Until then, the considerable achievements of SpaceX, including the launch of Dragon to the ISS had seemed like a useful way of reproducing what governments had been doing for decades. Sitting in front of my laptop towards the end of 2012, I watched as the Grasshopper test rocket (a prototype of what would become the Falcon 9) lifted gently off the ground, ascended into the air and then, as no rocket before it had done, lowered itself gently back down to the pad. I remember vividly the moment I realised that SpaceX was going to be a transformative company. Photo by Julian Leek/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images But the last two decades will always be the period when we truly realised just how many neighbours our Solar System has.ġ3 The rise in private spaceflight A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. There are many other planets to be found, and instruments and surveys on the way to do the job. An artist's impression of Earth-like exoplanet Kepler-186f. If Kepler-186f has a similar atmosphere and composition as our Earth, then it’s likely it would provide a hospitable home for our kind of life. Of course, finding another Earth has long been a dream of scientists and science-fiction authors alike.ĭepending on how picky you are, the discovery in 2014 of Kepler-186f, an Earth-sized world in the habitable zone of another star may be the moment that dream came true. 55 Cancri e has a mass 7.8 times and a radius just over twice that of our own planet, making it a 'super Earth'. An artist's concept showing how exoplanet 55 Cancri e compares with Earth. Surprisingly, the most common type of planet, a super-Earth – sitting between our own world and something like Uranus or Neptune, size-wise – doesn’t even exist in our Solar System, and the old explanations for the clustering of our rocky worlds close to the Sun with gas giants further out may no longer hold. All manner of weird and wonderful exoplanets have been discovered, from hot Jupiters, so close to their parent stars that they are literally boiling away, to what seem to be ocean worlds, and from Tatooine-like planets with two suns in their skies, to lost worlds wandering between the stars, almost every kind of planet you can imagine has been found. Artist's impression of a hot Jupiter exoplanet. We can now look at the night sky as one filled with the potential of millions of worlds. The Kepler Space Telescope in particular, built in the hopes of discovering a mere handful of planets, delivered a cosmic bounty that was way beyond the dreams of its builders. Thanks to the incredible precision achieved by instruments both on Earth and in space, we now know that exoplanets are common around the stars of the Milky Way, and presumably throughout the Universe. RutterĪ slow-burning scientific revolution has been underway throughout the past few decades, transforming how we view the Universe. ![]() Here is my pick of some of the biggest discoveries and achievements that have revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos and the ways in which we can study and explore it.ĭiscover more with our facts about astronomy and space and mind-blowing facts about the Universe.Ģ The explosion of exoplanet exploration An artist's impression of the Kepler space telescope. There have been many amazing space and astronomy discoveries over the past 20 years or so: a mission to Pluto, the exploration of a rather special comet, exoplanet discoveries that have transformed the search for life in the cosmos and much more. Looking back at how many space and astronomy discoveries there have been over the past few decades since the magazine launched (the 200th issue was published in January 2022), it's fair to say that finding enough content hasn’t been a problem. One of the people present – who shall remain nameless – wondered if there would be enough material to fill its pages month after month. ![]() There’s a vivid memory I have, of sitting around Patrick Moore’s dining room table and discussing the idea for what later became BBC Sky at Night Magazine. ![]() 14 amazing space and astronomy discoveries of the 21st century so far
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