The most beautiful astronomy photos celebrating 2022

Many defining events in the field of astronomy took place in 2022. Among others The James Webb Space TelescopeThe James Webb Space Telescope its first results are the first step in the return of people MoonMoon passed and humanity a asteroidasteroid ! Check back for pictures of these successful missions and other important episodes of 2022.

The first James-Webb image to reveal the deep sky

Launched on December 25, 2021, the James-Webb Space Telescope reached its endpoint a month later and began surveying the sky in early 2022. His first photo was shown in July. We observe the deep skycluster of galaxiescluster of galaxies Smacs 0723. It is home to thousands of galaxies, some of which are visible only to the planet.infraredinfrared, has not been observed so far! This is a tool NIR CamNIR Camexpert in this field wavelengthswavelengths, this complex image took several weeks to create. In total, it took about 12.5 hours of exposure and a lot of images stacked up later!

Devastating floods in Pakistan were seen from the sky

In September 2022, Pakistan found itself drowning in atrocities floodsfloodsdeprived a third of the country’s inhabitants of them lobbylobby and everything they have, that is, several tens of millions of people. Humanitarian aid was urgently required, crops and livestock were destroyed. In question Global WarmingGlobal Warming, like the most extreme climate events, more and more. Devastating floods in Pakistan are no exception, the country has already reached record levels heatheat More than 50 ° C in May! Heavy rains fell from July to September monsoonmonsoon, going so far as to create new lakes! Flooded lands were also submerged for at least a month after the rains ended, preventing them from beginning to return to normal.

The rising of Artemis marks the first stage of the return to the Moon

After weeks of delays, the Artemis I mission has finally launched! SLS mega rocket (Space launch system) was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on November 16 NASANASA. The goal of this first phase of the Artemis program is to fly over the Moon before returning to Earth. There is no question of landing there or bringing people there. These two criteria will be met gradually, with Artemis II carrying three first astronautsastronauts Flying over the moon, then with Artemis III, this time taking a full crew to land on the moon! This final mission is currently scheduled for 2025, but will probably be delayed because it depends on SpaceX’s Lunar Starship, which won’t be ready until 2025.

Earth as seen from the Orion module

Artemis I again, this time captured by the module with a spectacular view OrionOrion, aboard the SLS. Shortly after takeoff, the capsule was thrown into the air launcherlauncher, to continue the course. And at about 92,000 kilometers from Earth, he did some selfies Thanks to various cameras that show amazing views of our planet! After 13 mission days, or a half, Orion reached the greatest distance from Earth achieved by a crewed spacecraft: 432,210, breaking the previous mission record ApolloApollo 13 in 1970. Twenty-five days after takeoff, the capsule bounced off the Mexican island of Guadalupe and returned to Earth unharmed.

Mission Dart: view just before impact with asteroid

This is the first time that mankind has been able to guide an asteroid! He tries it for the first time. The attack took place on the night of September 26-27, after a 10-month journey. Prob dartdartOn November 24, 2021, a small satellite with a diameter of 160 meters collided violently with the Dimorphos asteroid. orbitorbit Around the asteroid Didymos. And managed to change its orbit! The two bodies posed no threat to Earth, but were the perfect playground for testing planetary defenses. This mission will serve as a reference point if the asteroid later dangerously passes our planet.

On the night of September 26-27, 2022, the Dart spacecraft collided with Dimorphos (160 meters in diameter) and Didymos (780 meters in diameter), a small asteroid about the size of the Colosseum in Rome. © NASA, Johns Hopkins APP

ESA’s new astronauts

The new selection was announced on November 23, 2022, after a recruitment process that lasted more than a year and a half. This follows selections in 1978, 1992 and 2009. The new ESA astronauts include two new corps, a 12-member reservist corps and paraastronauts. The latter has only one member, John McFall, who may be the first disabled astronaut to go into space! A total of 22,523 applications were submitted against less than 20 selected applications in 2021! Five active astronauts were selected, including Frenchman Sophie Adenot, lieutenant colonel of the French armed forces. WeatherWeather and Cosmos.

