Best Space Stories of 2016

There have been posts abounding on social media about what a difficult year 2016 was. No matter how you feel about many of the events in the past year, 2016 was a great year for space exploration. There is always something we can celebrate - read on to enjoy my favorite space stories from 2016!

Gravitational Waves Detected

On February 11, David Reitze, Executive Director of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), confirmed that gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein 100 years ago, had been detected at last. This discovery is the equivalent to Galileo pointing his telescope at the planets for the first time. Since the initial announcement, a second gravitational event was announced in June of 2016.  

The first part of the wave, with short peaks, is the normal "noise" in the signal. The large peaks are the gravitational wave, bending spacetime. Image Credit 

Gravitational waves are ripples through spacetime that occur when very energetic interactions happen, like the collision of two black holes. They are incredibly difficult to detect. You can read my full blog post explaining gravitational waves here. 
 
So, we have detected something very difficult to find, proving that another piece of Einstein's theory was correct. What's the big deal? Why are astronomers so excited about this? Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist who helped design and found LIGO (and also wrote the book that inspired large parts of the movie Interstellar), said this detection is a "scientific moonshot". Now that we have the capability to detect gravitational waves, we have a whole new way to observe the Universe. When we started using telescopes, we only observed the optical light in the Universe - light we can see with our eyes. This is just a tiny fraction of all the STUFF in the cosmos however.Then we developed the ability to observe in the infrared and x-rays, and eventually, the entire electromagnetic spectrum. And now, we can observe in an entirely different spectrum made of gravitational waves. We will be able to detect gravitational waves from black holes colliding and pulling apart neutron stars, neutron stars spinning and colliding, and possibly from cosmic strings. Every time we have found a new way to observe the Universe, the discoveries have astounded us. We can only imagine the discoveries that will follow this first detection.

Planet Nine Prediction 

In January of 2016, astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin announced that they had found significant evidence predicting a ninth planet in our Solar System! This planet has not been found yet - scientists are using survey telescopes to search for it - but there is a great deal of evidence to predict its orbit and mass. Brown and Batygin predict that the ninth planet has a mass about 10 times that of Earth, and orbits the Sun about 20 times farther away than Neptune. It would take the planet 10,000 to 20,000 Earth years to complete one orbit. 

This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun.
Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

The suspicion that there was massive object lurking very far way from the Sun began with the discovery of Sedna in 2004. Sedna has a very elliptical orbit, and a very long one, taking about 11,400 years to complete an orbit. One of the possible explanations for Sedna's odd orbit was a massive object interacting with it. A few years later, Trujillo and astronomer Scott Sheppard wrote a paper describing other Kuiper Belt objects (KBO) that had perihelia (closest approach to the Sun) matching Sedna's. They proposed that an object with mass about twice that of Earth could be influencing these KBOs, but couldn't get the data to work out perfectly. Brown and Batygin began running simulations to try to figure out where such an object would be if it existed, and what it would be like. 

Orbits of known objects were analyzed to predict the existence of a massive object orbiting the Sun. Image Credit: Find Planet Nine 

While Brown and Batygin were working on their theoretical models, another group of astronomers, Rodney Gomes and colleagues, wrote a paper describing a separate set of objects they believed were also being influenced by a distant object. These objects turned out to have orbits roughly perpendicular to the plane of the Solar System. When Brown and Batygin learned about these objects, their theory suddenly seemed very plausible, even probable. Their model ties together three mysteries of the Kuiper Belt, with the explanation being a yet-discovered, massive planet orbiting far from the Sun!  Brown and Batygin have released the probable orbit of Planet Nine in hopes that it will be discovered in the next few years. They are blogging about their search at findplanetnine.com
You can read my full blog about Planet Nine here.

Juno Arrives at Jupiter! 

This July 4, the Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter! It is powered solely by solar panels, and has flown farther away from the Sun than any previous solar powered mission.
The mission is designed to study Jupiter's interior, which we know very little about. It is  also studying the gas giant's magnetic and gravitational fields. Scientists will use data from Juno to try to understand how, when, and where Jupiter formed. If we learn more about Jupiter's formation, we will know more about the formation of the Solar System as a whole.  

Juno has released some beautiful images. 

