The outgoing year 2017 turned out to be very full of various events, one way or another connected with astronomy. Amazing discoveries were made, old space missions stopped their work, they were replaced by new ones. Someone celebrated the long-awaited success, someone tasted the bitterness of failure. It's time to take a brief summary of 2017 and highlighted ten events that seemed to me the most important and interesting.
1. Lunar “turn” NASA
The change in the American administration also marked a change in the priorities of NASA's manned program. Her project was a mission to move into lunar orbit and then visit an asteroid, which was promoted under the Obama administration. Instead, it was decided to focus the agency's efforts on the moon.
Back in the spring of 2017, it became known about the negotiations in which NASA and its partners in the ISS - ESA, JAXA and Roscosmos participated. The parties have reached agreement in principle on the creation of the International Lunar Orbital Station (Deep Space Gateway) in the next decade. In December, Donald Trump spoke about changing the priorities of the American space program, according to which the key goal of NASA should be to return to the moon and create a stronghold there for future missions to Mars and other worlds of the solar system.
Of course, this is largely a symbolic document. But, nevertheless, he finally dispelled all doubts about NASA's priorities for the next few years.
2. SpaceX success
In the field of space launches, 2017 was marked by SpaceX. In January, Elon Musk's company returned to flying after a forced four-month break caused by the Falcon 9 explosion in September 2016.
In total, SpaceX has launched 18 rockets over the past year. This is less than the 20-22 flights planned by the company, but still more than in the previous two years combined. All launches went without any problems. On March 30, the company launched a satellite for the first time using the Falcon 9 first stage already flying into space. In total, this year we were able to see 14 successful landings of the first stages - exactly as many as planned.
SpaceX's other major success was its military launch clearance. Previously, they were the exclusive monopoly of the ULA alliance. The icing on the cake could be the first launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket, but it will not take place until January 2018. Nevertheless, Elon Musk still found a way to further stir up public interest in this event that his personal Tesla car will be on board the rocket roadster. We can only guess what SpaceX will be able to surprise us with next year.
3. Failed space launches
Unfortunately, not all space launches in 2017 were successful. In July, the second launch of the Chinese Long March 5 rocket ended in failure. Because of this, the Celestial Empire had to postpone the launch of the Chang'e-4 lunar mission to next year. In September, an Indian PSLV rocket failed to separate its nose fairing, resulting in the loss of its payload. In November, a Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome fell.
Also, 2017 was not the best for small carriers designed to launch microsatellites. In January, the Japanese experimental rocket SS-520-4 was lost. Due to the failure of the second stage, she fell into the ocean.
In May, the debut flight of the US-New Zealand Electron rocket took place. Its first stage worked as expected and successfully separated from the rocket along with the nose fairing. But when Electron reached an altitude of 224 km, the engineers stopped receiving telemetry. For security reasons, it was decided to blow up the rocket. Subsequent analysis of the data showed that the Electron continued to fly as normal and the failure of the ground equipment was the cause of the failure.
4. Trappist-1 system
The outgoing year has generated a large amount of news, one way or another related to exoplanets. For example, we can recall the discovery of an exoplanet located on. Or the first exoplanet found with . Or possible registration of the first. But still the most remarkable was the TRAPPIST-1 system.
TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf 40 light-years from the Sun. In February, about the discovery of four new exoplanets in this system. In total, seven Earth-like bodies revolve around TRAPPIST-1. The most interesting thing is that the distance between the orbit of the inner and outer planets is only 7 million km. This is eight times less than the minimum distance between Earth and Mars.
The orbits of at least three of these seven planets lie within the so-called. habitable zone. It remains only to imagine what an incredible spectacle could open up to an observer located on the surface of any of these bodies. He would not only see six planets in the sky, but he would most likely be able to see their main geological landmarks (such as continents) with the naked eye.
5. Great American Eclipse
On August 21, the inhabitants of North America had a chance to enjoy a magnificent celestial spectacle - a total solar eclipse. The lunar shadow passed through the territory of 14 US states from the west to the east coast. The eclipse attracted great attention from the general public. Its progress was followed by millions of people, both in the United States and beyond. And, of course, we got a lot of memory from the eclipse.
