Published on July 12th, 2017 | by Guest

5 Incredible Discoveries of 2016

2016 was a fantastic year for scientific discovery and achievement. Science saw some serious setbacks this year, but also some major breakthroughs, from the groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves to the discovery of an Earth-sized exoplanet less than five light years away.

1. Discovery of a New Prime Number:

With the use of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, this year in the month of January scientists have discovered a new prime number. It is the longest prime number existing till date because there are around 24,000,000 number of digits present in it. So, 2^74,207,281 – 1 is the new prime number. It is the common query that has been raised in everyone’s mind, that why there is a need of discovering such a number. The answer is modern cryptography needs complex numbers and Mersenne Prime Numbers to encode data. Surprisingly, 2^74,207,281 – 1 is the only possible approach to write this prime number!

2. There are total nine planets in our solar system:

In the 20th century, before Pluto was discovered, the existence of the ninth planet was theorized beyond Neptune because of the gravitational clustering that could only be originated by a massive object. But it was fully quantified after an evidence was presented by the scientists. The scientists proved that a 9th planet truly exists whose orbital period is 15,000 years. For the time being, the ninth planet remains hypothetical but its orbit has been calculated to be quite massive by the astronomers.

3. Cavefish can walk up walls like reptiles:

A Taiwanese Cavefish was discovered which can walk up walls. The species of cavefish was found by the researchers in the completely dark caves of northern Thailand. This is completely interesting that these blind fish live and move completely without sight, they can even move up the sides of cavern walls against the movement of the water.

4. A Rocket Lands Vertically for the First Time:

In reality, it is especially challenging to land a rocket vertically. So, government agencies such as NASA have made rockets that are always intentionally burned up in the atmosphere or dropped in the ocean for later recovery. A rocket can be reused and a huge amount of money can be saved if it will be possible to land a rocket vertically. On April 8, a rocket was landed successfully by the Private Company SpaceX vertically on a floating drone ship.

5. Quadriplegic Man Can Move His Fingers:

A quadriplegic man has been able to move his fingers and even play Guitar Hero thanks to scientists who planted a device in his brain. Stay tuned with us to explore some more interesting discoveries on Maths, Physics, chemistry and biology.

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About Author:

Arpita Das enjoys inspiring others through her writing and blogging and is presently working as a content writer at Byju’s. Since when she started her career she has written articles and blogs. If you wish to discuss any related concepts or ideas feel free to drop an email at [email protected]

Tags: 2016, discoveries, incredible