Astronomy milestone: Late 90’s

Astronomy milestone: Late 90’s – 2000’s

1978 Space probes Pioneer 1 and 2 reach Venus

1980 Voyager1 explores Saturn

1985-89 Voyager 2 discovers moons of Uranus and Neptune

1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy observed crashing into Jupiter

1995 Galileo probe reaches Jupiter

1997 Mars Pathfinder lands

1997 Cassini probe launched to Saturn

1998 International Space Station construction starts

1999 Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched

2003 Galileo probe deliberately crash-landed on Jupiter

2006 New Horizons space probe launched to Pluto

2008 Phoenix mission to Mars landed on the planet

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Names of months

The names of the months in English (as well in many other languages) come from Latin Words. January Januarius – this month was dedicated to Janus, the Roman god of doors. Janus had two faces, one looking back at the old year and the other looking forward to the new year. February Februarius – Februa was the Roman purification festival, which took place at this time of year. March ...

Chinese calendar

Present-day China uses the Gregorian calendar for most purposes, but traditional festivals, such as Chinese New Year, take place according to the ancient Chinese calendar. Legend has it that this was started during the reign of Emperor Huangdi in 2637 BC, and relates to the positions of the Moon and Sun. Heavenly systems Earthly branches 1 jia 1 zi (rat) 2 yi ...

Constellations

Groups of stars form patterns in the night sky, which are called constellations. There are 88 known constellations. The sumerians, a Middle Eastern civilization, probably named them, about 5,000 years ago. The largest is Hydra, the sea serpent, and the smallest is Crux Australis, the Southern Cross. Centaurus, the Centaur. Has the most stars that can be seen with the naked eye(94). Others include Aquila, the Eagle; Canis Major, the Great Dog; and Orion, the Hunter.

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