Hidden lakes on Mars, asteroid worth global economy, reverse ageing | Top scientific discoveries in 2020

 

From detecting buried water lakes on Mars to discovering a new organ in the throat to spotting a metal asteroid that might be worth 10,000 quadrillion -- here are some path-breaking discoveries of the year 2020.

Our universe is just like a mystery novel with a thriller 'whodunnit' plot. It's waiting to get demystified as scientists across the world continue to brainstorm the very existence and sustainability of life on Earth and even the presence of extraterrestrial matter floating in space. Is life possible beyond Earth? Is Big Bang the beginning of the universe? -- The year 2020 has seen some breakthrough discoveries and exciting revelations by scientists and researchers.

From detecting buried water lakes on Mars to discovering a new organ in the throat to spotting a metal asteroid that might be worth 10,000 quadrillion -- These new discoveries about space and galaxies in 2020 came amid the ever-rising cry - "when will the pandemic get over". Although, the novel coronavirus outbreak, that gripped the world throughout this year, might have taken up most of the time of researchers, but this didn't fail to hamper the work of astronomers and scientists.

Read on to know some of the top discoveries of the year 2020:

1. 3 BURIED LAKES ON MARS

If there's water present somewhere, it is possible that the area is habitable -- no matter how deserted it looks. Therefore, the discovery of three salty water lakes hidden under the surface on Mars came as a path-breaking finding this year.

In late September, a paper was published in Nature Astronomy, in which researchers disclosed that they have detected the presence of three more lakes, besides one large reservoir discovered two years ago, buried under the icy surface of the red planet. They even confirmed the presence of one saltwater lake, which was discovered by planetary scientists two years ago.

According to the findings, the lakes are spread over about 75,000 square kilometres - an area roughly one-fifth the size of Germany. "The largest, central lake, measures 30 kilometres across, and is surrounded by three smaller lakes, each a few kilometres wide," it said.

Scientists said that if reservoirs exist, they could be potential habitats for Martian life.

Meanwhile, another study showed that there was water present on Mars much earlier than thought -- around 4.4 billion years ago. A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo deducted this by studying the mineral composition of a Martian meteorite (which originated on Mars), nicknamed Black Beauty.

2. MORE WATER ON MOON THAN EXPECTED

In October, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) announced a new "exciting discovery" about Moon. It confirmed the presence of water molecules in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth on the lunar surface. The space agency said that the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil.

While previous observations had indicated millions of tons of ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon's poles, a pair of studies in the journal Nature Astronomy took the availability of lunar surface water to a new level, suggesting that there may be far more water on the Moon than once thought.

More than 15,400 square miles (40,000 square kilometres) of lunar terrain can trap water in the form of ice, said a team led by the University of Colorado's Paul Hayne. That's 20 per cent more area than previous estimates, scientists said.

3. NEW ORGAN IN THROAT

It was an "accidental" discovery.

Scientists in the Netherlands "accidentally" discovered a new organ, a set of salivary glands set deep in the upper part of the throat. The discovery was made when researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute were using a combination of CT scans and positron emission tomography (PET) scans called PSMA PET-CT to study prostate cancer. A study co-author said that the discovery may be important for cancer treatment.

The study, published in the journal Radiotherapy and Oncology, confirmed the presence of the glands after examining at least 100 patients.

"Patients may have trouble eating, swallowing or speaking, which can be a real burden," Study co-author and Netherlands Cancer Institute radiation oncologist Wouter Vogel said.

"Our next step is to find out how we can best spare these new glands and in which patients. If we can do this, patients may experience less side effects, which will benefit their overall quality of life after treatment," Vogel said.

4. MILKY WAY'S 'MOST SIGNIFICANT MERGER'

In a study focused on understanding the family tree of our galaxy -- the Milky way -- scientists claimed to have found the evidence of five large-scale galactic mergers, dating back over 10 billion years. This included one collision with a mysterious galaxy that was never known to scientists -- a so-called Kraken galaxy.

Researchers revealed that Kraken galaxy had collided with Milky Way around 11 billion years ago. A study author even said that it "must have been the most significant merger the Milky Way ever experienced".

"The merger was a beast," but "just a piece of the puzzle".

5. METALLIC ASTEROID MAY BE WORTH $10,000 QUADRILLION

Astronomers found one unique metal asteroid floating in space, which if brought to Earth, can fetch up to whopping $10,000 quadrillion ($10,000,000,000,000,000,000) -- approximately ten thousand times the global economy in 2019.

This year, Nasa said that the metal-rich asteroid, '16 Psyche', which is orbiting the Sun, might have iron worth $10,000 quadrillion ($10,000,000,000,000,000,000). The new research suggests that the asteroid may be mostly made of iron and nickel.