6. 40th anniversary of the Voyager project
On August 20 and September 5, the Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 spacecraft marked theirs. Their mission is rightfully considered epochal. These devices completely turned our ideas about the giant planets and their satellites. To this day, Voyager 2 is the only terrestrial messenger to visit Uranus and Neptune. And in 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft in history to enter interstellar space.
The most incredible thing is that, despite their advanced age, both travelers are still in service and radio contact is maintained with them. Just think, Voyagers were launched in 1977. By the way, this is the year the very first Star Wars was released.
Now Voyager 1 is at a distance of 21 billion km from the Sun (140.7 AU), increasing this distance by another 17 km every second. Voyager 2 is over 17 billion km from the Sun (116.2 AU). It is expected that communication with the devices will be maintained until about the middle of the next decade. Both Voyagers have developed enough speed to leave the solar system forever. Who knows, maybe in some distant future someone will still lose them.
7. The end of the Cassini mission
Probably the most exciting, but at the same time, the saddest space event of the past year was the finale of the Cassini mission. the apparatus has become truly dear to all people, at least a little indifferent to space. Thanks to Cassini, we learned what is hidden under the clouds of Titan. We saw a mysterious hexagon at the north pole of Saturn. We saw in detail the rings of the gas giant and its icy moons. Enceladus has been rediscovered - an amazing world, under the surface of which an entire ocean is hidden.
But everything ends sometime. By 2017, Cassini had nearly run out of fuel. To avoid a scenario in which an unmanaged station in the future could collide with one of the icy moons of Saturn and bring terrestrial microorganisms to its surface, back in 2010, NASA decided to burn the device in the atmosphere of a gas giant.
But before that, the mission had its last adventure - 22 final orbits passing between Saturn's atmosphere and the inner edge of its ring system. During their execution, Cassini took the most detailed photographs of the planet's rings, and also collected information about their density and mass. This data will help scientists determine the age and origin of the giant's ring system.
On September 15, Cassini entered the atmosphere of Saturn. Until the last moment, the station's instruments continued to measure, and the thrusters tried to keep the apparatus's antenna pointed at the Earth. At 11:55:46 UT, NASA's Deep Space Communications Facility in Canberra received the last signal from Cassini. By that time, the apparatus itself had already disintegrated into fragments and turned into a flaming meteor.
8 Neutron Star Merger
On August 17, the detectors at the LIGO observatory again registered gravitational waves that arose during the merger of two compact objects. But if during all previous cases the sources of waves were black holes, then this time they became a pair of neutron stars. They collided in the galaxy NGC 4993, 130 million light-years away.
The gamma-ray burst and the kilonova explosion that followed the merger were observed by about 70 ground and space observatories. In real time, astronomers saw the process of synthesis of heavy elements predicted by theorists, including gold and platinum, and confirmed the correctness of hypotheses about the nature of mysterious short gamma-ray bursts. Science magazine called neutron star merger observations the scientific breakthrough of 2017.
Astronomers will analyze all the collected data for a long time to come. According to , the merged neutron stars gave rise to a black hole surrounded by a hot gas cocoon, which is expanding at near-light speeds.
9. Interstellar object Oumuamua
This year, astronomers were able to verify the existence of another long-predicted class of objects, namely, interstellar asteroids and comets. On October 19, Pan-STARRS telescopes detected a body leaving the vicinity of the Sun with an orbital inclination of 123°. The data on its eccentricity and speed left no doubt. The object has arrived in the solar system.
After the announcement of the discovery, many observatories around the world took aim at the interstellar visitor. The object, named Oumuamua, turned out to be "usually unusual." The surface of the body has a reddish tint, reminiscent of asteroids of classes D and P. At the same time, infrared observations suggested that Oumuamua is covered with a layer of organic substances (tholins) and is rather not an asteroid, but rather. Organics act as a protective screen, preventing evaporation from the core of the object, which most likely still has water ice.
The proportions of 'Oumuamua turned out to be atypical for the bodies of the solar system. The object has a very elongated shape. Its length is estimated at 400 m, and its diameter is only 40 m. Observations have shown that Oumuamua has an irregular rotation period. Most likely this is the result of some event (for example, a collision or gravitational perturbations) that threw it out of its parent star system.
'Oumuamua is currently leaving the solar system. Its speed exceeds that of the fastest Voyager 1 spacecraft in history, which virtually eliminates the possibility of sending an interplanetary mission to it.
