Daily Extra :
Astronomy & Space Word of The Day
disk: The visible surface of the sun or any other heavenly body projected against the sky.
Today in History:
1985: Giotto - Europe Comet Flyby launched. Comet Halley flyby took place on March 13, 1986. After the Halley fly-by, Giotto was put into hibernation, and re-awoken in 1990. Using a close Earth flyby, its trajectory was changed to allow a close encounter with the Comet Grigg-Skjellerup on July 10th, 1992. The flyby distance was actually less than that at Halley (around 200 kilometers from the nucleus).
1994: Hubble Space Telescope - USA & Europe Telescope photographed the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter.
1999: Deep Space 1 (DS1) - USA Asteroid and Comet Flyby - (launched 24 October 1998) flew by the Mars-crossing near-Earth asteroid 9969 Braille. The Deep Space 1 (DS1) is the first of a series of technology demonstration probes being developed by NASA's New Millennium Program. It again flew by comet Borrelly in September 2001.