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Take to the stars
LEADERS
Editorial Editor Emily Wilson Creative director Craig Mackie Executive editor Richard Webb
Take to the stars The most ambitious of space missions affirms a faith in the future
News News editor Penny Sarchet Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou Michael Le Page, Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson, (US) Leah Crane, Yvaine Ye, Chelsea Whyte (Aus) Alice Klein, Ruby Prosser Scully
Digital Digital editor Conrad Quilty-Harper Web team Lilian Anekwe, Anne Marie Conlon, David Stock, Sam Wong
Features BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT
Head of features Catherine de Lange and Rowan Hooper Editors Gilead Amit, Julia Brown, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan Feature writers Daniel Cossins, Graham Lawton
Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings
Subeditors Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White
Design Art editor Kathryn Brazier Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd
Production Production manager Alan Blagrove Melanie Green
Contact us newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 [email protected] UK 25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 AUSTRALIA PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 US 210 Broadway #201 Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 617 283 3213
© 2019 New Scientist Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Precision Colour Printing Ltd
ASTRONOMERS have a trick to help them find the centre of the galaxy. The constellation Sagittarius forms a pattern in the shape of a teapot, and its spout points to an apparently unremarkable location called Sagittarius A*. This, 26,000 light years away, is the centre of the Milky Way, and the location of a supermassive black hole. No telescope on its own is powerful enough to glimpse it, but a collaboration of radio astronomy observatories around the world has now imaged the event horizon of the black hole. It is a remarkable achievement, but don’t hold your breath. The first ever photograph of a black hole is composed of just
two pixels (see page 7). It is a long way away, after all. Look instead to the Centaurus constellation. If you are in the southern hemisphere, or southern parts of the northern hemisphere, you can see Alpha Centauri, the third-brightest star in the sky. Only about 4.3 light years away, it is the closest star system to Earth. The system has one confirmed planet, called Proxima b. It is literally our interstellar next door neighbour. “Only” 4.3 light years. That is some 40 trillion kilometres, a distance it would take 80,000 years to traverse using our best current technology. But in 2016, a project was launched to build
Clean air is a basic right LET’s clear the air. Air pollution isn’t getting worse, at least not in most of the developed world. But our knowledge of its long-term harms is motoring forward. Air pollution is the new smoking, but is more difficult to tackle because it is insidious and implicates us all. Anyone who runs their children to school in the car, jumps on a plane to seek
the sun or even just shops in their lorry-supplied local supermarket is contributing to the problem. The good news is that air pollution’s effects are largely local, and with exceptions – notably aviation and shipping – can be tackled locally or nationally. Initiatives like London’s pioneering Ultra Low Emission Zone should be closely monitored
A laser pushes a mini spacecraft’s light sail in this artist’s impression
mini spacecraft, accelerate them to 20 per cent of the speed of light, and reach our neighbours in 20 years. The scientific challenges are immense, but three years on from the announcement, progress is being made (see page 32). It may be optimistic to believe that we can develop the technology any time soon, but a project of such ambition and scope deserves our support. Few things are as inspirational and exciting as space travel, and if this ambitious and collaborative project does anything, it affirms a faith in the future. ■
to see if they work (see page 23). But such mechanisms are crude, and risk penalising the poorest people. True change requires individuals, companies and governments all to adjust their behaviour and put clean air at the heart of what they do. Faced with incontrovertible evidence of risk, we have long adopted a zero-tolerance approach to unclean water. Just because air is invisible, doesn’t mean it should be any different. ■ 13 April 2019 | NewScientist | 5
Editorial Editor Emily Wilson Creative director Craig Mackie Executive editor Richard Webb
Take to the stars The most ambitious of space missions affirms a faith in the future
News News editor Penny Sarchet Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou Michael Le Page, Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson, (US) Leah Crane, Yvaine Ye, Chelsea Whyte (Aus) Alice Klein, Ruby Prosser Scully
Digital Digital editor Conrad Quilty-Harper Web team Lilian Anekwe, Anne Marie Conlon, David Stock, Sam Wong
Features BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT
Head of features Catherine de Lange and Rowan Hooper Editors Gilead Amit, Julia Brown, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan Feature writers Daniel Cossins, Graham Lawton
Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings
Subeditors Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White
Design Art editor Kathryn Brazier Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd
Production Production manager Alan Blagrove Melanie Green
Contact us newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 [email protected] UK 25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 AUSTRALIA PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 US 210 Broadway #201 Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 617 283 3213
© 2019 New Scientist Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Precision Colour Printing Ltd
ASTRONOMERS have a trick to help them find the centre of the galaxy. The constellation Sagittarius forms a pattern in the shape of a teapot, and its spout points to an apparently unremarkable location called Sagittarius A*. This, 26,000 light years away, is the centre of the Milky Way, and the location of a supermassive black hole. No telescope on its own is powerful enough to glimpse it, but a collaboration of radio astronomy observatories around the world has now imaged the event horizon of the black hole. It is a remarkable achievement, but don’t hold your breath. The first ever photograph of a black hole is composed of just
two pixels (see page 7). It is a long way away, after all. Look instead to the Centaurus constellation. If you are in the southern hemisphere, or southern parts of the northern hemisphere, you can see Alpha Centauri, the third-brightest star in the sky. Only about 4.3 light years away, it is the closest star system to Earth. The system has one confirmed planet, called Proxima b. It is literally our interstellar next door neighbour. “Only” 4.3 light years. That is some 40 trillion kilometres, a distance it would take 80,000 years to traverse using our best current technology. But in 2016, a project was launched to build
Clean air is a basic right LET’s clear the air. Air pollution isn’t getting worse, at least not in most of the developed world. But our knowledge of its long-term harms is motoring forward. Air pollution is the new smoking, but is more difficult to tackle because it is insidious and implicates us all. Anyone who runs their children to school in the car, jumps on a plane to seek
the sun or even just shops in their lorry-supplied local supermarket is contributing to the problem. The good news is that air pollution’s effects are largely local, and with exceptions – notably aviation and shipping – can be tackled locally or nationally. Initiatives like London’s pioneering Ultra Low Emission Zone should be closely monitored
A laser pushes a mini spacecraft’s light sail in this artist’s impression
mini spacecraft, accelerate them to 20 per cent of the speed of light, and reach our neighbours in 20 years. The scientific challenges are immense, but three years on from the announcement, progress is being made (see page 32). It may be optimistic to believe that we can develop the technology any time soon, but a project of such ambition and scope deserves our support. Few things are as inspirational and exciting as space travel, and if this ambitious and collaborative project does anything, it affirms a faith in the future. ■
to see if they work (see page 23). But such mechanisms are crude, and risk penalising the poorest people. True change requires individuals, companies and governments all to adjust their behaviour and put clean air at the heart of what they do. Faced with incontrovertible evidence of risk, we have long adopted a zero-tolerance approach to unclean water. Just because air is invisible, doesn’t mean it should be any different. ■ 13 April 2019 | NewScientist | 5