In galaxies far, far away…we’ve discovered so much since the turn of the century. Here's a look at some of the greatest astronomical discoveries from 1998 to 2024, during the first 25 years of Space.com, which was founded on July 20, 1999, including dark matter, the first real photo of a black hole and more!
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00:00In galaxies far, far away, we've discovered so much since the turn of the century.
00:06Space telescopes have given us views we could only dream of.
00:10We've learned more about black holes than ever before,
00:13and we've discovered exoplanets, giving us a whole new look at the universe.
00:19With the development of social media,
00:21some of the greatest moments were shared with billions of people globally, and in seconds.
00:31Black holes are some of the most wondrous objects in space,
00:36and there could be more than 100 million of them in the Milky Way.
00:41The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration in 2019
00:44captured the first image of the intriguing beast.
00:48The closest to Earth, Gaia BH1, is 1,560 light-years away
00:55and has a mass around 9.6 times that of the Sun.
00:59Since the beginning of the decade, astronomers and scientists have made incredible discoveries,
01:04helping us better understand all we need to know about these supermassive stunners.
01:14The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992,
01:18and since then, the hunt has been on to find more, especially if Earth has a twin.
01:24In 2001, a planet with an orbit around the Sun
01:27at a similar distance from it as Earth was uncovered,
01:30and in a location where life might be able to exist.
01:35The next two decades, more and more exoplanets were found
01:38with similar composition, size, and orbit as Earth,
01:43with some scientists highlighting the discovery of Kepler-186f in 2014
01:49in another star's habitable zone.
01:52In the last 25 years, a variety of space telescopes were launched with different frequencies,
01:57including infrared game-changers Spitzer in 2003 and James Webb in 2021,
02:03to allow astronomers and scientists to find out
02:06and learn more about exoplanets than ever before.
02:10More missions were embarked on globally,
02:12with space telescopes creating cloud maps, discovering other planet systems,
02:17and capturing portraits of galaxies we never knew existed.
02:21To date, NASA says there have been more than 5,000 exoplanets
02:25located and confirmed of the billions just in our galaxy.
02:35In addition to black holes and exoplanets,
02:37since 1999, the astronomical discoveries have been,
02:41full pun intended, out of this world.
02:44We've learned more about other planets in our solar system than ever before,
02:48and other ones in the Milky Way that are similar.
02:51Spacecraft have visited comets, and researchers have discovered them.
02:56We've brought samples back from asteroids
02:59and even detected the first gravitational waves in space.
03:04In 2021, NASA's Parker Solar Probe made history
03:09as the first spacecraft created by humans to enter the Sun's atmosphere.
03:15With the creation and popularity of social media,
03:20we get to experience space exploration on a whole new level.
03:25In the 2000s, Internet sites and apps became a place
03:28to connect with the space industry within seconds,
03:31allowing users to upload thoughts, photos, and videos,
03:34and publish with just the click of a button.
03:37NASA astronaut Mike Massimino said the first tweet from space in 2009
03:43connecting billions of people on Earth with those in orbit.
03:47Want to know what spacecraft like NASA's Perseverance Mars rover
03:51and SpaceX's Starlink satellites are up to?
03:54Just check their social media pages.
03:57The latest on space exploration can be just a click away.
04:01There is so much more to discover,
04:04and the world is our oyster,
04:07or perhaps just one of the many, many galaxies to explore.
04:11For Space.com, I'm Meredith Garfalo.