May 28 In Physics History
Physics history will help you to develop a better understanding of the physics world!
birthdays & deaths
Explore all birthdays & deaths of physicists occurred on this day with their short biography!
physics Events
Know all important discoveries made by physicists & events happened on this day with complete information!
May 28 In Physics History - Births – Physicists born on May 28
Rudolph Minkowski (28 May 1895 - 4 Jan 1976)
He was a German astronaut who investigated Novae and Supernovae and especially the physics and expansion of the Crab Nebula. He studied the motion of planetary nebula and spectra distributions. He was the one who divided supernovae into Types I and II based on spectral characteristics with Walter Baade. He found the largest known redshift the same year he was about to retire. He was also awarded the Bruce Medal in 1961 for his contribution to astronomy.
Frank Drake (Born On 28 May 1930)
He is an American astronomer who formulated the Drake Equation i.e., N=R* × fₚ × nₑ × fₗ × fᵢ × f꜀ × L. It is meant to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations that may exist in the Milky Way galaxy. He came to the conclusion that perhaps 10 planets in our galaxy may have life originating detectable signals. His first two-month Project Ozma resulted in obtaining radio waves that might be assumed to represent messages from extraterrestrial intelligence. He designed Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 with Carl Sagan.
Alfred O. C. Nier (28 May 1911 -16 May 1994)
He was an American physicist who applied the decay of Potassium-42 to measure the age of geological materials and discovered several new isotopes. He refined the mass spectrometric process to distinguish isotopes. The isotopes discovered by him included S36, Ca48, Ca 46, and Os186. He showed that the ratio of radioactive isotopes of Radium and its decay product can be used to estimate the age of rocks. He showed that the rarer uranium-235 undergoes fission and was active in the separation of the isotopes U-238 and U-238.
May 28 In Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on May 28
No Deaths Occured On This Day
May 28 In Physics History - Events – Physics Events of May 28
Monkey In Space
On this day, a squirrel monkey Bekar and a rhesus monkey Able were launched for a brief suborbital spaceflight in the nose cone of the Jupiter missile AM-18. Both were female monkeys. Their heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and radiation were monitored. They survived the flight and became the first living things successfully recovered alive after spaceflight.
The First Nuclear Test By Pakistan
Pakistan made its first public underground nuclear test in 1998. It became the seventh nuclear power, exploding five nuclear devices. After the Indo-Pakistan war, Pakistan began a nuclear weapons program. The tests were conducted in the Balochistan region near Afghanistan border.
The First Successful Mars Aircraft Was Launched
The USSR Mars 3 was launched in 1971, on this day and arrived at Mars on December 2, 1971. It became the first aircraft that landed successfully on Mars. The lander however failed after relaying 20 seconds of video data to the orbiter. The orbiter continued to work for the next year.
The First Extrasolar Planet
NASA released the picture of what California astronomer Susan Tersby said may be the first extrasolar planet ever in 1998. The Hubble Telescope sent digitized pictures of the planet among a pair of young stars in the constellation Taurus. It is located 450 light-years from Earth. It was few times as massive as Jupiter. The next year, scrutiny of its spectrum suggested otherwise. It said that it could be merely a background star.
