With the James Webb Space Telescope celebrating its historic first year in space on December 25, 2022, Webb has made good on its mission to #UnfoldTheUniverse. Thus, as the new year begins, many sky-gazers can look to the stars confidently, knowing the decade's discoveries will continue to excite the imagination and inspire awe in space adventurers throughout the world.
From 2012-2022, tech advancements have expanded humanity's understanding of the galaxy and the larger universe. Indeed, with the plethora of discoveries revealed by the scientific community in the last decade, notating the most impactful of the bunch becomes a fruitful endeavor.
10 Exoplanet Extravaganza
The Kepler telescope, which concluded its epic run in 2018, powered the exoplanet boom of the last decade, identifying a whopping 2,662 exoplanets (per NASA). Scientists believe these once-mysterious celestial bodies will prove instrumental in furthering humanity's understanding of space.
In these exoplanets lies the dream of every astronomer, finding Earth 2.0. Thus, the hope Kepler-186f, the first Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting its star's "habitable" zone, brought with its notable discovery in 2014 cannot be understated.
9 A New Era Of Space Exploration
Even though the lauded Hubble Telescope has provided untold amounts of information about the universe, it is the new era of space tech that will spurn further discoveries. A quick comparison of the differences between Hubble and the James Webb Telescope reveals what the next age of space exploration will look like.
While tech like Webb and SpaceX promise to take humanity's knowledge of space to untold heights, there is still so much left undiscovered, even within the solar system. Moreover, missions like Cassini reveal the remarkable space discoveries ahead as humanity forges forward.
8 First Interstellar Visitors
Charted by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope, 1I/2017 U1, better known as 'Oumuamua,' became the first interstellar visitor ever observed in this solar system (per NASA), making for a top space documentary on Netflix. This flat, pancake-like ingot would blaze through the solar system with a top speed of 87.71 km/s or 196,200 mph.
Later, in 2019, the solar system witnessed its second interstellar traveler when the comet 2I/Borisov blazed a path through the system (via NASA). Luckily, astronomers captured terrific images of the comet's powerful coma and fiery tail to share with the world.
7 Marvelous Earthling Feats
Indeed, humanity's goals tied to tech like Hubble, LIGO, and the surprising Artemis 1 lunar mission continue fueling the dream of someday becoming a space-faring civilization. The many steps humanity will take toward the stars to better understand the universe will be littered with testaments to human ingenuity.
To achieve that goal, properly utilizing available interstellar resources, like comets, becomes necessary. That necessity is precisely why the ESA's landing of Rosetta and Philae on a comet and the data it provided represent one of the most significant space finds of the last ten years.
6 Voyager Continues Voyaging
Kicking off a momentous decade for space discoveries, the celebrated Voyager I became the first manufactured object to leave the solar system (per NASA), finally voyaging out into the interstellar medium in August 2012 after a 35-year journey.
Launched way back in September 1977, the Voyager mission gathered data from the outer solar system and interstellar space outside the reach of the sun's heliosphere. Yet, most remarkable is Voyager's longevity, as it continues to send back data regarding the vast unknown over four decades after its launch.
5 The Wonders Of The Solar System
The last decade will see multiple truly remarkable discoveries within the confines of this solar system. Cassini's discovery of a global ocean, potentially teeming with microbial life, lying below the icy surface of Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon, vastly increases the scope of the search for planetary life throughout the galaxy.
Additionally deserving of recognition is the New Horizons mission delivering Pluto's first-ever up-close images. Surely, uncovering the largest known glacier in the solar system in the form of a massive, white heart represents the innate beauty within Earth's galactic backyard.
4 Getting Acquainted With Our Planetary Neighbor
NASA's mandate to get to Mars continues yielding fascinating new information on Earth's nearest neighbor and providing the scientific community with critical data. Grabbing space headlines in February 2021, NASA's capable Mars Perseverance Rover etched its place in history.
The Rover would utilize MOXIE and successfully convert CO2 from Mars' atmosphere into O2, the first instance of any element's conversion on another planet (per NASA). Importantly, this alludes to the possibility of transforming the resource-rich atmospheres of other worlds into vital things like breathable air, fuel, and water.
3 Gravitational Waves
Theorized by Einstein in his Theory on General Relativity in 1915, gravitational waves are the waves of space-time, rippling and bending due to the energetic impact of massive colliding objects. Much like ripples in a pond, these waves start at a central point of impact, cascading outward, vastly altering the once-still environment.
It would take around a century for the validation of Einstein's theory on gravitational waves to come to fruition, when, in September 2015, the U.S. LIGO and Italy's Virgo interferometers detected waves sweeping past Earth (via NASA). Riding the gravitational discovery trend, the detection of waves continued into the decade, culminating with the awe-inspiring Kilonova event.
2 Black Hole
Black holes have represented the penultimate mystery of astronomy since first theorized in the 18th century (per Phys.org). Since then, black holes have become the embodiment of the void, the point from which no light returns, sitting at the center of galaxies like a cosmic disposal unit.
So, Earth took notice when scientists released the first-ever image of a Black Hole in 2019 (via NASA). Courtesy of the Event Horizon Telescope Project, viewers were gifted a historical snapshot procured from the heart of galaxy M-87 of a fresh-from-the-oven, perfectly glazed donut of a black hole.
1 Higgs Boson Detected
First theorized in 1964 by Peter Higgs and his team, it would take nearly 50 years for science and tech to advance enough to prove Higgs's theories valid. Nevertheless, this discovery tops the list as the Higgs boson particle theoretically gave everything in the universe mass, from planets to people.
History was made in July 2012, when researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN discovered the Higgs boson particle. This infamous "God" particle would fill in the final piece regarding the Standard Model for Particle Physics and garner a Nobel Prize for the research team.