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As far as years go, 2017 has been quite a rollercoaster of emotions. We started with the infamous ‘Hollyweed’ sign, a New Year’s prank that amused a majority of us—little did we know that this was a literal sign of the absurdness to come. The year progressed but as a ‘secular’ country, when it comes to religious tolerance, we appear to be regressing. From people being lynched for the same, to ludicrous statements being made each day, our future doesn’t seem the brightest. Thankfully, while the rest of our country remains embroiled in conflict, our scientists continue to make us proud with their advancement in their field of expertise.
Scroll on for a list of incredible discoveries made by our very own countrymen:
I. Galaxy Saraswati
Lying about 4,000 million light-years away from Earth, is a galaxy as big as about 20 million billion suns. A discovery as large as this one brings with it plenty of praise but also raises several questions—namely, The Hindu mentions how this discovery puts present theories to test, as it is ‘difficult for such a huge galaxy to have formed so early in the universe’s lifetime. The reason being, as they explain, “Spotting a supercluster which is 4000 million light years away means that you are looking at light that has come in from four billion years ago. Since the universe is believed to be 13.8 billion years old, this means we are looking at light from when the universe was about 10 billion years old, just about 70% of its present age.”
The team of Indian astronomers that discovered this supercluster includes Joe Jacob (Newman College), Prakash Sarkar (National Institute of Technology), Pratik Dabhade (Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics), and Shishir Sankhyayan (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research).
For more details, click here.
II. Bhupathy’s Purple Frog
Straight up? This discovery looks like it came straight out of Stranger Things. Sure, a general survey around our office dubbed this discovery ‘cute’ (look at where that got Dustin), but it turns out the only reason this odd creature has never been spotted before is simply because it loves living its entire life underground. The frog is described by National Geographic as, ‘shiny, purple skin, a light blue ring around its eyes and a pointy pig-nose’ — every feature of this frog is actually just years of evolution that allow it to continue living below ground. Found in the Western Ghats, scientists named this species after herpetologist Dr. Subramaniam Bhupathy, who passed away in 2014, in the Western Ghats.
For more details, click here.
III. Most Complete Fossil Of A Rare Dinosaur Found
An Ichthyosaur fossil in Gujarat—the most complete fossil of its kind ever found in India—was uncovered in October, this year. The Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that are referred to as the dolphins or whales of their time except...more predator-like. With huge eyes, narrow jaws and cone-shaped teeth, these fossils will help paleontologists understand how marine life functioned back in the Jurassic age. In National Geographic’s article, they’ve pointed out that this discovery could suggest of a massive seaway that once crossed the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland!
For more details, click here.
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