Black holes, exoplanets, neutron stars and visitors from other solar systems made 2019 a truly stellar year for astronomy and space research. Science is about moving forward, so let’s not just reminisce on the past, let’s also look to the future and see how these breakthroughs promise to develop in the year ahead.

As 2019 turns to 2020 this year will be forever cemented in science textbooks as the year humanity captured the first direct image of a black hole. But, it would be wrong to consider the final year of this decade as a one-trick pony when it comes to astronomy and space research.

This year humanity reached further into the milky way than ever before as Voyager-2 joined its predecessor, Voyager-1, beyond the solar system. As we were sending objects out of the solar system, 2l Borisov became the first comet spotted in our vicinity that originated beyond our planetary system. Exoplanet research reached the next stage of development, moving beyond its childhood to its adulthood, a coming of age marked by the award of half the 2019 Nobel prize in Physics to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, for their discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star. As we searched for distant planets, we learned more than ever about our nearest neighbour, Mars.

Here are my personal picks of 2019’s finest space and astronomy stories and how they promise to develop in 2020.

Picturing a supermassive black hole

In a similar way to how it dominates its galaxy, the supermassive black hole that lurks at the centre of the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 dominated science news in April 2019. This marked the first time that humanity had ever managed to directly image one of these spacetime events. The image quickly became one of the most widely shared on social media in 2019, demonstrating the public’s appetite for science, space and astronomy based news.

The image of the supermassive black hole at the heart of Messier-87. Making its way to a tee-shirt and mug near you. (Event Horizon Telescope)

Capturing the groundbreaking image of the supermassive black hole — estimated to possess a mass of around 6.5 billion times that of the Sun, which lies 55 million light-years away from Earth— took the combined efforts of an international team using 8 telescopes scattered across 5 continents. These 8 telescopes — collectively forming the Event Horizon Telescope Project — were all turned to M87 for a seven-day period at the beginning of April to capture the image for release on April 10th.

Of course, to say that the image taken is that of a black hole is slightly misleading. Black holes don’t actually emit light — hence why they are so tricky to picture — what we are actually seeing in the image is the edge of the ‘event horizon’ around the black hole. The point of no return at which not even light has the necessary velocity to escape the supermassive black hole’s monstrous gravity.

What was exciting for theoretical physicists about this image was the fact that it so closely conformed to the predictions of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Black holes first emerged as a mathematical quirk of the development of two singularities in the solutions to the great scientist’s field equations. And a century later, once again, what was pure mathematics can resolutely be shown to be physical reality showing the awesome predictive power of theoretical physics.

And in 2020?

Researchers are training telescopes towards the centres of other galaxies in the hope of capturing another direct image of a black hole. The most likely next candidate being Sagittarius A* — the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Read more

The Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Black Holes

Black Holes: A theoretical beginning

Mars was shaking in 2019

Turning our attention to our nearest neighbour, researchers delving beneath the surface of the Red Planet thanks to NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander which successfully touched down on the surface of Mars in 2018.

The SEIS seismometer on the surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

After just a short few months on the planet’s surface, in April, the probe’s dome-shaped Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument — capable of sensing tremors deep beneath the surface of the planet as a result of seismic activity, as well as tremors caused by weather or asteroid impact — detected the first ‘mars quake’ on record.

NASA test the deployment of SEIS via InSight’s robotic arm. (NASA/ InSight)

As seismic waves travel through different materials at different speeds, analysis of the collected data is helping scientists at the French space agency, The National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) to understand the composition of Mars’ interior.

Seismic tremors on Mars are much gentler than those on Earth — hence why previous probes such as NASA’s Viking landers have struggled to conclusively detect them. All this is a testament to just how sensitive SEIS is, and a clue to why it has to be protected by a distinctive dome.

NASA’s InSight lander used the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the end of its robotic arm to image this sunset on Mars on April 25, 2019, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This was taken around 6:30 p.m. Mars local time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

But, InSight wasn’t just delivering breakthroughs from deep within Mars, in early-May, a camera on the probe’s robotic arm captured stunning images of a sunset as seen from the surface of the Red Planet. Whilst these aren’t the first images of a sunset taken from our nearest neighbour, they are the most detailed.

The Marscapes in 2020

In the coming year, InSight will begin its second year of operations and its mission to measure the ‘vital signs’ of Mars. This mean’s that the lander’s other instruments will measure not just ‘pulse’ or seismic activity, but will take detailed measurements of its temperature with the eat Flow and Physical Properties Probe or HP³ instrument, planted beneath the planet’s surface in a painstaking drilling operation

The InSight lander will continue to explore Mars during 2020 in the second half of its two-year mission (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Meanwhile, its Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) listening antennas will attempt to measure the planet’s ‘reflexes’ by detecting ‘wobbles’ in its North Pole as the Sun pushes and pulls its orbit. This latter investigation will allow researchers to determine the size, density, and composition of the planet’s core.

The pertinent question being, whether it is liquid or solid iron.

These investigations promise not just teach us about the formation of Mars, but the formation of our own planet and other rocky planets.

Further reading

First Marsquakes Ever Seen Shake up Science of the Red Planet

Sunrise and Sunset on Mars.

The Solar System says goodbye and hello

Whilst the solar system bid adieu to Voyager 2, it welcomed a new interstellar visitor in the shape of the comet 2l/ Borisov. Whilst Borisov isn’t the first object we have spotted paying our solar system a flying visit, it is the first comet to do so.

The University of Iowa confirmed that on November 5th Voyager 2 had reached the interstellar medium (ISM) and thus, had passed beyond the influence of the Sun. The probe joins its predecessor Voyager 1 in the region of space that separates different planetary systems within a galaxy.

