01/09/2008
New Horizons Visits Jupiter and Io
I love this composite of Jupiter and its moon Io recently released by NASA, although I have to say it does remind me of those velvet posters from the 70's that are meant to be put under black light so they glow. Cool nonetheless.
NASA's description: "In February of last year, New Horizons passed Jupiter and the ever-active Jovian moon Io. In this montage, Jupiter was captured in three bands of infrared light making the Great Red Spot look white. Complex hurricane-like ovals, swirls, and planet-ringing bands are visible in Jupiter's complex atmosphere. Io is digitally superposed in natural color. Fortuitously, a plume was emanating from Io's volcano Tvashtar. Frost and sulfuric lava cover the volcanic moon, while red-glowing lava is visible beneath the blue sunlight-scattering plume. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft is on track to arrive at Pluto in 2015."
Here's another related image of Io and its volcano that I posted in December.
It was also reported yesterday that during a service mission to the Hubble Space telescope scheduled for August 2008, astronauts would upgrade the equipment: "The repairs, along with the addition of two new instruments, will make Hubble 90 times as powerful as it was after its flawed optics were corrected in 1993."
Posted 5:30 PM EST by Andy Towle in News, Space | Permalink
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Andy, you are the cutest gay geek EVAR. I have a new telescope if you'll bring the herbal tea and Splenda (or we can have chai lattes).
Posted by: Jerry | Jan 9, 2008 7:30:48 PM
Pretty picture. I wonder if aliens will ever land here like the new movie "Cloverfield"?
Andy, you would love my brother. He works for NASA, & is the biggest science geek ever (something or other called astropsysisist). Science is hard. I hate it.
Posted by: Jordan | Jan 9, 2008 8:52:24 PM
Wow...This is why I love Towleroad: unlike any other blog with homosexual tendencies you put Jupiter on the headlines instead of some shirtless [male] mortals....awesome!
Posted by: Jorge Florez | Jan 9, 2008 10:48:30 PM
... and waht's wrong with groovy black-light "posters?" he said, dating himself.
Posted by: PG | Jan 10, 2008 12:30:46 AM