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Hello! My name is Ian O'Neill and I've been writing for the Universe Today since December 2007. I am a solar physics doctor, but my space interests are wide-ranging. Since becoming a science writer I have been drawn to the more extreme astrophysics concepts (like black hole dynamics), high energy physics (getting excited about the LHC!) and general space colonization efforts. I am also heavily involved with the Mars Homestead project (run by the Mars Foundation), an international organization to advance our settlement concepts on Mars. I also run my own space physics blog: Astroengine.com, be sure to check it out!
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Credit: CERN/LHC
[/caption]It may seem that the delay is getting longer and longer for the restart of the LHC after the catastrophic quench in September 2008, but progress is being made. Repair costs are expected to hit the $16 million mark as engineers quickly rebuild the damaged electromagnets and track down any further electrical faults that could jeopardize the future operation of the complex particle accelerator.
According to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Large Hadron Collider will resume operations in September. But the best news is: we could be seeing the first particle collisions only a month later…
If, like me, you were restlessly awaiting the grand LHC “switch-on” on September 10th, 2008, only to be disappointed by the transformer breakdown the following day, but then buoyed up by the fact LHC science was still on track, only for your hopes to be completely quenched by the quench that explosively ripped the high-tech magnets from their mounts on September 20th, you’ll probably be weary about getting your hopes up too high. However, allow yourself a little levity, the LHC repairs are going well, potential faults are being identified and fixed, and replacement parts are falling into place. But there is more good news.
Via Twitter, one of my contacts (@dpodolsky) hinted that he’d heard, via word of mouth, that LHC scientists’ optimism was growing for an October 2009 start to particle collisions. However, as of February 2nd, there was no official word from CERN. Today, the CERN Director General issued a statement.
“The schedule we have now is without a doubt the best for the LHC and for the physicists waiting for data,” Rolf Heuer said. “It is cautious, ensuring that all the necessary work is done on the LHC before we start-up, yet it allows physics research to begin this year.”
So, the $5 billion LHC is expected to be restarted in September and the first experiments will hopefully commence by the end of October 2009. It may be a year later than when the first particle collisions were planned, but at least a better idea is forming about when the hunt for the Higgs particle will recommence…
[/caption]In September 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) suffered a catastrophic quench, triggered by a faulty connection in the electronics connecting two of the supercooled magnets between Sections 3 and 4 of the 27 km-circumference particle accelerator. The “S34-incident” caused tonnes of helium coolant to explosively leak into the LHC tunnel, ripping the heavy electromagnets from their concrete mounts.
Naturally, this was a huge blow for CERN, delaying the first particle collisions by several months. However, the repair work is progressing well, and hopes are high for commencement of LHC science as early as this summer. Now engineers are working hard to avoid a recurrence of the S34 Incident, tracking down similar electrical faults between the accelerator magnets. It seems like they have found many more faults than expected…
According to a recently published progress report, the LHC repairs are progressing as planned, but more electrical faults have been discovered in other sections of the accelerator. An electrical short has been blamed for the quench four months ago, only weeks after the first circulation of protons around the LHC in the beginning of September 2008. It is now of paramount importance to isolate any further potential shorts in the complex experiment. It would appear engineers are doing a good job in tracking them down.
Ribbons of superconducting niobium-titanium wire is used by the LHC to carry thousands of amps of current to the magnets. Connecting the ribbon from electromagnet-to-electromagnet are splices that are soldered in place. Should one of these splices be weakened by poor soldering, an electrical short can occur, making the magnets lose superconductivity, initiating a quench, rapidly heating the sensitive equipment. Various sections are being re-examined and re-soldered. The good news is that this additional work is not compounding the delay any further.
