A Brief History On February 14, 2000, the American spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker orbited asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft from Earth to orbit an asteroid. Digging Deeper NEAR Shoemaker had been designed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and was launched in 1996. Not only did the spacecraft make history with its orbit, a year later it made space history again by being the first spacecraft to touch down on an asteroid, the same 433 Eros. The spacecraft was named after Eugene Shoemaker, an American geologist that studied impact craters on the Earth, but also studied…
Browsing: Nature
A Brief History On February 6, 2023, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 hit Turkey in the area of Gaziantep in the South-Central part of the country. Major aftershocks ensued, and then, 9 hours later, a second quake measuring 7.5 struck the already devastated region at Kahramanmaraş. Update: As of February 13, 2023, the death count has sadly reached over 36,000 people. Some remarkable stories of survival have also emerged, such as a lady well into her 80s that was pulled alive from the rubble after more than 5 days being buried. Update #2: As of February 15,…
A Brief History On January 26, 2009, a single California woman gave birth to 8 babies at one time, becoming the first mother of octuplets that survived infancy. Digging Deeper Nadya Suleman was born a native Californian to parents of Lithuanian and Palestinian descent, and while she was married from 1996 to 2008, she was single when she underwent fertility treatments prior to having her 8 babies. She attended Mt. San Antonio College and earned a BS and a psychiatric technician license, applying her education to a job in a mental health facility for 3 years. Prior to the record…
A Brief History On January 22, 1992, NASA launched mission STS-42, the space shuttle Discovery, into space with a crew that included Ukrainian Canadian Dr. Roberta Bondar, a neurologist. The first Canadian woman and the first neurologist to become an astronaut, Bondar is a woman of many accomplishments, and is yet another example of Canadians of Ukrainian descent (such as Alex Trebek and Wayne Gretzky) to achieve great things. Digging Deeper A highly accomplished scholar, Bondar was educated at the University of Guelph (BSc), the University of Western Ontario (MSc), the University of Toronto (PhD), and McMaster University (MD). Bondar’s…
A Brief History On January 21, 2023, we celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day, one of the greatest holidays in all of the Rodent Kingdom! Digging Deeper Yes, squirrels are rodents, cousins to mice and rats, although with a much more attractive coat. Tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, prairie dogs and flying squirrels are all in this expansive family. Although squirrels are native to the Americas, Asia, and Africa, they had to be introduced to Australia and Europe. Often accused of crimes such as stealing food from bird feeders and burglarizing houses, squirrels provide a lot of visual enjoyment as they scurry…
