Although the holidays didn't see a lot of happenings in space exploration, the new year began with a bang and brought us everything from gorgeous new photos of the Andromeda galaxy, a possible UFO and asteroids heading towards us.
January 2015 hasn't been boring, to say the least. Here are the top 10 space stories of the month.
1. The ISS live feed shows a UFO.
This month, NASA cut a live feed from the High Definition Earth Viewing cameras on the International Space Station (ISS) after a mysterious object came into view, causing conspiracy theorists to go nuts. Obviously, this is the age of the internet, so the video of that object ended up on YouTube with claims that NASA has done this multiple times and is hiding the truth that is out there.
NASA, however, balked at the UFO talk and claimed that technical difficulties caused the feed to go out, which actually happens a lot.
2. Huge asteroids hurtle towards Earth.
Over 40 asteroids are flying close to Earth this month through March, with some of them pretty huge and capable of causing serious damage. These asteroids, traveling over 30,000 miles per hour, will fly close to Earth, but fortunately, they won't be close enough to cause the apocalypse. It's unlikely that any will veer off their course and actually hit us. But it should make for some interesting skywatching.
3. Ghost particle discovered that supposedly proves the existence of alien life.
British researchers recently announced that they've discovered microscopic particles in the Earth's outer atmosphere and that these particles provide proof that there is alien life. These researchers believe that these particles, which appear misty and ghost-like, are actually "balloons" that once carried alien forms.
Of course, skeptics aren't buying into this theory and think the mysterious particles are probably something else.
4. There goes Comet Lovejoy.
This month saw Comet Lovejoy visible in the night skies, at least for those in the northern hemisphere. If you missed it, though, you're out of luck: the comet won't appear again for another 8,000 years.
5. NASA releases largest ever photo of Andromeda Galaxy.
The Hubble Space Telescope has given us some gorgeous images, but none are as beautiful as the largest picture ever put together of the galaxy closest to the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy. The photo, at 1.5 billion pixels, shows over 100 million stars.
6. Astronomers discover galaxy from the dawn of time, along with five of its Earth-sized planets.
NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered over 1,000 planets, but none are as interesting as those found in an ancient solar system from the beginning of time that has five planets possibly similar to our Earth. Scientists made the discovery by listening for sound pulses coming from that region of space that helped them measure the solar system's star and planets there after Kepler confirmed their existence.
7. NASA builds inflatable heat shield for future Mars landings.
NASA continues to plan for its future manned missions to Mars by possibly designing an inflatable heat shield that will make landing on the red planet safer than what we currently use to send rovers to the planet's surface. The heat shield, which resembles those kids' toys with the stacked rings, could be deployed to slow spacecraft down as they enter Mars' atmosphere, which is a lot thinner than Earth's.
8. There's a white spot on Ceres and we have no idea what it is.
Now that NASA's Dawn spacecraft is closer to its target dwarf planet Ceres, we're getting the first really good photos we've ever seen of that celestial body. However, a recent photo shows a strange white spot on the surface of the planet and that spot has scientists baffled. Experts are only admitting that the spot is there and that there's something on Ceres that's reflecting more light than other parts of its surface.
9. Chinese spacecraft in lunar orbit collecting data for future moon mining missions.
China recently put an orbiter around the moon with the sole mission of collecting data for a 2017 mission that will see a craft land on the surface of the moon and gather samples of both soil and rock, with the samples eventually returning to Earth for analysis. Eventually, China hopes to mine the moon's surface for a rare helium isotope, which could be used as an energy resource.
10. Meteor flies over Bucharest and lights up the night sky.
This month, cameras captured a meteor passing through the night sky over Bucharest. The meteoric fireball was so bright that it lit up the night skies, turning the dark night into the brightness of day.