March: start of sample deposits

rover on December 21 EnduranceEndurance Mars threw a strange pipe at the site “Three ForksForks “. Similar to the appearance of a sword laserlaser is worthy Star Wars, this small tube contains samples from the Martian surface and is the first in a series of 10 tubes to be delivered to the field in the coming months. During the mission Mars Pattern ReturnPerseverance will bring them directly to the next landing roboticsroboticsthen who will make them a small deposit rocketrocket They were tasked with launching them into Mars orbit before returning to Earth. The return will be carried out by another spacecraft that will hold the container of samples before departure! However, analysis of these samples will not be conducted before the expected arrival date of 2033.

The Sun as seen by the Solar Orbiter

Investigation initiated on June 15, 2020 Solar OrbitSolar Orbit approached SunSun Only 0.32 on March 23, 2022 AUAU, or 48 million kilometers! At just 32% of the Earth-Sun distance, this placed the spacecraft in orbit around the inner planet. MercuryMercury ! And unpublished images of our surface just a few days after this transition starstar Presented by the European Space Agency. One in particular shows a kind of solar “hedgehog” with multiple peaks stretching over about 25,000 kilometers. gasgas hot and cold in all directions. He recorded the pictureExtreme UltravioletUltraviolet Image (EUI) and actually corresponds to an assembly of 25 different images!

A nearly perfect crater in the Sahara

In his heart desertdesert One of the best-preserved craters on the planet Sahara: the Tenoumer crater. With a diameter of 1.9 kilometers and a depth of 110 meters, it is right in the middle of the picture taken in May 2022, and it looks like it was added by hand! Researchers have long believed that his a volcanovolcano or a meteoritemeteoriteespecially rocks basaltbasalt found all over the crater. Finally, research has revealed that this is the case to washto wash matched the ancient rocks that melted under the impact of a meteorite! If it is in the middle of an ancient rock plain dinosaursdinosaursTenoumer crater is quite young, between 10,000 and 30,000 years old.

Hubble celebrated its 32nd anniversary with a cluster of galaxies

Telescope launched in 1990 HubbleHubble This year, it celebrated its 32nd anniversary and on this occasion presented a group of galaxies called “. Hickson Compact Group 40 », or HCG40. Among the five galaxies in the picture, the so-called elliptical galaxy and a lenticular galaxylenticular galaxy. As for the other three, they are spiral, e.g Milky WayMilky Way. located in the direction of constellationconstellation who’shydrahydra, the group is so compact that it fits into a region of space less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disk. The reason for this black matterblack matter surrounding it, causing every galaxy to come together, causing a collision! If James-Webb is considered his successor, we should not forget all the discoveries made by Hubble. We include especiallyaccelerates the expansion of the universeaccelerates the expansion of the universeor determining its size and its age!

The ground temperature in Paris this summer

Not one this time starstar that this is a question, or rather, the question we live in, more precisely, its temperature! The picture inside colorscolorsMade possible by NASA’s Ecostress instrument, it reflects the temperature of the earth in Paris on June 18, 2022. In some areas, it rises above 45°C and rises to 48°C. June has indeed broken previous temperature records of over 50°C in some parts of the world such as India and Pakistan. The temperature was about 10°C above normal. The heat was most stifling in cities, especially in non-vegetated areas. This can be seen in several islands of freshness in the greenery that corresponds to the parks. to drinkto drink or forests.

Mercury seen by BepiColombo

Research since its launch in 2018 BepiColomboBepiColombowhich belongs to theESAESA and Jaxa made two flybys to Mercury, the first in October 2021 and the second in June 2022. Introducing new views of the planet closest to the Sun! which belongs to the tellurian planetstellurian planetsMercury is the smallest Solar systemSolar system, its diameter is 4880 kilometers. Proximity to the Sun makes it difficult to observe. The photo below shows elements of the spacecraft in the foreground, followed by many details of Mercury’s surface, including the Debussy impact crater surrounded by its ejecta. BepiColombo will run six races flyoversflyovers Thanks to Mercurygravity assistgravity assist of the planet.

Comet Leonard, the big winner of the 2022 astronomy photos

Every year for the past 14 years, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich has ” Astronomy Photographer of the Year », awards the most beautiful astronomy photos of the year. This is a snapshot in 2022 the cometthe comet Leonard or C/2021 A1 won first prize among 35 others photographsphotographs. Photographed by Gerald Rhemann, who discovered it in 2021an astronomeran astronomer Greg Leonard. And the picture shows the main event in the life of this comet: the separation of the tail or a fragment of the comet comet tailcomet tail separates from the rest. This phenomenon occurred after the comet collided with large solar particles. speedspeed.