Planet? Dwarf planet? Let's call the whole thing off

Hello, friends!

Hope you’re hungry for planets! There’s a parade’s worth – at least six! – in the night sky every day this month, with four of those (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) visible to the naked eye.

It’s also National Astronomy Week, so every evening from 7pm astronomers will be livestreaming their views of the night sky through powerful telescopes, letting us see these glorious orbs up close. There are also a few talks in store – more details on those to come.

Just before we dive in: I’m planning on changing the name of the newsletter in the coming weeks – the Gaz Coombes lyric is a little obscure, and doesn’t really tell you much about what it’s about – but I’m terrible at names! If you have any ideas, please chuck them my way.

Ok. Let’s go!

🍿 online talks and events 🐧

All times are GMT.

Monday 3 February

Watch live: Moon, Mars and Jupiter for National Astronomy Week, online event by the Royal Astronomical Society, 19.00, free: Astronomy experts beam in from the UK and Cyprus for this special event, featuring live views of Mars and its polar ice caps, Jupiter and its weather systems, and the Moon’s cratered surface. This follows a talk about the impact of the Moon on our culture, and how we’ve come to understand it over the years.

Tuesday 4 February

Exploring space and astronomy through philately (stamp collecting!), online event by the Institute of Physics, 19.45, free: Astronomer and astrophilatelist Katrin Raynor-Evans gives this talk on Tuesday. It doesn’t say exactly what she’ll cover, so to whet your appetite, please enjoy this lovingly curated gallery depicting 50 years of space on postage stamps, or take in this video about an embarrassing moment in NASA’s history: the Apollo 15 postal covers incident. I already knew this story but my jaw still dropped twice as I was watching this.

(This video illustrates a special kind of enthusiasm I really enjoy, which almost – almost – made me want to take up stamp collecting. Savour the repeated use of specialist tweezers and rubber glove moment.)

Wednesday 5 February

What’s on my food?, online event by the Linnean Society, 12.30, free: Gabriel Astorga presents his research about how whole genome sequencing can help us better assess the risk of E. coli contamination. Just typing that made me want to immediately go and wash my hands.

The connected brain: network and communication, hybrid event by Gresham College, 18.00, free: (I know, that image. But stay with me!) Mathematics professor Alain Goriely looks at how ideas from graph theory – a branch of maths that models relationships between objects – can help us understand how the brain works.

Tour the night sky LIVE, online event by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 19.00, free: Join the astronomers at zero degrees longitude for this livestream of skies above the 350-year-old observatory. Weather permitting, we’ll be treated to views of Jupiter, Mars, galaxies, nebulae, and the Moon, as well as insights into how astrophotographers take and transform raw images into works of art.

Bibha Chowdhuri and women in Indian physics, online event by the Institute of Physics, 19.00, free: In the second instalment of this series of webinars about the history of physics in the Indian subcontinent, Samiha Sehgal turns the spotlight on Bibha Chowdhuri, a particle physicist who started working in the 1930s and travelled to Manchester to study cosmic rays.

Is Pluto a planet?, online talk by National Astronomy Week, 20.00, free: Author and broadcaster Jerry Stone *goes there* in this presentation that looks at the International Astronomical Union’s definition of a planet, and its consequences for dear ol’ Pluto whose status was revised to ‘dwarf planet’ nearly 20 years ago.

Sunday 9 February

The history and future of Mars space exploration, online talk by National Astronomy Week, 20.00, free: Dr Catherine Regan looks back at our history of exploring the red planet before looking ahead to what the next 10 years will bring. Will future missions bring us any closer to answering questions such as: What happened to the Martian atmosphere? Where has the water gone? And will we find life on Mars?

🌓 in a sky near you… 🔭

Views from KFS HQ, London. See Stellarium for a personalised view of your night sky after setting your location and time.

Chase the Moon: The Moon will make close passes of both Jupiter and Mars this week. On Thursday, look for it in the southern sky at about 8pm – Jupiter’ll be about three fingers (at arm’s length) below it.

On Sunday at about 7pm, look towards the eastern sky to see the Moon and Mars get  *really* close, almost touching. In fact, those in higher northern latitudes will see the Moon pass in front of Mars – this is known as an occultation.

🌳 closer to Earth 👀

Squirrel “sneezes”: Listen out for any sneeze-like “muk-muk” noises emitting from your local grey squirrels, along with mad chases up and down trees, as it’s the first of their two yearly breeding seasons.

💫 we need answers

Last week I asked:

The answer is… in your mouth. These are the literal meanings of the four different types of human teeth: the 12 “millstones” are molars, the eight further “millstones” are premolars (because they came “pre-”, or earlier, in the question, lol), the four “dogs” are canines, and the eight “cutters” are incisors.

🤔 until next week…

Here’s another one from the archive:

The US patent ‘Spatial logical toy’, granted in 1983, relates to what iconic plaything?

Answer comes next week. See you then! x