Space Updates

Despite the cancellation of the shuttle program (*tear*), there is actually still a lot happening around the world in the field of space exploration.  I was just browsing on a few of my favorite space sites and found some interesting articles to share:

According to data from NASA's Kepler mission, there are at least 100 Billion planets just in the Milky Way galaxy!

NASA has gone a bit crazy "reclaiming" Apollo era memorabilia.  These unprovoked acts of crazy include a granny selling a sliver of moon rock, a notebook used on Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell, and a handful of other belongings belonging to the now elderly Apollo era astronauts (whom have been heralded as American Heroes).

And speaking of the moon, China has their sites set on our little orbiting neighbor too.  But they, wisely, are looking to the future of moon travel, not the past...

There have been some pretty awesome ISS related pictures coming down lately too.  Check out the incredible image above of the ISS passing by the moon.  So cool.  And the picture below was taken from an astronaut on the ISS of a nearby comet.  It looks like a much closer call than it actually is!

And a former astronaut combines two of my favorite things - space and art - I can certainly understand where he gets his inspiration from!

Now if only we could start launching some vehicles again and create some good news...