2020 has been a difficult year down on planet Earth, with the coronavirus pandemic disrupting the normal human industry.
With so much of Earth’s population stuck at home for large parts of the year, it has at least been good for looking up at the skies and capturing the wonders of space.
Out in the infinite depths we have seen vast cosmic sights such as comets, eclipses, and the alignments of the adjacent planets.
And amid the chaos back on earth, scientists, engineers and astronauts have continued to improve our understanding of the universe with modern space missions.
Here ‘s a look back at what happened in space in 2020.
Space X made more history
SpaceX by Elon Musk they successfully placed a capsule with a team up to the International Space Station – the first private company to do so.
Two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, were launched from a Falcon 9 rocket in May, from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This was a team test flight, with four more astronauts arriving on a SpaceX capsule in November, to stay six months on the ISS.
The sun like you’ve never seen it
In February the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter began its mission to take images from closer to the sun than any previous spaceship.
ESA says this is the most complex scientific laboratory dedicated to our star. The first images were released in July, showing the features of the sun in more detail than ever before.
“It’s as if the spaceship sent us a postcard from its mission,” said Daniel Müller, ESA’s Solar Orbiter Project Scientist.
Over the next five years the orbiter will reveal images of the poles – which control the sun’s mysterious magnetic field – and the sides of our star that have never been seen before.
Scientists also hope to find out what heats the solar corona to millions of degrees, what directs the solar wind, and how it affects our planet and the planet. -the widest solar system.
Comet Neowise made a rare visit
Just discovered in March, this comet was the brightest visible object from the Northern Hemisphere for about 25 years – and will not be back for another 7,000 years.
Neowise visited on a rare trip to Earth on its long journey around the solar system this year, seen in July and August. It was clearly visible in the clear night skies, with a long tail caused by dust and ice burning off its surface due to its proximity to the heat of the sun.
It is named after a NASA Neowise infrared space telescope, which he saw.
Touchdown: Asteroid missions were successful
NASA landed a spacecraft on a small piece of rock crashing through space 200 million miles from Earth in October.
OSIRIS-Rex visited down a short distance on the Bennu distance, reaching down to its surface to collect material scientists say it could shed light on the formation of the solar system.
Although this was the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid, Japan has already done so twice.
This was the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid, something Japan has accomplished twice.
In fact, Japan’s second mission to collect material from an asteroid was successfully completed in December, when a capsule with samples from the Ryugu asteroid crashed down in the Australian Outback.
The first ever mission was to collect asteroid subscription material.
The planets are the same
Jupiter and Saturn were at their nearest alignment in the sky for 400 years in December.
Known as the Great Confederacy, the gas giants were once smaller than the diameter of the full moon, having been close together in the night sky for the most part. of the year.
Astronomer and author Tom Kerrs told Euronews: “Four hundred years ago was the last time we saw one (Great Consortium) so special and this is why astronauts encourage you to go out and look. “
While the planets overlap in their orbits around the Sun every 20 years on Earth, they have not been as close to the sky since 1623.
Total solar eclipse
Thousands of people were rewarded for betraying the rain and cloudy weather in Chile and Argentina this month, with a view of a complete solar eclipse.
Crowds cheered as the sun was completely covered by the moon, before a short silence fell.
The next eclipse from that part of the world will be in 2048.