Astronomers have made plenty of discoveries in recent years. A lot of which are very much related to us, even on a direct level. But a lot of their contributions go unnoticed by the public because there isn't media attention to those particular discoveries. If you look up a montly Astronomy journal there are tons of examples. But of those the only ones that get sifted to the general public are often pretty pictures and something like this.
I remember reading about this some time ago. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_seas :
Milky seas is a condition on the open ocean where large areas of seawater (up to 6,000 square miles) are filled with bioluminescent bacteria, causing the ocean to uniformly glow an eerie blue at night...
... conclusions were that the effect was caused by the bacteria Vibrio harveyi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_seas :
Milky seas is a condition on the open ocean where large areas of seawater (up to 6,000 square miles) are filled with bioluminescent bacteria, causing the ocean to uniformly glow an eerie blue at night...
... conclusions were that the effect was caused by the bacteria Vibrio harveyi.