But don't get upset. Astronomers believe that objects like 'Oumuamua visit the inner solar system almost every year. Since their brilliance is very weak, so far they have not been able to be registered. Only recently have wide-angle survey telescopes like Pan-STARRS become powerful enough to detect such objects. So, most likely, in the near future we will find other interstellar objects in the solar system.
10. Announcements of new space missions
2017 went down in history as a rare year when not a single new interplanetary vehicle was sent into space. Fortunately, this has been offset by the large number of approved missions that will set off to explore the solar system in the coming years. In January, NASA completed the 13th selection for the Discovery program. Mission Agency Lucy and Psyche. Lucy's task will be to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. Psyche will travel to the metal asteroid Psyche, believed to be a fragment of the core of a dead protoplanet. Both missions will go into space in the next decade.
In December, NASA selected two finalists for the next New Frontiers mission. They were concepts for delivering cometary matter to Earth (CAESAR) and a flying drone (Dragonfly) to study Titan. Which of them will receive money for implementation will be determined in 2019. Do not forget about the projects of NASA and ESA missions to study Europa and other icy moons of Jupiter. Both to their realization.
The Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO) has confirmed that the launch of the next lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 will take place. The device will consist of three main components: an orbiter, a descent vehicle and a small lunar rover.
South Korea has also announced its lunar plans. She is going to send her apparatus to the moon. Japan also plans to launch a station to the red planet. The main goal of the MMX mission will be to study the Martian moons and deliver a sample of Phobos matter to Earth. The Japanese mission will be provided by the National Center for Space Research of France and NASA. MMX is scheduled to launch in September 2024.
China also has ambitious plans. Next year, the Celestial Empire will send the Chang'e-4 apparatus, which will have to land on the far side of the moon. In another year, China will start building a multi-module orbital station. But the cosmic plans of the Celestial Empire are not limited to this. Last year, China also announced a mission to bring a sample of Martian matter to Earth, and also announced plans to send.
And finally, do not forget that in 2018 a large number of different interplanetary missions will go into space. In addition to the already mentioned Chang'e-5 and Chandrayaan-2, the following devices can be distinguished:
- Insight (NASA). Its goal will be to study the geological structure of Mars.
- Parker Solar Probe (NASA). He will get close to our luminary at a record distance of only 6 million km.
- BepiColombo (ESA and JAXA). The objective of this joint European-Japanese mission will be to explore Mercury.
Space is still an incomprehensible mystery for all mankind. It is incredibly beautiful, full of secrets and dangers, and the more we study it, the more we discover new amazing phenomena. Below you will find out about the ten most interesting phenomena that occurred in 2017.
1. Giant gas vortex in the Perseus cluster
A giant vortex of hot, glowing gas extends over 1 million light-years through the very center of the Perseus Cluster. Matter in the area of the Perseus cluster is formed from gas, the temperature of which is 10 million degrees, which makes it glow. A unique NASA photo allows you to see the galactic vortex in all its details.
2. Sounds inside the rings of Saturn
The Cassini spacecraft recorded sounds inside Saturn's rings. The sounds were recorded using the Audio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) device, which detects radio and plasma waves, which are then converted into sounds. As a result, scientists "heard" not at all what they expected. And what exactly - find out here.
3. An icy planet very similar to Earth
Using a special technique that studied the effect of microlensing, NASA discovered a new planet, which was named OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb. In a number of ways, this planet resembles Earth, but is probably too cold to be habitable. It is noteworthy that a special technology was used to discover the planet - read how it works here.
4. Unique pictures of the rings of Saturn from Cassini
The Cassini spacecraft successfully completed a narrow gap between the planet Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017 and transmitted unique images to Earth. The distance between the rings and the upper atmosphere of Saturn is about 2000 km. And through this "gap" "Cassini" had to slip at a speed of 124 thousand km / h.
Saturn as seen by Cassini at close range
5The Unexplained Natural Phenomenon Named "Steve"
A group of independent auroral researchers have discovered a yet unexplored phenomenon in the night sky over Canada and named it "Steve". The European Space Agency (ESA) has already sent special probes to study Steve and has found a number of interesting - and completely inexplicable - details.
6. A new planet fit for life
An exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf 40 light-years from Earth could become the new winner of the title of "best place to look for signs of life outside the solar system." According to scientists, the system LHS 1140 in the constellation Cetus may be even more suitable for the search for extraterrestrial life than Proxima b or TRAPPIST-1.
