Space e SPACE EXPLORATION teilion km (25 trilion mils) - the stance torte nearest star ovis Centaur 4 Abriet history of astronomy Many ancient cultures followed the ‘Sun and stars in order to keep track of the time of year. By Ancient Greek times, astronomers had already worked out that Earth is round. Today, powerful telescopes allow us to peer 50 far into space that we can look back in time ‘almost tothe birth of the Universe. ‘Astronomical ‘calendars Astronomy People have been looking up at the night sky and marvelling at its beauty and mystery for thousands of years. Today, a whole branch of science - astronomy - is devoted to studying stars. Professional astronomers investigate not only stars but everything to do with space - from the meteors that burn up spectacularly as shooting stars in Earth’s atmosphere and the planets of the Solar System to distant galaxies billions of light years away. Astronomy makes a rewarding hobby too, and many amateur stargazers enjoy observing the night sky with backyard telescopes or binoculars. Whenever astronomers abserve the sky, they are looking back in time. This is because light takes such a long time to reach us from distant objects in space, We see the Moon as it was one and a quarter seconds ago and the stars as they were hundreds of years ago. ‘alileo cate the planets m ort sro te un ‘Modern eh Hubble whch ‘os ounce 1990, Bes breatiaking | News of oistne ‘The sky at night Ancient stargazers saw patterns in the stars and named groups stars after mythical beings anc animals. These star pate ‘alld constellation. 10° like the objects they are torepresent, but wes ‘ld names. Today, divide the whole 3 Segments, each the constellation chars like the one h whieh consteliaio ata particular time This chart sho trom the northern hem Orion the hunter (One ofthe best known and brightest Constlations fs Orion the hunter whic s visible the worls aver Orion incluaes the red lant star Betelgeuse andthe blueswhite superciant Rigel - two ofthe brightest stars inthe night sky2A mercnacac asta Seae 2,000 wicerescniiedere — 33 How telescopes work The Invention ofthe telescope revolutionized astronomy. A tetescope collects more ight / fromanobjectthan human A tyecan Ituses this ight to = tit a sar forma magnified Image : / ae ‘here ae two basic types |-Y 7 sneer of telescope: refracting and | / po refecting, Te refracting p telescope has large convex ae (Gutwardcurving) ens that ae p gathers and focuses the ght coterie the elesope Refectng telescope ‘he reflecting telescope uses {bows forming 29 Ronceve are-crving) 2eurved miror instead tage tte omer ena imammiror eects 00 “7 of te tlestope 4 sale tbasmale, tat mrror The p>“ ‘ens called the eyepiece resulting image is magnified Te crest ear Seeing the invisible USsitor snared ater 2 bear | professional astronomers dont just use visible The seven bright stars running ight to see the right sky Ther telescopes can J: Q Date ‘also create images from wavelengths of light that our eyes cannot see, such as X-rays, radio waves, ang infrared rays. The images below. ail show Kepler's Supernova - the wreckage jet by a giant star that exploded in 1604. Xray image {nie image of Kepler's Supernava is frm the ‘arbiting Chandra Xray Observatory itshows cloud of incredibly hot gas that emits high-energy Xrays. Visible gt image Very tie of theebiect can be seen i visible light even in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope The Beant areas are lumps of gas. Infrared image Taken bythe sltzer Space Telescope, this infared image shows Aust clouds that were heated by a shock wave from the exoloding stat o™~ Cassiopeia This constelation is named after a Vain queen in Greek mythology Its ‘ery easy to spat northern skies 2 Tooks ke a wonky eter W aes, aa Combining all hree sources produces a complete Sar csrsa Image! a shel of supernova debris expanding los ot Inte space at 2000 kr (1,240 miles) per second,34 | xaperocat Aor emerges A oumetuncn evirunan —k te Aooia sce ‘nsromest voit Noinetorine nates ‘rat twoush sae leweeormortn ana Sint third stage snene Service Module tncerstage aeaptor suet systems se oo for Mission to the Mocr Humans have set foot on only one ior beyond Earth: the Moon. Just 27 daredevil astronauts have travelled there, of whom 12 walked on its cratered, lifeless surface. Eight space missions visited the Moon between 1968 and 1972 as part of NASA's Apolo programme. Each mission carried three American astronauts inside an Apollo spacecraft, which was launched f by a Saturn V rocket. Apollo 8 tested the craft as it orbited the Moon. Then, in a dress rehearsal prior to landing, Apollo 10 flew close to the lunar surface. ‘The first of the six missions that successfully landed ‘on the Moon was Apollo 11 in 1969. Astronauts Nell ‘Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down an the 4 surface in July of that year. As Armstrong took the ) Smee second stge ‘einer Interstgescaptor J first historic step, he said, “That's one small step for eel Narre man, one giant leap for mankind.” burned 15 tonnes oF Saturn V rocket ‘The Apollo astronauts were blasted into space inside the nose cone of the largest racket ever built: Saturn V