2009 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 2009 in science and technology involved numerous significant events and discoveries, some of which are listed below. 2009 was designated the International Year of Astronomy
by the United Nations
.
International Year of Astronomy
The International Year of Astronomy was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia nova in the 17th century...
by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Events and discoveries
- January – The first animal from an extinct species to be recreated by cloningCloningCloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
, a Pyrenean IbexPyrenean IbexThe Pyrenean Ibex is an ibex, one of the two extinct subspecies of Spanish Ibex. The subspecies once ranged across the Pyrenees in France and Spain and the surrounding area, including the Basque Country, Navarre, north Aragon and north Catalonia. A few hundred years ago they were numerous, but by...
, is born alive, but dies seven minutes later due to physical defects in its lungLungThe lung is the essential respiration organ in many air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart...
s. - January 26 – An annular solar eclipseSolar eclipse of January 26, 2009An annular solar eclipse occurred on January 26, 2009. It had a magnitude of 0.92 and was visible from a narrow corridor beginning in the south Atlantic Ocean and sweep eastward 900 km south of Africa, slowly curving northeast through the Indian Ocean. Its first landfall was in the Cocos...
takes place. - February 1 – The Cospas-SarsatCospas-SarsatCospas-Sarsat is an international satellite-based search and rescue distress alert detection and information distribution system, established by Canada, France, the United States, and the former Soviet Union in 1979. It is best known as the system that detects and locates emergency beacons...
satellite search-and-rescue system stops monitoring for outdated 121.5 MHz and 243 MHz (Class B) distress signals from EPIRBsEmergency Position-Indicating Radio BeaconDistress radio beacons, also known as emergency beacons, ELT or EPIRB, are tracking transmitters which aid in the detection and location of boats, aircraft, and people in distress. Strictly, they are radiobeacons that interface with worldwide offered service of Cospas-Sarsat, the international...
and other emergency beacons. - February 24 – Comet Lulin, a non-periodic comet, makes its closest approach to EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, peaking in brightness between magnitudeApparent magnitudeThe apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
+4 and magnitude +6. - March 7 – The Kepler space observatory is successfully launched.
- May 11–24 – STS-125STS-125STS-125, or HST-SM4 , was the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope .Launch occurred on 11 May 2009 at 2:01 pm EDT...
, the last expected Space ShuttleSpace ShuttleThe Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
mission to service the Hubble Space TelescopeHubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
, takes place. - May 19 – PaleontologistsPaleontologyPaleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
announce the discovery of Darwinius masillae, an evolutionary "missing link" with features similar to lemurLemurLemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are named after the lemures of Roman mythology due to the ghostly vocalizations, reflective eyes, and the nocturnal habits of some species...
s, monkeyMonkeyA monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
s, and humans. - July 22 – A total solar eclipse – the longest-lasting total eclipse of the 21st century – takes place.
- September 3 – SaturnSaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
's rings cross the plane of the Earth's orbit. This was the first such crossing since May 22, 1995, and another will not occur until March 23, 2025. - September 29 – NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's MESSENGERMESSENGERThe MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging space probe is a robotic NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study the chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field of Mercury...
spacecraft makes its final flyby of MercuryMercury (planet)Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, decreasing velocity enough for its orbital capture in 2011. - October 1 – Paleontologists announce the discovery of an ArdipithecusArdipithecusArdipithecus is a very early hominin genus. Two species are described in the literature: A. ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene, and A. kadabba, dated to approximately 5.6 million years ago ....
ramidus fossil skeleton, deeming it the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor yet found. - October 20 – European astronomers discover 32 new exoplanets.
- December 31
- A partial lunar eclipseDecember 2009 lunar eclipseA partial lunar eclipse was visible on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009. It was the last and largest of four minor lunar eclipses in 2009. This lunar eclipse is also notable, because it occurred during a blue moon...
is visible from most of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. - The SB ("Sleeping BeautySleeping BeautySleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
") 100X is announced as the Molecule of the Year 2009 by Isidro T. Savillo, President of the International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Researches (ISMCBBPR). (Scientist Solutions) (MDC Berlin-Buch)
- A partial lunar eclipse
Deaths
- February 11 – Willem Johan KolffWillem Johan KolffWillem Johan "Pim" Kolff was a pioneer of hemodialysis as well as in the field of artificial organs. Willem is a member of the Kolff family, an old Dutch patrician family. He made his major discoveries in the field of dialysis for kidney failure during the Second World War...
, AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, inventor of artificial organArtificial organAn artificial organ is a man-made device that is implanted or integrated into a human to replace a natural organ, for the purpose of restoring a specific function or a group of related functions so the patient may return to as normal a life as possible...
s (b. 19111911 in scienceThe year 1911 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space science:* June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.-Exploration:...
). - June 10 – John A. Eddy, American astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
(b. 19311931 in scienceThe year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* January - Kurt Gödel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte für Mathematik.-Technology:...
). - November 29 – Andrew Donald BoothAndrew Donald BoothAndrew Donald Booth was a British electrical engineer, physicist and computer scientist who led the invention of the magnetic drum memory for computers and invented Booth's multiplication algorithm....
, BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and computer scientistComputer scientistA computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
(b. 19181918 in scienceThe year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
).
See also
- List of years in science
- 2009 in spaceflight2009 in spaceflightSeveral significant events in spaceflight occurred in 2009, including Iran conducting its first indigenous orbital launch, the first Swiss satellite being launched and New Zealand launching its first sounding rocket. The H-IIB and Naro-1 rockets conducted maiden flights, whilst the Tsyklon-3,...
- List of emerging technologies