sandr034

The internet was abuzz last week with news of a possible 9th planet in our Solar System, as well as an opportunity to view all five planets visible to the naked eye in the sky at the same time for the first time in more than a decade. Coming on the heels of the BBC StargazingLIVE show, and ongoing coverage of Tim Peake's mission oboard the International Space Station) it feels like space and astronomy has never been more at the front of the UK public’s consciousness. The possibility of the discovery of a new planet so close to us might seem to make a mockery of how much we claim to know about the vast expanse of space. You might ask how we can claim we understand the structure of galaxies in the distant Universe when we have potentially missed an entire planet in our own solar system for so long. But this planet, if it turns out to be real, will be very dark indeed. The predictions suggest it orbits the Sun, 20 times further out that Neptune (which in turn is 30 ...

This weekend Tim Peake posted this actual picture of his Stargazer Lottie doll on board the ISS! Now don't get me wrong, I've been loving the #lottieinspace illustrations created by ESA and explaining what life is like in space, but they were also obviously faked, and I've had to explain several times already that that doesn't mean Lottie isn't up there, just that those images are faked. Now we have an actual real picture, that explanation got a whole lot easier. :) If there's any kids in your life, they can Ask Lottie all their space questions. She's waiting by her computer!