Now, some purdy pics...
A stunning shot of the Martian surface by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, with a resolution of 18 inches per pixel. We can see boulders tumbling down the slopes of dunes, but most cool of all, those dark swirls. Those are the tracts of dust devils that have kicked up the rusty Martial soil and revealed the dark gray surface below. THAT is awesome! (Thanks Phil)
The latest shot of Saturn from Cassini. A gorgeous shot of the rings really... and just below their shadow on Saturn is a small dot -- that's the shadow of Saturn's moon Enceladus! But the tiny dot almost in the center of the picture is another moon, Mimas, also known as the Death Star. Thanks Phil -- again.
And THAT is my favorite -- the Andromeda galaxy has seen through ultraviolet light. Taken by the orbiting ultraviolet telescope SWIFT, the image is a composite of 330 separate ones totally over 24 hours of exposure time. The the full image size? Over 900085 gigabytes. (Again again, thank you Phil.)
WOW. I just love this image. It's so eerie, yet sublime and collected. And inviting. Kinda like a serial killer I suppose, but I'd still go on. Either way, it's become my new wallpaper.
And finally, something that's not from Phil Plait and something I won't repost because it's hers -- Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society has an animation of Saturn's moon Titan orbiting behind Tethys -- and you can see Tethys rotating! The images are from Cassini, and it's... just awesome.
I <3 astronomy.