Anne Ryman

Arizona Republic

Arizona has been at the forefront of space discoveries and NASA missions, including NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter to study the planet's core.

Clear skies and low humidity make the state an ideal site for stargazing, drawing scientists and researchers from around the world. Kitt Peak National Observatory, 56 miles southwest of Tucson, has contributed to numerous scientific discoveries, including galaxy rotation curves, galaxy evolution and environment, and research about star formation.

Here are 11 contributions Arizona has made to space exploration:

First image of black hole

University of Arizona researchers played a key role in Event Horizon Telescope project, an international collaboration that captured the first image of a black hole. The image, released by the National Science Foundation on April 10, 2019, was taken by a network of eight telescopes, including one on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona.

The black hole that was imaged is 55 million light-years from Earth and located in Messier 87, a galaxy in the Virgo galaxy cluster. It has a mass 6.5-billion times larger than the sun.

Giant mirrors manufactured for telescopes

Under the east wing of the University of Arizona's football stadium, a one-of-a-kind process is underway. And it has nothing to do with sports.

Below the stadium seats, a cavernous building houses the Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory, the only place in the world that can manufacture gigantic 27-foot mirrors for what will be the world's largest telescope.

The lab is manufacturing mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope, a $1 billion project under construction on a mountaintop in northern Chile.

Lowell Observatory

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh identified the planet Pluto from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. However, in recent years Pluto has been kicked to the curb by solar-system bigwigs, meriting only "dwarf planet" status.

Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, making it one of the oldest observatories in the country.

Details:www.lowell.edu.

Meteor Crater

NASA decided this bowl-shaped cavity — 700 feet deep and more than 4,000 feet across — east of Flagstaff was the most lunarlike surface on Earth, so astronauts trained in the crater to prepare for the first moon landing.

It continues to serve as a research facility for space-bound humans and robot hardware.

Details:meteorcrater.com.

Large Binocular Telescope

The Large Binocular Telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory is the most technologically advanced optical telescope in the world.

Each of its twin mirrors measures more than 27 feet in diameter; the telescope weighs nearly 1.3 million pounds.

Details:www.lbto.org.

ASU's Mars Research

Scientists and researchers at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility are using creating and using instruments on Mars spacecraft Mars, including Professor Philip Christensen's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey. They were also involved in the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which are no longer operating on Mars.

ASU scientists are currently involved with the Curiosity Rover, a car-size rover on the planet's surface, and the Mars 2020 rover, launching in July 2020.

Details:mars.asu.edu

Home to dark skies

Arizona is home to four of 17 International Dark Sky Communities in the world. The International Dark-Sky Association works against light pollution, which wastes energy, disturbs animals and ecosystems, disrupts humans' sleep cycles and also inhibits astronomy.

Flagstaff became the world's first International Dark Sky Community in 2001, and Arizona has since added the communities of Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek and Fountain Hills.

Details:darksky.org

Kitt Peak National Observatory

Kitt Peak National Observatory has 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes on its 6,876-foot summit.

What attracts star gazers to Kitt Peak? Its excellent observation conditions and atmospheric clarity.

Founded in 1958, Kitt Peak National Observatory has made several scientific discoveries including the first indications of dark matter in the universe and the discovery of a void in the constellation Bootes.

Details:www.noao.edu/kpno/

Phoenix Mars Mission

The mission, led by the University of Arizona, sent an unmanned spacecraft to Mars. The craft landed May 25, 2008, in the northern region. The stationary craft was the first to confirm the long-held theory that water, in the form of ice, exists on Mars.

The Phoenix Mars Mission also found nutrients in the soil that are necessary to support life, including minerals such as sodium, magnesium and chloride as well as a salt called perchlorate. Microbes on Earth use perchlorate as an energy source.

Cameras aboard the lander also captured more than 25,000 pictures, showing jagged rocks scattered over a rust-colored landscape.

Details:http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission

University of Arizona is leading a $1 billion mission that is designed to be the first U.S. mission to return asteroid samples to Earth.

The mission is UA's largest space contract to date and is one of its more longer-term projects. The space craft arrived near the asteroid in 2018, and the sample won't be returned to Earth until 2023.

The contract for the mission is the university's largest space contract to date, eclipsing the $428 million Phoenix Mars Mission in 2008.

Details:http://www.asteroidmission.org/

Juno mission to Jupiter

After a five-year journey, the spacecraft safely made it to Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016, to begin a nearly year-long study of the gas giant. The $1.1 billion mission to Jupiter involves a science experiment from the University of Arizona.

University of Arizona professor William Hubbard, a co-investigator for the Juno mission, helped design a science instrument that will analyze both Jupiter's gravitational and magnetic fields. This study will help to uncover more about Jupiter's interior and its core.

Details: http://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/