Pillars of Creation Revisited
Scowen helps lead new Hubble visible and infrared imaging of the Pillars of Creation, revealing finer structure and embedded stars.
Permanent historical records · Updated 2026-11-03
2015 in United States of America
Explore 70 historical events and records for United States of America in 2015.
Historical records for United States of America in 2015
Sorted by month and day. Records with no month are shown last. Showing 40 of 70 unique records.
70Unique records
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14Named events on this page
18Named people on this page
5Places on this page
January
New Horizons
New Horizons begins its formal approach phase toward Pluto after nearly nine years of interplanetary flight.
February
American Sniper Academy Nomination
Receives a Best Picture nomination as producer of American Sniper.
March
New Horizons
A 93-second thruster burn adjusts New Horizons' trajectory for the forthcoming Pluto encounter.
New Horizons
New Horizons becomes closer to Pluto than Earth is to the Sun, marking a major approach milestone.
April
Mercury Hollows
Detailed MESSENGER imagery of Zeami basin shows extensive fields of Mercury's distinctive bright hollows.
Pluto
Approach images begin showing distinct surface features on Pluto with steadily improving detail.
MESSENGER Impact
MESSENGER ends its mission by impacting Mercury after completing 4,105 orbits and transforming knowledge of the planet.
MESSENGER Mission End
Mission controllers receive MESSENGER's final telemetry before the spacecraft impacts Mercury after more than four years in orbit.
May
Pluto Moons
New Horizons photographs Kerberos and Styx for the first time, bringing all five known Pluto moons into spacecraft view.
Advanced LIGO Dedication
Reitze marks the formal dedication of Advanced LIGO after a major redesign that greatly improves detector sensitivity and expands the volume of the universe accessible to gravitational-wave searches.
June
New Horizons
A final 23-second engine burn fine-tunes New Horizons' trajectory toward its Pluto flyby.
July
New Horizons
After a detailed hazard search, the mission team keeps New Horizons on its planned Pluto flyby trajectory.
Pluto
New Horizons' Ralph spectrometer detects frozen methane on Pluto during approach, confirming the molecule from spacecraft observations.
New Horizons
New Horizons enters safe mode because of a spacecraft command-sequence timing problem days before the Pluto encounter.
New Horizons
New Horizons returns to normal science operations after recovery from the July 4 safe-mode event.
Pluto
New Horizons measurements determine Pluto is about 2,370 kilometres in diameter, larger than many pre-encounter estimates.
Pluto
New Horizons returns its last and most detailed full-disk image of Pluto before closest approach.
New Horizons
New Horizons completes humanity's first close flyby of Pluto and its system of moons.
Pluto Atmosphere
During a solar occultation, New Horizons probes Pluto's atmosphere far above levels previously measured from Earth.
Pluto Atmosphere
A radio occultation experiment obtains the first direct measurement of atmospheric pressure at Pluto's surface.
Pluto Solar Wind Interaction
Uses New Horizons SWAP measurements to characterize how Pluto's escaping atmosphere slows and diverts the solar wind during the spacecraft's close flyby.
Charon
New Horizons images show Charon as a geologically varied world with enormous canyons and contrasting terrains.
Pluto
Close-up images reveal youthful water-ice mountains rising about 3.5 kilometres above Pluto's surface.
Pluto Atmosphere
New Horizons data show Pluto's nitrogen-rich atmosphere extending to roughly 1,600 kilometres above the surface.
Sputnik Planitia
Images reveal a vast craterless plain in Pluto's heart-shaped region, indicating surprisingly young terrain.
Sputnik Planitia
The newly revealed icy plain in Pluto's heart is informally named Sputnik Planum, later standardized as Sputnik Planitia.
Pluto
Mission scientists conclude that nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ices can flow across Pluto at its extremely low temperatures.
Pluto
New Horizons images show nitrogen-rich ices flowing across Pluto in glacier-like patterns, evidence of recent geologic activity.
Pluto Atmosphere
Backlit New Horizons images reveal multiple atmospheric haze layers extending far above Pluto.
Pluto Atmosphere
New Horizons detects ethylene and acetylene in Pluto's atmosphere, compounds involved in forming its complex haze particles.
Pluto Atmosphere
New Horizons finds Pluto's atmospheric surface pressure lower than estimates derived from earlier Earth-based observations.
August
Pluto Atmosphere
New Horizons results prompt investigation of how Pluto replenishes atmospheric nitrogen while gas escapes to space.
September
Gravitational Waves
Thornes black hole and gravitational wave theory helps interpret the first LIGO detection
Gravitational Waves
Weiss sees the interferometer concept vindicated when LIGO detects gravitational waves from merging black holes
Pluto
A New Horizons methane map shows that methane ice is distributed unevenly across Pluto's surface.
Pluto
Enhanced-color imagery reveals the unusual ridged and scaly terrain of Tartarus Dorsa, nicknamed Pluto's snakeskin terrain.
Pluto
High-resolution New Horizons images reveal rugged mountains, faulted blocks and detailed textures along the edge of Sputnik Planitia.
October
Pluto Moons
New Horizons observations reveal that Pluto's small moons are irregular bodies with unexpectedly complex rotational behaviour.
Pluto
New Horizons compositional mapping identifies numerous exposed regions of water ice on Pluto's surface.
How these records were prepared
Generated from the World History Database historical_events table. Identical display records are collapsed; descriptions otherwise retain the stored text. Coverage and source quality vary. Check primary and specialist sources before citing individual historical claims.