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On this day in 2005 - January 5th - dwarf planet Eris was discovered by Mike Brown and Chad Trujillo. There was no category of dwarf planet then, and since the new object seemed to be bigger than Pluto, the discoverers assumed it was a new planet. But the following year it was bad luck for Pluto and Eris. Click to find out more about Eris - Dwarf Planet.
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On this day in 1610 - January 7th - Galileo discovered three of Jupiter's moons: Io, Europa and Callisto. It was astonishing to find that Jupiter had three satellites. Actually, there are many more, but these are large enough to be visible in a small telescope. In those days, the Earth was generally considered to be the center of the Universe with everything revolving around it. This discovery showed that not everything went around the Earth. Click to find out more about Jupiter's Galilean Moons.
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On this day in 1942 - January 8th - Stephen Hawking was born. One of the greatest theoretical physicists and cosmologists of our time, he became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1979, holding the same chair as Sir Isaac Newton had done in 1669. Overcoming severe disability, Professor Hawking has made ground-breaking contributions to the study of the Universe. Here's Stephen Hawking's website if you want to find out more about him.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 01/14/16 09:32 AM.
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On this day in 1787 - January 11th - William Herschel discovered two moons of Uranus.Herschel had discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, the first planet ever to be discovered - the others had been known since antiquity. We now know of 27 moons in the Uranian system, and Herschel discovered the first two: Titania and Oberon, though he didn't name them. Over seventy years later William Lassell discovered two more moons of Uranus, and asked John Herschel, William's son, for suggestions for naming the four known moons. Herschel opted for literature rather than mythology and subsequent moons have also been named from Shakespeare. You can find out more about the Literary Moons of Uranus.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 01/14/16 12:42 AM.
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On this day in 1916 - January 14th - the first women were admitted as full members of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Mary Adele Blagg, Ella K Church, A Grace Cook and Fiammetta Wilson became the first elected female Fellows of the RAS on 14 January 1916. Six more followed that year, including Annie Maunder, more than 24 years after her first attempt to join.
The society was formed on January 12, 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London becoming the Royal Astronomical Society after receiving a royal charter from William IV.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 01/14/16 01:00 AM.
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I enjoy reading your posts On This Day.
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On this day in 2015 - January 16th - ESA announced that Beagle 2 had been found in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images, finally solving a 12-year-old mystery.In 2003 UK-led Beagle 2 lander, having hitched a ride on the European Space Agency's Mars Express, had been released into Martian orbit and was scheduled to land on Christmas Day. No contact was ever made. You can read the unusual story of Beagle 2 - Lost and Found.
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On this day in 1747 - January 19th - Johann Bode was born.Bode was one of the most important astronomers of his time. He was the author of two important star atlases, director of the Berlin Observatory for forty years and compiled tables of astronomical data. His name is still associated with a relationship called Bode's Law.
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On this day in 1573 - January 20th - Simon Marius was born.
Marius was a German astronomer who claimed to have discovered the moons of Jupiter before Galileo. Although this couldn't be substantiated, he did give the moons their names.
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On this day in 2003 - January 22nd - Pioneer 10's last signal was received.
Pioneer 10 was launched on March 3, 1972 and is now the second most distant probe from Earth at over 114 AU. (1 AU is the average Earth-Sun distance.) It's headed in the direction of the constellation Taurus. The most distant probe is Voyager 1, currently at over 134 AU.
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Mona, very interesting stats!
Camille Gizzarelli
Bellaonline.com Art Appreciation Editor
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On this day in 1829 - January 27th - Welsh astronomer Isaac Roberts was born. Roberts was a pioneer of astrophotography. This photograph, taken in 1888, shows the disk and spiral structure of M31, now known as the Andromeda Galaxy. In order to get such a picture of a distant object, you need to keep the camera on it for a long exposure, which means tracking the object as the Earth turns.
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Chimpanzee
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Mona, I love the photos. They make wonderful wallpaper on my laptop, actually, great meditation moments.
Last edited by Angie; 01/27/16 03:37 PM.
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I agree, Angie. Modern telescopes can give such incredible detail and definition, and then they're processed with a color palette. Sometimes I think the nebula pictures are the best, but then I see a really stunning galaxy and I'm won over.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 06/19/16 12:46 AM.
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On this day in 1611 - January 27th - Johannes Hevelius was born. The Polish astronomer was one of the 17th century's most respected and prolific astronomers, known for his study of sunspots, drawings of the Moon, the discovery of several several comets, designing astronomical instruments, and the production of an influential star atlas. You can read more about the life of Johannes Hevelius.
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On this day in 1966 - January 31st – Luna 9 was launched.
Luna 9 was a Soviet Moon probe, and the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon. It sent back to Earth the first pictures taken from the surface of our satellite.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 02/01/16 01:58 PM.
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On this day in 2003 - February 1st - space shuttle Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, killing all seven astronauts.
Within a week of the Columbia disaster, there are two other anniversaries of NASA tragedies.
On January 27, 1967 fire broke out in the oxygen-rich cockpit of Apollo 1 during a launchpad test. The three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, perished.
On January 28, 1986 the shuttle Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff. The seven astronauts died.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 02/04/16 03:16 PM.
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On this day in 1906 - February 4th - Clyde Tombaugh was born. Clyde Tombaugh grew up on a farm in Illinois. His family couldn't afford to send him to college, but he learned geometry and trigonometry himself and observed the skies with his homemade telescope. Offered a job by Lowell Observatory, he was assigned to look for the Planet X that Perceval Lowell had been sure existed. Tombaugh found Pluto in 1930, but it turned out to be too small to be Planet X. Pluto Is a Dwarf Planet will tell you more about this.
