2019 in science

A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2019. 1 January - The New Horizons space probe flies by Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth (nicknamed Ultima Thule), the outermost close encounter of any Solar System object. 2 January - A study finds that tons of methane, a greenhouse gas, are released into the atmosphere by melting ice sheets in Greenland. 3 January China's National Space Administration (CNSA) achieves the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon with its Chang'e 4 mission. Scientists report the engineering of crops with a photorespiratory "shortcut" to boost plant growth by 40% in real-world agronomic conditions. 4 January Researchers at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) report a way to control properties of excitons and change the polarisation of light they generate, which could lead to transistors that undergo less energy loss and heat dissipation. Researchers design an inhalable form of messenger RNA aerosol that could be administered directly to the lungs to help treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis. 6 January A partial solar eclipse occurred. 8 January Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) report a new way to stabilise the "tearing modes" in fusion reactors, using radio waves to create small changes in the temperature of the plasma, allowing it to be controlled more easily. IBM unveils IBM Q System One, its first integrated quantum computing system for commercial use. 9 January Astronomers announce the discovery of a second repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source, named FRB 180814. The first SD card with a storage capacity of 1 terabyte (TB) is announced by Lexar. Astronomers at the University of Warwick present the first direct evidence of white dwarf stars solidifying into crystals. 10 January - Astronomers propose that AT2018cow, a very powerful astronomical explosion, 10–100 times brighter than a normal supernova, may have been a white dwarf being pulled apart by a black hole; or, a supernova leaving behind a black hole or a neutron star, the creation of a compact body being observed for the first time.