It has been confirmed that there was a lack of solder on the splice joint. Each sector has more than 2500 splices and a single defective splice can now be identified in situ when the sector is cold. Using this method another magnet showing a similar defect has been identified in sector 6-7. This sector will be warmed and the magnet removed. The warm up of this additional sector can be performed in the shadow of the repair to sector 3-4 and will therefore not add any additional delay to the restart schedule. — CERN
Hopefully we’ll see a second circulation of protons this summer, and according to informal rumours from a contact involved in the LHC science, the first particle collisions could start as early as October 2009. I will listen out for any further official confirmation of this information…
The Mir space station hangs above the Earth in 1995 (photo by Atlantis STS-71, NASA)
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The Russian space agency (Roscosmos) has announced that it will lobby Moscow with a proposal that would see the construction of a new Russian space station in low-Earth orbit. Also, the agency has expressed a desire to extend the operational lifespan of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2020 (the outpost is set for retirement in 2015). Building a Russian space station will aid Russia’s desire to kick-start their lunar program, possibly acting as a staging post for future missions to Mars…
The ISS has been a hot topic over the last few months, but not always for the right reasons. Its construction is behind schedule by at least five years, primarily due to the Columbia disaster in early 2003 plus some funding problems in the Russian space agency. However, despite its problems, the ISS was 76% complete as of July 2008 and it is set for completion in 2010. This may be the case, but the station is scheduled to be retired in 2015, meaning science on the completed ISS only has a period of five years before it is de-orbited and sent the same way as Mir in 2001 (i.e. down).
The thought of disposing of the ISS so soon has led to some speculative “alternative uses” for the ISS; one of the most outlandish being the conversion of the ISS into some kind of International Space Ship, retrofitting the station with rockets and sending it to the Moon and/or Mars to act as a manned mothership for planetary activities. Although this excites my science fiction imagination, this possibility seems unlikely (it would be cool though…).
It seems that Roscosmos has made their feelings clear about the whole situation, making an announcement on Thursday wanting to drum up support for an ISS extension to 2020 and start the construction of a Russian replacement space station, forming the back bone of Roscosmos’ ambitions to set up a base on the Moon and then make a manned expedition to the Red Planet.
“We will soon propose to our government a project to construct a low-orbit complex, which could serve as a foundation for the implementation of the lunar program and later on – the Mars program,” Alexei Krasnov, director of manned flight programs at Roscosmos, said in a news conference in Moscow on January 29th. “These are our intentions, but we are working hard to ensure that these plans get adequate financial and legislative support from the government.”
The Russian space agency has often been criticised for having ambitions exceeding their budgets, but this is an interesting proposition. The biggest obstacle (apart from the funding bit) would be to convince the other ISS member states to continue funding the mission. “We are considering the extension of ISS service life at least until 2020, but this decision must be adopted by the governments of all 15 countries participating in the project,” Krasnov said.
The idea of having a Russian space station is not very hard to imagine, after all, Roscosmos has the experience of designing, constructing and living on the Mir space station (with the assistance of the Shuttle-Mir Program intended to forge a collaboration between the US and Russia in the run-up to “Phase 2” of the space relationship: constructing the ISS), and they have a very robust existing launch system. All this will be a valuable infrastructure toward supporting the construction of a new manned outpost.
Although this announcement sounds very exciting for Russia, the space agency is beset with financial woes of its own; the idea of embarking on an expensive space station project probably wont be entertained for very long…
A full-scale separation test of the forward skirt extension for the Ares I-X flight test at its facility in Utah (NASA/ATK)
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The successful test of NASA’s Ares I-X Forward Skirt Extension on Thursday represents a “major milestone” in the development of the launch system, according to Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The “skirt extension” in question is a solid ring of aluminium (or aluminum) connecting the first stage with the upper stages of the rocket.
