15 August
1993: On 15 August 1993, after more than three years of efficient and successful operations, communications with ESA's scientific satellite Hipparcos were terminated.The Hipparcos satellite, a purely European undertaking, and ...
27 FEB. 2004
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1920: On 16 August 1920, Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer died.
Lockyer was a British astronomer who, in 1868, discovered and named the element helium that he found in the Sun's atmosphere. Helium was not detected on Earth until years later.
He also applied the name chromosphere for the Sun's outer layer. Lockyer discovered, together with P. J. Janssen, the prominences (the large red/orange flame-like eruptions of gas) that surround the solar disk.
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14 August
2003: On 14 August 2003, while the ESA SMART-1 spacecraft was on the launchpad in Kourou, French Guiana, the Flight Operations team at ESOC mission control in Damstadt, Germany, was ...
13 August
1596: On 13 August 1596, David Fabricus discovered Mira, the first pulsating (and second variable) star. In 1603, it was seen, measured and cataloged by Johann Bayer in his Uranometria ...
12 August
On 12 August, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower occurs, when skywatchers can expect to see possibly 80-100 meteors per hour if skies are clear.The Perseids are visible between ...
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