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On this day in 1828 - February 8th - Jules Verne was borne.Jules Verne was a great French writer of science fiction. His story of a Moon launch involved three men, but no rockets. A capsule was launched by being shot off in a giant cannon. It was built in central Florida, but on the opposite coast to the Kennedy Space Center. Verne called his craft Columbiad, and NASA named the Apollo 11 spacecraft Columbia. On his 183rd birthday, 5 years ago, Jules Verne got a Google doodle.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 02/08/16 01:39 PM.
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On this day in 2010 - February 11th - NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched.If you wonder why careful observation of the Sun is important, read about Space Weather. Click here to find out more about the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
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On this day in 1853 - February 13th - J.L.E. Dreyer was born.
Dreher was a Danish-Irish astronomer who served for nearly 25 years the Director of Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. He's best known for compiling the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars – NGC numbers are still in use for these objects.
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On this day in 1564 - February 15th - Galileo Galilei was born.
Galileo was one of the first to observe the heavens with a telescope and is often considered the "father of experimental physics".
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On this day in 1948 - February 16th - Gerard Kuiper discovered Miranda, moon of Uranus.Uranus has 27 known moons, all but 5 discovered since the late 1980s. William Herschel (discoverer of Uranus) discovered two. Over sixty years later English astronomer William Lassell discovered two more. It was nearly another century before Miranda was discovered. Most of the moons of Uranus are named for characters from Shakespeare.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 02/16/16 07:31 AM.
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On this day in 1930 - February 18th - American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto.
He was at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona searching for the massive Planet X which Perceval Lowell had thought was influencing the orbit of Neptune.
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On this day in 1473 - February 19th - Nicolaus Copernicus was born.
One of the most famous names in astronomy, Copernicus was a prominent citizen of Frombork in Poland. Astronomy was something that he fit in with many other duties and interests. However his book championing the idea that the Sun - not the Earth - was the center of the Solar System was deemed revolutionary by the Church seventy years after his death and banned for two centuries.
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On this day in 1962 - February 20th - John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
John Glenn made three orbits of the Earth in his space capsule Friendship 7. It involved five hours strapped firmly in place in a large tin can. A brave man.
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On this day in 2006 - February 22th - the discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope of two new moons of Pluto was announced.The two little moons P1 and P2 were later named Hydra and Nix. Hydra is the 9-headed serpent that battled Hercules. Nix is the mother of Charon the ferryman and goddess of the night.
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On this day in 1987 - February 23rd - supernova SN1987A was discovered.
Sn1987A was the first supernova visible to the unaided eye - though only in the southern hemisphere - in nearly four hundred years. It occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 06/19/16 12:48 AM.
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On this day in 1968 - February 24th - the discovery of the first pulsar was announced.
A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that emits pulses of radiation. A neutron star is what's left of most massive stars after a supernova explosion. At that time it was still highly theoretical as no one had previously discovered a neutron star. The discoverer was graduate student Jocelyn Bell. Her supervisor Anthony Hewish received a Nobel Prize for work in radio astronomy and it was noted that he had played a "decisive role in the discovery of pulsars".
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On this day in 1897 - February 27th - Bernard Lyot was born.
Bernard Lyot was a French astronomer whose work brought him major international awards. His most important contributions to astronomy were in solar observing, especially the invention of the coronagraph which makes it possible to observe the Sun's corona without waiting for a total eclipse.
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On this day in 1927 - March 1st - American astronomer George Abell was born.
Abell was known as a researcher, educator and science popularizer. His best known work was his extensive catalogue of galaxy clusters.
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On this day in 1972 - March 2nd - Pioneer 10 was launched. And on this day in 2004 Rosetta was launched. Pioneer 10 was the first space probe to visit Jupiter. It's now over 115 AU away from us - 1 AU = Earth/Sun distance - headed out of the Solar System in the direction of the constellation Taurus. It's no longer in communication with Earth. You can find out here more information about Rosetta the Comet Chaser.
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On this day in 1787 - March 6th - Joseph Fraunhofer was born.
Fraunhofer was a German optician who was known for the quality of his optical glass and excellent telescope objectives. His name is still known today for his discovery of the dark absorption lines - known as Fraunhofer lines - in the Sun's spectrum.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 03/06/16 09:28 AM.
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On this day in 1937 - March 6th – Valentina Tereshkova was born.
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. She was a Soviet cosmonaut who spent three days orbiting in Vostok 6.
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On this day in 1792 - March 7th – John Herschel was born. Sir John Herschel, son of the discoverer of Uranus, was a superb mathematician and astronomer. He was a pioneer in photography, a talented artist and musician, translator and poet.
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On this day in 1837 - March 7th – Henry Draper was born.
Henry Draper was a pioneer of astrophotography. Following his early death, his wife Anna donated money to Harvard College Observatory to complete his catalogue of stellar spectra. If you see a deep sky object named with an “HD†prefix, it refers to this catalogue.
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On this day in 1979 – March 8th – active volcanoes were found on Jupiter's moon Io.
Voyager 1 took the pictures that showed eruptions on Io, the first ones ever discovered on a body other than Earth.
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On this day in 1564 – March 9th – David Fabricius was born.
