SPACE DISCOVERIES

GIANT WATER RESERVOIR

While astronomers had suspected there might have been large

amounts of water in outer space, in 2011, they were shocked to

discover an enormous water vapour cloud located about 10 billion

light years from Earth. Floating around a black hole, the cloud is

estimated to hold up to 140 trillion times the mass of water

found in all Earth´s oceans.

MILKY WAY´S SUPER-HOT COVER

NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory has recently found out that our

galaxy sits at the centre of an immense halo of hot gas extending

for hundreds of thousands of light years. Burning at a temperature of

1–2.5 million Kelvin, the gas halo is estimated to contain as much

mass as all the stars in the Milky Way combined.

HOT ICE WORLD

In May 2007, a team of Belgian astronomers announced the

discovery of a bizarre planet covered in hot but solid water.

Officially known as Gliese 436 b, it is a Neptune-sized exoplanet 

orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 436. Although the planet´s temperature

reaches 439 C (712 K), its watery surface doesn’t evaporate.

Instead, it forms a kind of hot, high-pressured ice.

MYSTERIOUS PLANET

Dubbed “The Hell Planet”-due to its high content of burning lava-the

Kepler-78 b exoplanet was discovered in 2013. The mystery of

this planet relates to its origin as astronomers have no idea how

such a small planet, only 20 percent larger than Earth, could have

evolved so close to its parent star Kepler-78.

ENORMOUS STREAM OF HYDROGEN

An international team of astronomers in Puerto Rico discovered a

2.6-million-light-year-long bridge of atomic hydrogen gas between

galaxies in the NGC 7448 galaxy group, some 500 million light years

away. What made this discovery so unique was – apart from the

stream´s gigantic size – the fact that gas streams are usually

found inside galaxies, not between them.

GALILEAN MOONS

When Galileo Galilei, a famous Italian Renaissance astronomer,

turned his newly constructed spyglass to the sky in 1610, he

had no idea he would discover the four largest moons of Jupiter

(now known as the Galilean moons). In fact, no scientist up to

that day had predicted that the other planets would also

have their own moons.

GIANT VOID

Also known as Canes Venatici Supervoid, the Giant Void is an

extremely huge region of “space emptiness” within the 

constellation Canes Venatici. The discovery of this void

surprised astronomers as their theories were only able to deal

with much smaller empty areas in space. Measuring up to

1.3 billion light years across, the Giant Void is the largest

void ever detected.

URANUS

The seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus was discovered by

accident. William Herschel, a German-born British astronomer

discovered Uranus in March 1781 while surveying bright stars

and nearby faint stars with his new telescope.

FIRST ASTEROID

Named Ceres, the first asteroid was found by an Italian astronomer

Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo, Sicily, in January 1801, while Piazzi was

compiling a catalogue of star positions. Located in the asteroid

belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, Ceres was originally

considered a planet for many years. These days, it is

classified as a dwarf planet.