Many pivotal events in the field of astronomy happened in 2022. Among other things, the James Webb Space Telescope delivered its first results, the first step towards returning humans to the moon was taken, and mankind managed to deflect an asteroid! Back in pictures on these successful missions and other significant episodes of 2022.
The James-Webb’s first ever image revealing the deep sky
Launched on December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope reached its endpoint a month later and began exploring the sky in early 2022. His very first photo was revealed in July. We observe the deep sky there through the galaxy cluster Smacs 0723. It hosts thousands of galaxies, some of which are only visible in the infrared and have never been observed until now! It is the NIRCam instrument, specialist in this wavelength range, that has made it possible to create this composite image in several weeks. In all it took about 12.5 hours of exposure and lots of pictures which were then stitched together!
The devastating floods in Pakistan seen from the sky
In September 2022, devastating floods swept Pakistan, leaving a third of the country’s residents robbed of their homes and all their belongings, the equivalent of tens of millions of people. Humanitarian aid was urgently requested while crops and livestock were decimated. In question, global warming, as for most extreme climate events, is becoming more numerous. The devastating floods in Pakistan are no exception, after the country experienced heat records of over 50°C back in May! This was followed by torrential rains during the July-September monsoon, enough to create new lakes! The flooded areas remained flooded for at least a month after the rains ended, preventing a return to normal from beginning.
The launch of Artemis marks the first phase of a return to the moon
After several weeks of postponement, the Artemis I mission has finally started! The SLS (Space Launch System) mega rocket was launched on November 16 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The goal of this first stage of the Artemis program is to fly over the moon before returning to earth. No question for now of landing there or taking people there. These two criteria will be gradually met, first with Artemis II, which will fly over the moon with three astronauts, then with Artemis III, which this time will land on the lunar soil with a full crew! At the moment, this last mission is planned for 2025, but will probably be delayed because it depends on SpaceX’s lunar ship, which will not be ready in 2025.
The Earth as seen from the Orion module
Artemis I again, this time with a magnificent shot of the Orion module, on board the SLS. Shortly after launch, the capsule was ejected from the launch vehicle to continue on its course. And some 92,000 kilometers from Earth, thanks to the various cameras he took on board, he snapped a few selfies that revealed stunning views of our planet! After 13 mission days or half, Orion reached the greatest distance from Earth ever reached by a spacecraft intended to carry a crew: 432,210, dethroning the previous record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. 25 days after After launch, the capsule returned to earth unharmed and splashed down off the Mexican island of Guadalupe.
Mission Dart: The view just before impact with the asteroid
This is the first time mankind has managed to deflect an asteroid! She tries the first time too. The impact occurred on the night of September 26/27 after 10 months of travel. Launched on November 24, 2021, the Dart probe violently collided with the asteroid Dimorphos, a small moon 160 meters in diameter orbiting the asteroid Didymos. And managed to change its orbit! The two bodies posed no threat to Earth, but were a perfect playground for trying out planetary defense techniques. Subsequently, this mission serves as a reference point in case an asteroid should dangerously cross our planet.
On the night of September 26-27, 2022, the Dart spacecraft collided with Dimorphos (160 meters in diameter), a small asteroid the size of the Colosseum in Rome, coupled with Didymos (780 meters in diameter). © Nasa, Jhons Hopkins APL
ESA’s new astronauts
The new selection was announced on November 23, 2022 after more than a year and a half of recruitment process. It follows the selections of 1978, 1992 and 2009. Among the new ESA astronauts are two new corps, that of reservists with 12 members and that of para-astronauts. The latter has only one member, John McFall, who may well become the first astronaut with a disability to fly into space! A total of 22,523 applications were submitted in 2021, less than 20 were selected! Five active astronauts were selected, including Frenchwoman Sophie Adenot, lieutenant colonel in the French Aerospace Forces.
