Dans cette leçon, nous allons découvrir l’histoire de Mars afin de comprendre si la planète rouge a un jour été suffisamment accueillante pour abriter la vie, telle que nous la connaissons sur Terre
Introduction
Plan de l’activité : Enquêtez sur l’évolution de Mars au cours de son histoire et découvrez comment cela a pu affecter l’habitabilité de la planète rouge.
Tranche d’âge :
10-14 ans
Equipement nécessaire :
Ordinateur
Projecteur
Durée de la leçon :
45 Minutes (1 vidéo incluse)
Sujets couverts :
Chimie
Temps géologiques
Biologie (vie en conditions extrêmes)
Astronomie (conditions à la surface de Mars)
Acquis
A la fin de cette activité, les élèves :
Comprendront comment Mars a changé au cours du temps.
Discuteront de ce que cela implique pour l’habitabilité de cette planète au cours de son histoire.
Elaboreront une conclusion quant à l’ère martienne qui aurait été la plus propice à abriter la vie.
1. Les Extrêmophiles & Les Environnements Extrêmes
Une introduction à la vie dans les environnements extrêmes, explorant le type de stress que nous pourrions trouver sur Mars et comment la vie peut s’adapter pour y survivre.
Aperçu
Tranche d’âge :
10-14 ans
Equipement nécessaire :
Ordinateur
Projecteur
Durée de la leçon :
45 Minutes (2 vidéos incluses)
Sujets couverts :
Biologie (vie en conditions extrêmes)
Astronomie (conditions à la surface de Mars)
Acquis :
Après avoir réalisé cette activité, les élèves :
Comprendront que les cellules peuvent changer pour s’adapter à des environnements extrêmes.
Seront capables d’expliquer la fonction d’une membrane cellulaire.
Evalueront comment les contraintes des conditions martiennes pourraient affecter son habitabilité.
Uma introdução à vida encontrada em ambientes extremos, explorando os tipos de dificuldades que podemos encontrar em Marte, e como a vida pode se adaptar a elas.
Visão Geral
Faixa Etária:
10-14
Equipamento Necessário:
Computador
Projector
Tempo da Atividade
45 Minutos (incluindo 2 vídeos)
Tópicos Abordados:
Biologia (Vida extrema)
Astronomia (Condições superficiais de Marte)
Resultados de Aprendizagem:
Após completar esta atividade, os estudantes irão:
Entender que as células podem mudar para adaptar-se a ambientes extremos.
Explicar a função da membrana celular.
Avaliar como as dificuldades em Marte podem afetar a sua habitabilidade.
Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2021 awarded to Dr James O’Donoghue
The 2021 Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement has been awarded to Dr James O’Donoghue for his work in creating high-quality space science animations.
James is a planetary scientist, specialising in the study of giant planet upper atmospheres, and online content creator working at the Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In 2018 he started creating animations around his area of expertise and publishing them online on his YouTube channel. Now, with more than 80 animated visualisations of space topics, he has reached 200 million views on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Gfycat, Reddit, and received hundreds of citations in international news articles.
James’s goal is to paint an accurate picture of the Solar System in people’s minds, highlighting its most relevant features in an intuitive way, such as the relative sizes, distances, orbits and axial tilts of the planets, or how fast a ball would fall to the surface on different Solar System objects.
The animations are not only widely appreciated on social media: multiple educational professionals at schools, universities, planetariums, museums use his material for teaching and outreach.
Dr Federica Duras, Chair of the Europlanet Outreach Jury, said: “Among the talented and motivated science communication projects nominated this year, James O’Donoghue’s brilliant animations stood out. In their simplicity they are a masterclass in outreach and communication, and the fact that they do not rely on language and translation means that they are perfectly inclusive, easily adaptable and usable all over the world. Congratulations to James, a great ambassador for the planetary science community.”
An awards ceremony will take place during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021 virtual meeting on Friday 24th September, and it will be followed by 15-minute prize lectures by the winner, who will also receive an award of 1500 Euros.
Dr Luke Moore, Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Space Physics of Boston University, said: “James, in my mind, is ideal for this award, because his outreach is global and inclusive, being predominantly online and freely accessible; he engages with people from a full range of countries and backgrounds. In addition, beyond “merely” creating useful animations, promoting science news items, and providing planetary science insights to the public, James has an excellent sense of humor that he constantly deploys. This seemingly minor point, I feel, is actually incredibly important, because it helps to demonstrate that scientists are regular people, and that science can be fun too!”
