ON THIS DAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY - 6TH AUGUST

On this day in 1996, NASA announced the discovery of potential evidence of an early life form on Mars. It came in the form of an alleged tiny fossil found on a meteorite in Antarctica, which was believed to have come from Mars. The fossil could only been seen as a highly magnified image, as a microscopic tube-like form, less than 1% of the width of a human hair. Some believed that it could perhaps represent a simple Martian organism that lived over 3.6 million years ago. A huge impact 16 million years ago could have blasted the rock into space, and it landed in Earth’s Antarctica only 13,000 years ago. The meteorite ‘ALH 84001’ also carried organic molecules and mineral features which are characteristics of biological activity. At best, the evidence is inconclusive, and other scientists often entirely dispute the interpretation.  

NEIL ARMSTRONG'S BIRTHDAY

On this day in 1930, Neil Armstrong was born. He was an American astronaut, and the first person to ever walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot and a University Professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Neil Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War during the 1950’s. When the war had ended, he earned his bachelor’s degree and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which then became NASA), where he logged over 900 flights. Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962, and made his first space flight, as command pilot of Gemini 8, becoming NASA’s first civilian astronaut to fly in space. His second and last space flight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in July 1969. During this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours exploring.