Every year, the portal V-kosmose.com listens to our faithful reader to find out which space stories excited you most, and 2015 was another incredible year for astronomy, space flight, planetary science and the discoveries of the solar system. Can you guess what stories have made their way into the top 10? Read on to find out.
10. Ceres
From the arrival of the NASA Dawn mission to Ceres and the passage of the New Horizons past Pluto, 2015 will forever be known as the “Year of the dwarf planet”. And Ceres will forever be known as a dwarf planet that we visited for the first time. In March, a mission that performed a slow transit from the massive West asteroid arrived in Ceres orbit, revealing an amazing chipped surface. Immediately there was a puzzle, what the hell are these bright spots? Although Dawn in orbit made the tiny world closer than ever, these bright spots still baffle scientists, stressing once again how mysterious and fascinating is Ceres.
9. Martian
Of course, this is a movie, but this is a movie that Matt Damon starred in and science did! The Martian was not only a box office success, it was a rare film that delighted scientists and the general public. There are some scientific blunders in the film, but in general, it was a science fiction film that demonstrated that scientific precision can move a great story forward without having to deviate from science fiction.
8. OPPORTUNITY: A little tramp who just won't leave
While many of the headlines focused on Curiosity's younger brother, NASA's Opportunity rover is still exploring the Red Planet, despite its wear and tear over 10 years of operation. The veteran robot even finished the extraterrestrial marathon this year, proving that years of steady progress, despite recent problems with "amnesia", can pay off. Take the time to follow this mission, which is still going on on Mars.
7. Hubble is 25 years old
The NASA / ESA Space Telescope. The Hubble is nothing more than a scientific and cultural phenomenon. Since 1990, a powerful space telescope has been pushing the boundaries of astronomical discoveries, transforming our understanding of our place in space. And this year, he celebrated his fourth century anniversary in space - an incredible feat. We look forward to the launch of the NASA space telescope named after James Webb (scheduled for 2018) and we can only hope that the successor to Hubble will have the longevity of the most famous space telescope in the world.
6. CURIOSITY continues the Martian odyssey
NASA's six-wheeled tramp CURIOSITY continues to amaze the world with incredible images and explorations on the slopes of Mount Sharp in the center of Gale's crater. The robotic geologist not only showed a stunning array of the surface of the region under study, but he also discovered the potential habitability of this region in the past, as well as an abundance of evidence regarding the presence in the past of liquid water flowing on the surface of Mars. This is a mission of epic proportions and became the favorite of the reader's choice, as it landed on the Red Planet in 2012, and we cannot wait for what adventures CURIOSITY has prepared for us in 2016.
5. Cassini
After ten years on Saturn’s orbit, NASA’s Cassini mission began its farewell tour. After the recently completed final passage of the mysterious moon of Enceladus, the spacecraft will begin maneuvers in 2016, which have as their ultimate goal a flight through the planes of the planet's ring. Then the ship will reassure its Grand Final, burnt in the atmosphere of Saturn. 2015 was a great year for Cassini, revealing even more incredible scientific data on Saturn's moon system, rings and atmosphere dynamics, and we look forward to even more such studies and beautiful images until the end of the mission.
4. Kepler's alien mega-structures
This story quickly became a viral story of 2015 because of ... aliens! In fact, this is probably a comet cloud, but only a hint at the possibility of the existence of an alien megastructure in the orbit of a star about 1500 light-years away was enough to create a stir on the Internet. But the best thing about this story is that the NASA Kepler space telescope came to the spotlight and the terrific science of detecting exoplanets was the subject of international debate. The discovery of a strange transit signal, discovered by amateur astronomers from the planet hunters project, forced the SETI Institute to turn the powerful Allen Telescope Array to the Tabby star to prove the absence of aliens. However, this does not mean that they are not aliens, it simply means that there are much more likely explanations.
3. Liquid water on Mars?
Ah, the water is on Mars. Yes, we already know that there is water ice on Mars, but this time it's different. Well, it could be different. Back in 2011, some strange seasonal channels were spotted by the NAS Mars Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on the Martian slopes. Although they looked like channels created by streams of liquid water, scientists called for caution - the atmosphere of Mars is so cold and thin that water ice should exist for only a short time, right? But after orbital analysis this year, the chemical residue of these channels was analyzed and showed that these channels can also be caused by the rapid flow of liquid water. However, this water is not from fresh, diverse mountain sources - it is highly toxic water with the addition of perchlorate, if it is really liquid water ...
2. Commercial cosmonautics
Commercial access to space has been growing rapidly in recent years, and 2015 showed some of the greatest achievements. Orbital Science returned from the explosion of its Antares rocket in 2014 and, although its reputation suffered from the Falcon 9 rocket explosion in June, SpaceX returned with a dramatic launch and return of the 1st stage of the rocket this month. Adding these historical advances to the suborbital rocket return by Blue Origins, we get 12 exciting months of commercial success, not only for restocking the space station, but also for launching satellites and refining space technologies. Next stop mars? Who knows.
1. Spur of NEW HORIZONS over Pluto
It was a long wait, but in July, the NASA mission New Horizons flew through the Pluto-Charon system — it was its historic and long-awaited flight. The spacecraft, which took almost a decade to reach the outer solar system, is now breaking through the Kuiper belt and mission scientists are directing it to an object in the Kuiper Belt (QUO) for another flight in 2019. But his Pluto flyby was only the beginning - the spacecraft recorded so much data that it continues to send back detailed information about the dwarf planet, its strange dynamic surface, a crazy set of satellites and some mysterious secrets gathered along the way. It was a historic year; We finally see Pluto in close-up and high-resolution for the first time since it was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombo in 1930.
