* * * * The Nebula and the Neutron * * *

[betz]

In honor of all the fine men and women that we have lost in the pursuit of space:

A link to today's Nasa Picture from Space:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

A link to NASA's Constellation X :

http://constellation.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/main.html

Without the Shuttle, The Hubble or CHANDRA we would not be as astronomically on the edge as we are today.

"Our view of the universe is changing completely, says cosmologist Carlos Frenk of the University of Durham in England, and it's largely because of our new understanding of galaxy formation: "It's no exaggeration to say that we're going through a period of change analogous to the Copernican revolution."

Thank you to all the brave, intelligent men and women who have pushed and do push the edge to explore the frontiers of space, thus opening new windows for us here on this little planet Earth, thank you.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks very much, betz, and so very true.

 

[betz]

Launch of the Sun Pillar
Credit & Copyright: Lauri A. Kangas

On January 16, NASA's space shuttle Columbia roared into blue morning skies above Kennedy Space Center on STS-107, the first shuttle mission of 2003. But this is not a picture of that launch! It was taken on the morning of January 16 though, at sunrise, looking eastward toward Lake Ontario from just outside of Caledon, Ontario, Canada. In the picture a sun pillar, sunlight reflecting from ice crystals gently falling through the cold air, seems to shoot above the fiery Sun still low on the horizon. By chance, fog and clouds forming over the relatively warm lake look like billowing smoke from a rocket's exhaust plume and complete the launch illusion. Amateur photographer Lauri Kangas stopped on his way to work to record the eye-catching sun pillar launch.

 

[helenabear]

Thanks betz... and that is a beautiful picture too!