Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 79 i All About Space

Welcome Gemma Lavender Editor On 14 March we woke to the news that world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking had peacefully passed away at his home in Cambridge at the age of 76, succumbing to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as motor neurone disease (MND). Hawking had outlived the life expectancy of two years that doctors had given him back in 1963, going on to become one of the greatest minds of our time and, at the time of his death, a recipient of numerous awards, an author of exceedingly successful popular science books, the director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge and a former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. His scientific work saw him – among other things – make the prediction that black…

Stephen Hawking Remembering THE WORLD'S GREATEST SCIENTIST Lucy Hawking, Brian Cox, Lord Martin Rees Sir Roger Penrose, Neil deGrasse Tyson and more on Any discussion of Stephen Hawking’s remarkable life is necessarily a binary one. There’s his body of work, perhaps unmatched among modern physicists, and there is the man himself, instantly recognisable thanks to his wheelchair and distinctive computer-generated voice. Combined, they provide the evocative image of a mind voyaging among the stars despite the frustrations imposed by its body, and Hawking’s story is one of such triumph against the odds that it’s almost impossible to separate the two threads. Born 8 January 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo, Stephen William was the eldest of Frank and Isobel Hawking’s four children, with two younger sisters and…

Hawking theory #1 Black holes leak radiation Hawking’s most famous theoretical discovery, and one he was sad not to have won a Nobel Prize for, although he conceded it was hard to test experimentally. The radiation is predicted to be released by black holes, and can cause them to eventually evaporate if they’re not kept topped up with new matter and energy. In September 2010, an experiment at a lab in Italy produced a result that looked very much like Hawking radiation, but remains unverified. NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope, however, may yet provide the proof that’s needed as it hunts for gamma ray flashes. Sadly, Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously.…

The world remembers a “brilliant and funny” man The famous physicist is remembered by some of the world’s greatest scientists, public figures and entertainers “His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake, but it’s not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of space-time that defies measure.” Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson “Have fun out there among the stars.” Former US President Barack Obama “Stephen Hawking was the funniest man I have ever met.” Actor Eddie Redmayne “With grace, wit and courage, his genius took us all to the very edge of space and time.” Physicist Brian Greene “We will always be inspired by his life and ideas.” Apple CEO Tim Cook “He had a wickedly funny sense of humour. He virtually created…

Hawking theory #5 The Gibbons-Hawking effect “Thorne planted the idea in Hawking’s mind that it might be possible to travel into the past” Developed with Cambridge physicist Gary Gibbons, the Gibbons-Hawking effect states that a temperature can be associated with solutions of the Einstein field equations (that’s general relativity) that contain a causal horizon. This includes event horizons from black holes, but could also include the horizon of the visible universe. If black holes have a temperature, they must radiate, and this backs up the theory behind Hawking radiation.…

Fellow Cambridge alumni: Lord Martin Rees “He was always sensitive to the misfortunes of others" “[When I met] Hawking, he had recently been diagnosed with a degenerative disease and it was thought that he might not survive long enough to finish his degree. It was soon after I enrolled as a graduate at Cambridge University in 1964. [Hawking] was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty. Amazingly, he lived on to the age of 76. Even mere survival would have been a medical marvel, but of course he didn’t just survive; he became one of the most famous scientists in the world. Astronomers are used to large numbers, but few could be large as the odds I'd have given, back in 1963 when Stephen received his 'death sentence',…

Going Blind How and why Chris Hadfield's vision suddenly disappeared Anti-fogging chemicals NASA began to apply anti-fogging chemicals after astronaut Eugene Cernan's suit became waterlogged with sweat and fogged up his visor in 1966. Contacting his eye The anti-fogging agent came into contact with Chris Hadfield's left eye mid-spacewalk in 2001. It began to sting and caused his eye to fill with tears. Moving to the other eye The tears formed a blob of fluid which then began to move across the bridge of his nose before affecting his right eye too. This rendered Hadfield fully blind. Flushing the anti-fog away Hadfield's eyes continued to water heavily, but this worked in his favour. It began to dilute the anti-fog agent to the point that it flushed away, allowing him to…