Dr Elizabeth Tasker, Associate Professor at Department of Solar System Sciences of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said, “James has established an international reputation for his scientific animations. These animations demonstrate different scientific concepts in space science, such as the sizes of celestial objects, the speed of light or the relative rotation rates of the planets. Each animation is designed to show a single concept visually within a few seconds. Text is minimal and nonessential, allowing the animations to be shared with a wide multilingual audience. Despite being a professional astrophysicist, I have often been amazed to realise facts about relative sizes or scales of which I was unaware before seeing James’s animations! While the animations are self-explanatory, James spends considerable time supporting the content through threads sharing further information on Twitter, and by answering questions.”
Dr James O’Donoghue said: “I am honoured and grateful to be the recipient of the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2021. Like the Europlanet Society, I believe outreach is an integral part of science in society and that we have a duty to make it accessible for all the people who fund it. It has been a pleasure to engage so many interested people and teach them about the universe through animated videos, images and posts.
“First thank you goes to my wife Jordyn for her tremendous patience and support during all my creations and posting, often late at night. I would like to thank the public for their kind words on Twitter over the years and for their many excellent thought-provoking questions, and thank you to all the educators for letting me know they used the videos for teaching at schools, universities, planetariums, museums and more! With this recognition by the Europlanet Society I can demonstrate to my employers, current and future, that large scientific organisations highly value outreach and that the way I have been doing it has been a success. In the future, I hope to do more outreach on the side of my research and this award will help me leverage that.”
James O’Donoghue in Hawaii. Credits: James O’DonoghueJames in a Japanese documentary. Credits: James O’DonoghueJames O’Donoghue at NASA. Credits: James O’DonoghueA screenshot of James’s animation “Earth and Moon Size and Distance scale – with real-time light speed!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_61SxDrdyhI). Credits: James O’DonoghueA screenshot of James’s animation “Planets and dwarf planets to scale in size, rotation speed & axial tilt in distance order from Sun” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf6WUmwJKZE). Credits: James O’Donoghue
A screenshot of James’s animation “The rotation periods of the planets cast to a single sphere. Rotations relative to background stars” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXPhhNEnldA). Credits: James O’Donoghue
The Europlanet Science Congress (https://www.epsc2021.eu/) formerly the European Planetary Science Congress, is the annual meeting place of the Europlanet Society. With a track record of 15 years, and regularly attracting around 1000 participants, EPSC is the largest planetary science meeting in Europe. It covers the entire range of planetary sciences with an extensive mix of talks, workshops and poster sessions, as well as providing a unique space for networking and exchanges of experiences.
Follow on Twitter via @europlanetmedia and using the hashtag #EPSC2021.
Since 2005, Europlanet (www.europlanet-society.org) has provided Europe’s planetary science community with a platform to exchange ideas and personnel, share research tools, data and facilities, define key science goals for the future, and engage stakeholders, policy makers and European citizens with planetary science.
The Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149 to provide access to state-of-the-art research facilities and a mechanism to coordinate Europe’s planetary science community.
The Europlanet Society promotes the advancement of European planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the community and is open to individual and organisational members. The Europlanet Society is the parent organisation of the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC).
Announcing the Contenders for the #PlanetaryScience4All Video Contest 2021
Earlier this year, the Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Communication working group invited all early career researchers, including PhD, Master’s and Bachelor’s students, involved in planetary science the opportunity to showcase their research through a 4-minute video contest called #PlanetaryScience4All.
Watch the 2021 Contenders’ Entries
The winner is….
The winner of the 2nd edition of the #PlanetaryScience4All EPEC-EPSC Video Contest will be announced during the EPSC2021 session CE10 – Other Prize Lectures, at 14:20–14:50 (CEST) on Friday 24 September.
The Judging Committee for the second edition of the #PlanetaryScience4all includes eight members of the current EPEC Communications Working Group. All members have been involved in planetary science research projects as well as several outreach activities. The group is made by people of different nationalities currently working for different institutions and universities.
The group is voting using a Google form where is not possible to see scores assigned by the other judges. Videos are going to be evaluated according to the following criteria: Scientific content, Structure Presentation delivery Layout, and Visual quality. The scores have been given based on a scale from 0 to 5. The video with the highest score will be considered the winner of the competition.
The winner of the video contest will receive free registration to EPSC 2022 which will be held in Granada, Spain.
Help spread the word on social media #PlanetaryScience4All #PS4All #EPSC2021 and join us on Friday 24 September to find out if your favourite entry has won!
EPSC2021 has put together an active programme of outreach activities to share the fascination and inspiration of planetary science with people around the world and to build links with new communities.