Flight visualization from Earth to LHS 1140 b
Source 7The asteroid that almost made it to Earth
Asteroid 2014 JO25 with a diameter of about 650 m approached the Earth in April 2017, and then flew away. This relatively large near-Earth asteroid was only four times farther from Earth than the Moon. NASA has classified the asteroid as "potentially hazardous".
The image has a resolution of approximately 7.5 m per pixel
8. Space dumpling in 3D
Pictured is Pan, a natural satellite of Saturn. The three-dimensional photograph was taken using the anaglyph method. You can get a stereo effect using special glasses with red and blue filters. All the details about this unusual object can be found here.
9. The first photos of the habitable Trappist-1 system
The discovery of a potentially habitable planetary system of the star Trappist-1 was the event of the year in astronomy. Now NASA has published the first photos of the star on its website. The camera took one frame per minute for an hour, and then the photo was assembled into an animation:
Animation size - 11x11 pixels, it covers an area of 44 square arcseconds
10. Date of the collision of the Earth with Mars
American geophysicist Stephen Myers of the University of Wisconsin suggested that Earth and Mars could collide. This theory is by no means new, but scientists have recently confirmed it by finding evidence in an unexpected place. The “butterfly effect” is to blame for everything, and read about how it manifests itself here.
In honor of Cosmonautics Day the editors of the site decided to remember 10 latest discoveries in the field of astronomy which can be considered the most important for humanity.
1. The ninth planet. On January 20, 2016, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena) announced that they had found Planet X, the existence of which was predicted even before the discovery of Pluto. Scientists concluded that it exists due to the presence of gravitational disturbances that could be caused by some large body. When Pluto was discovered, it was decided that this was the same planet X, but this did not explain the features of gravitational perturbations. According to Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin, the object he found is comparable in size to Neptune, 10 times heavier than the Earth and is located beyond Pluto. However, there is still no exact evidence of the presence of another planet in the solar system. So, for example, the discovered object may not be a planet at all, but rather a dense meteorite or asteroid cloud, but, according to scientists, the probability of this is only 0.0007%.
Estimated orbit of Planet X
2. Gravitational waves. On February 11, 2016, scientists announced that they were able to experimentally prove the existence of gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein. This discovery is sensational because it proves the existence of space-time curvature and in the future will allow scientists to learn about long-past events in the life of the universe that cannot be seen with optical telescopes. For the first time, it was possible to “catch” gravitational waves on September 14, 2015. The reason for their occurrence was the merger of two black holes into one massive black hole, which occurred 1.3 billion years ago.
Gravitational waves illustration 3. Second Earth. In August 2016, scientists reported that an Earth-like exoplanet had been found in the system of Proxima Centauri (the closest star to the solar system). A celestial body called Proxima b, 1.3 times heavier than the Earth, revolves around Proxima Centauri in an almost circular orbit with a period of 11.2 days and is at a distance of 0.05 astronomical units (7.5 million kilometers) from it. What makes this planet similar to Earth is that it is in the habitable zone of its sun. That is, the conditions on Proxima b may resemble those on Earth. If it turns out that the planet has a magnetic field, a dense atmosphere and oceans of liquid water, then the likelihood of life there is very high.
4. Strange star. At the end of 2016, scientists discovered another star with an irregularly changing glow. The name of the star is EPIC 204278916. A similar star, KIC 8462852 in the constellation Cygnus, was found in 2015. What is the cause of the uneven brilliance of these stars - scientists have not yet figured out. Most likely, the stars cover some massive objects comparable in size to the stars themselves, but what kind of objects can be of such sizes is hard to imagine. Even a dense cloud of comets could not cover these stars, because in this case it would contain hundreds of thousands of comets with giant nuclei. along with others, scientists have also expressed a completely fantastic assumption that some kind of astroengineering structures such as a Dyson sphere surround the star (see figure).
5. Impossible engine. In the fall of 2016, NASA scientists announced that the EmDrive engine, which essentially violates the laws of physics, is working. An article published in the journal Journal of Propulsion and Power states that the EmDrive engine can produce 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt of thrust in a vacuum. A reverse force that would contribute to the development of thrust (according to the law of conservation of momentum) was not found. Thus, the engine moves without emitting anything. At the end of 2016, EmDrive was successfully tested in the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-2, after which Chinese scientists announced that they plan to use the engine on orbiting satellites.
