January 22 - Space-Stuff Day

 Posted on January 22, 2021

This is an update of my January 22, 2010, post:

On this date in 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut, became the first neurologist to enter space. She flew on the Discovery space shuttle and did microgravity experiments with a variety of organisms. Dr. Bondar also served as NASA's head of space medicine.


On this date in 1997, American Lottie Williams became the first—and, so far, only— human ever reported to be hit by human-made space debris (also known as “space junk”). Williams was jogging in a park near her Oklahoma home very early in the morning, and she saw a brilliant fireball-type meteor. She felt a “gentle tap” on her shoulder and looked down; on the ground was a piece of blackened metal. 

Later it was confirmed that the metal was a piece (shown in her hands, above) of a fuel tank for a rocket that had launched a U.S. Air Force satellite the year before. The rest of the fuel tank crashed into a field in Texas (shown below).

On this date in 2003, we said goodbye to Pioneer 10, the first thing made by humans to leave the solar system. The next day (January 23, 2003) scientists were able to detect the last feeble signal from the spacecraft as it continued to speed away from Earth.

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to fly through the asteroid belt and to fly by Jupiter. Even though it accomplished these two main goals before two years had passed, Pioneer kept up the studies and transmissions as it streaked through the outer regions of our solar system. All told the spacecraft studied interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles, Jovian aurorae and radio waves, atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites. Of course, it also photographed Jupiter and its satellites.

The mission was formally ended in 1997. After that time the probe was used in training flight controllers on how to acquire radio signals from space. Scientists believe that no longer have contact with Pioneer 10 because it is too far away and because the power supply is dwindling—not because of equipment failure.

A Message to Aliens?

Before Pioneer 10 and its sister spacecraft Pioneer 11 were launched, a journalist named Eric Burgess had a great idea—putting a message of some sort to any alien intelligences that may discover the probe, somewhere, someday. He made his suggestion to Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer and science writer.

Sagan loved the idea and, with the help fellow scientist Frank Drake and wife Linda Salzman Sagan, created a clever message to unknown creatures and minds, trying to communicate with images a little about who we humans are and where we live.

The plaque is 9 inches by 6 inches and made of gold-adonised aluminum. Here is an explanation of what the various symbols mean. And here is a great website to learn more about Pioneer 10.

Read about Space Junk.

Build a Pioneer 10 paper model.

Run gravity simulations.

Also on this date:

Birthdays of new kinds of celebrities 

Data Innovation Day

 Choreographer George Balanchine's birthday

 St. Vincent's Day in Valencia

 Answer Your Cat's Questions Day

 Space-stuff Day

 (original post)

 Anniversary of the installation of Cleopatra's  Needle in NYC

 St. Vincent's Day in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

 Anniversary of an Evo-Victory

 Day of Unity in Ukraine

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

• January holidays
• January birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in January
  
  

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• February holidays
• February birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in February

December 3, 2012 - Anniversary of First Close-ups of Jupiter

Aren't we lucky to know so much about our universe, and to see so many fabulous, breathtaking photos of galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets? Can you imagine living long, long ago, when the nighttime skies were filled with nothing but the moon, specks and smudges of light, and wonder?

Even Jupiter, back then, would have seemed to be just a particularly bright speck of light that “wandered” more than most well-behaved specks of light. How many people who lived thousands of years ago dared to dream that it was an entirely different world—much less that more than a thousand Earths could fit inside that world?

Of course, by the early 1600s, when the telescope was first invented, we began to learn the true nature of our little patch of the universe, including our solar system and our largest planet, Jupiter. Telescopes got better and better, other tools such as spectroscopes were invented, and eventually we began to send unmanned vehicles equipped with cameras out into space.

Image from Pioneer 10

On this date in 1973, our first close encounter with Jupiter occurred as Pioneer 10 passed within 81,000 miles of the huge planet's cloud tops. During the entire fly-by (from November 26 to around December 11), more than 500 images were captured and transmitted back to Earth. These images were much more detailed than anything we had been able to see previously—although these days, of course, we have many better photos from seven more close encounters with NASA spacecraft.

Image from Cassini

Not only were Pioneer 10's images important, but the measurements made of Jupiter's magnetosphere, radiation belts, magnetic field, atmosphere, and interior were very important to our understanding of Jupiter and to the planning and building of future spacecraft.

Did you know...?

• Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 and was planned to operate for less than two years (21 months, to be exact). However, it operated and communicated its findings and location with Earth for MORE THAN 30 YEARS!

• When we last heard from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, it was about 7 billion miles away from us. Now it is estimated to be about 10 billion miles away. It is hurtling toward the star Aldebaran, and ETA is 2 million years from now. Give or take a decade.

• In Star Trek V: the Final Frontier, Klingon Captain Klaa shoots Pioneer 10 for fun. 

• Pioneer 10 has a pictorial plaque that provides information about humans and Earth, in case the spacecraft is ever intercepted by a more kindly and curious alien than Captain Klaa. The plaque was designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake.

• The “Pioneer Anomaly” puzzled scientists for years: both Pioneer 10 and 11 are traveling just a little bit slower than expected. Finally, just this year, scientists figured out that heat flowing through the spacecrafts' power systems and instruments is pushing back on the Pioneer spacecraft, slowing them down a bit.

Also on this date:

Painter Gilbert Stuart's birthday 

Anniversary of the demonstration of neon lights 

Scientist and doctor Carlos Juan Finlay's birthday 

January 22, 2010

Space-Stuff Day

On this date in 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut, became the first neurologist to enter space. She flew on the Discovery space shuttle and did microgravity experiments with a variety of organisms. Dr. Bondar also served as NASA's head of space medicine.


On this date in 1997, American Lottie Williams became the first—and, so far, only— human ever reported to be hit by human-made space debris (also known as “space junk”). Williams was jogging in a park near her Oklahoma home very early in the morning, and she saw a brilliant fireball-type meteor. She felt a “gentle tap” on her shoulder and looked down; on the ground was a piece of blackened metal. Later it was confirmed that the metal was a piece (shown here, right) of a fuel tank for a rocket that had launched a U.S. Air Force satellite the year before. The rest of the fuel tank crashed into a field in Texas (shown here, left).


On this date in 2003, we said bye to Pioneer 10, the first thing made by humans to leave the solar system. The next day (January 23, 2003) scientists were able to detect the last feeble signal from the spacecraft as it continued to speed away from Earth.

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to fly through the asteroid belt and to fly by Jupiter. Even though it accomplished these two main goals before two years had passed, Pioneer kept up the studies and transmissions as it streaked through the outer regions of our solar system. All told the spacecraft studied interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles, Jovian aurorae and radio waves, atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites. Of course, it also photographed Jupiter and its satellites.

The mission was formally ended in 1997. After that time the probe was used in training flight controllers on how to acquire radio signals from space. Scientists believe that no longer have contact with Pioneer 10 because it is too far away and because the power supply is dwindling—not because of equipment failure.

A Message to Aliens?

Before Pioneer 10 and its sister spacecraft Pioneer 11 were launched, a journalist named Eric Burgess had a great idea—putting a message of some sort to any alien intelligences that may discover the probe, somewhere, someday. He made his suggestion to Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer and science writer.

Sagan loved the idea and, with the help fellow scientist Frank Drake and wife Linda Salzman Sagan, created a clever message to unknown creatures and minds, trying to communicate with images a little about who we humans are and where we live.

The plaque is 9 inches by 6 inches and made of gold-adonised aluminum. Here is a simple explanation of what the various symbols mean.

Read about Space Junk.

Build a Pioneer 10 paper model.
Help design microgravity experiments!

Run gravity simulations.