The universe is full of secrets. There are so many things humans are unaware of. However, because of technological advances, we are discovering new things with every passing moment. Be it the discovery of a new planet or a new medicine, all of it is a step closer to discovering and creating new things.
Here are 15 things humans have discovered about the universe in last 10 years and they will make your life sound like a science fiction.
1. Pluto-Sized planet Eris discovered- 2005
It is the most massive and second-largest dwarf planet known in the Solar System. It is roughly three times that of Pluto and was founded in 2005.
2. Dark Matter’s existence confirmed- 2009
Dark matter is a hypothetical matter that would account for most of the matter in the universe. Its existence was confirmed in 2009 and more research is going around it.
3. Earth’s older cousin planet Kepler 452b found- 2015
In July 2015, NASA found Earth’s older cousin, Kepler 452b. It is 60 % larger in diameter than Earth, and its temperature is similar to our planet.
Earth’s bigger, older cousin! @NASAKepler discovers new distant planet that’s near-Earth-size: http://t.co/kEdzbbFEqE pic.twitter.com/hoog1ZsdNs
— NASA (@NASA) July 23, 2015 4. Scientists discovered how to control a biomechanical hand, just by thoughts- 2009
Amputee Pierpaolo Petruzziello learned to control a biomechanical hand connected to his arm nerves with just wires and electrodes and became the first person to make movements like finger wiggling, making a fist and grabbing objects using just his thoughts.
Source: Discovery
5. The programming of stem sources and its new sources- 2007 and beyond
Scientists from Kyoto University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison researched on how stem cells can be programmed to become skin or any other part of the human body. Later, its new sources were also found. In 2014, stem cells were found in human teeth.
Source: news.discovery
6. Mars surface gives signs of water- 2008
NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander was their sixth attempt to land on the polar region of Mars, where they confirmed the presence of water ice and signs of organic compounds.
Source: theguardian
7. World’s second largest gas field, Galkynysh gas field was found in Turkmenistan- November 2006
The gas field is among the world’s five largest with estimated reserves of between 4 and 14 trillion cubic meters.
Source: themoscowtimes
8. Deadly altered H5N1 virus created on purpose – 2011
Two groups of researchers triggered a worldwide debate when they genetically altered the H5N1 virus. It could easily between humans, which is why scientists all over the world interfered to stop experimenting with it.
Source: voanews
9. Robots that can cooperate with each other without human supervision- 2012 onwards
It is also considered as a step closer to world domination by robots, but we have created robots that can cooperate and wor without our supervision. Someone needs to stop this!
Source: phenomena.nationalgeographic
10. TrueNorth Chips that mimic the brain- 2014
In 2014, IBM created chips that can mimic human brains. They recognize patterns just like a human brain and rely on densely interconnected webs of transistors similar to the brain’s neural networks.
Source: phys
11. World’s oldest art discovered- 2014
Researchers discovered that Maros caves on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia are four times older than it was assumed.
Source: news.nationalgeographic
12. Memory manipulation: Two scientists manipulated the memory of a rat- 2014
Sounds like a Hollywood flick, but neuroscientists Xu Liu and Steve Ramirez used Optogenetics to manipulate the memory of a rat by activating a specific population of brain cells.
Source: thepsychreport
13. A new antibiotic called Teixobactin was found- 2015
After 30 years, a new antibiotic called Teixobactin was found in 2015 and it is active against gram-positive bacteria.
Source: northeastern
14. A supermassive black hole that is 12 billion times as massive as our sun- February 2015
Scientists name it as SDSS J0100+2802. It is 12.8 billion light years from Earth and was formed 900m years after the Big Bang.
Source: powerlisting
15. So many discoveries and we missed an important specie of monkeys, called The Lesula- 2007
A new species of monkey, The lesula, or Cercopithecus lomamiensis, has been identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2007 and was researched on till 2012, when they finally acknowledged the new specie.
Source: blogs.scientificamerican
