Life on Enceladus

It looks like Enceladus might be an even better place to check for space bugs than Mars. The best and most concise coverage of this topic is almost definitely to be found at Centauri Dreams, one of the best interstellar-focused blogs I’ve seen.

Either that or you can read SPACE.com’s message board and listen to everyone argue about the probability of life on Enceladus.

Mercury Messenger Flyby 1 Summary

MESSENGER has returned quite a few high quality Mercury photographs. Check these out; the surface details are of the side of Mercury the Mariner 10 missions did not photograph!

The cratered surface of Mercury has not been visited in about 30 years. Only 45% of the surface of Mercury has been imaged by the Mariner 10. MESSENGER has a full suite of scientific instruments and will be able to tell us many things about the geological history, and hopefully about the highly reflective material (possibly water-ice in the perpetual shadows) of the north and south poles, of Mercury as well as image the remaining portion of the planet unseen by the previous Mariner mission.

The official MESSENGER website has a slew of great, entertaining, and interactive information pertaining to Mercury. Check it out for some fast facts, great animations, and even an interactive quiz or two to test your Mercurian knowledge.

MESSENGER Now At Closest Point To Mercury

MESSENGER is now at its closest point (about 124 mi) from the surface of Mercury. Now… we wait for the pics!

Mercury Flyby Photo # 1

Today’s Mercury photo from the continuing coverage of MESSENGER is posted! Check it out!

Today’s Mercury Photograph

Tomorrow, the first flyby of Mercury will occur. As you can see, we are quickly approaching the closest planet to the Sun.

Today’s Mercury Photograph

Tomorrow, the first flyby of Mercury will occur. As you can see, we are quickly approaching the closest planet to the Sun.

MESSENGER Update: New Photograph Released!

Yeah, so it looks like the old one but bigger; who cares! We’re closing in on the first rock from the Sun!

Great New Blog & Awesome Astrophotos

I found a great new astroblog called the Orbiting Frog. Check it out; great content here as well!

Also, pointed out by the legendary Bad Astronomer, Travis Rector has a gallery of images available for public viewing. He has the fantastic job of processing the data from large telescopes around the world into the desktop-wallpaper-worthy photos we’ve all come to enjoy!

Identify Never-Before-Seen Galaxies

GalaxyZoo is probably not new news, but it is to me. If you create account, you will make a significant scientific contribution by classifying new galaxies, many of which have never been seen before!

Trust me it’s as easy as it sounds. Turn in your name and you’ll even be credited! Try to determine spiral, elliptical, and merging galaxies from fuzzy original photos. The computer program can pick out the galaxies, but the human eye is the only thing that can classify them.

Easy as it sounds, labelling can be tricky. They are awfully fuzzy, and sometimes you have to identify photographs from a bad angle.

Got some down time? Let’s classify some galaxies!

P.S. The GalaxyZoo blog will be on the blogroll from now on too! Check it out!

MESSENGER Team Receives First Optical Navigation Images

Interplanetary space junkies will have a treat in the next upcoming days: Mercury will be imaged by the MESSENGER spacecraft. In fact, it already has, according to the site: here’s the first photo of Mercury by MESSENGER:

The first of eight navigational photos have been received. The spacecraft features two cameras: a wide-angle camera, or WAC, and a narrow-angle camera, or the NAC. To assist in navigation, the WAC takes photos of the starry background, and the NAC, which photographs the planet. Since the stars are so far away, they may as well be ‘fixed’ in space, and, in conjunction with the planet photograph, are used to determine exact position and if any adjustments need to be made. Stay tuned for more Mercury photographs as they become available!