Along with his son Johannes, David Fabricius discovered Mira, the first known periodic variable star. They also made the first confirmed observations of sunspots.
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On this day in 2006 – March 10th – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at Mars.
The orbiter is still taking fantastic pictures of Mars.
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On this day in 1811 – March 11th – Urbain Le Verrier was born.
Le Verrier was a French mathematician who calculated a position for an unknown planet, based on disturbances in the orbit of Uranus. This led to the discovery of the planet Neptune.
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On this day in 1781 – March 13th – William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.
This was the first discovery ever of a planet. The other planets known at the time are visible to the naked eye and had been known for thousands of years.
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On this day in 1781 – March 13th – Percival Lowell was born.
He was a science popularizer and founder of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto at this observatory.
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On this day in 1835 – March 14th – Giovanni Schiaparelli was born.
Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer. He produced the most detailed map of Mars ever published and it became a standard reference in planetary cartography.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 03/15/16 01:29 PM.
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On this day in 1713 – March 15th – Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille was born. French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille was one of astronomy's greats. He surveyed nearly 10,000 stars in the southern hemisphere and invented fourteen new constellations still in use today.
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On this day in 1750 – March 16th – Caroline Herschel was born. German-born astronomer Caroline Herschel was the first woman to be credited with the discovery of a comet. She discovered eight altogether and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain. Her brother was William Herschel.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 03/19/16 01:44 PM.
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On this day in 1965 – March 18th – Voskhod 2 was launched and Alexei Leonov made the very first spacewalk.
Leonov nearly didn't survive the spacewalk when his spacesuit inflated in the vacuum and he had to let the air out of it in order to get back into the spacecraft.
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On this day in 1749 – March 23rd – Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was born.
Laplace is the French equivalent of Isaac Newton. His mathematical genius gave a framework to astronomy and the related physics in his five-volume work Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics).
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On this day in 1893 – March 24rd – Walter Baade was born.
Walter Baade worked for many years at Mt Wilson Observatory in California. He discovered that there are two types of Cepheid variable stars, and his calculation of the size of the known Universe was double that of Edwin Hubble. (The Cepheids are used as distance calculators.)
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 03/28/16 02:31 AM.
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On this day in 1655 – March 25th – Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Saturn's moon Titan.
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On this day in 1802 – March 28th – Heinrich Olbers discovered the asteroid Pallas.
On this day in 1807 – March 29th – Heinrich Olbers discovered the asteroid Vesta.
German physician Olbers was a keen astronomer. Besides discovering two asteroids, he also discovered a comet. And Olbers devised the first really useful method for calculating cometary orbits.
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On this day in 1997 – March 31st – Pioneer 10's mission was officially ended.
NASA probe Pioneer 10 completed the first mission to Jupiter and later was the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. Although NASA ended the probe's mission, it continued to monitor signals for another six years.
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On this day in 1973 – April 5th – Pioneer 11 was launched.
Pioneer 11 followed Pioneer 10 through the asteroid belt and past Jupiter, but It was the first probe to fly by Saturn.
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On this day in 1919 – April 10th – John C. Houbolt was born.
Houbolt isn't a well-known name, but he was an aerospace engineer who led the team that developed the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) flight path. It was what enabled NASA to meet President Kennedy's 1961 challenge for lunar success “before this decade is outâ€.
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On this day in 1960 – April 11th – Project Ozma began.It was Frank Drake's project to search for signals from intelligent aliens. A radio telescope was used to observe the stars Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti over a 4-month period. (They didn't find anything.)
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On this day in 1961 – April 12th – Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space when he made one orbit of Earth in Vostok 1.
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On this day in 1629 – April 14th – Christiaan Huygens was born.
The probe to Saturn's moon Titan was named for Huygens, Dutch astronomer, physicist and mathematician, who discovered the moon.
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On this day in 1971 – April 19th – Salyut 1 was launched.
The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, which was the first ever space station.
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On this day in 1967 – April 20th – Surveyor 3 landed on the Moon.
NASA's Surveyor program sent robotic probes to the Moon to learn more about what would be needed for manned landings. Surveyor 3's camera was retrieved two years later and brought back to Earth by Apollo 12 astronauts.
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On this day in 1990 – April 25th – the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed.
The crew of the STS-31 space shuttle mission took the telescope into space on the shuttle Discovery.
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On this day in 1900 – April 28th – Jan Oort was born.
Jan Oort was a Dutch astronomer who was a pioneer in radio astronomy and made major contributions to the understanding of the Milky Way.
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On this day in 1906 – April 28th – Bart Bok was born.Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok was a Dutch-born American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He's best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, but his name lives on in the dark nebulae known as Bok globules.
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On this day in 2013 – April 29th – the Herschel Space Observatory's mission ended.
The HSO was launched by the European Space Agency to observe the Universe in infrared. It was named for William (who discovered infrared) and Caroline Herschel. The mission lasted longer than expected, but ended finally when it ran out of coolant.
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On this day in 1961 – May 5th – the Freedom 7 suborbital flight took place.
Alan Shepherd became the first American in space.
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On this day in 2016 – May 9th – the planet Mercury transited the Sun.
The next transit will occur on November 11, 2019.
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On this day in 1900 – May 10th – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was born.
Cecilia Payne-Goposchkin was an English-born astrophysicist. Applying laws of atomic physics to the study of the temperature and density of stellar bodies, she was the first person to conclude that hydrogen and helium are the two most common elements in the Universe.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 05/11/16 07:40 AM.