This summer, the first flight of the Constellation Program is scheduled to blast off from a Cape Canaveral launch pad. The ATK pyrotechnics deep in the Utah Desert has proven to NASA that a key portion of this test flight will go as planned, allowing the reusable portion of the Ares I to return to Earth for recovery…
To say 2008 was a turbulent year for the Constellation program is an understatement. Although there have been a number of successful tests (including the test firing of the jettison motor, launch abort system and an old Shuttle engine; plus parachute tests), political tensions, criticism of the technology and budget uncertainty have all taken their toll. The future of the Constellation Program is in doubt (or shaky at best) and there’s not many media headlines with anything positive to say. So, when there is a successful test of any Ares component, it is certainly worth reporting, in an attempt to redress the good-news/bad-news balance and give credit where credit is due.
Artist impression of the Ares I-X at the launchpad, plus labelled sections of the rocket (NASA)So, last week, ATK successfully tested the explosive charges that will perform the most important task of the test launch of the Ares I-X. The Forward Skirt Extension is located between the first and second stages of the rocket (pictured left). This 1.8 metre (6 ft) long by 3.7 metre (12 ft) diameter aluminium cylinder will allow the first stage booster to separate at the frustum (a cone-shaped connector that attaches the first stage to the larger diameter upper stage). During the launch, separation will occur at an altitude of around 40 km (130,000 ft).
This section will also be important as it will need to store the recovery parachutes for the first stage and it will need to support the mass of the upper stages (plus payload) during launch. It is for this reason that the skirt is forged from one solid lump of aluminium and reinforced with a unique internal support structure, housing three main parachutes.
Data from the charge detonation will be used to measure the shock generated, understanding how this might affect the Ares I-X mission and future Ares I launches. Thursday’s test appears to have achieved this as well as severing the forward skirt extension.
Roll on summer, I’m looking forward to seeing the Ares X-I first stage parachute to Earth…
2009 BD is approximately 400,000 miles from Earth (NASA)
[/caption]A 10 meter-wide asteroid named 2009 BD discovered earlier this month is making a slow pass of the Earth, coming within 400,000 miles (644,000 km) of our planet. The near-Earth asteroid (NEO) poses no threat to us, but it is an oddity worth studying. Astronomers believe the rock is a rare “co-orbital asteroid” which follows the orbit of the Earth, not receding more than 0.1 AU (15 million km) away. It is stalking us.
On looking at the NASA JPL Small-Body Database orbital plot, it is hard to distinguish between the orbital path of the Earth and 2009 BD, showing just how close the asteroid is shadowing the Earth on its journey around the Sun…
In 2006, NASA announced that Earth’s “second moon” was an asteroid called 2003 YN107 (with a diameter of about 20 meters) and it was about to leave the vicinity of Earth, leaving its “corkscrewing” orbit around our planet for seven years, only to return again in 60 years time. 2003 YN107 was of no threat (and wont be in the future), but it is interesting to study these bodies to understand how they interact with Earth. Having NEOs in stable orbits around the Earth could be of benefit to mankind in the future as missions can be planned, possibly sending mining missions to these rocky visitors so we can tap their resources.
The orbital path of 2009 BD (blue line) (JPL Small Body Database)
So far, little is known about the new 10 meter asteroid in our near-Earth neighbourhood, but it provides us with an exciting opportunity to track its laborious orbit to see whether it will eventually be ejected after making a close pass to the Earth’s gravitational field (as was the case with 2003 YN107 in 2006). From preliminary observations, 2009 BD is projected to shadow our planet for many months (possibly years) to come. Until November 2010 at least, the asteroid will hang around the Earth, within a distance of 0.1 AU.
It is worth emphasising that 2009 BD is of no threat to the Earth, its closest approach takes it 644,000 km from us. For comparison, the Moon’s apogee is 400,000 km, so 2009 BD is stalking us from afar, beyond lunar orbit.
