A short article discussing the implications of the Gaia spacecraft on future interstellar travel by Dr Phil Sutton is published in Principium, the quarterly newsletter of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies.

Here, we consider how understanding the positions and movement of stars within our galaxy is important for future missions that might travel beyond our own solar system. One key thing to consider is that stars do not move on Keplerian orbits about the galactic centre and are difficult to understand. Part of this non-Keplerian motion comes a random relative velocity that increases in time due to close encounters with other stars. However, some of the movement of the stars in the galaxy is influenced by dark matter and its distribution. Better understanding how the stars move in our galaxy can help us map out the dark matter more accurately and in turn guide our spacecraft to other stars, at some point in the future.

The full newsletter and article can be found here.

On 22nd October Dr. Phil Sutton attended the meeting of Wolverhampton Astronomical Society to give a talk about some of the most exciting discoveries made by the Cassini spacecraft. We then enjoyed some excellent questions about some of the potential electrical circuits between Saturn and one of its moons and how you can change the rotation axis of astronomical object. Something we as humans have been able to do by melting the polar ice caps.

Below is an image taken by Cassini of the disappearing land in some one of Titan’s methane lakes.

On Wednesday 26th September Dr. Phil Sutton gave a short talk titled “Gravity in Saturn’s Rings” at the Gravityfields, the home place of Isaac Newton (Woolsthorpe Manor).

The “Night at the Manor” event was an opportunity to enjoy the Manor after hours with night time tours and hear interesting science talks on a range of topics on the importance of Newton’s contributions to computational physics, the Sun, tights, particle physics and the language of science.

The talk about gravity in Saturn’s rings looked at how many of the 60+ moons in orbit around Saturn play a role in sculpting the rings in various ways. The rings are gravitationally distorted as the moons move in and around the rings creating gaps, density waves and vertical structures.