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On this day in 1916 – May 11th – Einstein's The Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity was published.
The General Theory of Relativity changed the way we understand the Universe, turning upside down old ideas of physics and cosmology.
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On this day in 1930 – May 12th – the Adler Planetarium opened in Chicago.
The Adler Planetarium was the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.
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On this day in 1973 - May 14 - Skylab was launched.
Skylab was the first American space station.
On this day in 2009 - May 14 - both Planck and Herschel were launched.
Both space observatories were operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). Planck mapped the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with great precision. Herschel was the largest infrared telescope ever sent into space.
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On this day in 1857 - May 15 - Williamina Fleming was born. Williamina Fleming was one of the computers of Harvard College Observatory. She discovered several hundred variable stars, supervised other computers, and prepared material for publication. She was a member of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America and an honorary fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain.
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On this day in 1969 – May 18 – Apollo 10 was launched.
Apollo 10 was the dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 Moon mission. The crew carried out all of the procedures that Apollo 11 was expected to do, except for actually landing on the Moon. On May 22nd, they took the lunar module down to about 50,000 feet from the lunar surface.
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On this day in 1951 – May 26 – Sally Ride was born.
Doctor Ride, astrophysicist, educator and astronaut, was the first American woman in space.
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On this day in 1919 – May 29 – Einstein's Theory of General Relativity was tested during a total solar eclipse. Under the direction of English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, two groups of British astronomers observed the total eclipse. They photographed the positions of stars that appeared near the Sun. Then the positions of these stars were compared to a photograph taken when these stars were opposite the Sun. Einstein's theory predicted that the starlight would be bent by the Sun in the eclipse images. This is what the astronomers found in "Einstein's eclipse".
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On this day in 1934 – May 30 – Alexei Leonov was born.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person ever to exit an orbiting spacecraft - the first "spacewalk". It nearly cost him his life, but he managed to get back into the craft and lived to make a second trip into space. He's also a talented artist.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 05/31/16 01:26 PM.
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On this day in 1975 – May 31 – ESA (European Space Agency) was formed.
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On this day in 2003 – June 2 – ESA's Mars Express mission was launched.
Mars Express was the European Space Agency's first planetary mission. As of June 2016 the orbiter is still collecting and transmitting data.
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On this day in 1948 – June 3 – the Hale 200-inch telescope was dedicated.
What was then the biggest telescope in the world was located at Palomar Observatory in southern California. It was named for George Ellery Hale who had persevered in the building of a telescope that was deemed to be impossible.
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On this day in 1819 – June 5 – John Couch Adams was born.
Adams was a prominent British astronomer, best known for his prediction of the position of Neptune, independently of that of Urbain LeVerrier.
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On this day in 1625 – June 8 – Giovanni Domenico Cassini was born.
Cassini (also known as Jean Dominique) was director of the Paris Observatory. Among his many accomplishments, he was known for his observations of Saturn. NASA's Cassini mission to the Saturnian system is named for him.
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On this day in 2003 – June 10 – NASA's Martian rover Spirit was launched.
The mission was expected to last three Martian months, but lasted several years. In 2009 Spirit became trapped and was last heard from in March 2010. After a year of trying to make contact, on May 24, 2011 NASA formally ended Spirit's mission.
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On this day in 1963 – June 16 – Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in Vostok 6 became the first woman in space.
Tereshkova is still the only woman to have flown a solo space mission.
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On this day in 1983 – June 18 – Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
Almost 20 years to the day after Valentina Tereshkova's historic flight, Sally Ride was part of the crew of STS-7 Challenger.
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On this day in 1799 – June 18 – William Lassell was born.
Lassell was a prominent English astronomer. The best known of his discoveries was Triton, Neptune's largest moon. He found it seventeen days after the planet itself was discovered at the Berlin Observatory.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 06/19/16 01:00 AM.
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On this day in 1675 – June 22 – the Royal Observatory Greenwich was established by a royal warrant from Charles II.The Royal Observatory Greenwich is best known as the place where time begins because the prime meridian of longitude goes through it.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 06/26/16 06:30 AM.
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On this day in 1894 – June 25 – Hermann Oberth was born.
Oberth was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.
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On this day in 1730 – June 26 – Charles Messier was born.
Messier, a French astronomer, is best known for his catalog of nebulae and star clusters. It helped comet hunters distinguish a comet from these permanent objects.
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On this day in 1868 – June 29 – George Ellery Hale was born. Hale was an American solar astronomer. But he's best known for - three times in his life - being instrumental in the creation of what was, in its time, the world's largest telescope. They were: (1) the 40-inch refractor at Yerkes Observatory, (2) the 100-inch reflector at Mt Wilson Observatory, and (3) the 200-inch reflector at Palomar Observatory.
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On this day in 1908 – June 30 – the Tunguska event occurred.
Over 2000 sq km (800 sq mi) of Siberian forest was leveled. The most likely cause was a large asteroid or comet that streaked in as a fireball and exploded.
In 2015 Asteroid Day was established as an annual event to increase awareness of the dangers and promote action to track asteroids and devise ways of deflecting them.
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On this day in 1935 – July 3 – Harrison Schmidt was born.
Schmidt was the geologist who went to the Moon on the Apollo 17 mission. He was the only professional scientist ever to go beyond low Earth orbit.
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On this day in 1868 – July 4 – Henrietta Leavitt was born. Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered the relationship between the period and luminosity of Cepheid variable stars that allows them to be used to calculate distances in deep space.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 07/05/16 07:48 AM.
