October 1, 2020 marks the 62nd anniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, or NASA. The agency was founded in 1958, the same year President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act and a year after the Soviets launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite. world. NASA was designed from the start to push the boundaries of space exploration with research in aerospace and aeronautics as well as a civilian space program.
From laying footprints on the moon in 1969, to launching satellites into space in 1972 to take images of the Earth’s surface, to a proposed mission in 2020 to collect samples from mars, NASA continues to expand our understanding of the vastness of space and change the way we think about our solar system (and everything beyond). NASA has collected unimaginable images, created first-hand accounts of space, and encouraged cutting-edge research. Through the creation of new technologies and procedures, NASA has created a foundation of ideas that were previously just theories.
As the agency relentlessly blazed a trail for astronomical discovery, NASA also invented a number of technologies that we use in our daily lives. These include artificial limbs, LASIK surgery, enhanced water filtration, camera phones, freeze-dried foods, memory foam, LED lights, and even Dust Buster. In fact, it was a NASA scientist who invented the Super Soaker water gun. In honor of NASA’s anniversary, Stacker has compiled a list of key astronomy and astrophysics terms from a variety of authoritative science communication sources, including Crash Course: Astronomy, How it worksand International quarterly of comets. Keep reading to learn commonly used terms in this fascinating field.
You might also like: Can you answer those real “Jeopardy!” space questions?