EPSC2021 Goes Live for Schools
Once again, the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) will be opening its doors to schools and giving students a glimpse of how contemporary science is done.
Teachers and students are kindly invited to join us virtually with their classroom or educational institute (suggested age range 12-18 years old or older).
The Diversity Committee of the Europlanet Society, in collaboration with Women in Red and WikiDonne, are organising an Edit-a-thon during EPSC2021 to highlight diversity within the planetary science community.
Following on from the successful Edit-a-thon at EPSC2020 and ongoing monthly meetings, EPSC2021 will be an opportunity to expand the group and develop more new profiles and translations.
Join the intro event on Friday 17th September at 5:30pm.
EPSC2021 is teaming up with International Observe the Moon Night to encourage everyone to connect with lunar enthusiasts around the world and see how Moon changes during the month between EPSC in mid-September and International Observe the Moon Night on 16 October.
More details coming soon!
#InspiredByOtherWorlds arts contest
The Europlanet Society Congress (EPSC) 2021 is inviting schools and space enthusiasts of all ages to get creative and share their artworks and performances inspired by other worlds in a contest called#InspiredByOtherWorlds.
The theme this year is ‘Ingenuity’. Let your imagination take us on a voyage through our Solar System and planets around distant stars! Show us how you have been inspired to create drawings, storytelling, pictures, videos, models, craft works or art installations at home.
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Communication working group is giving doctoral candidates, Bachelor’s and Master’s students involved in planetary science the opportunity to showcase their research through a 4-minute video contest called #PlanetaryScience4All.
Videos will be shown during a dedicated session during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021. The winner of the competion will receive a free registration for EPSC2022 in Granada,
Inspiring Stories – #PlanetaryScience4All: A Video Contest for Virtual Science Communication
In this EPEC Inspiring Outreach Story, Melissa Mirino (doctoral candidate at The Open University and of the Chair EPEC Communications Working Group) shares how the extraordinary experiences of 2020 inspired her to launch a contest to bring together the early career community. This story is an extract from the first Issue of the Europlanet magazine.
The year 2020 will be always remembered as a year of isolation, disruption of the normal daily activities, and in extreme cases a year of loss. However, during this period we all did our best to find alternative solutions to carry on with our lives, jobs and activities and remain positive and connected with each other using the current available technologies. Research and academia have not been an exception. Both the Europlanet Society and the Europlanet Early Career Network (EPEC) did their best to remain active, and to guarantee the usual sharing of ideas and scientific results by transforming the EPSC 2020 Conference into a virtual meeting.
As Chair of the EPEC Communications Working Group, I wanted to create an activity that could combine the EPEC goal of supporting early careers, our working group’s aim of communication, and the need to transform face-to-face activities into a shareable, interactive and online form to support the EPSC2020 virtual meeting. The idea of a video contest came to mind. This format is already considered by many universities as a good way to train and challenge students in science communication. Since the main subject of EPSC is planetary science, the topic of the video contest was easy to identify. With support from the EPSC2020 Outreach and Europlanet Communications teams, and many months of planning, creating and sharing the new activity, the #PlanetaryScience4All video contest became a reality. #PlanetaryScience4All challenges early career students to present their research in four minutes to a non-expert audience.
The first edition (2020) of the contest was open to Ph.D. candidates involved in planetary science studies, asking them to explain their Ph.D. research using any type of creative video format (Lego movies, drawing, PowerPoint, storytelling, etc.). The videos were judged based on criteria of scientific content, communication skills, and creativity by a panel of experts from the Europlanet Community. All the contestants and their videos were featured in live sessions during EPSC2020, promoted on YouTube, and shared widely on social media. The winning video was highlighted through the Europlanet website and newsletters, and it has also been used for EPEC outreach activities. The winner of the 2020 edition, Grace Richards, received free registration to this year’s EPSC2021 meeting. Recently, Grace and Gloria Tognon, another contestant, have also joined the EPEC Communications Working Group to support our activities. Based on the success of the 2020 competition, I feel confident that #PlanetaryScience4All will become a traditional part of EPSC.
The second edition is now open, this year welcoming Bachelor’s and Master’s students, as well as PhD candidates working on a thesis related to planetary science.
Calls for Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme and Prize 2021
Are you looking for funding to kickstart an outreach or education project related to planetary science? Or have you run a successful public engagement project for which you deserve some recognition?
