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The year 2007 in science and technology involves many significant events.

Astronomy

• January 12 - Comet McNaught reaches perihelion and becomes visible during daylight.

Time lapse movie of the 3 March 2007 lunar eclipse

• March 3-March 4 - A total lunar eclipse occurs, visible in some parts of the Americas and Asia, and all of Europe and Africa.
• March 19 - A partial solar eclipse occurs, visible in Asia.
• April 10 - Spectroscopic analysis of HD 209458 b, an extrasolar planet, provides the first evidence of atmospheric water vapor beyond the Solar System.
• April 25 - Gliese 581 c is discovered and identified as a potentially habitable Earth-like extrasolar planet in the constellation Libra.
• August 28 - A total lunar eclipse occurs, visible in some parts of the Americas and Asia, and all of Australasia and the Pacific Ocean.
• September 11 - A partial solar eclipse occurs, visible in southern areas of South America.
• October 24 - Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly brightens from 17 to about 2.8 magnitude.

Genetic engineering

• January 14 - Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce they have genetically engineered chickens which can lay eggs with the ability to fight cancer.^[1]

Space exploration

• February 28 - The New Horizons space probe made a gravitational slingshot against Jupiter to change its trajectory towards Pluto.
• June 5 - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second flyby of Venus en route to Mercury.
• September 27 - NASA's Dawn spacecraft is launched.

Awards

• Nobel Prize
  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans
  • Nobel Prize in Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg
  • Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl
• Abel Prize in Mathematics: S. R. S. Varadhan

Deaths

• February 20 - Frank Albert Cotton (b. 1930), chemist known for his research on transition metal chemistry
• July 23 - Ernst Otto Fischer (b. 1918), Nobel Prize laureate for pioneering work in the area of organometallic chemistry.
• October 26 - Arthur Kornberg (b. 1918), Nobel Prize laureate for his discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid.

References