As time goes on, astronomers will be able to track 2009 BD’s orbit with more precision (for updates, keep an eye on the JPL Small-Body Database), but for now, we have a micro-second moon following the Earth on its orbit around the Sun…
The Delta IV Heavy launch on January 17th (Chris Miller/Spaceflight Now)
[/caption]On Saturday, very little was known about the mammoth payload a Delta IV Heavy was carrying into space. Launching from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the 70 metre-high rocket blasted into the atmosphere with a mystery satellite known only as the NROL-26 mission. As the acronym suggests, the mission was carrying a National Reconnaissance Office satellite. However, a little after T+7 minutes 40 seconds, shortly after the second stage engines had fired, a media blackout prevented the world from knowing where the payload was going.
Four days on from this secretive rocket launch, what do we know about NROL-26?
The Delta IV Heavy is part of Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems division Delta IV rocket family. This monster of a launch vehicle can deliver 1.9 million pounds of thrust, carrying large payloads to geosynchronous orbit, some 22,300 miles (36,000 km) above the Earth’s surface. The Delta IV was designed with military and commercial payloads in mind.
Watching the video of Saturday’s launch, one cant help but be in awe of this rocket system. The Delta IV Heavy carried out its second fully successful flight on that day (the Delta IV Heavy first demonstration flight failed to reach the correct orbit in 2004), placing the most expensive (and most clandestine) military spacecraft into orbit. Naturally, details are rather sketchy about what the spacecraft actually is and what it is going to do, but some estimates put the total cost of the rocket plus payload at over $2 billion, so it is obviously a very important mission.
Once NROL-26 successfully reached its destination (wherever that may be), the satellite was renamed “USA 202”. We can say with some certainty that USA 202 is an advanced spy satellite of some description. According to one source, the intent of USA 202 is to act as the next generation in orbital eavesdropping technology, deploying an antenna possibly as wide as 350 feet.
According to GlobalSecurity.org (a military think-tank), USA 202 could be of an “Advanced Mentor” design. Older versions are believed to have been launched by the National Reconnaissance Office and the Central Intelligence Agency under the code name “MENTOR” from 1995 to 2003. These satellites, in geostationary orbits, collect ground-based radio emissions using very large antennae (some as wide as 100 metres). They are also thought to be very big satellites, weighing in at over five tonnes. Like USA 202, these older satellites are highly classified and there is no official word confirming or denying any of the specifications.
Last weekend’s successful Delta IV Heavy launch will come as a relief to the security services operating the top secret satellite as launches have fallen behind schedule through failures and technical challenges. These spy satellites are critical to the White House and Pentagon, as the information gathered by USA 202 aid military decisions and shape foreign policy. In this case, it is thought Saturday’s Delta IV Heavy launch will enhance the ability to intercept communications from rogue states and terrorist organizations around the planet.
Today's inauguration as seen from over 400 miles high (GeoEye)
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Travelling at 17,000 mph at an altitude of 423 miles, the 4,300 lb GeoEye-1 snapped a very high resolution image of Washington D.C. just before Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. Looking like crowds of ants vying for space around Capitol Hill and the White House, hundreds of thousands of spectators gathered to watch this historic day unfold…
GeoEye-1 took this satellite photo of Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony (GeoEye)While Washington D.C. celebrated the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the staff at the satellite imagery company GeoEye were hard at work, processing a unique view of the nation’s capital. One of the world’s most advanced imaging satellites (used by Google Maps and Google Earth) called GeoEye-1 was able to grab this incredible image from orbit, providing a view none of the cameras on the ground could experience.
GeoEye commissioned this orbital photograph in response to numerous media requests. The satellite is able to attain a resolution of 0.41 meters, although this preliminary view has been shrunk by media sources for distribution. It does however, capture a unique view of what is a historic day not only for the US but for the World.
More information about GeoEye-1:
“In August 2008, Google signed a deal with the satellite imagery company GeoEye for exclusive use of the images produced by the company’s new GeoEye-1 satellite. GeoEye-1 was launched on board a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on September 6th 2008. The satellite is currently in a Sun-synchronous orbit, over 400 miles above the surface of Earth, imaging the surface in unprecedented detail. A US government licence actually limits the resolution of available images to 0.5 metres (the camera on GeoEye-1 can attain a resolution of 0.41 metres). GeoEye-1’s competitors can resolve objects down to 0.6 metres at the smallest. The GeoEye products are currently used by Google for several projects, such as Google Earth and Google Maps.”
