Space in 2020: many reasons to celebrate in a terrible year

Life on the surface of planet Earth in 2020 was disturbing to say the least, but beyond this rock lies a vast amount of outer space where quite a few interesting and exciting things took place.

As humanity crouched down to wait for COVID-19 pandemic and it endured a constant stream of economic, political, environmental and social conflicts, SpaceX, NASA and many others were sending all kinds of things into space, including astronauts.

In late May, NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken became the first humans to take off. to orbit of US soil in nearly a decade when rode a SpaceX crew dragon to the International Space Station as part of the Demo-2 mission. The fully modern spacecraft with touch screens was also the first new vehicle certified by NASA to transport astronauts since the space shuttle was introduced nearly four decades ago.

The mission was technically a demonstration, but its success was followed in November by the Crew Dragon’s first operational flight
, taking four astronauts to the ISS.

The robotic space explorers also had a busy year. July represented the best time to head to Mars for years to come, so NASA seized the opportunity, sending the Perseverance rover on its way to the red planet, where it will search for signs of potential life and also deploy a tiny helicopter to explore. a little further. The United Arab Emirates launched its Hope probe toward Mars, and China’s Tianwen-1 is carrying an orbiter, lander and rover in the same direction.

In addition to new missions heading into space as emissaries from an enclosed world, some older ones brought us samples from beyond Earth. Japan Hayabusa 2 bits thrown from the air it had accumulated after firing a special copper bullet at the asteroid Ryugu. A capsule containing the resulting powder and pebbles landed in Australia in December, after which the sample was transported to Japan.

NASA also boarded an asteroid this year when the Osiris-Rex spaceship performed some kind of cosmic robbery of the potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu. That sample is expected to reach Earth in 2023.

From China Chang’e Mission 5 He got his own space flair by launching himself, landing on the moon, collecting a sample, and returning some moon rocks and soil, over the course of less than a month in November and December.

All of these missions were launched years ago and were successful in 2020. Others were hampered by the pandemic.

NASA’s Next Generation Launch The James Webb space telescope was rejected once again, through 2021. Commercial space companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have continued to make progress, but have yet to start sending tourists on microgravity trips.

OneWeb, which aims to provide broadband access from low Earth orbit, felt the shock of the economic recession and declared bankruptcy as the pandemic went global. The company emerged in the second half of the year with the British government as the new co-owner and resumed launching satellites to catch up with SpaceX, which has already Began beta testing of its broadband constellation, Starlink.

SpaceX and Elon Musk set more milestones in 2020 beyond achieving manned spaceflight and deploying hundreds of routers into orbit. The company launched 26 Falcon 9 rockets, some of which have already made seven flights each. On the side, his last The prototype starship finally made a high-altitude flight, which ended with a spectacular and explosive landing.

So as not to be forgotten Star man, the mannequin that piloted Musk’s red Telsa since it was shot down over the Falcon Heavy in early 2018, this year it finally passed near Mars.

Eyes in the sky

When humans and our robots weren’t actually traveling into space, we were very busy keeping an eye on it with much more fervor than we could muster for another Zoom meeting or webinar.

It’s hard to believe that in early 2020, the unusual behavior of the giant star Betelgeuse and the possibility of it going supernova was on our list of things to worry us. It later turned out that Betelgeuse was doing well, and was easily forgotten when we turned our attention to sanitizing food and searching the planet for toilet paper.

But as our dreaded and much-ridiculed new normal dragged on, the skies became a popular distraction as multiple new comets were discovered and promised to put on a show. Some failed, but Comet Neowise delivered the merchandise
in July, making itself visible even to sky watchers with the naked eye in an exhibit that was the best in decades. Annual meteor showers like the Perseids, Taurids and Leonids also impressed in 2020. The lucky ones in parts of Africa and Asia had the opportunity to see a “ring of fire” solar eclipse in June, and others, in a relatively small portion of South America, I glimpsed a total solar eclipse in December.

But perhaps the biggest exhibit was the winter solstice Great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which became easily visible for the first time in eight centuries to close the year. The two largest planets in the solar system looked almost Siamese at night, and even hobbyists with basic backyard telescopes could make out the rings of Saturn and various moons of gas giants.

Looking at the planets

Professional astronomers searched deep space, as they always do, and made more exciting discoveries. They saw evidence of water in new locations on Mars, and our other next-door neighbor, Venus, made a surprising upward move in ranking worlds worth looking for signs of life.

In what has since become a controversial claim, a team of scientists reported seeing phosphine, a by-product of living organisms, in the surprisingly pleasant cloud covers above the uninhabitable hell that is the surface of Venus.

Astronomers went on to show that our galaxy and the realms beyond are full of planets, including some Potentially habitable Earth-like worlds. There also seems to be a second planet orbiting our closest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri. New for 2020 was the normalization of citizen scientists and even artificial intelligence making such discoveries.

However, in true 2020 style, they were not all charismatic comets and newly discovered terrestrial cousins. In a staggering but disturbing reminder of the violence present in the universe, scientists captured the process of a distant black hole absolutely gutting a star
you got too close through a bit comical but mostly scary process called spaghetti.

Yes, Virginia, this universe has no problem turning you into pasta and eating you for lunch.

And on a really sad note, December started with some wild footage of the iconic Arecibo radio observatory collapsing. For decades, the huge plate in the jungle helped us better understand and explore the universe.

Sorry to end with a disappointment. It seems appropriate for the year we’ve had. But space, seen through the eyes of astronauts, scientists, and mere fanatics like me, remains one of the brightest positives of a year that most would hope to forget.

I wouldn’t dare tempt fate by saying that 2021 will be even better, but I will point out that the next meteor shower is here, with the Quadrantids scheduled to peak on January 2, while February will see Perseverance lands on Mars.

Keep looking forward and up to the sky, and Happy New Year.