On this day in November

Alfred Wegener is born Born

The scientist best known for continental drift, who also argued in 1921 that the Moon's craters were made by impacts.

Dawn Mission

The mission ended when Dawn ran out of fuel for pointing; it remains in orbit around Ceres.

Lucy Mission

Flew past Dinkinesh and discovered its moon Selam.

NEOWISE Mission

Re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up.

Stardust Mission

Flew past the asteroid 5535 Annefrank.

Deep Impact Mission

Flew past comet 103P/Hartley 2 as the EPOXI mission.

Comet Hartley 2

Fred Whipple is born Born

The Harvard astronomer who described comets as dirty snowballs and pioneered measuring meteor orbits from photographs.

Comet Holmes Comets and showers

Edwin Holmes discovered Comet Holmes during an outburst.

The thunderstone of Ensisheim Fall

A stone of about 127 kilograms crashes into a wheat field near Ensisheim in Alsace, seen by a boy. Townspeople chip pieces off, and King Maximilian orders the rest hung in the church. About 55 kilograms remain in the town today.

In the timeline

Chandrayaan-1 Mission

Entered orbit around the Moon.

Philae lands on a comet Mission

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission sets its lander Philae down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the first landing on a comet.

Rosetta and Philae · Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

The night the stars fell Comets and showers

A storm of Leonid meteors fills the sky over North America with tens of thousands of shooting stars an hour. Denison Olmsted shows they all spread from one point in Leo, proving that meteors come from space.

Denison Olmsted

The Leonids return as predicted Comets and showers

A Leonid storm is seen from Europe, as Hubert Anson Newton had predicted from records going back a thousand years. It confirms that the shower returns about every 33 years.

Hubert Anson Newton

Apollo 12 Mission

Apollo 12 launched and was struck by lightning twice during ascent.

Chandrayaan-1 Mission

The Moon Impact Probe struck near the south pole.

William Herschel is born Born

The astronomer who discovered Uranus and in 1802 coined the word asteroid for the small bodies found between Mars and Jupiter.

Comet Schwassmann–Wachmann 1 Comets and showers

Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Wachmann discovered the outbursting comet 29P.

A great Leonid storm Comets and showers

Observers in the western United States see the Leonids at storm level, with meteors falling at dozens per second at the peak, one of the strongest meteor storms ever recorded.

A Leonid storm over Europe Comets and showers

The Leonids reach storm strength over Europe and the Middle East, as computer models of the comet's dust trails had predicted.

Apollo 12 Mission

Conrad and Bean landed in the Ocean of Storms, close to Surveyor 3.

Hayabusa Mission

First touchdown on Itokawa.

Chang'e 5 Mission

Chang'e 5 launched on a Long March 5 rocket.

Apollo 12 Mission

The crew splashed down with 34.3 kg of samples.

DART Mission

DART launched on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Hayabusa Mission

Second touchdown, when dust entered the sample catcher.

Curiosity Mission

Curiosity launched on an Atlas V rocket.

Comet Biela Comets and showers

An Andromedid meteor storm from the lost Comet Biela was seen over Europe.

Comet Biela Comets and showers

A second, stronger Andromedid storm fell from the remains of Comet Biela.

Comet Blanpain Comets and showers

Jean-Jacques Blanpain discovered the comet later lost for 184 years.

Comet ISON Comets and showers

Comet ISON broke apart as it skimmed the Sun.

Ernst Chladni is born Born

The physicist who argued in 1794 that stones and lumps of iron really do fall from space, when almost no scientist believed it.

Sylacauga: a meteorite hits a person Fall

A stone of about 4 kilograms crashes through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, bounces off a radio and bruises Ann Hodges as she rests on her sofa, the first well-documented person injured by a meteorite.

In the timeline · Ann Hodges · Julius McKinney