Astronomy and Space Exploration
- January 30 – Comet Hyakutake is discovered.
- February 17 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft launched. The craft will land on asteroid 433 Eros in 2001.
- May 20 – First naked-eye observation of Comet Hale-Bopp.
- November 7 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
- The second 9.8 m reflecting telescope opens at Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
Read more about this topic: 1996 In Science
Famous quotes containing the words astronomy and/or exploration:
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“For women who do not love us, as for the “disappeared”, knowing that we no longer have any hope does not prevent us form continuing to wait. We live on our guard, on watch; women whose son has gone asea on a dangerous exploration imagine at any minute, although it has long been certain that he has perished, that he will enter, miraculously saved, and healthy.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)