Mario Livio

The spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in this ESO image is about 61 million light-years away.

Today is March 12. On this date in 1824 physicist Gustav Kirchhoff was born. He contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.

A Hubble image of the Red Spider Nebula. This planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known.

Today is March 11. On this date in 1811 mathematician Urbain Leverrier was born. He specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.

The lazily winding spiral arms of the spectacular galaxy NGC 976 fill the frame of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million light-years from the Milky Way.

Today is March 10. On this date in 1923 physicist Val Fitch was born. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1980 for experiments conducted in 1964 that disproved the long-held theory that particle interaction should be indifferent to the direction of time.

The stellar cluster in this @ESO image is known to astronomers as Hodge 301, it is about 20 million years old.

Today is March 9. On this date in 1934 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was born. Aboard the first successful crewed spaceflight, he became the first person to journey into space. Travelling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961, with his flight taking 108 minutes.

IC 342 in this Hubble image is a challenging cosmic target. Although it is bright, the galaxy sits near the equator of the Milky Way’s galactic disk, where the sky is thick with glowing cosmic gas, bright stars, and dark, obscuring dust.

Today is March 8. On this date in 1879 chemist Otto Hahn was born. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and discoverer of nuclear fission. Was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

An amazing Webb image of the Crane Nebula--the remnant of a dying star.

Today is March 7. On this date in 1792 astronomer John Herschel was born. His discoveries include the galaxies NGC 7, NGC 10, NGC 25, and NGC 28. Made many contributions to the science of photography, and investigated color blindness and the chemical power of ultraviolet rays.

The large spiral galaxy at the base of this Webb image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. Named LEDA 2046648, it is situated a little over a billion light-years from Earth.

Today is March 5. On this date in 1827 polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace passed away. His work has been instrumental in fields of physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, statistics, and philosophy. He summarized and extended work of his predecessors in his 5-volume Mécanique céleste.

A Hubble image of the emission nebula NGC 2313. The bright star V565 — surrounded by four prominent diffraction spikes — illuminates a silvery, fan-shaped veil of gas and dust, while the right half of this image is obscured by a dense cloud of dust.

Today is March 4. On this date in 1904 physicist George Gamow was born. One of the foremost advocates of the Big-Bang theory, according to which the universe started from a dense, hot state, billions of years ago. In addition, his work on DNA contributed to modern genetic theory.

The spiral galaxy UGC 11397 in this Hubble image has a supermassive black hole containing about 170 million times the mass of the Sun at its center.

Today is March 3. On this date in 1845 mathematician Georg Cantor was born. He founded set theory and introduced the mathematically meaningful concept of transfinite numbers, indefinitely large but distinct from one another.

Today is March 2. On this date in 1930 author Tom Wolfe was born. His technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattan’s moneyed status-seekers in works like “The Right Stuff” and “Bonfire of the Vanities.”

An ESO infrared view of the star formation region Messier 8, often called the Lagoon Nebula.

A beautiful Hubble image. The large spiral galaxy on the right is NGC 1356; the two apparently smaller spiral galaxies flanking it are LEDA 467699 (above it) and LEDA 95415 (very close at its left) respectively; and finally, IC 1947 sits along the left side of the image.

Today is March 1. On this date in 1914 historian od science I. Bernard Cohen was born. Author of many books on the history of science and, in particular, on Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Howard H. Aiken. He made a full English translation of Newton's Principia Mathematica.

A detailed Hubble look at the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way.

Today is Feb 27. Happy Birthday to physicist Alan Guth! born on this date in 1947. Best known for proposing the theory of an inflationary universe, a variation of the big-bang model that was highly influential in guiding modern cosmological thought.

A Webb image combining mid-infrared and near-infrared data, of NGC 5134, which is located approximately 65 million light-years away.

Today is Feb 26. On this date in 1786 physicist François Arago was born. He discovered the principle of the production of magnetism by rotation of a conductor. Also devised an experiment proving the wave theory of light,and was involved in the discovery of the laws of light polarization.

In this Hubble image of the spiral galaxy NGC 972, colorful pockets of star formation bloom like roses.

Today is Feb 25. On this date in 1723 architect Christopher Wren passed away.Wren designed 53 London churches, including St. Paul’s Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note.He was a founder of the Royal Society and his scientific work was highly regarded by Newton and Pascal.

Today is Feb 24. On this date in 1955 Steve Jobs was born. A pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. (as Apple Computer Company) with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976.

This beautiful image was created from data taken by different telescopes in space and on the ground. It shows the thousand-year-old remnant of the brilliant SN 1006 supernova, as seen in radio (red), X-ray (blue) and visible light (yellow).