2013 – Construction begins on the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity-Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in Penticon, British Columbia. The radio scope project will lead the way with a smaller scope called Pathfinder and then complete the larger scope right next door. Co-investigators: Chris Sigurdson and Mark Halpern
2006 – Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.
2004 – Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
1994 – Clementine is launched at 16:34 UTC (12:34 PM EDT) from Vandenberg AFB aboard a Titan IIG rocket. A joint project between the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and NASA. Lunar insertion was achieved on February 21. On May 7 at14:39 UTC a thruster fired abnormally and used up its fuel. This made the flyby of near-earth asteroid, Geographos, impossible, but the mission to the Moon included environmental testing of sensors and spacecraft components and multiwavelength imaging. Clementine’s data set covers nearly 100% of the Moon in 11 spectral bands. This dataset will be invaluable for mapping the geology of the Moon and planning future exploration and utilization of lunar resources.Lunar mapping took place over approximately two months. Interpreted data from the surface of the Moon suggested the presence of water-ice in permanently shadowed craters at the South Pole.
Birthdays
1736 – Joseph Louis Lagrange famed French mathematician who made important contributions to the field of celestial mechanics. The existence of the Lagrange Points was deduced by Lagrange in 1772.