A Sun-like star reveals clues about Earth’s distant future
Recently, astronomers made a one-in-a-million discovery: a Jupiter-like planet that had survived the death of its star. This first find of its type was even more remarkable because the star in question is – or rather was – like our own star, the Sun. They had on their hands a case study for what will happen to the Solar System billions of years from now, when the solar furnace at its centre runs out of fuel. Colin Stuart tells the story of this window into the eventual fate of our planetary system in his feature “Seeing the Solar System’s future“.
Meanwhile, here in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, with the June solstice just around the corner, we astronomers aren’t wishing for an end to the Sun but we might be yearning for less of it every 24 hours, and the return of longer nights. While this isn’t the month to go after faint nebulae don’t mothball your setup just yet. In “Balmy nights of brilliant sights“, Will Gater shows there are still many satisfying targets to observe and image, from glittering star clusters to enchanting planetary alignments.
Pete Lawrence and Steve Tonkin continue this theme in the ‘Sky Guide’, where they have detailed coverage of more wonderful targets to see and image in high summer’s night skies, including the start of noctilucent cloud season.
And do turn to Ezzy Pearson’s feature. She speaks to six professional astronomers to uncover the huge variation of roles covered by that one job title – all helping to make fascinating discoveries like the one on our cover.
Enjoy the issue!
PS Our next issue goes on sale on Thursday 16 June.