25 Recent Space Discoveries That Blew Our Minds

the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes Marcel Proust I'm Mike with lists 25 and here are 25 recent space discoveries that blew our minds 25 earth-like planets in 2013 astronomers confirmed the presence of 20 billion exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy alone which are similar to earth and thus may contain life with the billions of galaxies in the universe that's billions of billions of planets which may Harbor life 24 Pluto's not lost yet space lovers were devastated in 2006 when Pluto was demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet those refusing to accept its fate were rewarded in 2015 when the New Horizons spacecraft passed by the hunk of ice and rock revealing that it acts more like a true planet than a dwarf planet the probe found Pluto has a gravity strong enough to hold on to its atmosphere and deflect charged particles from solar wind 23 the gold star collision the year 2013 was a fantastic year for astronomy astronomers also detected the collision of two stars which produced tons and tons of gold weighing many times the mass of our own moon 22 Martian tsunamis scientists have recently released evidence that massive tsunamis may have rocked the Martian landscape a discovery that blew the minds of many in the space community the researchers posit that two meteor strikes caused huge tidal waves which would have produced 165 foot or 50 meter high waves 21 the Godzilla of Earth our planet is one of the larger sized rocky planets but in 2014 scientists found a planet twice its size and 17 times as heavy though planets of this size were thought to be gas giants this planet named kepler-10c is remarkably similar to our own and has been called the Godzilla of Earth 20 gravitational waves Albert Einstein declared his finding of gravitational waves back in 1916 nearly a century before scientists confirm their existence the science world was thrilled by their discovery in 2015 revealing that space time could ripple just as still water on a pond ripples when a stone is tossed into it 19 a volcanic moon forms mountains new research has revealed how mountains on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io form though mountains on earth grow in long chains IOS mountains are mostly solitary the moon is so volcanically active that a five-inch layer of molten lava covers its surface every 10 years by looking at this rapid rate of eruption scientists have concluded that massive pressure on iOS core causes fractures which head to the surface to release pressure 18 Saturn's massive new ring astronomers have recently discovered a massive new ring around Saturn situated 6 to 18 million miles or 3.7 to 11 point 1 million kilometres from the planet's surface the new ring spins in the opposite direction of the other rings the new ring is so thinly scattered that you couldn't tell if you stood inside it despite the fact that a billion earths could fit within it since the ring is quite cool about negative 316 degrees Fahrenheit it was only recently discovered when using an infrared telescope 17 dying stars produce new life once a star burns up all the hydrogen in its core it expands too many times it's normal size as it expands it engulfs and consumes nearby planets scientists have recently found though that more distant planets could warm up and become hotbeds for terrestrial life in our solar system's case the Sun will expand past Mars's orbit warming conditions on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn enough to develop life 16 oldest star in the universe a few hundred million years is junk change in the lifespan of the universe which is 14 billion years old the oldest star ever discovered SMSs j0 three one three zero zero point three six - six seven zero eight three nine point three is bafflingly nearly as ancient at thirteen point six billion years old fifteen true oxygen and space oxygen is naturally a highly reactive gas leaving it to bond with other substances to exist in space the discovery of molecular oxygen the same kind we breathe in the atmosphere of infamous comet 67p deepens our understanding of cosmic gases and gives hope that oxygen can exist in a form we humans can use in other places in the universe 14 cosmic purgatory astronomers have defined a new region of space discovered by the Voyager 1 probe as cosmic purgatory just beyond the reach of the solar system this area has a magnetic field twice as strong to create a barrier to interstellar space charged particles emitted from the Sun were also noted to slow down and even turn around 13 flags on the moon all the Apollo missions which visited the moon left an American flag in our most famous satellite soil though mostly ceremonial as by treaty no one can own the moon the flags were expected to have been reduced to bleached white scraps of nylon after years of cosmic radiation and bombardment when the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its telescopes at the landing sites in 2012 it found the flags were still shadows of their former selves meaning the fabric was likely still intact 12 the hyperactive galaxy a starburst galaxy located 12 point two billion light-years from Earth the baby-boom galaxy was discovered in 2008 the aptly named galaxy takes the cake as the brightest starburst galaxy in the very distant universe thanks to its incredibly rapid star formation while our Milky Way gives birth to new star on average every 36 days a new star is born every two hours in the baby-boom 11 the coldest spot in the universe the coldest place in the universe is the boomerang nebula registering almost no heat at all touching the bottom rungs of the thermodynamic scale at just about absolute zero the nebula glows blue and shines brightly due to light reflecting off its dust 10 the shrinking icon Jupiter's iconic great red spot has been shrinking over the past century now only half its original width since what we can see of the planet is basically a massive swirling cloud streams it's not surprising that the hurricane of a spot can change size even more bizarre though is a line of waves just near the equator though we're not sure what causes them they look remarkably similar to waves which form in Earth's atmosphere just before cyclone 9 smallest planet the smallest planet we've yet discovered was found in 2013 named Kepler 37 B the planet is slightly larger than our moon but that three times closer to its star than mercury is to the Sun scorches everything on its surface with a tepid 800 degrees Fahrenheit or 425 degrees Celsius eight stars dying prematurely some stars in the robust star forming region known as the Carina Nebula were found in 2016 to be prematurely dying about half of the stars skip their red giant stage cutting out millions of years in the traditional star life cycle while we're unsure what causes this effect premature death has only been seen in sodium-rich or oxygen-poor stars 7 where we should be looking for life we may not need to look to other planets for future human basis but rather two moons when it passes near to Jupiter the icy moon Europa shoots out 15,000 pounds or 6,800 kilograms of water per second from it's cracked southern pole scientists have recently worked out that a probe would relatively easily be able to analyze the waters contents before they fall back to the planet's surface such studies could help us determine if life exists or is possible on Europa 6 the massive diamond star often referred to by its nickname Lucy star BPM 3 7:09 3 is a white dwarf star located about 20 light-years from Earth the star is remarkable basically a massive diamond the size of our Moon if assessed by jewelers the diamond would be 10 de Cillian carats 5 the real 9th planet though Pluto was demoted that's messed up scientists believe there may be a massive planet orbiting the Sun beyond Pluto using mathematical laws scientists have worked out that a planet as big as Neptune must be in orbit though we're still looking to catch a glimpse of this elusive planet for a noisy vacuum in September 2013 NASA released audio recordings of plasma waves the first sounds ever recorded in interstellar space 3 the brightest supernova detected in 2015 assassin 1/5 LH is the brightest supernova ever seen measuring over 570 billion times the luminosity of our Sun even stranger scientists found the supernova brightened a second time about two months after its peak brightness - an asteroid with rings though it's common for massive gas giants to have orbiting ring systems rings are quite rare among other celestial bodies scientists were fascinated upon discovering rings around the Georgia sized asteroid cherrick low the asteroid has two rings likely made of ice water which came from a previous collision one the alcoholic comet Comet Lovejoy captured astronomers and alcoholics imagination in 2015 while studying the fast-flying hunk of ice scientists discovered the comet ejected the same type of alcohol we drink at a rate of 500 wine bottles per second it also ejects a simple sugar making us wonder if this comet is its own once top fermentation brewery enjoying our lists be sure to click that subscribe button in the top right corner so you don't miss out on new ones every Monday through Friday share them with your friends and help us consistently conciliate curiosity and if you want even more lists check out these two videos here or just head to our website at list pond5.com

Channel: list25

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Keywords: list25, 2016, alien, ufo, aliens, nasa, planet, space, alien life, extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial, life, amazing, unbelievable, incredible, astronomy, science, astronomy (field of study), discovery, earth, galaxy, gravity

Id: idRjqi8JC2U

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2016