All About Space - UK (2020-02)

Ask Space

Our simulations did not include any of the

dynamics of the ride on the booster but primarily

trained us to recognise system problems with the

boosters that might require an abort or takeover

of control. At liftoff you could tell that you were

moving, but it was not a ‘big kick in the pants’.

The couches we laid in were suspended with

some clearance provided on each side so they could

stroke in the event of a hard landing from failed

parachutes, or even to support an abort resulting in

a landing on land. The highest g level was a bit over

4 g; that was modest compared to our past career

experience with combat manoeuvring in fighter

aircraft. The biggest surprise to me was when the

engines shut down ahead of staging. If I hadn’t been

strapped in, I would have been thrown

into the instrument panel.

Fred Haise flew on board Apollo 13

Jupiter and Saturn formed in the outer Solar

System, in a disc of gas and dust surrounding the

young Sun. They built up massive cores, which

subsequently attracted gas from the disc that

formed their atmospheres. The leading theory

for Solar System formation suggests that they

experienced some migration inward and then

outward, settling into their present locations.

Hot Jupiters are challenging to form at their

current locations because the amount of solid

material needed to build up their cores is more than

is expected to be found at such a close-in orbital

distance. This suggests that hot Jupiters may have

formed on a further-out orbit and were transported

Howdoesa real-time

rocket launch compare to

simulations in training?

Whyisn’tJupiter close to the Sun like the

hot Jupiter exoplanets discovered around other stars?

© NASA, ESA

© NASA

Left: An

asteroid

impact would

pose a huge

threat to

the Earth

Right: Hot-

Jupiters are

very easy

to spot, but

that doesn’t

mean they

are typical

throughout

the cosmos

Right: Haise

was launched

into space

on top of a

Saturn V

rocket

inward. For example, the hot-Jupiter could have

experienced a violent dynamical encounter with

another gas giant further out which slingshotted

the hot-Jupiter onto its present, very close-in orbit.

Another possibility is that the hot Jupiter

migrated in much more gradually through the disc

to its current location. Though systems hosting hot

Jupiters are very different from our own, both are

thought to have undergone planetary migration.

Planetary systems have rich dynamical histories,

the outcomes of which are seen in the diversity of

exoplanetary systems.

Renata Frelikh is an astronomer at

UC Santa Cruz, California

Did

youknow?

Apollo 13 wasintendedtolandin
theFraMauroHighlandsonthe
Moon,butduetoanoxygen
tankexplosionithadto
returntoEarth.

SOLAR SYSTEM

SPACE EXPLORATION