Top 10 Astronomical Discoveries

Until now, reflecting up the monumental historical Astronomical discoveries, here are a few of them

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

Recalling history, the existence of gravitational waves was first predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein. According to him, these waves are produced due to the collision of massive bodies. However, scientists discovered that almost 100 years later, when a wave passes through space, it ripples and changes in wavelengths. In 2017, LIGO(Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory )detected gravitational waves and light from a collision of two neutron stars about 130 million light-years away. On September 14, 2015, the gravitational wave rippled through the Earth caused by the violent crash of two black holes over 1 billion years ago.

1ST AND 2ND DETECTIONS OF INTERSTELLAR OBJECTS AS THEY PASSED THROUGH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

The first interstellar named 11/’ Qumuamua, an object to visit our solar system, was discovered in October 2017. It is blue and shaped unlike anything else in our solar system. The 2nd object was found in Sep 2019 called 2I/ Borisov, originally classified as a comet.

COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered cosmic microwave radiations in the mid-1960s. These are present in tiny quantities throughout the entire universe, discovered accidentally as the residual radiation left from the universe’s birth. From the Big Bang theory.

First Female spacewalk ISS 

Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch from the United States of America embarked on the first all-female spacewalk in October 2019. Their spacewalk lasted about 7 hours and replaced a battery charge/discharge unit outside the International Space Station.

ORGANIC MOLECULES ON COMETS

In 2016 NASA researchers announced that the Rosetta spacecraft had discovered the first direct detection of amino acids Glycine (DNA) in the thin atmosphere of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Which could make only comets the origins of life on our planet and deliver organic molecules to other worlds.

THE PREVALENCE OF DARK MATTER

Vera Rubin made a huge cosmological discovery in the 1970s. Along with her discovery, she discussed how stars rotate. She said that it is not possible that only matter was not responsible for holding galaxies together. It was another matter, the dark matter; Rubin proved that most of the mass in the universe does not emit, reflect, or absorb light, and she named this dark matter. It is thought that approximately 27 percent of the entire universe is made from this mysterious substance, which is expected to consist of subatomic particles not like ordinary matter.

BLACK HOLES

The mathematical concept of black holes holds the idea of taking clear pictures of space’s deepest parts. This incredible concept of engineering was launched into space in 1990. They are thought to be massive, even more than the sun made from the stars, which dies. Black holes are considered to be having an immense pull of gravity with their ability to pull matter from around them. Using Event Horizon Telescope collaboration observations, the very first direct picture of a black hole was taken in 2019.

STARS ARE POWERED BY FUSION

Around 1920 Arthur Eddington, an English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, proposed a theory about stars obtaining energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen to form helium. 

EXOPLANETS

This term means the planet that orbits around stars outside the solar system. They are not very easily visible and are far away. On January 9, 1992, Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced their discovery of two planets orbiting the neutron star PSR B1257+12

Water on Mars

After humans landed on Moon in 1969, NASA’s Viking got on one more mission by sending a lander to Mars in 1976. The NASA rovers returned data providing evidence once been water on the planet, discovering ancient riverbeds. Which was confirmed by Mars Reconnaissance Orbit( MRO) in 2015 that liquid water still flows intermittently on Mars.