The world made some remarkable discoveries in deep space exploration in the year 2014. Here's an overview of top five discoveries and groundbreaking forays made in space this year-
1. The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully lands a space probe Philae on comet for the first time ever
On November 12, 2014, 10 years after departing from Earth, European Space Agency (ESA) lander Philae became the first probe to land on a comet. Philae left its spacecraft, Rosetta, and landed on a comet named 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta captured the first image of Philae landing on the comet on its navigation camera. The large red circle indicates the position of the shadow of the dust cloud caused by the landing.
Images Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0; pre-processed by Mikel Catania
Philae is tracked and operated from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. ESA shared the first sounds of Philae landing on the comet.
With its own official Twitter account, Philae was able to communicate to us its first-hand experience on the comet. After getting its feet on the ground, the lander tweeted the first image of its new home, a site the world had been waiting for.
Philae’s mission is to study the process of the formation of comets, as well as, the formation of our Sun and the Solar System. In the process, scientists discovered fascinating sounds coming from the comet, which they now call ‘the singing comet’.
Read: ESA's Rosetta Mission: A decade long quest for the keys to the universe
Philae has also provided pictures of the comet:
Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Currently Philae has lost all communication capability. However, scientists are hopeful that it will wake up again by August 2015. As the comet moves closer to the Sun, the lander's solar panels will receive sufficient energy for it to reawaken and resume collecting data. Here are Philae's last tweets before shutting down.
However before shutting down, Philae returned all of its science data from the targeted instruments including ROLIS, COSAC, Ptolemy, SD2 andCONSERT. This completed the measurements planned for the final block of experiments on the surface.
Watch: "Philae's journey" by Vangelis - ESA
2. India makes space history as ISRO successfully placed 'Mangalyaan' in Mars' orbit
Thanks to Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), nicknamed 'Mangalyaan', India became the first country to successfully reach Mars orbit on the first attempt on September 24, 2014 .
Read: India blazes a trail with Mars mission
After the mission was approved by the Indian government in August 2012, MOM was launched on November 5, 2014 by ISRO from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which has become India’s first interplanetary mission.
Picture of MOM launching off to its destination:
Image Credit: ISRO
The Mars Orbiter posted its first tweet once it was in the red planet's orbit.
The mission was carried out at a cost of Rs. 450 crore and took 15 months to launch. Its main objective is to demonstrate India’s rocket launch systems and capabilities, conduct experiments, look for signs of life on Mars and study its environment. The mission duration was for approximately for six months, with a possibility of extending it to a year.
Watch: Detailed explanation of Indian Mars Orbiter Mission
Through its Twitter account, MOM shared pictures of its amazing views of Mars from many angles.
India became the first country in the world to send a probe into Mars' on its very first attempt. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the ISRO team on its success calling it a huge milestone for the nation. This success has put India among the top nations in space exploration.
3. First step towards human expedition to Mars with NASA's successful launch of Orion spacecraft
NASA launched the Orion capsule on December 5, 2014, for its first key flight test journey into orbit, in order to carry people to deep space destinations like Mars in the coming years. The unmanned spacecraft soared into space from a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in Florida. Thousands of people turned up at the Kennedy Space Centre to watch the rocket take off.
Watch Orion's launch on First Flight Test :
NASA’s Orion is the first spacecraft built after a generation to transport astronauts into space. Apollo 11 was the space flight that landed humans on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Its mission is a deep space exploration which included near earth asteroids, Earth's moon, the moons of Mars and eventually Mars itself.
Read: NASA's Orion spaceship completes debut test flight around Earth successfully
Orion is being called the safest and most advanced spacecraft to ever have been built. It is said to be flexible and capable enough to take humans to a variety of destinations including landing on an asteroid, and into interstellar space.
Watch: Detailed explanation of NASA's "Orion: From Factory to Flight"
Read:All you need to know about NASA's spacecraft Orion and it's mission
NASA’s first Orion spacecraft completed its voyage with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico on December, 8. After its splash into the water, US Navy support vessels and divers, moved in to recover the spacecraft.
The Orion floats in the Pacific with stabilising balloons inflated as the USS Anchorage moves in to retrieve the spacecraft. Image Credit: US Navy
Watch: NASA shares the magnificent fall of Orion's return to Earth
Orion's future mission: A second Orion test flight mission to circle around the moon is scheduled to take place in 2018. The first manned mission is due by 2021. Landing on an asteroid could take place during the late 2020s and a landing on Mars by the 2030s. The success of landing on an asteroid is the most important mission, as it will determine the possible success of landing on Mars.
NASA's plans, aims and objectives for deep space exploration which will take humans possibly to Mars are detailed in a 16 minute video for a more informative understanding.
4. NASA's Curiosity rover finds organic molecules, ancient lake on Mars
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity made its first historical detection of organic molecules, that might be the product of past or present life on the Red Planet. This discovery means that Mars may have one had conditions favourable to hosting life.
According to a statement by NASA, "Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill... Organic molecules, which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of life, although they can exist without the presence of life. Curiosity's findings from analysing samples of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal whether Mars has ever harboured living microbes, but the findings do shed light on a chemically active modern Mars and on favourable conditions for life on ancient Mars."
Curiosity found the organic molecules in a drilled sample of the sheepbed mudstone in Gale crater, the landing site for the Curiosity rover. Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.
This illustration portrays possible ways that methane might be added to Mars' atmosphere (sources) and removed from the atmosphere (sinks). NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has detected fluctuations in methane concentration in the atmosphere, implying both types of activity occur in the modern environment of Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAM-GSFC/Univ. of Michigan.
Curiosity rover also found evidence that supports an ancient lake existed on the red planet millions of years ago. The discovery tells us that the ancient environment on Mars offered a supply of reduced organic molecules for use as building blocks for life and an energy source for life.
Read: Mars rover Curiosity finds mineral samples confirming ancient presence of water
Watch: NASA's detailed explanation of this extraordinary discovery
Layers of sedimentary rock in Gale Crater photographed by Curiosity, serve as evidence of an ancient lake bed.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Gale Crater on Mars was once a large lake that could have existed long enough for life to have been produced. There is not enough evidence to tell if the matter found comes from ancient life on Mars or a non-biological process. Curiosity rover, which has been driving around the now-dry crater floor since August 2012, shows evidence of multiple cycles of water flowing into a large, shallow lake. NASA recreated a picture of the lake to illustrate what it might have once looked like.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS
Curiosity rover's mission: The main scientific goals of the Curiosity mission are to help determine whether Mars could have supported life, as well as study the role of water, its climate and geology. All these steps are in preparation for human exploration on a planet that has intrigued human being for a long time.
NASA's Curiosity rover has completed two Earth years on Mars and has provided detailed analysis of the planet's geology and mineralogy, as well as clues to past habitability. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, aboard the MSL spacecraft and landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012.
Here's a look back at its very first tweet when Curiosity touched down on Mars:
A look at the famous rover Curiosity hard at work for our understanding in the history of Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
5. Hubble telescope's time lapse video of star's explosion
Astronomers in 2002 witnessed an enormous explosion emerging from a red star, V838 Monocerotis, a star located 20,000 light years away from the Earth’s Sun. The Hubble telescope captured a series of images between 2002 and 2006, when V838 created an expanding light echo as it burst (where light from a stellar explosion bounces off dust surrounding the star). The light from the eruption was so bright that it became one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way. According to NASA-
"A typical nova is a normal star that dumps hydrogen onto a compact white-dwarf companion star. The hydrogen piles up until it spontaneously explodes by nuclear fusion -- like a titanic hydrogen bomb -- exposing a searing stellar core with a temperature of hundreds of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit.
By contrast, V838 Monocerotis did not expel its outer layers. Instead, it grew enormously in size. Its surface temperature dropped to temperatures that were not much hotter than a light bulb. This behaviour of ballooning to an immense size, but not losing its outer layers, is very unusual and completely unlike an ordinary nova explosion. The outburst may represent a transitory stage in a star's evolution that is rarely seen."
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
NASA released a video of the red star's gradual dramatic change as it bursts in space. The video is an actual time-lapse video taken over the period of four years. Scientists have yet to discover the cause of the outburst.
Watch: The breathtaking evolution of the light echo
2014 has taken to a new age in exploration with the promise of more exciting thrilling discoveries to come beyond our wildest imagination.
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