Standing nearly 111 m (364 ft) on, the Saturn V was as tall as a 30-storey building. This giant launch vehicle consisted of three rockets in one. The frst two parts, or stages, lifted the Apolo craft into space, and the thied ‘stage set the spacecraft on course for the Moon, Five stage enaines watch SPACE o SPACE EXPLORATION = 1. ineisorentvatrastto rove to wat —~ ‘The Saturn V rocket vs tater the Statue of Liberty in ew re thy Fuetanks Tanks ihn the Service taoave suppies foto seas "eselectate reece | _— | Tithsters made te | adstnents 0 he oO | The Command Worse war tre ony pat of ne Apollo crt ore 1 Enh 5 Concat shape hoe titans the Apollo spacecraft The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: the Command, Service, and Lunar modules. These were all inked together forthe 400,000 ken (250,000 mile trip to the Moon. Once there. the Lunar Module took two astronauts down to the Moon's surface, while the third crew member remained in lunar orbit in the combined Command and Service Module (SM. ‘The top half ofthe Lunar Module, known as the ascent stage, later returned the two astronauts to the CSM for the journey back to Earth, 2 Apollo 11 astronauts Neil ‘Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent on the Moon. Apollo 17 astronauts spent three days on the lunar surface. hours - the length of time_ ‘There and back marines soto sons Feiner te ean ga USA and rain Serecrronatssvasire seen cic Ocean eer of tas nat OO Sonn: 2s spent onthe oon ‘atenby te oto estonauts in opoce, kg 042 mot and sol were rapes tne ek meal BBD he waa) of mero 35 ‘heros ansing ses ioe anthe aie af Me eon a aes 37 Poe ° i» Lunar Module. Third rocket o Stage is now discarded, @Acolio craft adjusts its course after which itis discarded {ogo into lunar orbit © csi adjusts ts course and @ Lunar Module transports wo heads back to Earth Bstronauts to lunar surace service Module s jettisoned Ohi crew member continues Command Module enters {orbit the Moon in cskt Enns atmosanere scent stage of Lunar Modvle @ Command Module makes 2 takes astronauts back io CSM, parachute landing inthe sea. Docking unne Asionatsvedtne lebron <<, ce Man onthe Moon36 © SPACE © SPACE EXPLORATION Path to the planets The paths of spacecraft are often carefully planned to take them close to one or more planets on the way to their final destination. Using the pul of gravity of each world boosts their speed and saves fue. Cassin-Huygens flew past Venus, Earth, and Jupiter on its way to Saturn Satien 2 First Venus tyby 2. secon Vers by cassiNt a ear voy Landmark missions Since the first spacecraft to vist aplanet was launched in 41962, about 200 craft have explored the Solar System, Some of the most famous missions are shown here. unokinod 1 Russian bullt Lunokhod 1 was the first nar rover It landea fn the Moan in 1970 and spent 322 days exploring. traveling total of 1055 kr (65 miles) ) Venera 7 ‘The st craft to touch down, fon another planet, Venera 7 fanded on Venus in 1970. 1t lasted 23 minutes before the searing heat destroyed it adoash The hrs rover to explore another planet was Sojourner itreached Mars in 1997 and spent 12 weeks studying the Si an taking photos. Voyager 1 Launched in 1977 and stil operational, Voyager 1's the furthest manmade object from Earth. Itvisited Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn In 1980. Rovers ‘A rover is 2 robotic vehicle built to explore the surface of a planet or ‘moon. Four rovers have landed successfully on Mars. They receive radio ‘commands from Earth but find their way around and carry out tasks independently. Curiosity lands ‘The Curiosity rover was fowered on fo Mars in 2012 bby a rockel-powered craft spacecratt have visites ‘he planet saturn Cassini-Huygens spacecratt Cassini-Huygens isthe largest spacecraft to visit another planet. It was launched in 41987 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. It had two parts: the Cassini orbiter, designed to orbit Saturn until 2017, and a probe called Huygens. which touched down on Saturn's Farge moon Titan, The main aim of the mission Was to discover mare about Titan - the only World in the Solar System other than Earth that has a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere. ef oom cries ‘Stturs moar ed = ‘smalraio atenna TER GREY) ‘nuvcens ‘no ‘isa usa toma “ian, wnch es BY ounce radio aes Sire sitace_— 6273 2oo——— ate rore Ie 0 53 Srsctesices 27 meesnecaintance 37 a Exploring the planets While manned spacecraft have ventured no further than Earth's Moon, robotic craft have visited all the planets in the Solar < ‘System - and more than 100 moons. Robotic spacecraft can visit places that would prove lethal for astronauts, such as the scalding surface of Venus or the deadly radiation belts around Jupiter. Packed with scientific instruments, telescopes, and cameras, they carry out dozens of experiments during their missions and capture thousands of. images, which are sent back to Earth by radio. ‘Triple parachute Packed under Huygens back cover were etm an tree parachutes that opened in tur to slow the lander descent on to Titan. Huygens ‘scovered a world of freezing, orange-brown plains littered with pebbles af ice oto 1500 (2700