NEWS IN BRIEF

Balloon telescope

NASA has plans to build a new scope, ASTHROS, to examine the Universe at submillimetre wavelengths. As such light is blocked by Earth’s atmosphere, the 2.5m-wide scope will be floated 40km in the air by a weather balloon. “Balloon missions like ASTHROS are riskier than space missions, but yield high-rewards at modest cost,” says project manager Jose Siles.

Super-Earth, dwarf star

A pair of super-Earths have been discovered around a red dwarf star, Gliese 887, just 11 lightyears away. One of the planets is in the region where liquid water could persist on its surface. Astronomers will now attempt to examine the planet’s atmosphere – a task which is much easier for a nearby red dwarf than a more distant or brighter star.

National Astronomy Week 2020

Mark 14–22 November in your diary: it is National Astronomy Week 2020. The aim of this year’s event is to get as many people as possible seeing Mars through a scope, and has been timed for when the Red Planet is highest in the evening sky. Visit astronomyweek.org.uk.