Friday Links
It’s Friday! Wearing ugly Aloha shirts to work and going to happy hour at 3 are all things to look forward to today. But before you check out for the weekend, why not feed your head some space knowledge? Here’s my rundown of some of my favorite space-related items around the internet this week.
Mars Science Laboratory
Of course this past week has been dominated by the successful start to Curiosity’s trek to Mars. Only 8 months until landing day!
- Read Ryan Anderson’s account of viewing the launch from the VIP section at KSC
- Great close-up shot of launch from APOD
- No course correction required – one of “the most accurate interplanetary injections ever”
Around the Solar System
- Emily Lakdawalla has a great roundup of all the planetary missions operating around the solar system
- At Saturn, Cassini is starting a new orbit on Dec. 3. Get all the juicy details from the CICLOPS page. I’m excited for the Dione and Titan conjunction
- If you just want pictures from Saturn with no fluff, check out Titan to tide you over
- Emily Lakdawalla’s hard work has paid off. Check out her awesome scale poster of the solar system!
Image Credit: Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society
Down to Earth
- Interesting article at CollectSpace about NASA artifact auctions. What do you think, should these things all be at museums?
- A collection of photos of the Moon and Venus together last week (the one with the big palm tree is my favorite)
Out There
Kepler discovers small planet 1.6 times the diameter of Earth and about 10 times the mass, demonstrating superb resolution techniques. Awesome! We are inching closer to finding those Earth analogues all over the galaxy.
Thank you for this blog, it was just what I was looking for. There is so much information here, so I thank you so much for enlightening my mind.