Authors of the study, published on October 26 in The Planetary Science Journal, said that Psyche's surface could be pure iron. They also suggested that the asteroid may be mostly made of iron and nickel. However, the exact composition of Psyche is still unclear.

It has been hypothesized that a piece of iron of its size could be worth about $10,000 quadrillion -- more than the entire economy on our planet. A report in CNN said that Nasa Psyche mission's lead scientist Lindy Elkins-Tantonhas estimated that the amount of iron present on the steroid would be worth more than $10,000 quadrillion.

6. ZEPTOSECOND, THE SHORTEST UNIT OF TIME EVER MEASURED

Scientists measured the shortest unit of time ever -- the time it takes a light particle to cross a hydrogen molecule -- that time, for the record, is 247 zeptoseconds, Live Science reported.

It means, it takes zeptoseconds for light to travel across a single molecule of hydrogen (H2).

According to the report, "a zeptosecond is a trillionth of a billionth of a second, or a decimal point followed by 20 zeroes and a 1".7.

7. JUPITER-SIZE PLANET SPOTTED ORBITING WHITE DWARF STAR

In a first, astronomers spotted a Jupiter-size planet, called WD 1856 b, orbiting a white dwarf star named WD 1856+534. According to Nasa, the potential planet, roughly the same size as Jupiter, is about seven times larger than the white dwarf.

It is potentially the first-of-its-kind planet. "The planet candidate is roughly the same size as Jupiter and is no more than 14 times as massive [with 95 per cent confidence]," authors of the study said in their report.

Scientists further said that no intact planets have so far been detected in close orbits around white dwarfs.

A white dwarf is the "dense leftover of a Sun-like star, only 40 per cent larger than Earth". When a Sun-like star runs out of nuclear fuel, it swells up to hundreds to thousands of times its original size to become a cooler red giant star. Later, it loses up to 80 per cent of its mass by ejecting its outer layers of gas. The remaining hot core becomes a white dwarf. It is during the red giant phase that nearby objects get engulfed and incinerated during this process.

8. EARTH NOT SO EXCLUSIVE! MORE HABITABLE PLANETS IN GALAXY?

According to a research published in The Astronomical Journal, over half of all Sun-like stars in our Milky Way may have a habitable planet orbiting it. The study suggests that there could be nearly 300 million potentially habitable worlds within our galaxy.

A report in Space.com quoted authors of the study, which was then yet to be published, as saying that on average, each sunlike star in the Milky Way likely harbours between 0.4 and 0.9 rocky planets in its "habitable zone" -- "the just-right range of orbital distances where liquid water could be stable on a world's surface".

Study co-author Jeff Coughlin, who is an exoplanet researcher at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) in Mountain View, California, said, "This is the first time that all of the pieces have been put together to provide a reliable measurement of the number of potentially habitable planets in the galaxy."

Meanwhile, a study led by Washington State University scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch revealed that two dozen planets, identified by researchers, may have conditions more suitable for life than Earth.

As per a report in Astrobiology Web, these more 'liveable' planets are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth. Some of these orbit stars that may be better than even our sun. Life could also more easily thrive on planets that circle more slowly changing stars with longer lifespans than our sun.

9. BRAIN PREWIRED FOR SEEING WORDS

Scientists from the Ohia State University in the US found the answer to the question -- why we, humans, learn the alphabet and words. They discovered a network or wiring in the brain that distinguishes or makes the brain receptive to seeing letters and words.

Researchers found that a part of the human brain is "pre-wired" at birth to learn how to read. It is called the "visual word form area" (VWFA) and it is connected to the language network of the brain -- this means, humans are born with a brain that has the ability to read letters and words. It only needs to be trained on which or how many sets of alphabets to learn.

10. SLOW DOWN AGEING OR REVERSE IT

During the course of the research conducted on mice, scientists found a protein that could help combat ageing and help in the development of drugs to treat age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes.

A joint study by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Tohoku University suggests that while the mice were in space (at the International Space Station (ISS)), they experienced biological changes that are similar to ageing but fast-forwarded, a report quoted from the Japan Times.

The research showed that the protein, called nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2, or Nrf2, was responsible for slowing down mice's part of biological changes similar to ageing.

In another study, scientists from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Shamir Medical Center in Israel claimed to have found a way to reverse the ageing process in humans.

In a study published in the journal Aging, the scientists found a treatment that not only stopped the ageing of blood cells, but in fact reverses the ageing process. They conducted clinical trials of hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) in healthy ageing adults.

When cells inside our body replicate, the younger ones crumble to dust. "This occurs via the shortening of telomeres, structures that 'cap' the tips of our chromosomes," the report said.

Scientists in Israel said that they were able to reverse the ageing process and extend the length of telomere in a small study.

As part of the study, the participants sat in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for five 90-minutes sessions per week over three months. As a result, some of their cell's telomeres were extended by up to 20 per cent.

However, the small sample size has raised questions over the accuracy of this research.