Here’s a list of scientific achievements for this week (and some rather bad wigs!):

1667 – French mathematician, Abraham De Moivre, was born. He invented De Moivre’s formula that links complex number theory and trigonometry, as well as working on probability theory and the normal distribution.

1971 – Mariner 9, the American deep space probe, was launched on its way to Mars. The probe was the first to orbit another planet and studied the atmosphere of Mars while also mapping over eighty percent of the surface.

2008 – NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed in the Arctic plains region near Mars’ north polar cap. The Probe was equipped with instruments designed to find environments suitable for microbial life and search for traces of water. On June 19 2008, NASA announced that lumps of bright material discovered were in fact water ice.