Top 10 Discoveries of the Decade

Dec 12, 2012 03:00 AM ET

10. Pluto-Sized Eris Rocks Solar System
In January 2005, Mike Brown and his team at Palomar Observatory, Calif. discovered 136199 Eris, a minor body that is 27 percent bigger than Pluto. Eris had trumped Pluto and become the 9th largest body known to orbit the sun.
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided that the likelihood of finding more small rocky bodies in the outer solar system was so high that the definition "a planet" needed to be reconsidered. The end result: Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Pluto acquired a "minor planet designator" in front of its name: "134340 Pluto."
Mike Brown's 2005 discovery of Eris was the trigger that changed the face of our solar system, defining the planets and adding Pluto to a growing family of dwarf planets.

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DNA Captured From 2,500-Year-Old Phoenician

History May 28, 2016 03:28 PM ET DNA Captured From 2,500-Year-Old Phoenician Analysis of the ancient man's DNA reveal he had European ancestry. Researchers have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician, showing the ancient man had European ancestry. This is the first ancient DNA to be obtained from Phoenician remains. Known as “Ariche,” the young man came from Byrsa, a walled citadel above the harbor of ancient Carthage. Byrsa was attacked by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus “Africanus” in the Third Punic War. It was destroyed by Rome in 146 B.C. 2,700-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Discovered Ariche’s remains were discovered in 1994 on the southern flank of Bursa hill when a man planting trees fell into the ancient grave. Analysis of the skeleton revealed the man died between the age of 19 and 24, had a rather robust physique and was 1.7 meters (5’...

Shi Cheng, the lion city under water.

China's Atlantis: How the Lion City was purposely-flooded to make way for a power station but remains completely intact 130ft underwater after 50 years Shi Cheng was once centre of politics and economics in eastern province of Zhejiang Covered in water to build hydroelectric power station in 1959 and was forgotten Now divers want to use the metropolis as a tourist site and have gone to plan routes, A maze of white temples, memorial arches, paved roads, and houses... hidden 130 feet underwater: this is China's real-life Atlantis. The so-called Lion City, tucked in a lake between the Five Lion Mountain, was once Shi Cheng - the centre of politics and economics in the eastern province of Zhejiang. But in 1959, the Chinese government decided a new hydroelectric power station was required - so built a man-made lake. Metropolis: Shi Cheng, dubbed Lion City after the Lion Mountains that surround it, has lain hidden under 131 feet of water since 1959 to generate ...

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