These are the most prominent scientific events expected in 2020

Little West

From space and astronomy to energy, climate, genetic engineering and plant health, scientific events and achievements are expected during 2020.

International Year of Phytosanitary
Next year, the world will celebrate plant health, after being endorsed by the United Nations as the International Year of Phytosanitary.

Plant health protects the environment, forests and biodiversity from plant pests, addresses the impacts of climate change, and is the key to sustainable agricultural development in order to feed the growing world population by 2050.

On this occasion, many scientific events will be organized in different regions of the world on this topic, the most prominent of which will be the International Phytosanitary Conference in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, beginning of October next year.

Astronomical phenomena

The region will witness two important astronomical phenomena: the annular eclipse of the sun on June 21, 2020, which can be pursued from Oman, Yemen, Djibouti and southern Sudan, while it will be partial in the rest of the Arab countries, and the eclipse of the moon on November 30, which will be entirely in the whole region.

The climate .. steps forward and backward
Next August, the United Nations Environment Program is expected to issue an important report on the scientific and technical aspects of climate engineering, approaches that can be used to combat climate change, including removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and preventing sunlight.

The International Seabed Authority also issues regulations allowing the extraction of minerals from the seabed. Scientists are concerned that there is not enough knowledge about what this practice can do to marine ecosystems, which could lead to catastrophic effects on already stressful environments.

But the major climate event will come in November, with the COP36 Climate Conference held in Glasgow, UK, to assess what was agreed in the Paris Agreement, which calls for the countries that have signed up to their updated plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, to help In reducing global warming to below two degrees Celsius.

But most nations seem to have been slow to deliver on their promises, and the future of the treaty itself has become murky, with the United States expected to formally withdraw from the treaty that month.

Invading Mars and rocks from the moon
The summer of 2020 will see a real invasion of Mars, to which many spacecraft will head, including three spacecraft to land on its surface. The NASA probe will be launched "March 2020" in July to study the geology of the planet's surface and search for clues to the formation of life in the past, in addition to collecting samples of rock to send to Earth.

For almost the same purpose, the European Space Agency, in cooperation with its Russian counterpart, will launch the "Exomars" probe in July as well, by means of the "Proton" missile.

China will send its first probe to Mars (Heoxing-1), which will carry a moving vehicle to explore the surface of the Red Planet.

The UAE is also seeking to make the first Arab mission to Mars succeed by sending the "Hope" probe, which is expected to be launched in July from Japan.

Soon from Earth, China will send the Chang-E5 mission to return samples of moon rocks to Earth. Next year, it will witness the return of samples from "Ryojo" as part of the Japanese space agency "Hiaposa-2".

The next two years will witness a major refurbishment of the space launch missile fleet, with the launch of mostly reusable new-generation missiles, the European "Ariane-6", the Japanese "H3" expected to be launched in 2020, and the "New Glen" of the company "Blue" Eugene and the US Department of Defense Vulcan in the following year.

New photos of black holes
After the "Event Ozone Telescope" team successfully captured the first image of a super black hole in the center of the Messi 87 galaxy earlier this year, researchers are expected to release new images this time around the black hole lying in the center of the Milky Way.

Later in the year, the European Space Agency's Gaia mission will update its 3D map of the Milky Way, which has significantly changed how scientists understand the structure and evolution of the galaxy.

Astronomers will also continue to study gravitational waves by revealing clusters of cosmic collisions that they observed in 2019 and created ripples in time and space. These events include many mergers of black holes as well as the swallowing of black holes for stars.

A device with a length of 100 km
The European Center for Nuclear Research "CERN" hopes to obtain funding in 2020 to build a huge collider in the future with a length of 100 km, which can reach six times the power of the Large Hadron Collider and its cost is 21 billion euros (23.4 billion dollars).

Artificial yeast
In 2020, synthetic biologists will also complete, in 15 laboratories on four continents, the restoration of the genetic makeup of baking yeast (a single-celled fungus that can grow on and brew sugary solutions).

Researchers in this project replaced the DNA in each of the sixteen chromosomes of the fungus with synthetic copies. Then they reorganized and edited the genome - or deleted parts of it - to understand how the organism evolved and adapted to mutations.

The researchers hope that "processed" yeast cells will launch more efficient and flexible ways to manufacture a range of products, from biofuels to medicines.

Human organs of animals?
Next year, the world will come closer to replacing human organs in other animals, as stem cell scientist Hiromitsu Nakuchi at the University of Tokyo plans to "grow" tissues made from human cells in mouse and pig embryos, with the aim of producing organs that can be transplanted into humans.

But some researchers believe it will be safe and more effective to develop "members" in the laboratory.

Solid energy
The energy sector will achieve another milestone during the Tokyo Olympics in July, when Toyota is expected to unveil its first prototype car with a "solid state" Li-ion batteries.

This technology will replace the fluid that separates the electrodes inside the battery with a solid, to increase the amount of energy that can be stored. The new batteries will be longer in life than their predecessors, but the charging process is slower.

Artificial sun
In the energy field, China is working to start operating the world's first fusion nuclear reactor next year, to produce energy in the same way that the sun generates, by merging hydrogen atoms and converting them into helium, a process that does not generate radioactive waste but requires access to a very high temperature.

Therefore, researchers plan to heat the hydrogen molecules to 200 million degrees Celsius, while the temperature in the heart of the sun does not exceed 15 million degrees.