Dozens of scientific breakthroughs this year upended our understanding of human history, the search for alien life, and the coronavirus pandemic
Astronomers, archaeologists, geneticists, and many other scientists made mind-boggling breakthroughs in 2020.
Some highlights include work that uncovered stashes of mummies, launched the first-ever crewed commercial spaceflight, and produced COVID-19 vaccines in record time.
These are 34 of the biggest scientific accomplishments of the year.
Scientists and researchers around the world pulled off impressive feats in 2020. They unearthed huge caches of ancient bones and sarcophagi, discovered new types of black holes, and found water that could host alien life in new places across the solar system.
That was all in the midst of a pandemic, which spurred its own branch of fast-moving science. Over the past year, coronavirus researchers have sequenced the pathogen's genome, lifted the veil on the nature of infection and immunity, and developed vaccines that are now being administered across the US.
The pandemic hardly slowed NASA and its spaceflight partners, though. They still found time to launch a new Mars rover, a record-breaking probe to the sun, and the first-ever commercial astronaut mission.
These and other accomplishments are improving scientists' understanding of the coronavirus, our planet, and the surrounding cosmos.
As a new year approaches, here's a look back at some of the most mind-boggling scientific discoveries and achievements of 2020.
This exceptionally preserved Protoceratops specimen includes six embryos that preserve nearly complete skeletons. M. Ellison/©AMNH
Mikkel Winther Pedersen takes sediment samples from Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico, looking for early human DNA. Devlin A. Gandy
Ruben Manzanilla Lopez, of the National Anthropology Institute, shows mammoth bones discovered in a construction site at the Santa Lucia military base in Mexico, September 3, 2020. Marco Ugarte/AP
A carcass of an Ice Age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. North-Eastern Federal University via AP
The sun sets behind Stonehenge just after the winter solstice. Gail Johnson/Getty Images
Newly discovered colored coffins from Saqqara on display October 3, 2020. They have been perfectly sealed for thousands of years. Ziad Ahmed/NurPhoto via Getty
Satellite imagery shows the extent of damage to the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers, and the tearing apart of their shear zones. Lhermitte et al/PNAS
Used plastic bottles at a waste collection point in Tokyo, Japan, November 21, 2018. Toru Hanai/Thomson Reuters
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley float into the International Space Station on May 31, 2020, after launching on SpaceX's Crew Dragon. NASA
The Resilience capsule approaches the International Space Station for docking, November 16, 2020. NASA
Spectators watch as a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 6, 2020. Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images
An image from the Solar Orbiter reveals the upper atmosphere of the sun, called the the corona. Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL
An artist's illustration shows NASA's InSight lander with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface. The seismometer is the round device to the left. NASA/JPL-Caltech
An illustration of NASA's Mars Perseverance rover using its drill to core a rock sample on Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech
An H-2A rocket carrying the United Arab Emirates's Hope Probe lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center on the island of Tanegashima, Japan, July 20, 2020. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries/Reuters
A JAXA worker retrieves a capsule dropped by Hayabusa2 in Woomera, southern Australia, December 6, 2020. JAXA via AP
Places in the universe like the Egg Nebula (pictured) could be sources of stardust particles like the ones found in a meteorite named Murchison. Image courtesy of NASA, W. Sparks, R. Sahai, and Janaína N. Ávila.
A worker inspects quartz fibers that suspend a mirror inside the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory. EGO/Virgo Collaboration/Perciballi
The International Space Station. NASA
An image of Venus and its thick clouds taken by NASA's Mariner 10 mission during a planetary flyby on February 7 and 8, 1974. Kevin M. Gill/NASA/JPL-Caletech
A super-dense neutron star, the remains of a supernova explosion, as captured by three NASA observatories. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/CXC/Univ. of Ariz./Univ. of Szeged
NASA's Dawn spacecraft captured pictures in visible and infrared wavelengths, which were combined to create this false-color view of salty crust on Ceres. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
An artist's illustration depicts future Artemis astronauts on the moon. NASA via AP
The Chang'e 5 lunar landing site captured by NASA on December 2, 2020. LROC/NASA
An illustration of the coronavirus. Reuters
Health workers test residents for COVID-19 in Qingdao, China. STR/AFP via Getty Images
A man gets his temperature taken before boarding a plane at Paris-Orly Airport. Reuters
MyPillow founder Michael J. Lindell greets people before the start of a campaign rally for President Trump on June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Win McNamee/Getty Images
A Des Moines Area Quilters Guild member drops off face masks to public school students. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
A patient receives a CT scan. SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images
A face mask lies on the roadside in autumn foliage. Sebastian Gollnow/Getty Images
An illustration of the Moderna vaccine. Moderna; Samantha Lee/Business Insider
A lab technician works on the coronavirus treatment remdesivir in Cairo, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Read the original article on Business Insider
