InSight lander on Mars

Choose one answer from the three possibilities. Then you can check your answers, and also find out a bit more about each of them.

Quiz: Christmas events

A renowned scientist born on Christmas day was:
(A) Isaac Newton; (B) Stephen Hawking; (C) Johannes Kepler

Amateur astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch was the first to spot the return of a famous comet on Christmas day. It was:
(A) Comet Encke; (B) Comet Herschel-Rigollet; (C) Comet Halley

Three astronauts launched at the winter solstice are the only people ever to spend Christmas Eve orbiting the Moon. They were the crew of:
(A) Apollo 7; (B) Apollo 8; (C) Apollo 10

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched this space telescope in December 2013:
(A) Kepler; (B) Gaia; (C) TESS

This brilliant woman, born on December 26, 1780, came to public attention through her translation of Pierre Simon Laplace's groundbreaking work on celestial mechanics.
(A) Mary Somerville; (B) Caroline Herschel; (C) Maria Mitchell

On Christmas day 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope:
(A) made an astounding discovery; (B) was put into safety mode until it was safe from the Y2K bug; (C) was out of action as astronauts installed new parts

It was lost on Mars on Christmas Day 2003:
(A) Mars Express; (B) Beagle 2; (C) Hope

There was a sad message from Mars on December 19, 2022 - it came from:
(A) Spirit; (B) Perseverance; (C) InSight

It was launched on Christmas Day 2021, 30 years in the making:
(A) ALMA; (B) JWST; (c) SKA

Her work on dark matter was an important breakthrough in astronomy, explaining many observations that had been puzzling scientists for decades. She died on Christmas day in 2016.
(A) Vera Rubin; (B) Carolyn Shoemaker; (C) Andrea Ghez

Answers and notes

1. A renowned scientist born on Christmas Day was: (A) Isaac Newton (born December 25, 1642)
Stephen Hawking was born on January 1, 1942. Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571.

2. Amateur astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch spotted the return of a famous comet on Christmas day. It was: (C) Comet Halley.
Edmond Halley had predicted the return of the comet, but its return was many years after his death. Caroline Herschel received joint credit for discovering Comet Herschel-Rigollet. Comet Encke was named for Johann Encke who showed that the comet returns every 3.3 years.

3. Three astronauts launched at the winter solstice are the only people ever to spend Christmas Eve orbiting the Moon. They were the crew of: (B) Apollo 8.
Apollo 7 carried the first Apollo crew. They stayed in Earth orbit to test the equipment. In May 1969, Apollo 10 was the dress rehearsal for the Moon landing in July.

4. The European Space Agency (ESA) launched this space telescope in December 2013: (B) Gaia
Gaia is constructing the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made. Kepler was NASA's planet hunter – it discovered around 2600 exoplanets. TESS is NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It's looking for Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars.

5. This brilliant woman, born on December 26, 1780, came to public attention through her translation of Pierre Simon Laplace's groundbreaking work on celestial mechanics. (A) Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville and Caroline Herschel were the first women to be made honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society. (However, women couldn't be full members or attend meetings.) Maria Mitchell was the first woman astronomy professor in the USA.

6. On Christmas day 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope: (C) was out of action as astronauts installed new parts
The mission was intended to be general maintenance, but then the fourth of Hubble's six stabilizing gyros failed. Since Hubble needs at least three gyros to conduct science, it became an urgent matter. The “Y2K bug” was expected to cause widespread computer systems damage as date formatting went from 1999 to 2000. (It didn't happen.)

7. It was lost on Mars on Christmas Day 2003: (B) Beagle 2
ESA's Mars Express orbiter took the UK astrobiology probe Beagle 2 to Mars and released it. It was supposed to land on Christmas day. It landed, but was damaged. The high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finally discovered it over a decade later. Hope is the Mars orbiter of the United Arab Emirates.

8. There was a sad message from Mars on December 19, 2022 - it came from: (C) InSight
Perseverance and Curiosity are NASA rovers that are still active. The InSight lander spent four years studying the interior layers of Mars. It was gradually losing power in 2022, and finally its Twitter account had a farewell message. “My power's really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don't worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene.”

9. Thirty years in the making, it was launched on Christmas Day 2021: (B) JWST
ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, is a radio telescope array in Chile. SKA, the Square Kilometer Array, will be built in South Africa and Australia. The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope.

10. Her work on dark matter was an important breakthrough in astronomy, explaining many observations that had been puzzling scientists for decades. She died on Christmas day in 2016: (A) Vera Rubin
Many people thought Rubin should have received a Nobel Prize for her work. Happily, Andrea Ghez, who is still with us, was awarded a Nobel for the discovery of a black hole at the center of our Galaxy. Carolyn Shoemaker, who died in 2021, received a number of awards, and is known for discovering 32 comets and over 500 asteroids.