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A number of significant scientific events are scheduled to occur in 2020.
Events
January
6 January: Physicians issue recommendations for testosterone treatment in adult men with age-related Low T and includes treatment only if there is a notable improvement of sexual dysfunction.[1][2]A computer rendering of the roughly 8 km high Venusian volcano Maat Mons (vertical scale has been exaggerated)6 January: Astronomers report the detection of TOI 700 d, the first Earth-sizedexoplanet in the habitable zone discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).[3] (Artist concept)Global ocean heat content in 0–2000 meters, NOAA 201716 January: Scientists report that the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago was mostly a result of a meteorite impact and not volcanism.[4][5]21 January: Researchers present evidence that the platypus is at risk of extinction.[6]Illustration of renewable hydrogenThe ozone holeSimplified representation of atherosclerosis; arteries with plaque on the right31 January: Scientists and journalists report overviews of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.[7][8][9]
The American College of Physicians issues clinical guidelines for testosterone treatment in adult men with age-relatedlow levels of testosterone. The guidelines are supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The guidelines include patient discussions regarding testosterone treatment for sexual dysfunction; a yearly patient evaluation regarding possible notable improvement and, if none, to discontinue testosterone treatment; physicians should consider intramuscular treatments, rather than transdermal treatments, due to costs and since the effectiveness and harm of either method is similar; and, testosterone treatment for reasons other than possible improvement of sexual dysfunction may not be recommended.[1][2][excessive detail?]
Astronomers report that a repeating Fast Radio Burst (FRB) (namely, FRB 180916), the second such FRB precisely located, originated from a medium-sized spiral galaxy 500 million light-years away.[17][18][19]
A rare circumbinary planet, called TOI 1338 b, is discovered by Wolf Cukier, a 17-year-old intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.[22]
7 January
Astronomers at Harvard describe the "Radcliffe Wave", a huge ribbon of gas extending 9,000 light years in length and flowing 500 light years above and below the galactic plane, with approximately three million solar masses.[23]
The American Cancer Society reports a 2.2% drop in the cancer death rate between 2016 and 2017, the largest single-year decline in mortality for this disease ever recorded in the United States.[26][27]
10 January – Scientists report the discovery of the oldest known occurrence of an animal digestive tract, found in fossils, unearthed near Pahrump, Nevada, of Cloudinidae, an extinct wormlike organism that lived during the late Ediacaranperiod about 550 million years ago.[29][30]
13 January
A study finds that ocean temperatures were at a record high in 2019 and underwent the largest single-year increase of the decade.[31][32][33]
Astronomers report that the oldest material on Earth found so far are Murchison meteorite particles that have been determined to be 7 billion years old, billions of years older than the 4.54 billion years age of the Earth itself.[34][35]
Researchers from the University of New South Wales present evidence that the platypus is at risk of extinction, due to a combination of water resource development, land clearing, climate change and increasingly severe periods of drought.[6]
A study by researchers at Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory finds that man-made ozone-depleting substances (ODS) caused the largest share of global warming and roughly half of half of Arctic warming and sea ice loss from 1955 to 2005.[55]
22 January – China releases a large amount of data and high-resolution images from the lander and rover of the Chang'e 4 mission which has been studying the far side of the Moon since 3 January 2019.[56]
Marine biologists at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia announce new findings that provide evidence that genus Hemiscyllium – also known as "walking sharks" as they can walk on land – was the newest genus of sharks in terms of historical findings on biological evolution.[58]
28 January – A new study finds that many of Earth's biodiverse ecosystems are in danger of collapse. The study mapped over 100 high-risk ecosystems and habitats in specific locations, and noted the highly detrimental patterns in each one that result from climate change and local human activities.[65][66]
31 January – Scientists and journalists report overviews of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, including the possible infectability, mortality rate, incubation time, worldwide ability to contain the infection, and estimated time for a vaccine (along with a comparison with other similar outbreaks).[7][8][9]
February
12 February: NASA releases an improved version of the Pale Blue Dot image taken of Earth 6 billion km away by the Voyager 1 space probe on 14 Feb 1990.[67]
3 February – Astronomers report that, for the first time, repeating pulses from a source of fast radio bursts (FRB)s seem to have a regular periodicity, particularly FRB 180916, about 500 million light years from Earth, which have been found to have a 16.35+0.18 −0.18-day pulse cycle.[68][69][70]
