NASA regularly announces new discoveries and discoveries. That research is consistent and conducted both in space on the International Space Station and here on Earth.
NASA’s greatest achievements to date include the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, which made more than 1 million observations. Curiosity and Perseverance rover on Mars. and the Apollo program that sent the first astronauts to the moon.
NASA discoveries are abundant. Here are just a few of his big NASA discoveries from the past year.
NASA’s discoveries for 2023 include discoveries on Mars. (NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology/MSSS)
Space Story 2023: A look back at the giant leaps humanity has made in the past year
- Bennu asteroid sample lands on Earth
- NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft captures a dust devil
- Habitable ‘super-Earth’ lies 137 light years away
1. Bennu asteroid sample lands on Earth
One of NASA’s recent discoveries was the Bennu asteroid sample. The sample, the result of a seven-year mission, was delivered to Earth via the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in the Utah desert on September 24, 2023.
NASA says the sample is part of a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.
According to NASA’s website, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “The OSIRIS-REx sample is the largest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth, and the This will help us investigate the origins of life for generations to come.” “Nearly everything we do at NASA aims to answer the questions of who we are and where we come from. It deepens our understanding of asteroids and gives us a glimpse of what lies beyond. The samples were able to return to Earth, but there’s still plenty of science to come. It’s science like we’ve never seen before.”
This sample is still being studied by scientists.
NASA headquarters releases best photos of 2023: Check out the amazing photos
The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after landing in the desert on September 24, 2023. (NASA/Keegan Barber)
2. NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft captures a dust devil
In August 2023, a dust devil was captured by the Perseverance rover on Mars.
According to Space.com, the dust devil was discovered moving across the western rim of Jezero Crater on Mars.
Mark Lemon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Earth Observation Research Institute, said, “Although you can’t see the top of the dust devil, the shadow it casts gives you a good idea of its height.” “It gives us an indicator.” Perseverance science team, according to NASA. “It’s mostly a vertical column. If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would indicate it’s about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) tall.”
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured a dust devil on Mars last year. (NASA via Getty Images)
Why are discoveries like this important? NASA says scientists are studying them to better understand Mars’ atmosphere and improve weather models.
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3. Habitable ‘super-Earth’ is 137 light years away
On January 31, 2024, it was announced that a potentially habitable “super Earth” exists 137 light years away.
The planet, named TOI-715b, is quite close to us in an astronomical sense. It is slightly larger than Earth and about 1.5 times wider than Earth.
According to NASA, the planet orbits a small reddish star within its “conservative habitable zone,” which is the distance from the star that provides the planet with temperatures suitable for liquid water to form on the planet’s surface. are doing.
