Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology
Colliding black holes to exploding spacecraft, 2016 was an incredible year for astrophysics.
Comet 67P taken with a wide-angle lens from an altitude of about 15.5km above the surface during the spacecraft’s final descent on September 30.
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
It has been an epic journey, much more than 12 years in the making, but Rosetta is just about to go out in a blaze of glory. The final commands were uploaded to the spacecraft mid-morning on September…
The red box clearly shows where the lander is hiding.
ESA.
Rosetta has finally shed light on the origin of both ice and jets on comet 67P. It will now head closer to the sun to look at the comet’s interactions with the solar wind.
A sacred moment for stargazers: the Perseid meteor shower in August, 2009.
Tatyana Zenokovich/EPA
Everything in space is so far away, but probes bring us closer.
Sinkholes on comet 67P could be a great thing for science – but not if they they bury Philae.
Vincent et al., Nature Publishing GroupVincent et al., Nature Publishing Group
Sinkholes on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko could teach us a lot about the geology and history of the body, but they could also spell the end for Philae.
It’s the satellite you probably didn’t know that Earth has. If we could land on it, it could be pretty useful
Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon (foreground) in July 2015.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)
2015 is already shaping up to be a big year in astronomy and planetary exploration, with the best yet to come. Here are some highlights to keep your eye on throughout the year. Opportunity January 25 marked…
Landing a spacecraft on a celestial body, whether it be the moon, Mars or a comet, is not easy. The European Space Agency found out the hard way in 2003 when its robot Beagle2, which was supposed to send…
The future of the Parkes radio telescope in doubt in a climate of cutbacks.
Flickr/Steve Dorman
It’s been a year of incredible feats in science and technology but also a year of uncertainty too as the Australian government’s budget proposed changes to the funding for universities and cut funding…
Not yet, but soon … we’re getting closer to sending people to Mars.
Samantha T./Flickr
It was an exciting year in space exploration, with mind-blowing triumphs and heart-breaking failures. On Earth, new rockets and spacecraft were tested by space agencies and commercial ventures. SpaceX…