Exoplanets
Looking up at the night sky and seeing the countless stars you can be forgiven for not comprehending the distance to each of them from our home. They all seem equally distant from us and all more or less the same size. You couldn’t be further from reality. Our closest star (other than the sun) would take 16,000 years to get to us, using our current technology. Whilst the most distant star we know of, is 12.9 billion light years away. (1 light year is 6 trillion miles!)
What is remarkable is that we have been able to spot the existence of planets (exoplanets) around many other stars. The ways in which this has been done are ingenious. Over a thousand planets have been discovered by watching a star wobble ever so slightly over time. 4000+ have been identified by the light dimming very slightly, as a planet orbiting the star passes in front of our view. Ironically, the traditional method of telescope observing has only uncovered about 70.
A relatively new method is microlensing. This uses the fact that huge structures in space can make the space around them act like a huge magnifying glass that enable us to see things far beyond that point. Over 200 planets have been discovered this way.
Read more about exoplanets using this link.
Although there are areas around the night sky where exoplanets exist, there is one particular area that astronomers have focused on and here it is. This is a region that the Kepler Space Telescope surveyed.
Each green dot in the grid above is an exoplanet! (looking NW from Embsay on Dec 12th at 9pm) Of course you won’t be able to see them…but they are there!
The Bubble Nebula
I was recently able to take an image of the Bubble Nebula during a clear night.
Photo Milan Davidovic November 2023 Embsay
If you look closely, in the centre is a giant bubble.
It is very faint, but in this image you can see a giant bubble being blown into space by a massive star. The bubble is huge, 7 light years across (42 trillion miles). It was first discovered by William Herschel in 1787. During the 26th birthday of the Hubble Space Telescope it pointed towards the bubble and took this incredible shot. Whilst it puts my image in its place, the Hubble Telescope did cost $16 billion !!! Here is the Bubble Nebula taken by the Hubble…
Views from Embsay
Looking North
Looking North from Embsay 12th December 9pm
The Geminids meteor shower is visible between 4-20th December, originating from close to Castor.
Looking South from Embsay 12th December 9pm
Jupiter is still very bright - half way up in the night sky due south.
Clear Skies
Milan Davidovic
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