Entire disciplines are devoted to predicting the future. Trained forecasters use data, trends, human behavior and more to predict what lies ahead.<\/p>\n
Exactly no one at Science News<\/em> is a quantitative forecaster or futurist. But we do hear what scientists are buzzing about at meetings, on social media and while reporting stories. So when we asked our writers to predict the big science stories of 2019, each person brought well-informed insights, with a dash of optimism (and sometimes pessimism), to the task. Heres what they had to say.<\/p>\n This first set feels a bit like cheating: Some already scheduled happenings will no doubt lead to big findings.<\/p>\n The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, starts its third observing run in February. With upgrades, LIGO may detect many more black hole mergers<\/a> than it saw in past runs, astronomy writer Lisa Grossman says.<\/p>\n And our moon will get a lot of traffic in 2019, she adds. China expects to land the first sample-return mission on the moon since 1976<\/a> (SN: 11\/24\/18, p. 14<\/em>). India will head to the moons south pole. And the Israeli company SpaceIL will send its own spacecraft.<\/p>\n Grossman and physics writer Emily Conover also put their money on 2019 as the year we finally get a glimpse of a black hole \u2013 if the Event Horizon Telescope captures Sagittarius A* , the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Our prediction that the telescope would capture that prize<\/a> as early as 2017 was a tad premature.<\/p>\nMark your calendars<\/strong><\/h3>\n