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On this day in 1687 – July 6th – Isaac Newton's Principia was published.
The set of three books includes Newton's laws of motion which form the foundation of classical mechanics, and his law of universal gravitation. The Principia is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 07/06/16 12:04 PM.
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On this day in 2003 – July 7th – NASA's Mars rover Opportunity was launched.
Opportunity's mission was expected to last 90 Martian days (92.5 Earth days). Opportunity is now nearly halfway through its thirteenth year of exploring Mars.
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On this day in 1962 – July 10th – Telstar 1 was launched. Telstar 1 was the first active communications satellite. It was a test satellite, and paved the way for future developments.
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On this day in 1965 – July 14th – Mariner 4 completed a flyby of Mars.
Six attempts to get a spacecraft to Mars had preceded it, but Mariner 4 was the first successful Mars mission.
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On this day in 2015 – July 14th – New Horizons made a historic flyby of Pluto.
The data is still coming from the distant spacecraft.
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On this day in 1969 – July 16th – Apollo 11 was launched.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins weren't the first astronauts to go to the Moon, but they were the first ones that were expected to land on the Moon.
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On this day in 1850 - July 17th - the first ever photograph of a star (other than the Sun) was taken. The star was Vega and the photo was taken at Harvard Observatory by its director William Cranch Bond and Boston photographer John Adams Whipple.
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On this day in 1921 - July 18th - John Glenn was born. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, and since then the oldest person to go into space. Here is an Infographic about John Glenn. (Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com)
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On this day in 1846 - July 19th - Edward Pickering was born. Edward Charles Pickering was a leading light of 19th century astronomy who made the Harvard College Observatory into an institution with an international reputation.
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On this day in 1969 - July 20th - Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the Moon.
The Apollo 11 lander set down in the Mare Tranquillitas (Sea of Tranquility).
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On this day in 1620 - July 21th - Jean Picard was born.
This French astronomer made the first measurements of what's now the Paris meridian. From his measurements he calculated the size of the Earth. Isaac Newton used and acknowledged Picard's work.
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On this day in 1784 - July 22nd - Friedrich Bessel was born.
Bessel was a German astronomer and mathematician. He was the first to succeed in determining the distance from the Sun to another star using parallax.
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On this day in 1999 - July 23rd - Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
Of additional interest is that one of the mission objectives was the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a highly sophisticated space telescope that is still producing results at wavelengths that are impossible to detect through the Earth's atmosphere.
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On this day in 1984 - July 25th - Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space.
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On this day in 1851 - July 28th - the first successful photo was taken of a total solar eclipse.
The photographer was Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski, and he took the daguerrotype at the Royal Observatory in Koningsberg, Prussia (now Kalingrad, Russia).
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On this day in 1958- July 29th - NASA was created.
President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act that would make NASA a reality.
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On this day in 1818 - August 1st - Maria Mitchell was born. Mitchell was awarded a gold medal by the King of Denmark for discovering a comet. As professor of astronomy at Vassar, she was the first woman to become a college professor in America.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 08/02/16 02:38 AM.
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On this day in 1786 - August 1st - Caroline Herschel first sighted the comet which would make her famous. Caroline Herschel was the first woman to be credited with the discovery of a comet. She and her brother William were a formidable partnership in astronomy.
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On this day in 2004 - August 3rd - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was launched.
MESSENGER was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. After a successful primary mission plus two mission extensions, it deorbited on April 30, 2015.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 08/05/16 02:06 AM.
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On this day in 1930 - August 5th - Neil Armstrong was born.
Neil Armstrong - astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor - was the first person to walk on the Moon.
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On this day in 1989 - August 8th - ESA launched its Hipparcos mission.
Hipparcos measured the positions of tens of thousands of stars to an accuracy never before achieved.
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On this day in 1576 - August 8th - Tycho Brahe laid the cornerstone for Uraniborg.Uraniborg (castle of the heavens) was an observatory, a palace, a laboratory and a research institute. Scholars came from around Europe to research in astronomy and a number of other disciplines.
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On this day in 1990 - August 10th NASA's Magellan mission went into orbit around Venus.
Magellan carried out radar mapping of Venus and and made global maps of the planet's gravity field.
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On this day in 1675 - August 10th the foundation stone was laid for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The Royal Observatory Greenwich is still famous as the place "where time begins".
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On this day in 1877 - August 11th - American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos while observing Mars at the US Naval Observatory.
Mars's moon Deimos is tiny - about 11 km in length - and irregular in shape. In Greek mythology Deimos (meaning dread) is one of the sons of the god of war. The moon Phobos was discovered a week later.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 08/18/16 03:47 AM.
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On this day in 2005 - August 12th - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was launched.
The MRO is still returning top class images of the surface of Mars.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 08/12/16 11:53 AM.
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On this day in 1877 - August 18th - American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos while observing Mars at the US Naval Observatory.
Mars's moon Phobos is, like the moon Deimos, tiny and irregular in shape, but it's seven times as massive as its companion. In Greek mythology Phobos (meaning horror) is one of the two sons of the Greek god of war.
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On this day in 1646 - August 19th - John Flamsteed was born.Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in England. His star atlas was the most authoritative one for over a century.
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On this day in 1891 - August 19th - Milton Humason was born.
Humason was an American astronomer whose observations of the redshifts of galaxies underpinned the work of Edwin Hubble and Allan Sandage.
