Top 6 Biggest Space Science Discoveries of 2013

New Delhi: The year 2013 saw a wealth of discoveries, milestones and insights that advanced the fields of astronomy and other space sciences. Wether it was the discovery of earth's twin or the news of NASA's Voyager 1 reaches interstellar space these finds have made sure that 2013 has been an unforgettable year.Here are the Top 6 Biggest Space Science Discoveries of 2013:1. The Chelyabinsk meteor explosionOn 15 February 2013 the Chelyabinsk meteor was a near-Earth asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere over Russia. It entered with an estimated speed of 18.6 km/s, that is almost 60 times the speed of sound.Over the the southern Ural region it quickly became a brilliant superbolide meteor and the light from the meteor was brighter than the sun.Infact eyewitnesses also felt intense heat from the fireball.The object exploded in an air burst over Chelyabinsk Oblast at a height of around 23.3 km due to its enormous velocity and shallow atmospheric entry angle. The explosion generated a bright flash, producing many small fragmentary meteorites and a powerful shock wave.The atmosphere absorbed most of the object's energy, with a total kinetic energy before atmospheric impact equivalent to approximately 500 kilotons of TNT (about 1.8 PJ), 20–30 times more energy than was released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima.2. The death of the comet of the centuryThroughout 2013 hailed as the "comet of the century", on nov 28 Comet ISON passed by the sun before breaking apart. It was Discovered in September 2012. From a distance, the comet's brightness suggested it had a large nucleus, which could provide an amazing show in 2013.As the comet passed only 684,000 miles from the sun, the intense heat of the star and the gravitational pull stripped the comet of its dust and gas, ultimately disintegrating it to the point where only telescopes such as Hubble were able to continue observing it.3. Earth's almost-twinAbout 400 light years away, the planet, known as Kepler-78b, circles a star that is slightly smaller than the sun located in the constellation CygnusAt the end of October, Scientists for the first time have found a planet beyond the solar system that not only is the same size as Earth, but has the same proportions of iron and rock. One light year, is the distance light, moving at 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second) travels in a yearKepler-78b was discovered last year with NASA's now-idled Kepler space telescope, which detected potential planets as they circled in front of their parent stars, blocking a bit of light.That measurement not only revealed that Kepler-78b was relatively small, with a diameter just 20 percent larger than Earth's, but that it was practically orbiting on the surface of its host star.4. Ancient Mars could have supported lifeNASA's Curiosity rover has uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars, which scientists say could have been a perfect spot for tiny primitive organisms to flourish if they ever existed on the red planet. The watering hole near the Martian equator existed about 3.5 billion years ago around the time when life evolved on Earth. Scientists say the Martian lake was neither salty nor acidic, and contained life-friendly nutrients.Altogether, Mars is shaping up to be a far more habitable place after the discoveries of 2013.5. Extraterrestrial neutrinos found in AntarcticaIn Anartica the physicists found the first evidence of cosmic rays from outside the solar system. Scientists rely on the discovery of neutrinos produced as the cosmic rays interact with their surroundings as the energetic rays themselves are difficult to detect. Only a few actually interact with matter Of the billions of neutrinos that pass through a square centimeter of Earth each second.An instrument buried in a cubic kilometer of ice beneath the South Pole using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, were able to detect two neutrino events that originated beyond the solar system, the first definitive detections since 1987 (and events a million times more powerful than their predecessor).Although the event was too small to pinpoint the origin of the cosmic rays — suspects include supernovas, gamma ray bursts, and black holes — the detection opened the door to a greater understanding of some of the powerful events in the universe.6. NASA's Voyager 1 reaches interstellar spaceScientists reported this year that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft reached interstellar space in August 2012 after almost 35 years of traveling.They relied on a powerful solar eruption to determine the density of the molecules in space around the craft.Voyager 1 became the first craft to leave the solar system behind, with the transition into interstellar space, making it a significant milestone in the annals of space exploration. It is currently about 11.66 billion miles (18.76 billion km) from the sun.