A beautiful ESA/Euclid image of the spiral galaxy IC 342, which is located about 11 million light-years away from Earth.

Today is January 4. On this date in 1809 educator Louis Braille was born. The inventor of a reading and writing system named after him, braille, intended for use by visually impaired people. His system is used worldwide and remains virtually unchanged to this day.

Today is January 3. On this date in 1892 author J.R.R. Tolkien was born. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).

In this image from ESA’s Mars Express, we see the moon Phobos near the limb of Mars. On the surface of the red planet toward the bottom is Kasei Valles. This darker region shows vast valleys with a few scattered impact craters.

The Dumbbell Nebula ­— also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853 — in this ESO image, is a typical planetary nebula. Its distance is somewhat uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years.

Today is January 2. On this date in 1822 physicist Rudolf Clausius was born. He formulated the second law of thermodynamics and is credited with making thermodynamics a science.

A fantastic Euclid image of NGC 646. In this image, NGC 646 appears close to a smaller galaxy to the left, called PGC 6014. They look like neighbours, but they’re actually about 45 million light-years apart, with PGC 6014 at a distance of 347 million light-years from us.

Today Jan 1. On this date in 1748 mathematician Johann Bernoulli passed away. A major member of the Bernoulli family of mathematicians.He investigated the then new mathematical calculus, which he applied to the measurement of curves, to differential equations, and to mechanical problems.

A beautiful ESO image of the nearby star-forming region around the star R Coronae Australis.

Today is Dec 31. Happy New Year! On this date in 1514 anatomist Andreas Vesalius was born. He revolutionized the study of biology and the practice of medicine by his careful description of the anatomy of the human body.

In this fantastic ESA/Euclid image, at center-left there are two galaxies (ESO 364-G035 and -G036) that are interacting with each other, 420 million light-years from Earth. On the right of the image, galaxy cluster Abell 3381 is visible, 678 million light-years away from Earth.

Today is December 30. On this date in 1947 mathematician & philosopher Alfred North Whitehead passed away. Best known for his work in mathematical logic and the philosophy of science. In collaboration with Bertrand Russell, he co-authored the landmark three-volume Principia Mathematica.

In this intriguing ESO view of the stellar nursery IC 2944 we see a group of thick clouds of dust known as the Thackeray globules silhouetted against the pale pink glowing gas of the nebula.

Today is December 29. On this date in 1941 mathematician Tullio Levi-Civita passed away. Most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus and the theory of tensors, and its applications to the theory of General Relativity.

A Hubble edge-on view of the spiral galaxy UGC 10043, which is located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth.

Today Dec 27. On this date in 1822 chemist Louis Pasteur was born. Important founder of medical microbiology. Pioneered the study of molecular asymmetry; discovered that microorganisms cause fermentation and disease; originated pasteurization; developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies.

Today is December 26. On this date in 1791 mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage was born. He is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer.

A gorgeous Hubble image of the reflection nebula GN 04.32.8. Reflection nebulae are clouds of dust in space that don't emit their own light, as other nebulae do. Instead, the light from nearby stars hits and scatters off their dust, lighting them up.

Today Dec 25. Happy Holidays! On this date in 1642 Isaac Newton was born. The culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. Three laws of motion, the formulation of the law of universal gravitation, science of light, calculus, to name a few of his achievements.

Happy Holidays! This Webb image features the gravitational lensing of the quasar RX J1131-1231, located roughly 6 billion light-years from Earth. A foreground galaxy smears the image of the background quasar into a bright arc and creates four images of the object.

A gorgeous Hubble Hubble image of a few spiral galaxies. The large, prominent galaxy on the right is NGC 1356; the two apparently smaller spiral galaxies flanking it are LEDA 467699 (above) and LEDA 95415 (very close at left). IC 1947 sits along the left side of the image.

Today is December 24. On this date in 1818 physicist James Prescott Joule was born. He studied the nature of heat and discovered its relationship to mechanical work. This led to the law of conservation of energy, which in turn led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics.