Jupiter's north and south pole, imaged by Juno. Look at those fantastic swirls at the south pole! Image Source

Jupiter's south pole again, from the third close approach of Juno. Image Source

Jupiter's clouds, processed by an amateur, like all Juno images. Image source.

For now, Juno is staying in a long orbit around Jupiter, a 53 day orbit rather than the planned 14 day orbit. This is due to an unexpected reaction in some of its thrusters. Mission planners would rather be safe than sorry, so it will stay in its long orbit. It is still able to complete its science objectives, but the mission will take longer to complete. You can read more about the issue here. 

Juno will continue to do science and send us beautiful images in 2017. You can follow the mission at its website, where you can also watch a bunch of entertaining and educational videos about the mission featuring Bill Nye. Social media users can follow it on Facebook and Twitter as well.  Read my full blog about Juno here. 

Rosetta Lands on Comet and Mission Ends

On September 30, 2016, the Rosetta mission ended by landing on the comet it had spent two years studying - Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This was a bittersweet event for many, as the mission was such a success. It was sad to see it end, but a beautiful and exciting finale. You can read my full blog on the wrap up of the mission here. Below are some of my favorite images from Rosetta. 

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, backlit by the Sun. Rosetta was 204 miles from the comet.

ESA / Rosetta / Navcam

Rosetta and Comet 67P. Image Credit

Image Credit

You can see an abundance of gorgeous images from the Rosetta mission at its Flickr page.

The second to last picture ever taken by Rosetta, only 1.2 km from the surface of the comet. Image Source

What a joy the Rosetta mission was. It took so many beautiful pictures, it is very difficult to only chose a few. It helped scientists understand comets much better than before. Thank you, ESA!

ExoMars Lander Crashes - Orbiter Safe 

ExoMars, the 8th active mission at the Red Planet, arrived at Mars in October. The Trace Gas Orbiter successfully entered orbit, but sadly its test lander, Schiaparelli, crash landed and exploded on impact. 

The crash site of the ExoMars lander as seen on November 1, 2016, about two weeks after the crash. Color and grayscale data have been combined to emphasize the shape of the impact crater, dark ejecta from the impact/explosion, and bright fragments of the lander.

NASA / JPL / UA / Emily Lakdawalla

On October 19, the lander was supposed to separate from the orbiter, and descend to the surface of Mars. This lander did not have much of a scientific payload, rather it was intended to test the landing capabilities before the next half of the ExoMars mission is sent in 2020. 

Image of Mars' moon Phobos taken by the Trace Gas Orbiter. Image Source

Separation was successful, and it appears that some of the early descent stages went well.  Schiaparelli slowed down as it entered the atmosphere, and the parachute and heat shield deployed. However, the signal being sent from the lander stopped abruptly before the module was expected to touchdown. The rover crash landed and perhaps exploded on the surface. Because it was able to send information to ESA for part of the descent, they will be able to analyze that data to learn what they need to improve. 

This is an important news story for 2016 because it reminds us that space is HARD. Sending an object to another world, 55 million miles away, and having it safely land on the surface, especially since Mars has much less air to slow the craft down, pushes the boundaries of our engineering and technology. This difficulty is the reason a test lander was planned in the first place. Mission planners will be closely studying what they need to do to improve their lander for the next half of the ExoMars mission. 

Scott Kelly Completed His Year in Space 

This March, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko returned to Earth after spending a year on the International Space Station. The year long mission was a twin study for NASA - Scott and his twin, Mark Kelly, had tests done before and after the mission, to help learn the effects of long term spaceflight on the human body. 

The mission was very successful in terms of scientific research, much of which is still on going. It was just as successful in public outreach. People all over Earth followed along as Scott posted on social media about his life in space. Below are some of my favorites of his images. You can see many more here. All images are credited to NASA and taken by Scott Kelly.

Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Earth.

All in all, 2016 was a pretty great year for space exploration! I am grateful that I have been able to continue learning about astronomy and science all year, and sharing my enthusiasm and knowledge with the guests at the Peoria Riverfront Museum and the readers of this blog. 2017 should be another exciting year - be looking for posts about space stories to follow in the upcoming year soon! 

You can always learn what's up in the night sky and the latest news from space at the Dome Planetarium at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates.