By: Violet Gillett
We can all agree that 2020 has been loathsome, and with good reason. COVID-19, murder hornets, explosions, racial violence, climate change. That’s only a fraction of the horrors we’ve had to live through. We have been living in a dystopian fantasy. However, even though 2020 was an atrocity of the highest accord there have been some favorable results.
First of many breakthroughs was some photos of black holes. The task was presumed impossible before 2019, when the first-ever photo of these giants of mystery and destruction was taken. But they’re possibile. How? The Event Horizon Telescope. To capture an image of those giants of destruction involves improving a skill that allows for the imaging of far-away objects. This requires Very Long Baseline Interferometry, or VLBI. The larger the diameter, the higher the resolution of the telescope. VLBI works with an array of smaller telescopes synchronized to focus on the same object at the same time. They act as a giant telescope that just so happens to take dazzling pictures of a vast never-ending void with the occasional ball of gas that eats itself alive.
Another photographer of celestial bodies, the Solar Orbiter, has recently taken photos of our personal ball of gas that’s eating itself alive aka the sun, from the closest spot ever. The Solar Orbiter’s mission is to study the heliosphere-a bubble in a space of warmth that is constantly expanding. Consider the fact it’s less than a year old, having been launched on February 9th, 2020.
However, not all things can be good. COVID has shown its power over the science community. COVID–or rather, the lack of response to it–forced NASA to work from home. And on May 6, the head of Russia’s human spaceflight program died just weeks after testing positive for coronavirus. Even remote spacecrafts have had to delay, if not cancel entirely, launches or retrievals of import materials. Like what happened to OSIRUS-REx.
Of course we have to talk about Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, when Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn lined up so closely they were only five degrees apart. The last time the planets were this close happened was 1623 in July, however it was unable to be observed as the conjunction had happened in daylight. Taking place on December 21st, a wonder to behold for anyone with clear skies and a vast astronomical knowledge of dates that may result in astonishment. However, anyone can witness a conjunction (if you live about 20 years), the only difference about this vast beauty is how close these planets were, so much so that some of the larger moons in Jupiter’s orbit could be seen by naked eye, the cheaper option to telescopes.
Another rare occurrence, Comet NEOWISE made a very close encounter with our ball of gas, and survived. The comet was so incredibly bright it could be seen in daylight, along with the many remarks about it’s tail. Sadly, if you missed seeing it, you probably won’t ever get the chance to again. Considering it will take at least 6,800 years for it to circle back to the sightline of the rock we planted our feet on and call our own.
2020 has been a rollercoaster for all of us. But we should not deny all of the good things, even if our brains are trained to do just that. After all, leaps in science are catching us before we all fall into the metaphorical ravine.
Sources
- Jones, Graham. “Great Conjunction 2020.” Timeanddate.com, www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/planets/great-conjunction.
- Lutz, Ota. “How Scientists Captured the First Image of a Black Hole – Teachable Moments.” NASA, NASA, 19 Apr. 2019, www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/4/19/how-scientists-captured-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/.
- Strickland, Ashley. “The Year 2020 in Space Discoveries.” CNN, Cable News Network, 24 Dec. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/12/24/world/space-discoveries-milestones-2020-scn-trnd/index.html.
- Urrutia, Doris Elin. “The 10 Biggest Space Discoveries and Stories of 2020.” Space.com, Space, 30 Dec. 2020, www.space.com/biggest-space-discoveries-stories-2020.