It’s been a good year for science.

Researchers in various fields, ranging from anthropology to physics, have made discoveries that have significantly expanded our understanding of Earth, the universe and our place in it.

As we head into a new decade, let’s take stock of how far we’ve come with Business Insider, who compiled a list of the most “mind-boggling” discoveries of the past year.

We picked five that really stood out:

The First-Ever Image Of A Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of eight radio telescopes spanning locations from Antarctica to Spain and Chile captured the first-ever image of a black hole,

Scientists struggled for decades to capture a black hole on camera, since black holes distort space-time, ensuring that nothing can break free of their gravitational pull – even light.

That’s why the image shows a unique shadow in the form of a perfect circle at the centre.

The image could revolutionise our understanding of black holes.

Climate Change Discoveries Shook The Planet

In April, a study revealed that the Greenland ice sheet is sloughing off an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year. Antarctica lost an average of 252 billion tons of ice per year in the last decade.

What’s more, parts of Thwaites Glacier in western Antarctica are retreating by up to 2,625 feet (800 metre) per year, contributing to 4% of sea-level rise worldwide. A study published in July suggested that Thwaites’ melting is a time bomb that is likely approaching an irreversible point after which the entire glacier could collapse into the ocean. If that happened, global sea levels would rise by more than 1.5 feet (0.4 metres).

Perhaps the most mind-boggling thing of all is that people continue to deny that climate change is real, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

Researchers Cured ‘Bubble Boy’ Syndrome

You might recognise the disease from the 2001 film Bubble Boy.

Babies who are born with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (XSCID) don’t have disease-fighting immune cells. For them, the outside world is an intensely dangerous place.

XSCID was nicknamed “bubble-boy” disease because of a young boy named David Vetter, who famously lived his entire life in a protective plastic bubble. Vetter died more than 30 years ago at age 12 after a failed treatment.

Using an experimental gene therapy, scientists managed to successfully cure babies with XSCID, in April.

Researchers Found The Oldest Skull From A Human Ancestor

The skull, which belonged to the species Australopithecus anamensis, was found by anthropologists in August and is an estimated 3,8 million years old.

The fossil, nicknamed “MRD,” revealed that these ancient people had protruding faces with prominent foreheads and cheek bones, much like other australopithecus species in the fossil record.

MRD’s age also suggested that these human ancestors coexisted with another species of human ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis, for at least 100,000 years. The nearly complete skeleton “Lucy” was a member of that latter group, which roamed Africa between 3.9 million and 3 million years ago.

Evolution has brought us a long way.

NASA’s Voyager 2 Entered Interstellar Space For The First Time

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft left our solar system this year and entered interstellar space for the first time.

The probe beamed back unprecedented data about previously unknown boundary layers at the far edge of our solar system – an area known as the heliopause.

The discovery of these boundary layers suggests there are stages in the transition from our solar bubble to the interstellar space beyond that scientists did not know about until now.

To infinity, and beyond.

For more amazing discoveries, see the rest of Business Insider’s list.

[source:businessinsider]