Carl Sagan | "Wanderers"

From A Tribute to Carl Sagan:



"For all it's material advantages, the sedentery life has left us edgy, unfulfilled.
The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood..."

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Astronomy Pic of the Day - Trifid Nebula

Stars and dust in the Trifid Nebula



Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Trifid Nebula. Also known as M20, this photogenic nebula is visible with good binoculars towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The energetic processes of star formation create not only the colors but the chaos. The red-glowing gas results from high-energy starlight striking interstellar hydrogen gas. The dark dust filaments that lace M20 were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernovae explosions...

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Tire Tracks, Empty Planet

More from Mars. Martian Rover Opportunity's tire tracks traverse a vast Martian plain of dunes:



Last week Opportunity surpassed Viking 1 as the longest running mission on Mars, now extending well over six years. Landing in 2004 in Meridiani Planum, the robotic Opportunity has embarked on its longest and most dangerous trek yet, now aiming to reach large Endeavor Crater sometime next year.

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NASA: Phoenix Mars Lander Won't Be Phoning Home

Phoenix Mars Lander has ended operations after repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft were unsuccessful. A new image transmitted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows signs of severe ice damage to the lander's solar panels.



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TED TALKS | Bill Gates On A new Future For Energy

Maybe he can lead the way, someone needs to.

Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for "miracles" to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.

"A molecule of uranium has a million times more energy than a molecule of coal." He and Nathan "Mosquito Zapper" Myrhvold are backing a nuclear approach. It's called Terrapower, and it's different from a standard nuclear reactor. Instead of burning the 1% of uranium-235 found in natural uranium, this reactor burns the other 99%, called uranium-238. You can use all the leftover waste from today's reactors as fuel. "In terms of fuel this really solves the problem." He showed a photo of depleted waste uranium in steel cylinders at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky -- the waste at this plant could supply the US energy needs for 200 years (woah!), and filtering seawater for uranium could supply energy for much longer than that."

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