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"Go as far as you can see; when you get there you'll be able to see farther."
[Thomas Carlyle]

Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/09/13)

Thomas Hardy (13 September 1666 – 16 August 1732) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. In 1702, he was given command of HMS Pembroke and fought at the Battle of Cádiz and the Battle of Vigo Bay, where he was knighted for his services. In 1707, Hardy was sent as escort to a convoy sailing for Lisbon where he met the squadron of René Duguay-Trouin. Hardy became first captain to John Leake in the Mediterranean in 1708, assisting in the transport of Elisabeth Christine to Spain for her marriage to Archduke Charles, and participating in the capture of Cagliari and the assault on Minorca. He was promoted to rear-admiral and given command of a squadron to blockade Dunkirk. After briefly serving as commander-in-chief, the Nore, Thames and Medway, Hardy commanded a squadron off Ushant where he failed to intercept the squadrons of Duguay-Trouin and Jean-Baptiste du Casse. In 1715, he was second-in-command of the Baltic Fleet sent to serve in the Great Northern War, but he was dismissed in 1716. (Full article...)

Model of Luna 2

1759 – French and Indian War: British forces won the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, despite General James Wolfe being mortally wounded.
1814 – War of 1812: Fort McHenry in Baltimore's Inner Harbor was attacked by British forces during the Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "Defence of Fort McHenry", later used as the lyrics to the United States national anthem.
1959 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 (model pictured) struck the Moon, the first spacecraft to reach another celestial body.
1971 – Following a failed coup attempt, Mao Zedong's second-in-command Lin Biao died in a plane crash while attempting to flee China.
2008 – Five bomb blasts took place in Delhi, India, killing at least 20 people as part of a series of attacks perpetrated by the Indian Mujahideen.

Age of Earth: ~ 4.568 billion years
World Population: 7.3 billion (July 2015)
Continents: 7 (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia)
Mean Radius: 6371.0 km
Axial Tilt: 23,44°

Image Source: Wikipedia - License: Public Domain (thanks to NASA)

Our solar system consists of
1 star (Sun) and 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).

1 AU (astronomical unit) is roughly the distance between Earth and the Sun (about 150 million kilometres).
The space probe Voyager 1 was launched by the NASA in 1977 and is meanwhile (autumn 2015) about 133 AU away from Earth.

Image Source: Wikipedia - License: CC BY-SA 3.0