2015 Event NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft ends its three-year orbit around Mercury with a planned crash into the planet's surface; originally, the probe was to orbit and collect data for one year, but fuel saving efforts extended its mission for two more years 2015 Event Scientists have concluded that a large ocean exists beneath the icy surface of Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter; the discovery was made by using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe aurora movements at the moon's poles 2014 Event Japan launches an explorer that will take samples and collect data from the surface of an asteroid; the six-year trip will include eighteen months of study and data collection 2014 Event The European Space Agency makes history by landing a probe named Philae on the surface of a comet; scientists report that the probe anchors did not fire and that the vessel appears to have made two landings 2014 Event Eleven illegal gold miners are rescued from a collapsed shaft; the remaining men refuse to surface upon learning that the rescued men have been immediately arrested; over 200 miners may still remain in the shaft 2013 Event Experts observing the Comet ISON sweep 730,000 miles over the surface of the sun believe that that part of the comet survived the close encounter; images suggest a small nucleus may have remained intact 2013 Event Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, two planets resembling planet Earth are discovered revolving around the star Kepler-62 in the habitable zone, an area around the stars whose atmospheric pressure can suport liquid water at the surface 2013 Event NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft transmits images that for the very first time, allow scientists to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the surface of Mars 2013 Event A near-Earth asteroid, 2012 DA14, comes within 17,200 miles of the Earth's surface, a record-close approach for an object estimated at 50 meters, or 160 ft in in diameter 2013 Event NASA reveals the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR), a lunar mining robot which could be used to produce fuel and water directly on the Moon 2012 Event NASA reports its Twin GRAIL probes studying the surface of the Moon reveal unexpectedly-deep cracks, craters and tectonic structures 2012 Event New findings from MESSENGER, NASA's space probe, indicate almost definitively, that the north pole of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, has water ice buried beneath the surface 2012 Event Curiosity, the Mars rover, broadcasts its first audio recording of a human voice from the surface of another planet 2012 Event The Curiosity rover controlled by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, lands safely on the surface of Mars 2011 Event In the People's Republic of China, 45 trapped coal miners are pulled to the surface in Sanmenxia; 8 miners died 2010 Event In Chile, 33 miners trapped half a mile beneath the surface make contact with their families for the first time in three weeks since the incidentally 1996 Event 1st surface photos of Pluto by Hubble Space Telescope 1985 Event U.S.S.R.'s Vega 1 deposits lander on surface of Venus 1972 Event Apollo 16 astronauts explores Moon surface 1969 Event Stafford and Cernan pilot Apollo 10 LEM 9.4 mi(15km) above lunar surface 1963 Death Grace Darmond, silent screen actress (Below the Surface), dies at 69 1958 Event 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days 1893 Death Earnest E Kummer, German mathematician (surface of Kummer), dies at 83 1882 Death Joseph Liouville, French mathematician (surface of Liouville), dies 1756 Birthday John Loudon McAdam, created macadam road surface, asphalt 1630 Event Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi, 1st to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface
