2016: A Year for Space Discoveries

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2016 was a year of incredible discoveries, when it comes to the matters of space science. To start with, scientists have discovered a habitable, potentially, planet, which is orbiting the star which is nearest to the Earth's Sun.

That is not it; even they have discovered direct detection of the gravitational waves, which are the first of its kind, and this will allow the scientists to have a new approach to their studies relating to the cosmic events, revealed Space.

• About the new, habitable, planet- In August of 2016, a planet was discovered which was orbiting around the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri. In this planet, liquid water is known to exist, which makes it habitable. Now, Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 light years away from the Earth's Sun, which is relatively a very small distance, cosmologically. This planet, which is being called Proxima b is known to have a minimum mass, which ranges about 1.27 times the Earth's mass and this to indicates that it is habitable.
• A considerable amount of ice deposit in Mars- It is being reported that there is a recent development in surface of Mass. There is a ice deposit which can be said to be around 3 to 33 feet below the planet's surface and the percentage of water in this deposit is calculated to be around 50 to 85 percent, while the rest of it is dirt. The ice deposit in the Red Planet holds about 12,100 cubic kilometers of water, which can be equated as the same volume that Lake Superior holds, revealed BBC.
• Europa might also be potentially habitable- A Space Telescope, known as Hubble has detected "plumes of water" erupting from the very surface of the Europa, a name that is associated with Jupiter's moon. It is expected that this satellite, full of ice, might harbor a good amount of liquid water, which exists ocean deep within the surface of this particular satellite. NASA is planning on sending an orbiting probe to study the Europa, around the year 2020.