10 Most Remarkable Discoveries in Space Exploration and Astronomy that you probably missed in 2019: 50th post Special Article!!!

The Dynamic Frequency Ratnadeep Das Choudhury

2019 witnessed remarkable achievements with several firsts in the sectors like space exploration and astronomy. Here, in this article, I am going to present you 10 most remarkable discoveries of 2019 in astronomy and space exploration.

Let’s start……

1) Baby black holes in primordial cosmos:-

10 Most Remarkable Discoveries in Space Exploration and Astronomy that you probably missed in 2019: 50th post Special Article!!! The Dynamic Frequency Ratnadeep Das Choudhury

Japanese astronomers found baby black holes in the early universe. They found this in March 2019 by searching pictures of the early universe by turning their telescope to a part of space which is about 13 billion years away. They observed about 83 previously undiscovered supermassive black holes. These black holes are generally quasars or be a huge disk of gases and dust around a supermassive black hole. These are one of the earliest objects ever been examined and discovered.

2) A star flees from Milky Way galaxy:-

Astronomers detected a star in last September, which was fleeing from our galaxy with a speed of 2 million km/h. This is one of the fastest renegade stars ever recorded. This type of phenomenon is usually happening with the survivor of the binary star system in which one of the partner stars is either engulfed by a supermassive black hole or exploded in the form of a supernova. But, in this case, neither of these cases has been observed. After analysing the parameters of the star, scientists conclude that this star must have suffered a run-in with a medium-mass black hole. This type of black hole has never been observed and this case may put some light in finding black holes of this category.

3) Space X Crew Dragon finally launched after more than 2 years of delay:-

Space X crew dragon spacecraft finally launched successfully atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 2, 2019. This success was very important for the US as after the retirement of Space Shuttles in 2011, the US didn’t have any craft to carry their astronauts to space. So, they were dependent on Russian Soyuz ( see in my book for more details on Soyuz) to do that job. But, after this test, the US moved one step ahead in the process for making their own spacecraft.

4) Arrokoth became the farthest object ever explored by a Spacecraft:-

On January 1 2019, New Horizon spacecraft explored a snow-man shaped asteroid named as Arrokoth. It is about 34 km wide and it's one of the thousands of icy bodies that exist beyond Neptune.

5) Planet in a dead solar system:-

In early December, astronomers found a planet which is about 2040 light-years away from earth, orbiting around a white dwarf star for the first time ever. It was observed that the Neptune like the planet was emitting gases as it was slowly evaporating when it circles the dead star once every 10 days. This shows evidence to the theory that the dead stars can have planets (even it is temporary).

6) Japanese spacecraft is returning with asteroid debris:-

On December 3, 2014, the Japanese space agency launched its sample-returning mission Hayabusa 2. It met 162173 Ryugu asteroid on June 27, 2018. This asteroid is 900-meters wide and a potentially hazardous asteroid of Apollo group. This spacecraft orbited the asteroid for months before it tried to collect samples. On February 22, 2019, the spacecraft fired a bullet which resulted into blasting of debris from the surface. The second touchdown was conducted on July 10, 2019, and by the same method, spacecraft collected some more samples. In November 2019, it left the asteroid and headed back to earth and is expected to return in late 2020.

7) First image of Blackhole:-

In April 2019, scientists and astronomers captured the image of a black hole and created history as it was before considered that it is impossible to capture the image of a black hole. This black hole is a supermassive 100 km wide black hole in the heart of M87 galaxy which is about 55 million light-years away. To capture the picture, a team of researchers from around the world linked 8 radio telescopes located in different parts of the world and pointed to a single point in the cosmos.

8) Spacecraft changes its orbit by using sunlight:-

On July 31, the planetary the society announced that their experimental spacecraft LightSail 2 successfully raised its orbit around earth by using the power of sunlight.

9) First picture of Cosmic Web:-

(Image Credits: The Guardian)

Till now, according to theoretical analogies, we knew that cosmic webs are there. These cosmic webs are like a concentration of gases which are connected with each other by long filament type stretches of gases. The structure resembles the shape of the web. These gases are the leftover of big bang explosion. In the concentrated areas of gases, the galaxies are formed. This amazing image will help scientists to understand the formation of the first galaxies.

10) Planet with three suns:-

In July 2019, NASA's scientists found a new strange exoplanet in a three-star system. The exoplanet is called LTT 1445Ab. It has a surface temperature around 16 degrees Celsius and is 22.5 light-years away from Earth. This planet appears to make an orbit around one of them every five days. NASA’s scientists found this planet by the help of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

To know basics of quantum world, astronomy and space exploration you can check out my book "Through the wormhole" on amazon kindle.