1 May
1996: On 1 May 1996, a chance encounter between Ulysses, the joint ESA/NASA spacecraft, and a comet's tail led scientists to conclude that comet tails extend much further than anyone ...
27 FEB. 2004
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1996: On 2 May 1996, five months after its launch, the first SOHO results were presented by a team of scientists at ESA Headquarters in Paris.
These first results showed, for the first time from SOHO, the constant turmoil in the solar atmosphere even though the Sun appeared extremely quiet at the time to ground-based telescopes.
Scientists revealed a possible new way to forecast harmful ejections of gas from the Sun by spotting changes in the Sun's magnetism. They also demonstrated fluctuations in the solar wind carrying atomic particles from the Sun, revealed by the shape of a luminous cavity in interplanetary space.
Currents of gas flowing just below the Sun's visible surface, were shown for the first time by observations of solar oscillations.
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30 April
2002: On 30 April 2002, astronomers unveiled spectacular views of the Universe as captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). They also reported that ...
29 April
2001: On 29 April 2001, ESA's Maxus-4 microgravity mission was successfully launched from Esrange, just north of the Arctic Circle near Kiruna in northern Sweden.The rocket, an 11.5-tonne solid-fuelled Castor ...
28 April
1900: On 28 April 1900, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort was born.By the time of his death, at the age of 92, Professor Oort was recognised as one of the greatest ...
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