–Universe Today article, “Google Satellite” Will Have an Orbital View Over Obama’s Inauguration
[/caption]It is probably the most seductive urge for mankind: search for extraterrestrial life. There are many ways to look for life; from digging into the Martian dirt with robotic landers looking for pre-biotic compounds, to building vast radio antennae to “listen” out for distant communications either leaked or transmitted deliberately from a distant star system from a developed, intelligent civilization. However, despite our best efforts, we appear to be the only form of life for hundreds of lightyears around. It is eerily quiet out there…
Although we appear to be drawing blanks so far, it doesn’t stop us from trying to work out what we should be looking for. In the quest to find a vastly advanced alien civilization, a forthcoming Russian space telescope hopes to bridge the gap between science fiction and science fact, attempting to find evidence (or lack thereof) of observable attempts of astroengineering by an alien race…
New and exciting ways are being formulated to work out whether intelligent life does exist beyond our blue oasis. Programs such as the famous Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (METI) and the tongue-in-cheek Wait for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (WETI) are conceived to somehow interact with a sufficiently advanced alien culture (one that has the ability to communicate via radio, at least). In an engrossing entry I read in last week’s Carnival of Space Week 86, Dr Bruce Cordell (21st Century Waves) discussed the apparent paradox between UFOs and Fermi’s Paradox (in a nutshell: if aliens have visited our planet, as UFO sightings would lead us to believe, why haven’t we intercepted any kind of signal via SETI?). I was most interested with Cordell’s thoughts on optical communications that could be used by extraterrestrials to communicate with a pre-radio communication human era. Apparently, in 40 years, mankind could be generating very bright signals using 30 terrawatt optical beacons for pre-radio civilizations to see over 10 light years away, brighter than their brightest star. If there are advanced civilizations out there, why have we not seen their optical transmissions?
To summarize, we are a little confused by the lack of life in our Universe (intelligent life in any case).
So, perhaps we can find other ways to spy on our hypothetical alien neighbours. Could we build a powerful telescope to seek out structures built by alien civilizations? Possibly, according to a forthcoming Russian space-based telescope project: The Millimetron Space Telescope.
On reading an article about this subject on the Daily Galaxy, I thought I’d heard of something like this before. Sure enough, during my research on the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS (surrounding the whole Planet X controversy), I found out that work was being done to try to find the infrared signature of the hypothetical Dyson Sphere. The Dyson Sphere is a theorised example of an astroengineered structure by a significantly advanced alien race. There are many variations on this theme, including science fiction ideas of an engineered “ring” straddling a host star (as pictured top). In the case of the Dyson Sphere, this megastructure would generate infrared radiation, and analysis of IRAS data has been done to establish an upper limit on the existence of these objects. So far, no Dyson Sphere candidates have been found (within 300 light-years from Earth in any case).
To build on the IRAS survey, in 2017, Russia hopes to launch the Millimetron to observe distant stellar systems in millimeter, sub-millimeter and infrared wavelengths. This instrument has a long list of aims, but one of the extreme results that could come from this project is the detection of astroengineered megastructures.
The goal of the project is to construct space observatory operating in millimeter, sub-millimeter and infrared wavelength ranges using 12-m cryogenic telescope in a single-dish mode and as an interferometer with the space-ground and space-space baselines (the later after the launch of the second identical space telescope). The observatory will provide possibility to conduct astronomical observations with super high sensitivity (down to nanoJansky level) in a single dish mode, and observations with super high angular resolution in an interferometric mode. – The Millimetron Project.