Life on Venus Earth gets eaten by Venus Hardy life from our planet could have been catapulted during an impact 1. Meteorites smash into Earth Flying rocks and ice in space hit the Earth, just like all the planets in our Solar System, pretty frequently. 2. Big, rare impacts Every so often, over the course of 4.5 billion years, meteorite collisions can be big enough to completely dislodge parts of the Earth. 3. Bits of Earth fly off If the collision is strong enough, rock and material that started out on our planet could be catapulted out of Earth's atmosphere completely. 4. Rocks making their way to Venus Some of these rocks that started on Earth may have found their way to Venus. We have found evidence of Venusian material…

User Manual Kepler Space Telescope Anatomy of the Kepler Space Telescope These instruments provide optimal starlight-capturing capabilities, allowing astronomers to uncover thousands of exoplanets over a period of nine years “The first five exoplanets were announced in January 2010” Sunshade Mounted on the front of Kepler is its sunshade. As the name suggests it prevents sunlight from entering the photometer, allowing for uncontaminated observations. Radiator In order to keep the focal plane cooled to approximately minus 85 degrees Celsius (minus 121 degrees Fahrenheit), heat is carried to the external radiator by a series of pipes. Solid-state recorder All the data taken from Kepler is stored in a 16 gigabyte solid-state recorder, capable of storing 60 days worth of science and engineering data. Star trackers The two star trackers provide the…

Tips & tricks Use a planisphere A planisphere will enable you to show children constellations and where they are. Get them to practice during the day before observing. Learn to use binoculars Show children how to use binoculars. They’re the easiest observing equipment to use, so ensure they are sufficiently lightweight. Wrap up warm This is important as youngsters can feel the cold quite easily at night, and being too cold will divert their interest. Introduce a telescope Familiarise yourself with the workings of your telescope and show the child how to use it properly and safely. Books and software There are books for all ages to stimulate interest along with dozens of websites that do the same.…

Our contributors include... Abigail Beall Science reporter Could there be life on Venus? It seems that it's one of the top places to look according to recent research – despite its hostility. Turn to page 54 for Abigail's report. Lee Cavendish Staff writer & astronomer Try Lee's selection of DIY space projects. There's something for everyone – from making your own telescope to building mission control. Ninian Boyle Astronomer & writer Ninian has the tutorials you need to try out this summer, from getting a young audience started in astronomy to the best deep-sky targets to be enjoyed with your scope. Stuart Atkinson Astronomer & author Seek out the planets this month with Stuart's guide to the wanderers of Earth's sky. Turn to page 80 for his tips on which…

New study reveals reason for Saturn's 'odd-shaped' moons They resemble ravioli, cigars and potatoes, and scientists think they know how that came to be Saturn's peculiar-shaped inner moons may have been formed by age-old mergers of similar-sized moonlets, according to a new study by scientists in Switzerland. If true, they say it would shed new light on how moons in general tend to form, and it would also be the first explanation covering the large range of odd shapes that have been observed in recent years. Ever since the Cassini spacecraft began to study Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites, in 1998 scientists have sought to explain why the moons have resembled all manner of different shapes. Pan and Atlas look like ravioli with their flat…

A brief history of Hawking 1959 Begins studying at University College, Oxford, aged 17. 1962 Becomes a doctoral student at Cambridge under Dennis Sciama. 1963 Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis following a fall while ice skating. 1970 With Penrose, publishes a proof that the universe must have begun as a singularity. 1973 Publishes his first academic book: The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, co-written with George Ellis. 1974 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, several weeks after the announcement of Hawking radiation. 1979 Elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. 1981 Proposes that information in a black hole is irretrievably lost when a black hole evaporates, igniting a ‘black hole war’ with Susskind and ‘t Hooft. 1984 First draft of A Brief History of Time completed.…

Fellow physicist: Professor Brian Cox “One of the great things about Stephen was that he became quite political" “He is rightly described as one of the great scientists, and that’s for several reasons. His initial paper was on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, published in 1915 and what we understand to be the framework of the universe. And he proved that, given just that theory, there has to be an origin of time. So, he essentially proved that not long after his thesis – it was part of his thesis at Cambridge and called the singularity theorem. Hawking then moved on to black holes, proving that they’re not entirely black. A common picture of a black hole is that when you throw something into it, it never comes back. Nothing…

