Excitement and joy!

The first image of the previously unphotographed and unseen hemisphere of Mercury is released!!! In the upper right, Caloris Basin, only part of which was observed by Mariner 10 over 30 years ago.


For more info, go to MESSENGER images page.

Dates and places

I am now a proud member of the Atheist Blogroll (see to the right and below). Shall we overcome? I should hope so...

And, just ion case you were not aware, this year marks the 50 anniversary of the International Geophysical Year as well as of Space Age. We get to party all year long, celebrating that damn tiny Sputnik 1, and then, on Oct 4th, we're going to have fireworks!

last Week's eye candy

This week we've had a chance to see some awesome visuary: first, the Rosetta flyby of Mars which produced some absolutely gorgeous images, like this one; then new shots from Cassini, which is orbiting Saturn at high inclination and is able to take pictures of its poles from the perspectives inaccessible from Earth, such as this gorgeous shot, or this one; and also New Horizons Jupiter flyby: that bloody thing is damn fast: at Jupiter already, and launched only a little over a year ago! Bloody eye candy! Feast your eyes before someone else feasts on them, I say.

On the more troubling front, the question of the week seems to be, Are Christians Unamerican? ;)
No need to add anything to aforelinked analysis; pretty scary.

Speaking of eye candy, my 'hawk has gotten very long and very thin after being whittled away for the last 2.5 years, and I finally decided to take it off this Sunday. Hair-off day! I shall drink and run around my house with clippers, making some kind of a fucked-up ritual of it.