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From a spaceship the size of a refrigerator plowing into an asteroid (intentionally) to a helicopter trying to intercept a flying missile Returning to Earth, 2022 presented some surreal moments in space that could have been ripped from the pages of a science fiction movie script.
between memorable events were billionaires plotting space exploration and scientists trying to find answers to puzzling questions to discover deeper mysteries.
The researchers did growing plants on moon soil for the first timewhile engineers has successfully tested an inflatable heat shield that could land humans on Mars. And scientists have determined that a A rare interstellar meteor hit Earth about a decade ago.
Here are 10 times space travel and exploration sounded more like a plot from a Hollywood movie than real life.
A A NASA spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos on purpose, a small asteroid orbiting a larger space rock called Didymos. While the collision may have looked like something out of the 1998 movie Armageddon, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test was a demonstration of warping technology and was the first time it had been carried out for planetary defense.
Many tuned in on September 26 DART’s cameras watching the surface of Dimorphos glow for the first time return live images. Finished after review a spaceship collided with an asteroidBut images taken by space telescopes and Italian satellite later presented dramatic photos.
DART mission noted for the first time, mankind deliberately changed the motion of a celestial body in space. The the spacecraft was replaced the orbit of the lunar asteroid is 32 minutes. Neither Dimorphos nor Didymos pose a threat to Earth, but the double asteroid system was a perfect target for testing warp technology.
Fast radio bursts in space have attracted the interest of astronomers since 2007. purpose a the mysterious radio exploded in a heartbeat-like pattern this year upped the ante.
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are powerful, millisecond bursts of radio waves of unknown origin – fueling speculation that their cause is alien rather than cosmic.
Astronomers estimate that the “heartbeat signal” came from a galaxy about 1 billion light-years away, but Earth and the cause of the explosion is unknown.
In addition, astronomers also discovered a powerful radio wave laser known as a megamaserand a the spinning celestial body releases huge bursts of energy unlike what they had seen before.
Speaking of strange objects, astronomers have made a new breakthrough in understanding strange radio circles, or ORCs. No, they are “The The Lord of the Rings books, but these fascinating objects have baffled scientists since they were discovered in 2020.
The cosmic rings are so large that they are each about 1 million light-years across – 16 times the size of our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers estimate that it takes 1 billion years for the rings to reach their maximum size, and they are so large that they have expanded past other galaxies.
Astronomers have taken a new detailed photo of strange radio circles Using the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT telescope, he narrows down the possible theories that could explain these odd balls in the sky.
Black holes are known for misbehaving and tearing stars apart – so astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope were surprised when they saw them. the black hole that fueled the birth of the star.
Their observation revealed a gaseous umbilical cord extending from the black hole at the center of the dwarf galaxy to the stellar nursery where stars are born. It triggered the flow of gas provided by the black hole a fireworks display of the birth of stars interacting with the cloud.
Astronomers too this year photographed the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxyand Hubble He discovered a single black hole traveling through the Milky Way. They were X-ray signals from black holes turned into eerie sounds we won’t soon forget.
Rocket Lab, a US-based company based out of New Zealand, is trying to find a way to bring back rocket boosters. fall down towards Earth after launch. In 2022, the company made two attempts to deploy a helicopter with a hook trailer. The wild spectacle is part of Rocket Lab’s plans to save money by recovering and reusing rocket parts after launching satellites into space.
The first try In May, it appeared that the helicopter had gone as planned when a booster snagged. However, the pilots decided to drop the rocket part for safety reasons.
Where second attempt, the rocket was never seen and the pilots confirmed that the booster would not return to the factory dry. On Twitter, the company reported there was a data loss problem during missile re-entry.
NASA flew its first virtual assistant on a lunar mission aboard the space agency’s historic Artemis I flight — Amazon’s version of Alexa.
While not exactly reminiscent of HAL 9000, the antagonist voice assistant in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the decision sparked plenty of sparks. face comparisons.
The Artemis I mission was unmanned, but NASA’s ground control teams used a voice assistant called Callisto to control cabin lighting and play music during the trip. Note that he had no ability to open or close doors.
Artemis I was just a test mission, and NASA is still evaluating how the voice recognition system can be incorporated into future missions.
Japanese fashion mogul Yusaku Maezawa chose eight passengers According to him, he will participate in the journey around the Moon with SpaceX’s not yet flown Starship spacecraft. The group includes American DJ Steve Aoki and famous space YouTuber Tim Dodd An astronaut every day.
A mission named Dear Moon was announced for the first time 2018 with the intention of flying by 2023. Maezawa originally intended to take a group of artists with him on a six-day trip around the moon, but later revealed that he expanded the definition of “artist.” Instead, Maezawa stated in a video last year that he would be open to people from all walks of life as long as they see themselves as artists.
Separately, millionaire Dennis Tito, who became the first person to board the International Space Station in the early 2000s own lunar travel plans With SpaceX.
They were pieces of space junk reported It was found in farmland in Australia’s Snowy Mountains, and NASA and authorities have confirmed that the objects are likely. Hardware debris from the SpaceX Dragon capsule In May 2021, the spacecraft was intentionally jettisoned after re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
It is common for space debris to fall to Earth. However, it is less common for objects to land since most of the space debris is thrown into the ocean.
Perhaps among the world’s most unique space startups, SpinLaunch aims to carry satellites in a vacuum-sealed chamber. and launch them into space rather than putting them in a rocket.
The company began testing a scaled-down version of its technology last year, but in 2022 things accelerated. SpinLaunch has completed its 10th test flight. October.
There is also a science fiction connection. Jonathan Yaney, founder of SpinLaunch You are quoting Jules Verne — Author of Journey to the Center of the Earth, who died more than 50 years ago before the first satellite went into space – as the inspiration for SpinLaunch.
It’s unclear whether the company’s technology will ever come to fruition. But in the meantime, this group will be in the desert of New Mexico trying to revive art.
If watching Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and other celebrities wasn’t surreal enough space travel on it self-financing, suborbital rocket as I heard last year the rocket exploded a little more than a year later, over West Texas — albeit on a trip with no passengers — there was a terrifying moment that drove home the adage “space is hard.” But the crew was a capsule carrying science projects and other inanimate cargo managed on 12 September to land successfully.
“The capsule landed safely and the booster impacted the designated danger zone,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement in September. Bezos’ company Blue Origin has been in limbo ever since and has not returned to flight.
And with Richard Branson Virgin Galactic Still, none of the major companies that led suborbital space tourism last year are operating regular flights.