EmDrive engine model 6. Will Pluto become a planet again? In February 2017, NASA scientists proposed revising the definition of the term "planet". Alan Stern, leader of the research team that came up with this proposal, believes that a planet can be called any object in which nuclear fusion processes do not occur and which has gravity sufficient to allow it to take on a spherical shape. Now in the scientific community, when determining planets, it is also customary to take into account the ability of an object to clear its orbit of rotation around a star from planetesimals - small celestial bodies (from a few millimeters to several kilometers in size) formed from dust and gas. But NASA scientists, led by Alan Stern, argue that this criterion depends on how far the body is from the star, and therefore should not be taken into account when defining the term "planet". So, for example, if our Earth were beyond Neptune, it could not clear its orbit of planetesimals, respectively, it could not be considered a planet. If the scientific community makes these adjustments, then Pluto will become a planet again. However, at the same time, natural satellites, including our Moon, will also need to be considered planets.
A picture of Pluto taken by the automatic interplanetary station "New Horizons" 7. Twin Solar System. Also in February of this year, NASA scientists made a sensational announcement - four more planets were found in the TRAPPIST-1 star system (earlier, in 2016, three exoplanets were discovered there), all of them are similar to the Earth and three of them are very likely to have life . Read more about this discovery. Then scientists had high hopes for the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system, because. previously it was not possible to find so many planets located in the "habitable zone of a star" at once. However, in early April, Hungarian scientists reported that, with a high probability, the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system are still not suitable for the origin of life. Astronomers came to this conclusion after analyzing data obtained by the Kepler space telescope. According to these data, the star TRAPPIST-1 often experiences the strongest plasma ejections, with a power hundreds of times greater than solar storms that reach the Earth. For 80 days, 42 such flares were recorded, with such a frequency of ejections, exoplanets simply do not have time to stabilize their atmosphere, and the magnetic field of these planets is too weak to reflect such powerful geomagnetic storms. So the hopes for the early detection of aliens in the TRAPPIST-1 system did not materialize ...
8. Traces of alien technology. However, in another place, scientists may still have found traces of alien activity. We are talking about the phenomenon of fast discrete radio pulses, which may be evidence of the activity of huge transmitters (they can reach the size of entire planets), transmitting energy to interstellar ships in distant galaxies. Scientists first learned about the existence of such pulses in 2007, and since that time no more than 20 fast discrete radio pulses have been recorded. In 2017, scientists Avi Loeb and Manasvi Lingam conducted a study in which they tried to establish, using calculations, whether the existence of such large transmitters is possible. Scientists have found that from the point of view of the laws of physics and from an engineering point of view, such transmitters can exist. Loeb and Lingam also suggested the purpose of creating such devices - they can be used to give acceleration to interstellar light sails. “This is quite enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances,” said Manasvi Lingam. At the same time, the researchers note that their work is hypothetical.
9. New model of the Universe. Scientists from the University of Budapest recently conducted a study suggesting that dark energy may not exist. The concept of dark energy was introduced into the mathematical model of the universe in order to explain why the ever-accelerating expansion of the universe occurs. Until recently, the theory of the existence of dark energy was the most common explanation for the expansion of the universe and was accepted by many scientists. However, American and Hungarian cosmologists from the University of Budapest this year presented a new model of the universe, in which there is no place for dark energy. Having developed a computer model of the universe and followed its evolution, the researchers noticed that different regions of space are expanding at different rates. If these data are confirmed, it will have a great impact on the further development of models of the Universe.
Atmosphere found on planet GJ 1132b 10. An atmosphere has been discovered on an exoplanet. And the last, most important discovery in the field of astronomy, in our opinion, is the discovery of the atmosphere on the planet GJ 1132b. This is the first time that scientists have recorded the presence of an atmosphere on an exoplanet that is closest to Earth in size, mass and composition. GJ 1132b is located in the star system of the red dwarf GJ 1132, which is in the direction of the constellation Sails of the southern sky and is 39 light-years away from us. This discovery is a breakthrough in the field of detection of life outside the solar system.
