On this day in February
27 dates to remember in February: meteorites that fell, discoveries, space missions, comets and the birthdays of the people who built the science.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
3 5 7 8 9 12 14 15 17 18 21 22 25 27 28
3 February
- 2004
Comet 209P/LINEAR Comets and showers
The LINEAR survey discovered the object later named Comet 209P/LINEAR.
5 February
- 1971
Apollo 14 Mission
Shepard and Mitchell landed in the Fra Mauro highlands.
- 1977
Innisfree: Canada's camera network succeeds Fall
Canada's Meteorite Observation and Recovery Project photographs a fireball over Alberta, and stones are found near Innisfree, giving a second accurate meteorite orbit from North America.
7 February
- 1999
Stardust Mission
Stardust launched on a Delta II rocket.
8 February
- 1969
Allende: the oldest solids Fall
About two tonnes of stones fall around Pueblito de Allende in Mexico. Their white inclusions, rich in calcium and aluminium, become the most studied grains in meteorite science and give the age of the Solar System.
9 February
- 1971
Apollo 14 Mission
The crew splashed down with 42.3 kg of samples.
- 1986
Halley's Comet Comets and showers
Halley's Comet passed closest to the Sun.
12 February
- 1897
Lincoln LaPaz is born Born
The director of the Institute of Meteoritics in New Mexico, who tracked fireballs from eyewitness reports and recovered the giant Norton County stone.
- 1947
The Sikhote-Alin iron shower Fall
A fireball brighter than the Sun crosses the Russian Far East and showers more than 23 tonnes of iron over the Sikhote-Alin mountains, digging dozens of craters. The artist Pyotr Medvedev sketches the fireball from his window.
- 2001
NEAR Shoemaker lands on an asteroid Mission
After a year in orbit, NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down on the asteroid Eros, the first landing on an asteroid. Its instruments show Eros is made of material like ordinary chondrites.
14 February
- 1972
Luna 20 Mission
Luna 20 launched.
- 2000
NEAR Shoemaker Mission
Became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, 433 Eros.
- 2011
Stardust Mission
Flew past comet Tempel 1 and imaged the Deep Impact crater.
15 February
- 2013
The Chelyabinsk airburst Fall
An asteroid about 20 metres across explodes over Chelyabinsk in Russia. Its shock wave breaks windows across the city and about 1,500 people are hurt, mostly by flying glass. A 650-kilogram piece is later lifted from a lake.
17 February
- 1996
NEAR Shoemaker Mission
NEAR launched on a Delta II rocket.
- 2009
Dawn Mission
Flew past Mars for a gravity assist.
18 February
- 1948
Norton County: the largest aubrite Fall
A fireball over Kansas and Nebraska drops more than a tonne of stones, including a single mass of about a tonne. They are aubrites, pale rocks made almost entirely of the mineral enstatite.
- 2021
Perseverance and Mars Sample Return Mission
Landed in Jezero crater.
21 February
- 1972
Luna 20 Mission
Landed in the highlands near Apollonius crater.
22 February
- 2019
Hayabusa2 Mission
First touchdown and sample collection.
25 February
- 1972
Luna 20 Mission
The capsule returned to Kazakhstan with 55 g of highland soil.
27 February
- 1826
Comet Biela Comets and showers
Wilhelm von Biela observed the comet that bears his name and found it was periodic.
28 February
- 1998
Comet Tempel–Tuttle Comets and showers
Comet Tempel–Tuttle passed closest to the Sun.
- 2001
NEAR Shoemaker Mission
Final contact with the spacecraft on Eros.
- 2007
New Horizons Mission
Flew past Jupiter for a gravity assist.
- 2010
Košice: a fall traced with security cameras Fall
A fireball over eastern Slovakia is recorded by security cameras in Hungary. From the footage its orbit is worked out, and more than 200 stones are found.
- 2021
Winchcombe: a meteorite on a driveway Fall
A fireball over south-west England is filmed by doorbell and meteor cameras. A family in Winchcombe finds black stones on their driveway, the first carbonaceous chondrite fall recovered in Britain.