Daily Extra :
Astronomy & Space Word of The Day
sun spot: An area seen as a dark spot on the photosphere of the Sun; sunspots are concentrations of magnetic flux, typically occurring in bipolar clusters or groups; they appear dark because they are cooler than the surrounding photosphere.
Today in History:
1958: Launch of SCORE, first U.S. communications test satellite and first large U.S. satellite.
1972: Apollo 17 - USA Manned Lunar Lander (December 7-19, 1972) Crew: Eugene A. Cernan, Harrison H. Schmitt, and Ronald B. Evans. Cernan and Schmitt landed on the moon on December 12, 1972. The landing site was Taurus-Littrow at latitude 20°10' N and longitude 30°46' E. They returned 110.5 kg of rock and soil samples. The astronauts covered 30.5 kilometers in the lunar rover during a 75-hour stay.
2001: Deep Space 1 spacecraft turned off after visiting asteroid Braille and comet Borrelly.