Eclipses, rocket launches, telescopes: The biggest space stories of 2024

Some of the top news stories of 2024 were truly out of this world. From rocket launches to a solar eclipse, astrophysicist Robert Thacker takes a look back at this year’s highlights from space.

Aurora Borealis

A severe geomagnetic storm watch was issued by the Space Weather Prediction Centre branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Oct. 10.

The geomagnetic storm was a result of a coronal mass ejection from the sun colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field. These types of storms often produce a more active aurora that can be observed at more southern latitudes than normal, as was the case on Oct. 10.

“I mean, if you told me we would have an aurora quite that big and you were able to see it going to the south of us, I mean, normally we'd just sort of see a little bit on the horizon to the north,” said Thacker.

“It was truly amazing. Very, very high up, lots of red, a very specific transition of the oxygen atom and so it was just phenomenal.”

People across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island witnessed the dazzling display and took pictures of the aurora. Photos sent to CTV Atlantic showed plenty of green, red, pink, purple and orange.

“I literally saw it, ran on to my neighbor's door and I'm telling them, ‘Aurora, aurora,’ and it was just amazing from a science perspective,” said Thacker.

The aurora was also visible in the Maritimes earlier in the year in August and May.

A picture shows the northern lights over Fredericton on Oct. 10, 2024. (Larry Llewellyn)

Starliner

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got more than they bargained for on their trip to space.

The pair blasted off on June 5 on Boeing’s first astronaut flight to the International Space Station. They originally planned to be gone for just over a week, but their mission grew after NASA decided to send the company’s problem-plagued Starliner capsule back empty in September.

“So, this is a problem for Boeing. Things don't seem to be going right for Boeing at all. And so Starliner was meant to be a nine- or 10-day mission and it's turned into nine months up there,” said Thacker.

“So yeah, a lot of black eyes for Boeing on this one and not the kind of relaxing place you want to spend nine months.”

On Dec. 17, it was announced the astronauts would be staying in space until the end of March or early April. NASA says a fresh crew needs to launch before Wilmore and Williams can return and the next mission has been bumped more than a month.

Orbital rocket launches

There were an unprecedented number of orbital rocket launches in 2024.

According to Thacker, there were 211 launches in 2023 and this year’s number increased to 250.

“People say, ‘Well, how does that compare to the space race of the 60s and 70s?’ I mean, we're literally about double the number of launches now,” said Thacker.

With an increase in launches, there are also calls to consider the environmental impacts and the idea of sustainability.

“That is important. But at the end of the day, it's also allowing us more access to space, which is creating this situation where we've gone from having maybe a thousand or so satellites to having close to 10,000 satellites up in Earth’s orbit. That's a really significant difference,” said Thacker.

This image made from a NASA live stream shows NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during a press conference from the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (NASA via AP, File)

James Webb Telescope

First captured in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Telescope took a highly-detailed snapshot of the Pillars of Creation in 2024.

According to NASA, the area lies within the Eagle Nebula about 6,500 light-years from Earth and is an active star-forming region.

“I mean, we used to get excited by the Hubble Telescope. This is really, you know, pardon the pun, light-years beyond,” said Thacker.

“I mean, we're really going back to something that was Hubble's greatest hit to a certain extent and revisualizing it and you can see more structure.”

The Webb telescope used a Near-Infrared Camera, also called NIRCam, to give astronomers a new, closer look at the region.

“James Webb is really suited to seeing all of the dust. And so, there's this now amazing shape of these sort of like fingers and tendrils coming out and those are just basically dust,” said Thacker.

“Within that we have stars, young stars that are coming really lighting it up. And so, you can now see all of this really impressive detail in the near infrared light as opposed to the visual like the Hubble's.”

The Pillars of Creation is a star-forming region in the Eagle Nebula captured in a new image (right) by the James Webb Space Telescope. It shows more detail than a 2014 image (left) taken by Hubble. (NASA/ESA/CSA/CNN)

Solar Eclipse

Thousands of people across the Maritimes gathered to view a total solar eclipse on April 8, a celestial event that won’t repeat in the region until 2079.

Parts of the region experienced total daytime darkness for up to three minutes and 20 seconds, as the moon aligned perfectly between the sun and Earth.

The eclipse’s path of totality included central New Brunswick, the western tip of Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton’s Meat Cove area in Nova Scotia. Other parts of the Maritimes experienced a partial solar eclipse.

“It is truly spectacular. To have that bright ball in the sky suddenly go dark and then you see the ghost of the sun's corona around it, that was just spectacular,” said Thacker.

“Everyone was just, ‘Ooh, ahhh,’ all together, that was amazing too. And then you can see the light around the horizon, it was just a truly amazing experience.”

With files from The Canadian Press.