The first collisions between protons and anti-protons took place in the @Fermilab@Tevatron#OTD in 1985. The collisions had a center-of-momentum energy of 1.6 TeV. They were observed in the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), where the top quark was discovered ten years later.
See if you can spot the Tevatron in this google maps satellite image of the area around Batavia.
Despite being a physicist in the Chicago area I have somehow never visited @Fermilab. However, my interest is now piqued.
I assume they are training dogs to sniff out top quarks.
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The most energetic single particle ever detected, a cosmic ray dubbed the "Oh-My-God" particle, was observed by the Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector #OTD in 1991. Its energy was about 3.2 x 10²⁰ eV ~ 51 J, equivalent to a baseball moving at almost 60 mph. quantamagazine.org/ultrahigh-ener…
The "OMG Particle" should not to be confused with the “God Particle.” The latter is a terrible name that you should not use under any circumstances, while the former is a great name and all physicists are obligated to high-five whoever came up with it.
Also, the "OMG Particle" should not be confused with the "0mg particle," which is another name for a photon.
Mathematician Bernhard Riemann was born #OTD in 1826. He made deep contributions to complex analysis and number theory, but is best remembered by physicists for his work on the foundations of geometry that would one day provide the mathematical framework for general relativity.
Riemann was the star pupil of Gauss, who described Riemann's PhD thesis on complex variables as the work of someone with “a gloriously fertile originality.” I try to use this phrase in every rec letter that I write.
A few years later, when Riemann was up for a faculty position, Gauss set him the task of reformulating the foundations of geometry.
Nbd, just the greatest mathematician of the age asking him to reformulate the foundations of a subject spelled out by Euclid 2,000 years earlier.
Astronomer Judith Sharn Young was born #OTD in 1952. Recipient of the Maria Goeppert-Mayer award for physics and the Annie Jump Cannon prize in astronomy, she was known for her work mapping galactic distributions of carbon monoxide and other gases associated with star formation.
Judith Sharn Young seemed to be headed for a career in biochemistry until her mother gave a presentation on black holes to Judith's high school science class.
You have probably heard of her mother, Vera Rubin.
The Voyager 2 spacecraft launched #OTD in 1977. It is currently 11.8 billion miles from Earth, hurtling through interstellar space at about 35,000 mph with respect to the sun.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 2 is so far from Earth that round trip for a signal is over 35 hours. Only its twin Voyager 1 (which launched a few weeks later but took a more direct route out of the solar system) is further. You can see a live mission status for both craft here: voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
You can also see the Solar System from Voyager 2's perspective using @NASA's interactive "Eyes on the Solar System." eyes.nasa.gov/apps/orrery/#/…
Astronomer Milton La Salle Humason was born #OTD in 1891. He dropped out of the eighth grade and had little formal education, but a knack for difficult observations helped him collect much of the data used to establish what we now call Hubble’s Law.
Image: Emilio Segrè Archives
Humason was born in Minnesota, but moved to California with his family as a teenager. At 14 they sent him to a summer camp on Mount Wilson. He loved life on the mountain, and it was an exciting time to be there. Preparations were already underway to build a new observatory.
Humason asked his parents to let him take a year off and work on the mountain. He never went back. His last year of school was 8th grade. He took a job leading wagons up the mountain. Drawn by mules, they carried lumber for buildings and parts for the massive 100" telescope.