 the year 1979 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. ==astronomy and space exploration== * february 7 â pluto enters a 20-year period inside the orbit of neptune for the first time in 230 years. * march 7 â the largest magnetar (soft gamma repeater) event is recorded. * july 11 â america's first space station, skylab, is deliberately allowed to burn up on atmospheric entry over the indian ocean. * september 1 â the american pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000&nbsp;km. * december 24 &ndash; the maiden launch of ariane 1, the first rocket in the ariane launcher family. * amateur achievement award of the astronomical society of the pacific given for the first time. ==biology== * baden powell publishes new zealand mollusca. ==computer science== * visicalc becomes the first spreadsheet program. * the us federal government releases the initial, draft version of ada (programming language), a strongly typed, comb-structured language with exception handlers, for embedded systems. ==conservation== * april 5 â first stage of kakadu national park declared in australia. ==history of science== * robert gwyn macfarlane publishes howard florey: the making of a great scientist. ==mathematics== * 'monstrous moonshine': john conway and simon p. norton prove there is a connection between the monster group m and the j-function in number theory. * the first modern sudoku, known as number place, appears in dell pencil puzzles and word games (united states), devized by howard garns. ==medicine== * august â the eating disorder bulimia nervosa is first described and named by british psychiatrist gerald russell.{{cite journal|last=palmer|first=robert|title=bulimia nervosa: 25 years on|url=http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/185/6/447|journal=[[british journal of psychiatry]
1979_in_science