Daily Extra :
Astronomy & Space Word of The Day
solar nebula: The cloud of gas and dust that began to collapse about 5 billion years ago to form the solar system.
Who Was Born Today?:
1898: Fritz Zwicky, Swiss astronomer, super nova
1947: Pham Tuan, Vietnam, cosmonaut, Soyuz 37/36
1947: Pham Tuan, Vietnam, cosmonaut, Soyuz 37/36
Who Died Today?:
1950: Karl G Jansky, Czech discoverer of cosmic radio sources, age 44
Today in History:
1894: Venus is both a morning star and evening star
1972: Luna 20 - USSR Lunar Lander launched. Landed on the moon and returned samples to the Earth. Landed on February 21, 1972 at Apollonius highlands located at latitude 3°32' N and longitude 56°33' E. 30 grams of lunar samples were returned to the Earth.
1963: U.S. launches communications satellite Syncom 1
1980: U.S. launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares
1990: Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system
2001: Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros)
