- 2008 in science
The year 2008 in science involves some significant events, listed below.
Events
Scientific events scheduled to occur in the year
2008 include:*
January 15 -NASA 'sMESSENGER spacecraft makes its first of three flybys of Mercury at 200 km altitude, to decrease velocity enough to a 2011 orbit insertion.
*March 12 - Cassini Spacecraft is set to orbit within 100 km of Enceladus, its closest encounter of the sixth largest moon of Saturn.
*April 2 - A crosshuman -cow embryo survives a third straight day after being fertilized atNewcastle University ,England . A director forembryonic stem cell laboratories at theAustralian Stem Cell Centre said that the "99 per cent human" embryo could improve research within the field of humandiseases . The Catholic Church inEngland however said that the creation was "monstrous" and says that the later destruction of it is unethical. [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23476268-38200,00.html?from=public_rss (News.com.au)]
* June - The proton-protonLarge Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator and collider atCERN is scheduled to begin operations. It will be the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
*June 8 -NASA 'sPluto probe "New Horizons " crossed the orbit ofSaturn , after 2½ years journey. The "Voyagers" spent 3 to 4 years to get to Saturn.
*August 1 - Totalsolar eclipse : northern Canada, Siberia, Mongolia, northern China.
*October 6 -NASA 'sMESSENGER spacecraft makes the second of three flybys of Mercury.
*October 7 —2008 TC3 became the first earth-impacting meteoroid spotted and tracked prior to impact.
*TheIndian Space Research Organization plans an unmanned mission to the Moon.Deaths
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April 13 - John Wheeler (b. 1911),theoretical physicist , coined the termsblack hole andworm hole .
*April 16 -Edward Norton Lorenz (b. 1917),mathematician and meteorologist, coined the termbutterfly effect .
*April 29 -Albert Hofmann (b. 1906),chemist , synthesizer of LSD.
*May 15 -Willis Lamb (b. 1913),physicist , winner of the 1955Nobel Prize in Physics .
*August 5 -Neil Bartlett (b. 1932),chemist who prepared the first compound of anoble gas
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