Europlanet awards grants of between 1 000 and 5 000 Euros to fund projects to engage the public with planetary science. Through the funding scheme, Europlanet aims to encourage new ways of sharing planetary science with different kinds of audiences across Europe (and beyond) to create socially impactful initiatives that combine research, learning, innovation and social development.
About the Europlanet Prize For Public Engagement 2021
The Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement recognises achievements in engaging citizens with planetary science. The Prize of 1 500 Euros is awarded annually to individuals or groups who have developed innovative and socially impactful practices in planetary science communication and education.
The winner will be honoured at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021 and will be invited to share experiences and best practice by delivering an online prize lecture during a ceremony, which will provisionally take place on Friday 24 September from 14:20-14:50 CEST. If the winner is unable to present during this live session, they will have the option to pre-record a lecture.
In this EPEC Inspiring Outreach Story, Sara Motaghian, a doctoral student at the Natural History Museum (London), tells us about her experience organising ‘Roving with Rosalind’ for classrooms across the UK.
Roving with Rosalind is a series of curriculum-based activities which give students the opportunity to overcome challenges and solve problems based on the ExoMars mission. We have created 5 large practical kits to be housed at STEM hubs across the UK filled with engaging workshops and activities linked to space science.
We applied to the UK Space Agencies Aurora Outreach funding in the summer of 2019 to make the Roving with Rosalind project a reality and were ecstatic to be awarded the funding at the end of that year. The project aims to reach to 7000 students across the UK in total during its primary funding period. At the end of the project’s nominal funding timeline, the kits and resources will be hosted indefinitely by STEM Learning ensuring the kits can be collected and used well beyond the first 7000 students.
In total, 20 educational, curricula-mapped resources have been created to accompany the practical kits. The project funds the postage of the kits to schools in order to remove funding and geographical barriers to participation in STEM initiatives, improving opportunity and equity in STEM learning. This model helps us to reach schools and students that are geographically distant from science centres, universities and museums, and schools that don’t have the funding to engage with other initiatives.
Roving with Rosalind breakdown
The main activity categories are:
Landing site selection, geology and remote sensing
Rover and mission design
Instrument design and building
Analogue missions (the most fun!)
Sample analysis
Learn to code in Python
Romanby Primary School building programmable rovers to explore the Maps of Mars – our pilot school!
The main activity is the analogue missions where students explore a map of the ExoMars landing site, in one of three ways, to search for points of interest and data to analyse. First, students can walk around the map as the rover, communicating with their team as mission control. Secondly, they can utilise remote-control rovers with video feedback to simulate the difficulty in controlling a rover from afar. Or thirdly, they can build and program the included rovers to execute a path across the map. For every point of interest students locate they receive a data downlink from Mars to analyse!
Spectroscope the students build as part of the designing instruments activity and the solar spectrum you can see with them.
We were really lucky to be able to launch Roving with Rosalind during National Astronomy Week and deliver a rover design and building workshop to over 200 school classes and ~5000 students! We have been able to send our kits to three classes so far, restricted due to COVID, and 100 students to date. We have been able to partner with several STEM equity programmes, like In2Science and Girls into Geoscience, to deliver out Python programming workshops to over 300 upper secondary students with amazing success, and the program has already received some great feedback:
“[It] has been one great interesting and informative experience. I enjoyed everything … provided for the participants. One particular event: I had never done coding before. It was a bit challenging since I had no idea where to begin but the mentors made it so easy to grasp. I’m very excited, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I will definitely do it as an extracurricular activity in my free time. There were a lot of courses. I was clear about what I wanted to do, but the courses gave me a lot more information about the university and beyond. I want to study physics so I’m looking forward to University and onwards.”
As well as reaching students, the Roving with Rosalind programme also aims to improve teacher confidence in the delivery of STEM resources and has provided training to over 50 teachers, technicians, STEM ambassadors and lecturers. The Roving with Rosalind framework is also now being used as a basis for a Europe-wide outreach project run by the ESA Robotics Working Group.
Example Downlink Target
Do you like this story and want more? Browse our archive of EPEC Inspiring Stories and get inspired!
The ‘supermoon’ on 26th May was the closest Full Moon of this year. To mark the occasion, Edu INAF and Europlanet 2024 RI challenged the public to observe and portray our satellite. Participants in the SuperLuna Challenge were given free range to use their creativity to represent the Moon in its different phases through photos, videos, drawings.
