Space News this Week:
History Events in Space Sciences This Week:
☽ AUGUST 3, Variable star, In 1596, David Fabricius discovered the light variation of Mira (first variable star).
✭ AUGUST 5, Comet, In 1864, Giovanni Batista Donati (1827-73) made the first spectroscopic observations of a comet tail (from the small comet, Tempel, 1864 II).
☽ AUGUST 5, Quasar, In 1962, a lunar occultation on August 5 enabled Australian radio astronomers to more precisely fix the location of the previously known radio source 3C 273, in Virgo.
✭ AUGUST 5, Mariner 7, In 1969, Mariner 7 flew past Mars. It had been launched 27 Mar1969, and was now 3430-km above the Martian surface.
☽ AUGUST 5, Mars 6, In 1973, the USSR launched Mars 6, on a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster.
✭ AUGUST 6, Supernova, In 1181, a supernova was observed by Chinese astronomers in the constellation now known as Cassiopeia.
☽ AUGUST 6, Life on Mars?, In 1996, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin announced the discovery of evidence of a primitive life form on Mars.
✭ AUGUST 8, Barbara Morgan a Teacher launched on Space Shuttle Endeavour.
☽ AUGUST 9, Mars 7, In 1973, the USSR launched the Mars 7, on a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster.
People in Space Sciences This Week:
✭ George Francis Fitzgerald, Born 3 Aug 1851, Irish physicist, helped lay a foundation for wireless telegraphy.
☽ Neil Armstrong, Born 5 Aug 1930, American astronaut, was the first man to walk on the moon (20 Jul 1969, Apollo 11.
✭ Girolamo Fracastoro, Died 6 Aug 1553, Italian physician, astronomer, geologist and poet.
☽ Johann von Lamont, Died 6 Aug 1879, Scottish-born German astronomer, noted for discovering (1852) that the magnetic field of the Earth fluctuates with a 10.3-year activity cycle.
✭ Sir Bernard Lovell, Died 6 Aug 2012, English radio astronomer and physicist, Role in world's largest steerable radio telescope.
☽ Bart J. Bok, Died 7 Aug 1983, Dutch-American astronomer, "Bok globules" for being the first to investigate these dark clouds of dense gas and dust visible against a background of bright nebulae.
✭ Svetlana Savitskaya, Born 8 Aug 1948, Russian cosmonaut and aerospace engineer, first woman to walk in space (1984).
☽ William Fowler, Born 9 Aug 1911, American astrophysicist, important role in nuclear reactions.
✭ Jonathan Homer Lane, Born 9 Aug 1819, American astrophysicist, first to investigate mathematically the Sun as a gaseous body.
☽ James Alfred Van Allen, Died 9 Aug 2006, American physicist, discovered the Earth's magnetosphere.
Astronauts in Space This Week:
☽ Pavel Vinogradov, Commander, 134 Days in space
✭ Alexander Misurkin, Flight Engineer, 134 Days in space
☽ Chris Cassidy, Flight Engineer, 134 Days in space
✭ Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer, 73 Days in space
☽ Karen Nyberg, Flight Engineer, 73 Days in space
✭ Luca Parmitano, Flight Engineer, 73 Days in space
Free Astronomy Book of the week:
Astronomy Link of the week: