Late Night Awesome — Photos of the Solar System
We’ve been sending up exploratory missions (mostly unmnanned) through our solar system for quite some time — they are so routine that there generally isn’t much news when they go up. Unless something fails. We forget that scientists and engineers are working daily to discover more about the planets and other bodies close to us and that they are still making jaw-dropping discoveries. The October edition of Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the very high quality photos that are coming out of these expeditions, which are themselves jaw-dropping:
Photo of Saturn from Cassini showing new rings
Cracks and folds on the ice-covered Saturnian moon Enceladus
Two moons of Saturn
SUn Erupts in flares from ultraviolet telescope
Mars Rover captures picture of crater wall
There’s more at the link of these planets, the sun, and Mercury and Jupiter — just click on the box on the right to see the slide show
Thanks for these great pictures, and your praise of NASA. For too many Americans, it is an agency that is too often “out of sight, out of mind”.
Personally, that stuff is always of interest to me.
Of course, I really can’t forget about the work of the fine folks at NASA given where I live — not when in any given week I sit in the pew at church near a half dozen honest-to-God rocket scientists, see at least one astronaut at the grocery store, and drive by the front gate of Johnson Space Center while I’m out and about running errands.
Orionids coming up later this month with peak on a new moon night.
Every time I’m ready to write you off, Greg, you post something I can heartily agree with.
I have never understood how so many liberals, normally such science and nature lovers, resist the lure of celestial exploration. As an agnostic, I don’t care whether this stuff was put there by chance or design — it’s just so freaking cool! And the technology necessary does demand intellectual excellence, something I’m sure the techies here appreciate.
I’ve also never understood liberals who point out that the money could be better spend on Earth. Yes — but so could most of the money we ARE spending on Earth. The “choice” between social programs and NASA is a false one.
First site I go to when I log on in space.com It,s absolutly loaded with just awe inspiring picture and vidios. Last week they showed a vidio of the cassini space craft on it,s fly-by of Triton and you could plainly see the Lakes of Triton, that,s right real lakes, not water however liquid methane, to cold for liquid water. Just beyond words the speticles you see on space.com. P.S. cruise thru the 10 favorite picture site, You will see awsome picture of our star, theSUN.