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On this day in 1975 - August 20th - Viking 1 was launched.
Viking 1 was the first of the two spacecraft of NASA's Viking program. It was the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars and perform its mission.
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On this day in 1977 - August 20th - Voyager 2 was launched.Voyager 2 went on to do a grand tour of the outer planets, visiting Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It's now headed out of the Solar System.
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On this day in 2003 - August 25th - NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Spitzer was the final mission in the Great Observatories Program. NASA had already launched telescopes to observe in visible light, gamma rays and X-rays.
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On this day in 1789 - August 28th - William Herschel discovered Saturn's moon Enceladus.Herschel was a German musician living in England. Many scientists now think that Enceladus is the best place to look for extraterrestrial microbial life.
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On this day in 1758 - August 28th - Charles Messier independently found the Crab Nebula, prompting him to begin his famous catalogue.
When he later found out that John Bevis had made a prior discovery, Messier gave him credit.
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On this day in 1976 - September 3rd - NASA's Viking 2 lander landed on Mars.
Viking 2 carried a biology experiment designed to detect life on Mars. There were both positive and negative results - it was inconclusive, but the positive results were probably generated by inorganic chemical reactions in the soil.
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On this day in 1977 - September 5th - NASA's Voyager 1 was launched.After completing its primary mission Voyager 1 continued through the Kuiper Belt and became the first human spacecraft to enter interstellar space.
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On this day in 1789 - September 9th - William Cranch Bond was born.
Bond was an American astronomer and pioneer of astrophotography, and the first director of the Harvard College Observatory.
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On this day in 1877 - September 11th - James Jeans was born.
Sir James Jeans was an English astrophysicist and mathematician who made important contributions to the theories of radiation and stellar evolution.
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On this day in 1789 - September 17th - William Herschel discovered Mimas.Mimas is the little moon of Saturn that strongly resembles the "Death Star" from the original Star Wars movie.
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On this day in 1857 - September 17th - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was born.
Tsiolkovsky was a Russian rocket scientist and is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.
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On this day in 1977 - September 18th - Voyager 1 took the first Earth/Moon photo.Soon after its great voyage began, the spacecraft was turned around to image the Earth and the Moon in the first ever photo to capture them in the same frame.
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Chimpanzee
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Thank you Mona. I love the photos and stories.
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On this day in 1846 - September 23rd - Johann Galle at the Berlin Observatory discovered the planet Neptune.
Urbain Le Verrier sent Galle his calculation showing where he thought there should be a new planet. Having received Le Verrier's letter, Galle found the planet that same night.
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On this day in 1783 - September 23rd - Caroline Herschel discovered NGC253.It looked like no more than a fuzzy patch in Herschel's telescope, but it's now seen as a dusty spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. It's also known as the Sculptor Galaxy or Silver Coin Galaxy.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 09/28/16 04:04 AM.
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On this day in 1644 - September 25th - Danish astronomer Ole Christensen Rømer was born.
He demonstrated that light travels at a finite speed. He did this measuring the length of time between eclipses of Jupiter by one of its moons when the Earth was at different distances from Jupiter.
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On this day in 1814 - September 27th - American astronomer and mathematician Daniel Kirkwood was born.
Kirkwood studied asteroid orbits, and discovered that there were several gaps in the orbits. They're now named Kirkwood gaps and are caused by Jupiter's gravitational effects.
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On this day in 1880 - September 30th - Henry Draper took the first photograph of the Orion Nebula . It was a breakthrough in astrophotography to capture an image of an object as faint as a nebula. Draper needed fifty minutes of exposure time to get what he did.
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On this day in 1995 - September 30th - the last transmission was received from Pioneer 11. .
Launched on April 6, 1973, Pioneer 11 is one of four spacecraft headed out of the Solar System. It's 96 AU away, a distance 96 times as great as the Earth-Sun distance.
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On this day in 1958 - October 1st - NASA was born .
The launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union concentrated US minds on not being left behind.
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On this day in 1957 - October 4th - Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union.
Sputnik 1 was the very first artificial satellite put into orbit.
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On this day in 1923 - October 5th - Edwin Hubble discovered Cepheids in M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Cepheid variable stars, based on the work of Henrietta Leavitt, can be used as distance indicators. Hubble used them to show that M31 was too far away to be an object in our own Galaxy.
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On this day in 1963 - October 5th - the European Southern Observatory (ESO) was founded.
ESO is 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy, with observing sites in Chile.
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On this day in 1873 - October 8th - Danish chemist and astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung was born.
His work, along with that of Henry Norris Russell, showed how stars evolve.
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On this day in 1604 - October 9th - supernova SN 1604 was first observed.
It was brighter than any other star in the night sky, even visible during the day for a few weeks. It's been known as Kepler's supernova. He didn't discover it but he observed it for a year and wrote a book about it.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 10/09/16 05:51 AM.
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On this day in 1846 - October 10th - English astronomer William Lassell discovered Neptune's largest moon Triton.
This was just over two weeks after Neptune itself was discovered in Berlin based on Urbain Le Verrier's calculations.
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On this day in 1980 - October 10th - the Very Large Array was dedicated.Now known as the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, it's a radio astronomy observatory located near Socorro, New Mexico.
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On this day in 1758 - October 11th - Heinrich Olbers was born.
Olbers was a German physician and astronomer who is best known for his discovery of two asteroids. One of them, Pallas, was the first one to be discovered after Piazza's discovery of the first known asteroid (now dwarf planet) Ceres.
