The sky continues to be humanity’s endless curiosity and desire to explore. 2023 has been an exciting year in space exploration and discovery. The world’s leading space agencies have carried out complex and challenging space travels to get to know our planet and the Solar system better and to find answers to fundamental questions.
Space exploration taking place in 2023!
India made history by landing near the south pole of the Moon. The Chinese government sent the first civilian into space. NASA’s Perseverance vehicle successfully collected samples on Mars. The European Space Agency also started a new mission to explore Jupiter’s moons. Magnificent photos continued to come from the James Webb Telescope.
Some of the space explorations taking place in 2023 are as follows:
The perfect solar system has been found
In November, astronauts discovered a solar system consisting of 6 planets that have not changed for billions of years, 100 light years away from Earth. The planets in the system are all close in size and don’t appear to have changed much in about 12 billion years. This provides the opportunity to study how the planetary system was formed and whether there is life.
The James Webb Space Telescope experienced its first major accident: A meteoroid hit!
It was announced that a larger-than-expected micrometeoroid hit the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s most powerful eye, at the end of May.
Historic moment for India!
India became the first country to land near the south pole of the Moon with the spacecraft called Chandrayaan-3 in August. With this success, India became the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed the landing live and commented on this historic moment: “India is now on the Moon.”
Russia’s space travel with the same goal failed to achieve its goal. One of the goals of Chandrayaan-3 will be to explore water-based ice, which scientists say could support human settlement on the Moon in the future.
First Chinese civilian in space
One of the events that took place in 2023 was that, for the first time, there was a civilian among the three astronauts China sent to the Tiangong Space Station. The Shenzhou-16 spacecraft was launched in May from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert in the northwest of the country.
The crew consisted of Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao. The trio was sent to take over from the team that had been aboard China’s newly completed Tiangong Space Station since November. Professor Gui from Beihang University, who was on the Shenzhou-16 crew, became the first Chinese civilian to board the space station.
Jupiter trip from the European Space Agency
In 2023, the ambitious journey of the European Space Agency (ESA) began. It launched the spacecraft Ariane-5 from French Guiana to study Jupiter’s icy moons. It will take about 8 years for the rocket to reach Jupiter’s moons.
Scientists think that the moons Callisto, Europa and Ganymede have oceans. ESA’s mission called Jupiter’s Icy Moons Exploration (Juice) aims to understand whether the necessary conditions for the life of microorganisms exist on Jupiter’s moons.
Perseverance brings rocks from the red planet
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) spacecraft Perseverance collected rock samples from Mars. In this complex mission, Perseverance dropped sample tubes with stored samples at designated locations. If contact with Perseverance is somehow lost, these samples will be brought back to Earth. The best way to find out whether there is life on the Red Planet will be to examine the rocks brought.
A woman will be sent to the Moon for the first time
One of the most exciting trips to space of 2023 was announced by NASA in April. With the flight called Artemis 2, a woman and a black astronaut will be sent to the Moon for the first time. American astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were selected for the launch, which is planned to take place before November 2024.
NASA Director Vanessa Wyche said all four astronauts represented “the best of humanity.” Astronauts will not land on the Moon in the Artemis 2 mission. A number of tasks will be performed, such as testing the route that astronauts who will travel to the Moon will follow in the future.
Extraordinary photographs by James Webb
A photograph sent by the world’s largest telescope presented us with the most detailed image of an exploding star. In addition, the Nebula Ring was among the incredible photographs we saw thanks to the James Webb telescope.
