This year, NASA will launch a mission to a valuable, unexplored world

I carry the optimism of “Back to the Future” with me as each new year begins. This quote rings especially true as I look at the possibilities awaiting us on the horizon.

If you thought 2021 was an exciting year for discoveries, buckle up: 2022 is expected to deliver even more wonder.

As Doc Brown reminds us in the 1985 film, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” It’s a fitting mantra for the year ahead.

Happy New Year from the CNN Space and Science team. We wish you a safe and spectacular 2022.

Contents

Defying gravity
Dig this
Fantastic creatures

Defying gravity

This year is going to be out of this world.

We’ll see a new mission set out to study an unexplored world, cheer on Europe’s first planetary rover as it heads to Mars and watch a NASA spacecraft deliberately crash into an asteroid’s moon.

The Psyche mission, launching in August, will set a course for a metallic asteroid of the same name — one that may be highly valuable.

Those are just a few of the new missions to anticipate. Multiple countries are also planning to send robotic explorers to the moon as they prepare for returning humans to the lunar surface.

And don’t miss our outlook for all of the full moons, meteor showers and eclipses to see in 2022 — including the Quadrantid meteor shower this weekend.

Dig this

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of an ancient mystery at a quarry.

The bones of five mammoths were discovered alongside Neanderthal stone tools. Together, these finds provide a revealing look at life in Britain during the ice age 200,000 years ago.

The dig site and its finds, the subject of a new Sir David Attenborough documentary, seem to represent a mammoth graveyard — but the investigation is ongoing.

The bones and tools were also found in proximity to other shockingly well-preserved remnants from a time period researchers are still trying to understand.