Space and Astronomy Atlas

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Space and Astronomy Atlas

Disputed Statements

Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.

8 statements.

Artemis Program, OutcomeIn progress; crewed lunar landing not yet achieved as of the mid-2020s.

Artemis Program, Missions and Programs

Standing

Concerns Outcome

Currently States In progress; crewed lunar landing not yet achieved as of the mid-2020s.

Program in progress as of the mid-2020s; crewed lunar landing dates have slipped repeatedly and remain unsettled.

Source NASA History Office

Cosmic Distance Ladder, Formulated Year1908

Cosmic Distance Ladder, Concepts

Standing

Concerns Formulated Year

Currently States 1908

The cosmic distance ladder is a cumulative method built from many separate techniques rather than one single invention. The Period-luminosity relation article states the relation was discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt, the breakthrough that let Cepheid variables become the ladder rung extending distance measurement beyond direct parallax to other galaxies. Earlier rungs, including stellar parallax, predate 1908, and Edwin Hubble applied the same relation in 1923 to establish that Andromeda lies outside the Milky Way. 1908 is recorded as the founding rung rather than a claim that the entire ladder was formulated in one year.

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Elecnor Deimos, Founded Year2001

Elecnor Deimos, Space Agencies and Companies

Standing

Concerns Founded Year

Currently States 2001

Infobox and Wikidata give 2001, but the History section says Deimos was founded in 2000

Source Elecnor Deimos (Wikipedia)

Gilmour Space Technologies, Founded Year2012

Gilmour Space Technologies, Space Agencies and Companies

Standing

Concerns Founded Year

Currently States 2012

Wikipedia's own article is internally inconsistent: one lead paragraph states the company was founded in 2012, while its own Founding section states it was founded in Australia 2013 by the same two brothers. Recorded here as 2012, the year given in the more prominent lead description, with the 2013 alternative noted rather than silently dropped.

Source Wikipedia: Gilmour Space Technologies

Habitable Zone, Proposed ByHubertus Strughold and Harlow Shapley (1953); formalized as the modern circumstellar habitable zone by Su-Shu Huang in the 1950s-1960s

Habitable Zone, Concepts

Standing

Concerns Proposed By

Currently States Hubertus Strughold and Harlow Shapley (1953); formalized as the modern circumstellar habitable zone by Su-Shu Huang in the 1950s-1960s

Multiple researchers converged on the idea independently rather than one person formulating it: Hubertus Strughold introduced the related 'ecosphere' concept in 1953, the same year Harlow Shapley wrote about a 'liquid water belt'; the modern circumstellar habitable zone concept was then developed and formalized by Su-Shu Huang across a series of papers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Habitable Zone, Formulated Year1953

Habitable Zone, Concepts

Standing

Concerns Formulated Year

Currently States 1953

Multiple researchers converged on the idea independently rather than one person formulating it: Hubertus Strughold introduced the related 'ecosphere' concept in 1953, the same year Harlow Shapley wrote about a 'liquid water belt'; the modern circumstellar habitable zone concept was then developed and formalized by Su-Shu Huang across a series of papers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)

Pluto, Object TypeDwarf planet (IAU classification, 2006); planet (1930-2006 classification)

Pluto, Celestial Objects

Standing

Concerns Object Type

Currently States Dwarf planet (IAU classification, 2006); planet (1930-2006 classification)

Classified as the ninth planet 1930-2006; reclassified as a dwarf planet by the IAU's 2006 definition, a decision some astronomers and the New Horizons mission team have publicly disputed on scientific grounds.

Source NASA Solar System Exploration

Sputnik Program, End Date1958-05-15

Sputnik Program, Missions and Programs

Standing

Concerns End Date

Currently States 1958-05-15

Sputnik 3, launched 15 May 1958, is treated by most sources as the last of the original three IGY-era Sputnik satellites, but the Soviet Union continued to use the Sputnik name for later test satellites into the early 1960s, so no single, universally agreed program end date exists.

Source NASA History Office