Astronomy is a fascinating field of study, and as we're just now learning, there are many mysteries and miracles that lie within this world. While some discoveries have been more recent than others, they all add up to a greater understanding of the universe around us. Here are ten mind-blowing discoveries in astronomy:
The Big Bang
The Big Bang is the most widely accepted explanation for the origin of the universe. It's also a pretty mind-blowing discovery, as it shows us how everything began at once and then expanded outwards into space.
The Big Bang theory was first proposed by astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1929. He found that light moving through space was being redshifted, or stretched out into longer wavelengths as it travelled to us from distant galaxies. This meant that those galaxies were farther away than we thought they were; they were receding from us at high speeds because they were farther away than previously thought (and therefore older).
Black Holes
Black holes are a type of astronomical object that scientists have been studying for decades. They're collapsed stars with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing can escape from them. Theoretically, black holes are created when massive stars die, but until now it wasn't known if they existed in the universe or not.
Black holes were first discovered in 1936 by Danish astronomer Karl Jørgenson and his team from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, when measuring the positions of stars near some galaxies called M31 (Messier 31). These measurements showed that there was no visible light coming out from these objects—but how could that be? When we look at our own Sun or any other star on Earth's surface, we see its glow because its light is reflected off water molecules present there; however it doesn't mean those same molecules aren't also present inside these "holes" of space!
The Gravitational Wave Hypothesis
The discovery of gravitational waves is one of the most important and exciting scientific discoveries in recent history. It's also a bit mind-blowing, because it tells us about our universe in a way we never thought possible before.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time that are created by massive objects accelerating (moving faster than the speed of light). When two black holes collide, for example, this causes gravitational waves to be produced—and these can be detected by LIGO detectors around the world!
Exoplanet Detection
The most exciting discovery in astronomy is exoplanet detection.
Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. They're found using the transit method, which uses a telescope to look for dips in light coming from a planet as it passes across its star's disk.
There are over 4000 known exoplanets, but this number continues to grow rapidly; it's estimated that there are over 100 billion Earth-like planets out there!
The Solar System
The solar system is home to the sun, planets, moons and asteroids. The sun is the center of our solar system and has been known for eons; it's been called "the old man" by astronomers because it appears to be a single star in space.
The eight planets orbit around this central body at varying distances from it; some are closer than others (like Mercury), while some are farther away (like Neptune). Some orbits can take centuries or millennia to complete!
One thing you might notice right away about our solar system: there are no rings like Saturn! That's because all planetary bodies have atmospheres that prevent their rings from forming around them—but don't worry if you've seen pictures of other worlds with rings! Those were probably taken at night when they weren't lit up by sunlight reflecting off their surfaces as much as they do here on Earth...and also sometimes because we think those planets look cooler than usual anyway :)
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is the light left over from the Big Bang. It's a snapshot of our universe at its origin—the most important discovery in astronomy, and possibly one of the most important discoveries ever made.
The CMB is made up of all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that existed when we were born. When you look at this radiation today, it appears as if there's no difference between day and night (this can be compared to looking through a telescope). But if you could see what our eyes would see when we were born, you'd see that Earth was surrounded by a ring of blue around its atmosphere (this is called "airglow"). You'd also notice that there were clouds everywhere: dust particles floating around in space or tiny droplets floating on top of clouds.
Cosmic Rays
Cosmic rays are very energetic particles that travel through space. They can be detected by the Earth's atmosphere, which makes them visible to us as light flashes of various colors: blue for protons, green for electrons and red for atomic nuclei.
Cosmic rays come from a variety of sources: supernovae (which explode stars), cataclysmic collisions between stars or black holes and even galactic winds (a phenomenon where gas clouds are pushed away from galaxies). When cosmic rays strike our planet they interact with atmospheric molecules like oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms in order to produce various types of radiation such as x-rays or gamma rays.
Large-Scale Structure Formation In Galaxies
The universe is expanding, but can you imagine what that looks like? It's hard to wrap your head around, but you can imagine it. The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate! To put this into perspective, let's say that the Earth was sitting in a corner of the room and we were looking out through a window at all the other galaxies in space. If we were looking at our room from where we are now (the center of our galaxy), then everything outside would appear to be moving away from us at an increasing speed. As such, things will get farther and farther away until they eventually become invisible to our eyes—an example of how objects in motion tend toward infinity; if nothing stops them from moving outward forever and ever so fast then eventually no matter how far away they are they'll still continue traveling outward indefinitely—which makes sense because gravity works this way too: If one object weighs more than another object then it will fall towards its heavier counterpart until there can be no further acceleration or change in direction due to gravity's force acting upon them both equally on opposite sides of their respective bodies' masses being equalized between them (in space) against each other evenly distributed throughout their surroundings as force vectors versus distance traveled multiplied by velocity relative speeds
Astronomy is associated with miracles and mysteries, as we've just learned.
As the oldest of the natural sciences, astronomy is associated with miracles and mysteries. We have just learned that astronomy is not just a science—it's also a field of physics. And because it studies celestial objects and phenomena, astronomers use telescopes to study the universe.
Astronomy is a branch of astrophysics which was first established as an independent branch of astronomy by William Herschel in 1783 when he published his book "Memoirs on Natural Philosophy."
Conclusion
We hope that this list has provided you with some insight into the wonders of astronomy. We know we are still learning new things every day, so we encourage you to share your own discoveries in the comments below!