The Planetary Society's Best of 2022 Awards

2022 has been a remarkable year for space science exploration. What were the highlights for you? Cast your vote today!

Voting has ended for the Best of 2022 Awards and the results have been revealed!

Best JWST image:

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Most exciting moment in planetary science:

Comet Leonard passing close to Earth
In December 2021, Comet Leonard came close enough to Earth for observers to see it with the naked eye. Astronomers followed the comet as it passed closer to Venus than any known comet has done before, and eventually began to break apart in April.

The official exoplanet count exceeding 5,000
In March, the number of exoplanets recorded in the NASA Exoplanet Archive exceeded 5,000. The archive records exoplanet discoveries that appear in peer-reviewed, scientific papers, and that have been confirmed using multiple detection methods or by analytical techniques.

NASA extending Ingenuity’s mission
In March, NASA announced that its Ingenuity Mars helicopter will get a mission extension. With 21 successful flights on the books, Ingenuity will now journey into the ancient river delta of Mars’ Jezero Crater along with the Perseverance rover. The ’copter was originally planned to operate for about 30 days.

Planetary Science Decadal Survey set its sights on Uranus
In April, the National Academies of Sciences’ Planetary Science Decadal Survey named a mission to Uranus a top priority. This once-a-decade report identifies the most important questions facing planetary science and the missions needed to answer them.

Discovery of ice volcanoes on Pluto
In April, a new study using data from NASA’s New Horizon mission suggested that Pluto experiences large-scale cryovolcanic activity, resulting in unique geological phenomena.

InSight detecting a magnitude-five Marsquake
In May, NASA’s InSight Mars lander detected the largest Marsquake ever recorded. The lander’s seismometer measured a magnitude 5 Marsquake, which on Earth would be considered of medium intensity.

BepiColombo's second Mercury flyby
In June, The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission flew by Mercury for the second time, using the planet’s gravity to speed up. The spacecraft will eventually return to Mercury to settle into orbit around it in 2025.

JWST’s first exoplanet spectrum (WASP-96 b)
In July, the JWST team released a spectral analysis the telescope had made of the atmospheric composition of a distant exoplanet called WASP-96 b. JWST detected signatures of water and haze in the gas giant's atmosphere.

Launch of South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter mission
In August, South Korea launched Danuri (also known as the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter or KPLO) to the Moon. Danuri is South Korea’s first lunar mission and will study the Moon’s surface and help plan future missions to the lunar poles.

DART successfully changing the orbit of Dimorphos
In September, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission successfully altered the orbit of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos around its parent asteroid Didymos by smashing into it. This was the first ever test of an asteroid deflection technique.

Perseverance finding organic compounds on Mars
In September, NASA’s Perseverance rover found organic molecules in samples it was collecting and analyzing in a long-dry river delta on Mars called Skinner Ridge. These samples contain sulphate and clays, making them ideal for preserving signs of any past life.

Best Solar System image:

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Favorite active planetary science mission this year:

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover and Ingenuity Mars helicopter

The United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars orbiter

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and Zhurong rover

NASA’s Juno Jupiter orbiter

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover

ESA/JAXA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury

NASA’s InSight Mars lander

NASA’s Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids

South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter

NASA’s JWST mission

India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter

China’s Chang'e-4 lunar orbiter and Yutu-2 lunar rover

NASA’s DART planetary defense mission

India’s Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter Mission

Best spacecraft image

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Most exciting upcoming planetary science mission:

NASA’s Dragonfly Titan helicopter

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission

NASA’s VERITAS Venus mission

NASA’s DAVINCI Venus mission

ESA’s EnVision Venus mission

NASA’s NEA Scout solar sailing asteroid mission

NASA’s ACS3 solar sailing mission

NASA’s Solar Cruiser solar sailing mission

NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission

NASA’s Artemis Program to the Moon

ESA’s JUICE mission to Jupiter and its moons

Japan’s MMX Martian moons mission

NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission

NASA’s NEO Surveyor planetary defense mission

The best Planetary Society accomplishment thanks to the support of our members:

Mat Kaplan winning the Mars Horizon Award
Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan was given the Mars Horizon Award at the 2022 Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, DC. This award honors his decades of work educating the public about Mars science, exploration, and so much more.

The 2022 Day of Action
In March, Planetary Society advocates around the world worked together to advance space science and exploration. In the United States, 115 Planetary Society members met with a total of 161 congressional offices to advocate for key NASA programs, including the NEO Surveyor asteroid-hunting space telescope, Mars Sample Return, and human exploration beyond Earth. A further 680 advocates wrote and called their representatives to echo the same key priorities. Advocates outside the U.S. contacted their governments and urged them to join a global collaborative effort to protect Earth from asteroid impacts.

Lightsail 2 inspiring another solar sailing mission
The Paris-based company Gama announced that it has raised 2 million euros ($2.2 million USD) to begin work on a solar sailing mission. In an interview, Gama’s co-founder, Andrew Nutter, said his company “tried to learn as much as possible” from The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 solar sailing mission.

Awarding the first-ever STEP grants
The Planetary Society’s Science and Technology Empowered by the Public (STEP) grant program supports projects that contribute to exploring other worlds, finding life, and defending Earth from dangerous asteroids. This year we announced the winners of the first round of grants. They are a project from a team at the University of California Los Angeles led by Professor Jean-Luc Margot that engages citizen scientists in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence using data from the world’s largest steerable radio telescope, and a project from a team at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, led by Professor Bojan Novaković that uses a new technique to study near-Earth asteroids.

Awarding new Shoemaker Near-Earth Object Grants
The Planetary Society announced the newest round of winners in our Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grant program, which supports very advanced amateur astronomers around the world in their efforts to find, track, and characterize near-Earth asteroids. Thanks to our generous members, we were able to award more proposers more money than ever before: $74,375. The eight winners are from seven countries on three continents.

LightSail 2 continuing its extended mission after three years in orbit
Operating far beyond its expected lifetime, The Planetary Society’s crowdfunded LightSail 2 solar sailing spacecraft is still working, providing engineering data and stunning images as it orbits the Earth.

Launching our Planetary Academy kids membership program
This year we officially launched Planetary Academy, a special membership group of The Planetary Society designed for kids and families. Through quarterly mailed packages filled with information and fun activities, members get to learn all about the intriguing worlds of our Solar System and inspire a lifelong passion for space.

Helping ensure NEO Surveyor gets the funding it needs
This year The Planetary Society’s advocacy program was primarily focused on supporting the NEO Surveyor planetary defense mission, and we made some great progress. Congress restored $50 million to the mission in its most recent budget and mandated that NASA complete the mission as soon as possible.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Planetary Radio
The Planetary Society’s weekly podcast and radio show, Planetary Radio, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Host Mat Kaplan has been interviewing the people at the forefront of space science and exploration for two decades, bringing listeners along on the adventure of discovery. Mat also announced his retirement this year, and introduced listeners to the next host, Sarah Al-Ahmed.

Voting has ended for the Best of 2022 Awards and the results have been revealed!