By combining the orbiting telescope with observatories on the ground, it may be possible to create a very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) with huge baselines beyond 300,000km. This will provide unprecedented angular resolution. Alone, the large 12 metre dish will allow astronomers to probe emissions at the nano-Jansky level, where radio astronomers usually operate from <1-100 Janskys (the Jansky is a non-SI measurement of electromagnetic flux density).* With a system like this, very weakly radiating sources may be detected, possibly revealing structures such as the Dyson Sphere, or possibly sci-fi concepts like Larry Niven’s “Ringworld”.
Although I am dubious as to whether our persistent efforts to find intelligent extraterrestrial life will ever turn up positive, the search is exciting and certainly boosts the scientific process in directions we wouldn’t have necessarily examined…
Washington D.C. from orbit. The Google Satellile GeoEye-1 will spy on Obama's inauguration (Google)
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President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on Capitol Hill will be the place-to-be on Tuesday (January 20th). According to some news sources, tickets for the event were trading for a price exceeding 5 figures (in one case, according to CNN in November, an online vendor was asking for $20,095 for a single ticket – I hope they get a “free” bottle of Champagne with that!). It would appear that ticket demand outstripped supply, making the 44th presidential inauguration one of the hottest (and most costly) events to attend in 2009.
However, there is a far cheaper (and less crowded) alternative to view Obama and Biden getting sworn into office. A satellite called GeoEye-1 will be orbiting 423 miles above Washington D.C. looking down at the vast crowd minutes before the excitement begins…
GeoEye-1 launch on September 6th 2008 (Reuters)In August 2008, Google signed a deal with the satellite imagery company GeoEye for exclusive use of the images produced by the company’s new GeoEye-1 satellite. GeoEye-1 was launched on board a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on September 6th 2008. The satellite is currently in a Sun-synchronous orbit, over 400 miles above the surface of Earth, imaging the surface in unprecedented detail. A US government licence actually limits the resolution of available images to 0.5 metres (the camera on GeoEye-1 can attain a resolution of 0.41 metres). GeoEye-1’s competitors can resolve objects down to 0.6 metres at the smallest. The GeoEye products are currently used by Google for several projects, such as Google Earth and Google Maps.
On Tuesday, however, it is not Google that is interested in getting the ultimate birds-eye view of the festivities at Capitol Hill; GeoEye itself is commissioning a high-resolution photography run at 11:19 EST as the satellite buzzes overhead at a speed of 17,000 mph. Usually, the presidential inauguration takes place at noon, so GeoEye-1 will be able to grab a snapshot of the growing crowds of spectators 41 minutes before the new commander-in-chief takes office.
“An image of the Inauguration has been requested by many news organizations,” a GeoEye spokesperson said. “So, if the weather cooperates, the image will be distributed to news organizations and bloggers around the world. The image will be available about three hours after it’s taken.”
I for one, will be hovering over the GeoEye website, waiting for the orbital view of Washington D.C. to appear in the comfort of my office…
[/caption]Naming Pluto explores the chain of events that lead to Pluto’s naming and in 2007 sees Venetia Phair viewing Pluto for the very first time through a telescope, on her 89th birthday, 77 years after Pluto’s discovery. A wonderful, intimate look into the story behind how Pluto got its name. A review of the short film directed and produced by Ginita Jimenez, distributed by Father Films.
In recent years, Pluto has seen its status change from being a planet to what many people view as a planetary underclass. The reasons behind this have been set out by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to cater for the increasing number of Solar System bodies being discovered; the traditional nine planets have had to make room for a growing minor planet population. Unfortunately, Pluto was at the front line as it inhabits a region of space dominated by the gas giant Neptune, plus thousands of other Kuiper belt objects. Although the mysterious body lost its planetary status (as it does not have the ability to “clear its own orbit”), it has taken the title of “dwarf planet” and now has an entire class of object named in its honour: “Plutoids”.
However, the recent tumultuous history of the traditional “9th planet” has not impacted the fascination we have for Pluto. It has, and always will be, viewed with intrigue and wonder.
