Today in Science (0125)

Events

2004 - Opportunity Rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.

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.

Births

1627 - Robert Boyle, Irish chemist

1794 - François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist

1796 - William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist

1917 - Ilya Prigogine, Russian scientist and Nobel Prize laureate

1949 - Paul Nurse, English biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

1957 - Kiyoshi Shiga, Japanese physician and bacteriologist

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2004 - Opportunity Rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.

I think this is something that is going to go down as very significant in the history books! I don't know if it will happen in my lifetime but I bet we will end up going there and hanging out a while, maybe permanent colonies!
I saw the first man land on the moon as a teenager. The technology to invent and the obstacles to overcome were enormous! It's the same for Mars, but knowledge and computer speed has been increasing exponentially, and man's desire to discover certainly is as alive and well as it was for those first moon steps!
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Dave Briggs :~)