Federica Duras of INAF says, “In fact, the over 40 works submitted, together with those collected through social media, give a multifaceted portrait of the Moon, many of which were shown during the live event in May of “Il cielo in salotto”. We’ve seen the Moon peeping shyly out from the dark foliage of the trees of Wales, soaring scarlet above the towers of a medieval castle in the Roman skies, or sleeping under the wing of Venus in a colorful Virginia sunset. Thank you to all participants for having been able to respond to such a challenging test combining science and art and encouraged us to keep our noses up, to admire, once again, the many faces of the Queen of the Night.”
The winning image comes from Vicenza, Italy, from the balcony of Roberto Vaccaro’s home.
April 2021 Superluna. Credit: Roberto Vaccaro
Four works also deserve a special mention:
The work of the students of the school Fabio Filzi (Laives, Italy) who, with the guidance of their teachers, took a beautiful photo emphasising the lunar seas and craters.
The stunning and extremely realistic Moon in black and white pencil sketch by Mary McIntyre:
This drawing by William is made up in red, yellow and bright as the Sun. (SuperBright Moon. Credit: William Rizzi).
The Supermoon drawn by Elisa and her little brother Francesco has a Supersister with whom to play at piercing the darkness. (Super Luna con mantello e Superluna in compagnia. Credit: Elisa e Francesco Oliverio).
Luca Nardi Interviewed Roberto Vaccaro about how he achieved his winning photo:
Roberto Vacarro, winner of the SuperLuna Challenge
Roberto Vaccaro, congratulations on your amazing photograph of the Moon. Where did you take it from?
Thank you very much, the news of the prize was really a surprise! I took this photo from the terrace of my house: fortunately in order to shoot the Moon, especially when it is so bright, there is no need to move to isolated locations in search of dark skies.
And what instruments did you use?
I used a Newtonian telescope with 130mm aperture and 900mm focal length. I then connected a direct-focus mirrorless camera, so that the telescope acted as a lens for the camera itself. For the image I used the high-resolution method (which is used to shoot celestial bodies such as the Moon and planets) creating a video in 4K, from which I then extracted the individual frames. Next, I overlapped them with a processing program to eliminate noise and the distortions due to atmospheric turbulence: so I got the final image!
Was it more or less difficult to take a picture of the Supermoon compared to a normal Full Moon?
It is not more difficult, because the Full Moon is always extremely bright. However, for this reason a little care is needed because there is the risk of overexposing the photo (making it too bright), thus reducing the contrast effect of the lunar seas (which are the darkest regions of the Moon) and the details of the craters.
How was your passion for astrophotography born?
I have always been fascinated by astronomy and observations with a telescope, but my passion for astrophotography was born because I wanted to see celestial objects (such as nebulae and galaxies) that cannot be seen with a simple observation with the naked eye since they are too dim. They can reveal all their beauty thanks to a telescope, a camera and sufficiently long exposure time.
The official magazine of Europlanet, the European community for planetary science.
We are delighted to share with you the first issue of the Europlanet Magazine. The e-magazine will be published twice a year and aims to highlight the range of activities by Europlanet, our partners, and the wider planetary community.
This first issue has a strong focus on Mars, including European contributions to current missions, experimental research in labs and in the field, and outreach initiatives to engage the next generation. We look back at the origins of Europlanet and its links to the Cassini-Huygens mission at the beginning of this century. We also have updates on the Winchcombe meteorite and on several new partnerships to support planetary science.
Please check out Issue 1 and share with your networks to help us spread the word.
In this issue:
In Focus
A round up of news from Europlanet 2024 RI, the Europlanet Society, the Regional Hubs and Committees, and the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021.
Since the pandemic started, I expected social distancing to feel, well, distant. But I have found that regardless of isolating in my home office, I’ve been more connected than ever. In this issue’s column I would like to share some of the useful tools I have used over the past year that have allowed me to facilitate workshops and embrace the new norm of remote working.
The Europlanet media team, of which I’m part, has recently organised a workshop in collaboration with the European Science Foundation on common challenges and actions for distributed research infrastructures in Europe. We had more than 130 registered participants from 23 countries within the EU and beyond. To make sure we fostered interesting outputs we used a Mural board, a digital workspace for visual collaboration to help participants brainstorm ideas. During the workshop, people collaboratively added and edited ideas live. After the workshop, we assessed the value of the Mural board for efficiency, time management and creativity. The results were great! Similar online platforms are a game-changer not only for organising events but also for meetings, voting processes, etc.
You might wonder, if sessions are disseminated via platforms like Zoom and workshops are organised using visual collaboration tools such as the Mural board, how can we incorporate networking?
