This year, space missions provided an entirely new way of looking at the cosmos, from the celestial backyard of our solar system to incredibly distant galaxies that were created shortly after the Big Bang.
The James Webb Space Telescope turned its infrared gaze on the universe for the first time in July, revealing unseen aspects and stunning new details of planets, stars and galaxies. The historic Artemis I mission journeyed to the moon and back. And a NASA spacecraft deliberately slammed into a tiny asteroid to test the technology that one day may be used to defend our planet from space rocks.
News.Az, citing CNN, presents some of the most memorable space images from 2022.
The International Space Station captured this image of the moon above Earth's horizon on January 21. NASA
Ganymede, one of Jupiter's four largest moons, casts a shadow on the planet on February 25. NASA's JunoCam recorded the image from approximately 44,000 miles away. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
The Solar Orbiter showed unprecedented details of the sun's outer atmosphere in March, capturing the star in extreme ultraviolet light. NASA/ESA/Solar Orbiter/EUI team
NASA's InSight Mars lander poses for its final selfie on April 24. The space agency said in May that InSight would soon cease scientific operations due to decreasing power supply. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Debris from the gear that helped land the Perseverance rover on Mars was spotted by the Ingenuity helicopter on April 19. NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins enjoys the view of Earth from inside the International Space Station's seven-windowed cupola on May 5. Watkins made history as the first Black woman to join the Space Station crew. NASA
In May, astronomers captured the first image of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. ESO
The Hubble Space Telescope spotted this spectacular view of the grand design spiral galaxy NGC 3631. The head-on view, released on May 26, displays arms that seem to wrap around the galaxy's structure. NASA/ESA/A. Filippenko/D. Sand
Frozen water on the surface of Mars splits the ground open into polygons, creating a strange but beautiful pattern in this image released by NASA on June 26. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
A bright trail of light is seen in this long-exposure photograph taken after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which carried the Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14. SpaceX/NASA
In this image released on August 9, the Gemini North telescope captured a pair of galaxies, NGC 4567 (top) and NGC 4568 (bottom), as they collide. Nicknamed the Butterfly galaxies, they will eventually merge as a single galaxy in 500 million years. International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Orange and pink gas clouds make up the Vela supernova remnant, all that remained after the explosive death of a massive star in this image released by the European Southern Observatory on October 31. ESO/VPHAS