Hawking theory #3 The Bekenstein–Hawking formula The second law of thermodynamics requires black holes to have entropy. Israeli-American physicist Jacob Bekenstein built on Hawking’s work to show that the amount of entropy was proportional to the area of its event horizon, and was able to extend the second law to include black hole systems. Hawking originally opposed Bekenstein, claiming black holes could not radiate, but changed his mind after performing a lengthy calculation that led to the proposal of Hawking radiation. © Mickey Cashew; Biswarup Ganguly; Dan White/Universtiy of Cambridge; VCG/Getty Images…

Hawking theory #4 Hawking energy “If you understand how the universe operates, you control it, in a way”Prof Stephen Hawking Hawking energy is a possible definition of mass in general relativity – Einstein’s framework doesn’t supply a single definition of mass, but has several which become applicable under different circumstances. Hawking energy has to do with measuring how rays of light bend around a region of space which has a mass you want to define, and once again dissolves into a huge number of equations and symbols. It’s an important tool for theoretical physicists, but a bit baffling to the rest of us.…

Hawking’s student: Fay Dowker “His many awards, prizes and honours don’t capture the magic that occurred around him” “Stephen was my teacher, mentor and friend. I, like many who knew and loved him, had come to think of him as immortal, and our sorrow is tinged with a feeling of disbelief that he is no longer here. Robert, Lucy, Tim, members of the Hawking family, friends and carers of Stephen: it has been said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice’. Stephen, in his life, worked to make it so. We can also say, ‘The arc of the history of science is long, but it bends towards unity’. Stephen’s place in that great history is eternal. Stephen shared his work and his zest for…

Stephen Hawking Hawking in popular culture The Simpsons Episode: They Saved Lisa’s Brain The first episode of The Simpsons in which Hawking appeared, the 22nd episode of the cartoon's tenth season features Lisa Simpson being invited to join the Springfield chapter of Mensa. Director Pete Michels and writer Matt Selman wanted the theoretical physicist to guest-star as himself since ‘they needed someone who would be smarter than all of Springfield’s Mensa members and because he was a fan of the show’. Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode: Descent The only person to date to have played himself on Star Trek, Hawking appeared as his own holographic counterpart in 1993 playing poker with the likes of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. During filming of the episode, Hawking was taken on a…

Interview Space Rocks All About Space @ SPACE ROCKS We caught up with the European Space Agency’s scientists at the newly launched space and music festival back in April to discuss all things space… Interviewed By Lee Cavendish © Space Rocks Live INTERVIEW BIO Dr Beth Healey Beth is a medical doctor who was part of a team that spent a year at the European Space Agency’s Concordia Research Station in Antarctica as a Research MD. This year was spent analysing the physical and psychological effects of isolation in the most remote and extreme region of the world. How did you come to get involved in the Concordia experiment? I had a lot of experience working in extreme and remote environments, mainly as medical and logistical support team work. It…

DIY space projects #2 Building a Mission Control desk The household ‘Mission Control desk’ is a great way to get more involved in space. Not only is it visually stimulating, but there are buttons and authentic sounds. It can also be folded away and used as a normal desk for when work needs to be done. This project requires a fine craftsman and access to machinery such as drills, saws and sanders. This project requires a lot of woodwork and wiring, but upon completion it will be a great representation of what it’s like being at NASA’s Mission Control Centre, experiencing what real mission control personnel have gone through during a mission. For more information, please check out Make:’s extensive how-to guide titled ‘How to Build a Mission Control desk’…

“My glove had sealed up against the stainless steel palm bar” Jerome Apt's spacesuit glove was punctured in the vacuum by a metal rod, causing him an injury What happened? As astronaut Jerome Apt performed an Extravehicular Activity, it was discovered that the palm bar in his right glove had punctured his suit. Although he was unaware of what had happened at the time, it left him partially exposed to vacuum. What mission were they on? STS-37 Atlantis in 1991. It was his first spaceflight and he had been performing his second EVA over the course of five hours and 47 minutes. “You know what the highest danger in space flight is; the thing that can result in an excruciating painful death? Driving to work. If you look at the…

