AI May 2014 _Layout 1 22/04/2014 14:48 Page 3

Contents
News Our Speciality
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Regulars
4 4 Editorial
David Moore

Earth-Size Planet Found First Ever Ringed Asteroid CERN Finds Exotic Particle Jupiter Swirls Hubble Sees Asteroid Disintegrate Sea Found on Saturn Sand Dunes on Titan Irish Students Ready for Blast-off VLT Captures Planetary Nebula Abell 33 Galactic Serial Killer Goodbye to Astronomy Ireland's Conor Farrell New Dwarf Planet Could Spell Even Bigger Discoveries Mercury Shrinking NASA's April Fools Prank

Letters
Questions, comments & opinions

page 11

20 Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Telescope is 24 years old this year. We celebrate with an image of the Monkey Head Nebula. By Ann Dunne

page 16

36 Whats Happening on the International Space Station?

Space writer Brian Harvey brings us the latest from the ISS.

42 Readers Gallery
This months gallery features Compiled by Emlyn Jones.

Features

Exclusive
page 30

30 Gravitational Waves: Breakthrough of Decade

Exclusive! South Pole Scientist Tells Astronomy Ireland about his involvement.

Sky Diary
22 Highlights this month include
the Eta Aquarids Meteor shower which peaks on 6th May, a chance to see elusive Mercury. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Venus on view near the Moon.

35 Irish Opportunities:
Latest News on Sentinel 1.

38 John Tyndall
Dr Ted Alston writes about the remarkable Irishman and his far-reaching discoveries in Victorian times.
page 35

40 Canary Islands Part 2

The Canary Islands are home to the biggest telescope in the world, the 10.4 meter GTC. The Spanish Tourism office invited us to tour the two major international observatories in the Canaries so we can organise a future tour from Ireland. Martin Lambert tells of his experiences.
Astronomy & Space
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Editor:
David Moore BSc FRAS

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Unsolicited editorial manuscripts are welcome. Please request Writers Guide before submitting. Astronomy Ireland (ISSN 2009-4779) is published monthly by Astronomy & Space Ltd. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved. Authorisation to photocopy items from this journal for personal use only may be granted and must be obtained in writing.

Cover:
Our big story this month is about the discovery of Gravitational Waves from one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, confirming the theory of Inflation. This diagram shows the History of the Universe over 13.8 billion years. Credit: BICEP2

Production Editor:
Ann Dunne

Contributors:
Ted Alston, Jorge Cham, David Fox, Brian Harvey, Martin Lambert.

May 2014 Astronomy Ireland