And I would like to complete our list of the most interesting and important astronomical discoveries made in recent times with another study conducted in March of this year in our country. According to the data obtained in the course of the VTsIOM survey, a quarter of Russians are sure that it is not the Earth that revolves around the Sun, but the Sun revolves around the Earth. Researchers note that they have been asking this question to Russian citizens for several years now and always get approximately the same results...
In total, in 2017, the authors of the In-Space website published 544 news highlighting the most interesting and exciting discoveries, observations and studies of astronomers around the world. On average, each news was read by more than a thousand visitors, but there were those that stood out from the total number, but more on that later.
In 2017, In-Space began collaborating with the Hubble and Kepler telescope teams, as well as NASA divisions. Now you can read on our website press releases about the most high-profile discoveries at the time of their publication in English in leading scientific journals.
Artist's rendering of ESO's Extremely Large Telescope. Credit: ESO
The most interesting topics of the outgoing year for In-Space readers were observations of Jupiter by the NASA Juno spacecraft, searches for the nature of dark matter, data on the first recorded interstellar asteroid Oumuamua, discoveries of exoplanets, photographs of distant stars and galaxies obtained by the instruments of the European Southern Observatory and the telescope " Hubble", gravitational waves and, of course, the finale of the Cassini mission. About everything in order:
10th place. native asteroids
In 2017 (at the time of publication of the article), 785 asteroids rushed past the Earth at a distance of less than 10 million kilometers, among which 99 are potentially dangerous. The full list is presented on the page. The most interesting of them were astroids, and, which on October 12 flew past our planet at a distance of only 50 thousand kilometers.
An artistic representation of the collision of two neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993, which gave rise to a burst of kilonovae and gravitational waves. Credit: ESO/L. Calgada/M. Kornmesser
3rd place. The fall of Cassini
The NASA-ESA joint project, the Cassini spacecraft, has been providing scientists around the world with unique data on the Saturn system for 13 years. Launched in 1997, the audacious explorer has been studying the gas giant and its moons, bringing unique data back to Earth and baffling scientists. But on September 15, this event became a landmark for all space lovers around the world.
One of the last portraits of Saturn by Cassini. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
2nd place. Oh this Oumuamua
On October 19, 2017, a significant event for all mankind took place:. At the time of detection, the guest was at a distance of 0.2 astronomical units from the Earth. Observatories around the world have pointed their telescopes at the intruder in an attempt to ascertain the nature of the foreign object. The instruments of the European Southern Observatory have advanced the farthest, determining the size, proportions and composition of the guest.
'Oumuamua as seen by the artist. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Subsequently, the scientists of the project, hoping for a "reasonable" origin of the wanderer, but there were no signs of intelligent life on the asteroid.
1 place. Jupiter and Juno
"Juno", Juno, whoever is more comfortable. The spacecraft, named after the ancient Roman goddess of family and motherhood, studied the largest planet in the solar system throughout 2017 -. Such a giant, concealing the secrets of the origin of the solar system, the world has not yet seen.
A perspective view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Credit: NASA
Probing of the Great Red Spot, radiation spots, colorful images and discoveries made by the spacecraft, which reached Jupiter for 5 years, became the most significant for In-Space readers in 2017.
TBILISI, Jan 3 - Sputnik. An interstellar asteroid, a clone of the solar system, a breakthrough in gravitational astronomy, the secrets of the Egyptian pyramids, an independent artificial intelligence, as well as other significant discoveries of scientists who changed the world in 2017 - in the selection of RIA Novosti.
New window to the universe
The scientific team of the LIGO detector has detected gravitational waves resulting from the collision of two neutron stars in one of the galaxies in the constellation Hydra. The collision caused a flash of gamma radiation, radio waves and X-rays, which attracted the attention of scientists from around the world, who are still studying them. The discoverers themselves received the Nobel Prize in Physics almost before the very discovery. The fact is that they discovered another surge of gravitational waves back in 2015, for which they should have been awarded. However, the signal of a new surge reached the Earth two months before the annual award ceremony.
This discovery changed the views of scientists on the structure of space and time, as well as on the entire Universe in general.
© AFP/ESA
DNA on order
Two major discoveries related to genomic and molecular medicine have become a sign that humanity has entered a new era of genetic engineering. Both are associated with changes in the DNA structure of the embryos, but they are considered from different angles.
