 Alas, 2016 is coming to an end, and for you it may have been a good year, it may have been a bad year, but in astronomy it has been a fantastic year. And these are going to be your top six astronomy stories for 2016 for this space pod on December 31st, 2016. When it comes to 2016, there was so much for me to even consider covering for this space pod. I originally started with about 30 stories and then had to somehow narrow it down to six. And even though it's cliched to say it, I'm going to say it, it was really difficult to pick these six. So why wait any longer? Here's those top six stories of 2016. Number six, The Hunt for Planet Nine. Sure, Ben likes to think Planet Nine is actually Pluto, but if you pay careful attention to the astronomical nomenclature, then at the start of 2016, you may have heard the news that we think an actual ninth planet is out there, somewhere. Announced by Konstantin Bakian and ironically Mike Pluto killer Brown, a potential ninth planet could lurk deep in the outer solar system. Their evidence was the orbits of six Kuiper Belt objects lining up perfectly, showing a potential gravitational influence of an object about 10 times the mass of Earth. The Hunt continues into 2017. Number five, Juno Arrives at Jupiter. Launched in 2011, NASA's Juno mission to unlock the mysteries of Jupiter had an incredible challenge, entering the orbit around Jupiter precisely and begin a two-year science mission. The 35-minute burn of Juno's main engine would occur at one of the highest speeds ever attained by a spacecraft, 58 kilometers per second, and the closest pass of Jupiter ever by a spacecraft as well, 4,700 kilometers above the cloud tops. The gutsy entry on July 4th was designed to minimize the amount of exposure to Jupiter's powerful radiation belts, and it paid off. Juno is now in orbit around Jupiter in collecting science. The upcoming two years will hopefully answer many of the mysteries and possibly generate more. Number four, Pluto likely has a subsurface ocean. The shocker that as Pluto continues to roll on turns out my favorite world in the solar system may not be dead, and in addition, not just geologically active, but it may have a subsurface ocean. Computer modeling of just how the heart of Pluto, Sputnik Planum, came to be and is still on the surface, points to an actual liquid water ocean underneath a thick crust of ice and rock. The typical way to find life is to follow the water. Pluto, could Pluto actually be a habitable world on the fringes of the solar system? Potentially, and no one saw that coming. Honorable mention to the end of the data download from New Horizons Flyby of Pluto, 16 months after the actual flyby itself. Number three, Rosetta's mission ends. The Rosetta spacecraft is one of the most incredible missions in the history of humanity's exploration of the universe. Launched in 2004, it took the better part of a decade to arrive at its target, comet Trulium of Gerasimenko, also known as 67P. But when it arrived, it blew our minds with the views and data we received. But all good things must come to an end, and on September 30th, Rosetta ended its mission by slowly descending to the surface of 67P, taking data all the way up to a predetermined time just before impact. The close-up observations will be deciphered over the next year or two, with results most certainly set to stun us again. Honorable mention that the comet Rosetta was studying was found to contain both the ingredients for life and water ice, confirming scientists' hypotheses that comets may have seeded the chemicals in water needed for life on Earth. Number two, potentially habitable planet discovered around Proxima Centauri. Exoplanets are all the rage in science today, but the potential holy grail of exoplanets was found this year. The European Southern Observatory announced that they found an exoplanet in the habitable zone, and one extremely close by. And not just around the handful of stars within 10 light-years are local stellar neighborhood, but one around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun, 4.3 light-years away. 30% more massive than the Earth. This planet sits within the habitable zone of the closest star to us, a potential target for the next generation of ground-based and space-based telescopes, and maybe the first place humanity sends themselves when we're ready to become an interstellar species. And finally, my top astronomical story of 2016. Number one, the first direct detection of gravitational waves. This. This is the discovery of lifetimes. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted the existence of gravitational waves, but Einstein himself said that they would simply be too small for instruments to ever detect. Fast forward a century later, and the first direct detection of gravitational waves was announced. Using the laser interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, also known as LIGO, scientists measured the minute movements of two double-digit solar mass black holes combining into one a billion light-years away. The movement was around one-tenthousandth the width of a proton, but with direct confirmation a second wave was detected along with a third candidate. The discovery of gravitational waves has now opened up a new era of astronomy. Thanks for watching this space pod. I'm Jared Head. What was your top astronomical story of 2016? Let me know in the comments below. And of course, don't forget to contact us on our various social media accounts like twitter.com.tmro, r.tmro, and all the other places that you can find us. And a big shout out to all of our patrons of tomorrow. I'm so happy that this list always seems to be getting longer and longer and longer. And these folks help crowdfund the shows of tomorrow. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do these space pods. So if you would like to help consider crowdfunding the space pods, head on over to patreon.com slash space pod. So with this final space pod of 2016, I'll see you in 2017. And keep exploring.