I vote for Neptune!
Scale - What If other planets replaced the moon? (by Pakiavelli)
Juno Mission to Jupiter
The giant planet story is the story of the solar system… NASA’s next mission to the outer planets, Juno is slated to launch in August 2011, arriving at Jupiter in July 2016. This is the official Facebook page for NASA’s Juno mission.
ROCKETS!
Apollo 8: First humans to the Moon
This second manned mission in the American Apollo space program was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial body—Earth’s Moon. The three-man crew of mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to directly see the far side of the Moon, as well as the first humans to see planet Earth from beyond low Earth orbit.
Rockets!
Expedition 27 Launch
The Soyuz TMA-21 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 carrying Expedition 27 Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and Russian Flight Engineer Andrey Borisenko to the International Space Station. The Soyuz, which has been dubbed “Gagarin”, is launching one week shy of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Yuri Gagarin from the same launch pad in Baikonur on April 12, 1961 to become the first human to fly in space.
Two Planets Discovered Sharing the Same Orbit
In a cosmic first, the Kepler telescope has discovered two planets sharing the same orbit. There is a theory that says our moon was created when a body sharing our orbit crashed into Earth, but up until now no one had found evidence of co-orbiting planets elsewhere in the universe.
It is possible that such a phenomenon could occur when matter around a newborn star forms into planets. In a planet’s orbit around a star, there are two places where a third body can safely orbit. These spots, known as Lagrange points, are 120 degrees in front of and behind whichever body is smaller. The discovered co-orbiting planets, located in the four-planet system KOI-730, are always 120 degrees apart, permanent fixtures in each others’ night skies.
Solar Sail Arrays Could Be Used to Divert Incoming Asteroids by Shading Them From the Sun
Most asteroid diversion schemes tend to involve some kind of impact – an explosion, a crash, a violent shove – but a French researcher has proposed an intriguing plan to alter the course of the asteroid Apophis before it swings into Earth’s neighborhood in 2036: offer the asteroid some shade. A fleet of solar sail spacecraft could shift Aphophis’s course by simply shielding it from solar radiation, the researcher says.
Lights Out: The Milky Way surfs the skies above Lake Tahoe in this majestic time-lapse video from photographer Justin Majeczsky.
[badastronomy.]
Saturn’s Rings May Be Remains of Ripped-Apart Moon
Saturn’s famous rings are the last remaining shards of a huge moon the planet tore apart long ago, a new study suggests.
A moon about the size of Titan — Saturn’s largest satellite — likely spiraled into the giant planet about 4.5 billion years ago, scientists think. As it made its way, Saturn’s powerful gravity stripped off the doomed moon’s icy outer layers, thus spawning the planet’s magnificent rings, according to the research.
I hope they have insurance…
Two galaxies collide head-on in this new image from the European Southern Observatory. (via New Sharp Image of Violent Galactic Collision | Wired Science | Wired.com)