March: Sample deposits begin
On December 21, the Perseverance rover dropped a strange tube on the Martian site Three Forks. Resembling a Star Wars-worthy lightsaber, this small vial contains samples from the surface of Mars and is the first in a series of 10 vials that will be brought to the site over the next few months. On the Mars Sample Return mission, Perseverance will deliver them directly to a future robotic lander, which will then take them to a small rocket that will launch them into Mars orbit before returning to Earth. Return made with another spaceship capturing the sample container before exiting! However, analysis of these samples will not be conducted until 2033, the expected date of their arrival.
The Sun seen from Solar Orbiter
Launched on June 15, 2020, the Solar Orbiter probe made its closest approach to the Sun on March 23, 2022, at just 0.32 AU, or 48 million kilometers! At only 32% of the Earth-Sun distance, this placed the spacecraft in orbit of the inner planet Mercury! And just days after that passage, unreleased images of our star’s surface were revealed by the European Space Agency. One in particular, showing a kind of solar “hedgehog” stretching about 25,000 kilometers, with a multitude of hot and cold gas spikes in all directions. The image was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and is actually a composite of 25 different images!
In the Sahara an almost perfect crater
In the heart of the Sahara is one of the best preserved craters on earth: the Tenoumer Crater. With a diameter of 1.9 kilometers and a depth of 110 meters, it lies right in the center of the May 2022 photo and almost looks like it was added by hand! Researchers have long wondered if it was formed by a volcano or a meteorite, especially since basalt rocks have been found surrounding the crater. Finally, studies revealed that this type of lava corresponded to ancient rocks that had melted under the impact of a meteorite! Set within an ancient pre-dinosaur rock plain, Tenoumer Crater is quite young, ranging in age from 10,000 to 30,000 years.
Hubble celebrated its 32nd birthday with a galaxy cluster
Launched in 1990, the Hubble Telescope celebrated its 32nd anniversary this year, revealing a group of galaxies dubbed Hickson Compact Group 40, or HCG40. Among the five galaxies in the photo are a so-called elliptical galaxy and a lenticular galaxy. The other three are in the form of spirals, like the Milky Way. Located near the Hydra constellation, the cluster is so compact it would fit in a region of space less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disc. This is due to the dark matter surrounding them causing each galaxy to come together which then results in a collision! If James-Webb is to be considered his successor, we must not forget all of Hubble’s discoveries. In particular, we count accelerating the expansion of the universe or determining its size and age!
Soil temperatures in Paris this summer
This time it’s not about a star or the one we live in, and more specifically its temperature! Color image made possible by NASA’s Ecostress instrument represents the ground temperature in Paris on June 18, 2022. And in some areas it exceeds 45 °C to reach as high as 48 °C. The month of June has indeed set previous temperature records, with more than 50ºC in certain regions of the world, such as India or Pakistan. Temperatures were about 10°C above normal. And in the cities the heat proved most oppressive, especially in the unvegetated areas. This can be recognized by the few islands of freshness in green corresponding to parks, forests or forests.
Mercury seen from BepiColombo
Since its launch in 2018, the BepiColombo probe, owned by ESA and Jaxa, has made two flybys of Mercury, the first in October 2021 and the second in June 2022. In the process, unprecedented views of the planet closest to the Sun were revealed for the occasion! Mercury is one of the telluric planets and is the smallest in the solar system with a diameter of 4,880 kilometers. Its proximity to the sun makes observation difficult. The photo below shows elements of the spacecraft in the foreground, then many details of Mercury’s surface appear, including the Debussy impact crater surrounded by its ejecta. BepiColombo will make six flybys of Mercury thanks to the planet’s gravitational assistance.
Comet Leonard, Big Winner of Astronomy Photos of 2022
For the past 14 years, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich has held the “Astronomy Photographer of the Year” competition, which awards the most beautiful astronomy photos of the year. In 2022, a snapshot of Comet Leonard, or C/2021 A1, won first prize alongside 35 other photographs. It was photographed by Gerald Rhemann and discovered by astronomer Greg Leonard in 2021. And the image shows a key event in this comet’s life: the tail separation, or when a piece of the comet’s tail separates from the rest. The phenomenon occurred after the comet was hit by high-speed solar particles.