Hurricane Ike obviously turned out to be a monster for most of Texas, particularly Galveston and Houston.

But I found this image on Space.com and I thought to myself, “Wow.” Here you go:

If you have any interest in science and space, then I have a show for you. The Discovery Channel has done it again with an extraordinary series called When We Left Earth which chronicles America’s Space Missions. Check out my review here and you can download the entire season on ITunes!

http://www.vimeo.com/1286066

There’s not a major news site or science website that hasn’t covered yesterday’s history making event, but do you know what happens next? How long will Mars Phoenix Lander be working? Did you know that NASA is running against a clock?

Thanks to NASA’s JPL team, here’s a phenomenal video that explains the mission, what will need to happen next, and the challenges that still lie ahead of Mars Phoenix Lander:

http://www.vimeo.com/1068518

I can’t think of a greater post to write on this Memorial Day than what just occurred, yesterday, when NASA/JPL realized their Mars Phoenix Lander successfully landed on Mars.  Many congratulations are in order to America as well as SEVERAL other countries (Canada, several European countries) for making this an awesome mission!

As you know from my previous post, it was a “nail biter” yesterday when I was watching NASA and the Mars Phoenix Lander control room with over one thousand other Ustream fans. And I will also say it made me feel very proud to be an American when we got the word that the Mars Phoenix Lander had successfully landed.

This video below shows exactly what it took for this robot/probe to get on to the ground. Check it out:

http://www.vimeo.com/1068074

Pretty amazing stuff, right?

Now comes the reward. Mars Phoenix Lander will be probing the north, icy plains of Mars for weeks if not years to come. Pictures are being digitally sent over to Earth every 7 minutes so in the next few days, check back here for more discoveries.

I’ll leave you with the video below, when American’s NASA control room got the word that their painstaking mission was a success. God Bless America!

http://www.vimeo.com/1068084

I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with our universe/solar system/moons and I just recently found two of the coolest websites that I had to share with you. Did you know that there are a few telescopes around the world that will allow you to control them via the internet? You can take pictures of the heavens and these sites will email them to you FOR FREE! It’s true. What’s even better is that you don’t have to be an expert as to what you want to photograph as it’s all laid out for you.

The MicroObservatory allows you to create as many “job orders” as you’d like and their telescopes can take pictures of our nearest neighbor, the moon, or it can even take pictures of galaxies that are thousands of light years away. Obviously the weather plays an important factor on how your photograph will turn out, so the MicroObservatory also gives you weather updates so you can see if tonight’s the perfect night for your job order to take place. I tried taking a photograph of our moon as well as a few planets and I received the photographs within a few business days. They were sent to me via email and were attached as jpeg images. It’s truly awesome.

The second telescope site that you can have take pictures of the heavens is the Bradford Robotic Telescope. Their telescopes have a few more celestial objects that you can photograph and they do take a bit longer for you to receive the photos, but nonetheless it’s free and it’s a really moxie service.

Check them out and let me know how your photos turn out! Please feel free to submit your photo links in the comments below! I’d love to see them!

Milky Way Galaxy (top) and Our Moon (bottom)

I’ve become more and more fascinated with our Earth as well as Space and our Solar System ever since I’ve been a user of the internet.  With the huge number of space exploration videos out there, it can become a tiresome task to find one that really wows you.

Since Earth Day is approaching (April 22nd, 2008) I thought I’d dedicate my blog to educating my readers (as well as myself) on just how unique and wonderful our Earth is.  Where to start?  Here, naturally…