A beautiful ESO image of the N44C nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

Today is Dec 23. On this date in 1790 orientalist Jean-François Champollion was born. Known as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of Egyptology. Was a child prodigy in philology, read Coptic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic.

This image, which shows the galaxies NGC 2207 (lower right) and IC 2163 (upper left), was created by combining infrared light captured by Webb with X-ray light from Chandra .

Today Dec 22. On this date in 1887 mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born. Despite almost no formal training in mathematics, he made substantial contributions to analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to problems considered unsolvable.

This ESO infrared image shows the star-forming region 30 Doradus, highlighting its bright stars and light, pinkish clouds of hot gas.

Today is December 21. On this date in 1773 botanist Robert Brown was born. Best known for his descriptions of cell nuclei, and of the continuous motion of minute particles in solution, which came to be called Brownian motion.

This image, taken with Hubble, shows the galaxy NGC 4490. The scattered and warped appearance of the galaxy is the result of a past cosmic collision with another galaxy, NGC 4485 (not seen in this image).

Today is Dec 20. On this date in 1996 astronomer & writer Carl Sagan passed away. A popular and influential figure in the US, he was sometimes controversial in scientific, political, and religious circles for his views on extraterrestrial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and religion.

This ESO image shows an enlarged view of the head of the largest of the three main pillars, Column 1, in the Eagle Nebula.

Today is Dec 19. On this date in 1852 physicist Albert Michelson was born. Known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907, received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the 1st American to win the Nobel Prize in a science.

This Hubble image features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which lies about 67 million light-years from Earth.

Today is December 18. On this date in 1856 physicist J.J. Thomson was born. His study of cathode rays led to his discovery of the electron, a subatomic particle with a negative electric charge.

Today is Dec 16. On this date in 1917 writer Arthur C. Clarke was born. Notable for both his science fiction and his nonfiction. His best known works are the script he wrote with American film director Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the novel of that film.

A spectacular Hubble image of the spiral galaxy NGC 2903.

A beautiful ESO image of the planetary nebula Abell 24.

Today is December 15. On this date in 1923 physicist Freeman Dyson was born. Known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and engineering.

The "flocculent" spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 2775 in this Hubble image indicate that the recent history of star formation of the galaxy has been relatively quiet.

Today is Dec 14. On this date in 1546 astronomer Tycho Brahe was born. He developed astronomical instruments and measured positions of stars, paving the way for future discoveries. His observations included a study of the solar system and accurate positions of more than 777 fixed stars.

An ESO image of Eta Carinae and the Keyhole Nebula, part of the larger Carina Nebula.

Today is December 12. On this date in 1921 astronomer Henrietta Leavitt passed away. Known for her discovery of the relationship between period and luminosity in Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that vary regularly in brightness in periods ranging from a few days to several months.

This gorgeous Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 2906.

Today is December 11. On this date in 1882 physicist Max Born was born. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954 for his probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics.

An ESO image of the nebula GUM 39, which is about 6,500 light-years from Earth.

Today is December 10. On this date in 1815 mathematician Ada Lovelace was born. She was an associate of Charles Babbage, for whose prototype of a digital computer she created a program. She has been called the first computer programmer.

The eye is first drawn, in this Webb image, to the central galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This massive collection of galaxies, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth, acts as a gravitational lens on farther galaxies, stretching their light into arcs.

Today is December 9. On this date in 1996 paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey passed away. She made several fossil finds of great importance in the understanding of human evolution.

The Flame Nebula in this ESO image, also referred to as NGC 2024, is the hideout of a cluster of young, blue, massive stars, whose light sets the gas ablaze. It is located about 1,300 light-years away.

Today is December 8. On this date in 1955 mathematician Hermann Weyl passed away. Through his widely varied contributions in mathematics, served as a link between pure mathematics and theoretical physics, in particular adding enormously to quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.