1864
Giovanni Donati is the first to observe the spectrum of a comet.
1930
Neil Armstrong - the first man to step foot on the moon - was born.
1969
Just five days after Mariner 6 flew by Mars on July 31st, its twin Mariner 7 flew by Mars.
1973
The Soviet spacecraft Mars 6 is launched.
1986
The Senate approves Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) - an anti-ballistic missile system which would intercept Soviet and other enemy missiles (coldwar.org).
2011
The Juno spacecraft is launched for Cape Canaveral to Jupiter - it would not arrive at Jupiter for another 5 years.
follow the Juno Mission on Twitter @NASAJuno
All events came from one of the following sources:
(1930, 1969, 2011) http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space/365-august-5-2013-this-is-why-we-explore
(1864, 1973, 1986) http://www.onthisday.com/events/august/5
How do you think the first space observers saw the stars or observed the spectrum of a comet , by naked eye?
ReplyDeleteOf course there are the stars that we can see in the night sky, as well as many planets are bright enough to be seen in the night sky and which were observed by some of the very earliest astronomers. This is fascinating because today we have tools to tell us what is where in the sky, but somehow these astronomers could tell that planets were not stars. That is where the name planet comes from - the word for wanderer. They could identify that a planet was not a star because stars stayed in one place, but they could see the planets "wander" around the night sky
ReplyDelete...very impressive, right?
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