Europlanet joined Slack, a networking platform to formally and informally chat with colleagues. Slack is a great communication tool for communities and a perfect complement to emails. It simplifies communication between different teams, committees and working groups, and thus increases collaboration and productivity. Once workshops are done, Slack provides a space to continue the conversation and keep the collaboration alive.
We are on the brink of what Ezra Klein calls a ‘social recession’. Using virtual platforms that can boost effective communication is thus crucial to maintain an active work culture. At Europlanet, we aspire to use digital tools that help us create connections on virtual meetings and allow us to come up with collective solutions. We want to question strategically how to have a healthy and robust version of digital culture. Yes, we are losing physical proximity, but we should stay positive and always think of new ways to revolutionise our digital spaces.
On the evening of 28th February 2021, a bright fireball blazed across the skies over much of England and Wales. As well as being observed by sharp-eyed members of the public, the meteor was also recorded by camera networks specially set up to capture such events, including the French FRIPON network and a consortium of UK networks coordinated by UKFAll. The members of the camera network teams worked hard over the next few days to calculate that the fireball probably resulted in a meteorite fall in the area around Cheltenham in the west of England.
Colleagues at Curtin University in Western Australia used the data to show that the object originated in the outer asteroid belt, near the orbit of Jupiter.
The morning after the fireball, a family from the Cotswolds town of Winchcombe, near Cheltenham, woke up to find what looked like a pile of barbecue coal on their driveway. Realising that it could only be a meteorite, they carefully collected all the material into clean plastic food bags and got in touch with the Natural History Museum in London. Soon after, Richard Greenwood from the Open University visited the family to verify the meteorite, followed by Ashley King from the Natural History Museum. Immediately, they knew that this remarkable discovery was a carbonaceous chondrite, an exceptionally rare but scientifically valuable type of meteorite.
The landing site of a fragment of the Winchcombe Meteorite. Credit: R Wilcock.
What followed was surely the most exciting week of my career. I joined many of my colleagues from the museum, and Glasgow, Manchester, Plymouth and Open universities, to trek across the neighbouring fields and talk to the local population about the event.
Several other homeowners found small fragments of the meteorite on their driveways and lawns, and the traipsing across fields proved fruitful when a team led by the University of Glasgow found a relatively large intact stone, over 100g in weight, in a sheep field.
Winchcombe is the first UK meteorite fall to be recovered in thirty years. Before this, the most recent meteorite fall recovery was in 1991, when the Glatton meteorite dropped in the gardens of a Cambridgeshire village. Before then, the last UK falls were back in the 1960s, in Barwell in Leicestershire and Bovedy in Northern Ireland. Winchcombe is also the UK’s first carbonaceous chondrite fall, perhaps the most studied meteorite type by the UK’s meteorite researchers.
Held fragment of the Winchcombe Meteorite. Credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum.
All the property owners agreed to donate their treasure to the Natural History Museum, and our preliminary examination of the meteorite has already begun. Oxygen isotopes, a fingerprint for meteorite classification, were acquired within a week of the fall. They confirmed Winchcombe to be a carbonaceous chondrite, specifically of the CM type (a group of carbonaceous chondrites named after the Mighei meteorite found in Ukraine). Using a scanning electron microscope with a variable vacuum environment and low voltage settings we can image and map chips of the meteorite that have not experienced any preparation or coating (see image below), preserving them to be used for more detailed analyses afterwards. We have also devised an analysis plan for the next months, led by Ashley King, to characterise the meteorite’s mineralogy, petrology, physical characteristics (including magnetic properties), organic components, cosmogenic nuclides (rare isotopes created by the bombardment of cosmic rays), and isotope geochemistry.
An uncoated, unprepared chip of the Winchcombe meteorite. This false colour element map shows that the sample is made mostly of silicates (XRD analysis shows these in the form of hydrated phyllosilicate), sulphides (which show as green in this image) and carbonates (which show as red in this image). The mineralogy is typical for a CM carbonaceous chondrite. Credit: Tobias Salge, NHM
The Winchcombe meteorite fall is particularly timely because it looks somewhat similar to the material returned in December 2020 by the JAXA Hayabusa2 space mission to asteroid Ryugu, and can potentially be used in analysis rehearsals for the mission material.
The fall of a meteorite such as Winchcombe is not only an important scientific event but also a planetary incident on a very human scale. It is an exceptional opportunity to engage the public in planetary sciences. We have talked to local school children about the meteorite by Zoom and a piece of the meteorite has now been put on display in the Natural History Museum in London. The local museum in Winchcombe is also acquiring some of the rock and planning to exhibit it for residents and tourists to learn about this event and its significance.