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On this day in 1997 - October 15th - Cassini-Huygens was launched.It took seven years for the joint mission to reach Saturn. ESA's Huygens landed on the moon Titan, and NASA's Cassini is still studying Saturn and its moons.
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On this day in 1910 - October 19th - Subramanyan Chandrasekhar was born.
The Indian American astrophysicist did outstanding work in several areas of physics, receiving a Nobel Prize for his contributions to our understanding of stellar evolution. He's best known for his groundbreaking work on white dwarfs and black holes.
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On this day in 1923 - October 21st - the first public planetarium show took place. The Mark I projector was the world's first planetarium projector. It was installed in the Deutsches Museum in Munich in Germany.
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On this day in 2008 - October 22nd - Chandraayan-1 was launched.
This was India's first Moon mission and it was a success.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 10/22/16 04:18 AM.
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On this day in 1851 - October 24th - English astronomer William Lassell discovered two moons of Uranus, Umbriel and Ariel.
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On this day in 2007 - October 24th - the Chang'e-1 lunar spacecraft was launched.
It was an unmanned Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft, part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.
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On this day in 1887 - October 25th - Henry Norris Russell was born.
This American astronomer was one of the major figures of early 20th century astronomy. He's best known for his development of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram which demonstrates stellar evolution. (Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung independently made the same discovery.)
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On this day in 1671 - October 25th - Giovanni Cassini discovered Jupiter's moon Iapetus .
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On this day in 1669 - October 29th – Isaac Newton, aged 26, was elected to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
The Lucasian Chair is one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world and Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist, is one of the most influential scientists of all time.
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On this day in 2005 - October 31st – NASA announced the discovery, using the Hubble Space Telescope, of two new moons of Pluto.
Before then only the large moon Charon was known. The two new moons were subsequently named Nix and Hydra.
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On this day in 1885 - November 2nd – Harlow Shapley was born.
Shapley was an American astronomer, prominent in the study of the Milky Way, an advocate for astronomy, and director of the Harvard College Observatory for thirty years.
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On this day in 1917 - November 2nd – the 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson saw first light.
Edwin Hubble used his observations with this telescope to show that the Universe went beyond the Milky Way, and that it was expanding.
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On this day in 1957 - November 3rd – the dog Laika went into space on Sputnik 2.Laika was the first living creature to go into space, and she had a sad end.There's more of Laika's story here.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 11/03/16 09:34 AM.
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On this day in 2013 - November 5th – the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched.
MOM - also called Mangalyaan ("Mars-craft", from Sanskrit) is a space was the first interplanetary mission launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
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On this day in 1572 - November 6th – Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe recorded a bright new star in Cassiopeia. Tycho was the greatest observer in the days before the telescope and he published his observations on what we now know was a supernova.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 11/14/16 12:45 AM.
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On this day in 1996 - November 7th – NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor.
It was a global mapping mission that surveyed the atmosphere and the surface of Mars.
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On this day in 1656 - November 8th – Edmond Halley was born.Edmond Halley was one of the greatest minds of his era. He is still known today for Halley's Comet which bears his name after he correctly predicted its return.
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On this day in 1934 - November 9th – Carl Sagan was born.
Astronomer, science writer and communicator, humanitarian, still sadly missed.
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On this day in 1875 - November 11th – Vesto Slipher was born.
Slipher was an American astronomer and director of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. He was the first to discover the redshift of galaxies when he measured their velocities - this laid the foundation for Hubble's later work.
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On this day in 1971 - November 13th – Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.
Three previous missions, Mariners 4, 6 and 7, had flown past Mars, but didn't go into orbit.
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On this day in 1738 - November 15th – William Herschel was born. William Herschel was the first person in history to discover a new planet, and working in partnership with his sister Caroline, he helped to lay the foundations of modern astronomy.
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On this day in 1970 - November 17th – the Soviet mission Luna 17 landed on the Moon.
The rover Lunokhod 1 was the first wheeled vehicle on the Moon.
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On this day in 1989 - November 18th – NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) was launched.
COBE was launched to study the cosmic microwave background radiation, radiation from the early Universe, a remnant of the Big Bang.
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On this day in 2013 - November 18th – NASA's MAVEN spacecraft was launched.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission (MAVEN) was an orbiter sent to study the Martian atmosphere. Its main goals included etermining how the planet's atmosphere and water were lost.
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On this day in 1923 - November 18th – NASA astronaut Alan Shepard was born.
Shepard was one of the first astronauts as one of the Mercury 7, and he commanded the Apollo 14 Moon mission.
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On this day in 1956 - November 19th – Eileen Collins was born.
Collins is a retired NASA astronaut, a former military test pilot who became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle and the first woman commander of a space shuttle.
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On this day in 1889 - November 20th – Edwin Hubble was born.
His work showed that the Universe was much bigger than our own Galaxy and provided evidence for an expanding universe.
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On this day in 1998 – November 20th – Zarya module was launched, the first element of International Space Station.
Zarya was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on a Russian Proton Rocket. A much expanded space station is still operating with crews made up of astronauts from many nations.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 11/20/16 02:15 PM.
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On this day in 2011 – November 26th – Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity launched.
Curiosity is still exploring Mars.
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On this day in 1971 – November 27th – the Mars 2 lander became the first human-made object on Mars.
The Soviet probe crashed on the surface when the descent system malfunctioned.
