2018 in science: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 00:42, 1 January 2022

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*5 October &ndash; The [[Hubble Space Telescope]] is hit by a mechanical failure as it loses one of the gyroscopes needed for pointing the spacecraft. It is placed into "safe" mode while scientists attempt to fix the problem.<ref>{{citation |title=Hubble telescope hit by mechanical failure |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45788412 |date=8 October 2018 |work=BBC News|access-date=10 October 2018 }}</ref>

*8 October

**The [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|IPCC]] releases its [[Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5º °C]], warning that "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" are needed to keep [[global warming]] below 1.5&nbsp;°C.<ref name="BBC-20181008">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45775309|title=Climate report: Scientists urge deep rapid change to limit warming |date=8 October 2018|website=BBC News|access-date=8 October 2018|last1=McGrath |first1=Matt }}</ref><ref name="IPCC-20181008">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/|title=Global Warming of 1.5 °C |date=8 October 2018|website=IPCC|access-date=8 October 2018}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20181009">{{cite news |author=The Editorial Board |title='A Deafening, Piercing Smoke Alarm' - The U.N.'s climate panel tells world leaders the time for dithering on climate change is over. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/opinion/climate-change-ipcc-report.html |date=9 October 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=9 October 2018 }}</ref>

**Researchers report low-temperature chemical pathways from simple [[organic compound]]s to complex [[polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon]] (PAH) chemicals. Such chemical pathways may help explain the presence of PAHs in the low-temperature atmosphere of [[Titan (moon)|Titan]], a moon of the planet [[Saturn]], and may be significant pathways, in terms of the [[PAH world hypothesis]], in producing precursors to biochemicals related to life as we know it.<ref name="DG-20181008">{{cite web |author=Staff |title="A Prebiotic Earth" – Missing Link Found on Saturn's Moon Titan |url=https://dailygalaxy.com/2018/10/a-prebiotic-earth-missing-link-found-on-saturns-moon-titan/ |date=11 October 2018 |work=DailyGalaxy.com |access-date=11 October 2018 }}</ref><ref name="NA-20181008">{{cite journal |author=Zhao, Long |display-authors=et al |title=Low-temperature formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Titan's atmosphere |date=8 October 2018 |journal=[[Nature Astronomy]] |volume=2 |issue=12 |pages=973–979 |doi=10.1038/s41550-018-0585-y |bibcode=2018NatAs...2..973Z |s2cid=105480354 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pj0q014 }}</ref>

[[File:Global Temperature Anomaly.svg|thumb|right|200px|8 October: [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|IPCC]] releases [[Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5º °C|Special Report on Global Warming]], noting the need to keep [[global warming]] below 1.5°C.<ref name="BBC-20181008" /><ref name="IPCC-20181008" /><ref name="NYT-20181009" />]]

*10 October

**Astronomers report 19 more new non-repeating [[Fast radio burst|FRB bursts]] detected by the [[Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder]] (ASKAP).<ref name="SPC-20181010">{{cite web |last=Wall |first=Mike |title=Mysterious Deep-Space Flashes: 19 More 'Fast Radio Bursts' Found |url=https://www.space.com/42085-mysterious-fast-radio-bursts-new-discoveries.html |date=10 October 2018 |work=[[Space.com]] |access-date=10 October 2018 }}</ref><ref name="NAT-20181010">{{cite journal |author=Shannon, R.M. |s2cid=52956368 |display-authors=et al |title=The dispersion–brightness relation for fast radio bursts from a wide-field survey |date=10 October 2018 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=562 |issue=7727 |pages=386–390 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0588-y |pmid=30305732 |bibcode=2018Natur.562..386S |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fa171043-5bf8-4b9a-9e77-94db8842f672 }}</ref>