WELCOME

It might be the most familiar place to

Two floating robots meet

© NASA Two floating robots have met for

Hubble spies a spiral

© ESA/Hubble & NASA This image of spiral

Moon with a view

© NASA The Moon, NASA’s target for its

Webb takes its first view of the cosmos

Above: An image taken by Webb during its

Europe’s Mars rover is now unlikely to launch before 2026 after Russia’s war on Ukraine

The ExoMars rover was scheduled to launch to

5,000 exoplanets: NASA confirms a big milestone for planetary science

Our tally of strange new worlds just reached

China plans to open its Tiangong space station for tourism within a decade

China is looking to spark interest in space

Comet Leonard breaks into pieces as it rounds the Sun

The brightest comet of 2021 has disintegrated. Icy

SpaceX’s new Dragon capsule gets a name

SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission will fly to the International

VIXEN POLARIE STAR TRACKER

Courtesy of Opticron, this month we’re giving away kit to assist with your astrophotography

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

© Tobias Roetsch 1 The Solar System is

IN-FLIGHT EXPLORATION

To explore another planet faster than a rover and in more detail than a satellite, we need to fly, and the best way to do it may be to copy birds

BIO

©NASA Eileen Collins Born on 19 November 1956,

“IT WAS A DIFFICULT MISSION… WE WERE THE FIRST TO SEE MIR”

Having served as both the first female pilot and first female commander of NASA’s Space Shuttle, Eileen Collins boosted the involvement of women in space exploration to a whole new level

VIRGIN ORBIT TARGETS SUMMER FOR ITS FIRST ORBITAL LAUNCH

The California-based company has three straight successful orbital missions under its belt

PERSEVERANCE SNAGS ITS SEVENTH MARTIAN ROCK SAMPLE

The Mars rover will grab one more piece from its current site and then head to an ancient river delta

WHERE HAVE THESE GIANT FILAMENTS COME FROM?

Mysterious magnetic filaments have been found at the heart of the Milky Way, but astronomers are still trying to discover their origin

BLACK HOLE BILLIARDS

Around these behemoths, smaller black holes weirdly collide

EXOPLANETS

Would it be possible to survive on a planet around a double-star system?

SOLAR SYSTEM

Do you think we should spend more on ‘safeguarding’ Earth from asteroid impacts?

HUNT FOR LIFE

Why haven’t we detected other civilisations?

SPACE EXPLORATION

What can we get from mining asteroids?

ASTRONOMY

If Polaris is the North Star, is there a ‘south star’?

What’s a photon sphere?

ASK Our experts answer your questions ©NASA A

ASTROPHYSICS

What’s a photon sphere?

ASTROPHYSICS

How does a cloud of gas and dust become a star?

POSSIBLE EARTHLIKE PLANET IN A DEAD STAR’S HABITABLE ZONE

A regular pattern of debris suggests some kind of planetary ‘shepherd’ in the region

12 ASTRONOMY TUTORIALS TO MASTER

For the very best views of the night sky

Make the most of earthshine

Combine your images to get the crescent Moon and our planet’s glow in one image

Be prepared for an ISS pass

There’s plenty of software to help you look for the International Space Station

Capture the milky way galaxy

Take plenty of photos to ensure a great final result

Shoot summer’s Noctilucent clouds

Use these tips to have a better chance at spotting this phenomena

Take planet images with your phone

Being prepared and following a methodical approach is key to imaging the Solar System

Snap the stunning phases of Venus

How you can achieve superb shots of our neighbour

BEST ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR TELESCOPE

From beating light pollution to superb visuals of the planets and galaxies, Celestron has everything you need for superb views of the night sky

Hubble Space Telescope

With 30 years of service under its belt, the long-serving mission remains one of the greatest and most influential cosmic lenses

Anatomy of the Hubble Space Telescope

The spacecraft’s instruments have stood the test of time as it gazes deep into our Solar System and beyond

Servicing an observatory

1 Blasting off In order to service Hubble,

Wide Field Camera 3: Hubble’s advanced eye

For years the most powerful lenses staring out

Head to head Hubble vs Chandra

When it comes to weight, Hubble remains one

Vital statistics

13.3 metres The length of Hubble 4 billion

Establish a space telescope

1 The big launch Getting a large space

Venus

Earth’s sister planet is a harsh, deadly world, making it an interesting one to observe

HOW HIGH UP ARE EARTH’S GROUND-BASED TELESCOPES?

Large observatories are generally built at high altitudes to reduce the effects of the atmosphere that can spoil our view of the universe

WELCOME TO THE STELLAR AFTERLIFE

They’re hot, they’re small and technically they’re dead. Meet the stellar remnants that have a multimillion-year-long tale to tell

What’s in the sky?

In this issue…

This month’s planets

Mars shines in the dawn sky alongside the majority of the Solar System’s outer gas planets

MARE CRISIUM

The lunar sea offers spectacular bright views this month

NAKED EYE & BINOCULAR TARGETS

Lone stars and globular clusters are among the treats on view in the spring night sky

The Realm of the Galaxies

Evenings reveal a gaggle of galaxies when we look out into deep space in the direction of some of the most well-known constellations

THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

While the days are getting longer, there are still a variety of treasures if you’re a night owl

Astroshots of the month

Get featured in All About Space by sending your astrophotography images to space@spaceanswers.com

CANON EOS 6D MARK II

Is this the perfect companion for enthusiast photographers looking to make their first break into the full-frame world?

Lyman Spitzer

The man who helped us see the universe in