2006 in science

The year 2006 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.^[1]
• January 25 – The discovery of the planet
  PLANET/RoboNet, OGLE and MOA
• February 1 – 2003 UB₃₁₃ is found to be larger than Pluto.
• February 13 – The recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi erupts. The last outburst occurred in 1985.
• March 9 –
  Enceladus, signaling a possible presence of water.^[2]
• March 29 –
  Total solar eclipse (Brazil, Greece, Mid Atlantic Ocean, Sahara, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia
  ).
• June 30 – The discovery of nine additional natural satellites of Saturn published.
• August 24 – Pluto is redesignated as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union, joining 2003 UB₃₁₃ and 1 Ceres.
• September 13 – 2003 UB₃₁₃ is assigned the name Eris.
• September 14 – The asteroid subsequently designated 2006 RH₁₂₀ is identified as it becomes a temporary satellite of Earth.
• September 22 – Annular solar eclipse in South America, West Africa and Antarctica.

Biology

• April 15 –
  Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in the United States publish their success in transplanting the first laboratory-grown organs, bladders, into human patients.^[3]
• May 15 – The sequence of the last chromosome in the Human Genome Project is published in the journal Nature.
• September – The Western Balsam Poplar (Populus trichocarpa) is the first tree whose full DNA code has been determined by DNA sequencing.^[4]
• December 13 – Baiji (Yangtze river dolphin) declared "functionally extinct".^[5]
• persistent vegetative state.^[6]
• Haifan Lin discovers Piwi-interacting RNA.^[7]
• Last sightings of the Western black rhinoceros and of the natural-born Northern white rhinoceros.
• Non
  St Bathans Fauna
  of New Zealand's South Island.

Computer science

• July 15 – Social networking service Twitter launched publicly.^[8]
• November 1 –
  e-book reader
  launched in the United States.

Environment

• January 19 – Australian researchers at the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research centre in Hobart, Tasmania, publish experimental data that matches models of increasing sea level rising.^[9]

Mathematics

• The great prime search project finds the 44th Mersenne prime.^[10]

Philosophy

Space exploration

• January 15 – The
  interstellar dust to Earth. Its sample return capsule touches down safely inside its intended landing area in Utah
  , close to the Army Dugway Proving Ground.
• January 19 – The
  Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and leaves Earth's orbit shortly afterwards on its journey to Pluto
• February 2 – NASA's public affairs office is accused of censoring the comments by James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.^[11]
• March 24 – The maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket ends in failure.
• July 12 – The launch of the first private experimental space habitat, Genesis I.
• September 12 – The construction of the International Space Station is continued for the first time after a hiatus of almost four years.