In the words of American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, “Mars has been flown by, orbited, smacked into, radar examined, and rocketed onto, as well as bounced upon, rolled over, shoveled, drilled into, baked and even blasted. Still to come: Mars being stepped on.” Indeed, the outer space remains one of the most enigmatic and fascinating frontiers that captivates both scientists and everyday people alike. From advancements in telescopes to groundbreaking exploration missions, new discoveries about the universe seem to happen all the time.
One of the latest and most groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy was actually made by accident. In 2019, a team of scientists working on the Dark Energy Survey, a five-year mission to map hundreds of millions of galaxies, stumbled upon what is now known as the “accidental” galaxy. The galaxy, now named Bedin 1, is located 30 million light-years away from our Milky Way, and was missed by previous surveys due to its size and lack of brightness. Its discovery gives scientists a better understanding of the formation of dwarf galaxies, and opens up new avenues for research on the cosmic evolution of galaxies.
Exploration missions have also revealed a wealth of new knowledge about the cosmos. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, for instance, made history in 2015 when it reached and flew by Pluto, providing the first-ever close-up images of the distant dwarf planet. More recently, the spacecraft reached Ultima Thule, an object in the Kuiper Belt located four billion miles away from Earth. Its examination provided insights into how the solar system was formed and the properties of the early universe.
Telescopes, meanwhile, continue to help astronomers and researchers to peer ever deeper into space. In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope team released the first image of a black hole, the result of years of work and collaboration between scientists and observatories around the world. The image captured the silhouette of the massive object’s event horizon, the point of no return beyond which nothing can escape its gravitational pull.
As technology continues to advance, the possibilities for further discovery and exploration are endless. NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2021, will allow scientists to look even deeper into the universe than ever before. And with private space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin heading towards commercial space travel, the possibility of humans living and exploring beyond our own planet becomes an increasingly real prospect.
The exploration and study of astronomy and space exploration is both thrilling to enthusiasts and vitally important to understanding the universe in which we live. From accidental discoveries to intricate missions, scientists and researchers continue to push the boundaries of what we know about the universe, providing new insights and a never-ending sense of wonder.