6 February – A record-breaking 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) temperature is recorded at an Argentine weather base on the northern tip of Antarctica, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The previous record was 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) in March 2015.[71]
12 February – NASA releases a greatly improved image of the iconic Pale Blue Dot view of Earth from 6 billion kilometres (3.7 billion miles) away that was taken by the Voyager 1 space probe on 14 February 1990.[67]
14 February – Astronomers report that the brightness of the star Betelgeuse had not only dropped by a factor of approximately 2.5, from magnitude 0.5 to 1.5, but now the star may no longer be round. Nonetheless, astronomers believe a supernova event may not be imminent.[78]
Astronomers report that the star Betelgeuse, that has been undergoing a substantial decrease in brightness since October 2019, may have stopped dimming, and may now be beginning to again brighten, all but ending the current dimming episode.[81] Further studies of the star, reported on 24 February 2020, found no significant change in the infrared over the last 50 years, and seems unrelated to the recent visual fading, suggesting, despite speculations, that an impending core collapse, resulting in a supernova explosion, may be unlikely.[82]
Scientists from Harvard University, along with physics and biotech companies PLEX Corporation and Bruker Scientific, publish details of Acfer 086, believed to be the first meteorite to contain a protein.[83]
24 February – A study of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, published in Nature, finds that 21% of Australia's forests (excluding Tasmania) have burnt down, an amount described by the journal as "unprecedented" and "greatly exceed[ing] previous fires both within Australia and globally."[84][85]
25 February – Scientists at Tel Aviv University report the discovery of the first non-oxygen breathing animal, Henneguya salminicola, a 10-celled parasite that lives in salmon muscle.[86]
July: The UAE will launch a probe, The Hope, to Mars.[92]
July to August: Planned launch of NASA's Mars 2020 mission to study the habitability of Mars and prepare for future human missions.[93]
Date unknown
Several new rockets have planned maiden flights in 2020 in a race to lower launch costs: Ariane 6,[94]H3[95] and first orbital flights of SpaceX Starship.[96]
Shenzhen East Waste-to-Energy Plant is planned to become operational, the largest waste to energy (WET) power plant in the world.[97]
Japan will host a World Robot Summit in August and October.[98][99]
Waymo, the first self-driving cars in ride-hailing services are announced for 2020 [100]
^ abQaseem, Amir; et al. (6 January 2020). "Testosterone Treatment in Adult Men With Age-Related Low Testosterone: A Clinical Guideline From the American College of Physicians". Annals of Internal Medicine. 172 (2): 126. doi:10.7326/M19-0882. PMID31905405.
^ abHull, Picncelli M.; et al. (17 January 2020). "On impact and volcanism across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary". Science. 367 (6475): 266–272. doi:10.1126/science.aay5055. PMID31949074.
^Balles, Matthew (6 January 2020). "Not all fast radio bursts are created equal - Astronomical signals called fast radio bursts remain enigmatic, but a key discovery has now been made. A second repeating fast radio burst has been traced to its host galaxy, and its home bears little resemblance to that of the first". Nature. 577 (7789): 176–177. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03894-6. PMID31907452.
^Rivilla, V. M.; et al. (2020). "ALMA and ROSINA detections of phosphorus-bearing molecules: the interstellar thread between star-forming regions and comets". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 492 (1): 1180–1198. arXiv:1911.11647. Bibcode:2020MNRAS.492.1180R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3336.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
^Cao, Kecheng; et al. (17 January 2020). "Imaging an unsupported metal–metal bond in dirhenium molecules at the atomic scale". Science Advances. 6 (3): eaay5849. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aay5849.
^Marine Biologists Solve Mystery of How ‘Walking’ Sharks Split, Jan 23, 2020 by Natali Anderson, An international team of marine biologists has found that members of the genus Hemiscyllium are the ‘youngest’ — as in, the most recently evolved — sharks to ever walk (or swim) our planet.
^Scientists Find Cell-Free Mitochondria in Human Blood. Jan 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro. Mitochondria are considered as the power-generating units of the cell due to their key role in energy metabolism and intercellular communication. However, cell-derived mitochondrial components could be found in the extracellular space, as fragments or encapsulated in vesicles. Now, a team of researchers has demonstrated that human blood contains whole functional mitochondria in normal physiological state.
^New Species of Carnivorous Dinosaur Unveiled: Allosaurus jimmadseni Jan 27, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro. A new species of carnivorous theropod dinosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains discovered in the 1990s in northeastern Utah and Wyoming, the United States.
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