Click on the picture to get a bigger view. What you're looking at is a snapshot from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the rover Opportunity at Victoria Crater. The Mars Rovers only had a 90 day mission life; they are nearing day 1,000. It's pretty cool to see two very successful space missions interact like this.
One of the great technological feats to be constructed in the 21st century is the Square Kilometer Array. Imagine thousands of small antennas spread out over 3,000 kilometers with a total collecting area of a million square feet. This radio telescope will be able to spot active galactic nuclei to within a billion years of the universe's formation. The leading contenders of where the site will be housed are South Africa and Australia. Construction should begin in 2010 and SKA will be fully operational in 2020. A long wait, but radio astronomers have some very exciting years ahead of them.
Tonight the entire city of Reykjavik, Iceland will turn off their lights at 10 pm and sit in the dark for half-an-hour. Why? To look at the stars of course! And while families are star gazing an astronomer will describe what they are looking at over the national radio. If they're really lucky they'll see the Northern Lights. What a great idea.
(Via Bad Astronomy)
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