Eyeful. Of the year 2022 in science and medicine will first remain the first spectacular images delivered by the James-Webb space telescope. Thanks to this instrument of unequaled power, the whole world has been able to dream in front of unprecedented representations of our Solar System and more distant galaxies.
Humans, like the Universe, continue to reveal their most intimate secrets. The deciphering of the human genome, which began thirty years ago, has thus just been completed, with the exception of the Y chromosome. 2022 was also marked by medical feats, such as the first transplant of a genetically modified pig’s heart, which enabled a 57-year-old American on short-term sentence to survive sixty days. After three years of pandemic, the Covid-19 is less of a ” a “ of the media, but it still defies researchers, in particular by its prolonged forms, which concern 10% to 30% of people infected with the virus.
From astronomy to zoology, review – not exhaustive – in text and images.
Space-Astronomy
With Artemis-1, the United States returns to the Moon
After several postponements, due to technical problems but also to a hurricane, NASA’s Artemis-1 mission was able to take off on November 16 from Cape Canaveral (Florida), thus marking the return of the United States to the race for the Moon. . This mission, which did not carry a crew, aimed to test both the SLS rocket (Space Launch System), of which it was the first flight, and the Orion habitable capsule, and in particular its return to Earth with a re-entry. in the atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 km/h. The mission went off without a hitch, with a successful orbit around our satellite and an impeccable landing in the Pacific on Sunday, December 11. The second flight of the Artemis program, scheduled for 2024, will consist of repeating this mission, but this time with a crew on board.
Successful asteroid deflection test
On September 27, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) kamikaze probe struck the small asteroid Dimorphos at 22,000 km/h. The purpose of the exercise was to see if a half-ton device could deflect an object 160 meters in diameter from its path and, if so, by how much. A crucial test to learn how to protect the Earth from a possible asteroid which would darken straight on it and whose impact would have cataclysmic consequences. Successful exercise: the shock reduced by thirty-two minutes the period of revolution of Dimorphos around a larger asteroid, a result which exceeded the expectations of astronomers. To correctly model the event, they must know the mass of Dimorphos as well as its internal properties, and visualize the crater left by DART. This will be the mission assigned to the European probe Hera, which will take off at the end of 2024.
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