is approaching the end of the year, while conducive to reflection and stocktakings. In the last year I’ve presented the short and subjective list for 2013. In that year of the events, for me at least, was important, among others, meteorite from Chelyabinsk, and the discoveries – the confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson.
This year, I decided to slightly change this formula – I will choose a few scientific discoveries announced in each of the twelve months of 2014 years. They will not do every time we wrote about the discovery, or even often those that appeared in the popular sites – often will be such information that we missed.
January
Created by European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft “awakened” from a long period of hibernation, and gave the signal to Earth. It was she, returning to our solar system, caught the comet in November made a successful landing on a comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Her mission in this is not over – even for several months will provide information about the comet.
February
This month has brought results that contribute to climate change concern. The first study, done by researchers at the Univercity of New South Wales. They show that both the extent and area of extremely high temperatures increased. This is in contrast to the repeated in recent years, the hypothesis that the phenomenon of global warming is no longer observable.
March
A report from the March of patterns in the cosmic background of gravitational waves, was present in all media. It is not surprising, since the observation could confirm the hypothesis of the Big Bang, and bring us closer to solving the mystery of the creation of the universe. Should add that further reports in June, in which the researchers admitted that the cause of the observed patterns can be cosmic dust, dampened some of these emotions.
April
At the beginning of the month, NASA announced the finding evidence of a huge underground ocean beneath the surface of Enceladus, Saturn’s moon. Ocean may be made up of water in the liquid state. As you know, these are the conditions that are conducive to the existence of life.
In the middle of the month more exciting news from NASA: the discovery of the planet Kepler-186f, which is the twin of the Earth when it comes to performance, this is the so-called. the habitable zone of its star (the zone where conditions are suitable to sustain life).
May
In May, we reported on a realistic simulation of the universe, made by scientists, and disturbed us reports of carcinogenic role e-cigarettes. However, we missed a report of high importance and potential. Well, in Science published a description of a successful experiment, during which the transfer was made with zero loss of information at a distance of three meters using quantum teleportation. Used for this state of quantum entanglement of two particles.
May
In June we wrote, among others, the confirmation of the existence of the postulated from the 70s of the twentieth century Thorne-Żytkow objects. These are the cosmic bodies, which are hybrids of neutron stars and red giants. Such objects previously only existed in theory.
However, June saw many other reports in the field of science. One of the most quoted news was the announcement of the so-called. additional ocean located in the earth’s crust, which is a huge underground water reservoir, which may be the biggest on the planet.
July
If the stay with reports associated with different types of water bodies, in July, NASA announced the results of the analysis of the composition of the ocean beneath the surface consisting of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. As it turned out, it is saline to a similar extent as the Earth Dead Sea.
But for me the most interesting was the information on the probe Voyager 1, which is in space continuously since 1977. Voyager 1 is now in interstellar space, which, as it turns out, is not empty and quiet. To the probe reached three waves “tsunami” caused by the ejection of plasma from the Sun’s surface. It is also a confirmation that the probe left the heliosphere – the range of greater influence of our star.
August
In August we met the rest of the saga written by the probe Rosetta – the comet Churyumov caught it-Gerasimenko, and started to prepare for planned in November to send her the lander, and the observation of the comet itself.
During the conference, the American Chemical Society presented a spongy substance that is able to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and a few days later, dealing probe measuring the level of CO2 on Earth Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 started broadcasting the collected data.
The most interesting finding, however, was reported Russian astronauts staying on the ISS that they found outside the station (on the surface visors) derived from Earth plankton. Do not know where it came from, but the contamination probably occurred already in orbit. This information has not been confirmed later, although the experience of this type of organisms on the surface of the station is not impossible.
September
Those interested in the conquest of outer space adventure sequel followed the Rosetta probe. Determined, inter alia, the exact date of the landing, and determination of the place where you will be aiming probe.
also reported another disturbing fact of climate change August was the hottest planet in August scale of all recorded in history.
October
A team of researchers from the University of Oxford traced the genetic history of HIV, and found the exact place and time of its dissemination. These are the years of the 20th century in the area of Kinshasa (the capital of Congo).
October also brought reports of scientists awarded the Nobel Prize. This year we received it:
- Medicine – Edward Moser, May-Britt Moser and John O’Keefe for his research in the field of specialized brain cells
- Physics – Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Shuji Nakamura Amano for the research which led to the discovery of the blue LED light source
- Chemistry – Eric Betzig, W. E. Moerner, and Stefan Hell for his contribution to the development of fluorescence microscopy.
November
An interesting astronomical discovery is the fact that as many as half of the stars in space may be out of galaxies.
We are in the Cosmos: Philae lander successfully landed on the surface of Cziuriumow-Gerasimenko comet. It is equipped with, inter alia, sensors and devices created by Polish scientists. They reported the discovery, among others, organic molecules on the surface of a comet.
December
And so we got to the last, still this month. Still do not really know what it will bring, but we have already read a report from the conference Planck astronomers in 2014 in Ferrara, where they write that the observed universe consists of 4.9% of the matter, 26.6% of invisible dark matter, and 68.5% of the still-hypothetical dark energy.
A study done by the rover Curiosity on Mars showed puzzling variations in the level of methane in the vicinity of the jeep just after drilling. Some optimistically proclaimed a proof for the existence of Martian life, but the origin of the methane may be different.
We waited also, despite the obstacles, the test flight of NASA’s new Orion ship.
What will the next year? I can not wait to see it! I thank you all for reading my entries and colleagues about learning this year and invite you for more.
* Image Home comes from ShutterStock service.
No comments:
Post a Comment