Most dangerous missions “There was immediate pain, but there was also blurred vision” Norman E Thagard feared for his sight when a freak accident affected one of his eyes on board the Russian space station Mir “The injury may have accelerated the cataract in my right eye” Norman Thagard What happened? Research astronaut Norman E Thagard was performing deep knee-bend exercises when an elastic foot strap slipped away and ended up slapping him in his right eye, causing him great pain whenever he saw light. What mission were they on? Thagard was on the Soyuz TM-21 mission which launched on 14 March 1995. “I was a crew member for the Russian Mir EO-18 mission and I had gone to the space station aboard Soyuz with commander Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady…

A verse-atile space traveller Following his Soyuz TMA-1 landing in 2003, Don Pettit penned a poem about the intensely nail-biting experience Oh Mother Earth, embrace me with all of your weight. I am pressed into your bosom and like Atlas, I carry the world’s load. I leave the comforts of an orbital womb and am born a second time. Rudely thrust into the world of weight, my chest sinks from heavy load my arms do not move at my command and my head spins. But there is work to do, we must keep our wits. We want to survive this test to prove our worthiness for life on Earth. And finally, our just reward, the sweet smell of freshly tilled earth and of crushed spring grass. The Sparrow’s song greets…

HOW TO… Revive Kepler 1 Identifying the problem When the Kepler Space Telescope enters its thruster-controlled Safe Mode, engineers know there must be something wrong. After analysing the situation, engineers determined there was an attitude error, and it can be traced back to one of the reaction wheels malfunctioning. 2 Solar solution With the correct positioning, the spacecraft’s solar panels can protect the instrumentation while creating a stable balance for approximately 83 days. The mission was rebranded as ‘K2’, bringing it a new lease of life. 3 Switching targets After 83 days Kepler will start looking at a different patch of sky, known as a ‘campaign’. During campaign 1, Kepler collected data of more than 12,000 target stars as well as observing star clusters, active galactic nuclei and supernovae. 4…

Fragment impact times Fragment: A Date: 16 July 1994 Time (UTC): 20:11 Fragment: B Date: 17 July 1994 Time (UTC): 02:50 Fragment: C Date: 17 July 1994 Time (UTC): 07:12 Fragment: D Date: 17 July 1994 Time (UTC): 11:54 Fragment: E Date: 17 July 1994 Time (UTC): 15:11 Fragment: F Date: 18 July 1994 Time (UTC): 00:33 Fragment: G Date: 18 July 1994 Time (UTC): 07:32 Fragment: H Date: 18 July 1994 Time (UTC): 19:32 Fragment: K Date: 19 July 1994 Time (UTC): 10:21 Fragment: L Date: 19 July 1994 Time (UTC): 22:17 Fragment: N Date: 20 July 1994 Time (UTC): 10:31 Fragment: P Date: 20 July 1994 Time (UTC): 15:23 Fragment: Q Date: 20 July 1994 Time (UTC): 19:44 Fragment: R Date: 21 July 1994 Time (UTC): 05:33 Fragment:…

STARGAZER GUIDES AND ADVICE TO GET STARTED IN AMATEUR ASTRONOMY What’s in the sky? Jargon buster Conjunction A conjunction is an alignment of objects at the same celestial longitude. The conjunction of the Moon and the planets is determined with reference to the Sun. A planet is in conjunction with the Sun when it and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of the Sun. Right Ascension (RA) Right Ascension is to the sky what longitude is to the surface of the Earth, corresponding to east and west directions. It is measured in hours, minutes and seconds since, as the Earth rotates on its axis, we see different parts of the sky throughout the night. Declination (Dec) This tells you how high an object will rise in the sky. Like Earth’s…

Naked eye targets This month’s naked eye targets Distant galaxies and fascinating stars can be seen late on summer nights Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) Close to the end of the Big Dipper’s handle, the magnitude 7.9 spiral galaxy M101 can be seen through binoculars as a small, round smudge. Some 27 million light years away, this galaxy is over 170,000 light years across, making it twice the Milky Way's size. Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) A magnitude 8 spiral galaxy, Messier 51 is 23 million light years away. Nicknamed the ‘Whirlpool Galaxy’, it can be found just off the end of the Big Dipper’s curved handle. Binoculars show it as a small out-of-focus star. Up close, it's roughly the same size as our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris) The…

