Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" published in 1845

One of Edgar Allan Poe's best known poems, "The Raven" was published January 29, 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror.  It tells a story of a young man, mourning the loss of his love Lenore, receiving a visit from a raven on a lonely December night.  The raven watches the young man's descent into madness.  When published, it made Poe a house-hold name but did not bring him much monetary success.

Mars Rover Opportunity still going strong after 12 years

The Mars rover "Opportunity" just celebrated its twelfth anniversary on the Red Planet, landing (or bouncing, really) on January 24, 2004.  NASA had planned three months for Opportunity, but keeping the rover's solar panels facing the sun and conducting "dust-clearing events" have allowed NASA to extend the go-getter's mission 48 times longer (currently). 

Winter solstice has passed so more sunshine will be available for Opportunity.  Since 2011, it has been investigating a 14-mile wide crater called Endeavor.  Researchers are using Opportunity's rock abrasion tool to scrape the crust off the surface of a rock.  Then, instruments in the rover's arm can determine the composition. 

Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after launch 1986

We all remember where we were when we heard the news that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded shortly after lift-off, January 28, 1986.  I was attending North Texas State University (now University of North Texas), getting my Master's degree in Chemistry.  I was speaking with a co-worker, his wife and a potential lab partner when our major professor's wife came in with the news.

An O-ring on a solid rocket booster (SRB) failed, pressurized burning gas from within  to reach the  adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank, causing the explosion 73 seconds after launch. 

The disaster led to NASA halting the space shuttle program for almost 3 years.

Apollo 1 disaster in 1967

Three astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom, Lt. Col. Edward H. White, the astronaut who had performed the first United States extravehicular activity during the Gemini program; and Roger B. Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first space flight, died during a test when a fire swept through the capsule. They died of cardiac arrest brought on by high levels of carbon monoxide.

The review board charged with investigating the accident identified five major factors which combined to cause the fire and the astronauts' deaths:

• An ignition source most probably related to exposed electrical wiring and leak-prone plumbing
• Pure oxygen atmosphere at high pressure
• Flammable materials in the cabin
• A hatch cover which could not be quickly removed at high pressure
• Inadequate emergency preparedness

The Apollo program was grounded for a while until significant  changes to the design of the capsule could be conducted.

Happy birthday, Billy Bones!

Happy birthday to "Black Sails" Tom Hopper, born in 1985, who plays Billy Bones.  It should be against the law to be this mother***ing hot! "Black Sails" has its share of flaws and is sometimes downright silly, but there are worse ways of spending an hour than watching Tom Hopper and Toby Stephens in hyper-masculine roles.

Voyager 2 visits Uranus 30 years ago

Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Uranus, January 24, 1986, being the first and only time this planet has been visited, by us, at least.  The spacecraft made a number of surprising discoveries.  For example, Uranus is the coldest planet despite not being the farthest from the sun, because it has no internal heat source.  Neptune radiates over 2.5 more energy into space than Uranus does from the energy received from the sun.

It was already known that Uranus rotates on its side and the northern hemisphere is always in the sun, while the southern perpetually in the dark.

Voyager 2 discovered more moons and the count is 27 now. 

 

Ariel

 

 

Miranda

 

 

Oberon

 

 

Umbriel

Pluto photographed for the first time 1930

Clyde Tombaugh took photographs of Pluto on January 23, 1930 from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. It would be a few weeks before he realized that he had discovered another planet.  From 1930 to 2006, our solar system had nine planets, until Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet.  The New Horizons spacecraft flew by the (dwarf) planet in July 2015, sending back googols of data. 

Pluto has five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.  But it is smaller than 7 moons of other planets: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton and our moon.

Clyde Tombaugh was 24 when he discovered Pluto.