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January is when we wait for the daylight to gradually grow longer, so it was faintly comforting when scientists got a glimpse of the brightest thing in the universe. Astronomers at the University of Florida spotted a star on the far side of the Milky Way galaxy that is 40 million times brighter and 150 times more massive than our Sun, and is now the most luminous known star. The star was named—in the numb nomenclature of astronomers—LBV 1806-20. The names of other galactic gallivanters last month, on the other hand, evoked the starry eyes we get when we think about outer space. A rover named Spirit bounced onto the surface of the planet Mars, soon joined by another named Opportunity. Both crawled around the chunky, rust-colored soil; one found iron oxide, evidence of water. Some 242 million miles away, a spacecraft called Stardust emerged from a harrowing plunge through the tail of a comet after snatching streaking pieces of debris. It's now on its way back to Earth, expected to arrive in 2006. In a month that is our entrance to the new year—"January" derives from the Latin janus, "door"—other doors of discovery opened. Scientists discovered a sixth form of matter, made of "cold atoms" slowed to the threshold of absolute zero. A marine museum in Maryland unveiled the half-ton skull of an ancient baleen whale unearthed last fall by the winds of Hurricane Isabel.

Jack Paar, who hosted The Tonight Show before handing it off to Johnny Carson, died in January at age 85. Elma Lewis, founder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, and one of the first recipients of a MacArthur Fellowship, died on New Year's Day. Olga Ladyzhenskaya's work in mathematics contributed to the field of fluid dynamics. Joseph Church was a pioneering child psychologist. Billy May collaborated on various albums with Frank Sinatra. Steven Dorfman wrote the questions to the answers on Jeopardy!Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals in track and field at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Separated from her Aboriginal mother by the Australian government, Molly Kelly's 1,000 mile journey home inspired the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence. She died last month at approximately 87.

Related:
Mars landings watched by thousands on TV and Web, from the New York Times
President Bush's fuzzy Mars math, from the New Yorker
Giving up on the Hubble Telescope? From the BBC
How to send humans to Mars, from the Washington Post
More on going to Mars, earlier in this weblog (7th item)
Earlier:
Timeline: December 2003

From the New York Times :

OSIENGLE, Cambodia — In this village on the edge of a primordial forest, where the occasional oxcart creaks down the red earth main street, townspeople were debating one recent afternoon what to say in their first e-mail transmission. … Without wires for electricity or telephones, this village of about 800 people has nevertheless joined the online world, taking part in a development project set up by an American benefactor to connect 13 rural schools to the Internet. Since the system went into place last September at the new elementary school here in Cambodia's remote northeast corner, solar panels have been powering three computers. Once a day, an Internet "Motoman" rides a cherry red Honda motorcycle slowly past the school. On the passenger seat is a gray metal box with a short fat antenna. The box holds a wireless Wi-Fi chip set that allows the exchange of e-mail between the box and computers. Briefly, this schoolyard of tree stumps and a hand-cranked water well becomes an Internet hot spot. It is a digital pony express: five Motomen ride their routes five days a week, downloading and uploading e-mail. The system, developed by a Boston company, First Mile Solutions, uses a receiver box powered by the motorcycle's battery. … At dusk, the motorcycles converge on the provincial capital, Ban Lung, where an advanced school is equipped with a satellite dish, allowing a bulk e-mail exchange with the outside world.

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