A youngster’s guide to astronomy Don't overlook what can be seen with just the naked eye… Binoculars and telescopes are a great aid for exciting children about the night sky. It's worth showing them how to use these instruments properly so that they get the best out of them and use them safely. Warnings about pointing optical equipment at the Sun should always be done early on. It is also worth pointing out all the things that can be seen without optical help. 1 Look to the lunar surface The Moon is a great object to start with. While they’re gazing upon its craters and lunar mare with binoculars or the naked eye, talk about its phases and how it orbits around us. 2 Learn the constellations Point out some…

The Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere July brings with it a selection of targets, whatever observing kit you have in your arsenal The constellations of Lyra, Aquila, Hercules, Sagittarius, Scorpius and Ophiuchus are within easy reach this month, packed with night-sky objects. Fans of the tight-knit globular star clusters should turn their attention to the constellations of Ophiuchus and Hercules, where they will be rewarded with sights of the extremely stellar-rich Messier 10, Messier 12, Messier 14, Messier 13 and Messier 92. Astrophotographers will get great enjoyment from the binary star system Rho Ophiuchi in Ophiuchus, which is surrounded with a red emission nebula and very impressive light- and dark-brown dust lanes. Cygnus is another goldmine, with the Veil Nebula, Fireworks Galaxy and the Crescent Nebula being excellent choices for…

HEROES OF SPACE Richard H. Truly The first NASA administrator to have also served as an astronaut The first astronaut to become administrator of NASA, Richard H. Truly, had an extensive career serving his country while also leaving the confines of Earth on two occasions. His service to his country has led to multiple prestigious positions across a number of institutions, and he has a healthy medal collection to show for it. Born on 12 November 1937 in Fayette, Mississippi, United States, Truly was allured by aviation from an early age, and clearly showed that he was capable of great things as he reached the highest rank a Boy Scout of America can reach, Eagle Scout. His path through education led him down the engineering route, having received a Bachelor…

NASA’s plan for commercial ISS 'may not work' Private investors may be put off by news that commercial space stations are unlikely to make a profit in the mid-2020s Commercial space stations are unlikely to be financially viable by 2025 – the year NASA is set to end federal funding of the ISS, according to a study presented at a US congressional hearing. Bhavya Lal, of the Institute for Defense Analysis' Science and Technology Policy Institute, told the House Science Committee that investors are likely to be put off by uncertainty over costs and revenues. Of the four models studied by her organisation, only one proved viable – but even then it was based on the assumption that transportation costs would be at least half of what they are today.…

Hawking’s daughter: Lucy Hawking “We will miss him forever“ “My father used to just cause absolute consternation. People would just stop and stare – my father had his own electric wheelchair, which he used to drive at great speed across the whole of Cambridge, accompanied by me and my two older brothers, sort of like blonde little moppets running alongside with our ice creams – I think in horror, amazement and shock. How was this disabled man by himself? What were these children doing? People just couldn’t process the sight. My father always had lots of scientific colleagues who would come for dinner pretty much every night and they would discuss extraordinary topics. No topics were out of bounds. As a child, you could ask any question you wanted and…

Hawking’s successor: Michael Green “It’s going to be difficult to live up to him” “Stephen Hawking’s name carries a certain weight with it and it’s extremely difficult to imagine one would live up to it [Green will take over as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge]. His name comes up all the time; he had an influence on my work. He pinpointed an interface between general relativity, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, and he put them all together. It raised the possibility of a very ambitious meta-unification of ideas and, at the same time, it raised some puzzles. Black holes appear to be, in some senses, like quantum mechanical objects, but in some senses they seem to violate our ideas about quantum mechanics. “Perhaps it's because of the…

Hawking’s colleague: Sir Roger Penrose “Being a student of his was not easy… he ran his wheelchair over the foot of a student who caused him irritation“ “Those who knew Hawking would clearly appreciate the dominating presence of a real human being with an enormous zest for life, great humour and tremendous determination, yet with normal human weaknesses, as well as his more obvious strengths. It seems clear that he took great delight in his commonly perceived role as ‘the #1 celebrity scientist’; huge audiences would attend his public lectures, perhaps not always just for edification. “[In the scientific community] he was extremely highly regarded in view of his many greatly impressive, sometimes revolutionary contributions to the understanding of the physics and the geometry of the universe. Despite being diagnosed…

