On this day in September

Comet Kiess Comets and showers

A predicted Aurigid outburst from the dust trail of Comet Kiess arrived on time.

Perseverance and Mars Sample Return Mission

Sealed its first rock core.

Comet Pons–Brooks Comets and showers

William Brooks rediscovered Comet Pons–Brooks.

Nevil Story-Maskelyne is born Born

The keeper of minerals at the British Museum who built up its meteorite collection and gave his name to maskelynite.

Viking 1 and 2 Mission

Viking 2 landed on Utopia Planitia.

Rosetta and Philae Mission

Flew past the asteroid 2867 Šteins.

Dawn Mission

Left Vesta for Ceres.

Genesis Mission

The capsule crashed in Utah when its parachutes failed to open.

OSIRIS-REx Mission

OSIRIS-REx launched on an Atlas V rocket.

Viking 1 and 2 Mission

Viking 2 launched.

'Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor Comets and showers

'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object, passed closest to the Sun.

Stones fall near Limerick Fall

After loud explosions, several stones fall around Adare in County Limerick, the best-known meteorite fall in Ireland.

Comet Wild 2 Comets and showers

Comet Wild 2 passed close to Jupiter, which threw it into the inner Solar System.

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko Comets and showers

Svetlana Gerasimenko took the photograph on which Comet 67P was later discovered.

International Cometary Explorer Mission

Flew through the tail of comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner, the first encounter with a comet.

DART Mission

Released the Italian cubesat LICIACube.

Luna 16 Mission

Luna 16 launched on a Proton rocket.

Hayabusa Mission

Arrived at the asteroid Itokawa.

Lucé: academicians blame lightning Fall

A stone falls near Lucé in France. A panel of the French Academy of Sciences, including Antoine Lavoisier, examines a sample and decides it is an ordinary rock that lightning had struck and melted.

Antoine Lavoisier

Robert Dietz is born Born

The geologist who showed that shatter cones are fingerprints of impacts, and who argued that Sudbury in Canada is a giant impact structure.

Carancas: a stone makes a crater Fall

A stony meteorite strikes the high plain near Lake Titicaca in Peru and blasts a crater about 13 metres across, something scientists had thought a stone this size could not do.

In the timeline

Ikeya–Seki and the Kreutz sungrazers Comets and showers

Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki discovered the great sungrazing comet Ikeya–Seki.

Luna 16 Mission

Landed in Mare Fecunditatis and drilled about 35 cm into the soil.

Luna 16 Mission

The return stage lifted off from the Moon.

Galileo Mission

Ended its mission by plunging into Jupiter.

Comet ISON Comets and showers

Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok discovered Comet ISON.

Hayabusa2 Mission

Two MINERVA-II1 rovers landed: the first rovers on an asteroid.

Peter Simon Pallas is born Born

The naturalist who brought a giant mass of iron and olivine from Siberia to St Petersburg, the first pallasite known to science.

Deep Space 1 Mission

Flew past comet 19P/Borrelly at about 2,200 km.

Comet Borrelly

Luna 16 returns a robotic sample Mission

The Soviet probe Luna 16 brings about 100 grams of lunar soil back to Earth, the first sample returned from another world without astronauts.

Luna 16

Bennu samples land in Utah Mission

OSIRIS-REx drops its capsule in the Utah desert with about 120 grams of rock and dust from Bennu, the largest asteroid sample ever returned.

OSIRIS-REx · Dante Lauretta

OSIRIS-APEX Mission

Dropped off the Bennu sample and was renamed OSIRIS-APEX.

Comet Finlay Comets and showers

William Henry Finlay discovered Comet Finlay at the Cape of Good Hope.

Harrison Brown is born Born

The geochemist who saw that meteorites could reveal the age of the Earth, and set his student Clair Patterson on the task.

Comet Swift–Tuttle Comets and showers

Comet Swift–Tuttle was recovered on its first return since 1862.

DART strikes an asteroid Mission

NASA's DART spacecraft deliberately crashes into the small moonlet Dimorphos, shortening its orbit around the asteroid Didymos by about 32 minutes, the first test of nudging an asteroid.

DART

Daniel Kirkwood is born Born

The astronomer who discovered in 1866 the gaps in the asteroid belt made by Jupiter's gravity, now called the Kirkwood gaps.

Dawn Mission

Dawn launched on a Delta II rocket.

Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Comets and showers

Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS passed closest to the Sun.

Henri Moissan is born Born

The Nobel prize-winning French chemist who found silicon carbide in the Canyon Diablo meteorite, a mineral now called moissanite.

Murchison: life's ingredients from space Fall

About 100 kilograms of stones fall near Murchison in Victoria, Australia. Within a year scientists find amino acids in them that were made without life.

In the timeline

George Kunz is born Born

The Tiffany gem expert who traded and studied meteorites, bought pieces of Brenham and named the mineral moissanite.

Benld: a meteorite hits a car Fall

In Benld, Illinois, a stone of about 1.8 kilograms smashes through Edward McCain's garage roof and goes straight through his car, coming to rest in the seat springs.

Edward McCain

Comet Finlay Comets and showers

The Arids, a new shower from Comet Finlay, were seen from the southern hemisphere.

Rosetta and Philae Mission

Rosetta ended its mission by descending onto the comet.

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko