1. Gravitational Waves: Hundred years ago, in 1915, Albert Einstein drafted his paper on the General theory of relativity. With continuum of four dimensional space-time in which gravity is geometric distortion, it also predicted gravitational waves moving through the space-time fabric.

On 11 February 2016, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first direct detection of a gravitational wave predicted by the general relativity theory of Albert Einstein.

The gravitational wave itself had originated from a mega-celestial event of two black holes merging. That event has been named as GW150914 and happened at a distance of 1.4±0.6 billion light years from earth. In other words, even as a very young planet, when the Earth was tentatively forming some gelly like phenomenon called life in its primordial oceans, the gravitational wave started leaving its place of origin.

As the waves took 1.4 billion years to reach and then carry on its travel, that slimy phenomenon has branched into the vast tree of life in which the humans would develop the awareness, intelligence and technology to wait for the signal that the gravitational wave would produce.  Surely that is one monumental event for science and humanity at large to celebrate.

2.Chimpanzees’ Sense of Wonder?:  In March 2016 Nature magazine published a paper reporting ‘newly discovered stone tool-use behaviour and stone accumulation sites in wild chimpanzees reminiscent of human cairns‘. This is the ‘first record of repeated observations of individual chimpanzees exhibiting stone tool use for a purpose other than extractive foraging at what appear to be targeted trees‘.

Laura Kehoe, one of the discoverers of this phenomenon, had earlier pointed out that we cannot claim that chimpanzees have developed a ‘religion’ at this stage. In a cautious statement she stated that ‘we simply don’t know yet since we have not settled on one theory of what the chimps are doing’.

Kehoe pointed out that the many traits ‘we arrogantly assumed were uniquely human have been found in other species.’ Kehoe explained: “We are not alone in our ability to feel joy or sorrow, mourn the loss of a loved one, act in altruistic ways, solve complex problems or hold unique personalities. But are we the only species with a sense of the sacred? The spiritual?“

She further recalled that Jane Goodall had in 2005 speculated in the so-called ‘waterfall’ dance of Chimpanzee, which she discovered in 1960s, there might be an inner state of ‘related awe and wonder‘. Surely the discovery can be considered a giant leap in understanding our own closest evolutionary cousin.

3.Of New Satellites and Hammers of Gods: ‘Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth‘, with these words Paul Chodas of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, announced a minor second satellite for planet Earth.

While an addition of a minor moon to Earth may look even romantic, we were all reminded how dangerously close we are always to the hammers of Gods in August. That month an asteroid was discovered in the night of August 27-28.

Named 2016 QA2, this asteroid was twice the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor, that entered the atmosphere over Russia in 2013. What makes this very common space rocks discovery and naming sensationally interesting is that this reached its closest approach to Earth on August 28 itself, just hours after its discovery. Even more disturbing is the fact that it passed over Earth at distance closer than the moon, which is just 84,619 km. This is almost a hairline distance in terms of celestial dimensions.