Which astronomical discovery might be the most overwhelming one?
150768
i think in the recent space history the successful voyage of a probe that was sent millions of kilometers into the space was the best discovery. becoz it was this voyage that led to several new details about the body and it also sent images of it back to earth.
1004125
I would like to to add a few words to a great input other people have already provided.\n\nIn Astronomy, as in all sciences, one can detect an object in one of two ways: either by observing it directly, or observing the effect that it has on other, more easily observed, objects. \nIt's always been known that there was matter in the night sky that we couldn't really directly see. When astronomers use telescopes, or even radio telescopes, they can only see objects which emit light or radio waves. Not all of the matter in the Universe does this - for instance, we wouldn't be able to see planets like our own, because they would be too dim to see. \nAll the mass of of all the planets in our solar system, though, is significantly less than one percent of the Sun's mass. So worrying about matter that didn't shine - non-luminous matter - wasn't of great concern. \nThe first evidence: Clusters of Galaxies The first evidence that there was a significant amount of matter that we couldn't readily see was in investigating clusters of galaxies, which are simply aggregates of a few hundred to a few thousand clusters otherwise isolated in space.\nWhat is Dark matter? This still is an open question.  There are many possibilities, and nobody really knows much about this yet.  Here are a few of the many published suggestions, which are being currently hunted for by experimentalists all over the world.  Remember, you need at least one baryonic candidate and one non-baryonic candidate to make everything work out, so there may be more than one correct choice among the possibilities given here.\nThe baryons are a family of subatomic particles including the proton and the neutron (collectively called nucleons), as well as a number of unstable, heavier particles (called hyperons). The term "baryon" is derived from the Greek barys, meaning "heavy," as they are heavier than the other main groups of particles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryon \n•Normal matter which has so far eluded our gaze, such as: \n dark galaxies \n brown dwarfs \n planetary material (rock, dust, etc.) \n•Massive Standard Model neutrinos.  If any of the neutrinos are massive, then this could be the missing mass.  On the other hand, if they are too heavy, as the purported 17 keV neutrino would have been, massive neutrinos create almost as many problems as they solve in this regard. \n•Exotica (See the Particle Zoo FAQ entry for some details. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/particle_zoo.html) \n\nHere are a wew references \nWhat is the Universe Made Of? http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101matter.html \nCosmic Hide and Seek http://www.eclipse.net/~cmmiller/DM/ \n\nDark Matter, Cosmology, and Large-Scale Structure of the Universe http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~dursi/dm-tutorial/dm1.html \n\nExperiment\nExperiment with simulation of cluster of galaxies  http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~dursi/dm-tutorial/cluster-sim.html \n\nWhat is dark matter? http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/dark_matter.html
326128
The Virgo Supercluster.\nWikipedia knows all.
175772
It intrigued astronomers and stimulated an age of discovery and science?
557878
True, u r right in this observation. Our universe is under much more scrutiny because we can see and observe a lot many things, so if we feel its complex is very obvious
170764
Plato, I guess. the Question is too vague. Plato's geocentric system was refuted by Copernicus, but the Catholic Church refused to accept Copernicus's findings.
694258
Distant galaxies....\nGlobular star clusters...\nOpen star clusters...\nNebulae...\nVariable stars...
661216
If you mean hottest as most POPULAR , then it would be the search for Quantum Gravity ( i.e string theory, loop quantum gravity etc. )\n\nIf you mean hottest as in TEMPERATURE, then it would be the study of the Big Bang, presumably the hottest the universe ( or anything for that matter ) has ever been !\n\nIf you mean coolest as in most INTERESTING, then it would be Nanotechnology, with its many far reaching implications on everyday life.\n\nIf you mean coolest as in TEMPERATURE, then obviously Superconductivity ( which occurs only at very low temperatures ) is THE coolest !\n\nhope this answers your cool question ( no pun intended )
171357
Unfortunately we do not have any concrete evidence.  Here is a good quote by the late Carl Sagan:\n\n"There are some hundred billion (1011) galaxies, each with, on the average, a hundred billion stars. In all the galaxies, there are perhaps as many planets as stars, 1011 x 1011 = 1022, ten billion trillion. In the face of such overpowering numbers, what is the likelihood that only one ordinary star, the Sun, is accompanied by an inhabited planet? Why should we, tucked away in some forgotten corner of the Cosmos, be so fortunate? To me, it seems far more likely that the universe is \nbrimming over with life. But we humans do not yet know. We are just beginning our explorations. The only planet we are sure is inhabited is a tiny speck of rock and metal, shining feebly by reflected sunlight, and at this distance utterly lost."
230425
How about the discovery of pi, or the the number zero? These are crowd pleasers :), and you can find lots of material on the web, for instance:\n\nhttp://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Pi_through_the_ages.html
205433
At this point the big thing we're looking for is the higgs boson.  until we find that, all are ideas of what gravity is are unconfirmed.  All we can do is describe how it behaves.
437476
I think given the magnitude of space: the galaxies already discovered, the hundred billion stars in each, the number of planets revolving about them. I find it inconceivable by pure chance alone that earth is the only body with life in the entire universe. To even think so I would feel to be the utmost presumptious conceit of man.\nI even feel that with the hundred billion stars in our galaxy, life in some shape or form must exist within our galaxy in several separate locations. How many life forms at our stage of existence or beyond is another matter entirely, with the knowledge we have now how many madmen does it take to send us all to oblivion, kingdom come or whatever. All this must be thrown into the equation.How many civilisations can survive and for how long? It is my belief though that within the next couple of decades, as our listening apparatus improves by leaps and bounds, that an unmistakeable signal will come, either intentional or not has no bearing on the matter, which will answer your question once and for all. The answer will be YES.\nThere was an unconfirmed signal on 15th August 1977 never repeated, that could have come from the Sagittarius region: i.e. toward the centre of our galaxy. You never know.
464949
My guess would be Pluto
838886
That covers only one Galaxy - Milky Way\nThe whole universe is yet to be discovered .... by humans
615018
The heaviest (technically, the most massive) things in the universe are black holes.  Since nothing can get out of a black hole, whatever they suck in, stays in.  Most galaxies have black holes at the center, and since the center of galaxies can be a pretty crowded place, a lot of stars can get sucked into these black holes.  \n\nThe largest known black hole inhabits the core of M87, a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo. The M87 black hole appears to be about three billion times the mass of the Sun, with a diameter of about 11 billion miles (18 billion km) - almost twice the diameter of the orbit of Pluto, the most-distant planet in our solar system.  That's big!\n\nDoesn't it seem weird that we can weigh something trillions of miles away from us?  The way scientists weigh distant stars, galaxies, and black holes is to look at the motion of things near them.  Gravity makes things move - fall and orbit - and by looking at how things move near a galaxy or black hole, scientists can get a pretty good idea how strong its gravity is.  And that tells them how massive it is - tricky, eh?
418825
I think it's the B1 - bomber or maybe the C-5 Galaxy they are both HUGE!! (But then again I am not an aircraft expert??)\nIf you have vocabulary and spelling issues ... It would be Jupiter!
840619
Exploration and discovery