2004 in science

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The year 2004 in science and technology involved some significant events.

1 Anthropology
2 Astronomy
3 Biology
4 Geology
5 Physics
6 Technology
7 Space exploration
8 Awards
9 Appointments
10 Deaths
11 External links
12 References

[edit] Anthropology

October 27 - Remains of a previously unknown species of human is discovered in Indonesia. Named Homo floresiensis, the hominid is a dwarfed version that lived 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores.^[1]

[edit] Astronomy

January 19 - The Hubble Space Telescope Program received notification of the cancellation of all further HST on-orbit servicing.
March 15 - Astronomers announce the discovery of 90377 Sedna, a Pluto-like planetoid which is the most distant individual object known to orbit the Sun.
May 18 - Scientists using the Chandra X-ray Observatory announced their findings that supports the notion that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.^[2]
June 8 - Transit of Venus across the Sun.
September 13 - Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announce images that appear to show a planet orbiting a brown dwarf about 230 light years away. The system is believed to be only around 8 million years old.
November 20 - Launch of the Swift satellite to investigate gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and perform an X-ray all sky survey.
December 27 - A flare of radiation from an explosion on the super-magnetic neutron star (Magnetar) SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth - astronomers later calculate that it is the largest explosion observed in the Milky Way galaxy for 400 years.^[3]

[edit] Biology

July 30 - Marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute announce in the journal Science the discovery of the genus Osedax, deep sea worms that feed on lipids in decaying whale carcasses.

[edit] Geology

September 28 - A long awaited earthquake strikes Parkfield, California, the most closely monitored earthquake zone in the world. The earthquake, which had been expected to have occurred by the late 1980s, strikes as a magnitude 6.0. The network of instruments that had been installed in the region make this the most well-recorded earthquake in history.

[edit] Physics

January 14 - Physicists from Pennsylvania State University produce the first solid Bose–Einstein condensate.^[4]
January - A team from the JILA laboratory in Boulder, Colorado announce the creation of a fermionic condensate, the first such condensate made from atoms rather than molecules.
February 3 - Russian and American physicists produce results that indicate the discovery of elements 113 and 115.^[5]
March 22 - A team from Australia, Russia and Greece announce a new material, made from a nano-foam of carbon that has the lowest density ever reported for a solid.^[6]
April 20 - NASA launches Gravity Probe B in an effort to test Einstein's general theory of relativity.
May 19 - A team of European scientists produces the first Tonks-Girardeau gas.^[7]
September 24 - Physicists from the Université Joseph Fourier and the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France announce the discovery of a solution (a-cyclodextrine, water, and 4-methylpyridine) that changes from liquid to solid when heated, and melts again when cooled down.^[8]

[edit] Technology

March 27 - NASA succeeds in a second attempt to fly its X-43A experimental airplane from the Hyper-X project, attaining speeds in excess of Mach 7, the fastest free flying air-breathing hypersonic flight.
April 30 - Scientists from the University of California at Irvine announce the first high-speed transistor made from a carbon nanotube, operating at microwave frequencies.

[edit] Space exploration

January 3 - NASA's Spirit, the first of two Mars Exploration Rovers, lands successfully on Mars.
January 24 - NASA's Opportunity, the second of the Mars Exploration Rovers, lands successfully on Mars.
March 2 - NASA report that the area where their Mars probe Opportunity touched down shows unmistakable signs of contact with water in the geological past.
March 2 - ESA's Rosetta mission launches, aiming to land on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.
March 4- NASA's Spirit finds evidence of past contact with water in volcanic rocks on Mars.
April 1 - The Genesis probe closes and seals its particle collection instrument, and begins to return to Earth.
June 11 - Cassini-Huygens, the NASA/ESA mission to Saturn, makes a flyby of one of Saturn's small outer moons, Phoebe.
June 21 - SpaceShipOne, the first civilian space ship is launched in California, reaching an altitude of 100 km (62.5 miles), just passing the edge of space.
July 1 - The Cassini-Huygens space probe arrives at Saturn and begins its nominal 4 year mission after successfully reaching orbit.
August 2 - NASA successfully launches the MESSENGER probe on its 5 year trip to Mercury.
September 8 - The Genesis spacecraft returns to Earth with captured solar wind particles, but crash-lands because of a failure to deploy any parachute.
October 4 - SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize after reaching an altitude of over 100 km (62.5 mi) for the second time in less than five days.
November 15 - The Smart 1 space probe reaches orbit around the Moon. It is the first European space mission to do so.
December 25 - The Cassini probe successfully drops the Huygens probe, sending it onto a trip to land on Saturn's moon Titan.