The Winchcombe meteorite fall is a wonderful asset for the UK and European science, and it has been a great example of collaboration, community spirit and teamwork that has led to the acquisition and characterisation of this exceptional object. Both the science community and the public have been excited about the meteorite story. It will be studied for many years to come and we welcome the Europlanet community in helping us to share its story.
A new Expert Exchange Programme, funded through Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI), has been launched to support the mobilisation of the planetary community and transfer of knowledge. The scheme aims to share expertise and best practice, and to prepare new facilities and services for integration into the RI.
The programme provides funding for short visits (up to one week). Due to travel restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic, virtual visits are also supported through the Europlanet Expert Exchange programme.
Objectives for an Europlanet Expert Exchange might be:
To improve infrastructure facilities and services offered to the scientific community by Europlanet 2024 RI laboratories or institutes.
To provide training on theoretical or practical aspects of the laboratory/fieldwork required to plan a future TA application.
To foster cooperation between academia and industry (SMEs).
To support early career professionals to develop skills to use or manage RI facilities or services.
To widen participation from Under-Represented States in RI activities and services.
To support the inclusion of amateur communities in European planetary science campaigns.
To support engagement with wider society e.g. through the involvement of outreach providers, educators, journalists, artists etc.
Inspiring Stories – Outreach activities in a European project like PLANMAP
In this EPEC Inspiring Outreach Story, Gloria Tognon, a doctoral student at the Center of Studies and Activities for Space ‘G. Colombo’ of Padua (Italy), tells us about her experience of taking part in the European PLANMAP project.
Scientific knowledge is not just intended for a limited number of people and should be shared and made accessible to everyone. The Horizon 2020 PLANetary MAPping (PLANMAP) project is committed to the production of highly informative geological maps of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon, and every European partner dedicated part of its activities to communication and dissemination.
The main aim of PLANMAP was for several products (geological and spectral maps, 3D geomodels, and virtual environments) to be made freely available online to the scientific community as well as the general public. A particular focus was put on the promotion of planetary geology to young people through the creation of downloadable artworks, digital story maps, and a comic novel published in a special issue of the PLaNCK! Magazine about PLANMAP, “Geomapping other worlds” , which also contained interviews with young researchers working on the project.
Within the framework of outreach activities for young people in the general public, all PLANMAP partners actively organised and participated in festivals, public talks, seminars and school activities. Kids in particular were the main targets of European Researchers’ Nights, and although the events were open to the general public, I can tell you that young people from 5 to 10 years old constituted the real audience. The creation of games and video presentations as a way to engage and hold their attention while explaining difficult ideas in the easiest and funniest way was a crucial step. It may not always be easy for adults to think of ways to communicate science to young people, but for me, videos and games represent a recreational pursuit and a super rewarding experience.
Stands of planetary geology at the European Researchers’ Nights 2018 and 2019 at the University of Padua. Credit: PLANMAP
Less imagination and more practical thinking were required in February 2021 when the PLANMAP project concluded its activities, and put its last efforts into organising the virtual ‘Geology & Planetary Mapping Winter School’, which engaged more than 50 instructors from at least 9 European institutions to address 150 registered participants from all around the world. During the school, I had the great opportunity to share my knowledge of planetary geologic mapping with the students, and to organise the final event displaying the ‘Virtual Reality environments for planetary applications and training for astronauts’. Promoted, funded and sustained by the Ambassade de France en Italie-Institut Français en Italie, Center of Studies and Activities for Space “G. Colombo” of Padua and the PLANMAP project, this event provided online lectures and a virtual reality experience simultaneously held in Padua and Nantes. Participants had an amazing chance to have a real-world perception of another planet, and take a field trip to Mars to perform scientific measurements in the field.
Interactive VR experience with geologic science measurements inside the PLANMAP environment. Credit: PLANMAP
I can assure you that engaging with people and sharing your knowledge with them will help you develop your communication skills and self-confidence. Above all, it is the most worthwhile life experience!
Do you like this story and want more? Browse our archive of EPEC Inspiring Stories and get inspired!
Wednesday 26 May, starting at 21:30, the largest and most spectacular full moon of the year will be the main character of the first episode of the new EduINAF’s format “Il cielo in salotto“. Meaning “the sky in your living room”, it aims at bringing science and astronomy closer to the public with live astronomical observations. For this specific occasion, the supermoon will be observed, weather permitting, by the astronomers of some INAF Observatories scattered throughout Italy, (Trieste, Asiago, Rome and Palermo). To comment on the beauties of the sky, Sandro Bardelli, from Bologna, will be our guide on this journey on the Moon, between astronomical curiosities and the latest scientific missions and discoveries, accompanied by guests such as Maria Cristina De Sanctis and Francesca Altieri, researchers at the INAF IAPS in Rome, the geologist Matteo Massironi of the University of Padua, Caterina Boccato, in charge of the INAF Teaching and Outreach, Simone Iovenitti, PhD student at INAF and University of Milan and together with many other partners and guests who will help us to look at the Moon with new eyes.
Special guest of the evening is Samantha Cristoforetti, who will tell us, in a video, her point of view on the Moon and its exploration, and who will receive as a gift the collective portrait of the asteroid 15006 Samcristoforetti made as a tribute to our astronaut in the recent astrophotography challenge, organised by EduINAF in collaboration with the community of italian amateurs.
The appointment is on the EduINAF’s YouTube channel: go here to find all the information!
Happy SuperLuna!
View the recording:
Europlanet 2024 RI has supported the SuperLuna! campaign. Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.
The Europlanet Society Congress 2021 (#EPSC2021) invited schools and space enthusiasts of all ages to get creative and share their artworks and performances inspired by other worlds in a contest called #InspiredByOtherWorlds.
The theme for 2021 was “Ingenuity”. Perhaps you are inspired by the Mars helicopter itself, the ingenuity of researchers or engineers that explore other planets, or the ingeniuty of other artists’ creative visions of other worlds. Perhaps you have ingenious ways of revealing planets, moons, asteroids, comets, meteorites, exoplanets through your art.
Art is meant to inspire. Art is meant to be shared. Art allows us to go beyond our limits. Planetary science takes us beyond the limits of our world. What happens when a passion for art and a passion for exploring planets and other worlds meet? Let your imagination take us on a voyage through our Solar System and planets around distant stars! Show us how you have been inspired to create drawings, storytelling, pictures, videos, models, craft works or art installations at home.
#InspiredByOtherWorlds entries will be showcased in a virtual exhibition and highlighted during a dedicated session during EPSC2021, which is being held as a virtual meeting from 13-24 September 2021.
All artworks submitted were considered by a panel of planetary scientists and artists. The winning artworks or performances will be shared via the Europlanet website, newsletters and social media and will be used to inspire young people in future Europlanet outreach activities.
For all the information about the contest, see the #InspiredByOtherWorlds FAQ page. If you’d also like to share on social media please use the hashtags #InspiredByOtherWorlds#EPSC2021.
If you have any questions, please contact stavro.ivanovski@inaf.it
Spring 2021 is a season of ‘supermoons’, with the Full Moon in April and May coinciding within 10% of the closest lunar orbital distance to Earth. These luminous supermoons, which are about 7% bigger and about 15% brighter than a typical Full Moon, provide a remarkable opportunity for engaging the public.
We thought it would be fun to gather images, or artwork, of the Moon in its different phases between the April Supermoon and the May one. Making these observations is a great way to see how the Moon changes during the month: look for how the Moon rises and sets later each night, and how the illumination and so shape we see changes too.
The supermoon on 26th May will be the closest Full Moon of the year. Facilities from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) are joining forces to carry out a live event on EduINAF’s social channels.
During the Italian streaming, aired on the 26th on EduINAF’s main social channels from 9.30pm to 11pm (CET), there will be an opportunity to learn much more about the Moon. INAF astronomers will guide the audience through the live observations of the moon seen by the various observatories involved with images and insights from guests.
You have the chance for your images to be shown during this broadcast too – as images from our SuperLuna! Observing Challenging will be included in the live broadcast. We will also be putting a gallery on our website. This is not a competition, we would just like as many people to participate as possible, so we will make a random selection from the entries to receive an ESA goody bag.
Join the SuperLuna Campaign!
If you are up for the challenge, upload your pictures to this Flickr group and post them on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #SuperLuna If you do not use Flickr, you may submit your pictures via the form below.
Resources for observing the Moon
We have put together some resources to help you observe, photograph and find out more about the Moon. Read more.
If you have an image or animation that is too big to upload, you can send it by WeTransfer to aheward@europlanet-society.org.
Italian versions of the resources with video lessons produced by EDU INAF are now available at: Terra chiama Marte.
Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.
Europlanet AISBL (Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif - 0800.634.634) is hosted by the Department of Planetary Atmospheres of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium.
Europlanet 2024 RI has supported the SuperLuna! campaign. Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.
