5 Most Amazing Scientific Facts of the Decade

Over the past decade, scientists across all disciplines have made remarkable discoveries that have changed our understanding of the world around us. From the exploration of distant planets to the detection of elusive particles, the last ten years have been one of the most significant periods of scientific discovery in human history.

Let's take a look at five of the most amazing scientific discoveries of the 2010s.

Number 5: Pluto

Despite being downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006, Pluto continued to fascinate scientists, and in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft finally reached it. The data sent back was astonishing - instead of a boring frozen rock, Pluto was found to have moving glaciers, floating ice mountains, and a huge frozen sea made of solid nitrogen. These discoveries have given us a new introduction and understanding of what happens on the mysterious dwarf planets at the edge of our solar system.

Number 4: The Higgs boson

In 2012, scientists confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson particle, also known as the "god particle." This discovery was made at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN, Switzerland, after decades of research and construction of the world's largest machine. The Higgs boson is essential to our understanding of why objects have mass, and its discovery was the confirmation of the last unknown part of the standard model of physics.

Number 3: Kepler

For thousands of years, humans have wondered about the universe and what is out there. In 2009, the Kepler probe was launched to study distant stars and measure the amount of light they emit. By measuring fluctuations in their brightness, scientists were able to determine whether any objects were orbiting them. The results have been incredible, with more than 4,055 exoplanets discovered, including a few that are potentially habitable. This discovery has given us a better understanding of how common our own solar system is and what else may be out there waiting to be found.

Number 2: Climate Change

Over the past decade, the world has begun to realize the extent of the problem of climate change and how it is affecting our planet. Human behavior is largely responsible for the changes in our climate, and we have begun to understand how it is affecting our world. Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica has increased six times in the past thirty years, and the world's sea levels are expected to rise by three feet by 2100, directly affecting the homes and lives of at least 630 million people. The consequences of climate change are far-reaching and continue to get worse, with 40% of all amphibian species, more than 33% of marine mammals, and 10% of insect species being endangered.

Number 1: Black Holes

Black holes have long been some of the most mysterious objects in the universe, but over the past decade, researchers have dedicated their efforts to studying them, resulting in significant discoveries. Two black holes were detected colliding into one another in 2016, creating ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. This amazing discovery confirmed the prediction made by Einstein in 1916. In addition, a team working with the Event Horizon Telescope managed to capture the first-ever image of a single black hole, located at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy.

In conclusion, the last decade has been one of the most exciting periods of scientific discovery in human history. From the exploration of Pluto and Kepler's discoveries of exoplanets to the confirmation of the Higgs boson particle and the study of black holes, scientists have made significant progress in expanding our understanding of the universe. As we move into the future, there is no doubt that we will continue to uncover even more remarkable discoveries that will change the way we see the world around us.