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Every year, the popular tech company Google highlights the most-searched for words and terms it saw during the year. This year, Google's "Breakout Searches of the Year," for 2024 were showcased in an emotional YouTube video released earlier this month. In four quick minutes, the video montage takes us through the most searched stories of 2024, from viral trends to the year's greatest sports moments to, yes, even significant space events.
This year, three space-related events appeared n in Google's #YearInSearch history: the incredible nothern lights displays, spawned in May after a powerful solar storm, the total solar eclipse that swept across North America on April 8, and SpaceXs epic Starship test flights, which included an amazing catch of the world's largest rocket in October.
Starting the year in top space search terms on Google's Breakout Searches of the Year was "Starship." Searches for Starship peaked in March 2024 coinciding with the third launch of SpaceX’s massive Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster. On that flight, Starship successfully separated from its Super Heavy booster for the first time and reached orbital velocity.
Next came "eclipse," a term that peaked leading up to the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, known as the 'Great North American Eclipse." The eclipse was the second one to occur during the 21st century to date, and brought just as much awe and excitement throughout the U.S. as did its predecessor in 2017.
And last, but certainly not least, the third space term to appear Google's Breakout Search Terms was "aurora." The aurora craze began around Mother's Day weekend in mid-May, when a G5 geomagnetic storm reached the highest level on the Space Weather Scale that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s uses to classify them. This intense geomagnetic storm, now called the Gannon Storm, created a stunning show in the night sky across the world and much of the United States.
If there's something we can take from the 2024's most searched moments as we close out the year, the wonder and magnificence of space continues to captivate our minds, and this is only the beginning.
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