The key to Pluto’s romantic tale begins in the year 1930 when a mysterious heavenly was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh, a 23 year-old astronomer working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. However, the honour of naming Pluto didn’t rest on Tombaugh’s shoulders. Over 5000 miles away in Oxford (UK) an 11 year old girl was having breakfast with her grandfather, wondering what this newly discovered planet should be called…
The Pluto system seen from the surface of Hydra (NASA)Naming Pluto starts out with some stunning visuals from 2006 of NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission launching from Cape Canaveral. Throughout the opening tour of the Solar System, we can hear the voice of Venetia Burney as she is interviewed by NASA Public Affairs officer Edward Goldstein during the launch.
When Goldstein asks whether she had ever seen Pluto through a telescope, the clear and articulate voice of Venetia replies, “I don’t think I have. I’ve just seen a photograph.” And so the journey begins, where Venetia explains her fascination with Pluto and a number of experts (including the enigmatic Sir Patrick Moore) help to explain the facts behind the discovery of Pluto to the scientific endeavour of the search for “Planet X”.
One of the key moments is when Venetia is describing when she decided on the name for the heavenly body. At age 11, had an acute interest in ancient mythology, so she chose the name because Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld; a fitting name considering the cold, dark nature of Pluto’s 248 year orbit. In a fortuitous chain of events, her grandfather, a former librarian of Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, passed the suggestion via letter to Professor Herbert Hall Turner saying that his granddaughter had chosen a “thoroughly suitable name: PLUTO.” Hall Turner, thrilled with the candidate name, sent Venetia’s idea to colleagues in the USA, at the Lowell Observatory.
A special delight is when Venetia visits St. Anne’s Primary School in Surrey to participate in their class project all about Pluto. It goes to show that even young school children have fallen under Pluto’s spell. One 9 year-old pupil, Katie, shares her concerns about Pluto’s demotion, “Some people say that Pluto isn’t a real planet, so I’m looking forward to Venetia coming because I want to find out if that’s true.”
Other guests on the film uncover the various attributes of Pluto’s discovery, delving into the history and future of the planetary lightweight on the outermost reaches of the Solar System.
“Yes, indeed,” the ever gracious Venetia replies, smiling.
Unfortunately, the UK summer weather conspired against the possibility of clear skies, and any chance of Patrick’s 15″ reflector of spying Pluto was lost. However, there is a fantastic twist in the tale, bringing the whole film to a wonderfully emotional ending.
All in all, Naming Pluto is a fabulous tribute, not only to Venetia, but to the astronomical process. Although Pluto has undergone a change in status these last few years, it remains an important, permanent feature of the Solar System. This well-crafted story gives the viewer an excellent overview of Pluto’s discovery, naming and the magic it holds today for the 9 year-olds at St. Anne’s to Venetia who named the planet nearly 80 years ago…
A big thank you goes to writer, director and producer Ginita Jimenez for sharing this magnificent production with me. My copy will have pride of place with my growing collection of space science DVDs, a timeless memento of a historic time for astronomy.
If you want your own copy, or want to buy it as a gift, contact Ginita at: [email protected]
Naming Pluto is currently on the international film festival circuit so if you’d prefer watching it on the big screen, and are in the area, please see below. There will also be a blog and updates on www.fatherfilms.com.
THROUGH WOMEN’S EYES – USA
WWW.THROUGHWOMENSEYES.COM
30TH & 31ST JANUARY 2009
JAIPUR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – INDIA
WWW.JIFFINDIA.ORG
FEB/MARCH 2009
SEBASTOPOL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL – USA
WWW.SEBASTOPOLFILMFESTIVAL.ORG
MARCH 6-8, 2009
CINEQUEST FILM FESTIVAL – USA
WWW.CINEQUEST.ORG
FEB 25-MAR 08 2009
OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR BEST SHORT FILM AWARD
