface at night, as heat transfer lessens”. The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters. bit.ly/2lGF45H New pathways to carbon in space LIFE Chemists at the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have identified a new sequence of reactions that produce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a possible step to making carbon nanoparticles in space. They used high-temperature reactions combining two free radicals to produce naphthalene (⁠ C10H8 ⁠). The conditions of the reaction exist in space near carbon stars, for example. They suggested that there may be multiple pathways towards forming PAHs – and other organic molecules – in space. The results were published in Nature Communications by Zhao et al. go.nature.com/2mbMaiU Lost continent of Greater Adria located TECTONICS The Mediterranean is a mess, tectonically speaking. An international team working across the region has pinned down the location of Greater Adria, a chunk of continent that peeled off Africa and started to move north 240 million years ago. The plate reconstruction made by the team led from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, ties the movement of this lost continent into the evolution of this active region. The team published in Gondwana Research. bit.ly/2kseDk5 Medals for young UK astronomers OLYMPIAD The 13th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) was in Hungary from 2–10 August, with 254 secondary-level students representing teams from 47 countries. The UK team of five students gained one gold, three silver and one bronze medal, the best results since joining the international competition in 2015. The medal tally put the UK in joint fifth place, behind winners Russia, China, USA and Romania. The team was led by two RAS Fellows. bit.ly/2lJQvto Stellar siblings stick together Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide ASTROMETRY Data from ESA's Gaia satellite show that stars that form together, move together – and may reveal past galactic structure. Researchers led by Marina Kounkel (Western Washington University, USA) used machine learning to identify groups of stars moving in the same direction at about the same speed. They found more than 2000 clusters and co-moving star groups up to 3000 light-years away and, adding star ages, found stellar families. “Around half of these stars are found in long, string-like configurations that mirror features present within their giant birth clouds,” said Kounkel. “Stars can stay close to their siblings for as long as a few billion years.” The youngest strings of stars lie perpendicular to one spiral arm; strings of older stars do not share this relationship. The image shows stellar groups and strings in a face-on view of the Milky Way. The results are published in The Astrophysical Journal. (M Kounkel & K Covey) bit.ly/2lLrUo2 Distorted planet emits heavy metals EXOPLANETS An extreme exoplanet in close orbit around a hot star shows the first evidence of heavy metals iron and magnesium escaping from the atmosphere under the extreme gravity of the host star – which also distorts the planet into a rugby ball. WASP-121b is an ultrahot Jupiter with outer gas layers heated to 2800 K. Near-ultraviolet spectra obtained using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrometer on the Hubble Space Telescope show magnesium and iron at altitudes of a quarter and a third of the planet's radius, respectively. This is outside the observed Roche lobe and too high up for these metals to be gravitationally bound. The authors of the study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, suggest that these ionized species may be escaping hydrodynamically into space, or they may be bound by a magnetic field. Open in new tabDownload slide Artist's impression of ultrahot WASP-121b. (NASA, ESA and J Olmsted [STScI]) Open in new tabDownload slide Artist's impression of ultrahot WASP-121b. (NASA, ESA and J Olmsted [STScI]) “We know these planets can lose gas relatively easily,” said David Sing (Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland). “But in the case of WASP-121b, the hydrogen and helium gas is outflowing, almost like a river, and is dragging these metals with them. It's a very efficient mechanism for mass loss.” bit.ly/2m3HQ54 ESA makes orbital manoeuvres in the dark SPACE SAFETY ESA successfully raised the orbit of its Aeolus Earth Observation satellite by 350 m on 2 September in order to avoid the possibility of collision with one of Space-X's Starlink constellation. The incident highlights the lack of clear communication channels between satellite operators, and the need for agreed procedures in orbit, something likely to become more pressing as more constellations are launched. ESA said that this was the first time they had performed such a “collision avoidance manoeuvre” for a constellation satellite, pointing out that there are not yet agreed protocols for a situation that is likely to arise more frequently in future. “No-one was at fault here, but this example does show the urgent need for proper space traffic management, with clear communication protocols and more automation,” said Holger Krag, ESA's head of space safety. “This is how air traffic control has worked for many decades, and now space operators need to get together to define automated manoeuvre coordination.” There appeared to be some confusion added to the communication difficulties in this case; in addition, the Space-X satellite, Starlink44, was in an unusually low orbit. This satellite was one of the first 60 launched, out of a planned constellation of 12 000 by the mid-2020s. bit.ly/2m5SOad LIBRARY NEWS Recent acquisitions and donations to the RAS Library. For more new titles, please see the Library catalogue (link via ras.ac.uk/library). You can contact the Librarian by email (librarian@ras.ac.uk) or phone +44 (0)207 292 3963. Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide • Kragh H & Longair M S (eds) 2019 The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology (OUP, Oxford). Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide • González G & Hynes R (eds) 2019 Gravitational Wave Astrophysics (IAU S338): Early Results From Gravitational Wave Searches and Electromagnetic Counterparts (CUP, Cambridge). Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide • Heard J 2019 From Servant to Queen: A Journey Through Victorian Mathematics (CUP, Cambridge) presented by the author. Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide • Holborn M 2019 Sun and Moon: A Story of Astronomy, Photography and Mapping (Phaidon, London) presented by the publisher. Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide • Goedbloed H, Keppens R & Poedts S 2019 Magnetohydrodynamics of Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas (CUP, New York). MeerKAT's giant radio bubbles Open in new tabDownload slide Open in new tabDownload slide GALACTIC STRUCTURE This hourglass-shaped structure and fine magnetic filaments form one of the biggest features known at the centre of the Milky Way. The radio emission outlines vast bubbles, above and below the plane of the galaxy, driven by past activity of the supermassive black hole at its centre. “The Milky Way's central black hole can become uncharacteristically active, flaring up as it periodically devours massive clumps of dust and gas,” said lead author Ian Heywood (University of Oxford). “It's possible that one such feeding frenzy triggered powerful outbursts that inflated this previously unseen feature.” The structure is probably a few million years old and may mark a big increase in the amount of gas falling in to the galactic centre, or a burst of star formation that sent shockwaves inwards. The image comes from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory's MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the mid-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array. This study involved researchers from 15 institutions and is one of the first to use the full 64-dish array. Heywood et al. published these results in Nature. (SARAO/Oxford) bit.ly/2me16wY Hubble trouble reinforced by red giant flashes COSMOLOGY A measurement of the rate of expansion of the universe based on red giants gives a value for the Hubble constant distinct from the estimate based on distant supernovae and closer to that based on the cosmic micro-wave background (CMB). The new study, led by Wendy Freedman (University of Chicago), uses the peak brightness of red giant stars in nearby galaxies; they all reach the same peak brightness as they age – the helium flash – so they can act as standard candles. This gives a value of the Hubble constant, H0 ⁠, of 69.8 km s−1 Mpc−1 ⁠. A recent measurement of H0 using Cepheid variables by the SHoES project (Supernovae H0 for the Equation of State) gave a value of 74.0 km s−1 Mpc−1 ⁠. But the estimate based on the structure of the CMB, as measured by the ESA satellite Planck, was 67.4 km s−1 Mpc−1 – significantly different. Freedman's team used an independent route to determine H0 ⁠. Their data fall between the two estimates, although possibly closer to the Planck value. “Naturally, questions arise as to whether the discrepancy is coming from some aspect that astronomers don't yet understand about the stars we're measuring, or whether our cosmological model of the universe is still incomplete,” Freedman said. “Or maybe both need to be improved upon.” bit.ly/2kujlxO LIGO takes October break GRAVITATIONAL WAVES The year-long third observing run (O3) of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory will pause during October for a commissioning break. The observing run will resume on 1 November and finish on 30 April 2020. In the first four months of O3 (up to the end of July 2019), LIGO announced 22 candidate events, in line with expectations. The break allows improvements to the instruments. Some changes were made before this observing run: the mirrors were upgraded, the laser power boosted and the system used “squeezed light”, specially prepared photon states that use the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to reduce the noise at high frequencies. Together these changes were expected to have extended the reach of the observatory. They did for LIGO Livingston, which could detect events out to 140 Mpc, but LIGO Hanford reached only 120 Mpc. The LIGO team hopes to resolve this discrepancy and make further improvements during the break. ligo.caltech.edu/news NEW FELLOWS The following have been put forward to Council for election as a Fellow of the RAS: George Barker Joseph Bassi, USA John Blackwell, USA Helen Brand, Australia Les Brand Emily Ferris Samuel Frampton Pablo Galan de Anta Nancy Gorman Sammy Griffin Roan Haggar Carl Haines Pravin Kapadi Tim Lichtenberg Nicholas Mattock Eugene Okwei Lorraine Paine Adrian Parsons Farook Rahaman, India Farideh Raiss-Tousi Lisa Ravlo Klette Marium Shaham George Thomson Martin Whillock Toni Wilmot Pulsar emission mapped POLARIZATION Pulsars in binary systems are known to test general relativity; the polarization of emission from one young system also tests the 50-year-old double pulsar model. What made this pulsar PSR J1906+0746 unusual is that the lighthouse beams from both poles could be observed. A team led from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn used 14 years of data, combining observations from 2012–18 using the 305 m Arecibo radio telescope with archival information back to July 2005. During this time, the beam from the “northern” pole of the pulsar disappeared while the southern beam remained. Based on the polarization data in the pulsar signal and general relativity, the team was able to deduce information about the pulsar geometry – and predict when the northern and southern pulsar beams would appear and disappear in future. These data validated the 50-year-old model based on the Hulse–Taylor double pulsar describing relativistic spin precession in binary pulsars. The team also realized that during the observations the line of sight from Earth had passed over the magnetic pole of the pulsar, allowing them to not only map the pulsar beam, but also to examine conditions for radio emission right above the pole. bit.ly/2kIybAB Remembering the Moon landings Open in new tabDownload slide Free eBook: read online or download. Open in new tabDownload slide Free eBook: read online or download. HISTORY A national project to share memories of the Apollo Moon landings has resulted in an eBook of 50 personal stories from people in the UK. Moon Landing Memories was organized by the UK Space Agency, UK Research and Innovation and the Arts and Humanities Research Council and includes personal snapshots and career decisions. “These memories of the first Moon landing bring to life the magic of that iconic moment,” said science minister Chris Skidmore. “They clearly show why some of the children who watched live in 1969 were inspired to become the engineers and scientists who are now building our thriving space industry in the UK.” One of those is Lance Thompson of Fife, who wrote: “The passion I had for the whole adventure resulted in me following a career in engineering, specifically in remote sensing. For a young lad from Newcastle, this was not the usual prospect.” Maria Cody of London watched the grainy image of humans on the Moon at school and now works for ESA: “I am also delighted from knowing how space has improved everyday experiences. Today my granddaughter would be watching the Moon landings with her friends on phones and tablets.” The eBook can be downloaded; some of the material was also on show in an exhibition at the National Space Centre, Leicester. RAS Fellows have also been looking back at events 50 years ago: Councillor Kevin Kilburn recorded audio tapes of the TV coverage, while Fellow Mark Wrigley's audio and movie-camera tapes of the TV coverage are on display as part of Hello Universe at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford until 22 January 2020. EBOOKmoonlandingmemories.com HELLO UNIVERSEbit.ly/2ksR9vc More information on STEVE mystery ATMOSPHERE The unusual pinkish streak known as STEVE – Strong Thermal Emissions Velocity Enhancement – remains a puzzle. STEVE has been seen with aurora, but appears further from the poles; now optical spectroscopy suggests it forms by a different mechanism – some sort of warm atmospheric emission rather than the particle collisions that form aurora. Researchers led by Megan Gillies (University of Calgary) observed STEVE in 2018 and associated the characteristic mauve colours to enhancement of OI red-line emission, plus a continuum spectrum. Gillies et al. published their data in Geophysical Research Letters. bit.ly/2lJxKX7 VIEWS: Two hundred years old, still going strong LETTERFrom Michael Burton Open in new tabDownload slide The Troughton Equatorial, as it is today. (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium) Open in new tabDownload slide The Troughton Equatorial, as it is today. (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium) It was very interesting to read the article on Edward Troughton in the last issue, the near-founder and most active member of the early RAS (Edmunds M 2019 Astron. & Geophys. 60 4.14). You may also be interested to know that Troughton has claim to fame as the maker of perhaps the oldest telescope in the world that remains in essentially its original setting, still within the observatory where it was first installed, and where astronomical research is still being carried out today. The Troughton Equatorial was installed in the Armagh Observatory in 1795, among the original instrument suite of the observatory, following the recommendations of Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne on the foundation of the observatory in 1790 by Archbishop Richard Robinson. The Armagh Observatory, now a Grade A heritage-listed building, was constructed around it; the central pillar which supports the telescope and spiral staircase leading to it are still in active duty today. The Troughton was one of the very first equatorial telescopes in the world, able to track the stars (albeit by rotating the equatorial axis by hand, no motors then), together with a rotating dome (albeit with servants to turn the handle to rotate). The telescope still stands proudly within the Armagh Observatory, on the floor above the astronomer's offices (formerly the bedrooms of the director's family). In fact, there were two Troughtons involved in the telescope's construction: RAS near-founder Edward and his brother John. The lens of the Troughton telescope is by Dollond, but this is Peter Dollond, not the George Dollond featured in the same article on the RAS's roots. However, he was George's uncle! Michael Burton, director, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium © 2019 Royal Astronomical Society This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
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