Astro Blog

Source:   National Science Foundation Update (NSF) Excerpt: On Titan, Saturn's largest moon, methane clouds drift through a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, clustering mainly in the polar regions. Methane lakes dot Titan's surface, also at high latitudes. …in January 2005, the Huygens probe … gave planetary scientists their first close-up view ... small channels and river beds at low latitudes, in regions that scientists had assumed to be devoid of flowing liquids that could carve such features. Now, astronomers working at Earth-based telescopes have for the first time observed, near Titan's equator, large and persistent clouds that might be capable of raining liquid methane onto the surface. www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp

Source:   Christopher Go, Discover Magazine  Images of the shadow of the moon Io going right over the moon Ganymede, by amateur astronomer Christopher Go. blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/20/two-moons-circling/

Source:   Michael Collins, NASA Excerpt: Q. Circling the lonely moon by yourself, the loneliest person in the universe, weren't you lonely? A. No. "Far from feeling lonely or abandoned, I feel very much a part of what is taking place on the lunar surface. I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have. ... I don't mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. ...." www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jul/HQ_09-164_Collins_statement.html

Source:  Google, NASA Explore the Moon in Google Earth. google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/07/fly-yourself-to-moon.html

Source:   NASA Explore Mars with a tool similar to Google Earth. www.google.com/mars/#lat=14.2&lon=178.5&zoom=7&map=infrared

Source:   Dennis Overbye, Solar System Formation Excerpt: …Back in 2002, astronomers from Wesleyan University concluded that a star brightening and waning in an unusual 48-day rhythm was dipping in and out of stuff swirling around the star in a so-called protoplanetary disk. …Now, after six more years of observation with an international group of astronomers, led by William Herbst of Wesleyan, researchers say they know what the stuff in this disk is. …sand-size grains, roughly a millimeter in diameter, which must have grown from infinitesimal dust particles over the three million years that the star… “This is the first step in going from smoke particles to macroscopic things like planets and asteroids,” Dr. Herbst said…. www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/science/space/13winkw.html

Source:   University of Arizona Excerpt: The HiRISE camera is designed to view surface features of Mars in greater detail than has previously been possible.…. www.uahirise.org/