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On this day in 1954 – November 30th – Elizabeth Hodges became the first person in modern times to be hit by a meteorite.In Sylacauga, Alabama a meteorite crashed through the roof of a house and into a living room, bounces off a radio, and struck Mrs Hodges on the hip. The space rock was a sulfide meteorite weighing 8.5 pounds and measuring seven inches in length. Mrs. Hodges was not permanently injured but suffered a nasty bruise along her hip and leg.
Ancient Chinese records tell of people being injured or killed by falling meteorites, but the Sylacauga meteorite was the first modern record of this type of human injury. In 1911, a dog in Egypt was killed by the Nakhla meteorite. history.com/this-day-in-history/
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Meteorites are one thing, what about space debris. We have polluted outer space. It is probably like the Pacific with all the plastic that has accumulated.
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Angie, you're right about space junk being a menace. But it's more of a menace to satellites and space stations than to us on Earth. Yes, some of it will (and does) fall out of orbit, but most of that - like most meteroids - burns up in the atmosphere. There are tons of meteoroids hitting us every day.
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On this day in 2013 – December 1st – the Chinese lunar lander Chang'e 3 was launched.
Chang'e is a Chinese Moon goddess and the mission included a lander and a rover.
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On this day in 1995 – December 2nd – the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory of NASA and ESA was launched.
It was originally planned as a two-year mission, but it's still providing essential data about the Sun and space weather.
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Yes, you are right, Mona. Our debris is light and would disintegrate on re-entry. We are bombarded all the time.
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On this day in 1639 – December 6th – Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree became the first people ever to observe a transit of Venus.In the north of England in the early 17th century, there was an amazing circle of astronomers. They were well ahead of their time and included the first two people ever to observe a transit of Venus. What ended this brief flowering? The Transit of Venus - Book Review
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 12/07/16 03:52 AM.
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On this day in 1676 – December 7th – the first news was published of Danish astronomer Ole Rømer's measurement of the speed of light.Rømer's work was based on observations of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter. At that time not everyone was convinced that light even had a finite speed. Google has celebrated the 340th anniversary of the publication of Rømer's work with a doodle.
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On this day in 1905 – December 7th – Gerard Kuiper was born.
The Dutch-American astronomer is considered by many to be the father of modern planetary science.
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On this day in 2010 – December 8th – Dragon 1 was launched.
The spacecraft, launched by SpaceX, was the first commercial spacecraft recovered from orbit.
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On this day in 1863 – December 11th – Annie Jump Cannon was born.The American astronomer classified nearly a quarter of a million stellar spectra for the Henry Draper catalog, and oversaw its publication after the death of observatory director Edward Pickering. Annie Jump Cannon
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 12/11/16 07:14 AM.
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On this day in 1546 – December 14th – Tycho Brahe was born.The Danish astronomer was the greatest ever observer in the days before the telescope. His extensive collection of accurate observations made it possible for Kepler to work out the orbits of the planets. Tycho Brahe
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On this day in 1972 – December 14th – Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan was the last person to walk on the Moon.
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On this day in 2013 – December 14th – the Chinese lander Chang'e-3 landed on the Moon.
After the landing the rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) was deployed.
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On this day in 1970 – December 15th – Venera 7 landed on Venus.
The Soviet probe was the first spacecraft to land on Venus. It survived for only 53 minutes, 20 of them on the surface.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 12/17/16 03:41 PM.
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On this day in 1857 – December 16th – E.E. Barnard was born.
Edward Emerson Barnard was an American astronomer noted for his excellence as n observational astronomer. Barnard's Star is named for him.
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On this day in 1917 – December 16th – Arthur C. Clarke was born.
Clarke wrote more than 100 books and he inspired the scientists and space explorers. In honor of his work, the International Astronomical Union named the distance of 36000 km above Earth the Clarke Orbit, and asteroid No. 4923 received the designation 'Clarke'.
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On this day in 1904 – December 20th – the Mount Wilson solar observatory was founded.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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OP
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30 |
On this day in 1968 – December 21st – Apollo 8 was launched.
The crew consisting of Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders would be the first humans to orbit the Moon.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 12/23/16 02:24 AM.
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 11,813
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 11,813 |
Did you see the darkest night on the Solstice?
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30 |
Connie, thanks for mentioning this. I'd just made some notes to put something about it in the thread "Nonsense and outright hoaxes". Now moved to write it up.  We know we have to be wary of political misinformation. But although people don't usually have the same high level of emotional involvement in astronomy stories, the level of ignorance is quite high. Someone who doesn't know what's going on gets it started and then it gets passed on. Who doesn't love what sounds like a cool story! But this story is actually from 2010. It was resurrected - who knows why?! - published, and then passed around with a change in date. It was silly to call it the darkest night even then, but at least there was an eclipse. Last night (December 21) there was a half Moon. I saw the Moon this morning as a waning crescent. The crescent will get smaller until it disappears at the new Moon on the 28th. Lunar eclipses can only occur when there's a full Moon. More here about Lunar Eclipses.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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OP
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30 |
On this day in 1672 – December 23rd – Giovanni Cassini discovered Saturn's moon Rhea.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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OP
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30 |
On this day in 2004 – December 25th – the European Huygens probe separated from NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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OP
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,963 Likes: 30 |
On this day in 2004 – December 25th – Mars Express and Beagle 2 arrived at Mars.Contact was lost with the lander Beagle 2 which wasn't found until twelve years later.
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