Galway Advertiser 2010/GA_2010_02_11/GA_1102_E1_044.pdf 

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February 11 2010

Jupiter moon named after Connemara
BY MARTINA NEE Tourism could take a giant leap for mankind as tourists in the future could opt to take a trip to the second Conamara, the one out in space, according to the founder of Astronomy Ireland who has also praised Galway for leading the way in astronomy teaching. If you thought that the beautiful landscape of Conamara was unique, then think again, as astronomers found that one of Jupiter's moons was so similar that they named it Conamara Chaos. Galway's connections to space and astronomy do not end there, according to David Moore, founder of Astronomy Ireland, who commended NUI Galway for providing the first astronomy degree in Ireland over 10 years ago. Describing how Conamara came to be an inspiration for naming an area on the moon of Europa, Mr Moore told the Advertiser that the people who worked on the Galileo space craft exploration of Jupiter and its surrounding moons were really geologists, not astronomers, and they were struck by the similarities. "Conamara is well known for being a chaotic region of Earth. Geologists are interested in how the rocks and formations came to be that way. They saw Europa, that it was very similar, and named it after Conamara. This happened in the late 1990s when the Galileo space craft was orbiting Jupiter," he said. Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft sent by NASA and launched on October 18, 1989. It arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995, and on September 21, 2003, after 14 years in space and eight years of service in the Jovian system, Galileo's mission was ended. A region of the Europa's terrain was named Conamara Chaos because of the landscape which was produced by the disruption of the icy crust. Regarding Ireland's many connections with space Mr Moore said: "The Irish were the original astronomers. Newgrange is the oldest astronomically aligned structure in the world, about 1,000 years older than Stonehenge, not many people realise that. In the 1800s Ireland had the biggest telescope in the world, located in Birr, Co Offaly. Even today, Ireland has a healthy astronomy community. "There's the astro physics department at NUI Galway. Galway had the first astronomy degree course in Ireland. Astronomy Ireland is celebrating its 20th anniversary and one our main goals when we started was to get a degree course, and Galway did it about 10 years ago. Galway led the way and there are now six degree courses in Ireland," he said. It was recently announced that the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny, Donegal,

Connemara Chaos -- Jupiter's moon

David Moore, founder of Astronomy Ireland.

is accepting submissions with the view of twinning an area of the county with a physical feature on Mars. When asked about the possibility of this happening for Galway, Mr Moore gleefully said: "It's a good idea, it's up to the council but I know that if I was an astronomer living in Galway it would get my vote". "To think that one day there could be a signpost saying "Welcome to Galway, twinned with Europa". Maybe we will be taking trips out there some day. It sounds crazy now, but 100 years ago there were no planes, people thought it was crazy to fly from Europe to the US in one day. Who knows, in another 100 years, we could be going to the other Connemara on Europa for our holidays," he said.

Galway Astronomy Festival this weekend
If you would like to find out more about astronomy then the

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annual Galway Astronomy Festival will be the place to be. The event which will be held at the Westwood House Hotel commencing tomorrow, February 12, is set to attract amateur astronomers from all over the country. The event will include talks from a number of distinguished experts and focuses on encouraging people to get outside and explore the galaxy and beyond. Organised by the Galway Astronomy Club, it will include two free evening lectures and there is a wonderful opportunity to view a piece of local history as the telescope used by local astronomer John Birmingham from Miltown, Galway, will also be on display. Birmingham is noted for discovering the recurrent nova T. Coronae Borealis in 1886 and the Birmingham crater on the moon is named in his honour. Public observing evenings will be held in Brigit's Garden in Roscahill and start at 9.30pm. On Saturday, February 13, the festival continues with a full day of exciting lectures, which include a talk entitled "Space Science: The Next 20 Years", by Professor Alan Smith of University College London. Dublin space writer and publicist Brian Harvey will deliver a lecture on "The Asian Space Race", and NUI Galway lecturer Aaron Golden will debate "Has Earth Contaminated the Solar System? - The case for life on Mars".

For more information contact the club secretary and event coordinator Ronan Newman on 086 8434003 or visit www.galwayastronomyc lub.ie

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