Welcome to Top10Archive!
You keep asking for it so we’re going to keep on delivering!
Back again, are we, on our epic journey through space.
That vast blackness, speckled with planets, stars, and other wonders, is an infinite source
for discovery.
On this galactic quest, we’re checking out the top 10 most recent space discoveries.
Boy, I hope number one is aliens!
10.
2014 UZ224 About 5 billion miles or 8 billion kilometers
beyond Pluto, lays a new discovery that professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan,
David Gerde, and his team of students came across.
The new dwarf, named Bahama Sunrise, was discovered using a Dark Energy Camera, which was built
to monitor how galaxies and supernovas move away from the Earth.
Alright, so they decided to go with 2014 UZ224 instead of “Bahama Sunrise,” but the Dark
Energy Camera is true!
Believed to be the 3rd most distant object in the solar system, 2014 UZ224 was first
seen in 2014, but confirming what it was took an additional 2 years.
There’s still some question as to its real identity as Gerde believes it could even be
too small to be a dwarf planet.
Though its orbital pattern is still unknown, it was determined that a year on UZ224 is
the equivalent of 1,100 years on Earth.
9.
Universe Expansion Rate Back in June of 2016, researchers at the Space
Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University were adamant that the universe
was expanding at a rate of 5 to 9% faster than originally thought.
It was believed that this finding would help better understand the unknowns like dark energy
and dark matter, but in the following October, researchers including Professor Subir Sarkar
of Oxford University claim that the conclusion may have been a bit premature.
Analyzing a larger catalog of 740 Type Ia supernovae, the same type used in the original
research, Sarkar’s team determined that there was a lack of evidence showing an accelerated
expansion.
This finding not only potentially negates the June 2016 study but also the initial Nobel
Prize-winning discovery in the 1990’s.
8.
HD 106906 b Back in 2005, the Magellan Telescopes at the
Las Campanas Observatory of the Atacama Desert of Chile started observation of a star known
as HD 106906.
Eight years of observation later, a team led by University of Arizona graduate student
Vanessa Bailey noticed another body orbiting the star.
When observation switched to the new form, the team realized they discovered the first
exoplanet and named it HD 106906 b.
The massive planet is 11 times the mass of Jupiter and adds a unique twist to current
planet formation theories.
Essentially, HD 106906 b is far too large to fit in with the theory that primordial
disks of dust and gas are strictly responsible for planet formation.
While astronomers continue to search for an answer to explain its existence, the planet
is believed to be 13 million years old and still carries a glow from its formation.
7.
Europa’s Water Plumes If you’re looking for the existence of life
in space, the general rule of thumb is to follow the water.
As of September of 2016, Jupiter’s moon Europa became a topic of astrological interest
with the discovery of evidence of an ocean beneath its icy exterior.
Observing the moon with ultraviolet light, astronomers came across evidence of water
plumes overflowing into space.
Found around Europa’s south pole, the water plumes have piqued interest in NASA personnel
as water is one of three components in the development of organic life.
A thick icy layer may stand between astronomers, Europa’s surface, and the official discovery
of water, but NASA researchers are aiming for a mission to the moon by the 2020s.
6.
Martian Tsunamis They sound like a delicious beverage for some
beach-side lounging, but Martian tsunamis are actually another incredible discovery
found through research of Mars.
Scattered across the planet’s red surface, researchers found tsunami deposits that support
the hypothesis that, at one time, Mars was once home to a large ocean.
While the planet was known for being an extremely dry and cold desert, scientists predict that
aquifers beneath the surface erupted, flooding and carving out Mars’ northern plains to
form an ocean of red.
Within the deposits left behind from the tsunamis, researchers believe that the finer grains
could have preserved some evidence of any microbial activity in the planet’s history.
5.
Comet Lovejoy’s Drunken Trail Sometimes scientific discoveries are just
too amazing to ignore.
Such is the case for Comet Lovejoy.
Discovered in 2011, the comet itself wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary, but all
of that changed four years later when NASA observed the object releasing a rather familiar
substance around it.
During its peak activity, Lovejoy was releasing as much as 500 bottles of wine worth of alcohol
every second – and yes, the substance it was expelling was ethyl alcohol, the same
found in some of your favorite beverages.
Researchers believe the mixture of sugar and alcohol could be evidence that comets carry
the organic molecules needed for the creation of life.
4.
ASASSN-15LH Supernovae are not a new concept, not by a
long shot; but in June of 2015, a newly discovered supernova, dubbed ASASSN-15lh, changed what
we knew about them so far.
About 3.8 billion light-years away, ASASSN-15lh erupted at an intensity 570 billion times
brighter than the Sun.
In relation to typical supernovas, that’s 200 times more powerful and twice as bright
as the current record-holding exploding star.
At such an intensity, the Sun would take over 90 billion years of emissions to match the
amount of energy expelled.
The eruption was found by telescopes located in Cerro Tololo, Chile during an automated
survey for the international collaboration, SuperNovae.
3.
Water on Mars We now know that Mars was once partially covered
in a vast ocean, but the dissolving of that sea of red may not have been the end of the
existence of water on the Red Planet.
It’s known that water can be found as ice and vapor, but in September of 2015, NASA
found strong evidence that flowing, liquid water still exists.
Through signatures detected on an imaging spectrometer from the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, researchers located signs of hydrated minerals, including salt.
When temperatures are above -10 F or -23 C, dark streaks are visible on downward slopes,
leading many to believe that liquid water is flowing across the surface.
This, of course, continues the debate on the possible existence of extraterrestrial life
in the universe.
2.
Oldest Solar System At 4.6 billion years old, our solar system
is still an infant when compared to the 11.2 billion-year-old Kepler-444 star, which was
discovered in January of 2015.
Kepler-444, which is a quarter of the size of the Sun, rests 117 light years away from
Earth and is orbited by its own quintet of planets that range in size.
The extremely hot and uninhabitable planets are so close to the star that a complete orbit
only takes 10 days - 78 days quicker than Mercury’s considerably rapid orbit around
the sun.
While the planets may not offer the potential of future habitation, the solar system’s
age shows that planets were forming 7 billion years before our solar system even came into
the picture.
1.
Earth 2.0 Eh, it’s not aliens, but it’s something!
In our continued exploration of a planet suited for possible habitation and a better understanding
of the universe, NASA has made some incredible discoveries.
Water on Mars, drunken comets, colossal exoplanets – they’re all brilliant finds, but they
may pale in comparison to the 2015 reveal of an Earth-like planet found in a “habitable
zone” around a star like the Sun.
Kepler-452b became the 1,030th confirmed planet and is considered an “older cousin” to
Earth.
When compared to Earth, 452b is 60% larger, experiences an orbit that’s only 5% longer,
is only 5% farther from its star, and experiences temperatures similar to our own.
Despite the excitement of the discovery, astronomers are unsure if it houses the necessary properties
to create or to sustain life.