Satellite 4 — Eastercon 65
Celebrating humanity's journey to the limits of the solar system and beyond
with Guests of Honour:
John Meaney — Juliet E McKenna — Jim Burns
Alice and Steve Lawson
and Special Guest:
Sir Terry Pratchett
(limited appearance, subject to health)
Recent News 
Sir Terry on prize shortlist
Let's all keep our fingers crossed for our special guest, whose novel Snuff is shortlisted for a prestigious Comic Fiction prize. It isn't the first time one of his works has been in the running, so let's hope it's fourth time lucky!
Full story here.
Added on 2012-05-15 19:26 by Mad Elf
By the light of the red-hot super Earth...
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has for the first time directly observed the (infra-red) light given off by a extra-solar planet: a (probably) water-covered rocky companion to 55 Cancri. Not to get our hopes up though; it's about eight times the mass of Earth, is close enough to its star to be tidally locked and have an 18-hour orbit, and has temperatures around 1,725°C on the hot side. (Which the JPL website charmingly describes as "hot enough to melt metal"... pick your metal carefully enough and -38°C is "hot" enough to melt it.) Apparently the water is in a supercritical liquid/gas state, which sound like it may have some interesting physics attached to it. Unfortunately 41 light years is a bit far for that sort of observation...
Full story here.
Added on 2012-05-09 19:58 by Mad Elf
Price Increase on 1st June 2012
Our special introductory membership rates will only be available until the end of this month. So please sign up soon if you want to take advantage of them.
From 1st June 2012 an adult attending membership will cost £55 and an unwaged membership will cost £45. All other categories remain as at present.
Added on 2012-05-02 18:14 by Christine