One of the discoveries is the first successful editing of the genome of embryos, which made it possible to replace the defective gene responsible for cardiac hypertrophy with its normal version. Accordingly, such an operation, according to American scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), will be able to protect children from illness and death.
The second discovery was made as a result of experiments with full-fledged embryos. Scientists wanted to understand which genes play a vital role in the early stages of its development. As a result, they were able to turn off one of the key genes associated with stem cells, and also revealed its role in the development of the embryo.
Both of these discoveries, according to biologists, will save many people from congenital diseases and significantly reduce the number of eggs needed for successful artificial insemination.
quantum breakthrough
Mikhail Lukin, a physicist from Harvard and one of the founders of the Russian Quantum Center, together with his scientific team created the first quantum computer, which includes 51 qubits - the elementary computing cell of quantum computers.
Thanks to the new device, physicists were able to discover new quantum effects, the existence of which they had not previously known. In addition, they hope to create more complex machines from hundreds of qubits that can reveal the nature of quantum phenomena and help to understand whether such analog computers can be used to solve serious practical problems.
The development of artificial intelligence
Throughout the year, scientists from all over the world studied and improved artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.
For example, in January, the artificial intelligence AlphaGo participated in the face of a person in the online championships of the ancient Chinese Go strategy. He defeated all the strongest players with a devastating score.
Later, the AlphaZero algorithm independently studied chess without human intervention and, after a day of work, was able to beat the previous algorithm, which was considered the champion in the ancient game.
In addition to table games, poker has also conquered artificial intelligence. In December, American scientists created a new algorithm that won almost two million dollars as a result of online games. Also, artificial intelligence studies various human hobbies: fine arts, music and cinema. So, in the summer, Russian programmers presented a system that writes music in the style of Scriabin and Nirvana.
Guest from other worlds
The University of Hawaii's PAN-STARRS robotic telescope made a sensational discovery in October, discovering the first comet to enter the solar system from the interstellar medium, from the direction of Alpha Centauri. The asteroid Oumuamua immediately became the object of research by astronomers from all over the world.
Its appearance helped to study an object that was born in a distant star system and traveled through the worlds for several million years. Despite its similarity to the asteroids and dwarf planets of the solar system, it was still fundamentally different from them. In addition, scientists tried to find traces of an alien civilization or any radio transmitters on it, but found nothing.
© photo: AFP 2019 / NASA
Secrets of Egypt
The most scandalous discovery that caused controversy in the scientific community can be called the discovery of physicists from France and Japan. Using special telescopes and scanners that analyze objects for voids and secret rooms, they discovered two previously unknown zones inside the Cheops pyramid, where, in their opinion, the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu and his wife may be hiding.
© photo: Sputnik / Andrey Stenin
However, Egyptologists have criticized their conclusion, as they do not believe that anything else can be hidden inside the most studied pyramid in the world. Japanese and French physicists were called "pyramidiots" and stated that the voids found were ordinary holes between stones.
Ecumenical dispute
Astronomers from the H0LiCOW project have released an independent estimate of the expansion rate of the universe, confirming last year's assumption that it is expanding 8-10% faster than modern calculations show.
However, astrophysicists and cosmologists are in no hurry to agree with their research and revise the Big Bang theory. Many do not recognize the results of these observations. However, representatives of both opinions hope that with the help of other discoveries they will be able to prove their opponents wrong.
Pig outside, human inside
The famous Harvard molecular biologist George Church, together with his scientific group, was able to grow pigs whose internal organs and all body cells were cleared of retroviruses that are dangerous to humans.
The problem was that at first, when viral sections were removed from DNA, animal cells massively self-destructed. After five years of working on this snag, they were able to solve it.
Scientists hope that in the future it will be possible to create pigs with organs that will be completely suitable for humans and not cause rejection. This will solve the big shortage of donors for sick people.
Clone of the solar system
NASA, together with the European Southern Observatory, discovered a star system that contains seven Earth-like planets at once. It is located 40 light years from the Sun and is considered the main candidate for the presence of extraterrestrial life.
According to observations, these planets may have water, and the activity of the star is too weak to cause serious harm to living organisms. Of course, not everything is so smooth - the planets may turn out to be simple volcanic worlds that have lost their atmosphere due to the strong magnetic field of the star.
Despite this, it is planned to launch the James Webb telescope into orbit, the purpose of which will be to search for water and traces of life on the planets of this system.
