2005 – Cassini snaps a backlit picture of Janus, a moon of Saturn.
2010 – “Bursting at the Seams” is released. This capture of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, was taken by Cassini on November 21, 2009 as it flew through the fissures that spray icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds.
1950 – Asteroid (29075) 1950 DA was discovered. It was observed for 17 days and then faded from view for half a century. Then, an object discovered on 31 December 2000 (New Year’s Eve) was recognized as being the long-lost 1950 DA. Further observations of this rock by Goldstone and Arecibo telescopes described the 1.1 km diameter rock as asymmetrical with a 2.1 hour spin, the spinniest rock yet found in our solar system. Discovered by Wirtanen, C. A. at Mt. Hamilton
Analysis performed by Giorgini et al and reported in the April 5, 2002 edition of the journal Science (“Asteroid 1950 DA’s Encounter With Earth in 2880: Physical Limits of Collision Probability Prediction”) determined the impact probability as being at most 1 in 300 and probably even more remote, based on what is known about the asteroid so far. At its greatest, this could represent a risk 50% greater than that of the average background hazard due to all other asteroids from the present era through 2880, as defined by the Palermo Technical Scale (PTS value = +0.17). 1950 DA is the only known asteroid
whose hazard could be above the background level.
1987 – Supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud visible to naked eye, as a result of explosion of blue supergiant Sanduleak 69 deg. 202. Known as SN1987A This was the first “nearby” supernova in the last 3 centuries. NASA scientists using the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) was launched into Earth orbit in January 1978 by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the British Science and Engineering Research Council. Managed by Goddard Space Flight Center with the ESA in Villafranca, Spain. https://chandra.harvard.edu/deadstar/sn1987a.html
Birthdays
1928 – Vasily Lazarev, Russian colonel, physician, and astronaut was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 12 spaceflight as well as the abortive Soyuz 18a launch on 5 April 1975 when he was injured. He never fully recovered .(d. 31 December 1990)
