2004 in science: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The year 2004 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

See also: 2003 in science, other events of 2004, 2005 in science, and the list of years in science.

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 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 that supports the notion that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.
• June 8 - Transit of Venus across the Sun

• 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 carcusses.

• 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. [1]
• April 20 - NASA launches Gravity Probe B in an effort to test Einstein's general theory of relativity.

• 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 2004 - Scientists from the University of California at Irvine announce the first high-speed transistor made from a carbon nanotube, operating at microwave frequencies.

• January 3 - NASA's Spirit, the first of two Mars Exploration Rovers, lands successfully on Mars.
• March 2 - NASA report that the area where their Mars probe Opportunity touched down shows unmistakeable 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.

• Abel Prize in Mathematics: Michael F. Atiyah and Isadore M. Singer
• Millennium Technology Prize (inaugural year): World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee

• March 15 - William Pickering, former head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• March 15 - Sir John Pople, British Nobel prize winning Chemist
• July 28 - Francis Crick, American Nobelaureate in Physiology for discovering the double helix structure for DNA.