5 New Discoveries of Science in 2022

  5 New Scientific Discoveries Of 2022

The world is full of unknown discoveries 

Did you know  that scientists, researchers, and engineers have been working hard to decipher the codes of reality for the past month? 

In addition to discovering how archerfish are such adept shooters, developing a heat engine that outperforms conventional steam engines, and discovering a preserved dinosaur leg that may date from the day the dinosaur era was put an end by an asteroid, humans made significant advances in April.

That is only a small sample of the outstanding scientific work that has recently been made public, and there is constantly new research being done. No matter how hard we try, it's difficult to keep up with all the ways that the world and the universe are always changing. There is more to learn as soon as we have digested the most recent information. In light of this, we've compiled a list of 12 of the most fascinating scientific developments that took occurred in April 2022.

Even if you can't know everything, these tales should provide you with some interesting new information to share at the water cooler.

Pluto has ice volcanoes

 2015 saw a visit of Pluto, everyone's favourite dwarf planet, by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Scientists have spent the last few years poring through the data to understand what makes Pluto tick after it took the most accurate images of the frozen world's surface that humans had ever seen.

Researchers have discovered a number of dome-shaped structures southwest of Sputnik Planitia that might be related to volcanic activity that is ejecting material onto Pluto's surface. The coldness of such volcanoes is the sole drawback.

On Earth, volcanoes are famous for spitting liquid rock and gas from beneath the surface onto the land and into the air. Pluto, perched nearer the edge of the solar system, is home to a wholly different type of tectonic activity. In order for ice volcanoes to exist on Pluto, heat from the dwarf planet's interior would need to melt ices and push them to the surface, suggesting that Pluto has been geologically alive.

Finding geological activity of any kind on Pluto adds an exciting dimension to a world that was once thought to be a cold, dead rock. Moreover, an analysis of the impact craters in the area suggests that the activity is relatively recent.

The more we learn about Pluto, the clearer it becomes that it represents an alien world right in our own stellar backyard.

The reason for T. rex's stubby arms

Probably the most well-known dinosaur to have ever lived was the T. rex. Even though it was certainly vicious, its short arms always seemed out of place on its enormous body, which was well-suited for tearing into the bodies of prey animals.

Scientists have debated the reason and function of T. rex's arms for decades, but they have never been able to agree on a satisfactory solution. Previous theories postulated that they might have used their arms to hoist themselves up off the ground in the case of a fall or as pectoral claspers during mating. The issue is that larger limbs would have been better suited for each of those tasks. Why they would have evolved to have such tiny little grabbers was not functionally explained.

However, a recent paper contends that our understanding of T. rex's arms may have been flawed. The premise of the new theory is that getting smaller was the whole objective.

Similar to some contemporary reptiles, there is evidence that groups of T. rex engaged in communal feeding, and their arms may have unintentionally or intentionally been the target of another rex's jaws. Over time, the possibility of getting their arms bit off by a peer outweighed whatever advantages their arms could have offered. Because it was advantageous from an evolutionary perspective to keep the T. rex's arms out of the way, they withered.

The birth of a gas giant

The planets in our solar system were mature and well-formed by the time evolution created humans and humans created telescopes. We could only view other worlds like Jupiter and Saturn as they are now when we first observed the cosmos and discovered that there were other worlds. Since light travels at the speed of light, we could only view them as they were an hour or so ago.

It took some inference and a consideration of systems that were further away in both space and time to understand how gas giants and other planets arose. A recent study examined a system named in great detail and was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The star at the center of that system is young, estimated at only 2 million years old (again, taking into account that we're necessarily looking half-a-billion years into the past) and is in its planetary nursery phase. Among the planets forming there is a gas giant roughly nine times the size of Jupiter which is in the process of forming.

Finding this planet in the process of forming is giving astronomers a unique window into how gas giants are made.

Battling Triceratops

                         Triceratops are renowned for their       enormous horns that protrude from their                faces and their spectacular crests that soar            above their heads like halos. The holes in the        crests of fossil triceratops bones, known as            fenestra, have long piqued the interest of                palaeontologists.

The holes in their crests are thought to have a variety of origins. Depending on their properties, they might be a spontaneous creation or the result of aging-related bone loss. Another theory is that the injuries were sustained in conflicts with other triceratops.

In a recent study, the bones of Big John, a triceratops with a keyhole-shaped fenestra on the right side of his crest, were examined in great detail. A fenestra analysis indicated fresh bone growth, which suggests the hole was caused by an injury that was now healing.

Scientists simulated the injury on a model of a triceratops horn in order to test the theory. They discovered that the hole's size and form were compatible with a rear attack that pierced the crest before dragging down.

While we tend to think of herbivores as being mostly peaceful, it appears triceratops wasn't above stabbing one another in the back when the situation was called for.

Mars has Two Speeds of Sound

Even on Earth, the speed of sound is not a constant, contrary to what we usually believe. Because sound propagates through various media at varying speeds and as a result of atmospheric circumstances, sound speed varies with altitude.

The thickness and make-up of extraterrestrial atmospheres should compel a change in the speed of sound when considering other worlds. We have sent a significant number of probes and rovers to the surface of Mars, where we can test that theory.

Contrary to what we typically think, the speed of sound is not constant even on Earth. Sound speed varies with height because sound travels through different material at different speeds and because of atmospheric conditions.

When considering other planets, the thickness and composition of their atmospheres should require a change in the speed of sound. We can test that hypothesis on the surface of Mars, where we have sent a sizable number of rovers and probes.