On the 18th of February, 1930, the 9th planet of the solar system was officially discovered.
Within days, news of this remarkable discovery had spread across the globe. And this was
it. This is what they found. A tiny white speck among millions, even billions, of other
tiny white specks. It was found by examining two photos, taken a few days apart, in the
hopes that one of these dots would have changed position in that time. And when this dot moved
just a few centimeters across a piece of paper the search for Planet X, or Pluto as it would
later be named, came to an end. Now that we knew that it existed, many started to wonder;
"What does Pluto look like?" Unfortunately for those alive at the time, it would take
close to a century to truly answer that question because these pixelated blobs where the only
visuals of Pluto until 2015. Because in 2015 the probe New Horizons reached its destination
and finally reveled Pluto to the world. It took 9 years for the probe to traverse the
solar system and once it arrived, Pluto was not even classified as a planet anymore. Aside
from capturing these beautiful close-up photos of the surface, we also got a detailed view
of Pluto's moon Charon for the first time. But this is actually the second time this
year, and in human history, that a spacecraft has visited a dwarf planet. In May of 2015,
the probe Dawn entered orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and took several detailed photos.
2015 marked the year for when everyone lost their collective minds when they simply could
not decide whether or not this dress was blue and black or white and gold. The photo was
first posted on Tumblr and within the first week over 10 million tweets had mentioned
the dress. As a result of this indecisiveness an actual study was conducted with over 1000
people. The study found that 57% saw the dress as blue and black and 30% saw it as white
and gold. The rest saw a blue-brown combination or could simply switch between any of the
different color combinations. Eventually, the dress turned out to be blue and black
and the lighting in the photo is what creates the illusion of a different color-scheme.
Other popular memes of 2015 includes parodies of
Drake having a seizure in his music video "Hotline Bling".
The phrase Netflix and Chill. Unexpected [JOHN CENA].
A really intense motivational speech by Shia LaBeouf.
An... And "Why You Always Lying".
Now on the more terrible side of things, 2015 was unfortunately a year marked by a long
list of major terror attacks and atrocities across the globe. On January the 7th two gunmen
attacked the French magazine publisher, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris. 12 people in total
were killed during the attack and multiple attacks took place in the days that
followed, killing another 5 people. The terror group al-Qaeda later claimed to be responsible
for the attack and the motive was that the paper had featured controversial depictions
of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In at least slightly uplifting news, their attempt to
suppress these publications had the complete opposite effect. Charlie Hebdo normally sold
around 60,000 French-only copies but the issue following the attacks sold almost 8 million
copies in six languages. On March the 20th four suicide bombers attacked several mosque's
in the city of Sana in Yemen. The attacks killed 142 people and it's the deadliest terrorist
attack in Yemen's history. The terror group Daesh later claimed responsibility for the attacks.
On October the 10th two suicide bombers detonated outside a railway station in the
capitol of Turkey. A total of 102 civilians lost their lives. No one's claimed responsibility
for the attacks but the perpetrators have suspected links to Daesh. On October the 31st
the Russian airliner Metrojet Flight 9268 disintegrated and crashed above Egypt shortly
after take-off. While the cause of the incident is not yet fully determined, it's strongly
believed that a bomb was detonated aboard the plane and the terror group Daesh has since
claimed responsibility. All 224 passengers and crew members died in the crash. On November the 13th
a series of coordinated terrorist attacks where carried out across Paris in France.
Several suicide bombings, mass shootings, and a hostage situation at the Bataclan Theater
resulted in total of 130 fatalities. Daesh soon claimed responsibility for the attacks.
A state of emergency was issued by the president of France and he described the attacks as
an "act of war". And it's no wonder, seeing as this is the deadliest attack on France since World War II.
It's been a pretty great year for gay people across the globe as same-sex marriage is becoming
more and more commonplace. Luxembourg were the first to legalized same-sex marriage in
2015 on the very first day. The president of Finland signed a same-sex marriage bill
but it won't go into effect until 2017. Making Finland the last of the Nordic countries to
legalize same-sex marriage. Pitcairn Islands, with a staggering population of 56
(yeah that's it, 56) also legalized same-sex marriage. Ireland became the first country to legalize
same-sex marriage by popular vote. Greenland's parliament unanimously voted for same-sex
marriage so that one guy on Greenland is probably screaming with joy right now.
And same-sex marriage becomes legal nationwide in the United States.
While water, in the form of ice, have been known to exist on Mars for quite some time.
In 2015 NASA confirmed the evidence of liquid water. The recurring slope lineae, as it's
called, is believed to be coming from underground pockets of salty water or brine. This time-lapse
kinda speaks for itself. Liquid water appears to be coming out of the ground, creating these
several hundred meter long streaks down the slopes. However, the exact source of the water
and the mechanisms behind its motion is not yet understood.
