DISCOVERY

The possibility of life on Venus is but our latest step towards a better understanding of the universe

Galaxies Discovered

In 1924, Edwin Hubble used the world’s then largest telescope to resolve some fuzzy clouds of dust and gas – thought to be pa of the Milky Way – into individual stars. He then measured the distances to them and proved that they lay well outside the Milky Way as pa of other galaxies. Before Hubble’s revelation, the Milky Way was accepted as being the only galaxy in the universe. We’ve since discovered myriad others, and currently estimate the total number of galaxies to be around two trillion.

Exoplanets Found

If our Sun has eight major planets and numerous other smaller bodies like dwa planets and asteroids, what about other stars? This question was definitively answered in 1992 when two radio astronomers announced the discovery of two planets orbiting a distant star. The claim was verified, and several detection techniques have since been developed. In January 2020, the first Ea h-sized exoplanet lying within its parent star’s habitable zone – essentially a planetary counterpa to ours – was detected.

Black Hole Captured

As observation equipment and techniques continue to advance, previously elusive targets have revealed themselves. Case in point: the Event Horizon Telescope.

This project points a global network of telescopes at a single target to “image” it at a far higher resolution than any single one would be able to. The results of the collaboration have yielded humanity’s first direct image of a black hole, which has confirmed several computer simulations, and thus our understanding of this object.