Astronomy
- January 15 - NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.
- January 25 - The discovery of the planet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing is announced by PLANET/RoboNet, OGLE and MOA
- February 1 - 2003 UB313 is found to be larger than Pluto.
- February 13 - The recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi erupts. The last outburst occurred in 1985.
- March 9 - NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft discovers geysers of a liquid substance shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, signaling a possible presence of water.
- March 29 - Total solar eclipse (Brazil, Greece, Mid Atlantic ocean, Sahara, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia).
- June 30 - The discovery of nine additional natural satellites of Saturn published.
- August 24 - Pluto is redesignated as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union, joining 2003 UB313 and 1 Ceres.
- September 13 - 2003 UB313 is assigned the name Eris.
- September 22 - Annular solar eclipse in South America, West Africa, and Antarctica.
Read more about this topic: 2006 In Science
Famous quotes containing the word astronomy:
“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)
“It is noticed, that the consideration of the great periods and spaces of astronomy induces a dignity of mind, and an indifference to death.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)