Mars landing

In 1976, America's "Viking I Lander" spacecraft, launched 20 Aug 1975, made its successful, first-ever landing on Mars at Chryse Planitia, and began transmitting pictures. Later, a robot arm that could scoop up samples of material and deposit them into on-board experiments, investigated the hint of life on Mars. Both weathered top soil and deeper soil samples were tested. The image shows Chryse Planitia looking NW over the Viking 1 Lander. An antenna is at upper right. The wide, low plain is covered with large rocks, loose sand and dust. The image was taken on 30 August 1976, a little over a month after landing. Pictures from the mission included views of the Mars surface taken from the Viking 1 Orbiter from space.

Earliest Record Solar Eclipse

In 709 BC, the earliest record of a confirmed total solar eclipse was written in China. From: Ch'un-ch'iu, book I: "Duke Huan, 3rd year, 7th month, day jen-ch'en, the first day (of the month). The Sun was eclipsed and it was total." This is the earliest direct allusion to a complete obscuration of the Sun in any civilisation. The recorded date, when reduced to the Julian calendar, agrees exactly with that of a computed solar eclipse. Reference to the same eclipse appears in the Han-shu ('History of the Former Han Dynasty') (Chinese, 1st century AD): "...the eclipse threaded centrally through the Sun; above and below it was yellow." Earlier Chinese writings that refer to an eclipse do so without noting totality.

Shoemaker-Levy Comet

In 1994, the first of 21 asteroids, major fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broken-up 2 years earlier, hit Jupiter, creating a 1200-mile wide fireball 600 miles high to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks, giving scientists their first chance to observe such a collision as it happened, and others through July 22. Jupiter is a gas giant, made up mostly of hydrogen and helium in gas and liquid form.When we observe Jupiter, we are looking not at a solid surface, but a banded atmosphere with swirling clouds and huge storms

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a new "tsunami wave" from the sun as it sails through interstellar space

Such waves are what led scientists to the conclusion, in the fall of 2013, that Voyager had indeed left our sun's bubble, entering a new frontier

"Normally, interstellar space is like a quiet lake,

The child known as the 'Mississippi baby' -- an infant seemingly cured of HIV that was reported as a case study of a prolonged remission of HIV infection

now has detectable levels of HIV after more than two years of not taking antiretroviral therapy without evidence of virus

an infant seemingly cured of HIV that was reported as a case study of a prolonged remission of HIV infection

Friday, July 11

Mars and Spica form a striking pair in the southwestern sky at dusk! They're now just under 2° apart.

On Sunday evening they'll be at their minimum separation, 1.3°

There are two parts to the immune system: the innate immune system, which we are born with and attempts to fight infection straight away; and the adaptive immune system, which takes time to mount a response that is more specific to the particular pathogen.

The innate immune system includes a group of cells known as dendritic cells that send messages to the adaptive immune system

Previous studies have already established that non-obese diabetic mice have faulty innate immune cells, and that this could be partly due to a defect in TLR4, which many suspect helps to prevent type 1 diabetes when it functions normally

Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini mission have firm evidence the ocean inside Saturn's largest moon, Titan, might be as salty as the Earth's Dead Sea.

The new results come from a study of gravity and topography data collected during Cassini's repeated flybys of Titan during the past 10 years

Using the Cassini data, researchers presented a model structure for Titan, resulting in an improved understanding of the structure of the moon's outer ice shell

quotes from one of the scientists involved in the discovery

“Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent,”

. “I have almost no doubt about it.”

First Mars close-up photo

In 1965, the Mariner 4 satellite sent a transmission of the first close-up photograph of Mars. It consisting of 8.3 dots per second of varying degrees of darkness. The transmission lasted for 8.5 hours and depicted the regions on Mars known as Cebrenia, Arcadia, and Amazonis. The satellite was 134 million miles away from earth and 10,500 miles from Mars. The 574-pound spacecraft had been launched at 9:22am on 28 Nov 1964, from Cape Canaveral, FL, by a two-stage Atlas-Agena D rocket. In addition to its camera with digital tape recorder (about 20 pictures), it carried instruments for studying cosmic dust, solar plasma, trapped radiation, cosmic rays, magnetic fields, radio occultation and celestial mechanics

Heart surgery

In 1893, the suture of the pericardium (the fluid sac surrounding the heart muscle) performed by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. When a 24-yr-old victim of a stabbing during a bar-fight was brought to Provident Hospital in Chicago, Williams operated without using anesthesia to remove the knife, open the thoracic cavity, then suture the wound to the pericardium, a daring procedure for the time. He allowed a small (1/10" long) nick to heal on its own. The patient recovered and lived for at least 20 years afterward. Dr. Williams was the only African-American in a group of 100 charter members of the American College of Surgeons in 1913. He founded and became the first vice-president of the National Medical Association.

Curiosity’s Stunt Double

Scarecrow has a full-size version of Curiosity's wheels and other driving equipment, but doesn't have the "brains."

Engineers use it to test drive on different types of terrain

Two potentially habitable planets in the Gliese 581 system are just false signals arising out of starstuff, a new study said

Gliese 581d and 581g are (study authors said) instead indications of the star’s activity and rotation

Planets were first announced around the system in 2007

A potentially habitable Earth-like planet that is only 16 light years away has been discovered

The "super-Earth" planet, GJ 832 c, takes 16 days to orbit its red-dwarf star

has a mass at least five times that of Earth.

Curiosity

just drove outside her landing ellipse

The six wheeled rover marked a major milestone on Sol 672, June 27, 2014, by traversing beyond her targeted landing ellipse