Five (5) Scientific discoveries of the decade!
28th of March 2022
The last decade was undeniably one of the richest periods of scientific discovery ever. Researchers across all disciplines tested hypotheses found proofs and visited places that have made us rethink our understanding of not only our own planets but the entire universe. It was the decade when we finally begin to understand one of the greatest challenges humankinds has ever faced and we've learned far more than ever before about some of the most destructive objects in existence.
1. Pluto
Despite having been unceremoniously downgraded from being a fully-fledged planet in 2006, that year also saw the launch of the New Horizons spacecraft that was destined to travel to the farthest reaches of our solar system to study the dwarf planet.
It finally reached its destination in July of 2015. In the images and data that were sent back were astonishing far from being the boring frozen rock that some had expected. It was found to have moving glaciers floating, ice mountains and a huge frozen sea made of solid nitrogen.
The ice is constantly in orbit but at a slow rate because it is warmed by the pressure above it which in turn causes it to rise. The constant replenishment of the top layer of ice creates a surface structure that no one had expected and that has given a new introduction and understanding to what happens on the mysterious dwarf planets at the edge of our solar system.
2.. The Higgs Bosons
It took the construction of the world's largest machine at a cost of just under five billion dollars. But in 2012, it was finally announced that the mysterious Higgs Boson also known as the god particle h been discovered at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN Switzerland.
The particle had first been theorized in 1964 and is one of the most influential pieces of the subatomic world. The reason it’s so important is that the standard model of physics which includes familiar particles like electrons and protons and unfamiliar ones such as muons and quarks doesn't explain why objects have mass. The answer though is the elusive Higgs Boson particle which exists in the Higgs field and due to its interaction with other particles, it's the reason why mass exists.
This discovery was the confirmation of the last unknown part of the standard model of physics and now researchers can repurpose the LHC to begin investigating even stranger phenomenon
3. Kepler
For thousands of years, humans have looked to the skies wondering what's up there. As astronomical devices were invented, we learned that countless stars exist throughout the universe and that there are other planets in our own solar system. But it was impossible to learn how common it is for planets to orbit stars.
This all changed in 2009 with the launch of the first Kepler probe which was used to study distant stars and measured the amount of light they emit. Fluctuations in their brightness can be used to determine whether any objects are orbiting them, and the results have been unbelievable.
By the end of the last decade more than four thousand and fifty-five exoplanets have been discovered including a few that are potentially habitable and this number is only expected to increase as we enter a new decade. The more we look the more common our own solar system seems to be and you can only imagine what else is out there to be found.
4. The world's climates
Throughout the Earth's history the climate has changed drastically. There have been periods of extreme heat and extreme cold and there's no doubt that things are noticeably changing again during our lifetimes. What's different this time though is that the changes are largely due to human behaviour- something that became clearer than ever in the last decade and we've begun to understand the extent to how it's affecting the planet.
In 2012, four hundred billion tons of ice was lost from Greenland and more than two hundred and fifty-two billion tons of ice has been lost from Antarctica every year throughout the decade.
This is an increase of almost six times the amount being lost just thirty years earlier and at the current rate, the world's sea levels are expected to rise by three feet by the year 2100. This would directly affect the homes and lives of at least six hundred and thirty million people. But the consequences are further reaching.
Human activity has meant that forty percent of all amphibian species, more than thirty-three percent of marine mammals and ten percent of insect species are endangered and things continues to get worse.
While the last decade was the time where the extent of the problem was beginning to be fully realized, let's hope that the next decade is when the solution is finally found.
5. Black Holes
Black holes have long been some of the most mysterious objects in the universe. Thanks to researchers dedicating their efforts to studying the phenomena, we've uncovered far more about them and they are much more interesting than you may think.
Black holes are typically formed by large stars at the end of their lives, and when all the material collapses in on itself to create an unbelievably dense structure. And because of their intense gravity, cause some very unusual things to happen.
In 2016, black holes were detected colliding into one another which confirmed the prediction made by Einstein in 1916 whereby they created ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. This amazing discovery wasn't the biggest black hole revelation of the last decade as a team working with the event horizon telescope managed to capture the first-ever image of a singularity.
It was a massive black hole that lies at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy about 54 million light-years away from us. Its mass is so big that is the equivalent to 6.5 billion of our Sun. Black holes like these are thought to be at the center of every galaxy and their gravitational pulls are the reason why so many billions of stars orbit them in such large structures.
Disclaimer: This article and all material used in this content is used for entertainment and educational purposes only.
So much information embedded in an article. This was a nice one. It's still takes me conscious effort to remember that our dear Pluto is no longer a planet. Such a bummer!