Hawking’s CV in brief 2009-2018 Director of research, Cambridge University Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Published more books; inspired a Hollywood movie; held a party for time travellers; received Presidential Medal of Freedom, Russian Special Fundamental Physics Prize, and honorary doctorate from Imperial College London. 1965-1969 Research fellow, Gonville & Caius College Extended the concepts of the singularity theorem explored in PhD thesis, explored the idea that the universe may have begun as a singularity. 1975-1979 Reader in gravitational physics, professor of gravitational physics, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge Published first book. Won Eddington, Hughes, Albert Einstein and Pius XI medals, plus the Dannie Heineman Prize and the Maxwell Prize. Honorary doctorate from University of Oxford. 1969-1975 Fellowship for distinction in science, Gonville & Caius College A post…

Hawking’s student: Ian Moss “He was the definition of a genius” “This was a time when he could still speak, before his voice synthesiser, and only students could understand what he was saying. “What impressed me about Stephen was that he was absolutely brilliant. Some people are very clever and you see their work and you think, ‘well, if I worked really hard on that project maybe I could have done that myself’. Then there are people like Stephen, and you see his breakthroughs and you think, ‘there's no way I would have thought of that if I'd spent all my life thinking on that project’.”…

#3 Building your own Saturn V Model Rocket “This rocket is the vessel that launched humanity into the space age” The rocket that took the first humans to the surface of the Moon, NASA’s Saturn V rocket, is a testament to human endeavour and space exploration. This rocket is the vessel that launched humanity into the space age, and now you have the opportunity to celebrate this by building your own 1:144 model. Revell, a well-known manufacturer of scale models, has a model of the stupendous Saturn V available for £26.30 (€29.99). All else that is needed to complete this task is glue, paint, paintbrushes and a fine hand. What comes included is the full model kit, including all the separate stages and a launch pad, a booklet of building…

When ammonia crystals meet spacesuit fabric Curbeam wasn't in any danger while he continued to wear his spacesuit – it offered more than enough protection from the frozen ammonia crystal flakes. The main immediate danger was in losing ammonia from the ISS' cooling system. It is limited in supply and there was a chance the lab's operations would have been greatly reduced as a result. There was also a worry about what to do after the leak had been choked off. Ammonia could not be allowed to contaminate the interior of the ISS: it is a highly toxic chemical. For that reason, Jones had to remove all of the ammonia from Curbeam and himself. Since the ammonia crystals would evaporate in the Sun's heat, Curbeam was ordered to stay outside…

Most dangerous missions “I crashed SpaceShipOne" Brian Binnie successfully piloted the first privately funded manned craft to achieve supersonic flight – and then crashed it “The gear was lowered and the all-clear was given, but then a terrible thing happened” Brian Binnie What happened? American test pilot Brian Binnie took SpaceShipOne on its first rocket-powered flight, but a difficult landing caused damage to the landing gear and sent it careering off the runway. What mission were they on? Flight 11P of SpaceShipOne, the first private manned space vehicle. “Flying the first powered test flight of the privately funded, experimental, air-launched, rocket-powered aircraft SpaceShipOne – flight 11P – on 17 December 2003 was a chance of a lifetime. The day marked 100 years since the Wright Brothers made their first powered…

USER MANUAL Kepler Space Telescope As the NASA spacecraft enters the final phase of its cosmic journey, now is a great opportunity to look back on some of its greatest achievements THE SPECS First light: 8 April 2009 Primary mirror size: 1.4 metres (4.6 feet) Location: Earth-trailing orbit Operator: NASA Construction cost: $600 million Time in space: Over 9 years Distance from Earth: 94 million miles (151 million kilometres) When it comes to finding new worlds beyond our own Solar System, no other telescope can compare to the amazing work completed by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Since its launch on 7 March 2009 (03:49:57 UTC), Kepler has spent the best part of a decade searching for a new Earth-like planet that we could someday call a new home. Sadly, there…