The crossing into the ISM was indicated by a definitive rise in plasma density detected by a plasma-wave instrument on the craft. This sudden jump Was caused by Voyager 2 moving from the low-density, hot conditions of solar wind to the cooler, higher-density plasma found in interstellar space.

On 12 October 2019, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed Comet 2I/Borisov at a distance of approximately 420 million kilometres from Earth. The comet is believed to have arrived here from another planetary system elsewhere in our galaxy ( NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA))

But, as the Voyager 2 was leaving the solar system, an object was being ushered into our planetary system — the first interstellar comet — 2l/ Borisov. The comet — the fastest moving example of such an object observed thus far — was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in November, and then again this month on its closest approach to the Sun.

More farewells in 2020, and perhaps new visitors?

Sad news on two counts in this section, 2l/ Borisov was only on a flying visit. Like a Christmas dinner guest who overstayed their welcome, Borisov will leave the solar system in January, never to return.

And researchers will also be forced to part ways with Voyager 2, likely at some point in 2020. Voyager 2 will eventually lose contact with Earth, just as her older sister Voyager 1 did. The last data was received by Voyager 1 when it was at approximately a distance of 146 AU or 14 billion miles from the Sun.

Currently, the data from the plasma instrument aboard Voyager 2 takes 19 hours to reach Earth its distance from us is so great. And eventually, that distance will be too great to overcome.

But, despite being lost to us forever, the journies of both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will continue. And things may be even brighter for interstellar comets. Researchers estimate comets intruding our solar system could number in the thousands, but unfortunately, they are to dim for current technology to spot.

However, thanks to rapidly developing technology, glimpsing such comets could soon be much easier.

Further reading

Voyager 2 leaves the solar system

Stunning images of Interstellar visitor captured by Hubble

Exoplanet research hits the big time and gets weird!

Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz changed the face of astronomy and astrophysics forever in 1995 when they announced the discovery of the first extrasolar planet — or exoplanet — orbiting a Sun-like star. The discovery is recognised by the Nobel Committee this year, with the pair sharing the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics with James Peebles (awarded for “theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”).

Michel Mayor (left), Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Science of the UNIGE. Didier Queloz, Professor in the Department of Astronomy of the Faculty of Science of the UNIGE and Professor at the University of Cambridge. (UNIGE)

The recognition of Mayor and Queloz marks 2019 as the year that exoplanet research has really started to heat up. The year was brought to a close by the launch of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) CHEOPS telescope.

But, exoplanet research didn’t just grow up this year, it also got, well… strange. 2019 showed that the more we learn about other planets outside our solar system, the more we are learning that our planetary system is pretty calm.

Early December researchers used the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to observe signs of a giant planet orbiting a white dwarf star. Not only does this defy expectations of what a planetary system should look like the planet is much larger than its parent star — but the planet in question is also in the process of dissolving!

This animation shows the white dwarf WDJ0914+1914 and its Neptune-like exoplanet. Since the icy giant orbits the hot white dwarf at close range, the extreme ultraviolet radiation from the star strips away the planet’s atmosphere. While most of this stripped gas escapes, giving the planet a comet-like tail, some of it swirls into a disc, itself accreting onto the white dwarf. (ESO/M. Kornmesser)

If that isn’t enough, Star Wars fans may remember the hellish molten exoplanet discovered that more than slightly resembles the Hellish world of lava and fire on which Anakin Skywalker confronted his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. Or the ‘forbidden planet’ found in the so-called Neptunian desert of another planetary system where planets aren’t supposed to exist! What about planets orbiting black holes?

The lesson from 2019 is clear, when it comes to exoplanets and expectations, forget your expectations!

New worlds in 2020 and beyond!

CHEOPS will act as a middleman between previous exoplanet discoveries and future investigations by projects such as the James Webb Space Telescope — set to launch in 2021 — and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — set to begin operation in 2026.

A replica of the CHEOPS telescope displayed at a press conference heled by the agencies responsible for the mission (Robert Lea)

It will do this by turning nearby targets into so-called ‘golden targets’ prime for follow-up investigation. By doing this CHEOPS will finally enable us to thoroughly investigate rocky exoplanets, something that has been extremely difficult thus far. As such, we will finally start to answer questions such as ‘do rocky exoplanets hold atmospheres?’ And discover what these potential atmospheres are comprised of.

This includes uncovering organic molecules, complex molecules, water and thus, the potential tell-tale clues that point towards life elsewhere in the universe.

Further reading

Could Planets Orbit Supermassive Black Holes?

‘Evaporating Planet’ spotted in orbit around White Dwarf Star

The year that just kept giving for space enthusiasts

Of course, the most difficult thing about putting this article together was deciding which space-related stories, breakthroughs and developments to mention. The section on black holes could have been replaced with dozens of alternate stories — maybe not all as eye-catching. And the mere mention of Mars went without mention of the clues found that point to active water systems.

So, to offset that, what follows are some stories that caught the eyes and imaginations of space-enthusiasts in 2019. But, the only sure way to stay fully up to date with the latest developments in space and astronomy during 2020 is to follow the Cosmic Companion on Medium.

It’s going to be massive!

Happy New Year!

Honourable mentions

When it comes to metals being detected in a variety of situations in space, 2019 has been HEAVY as this story about volcanic asteroids demonstrates.

Exploring Iron Volcanoes on a Metal Asteroid

Is that not metal enough how you? How about the football-shaped gas giant exoplanet spewing heavy metals into space?

Hubble discovers gas planet spraying heavy metals into space

Could a second black hole accompany the supermassive black hole at the centre of Milky Way?

A Second Supermassive Black Hole May Hide at the Center of the Milky Way

The Parker Solar Probe flew closer to the Sun than any craft ever has before and began to answer long-asked questions about our parent star.

Secrets of the Sun Told by Parker