BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Top Ten Astronomy Stories 2014 *new*

What happened in the skies in 2014? Here's my top ten. Some hints: it takes in stories all the way from a tiny lander alone on a comet to a supercluster of galaxies 500 million light years across, perhaps another Earth, and an ocean on one of Saturn's moons.

Top Ten Astronomy Stories 2014

I think the two biggest astronomy stories of 2014 are about the Rosetta mission. One was the historic rendezvous with a comet and going into orbit around Comet C-G in August. The other was the lander Philae landing on the comet, another first. Unfortunately, all didn't go as planned. Philae sent back data until the battery ran down, but after two bounces landed somewhere without sunlight. This means the battery wasn't able to recharge.

Where are we in the Universe? Well, there's your address on the planet, of course, with house, street, town, etc. Then it's Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group. And now researchers have identified the supercluster of which our galaxy group is part. It's a big cosmos out there and this little video on the Laniakea Supercluster is a nice introduction to the new findings.