2017: A YEAR IN REVIEW
From Cassini's final days to imaging the Milky Way's centre, the past 12 months have been stellar for astronomy. Elizabeth Pearson looks back over 2017's great moments for space science
C The biggest stories of the year, including Cassini’s Grand Finale, SpaceX’s rocket test and the landmark gravitational wave event.
Sixty years ago, Sputnik 1 blasted off into orbit, kickstarting the Space Age. Now, in 2017, we have spacecraft orbiting around the planets of our Solar System, a fully crewed space station in low-Earth orbit, and huge telescopes probing the deepest corners of our Universe. In the past year, we have discovered new worlds around a distant star, bid a bittersweet farewell to an old robotic friend around Saturn and taken steps to extend humanity’s reach farther and farther out into the Solar System.
As we approach the end of the year, it’s time to look back and see what we’ve learned about our cosmos over the last 12 months.