NGC 2442 from the ESO. Click for larger version. Get larger formats at the ESO (linked below) Image: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen, C. C. Thöne and C. Féron

Quite a name, I might have to revisit this one come Halloween.

Being a Southern Hemisphere feature I’ve never had the pleasure.

Here’s the ESO caption:

The distorted galaxy NGC 2442, also known as the Meathook Galaxy, is located some 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Volans (the Flying Fish). The galaxy is 75,000 light-years wide and features two dusty spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar that give it a hook-like appearance, hence its nickname. The galaxy’s distorted shape is most likely the result of a close encounter with a smaller, unseen galaxy. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B: 250 s, V: 187 s, R: 150 s).

The Solar Sail. Image: Rick Sternback, © The Planetary Society via Atlantic Magazine

Anybody remember Cosmos 1?  Cosmos 1 also known as the solar sail was a project to test the theory of propelling a spacecraft with light pressure.  Cosmos 1 was a disappointment because it crashed shortly after launch in June of 2005.  The problem wasn’t the sail, that technology is still unproven, the problem was in the launch system.

I was for one quite disappointed, having followed the mission for quite some time.  My disappointment was without a doubt eclipsed by that of the Planetary Society, the private organization that funded the operation.  What no NASA or ESA?  No, it isn’t very often I chide either of the two organizations, but in this instance I kind of do because it seems they could have considered a grant.  Oh well hindsight is 20-20 I suppose.

The Planetary Society is to be commended for their effort and I wish them luck with the Cosmos 2, in the works right now.  You can help too, in case you didn’t know, you can join the Planetary Society and by doing so, contribute a bit to the project.

So why do I bring this up?  There is an excellent article about the Cosmos 1 and 2 with background in Atlantic Magazine this month.  You can read it online.  The article written by Thomas Mallon is one of the best, no wait, it is the best one about the project that I’ve read.

Be sure to check it out:  Across the Universe.

Cassini's latest look at Saturn. Click for larger. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Cassini gives us this nice look at Saturn in natural color. Saturn’s rings are about edge on to us but the planet is still easily visible in the night sky.

Oh by the way, AFTER the sun sets for the next few nights keep an eye out for Mercury. Mercury will be following the Sun so look for the bright star in the west north west AFTER the sun has fully set and twilight is starting, Mercury sets at 21:46 or so, it will be a quick look. I like to take every opportunity to have a look at Mercury because we get to see so little of it owing to its proximity to the Sun.

From the Cassini site:

This natural color view from the Cassini spacecraft highlights the myriad gradations in the transparency of Saturn’s inner rings.

The dark shadows of the rings separate Saturn’s southern hemisphere in the bottom of the image from the north. The innermost D ring is invisible, laid over the planet’s northern hemisphere. The translucent C ring runs through the middle of the image. The denser B ring stretches across the top of the image.

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1/10th Scale Saturn V Launches. Click the image to got to more of Jeff Foust's images. Copyright Jeff Foust

This is just too much fun, I wished I was there to see it for myself!!  My hat is off to Steve Eves!!

Check out the video (s) below (click the Read More link) first class job all round.

From Marc Boucher (SpaceRef):
In a record breaking event, Steve Eves and his team of rocket men successfully launched a 1/10th scaled model version of the Apollo era Saturn V which took men to the moon. This is now considered the largest amateur rocket to ever be launched.

At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland on Saturday, the rocket which weighed over 1,600 pounds at launch and stood over 36 feet tall was powered by a massive array of nine motors, eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor. The estimated altitude the rocket was to fly was between 3,000 and 4,000 feet and the rocket was recovered.

The project led by Steve Eves and supported by ROCKETS Magazine and The Maryland Delaware Rocketry Association was made to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the historic Moon launch in 1969 that put men on the moon for the first time.

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From Fermi:

This all-sky movie shows counts of gamma rays with energies greater than 300 million electron volts from August 4 to October 30, 2008, detected by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope. Brighter colors indicate brighter gamma-ray sources. The circles show the northern (left) and southern galactic sky. Their edges lie along the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

You can go to the Fermi site to get more versions of this along with more information.

Spirit's Road. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A while back I mentioned the rover Spirit is going through computer reset events and nobody knows for sure why.  The computer was reset once again recently but the little rover has been as NASA puts it “well behaved”.

While teams are looking into the causes of the resets (and by the way, these are the sorts of things that NASA really excels at), Spirit has been given commands to continue “near-normal” operations.  Heh, as normal as driving a rover on another planet by remote control from Earth can get!  Those NASA guys and gals crack me up sometimes.

Anyways another bit of good news a small “dust cleaning event” (presumably from the thin Martian wind) has improved the output of the solar panels by 10 percent.

The image I have here was taken by Spirit’s nav-cam looking southeast, kind of looks like a road to my eye.  The small hill in the upper left is called “Von Braun” and is a possible target for investigation in the near future.  To add a bit of scale to the image, Von Braun is 525 feet (160 meters) away.

Head over to the MER website for all the happenings with both rovers.