On the 25th of April an earthquake with a magnitude between 7.8 and 8.1 hit Nepal and
surrounding nations. The quake took the lives of over 9000 people, injured more than 23,000,
and caused around $5 billions in damages. It's the worst natural disaster to strike
Nepal since 1934. The quake also triggered an avalanche on Mt. Everest killing at least
19 making it the deadliest day on the mountain in its history. Severals hundreds of thousands
of people where made homeless and India was one of the first nations to help it's neighboring
country, sending rescue troops within hours and donating over $1 billion. Many other nations
and rescue organization where quick to help out as well. But even now, many months after
the thousands of aftershocks has finally stopped, the country is still in very bad shape.
In 2015 paleontologists announced the discovery of a new species of human ancestors.
Homo naledi, as the new species is called, could potentially be the oldest example of modern
humankind ever discovered. The bones of at least 15 individuals was excavated from deep
within a cave in South Africa and they share features with both our own Homo genus and
the more ape-like and older genus of Australopithecus. Possibly creating a crucial bridge between
the two human genera and answering important questions about the evolution of humanity.
If anything this new discovery highlights just how much we don't know
and that our understanding of human evolution is constantly evolving.
Anniversaries are always fun, right? No? Anyone?
10 years ago the dwarf planet Eris was discovered.
Darth Sidious was elected as the new pope. YouTube was launched. A leap second was added.
We all overestimated George Lucas's power for the third time. Batman Begins.
Narnia begins. Anonymous liked a movie. Colossus casted a shadow. And the Xbox 360 was released.
70 years ago World War II ended. 100 years ago the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,
or NACA, was founded and would later transform into NASA. Pluto is actually photographed
for the first time, but no one realizes until 15 years later. Charlie Chaplin released
The Tramp which featured his most memorable on-screen character named The Tramp.
Iceland gets a flag. Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity. And finally the first
ever stop sign is erected in the city of Detroit in the US and the reaction of the rest of the world is..
"Hey, that's pretty good"
..and thus we all follow suit.
2015 was also the year of the European refugee crisis. Millions of refugees from countries
in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and the Western Balkans began flooding into the
European Union seeking asylum. Most of which originate from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan,
and Iraq. This major influx of refugees is mainly a result of the continued war and fighting
against terror groups such as Daesh in the Middle East and Boko Haram in Africa. In the
first 9 months of 2015, over 800,000 asylum applications were submitted to nations in
the European Union, and the numbers keep growing. Some countries, such as Germany, Hungary,
Sweden, and Italy has for the most part welcomed the refugees, while other nations have been
a lot more restrictive. And while a global debate over what to do about the crisis has
continued throughout the year, the crisis is likely to continue for quite some time.
On December the 21st, SpaceX made history by successfully launching and landing its
Falcon 9 rocket. I watched the live stream of the event and I've never been this exited
about something I'm not even directly involved in. Like.. just.. just watch this.
You know, it's like one of those ridiculous montage parodies, but you know,
this time the excitement is actually valid.
If you're not a space enthusiast like myself, then you may be wondering why a boring rocket
is so damn important. So let me try to explain that. Even before the space age took off in
the 1950s, space rocket engineers where adamant on building a reusable launch system. Reuseability
was the obvious, reasonable, and affordable way to go. But when the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik in 1957 the space race took center stage and that reasonable, incremental approach
was abandoned for the need to beat the Soviets at any cost. And cost it did. Building the
same thing over and over is not very efficient. The Space Shuttle Program was NASA's attempt
to reduce costs with a partially reusable system and while it was used for three decades,
it ultimately turned out to be more expensive than disposable systems. In the interest of
time, the bottom line here is that an affordable reusable launch system has so much more potential
than a disposable system. And space agencies around the world have tried to achieve this
goal for quite some time. And from the looks of it, that's exactly what SpaceX did only
a few days ago. The 70 meter high Falcon 9 rocket launched into space. Then the two stages
of the rocket separated. The second stage, containing the payload consisting of 11 satellites
continued into space while the reusable first stage return to land back on Earth. Within
only 10 minutes of launch it safely landed back on the ground.
I mean, I was not around when the space industry was at it's peak and man walked on the Moon.
I missed all of that.
But this rocket, this launch and landing. It really made it seem as though we are heading back towards that time.
And sure, it may just be another rocket. Another launch. Nothing special.
But perhaps. Just maybe. However optimistic it may be.
Maybe this is just what we needed to reignite the space age.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!