2017 in science

A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2017.

The United Nations declared 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.

[1]

6 January: A portion of the Larsen C ice shelf reportedly in danger of breaking off
6 January: The Earth and Moon as viewed 127 million miles away from the planet Mars by the MRO . [ 11 ]
18 January: NASA and NOAA confirm 2016 was the hottest year on record globally
26 January: Scientists at Harvard report the first synthesis of metallic hydrogen , normally found inside gas giants like Jupiter.
8 February: Genome of Quinoa food crop is decoded.
22 February: Discovery of seven Earth-sized exoplanets , which may all be in the habitable zone , orbiting TRAPPIST-1 , an ultra-cool dwarf star, announced.
1 March: Evidence of possibly the oldest forms of life on Earth found in hydrothermal vent precipitates . [ 60 ]
22 March: New way of classifying the dinosaur family tree reported; original dinosaurs were possibly small 2-footed omnivorous animals with large grasping hands. [ 76 ] [ 77 ]
10 April: The Great Barrier Reef is hit by a second consecutive mass coral bleaching event.
22 April: March for Science occurred in more than 600 cities around the world on Earth Day . [ 103 ] [ 104 ]
4 May: First synthetic retina reported to have been created. [ 115 ]
9 May: Evidence of the earliest known life on land may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite . [ 122 ] [ 123 ]
18 May: Rapid greening of the Antarctica region reported, based on a significant increase in the growth rate of moss . [ 133 ] [ 134 ]
27 May: AI beats the human world champion at the game Go . [ 143 ] [ 144 ]
1 June: Elon Musk publishes a paper on the future human settlement of Mars . [ 154 ]
7 June: Evidence suggests that Homo sapiens may have originated 300,000 years ago, much earlier than the 200,000 years ago thought previously. [ 163 ] [ 164 ]
6 July: New baryon particle confirmed by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider.
12 July: Iceberg A-68 detaches from Antarctica.
14 July: Tardigrades , one of the most resilient life forms on Earth , may withstand global mass extinctions due to astrophysical events . [ 203 ] [ 204 ]
2 August: CRISPR used to remove faulty DNA from human embryos for the first time.
8 August: Patagotitan mayorum , one of the largest ever dinosaurs, is officially named. [ 238 ]
23 August: Antares , most detailed image of a star other than the Sun. [ 251 ]
13 September: Third of the mass of Asia's high mountain glaciers may be expected to be lost by 2100 due to global warming . [ 262 ] [ 263 ]
15 September: End of Cassini-Huygens 's 20-year mission to explore the planet Saturn . [ 273 ] [ 274 ]
10 October: A tenfold increase in childhood and adolescent obesity since 1975 is reported ( leptin molecule pictured).
16 October: Gravitational wave ( GW170817 ) detected from merger of two neutron stars . [ 302 ] [ 303 ] [ 304 ]
26 October: Ocean temperatures could be warmer now than those in the last 100 million years. [ 317 ] [ 318 ]
26 October: First known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System
2 November: Large "void" discovered inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
8 November: First known star, IPTF14hls , to have exploded multiple times, over at least 50 years. [ 350 ] (example of a supernova remnant shown)
20 November: Studies suggest life on Earth may have originated from biological particles carried by space dust . [ 369 ] [ 370 ]
6 December: Most distant quasar , ULAS J1342+0928 , and supermassive black hole found so far. [ 383 ] (artist concept of similar quasar)
11 December: Genetic error corrected for Huntington's disease using IONIS-HTTRx , an experimental drug. [ 398 ]
14 December: Studies at Lechaio in Greece reveal evidence of large-scale ancient Roman engineering – an example of such engineering is pictured. [ 411 ]