On this day in July

Comet 3I/ATLAS Comets and showers

The ATLAS survey discovered 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object.

Giotto Mission

Giotto launched on an Ariane 1 rocket from Kourou.

Giotto Mission

Flew past Earth, the first Earth gravity assist for a deep-space probe.

Harrison Schmitt is born Born

The only professional geologist to walk on the Moon, who collected rock samples on Apollo 17 in December 1972.

CONTOUR Mission

CONTOUR launched on a Delta II rocket.

Comet NEOWISE Comets and showers

Comet NEOWISE passed closest to the Sun.

NEOWISE

Deep Impact Mission

The impactor struck comet 9P/Tempel 1.

Comet Tempel 1

Hayabusa2 Mission

Flew close past the asteroid 98943 Torifune.

Comet Kiess Comets and showers

Carl Kiess discovered the long-period comet behind the Aurigid meteors.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 Comets and showers

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 passed close to Jupiter and broke into more than 20 pieces.

Opportunity Mission

Opportunity launched.

Giotto Mission

Passed comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup at about 200 km.

Comet Grigg–Skjellerup

Rosetta and Philae Mission

Flew past the asteroid 21 Lutetia.

Ornans gives its name to a group Fall

A stone falls near Ornans in eastern France. It becomes the type specimen of the CO carbonaceous chondrites, a group named after its first letter.

Hayabusa2 Mission

Second touchdown, collecting material from below the surface.

Comet Pons–Brooks Comets and showers

Jean-Louis Pons discovered the comet now called Pons–Brooks.

Braunau: an iron falls in Bohemia Fall

Two masses of iron fall near Braunau, now Broumov in the Czech Republic. A year later, fine straight lines etched on its surface are described by the physicist Franz Ernst Neumann, and they are still called Neumann lines.

New Horizons Mission

Flew past Pluto.

Giuseppe Piazzi is born Born

The astronomer in Palermo who discovered Ceres, the first known asteroid, on the first night of the nineteenth century.

Comet Swift–Tuttle Comets and showers

Lewis Swift discovered the comet now called Swift–Tuttle.

Apollo 11 Mission

Apollo 11 launched on a Saturn V rocket.

A comet strikes Jupiter History

More than twenty fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 crash into Jupiter, leaving dark scars larger than Earth, the first collision between two Solar System bodies ever watched.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 · Carolyn Shoemaker · Eugene Shoemaker

Dawn arrives at Vesta Mission

NASA's Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around Vesta. It maps the giant Rheasilvia impact basin near the south pole and finds minerals matching the howardite, eucrite and diogenite meteorites.

Dawn · Christopher Russell · Thomas McCord

Tissint: a fall from Mars Fall

A fireball is seen over southern Morocco, and nomads later find fresh black stones. Tissint is one of only a handful of Martian meteorites ever seen to fall.

In the timeline

Comet Swift–Tuttle Comets and showers

Horace Tuttle independently found Comet Swift–Tuttle.

Holbrook: 14,000 stones in Arizona Fall

A shower of about 14,000 small stones falls near Holbrook, Arizona, after a loud explosion. Small pieces are still found in the area.

In the timeline

Apollo 11 brings back the Moon Mission

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin collect about 21.5 kilograms of lunar rock and soil. Moon samples later let scientists recognise lunar meteorites on Earth.

Apollo 11

Viking 1 and 2 Mission

Viking 1 landed on Chryse Planitia.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 Comets and showers

The last fragment of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 struck Jupiter.

Comet Grigg–Skjellerup Comets and showers

John Grigg discovered the comet now called Grigg–Skjellerup.

Comet Hale–Bopp Comets and showers

Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered the comet that became the Great Comet of 1997.

Comet NEOWISE Comets and showers

Comet NEOWISE passed closest to Earth, at about 103 million km.

NEOWISE

Barbotan: a town's sworn statement is mocked Fall

Stones fall around Barbotan in south-west France. The mayor and town council sign a statement describing the event, but a leading scientist ridicules it as a sign of how far people will believe nonsense.

Apollo 11 Mission

The crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean with 21.5 kg of samples.

Apollo 15 Mission

Apollo 15 launched.

Deep Space 1 Mission

Flew past the asteroid 9969 Braille.

Apollo 15 Mission

Scott and Irwin landed at Hadley–Apennine.

Perseverance and Mars Sample Return Mission

Perseverance launched with the Ingenuity helicopter.

Apollo 15 Mission

The first drive of a Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon.