The Bad Astronomer reminds us that today is the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s hard to believe that Hubble has been sending back incredible photos of the universe around us for nearly two decades. Time flies.
To celebrate the anniversary, NASA has released 59 images of galaxies colliding with other galaxies, the largest collection of Hubble images ever released to the public in a single package. The image above contains some highlights. Click on it to see ’em large, or go here for the complete gallery.

Good stuff, Maynard!

Do you remember Buran, the space shuttle the Russians built back in the ’80s that looked so much like ours? Ever wonder what happened to it after the collapse of the USSR? Well, I have, and today I finally satisfied my curiosity.

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Nothing to say, just thought this was an awesome pic. Click on it to get the full effect, and my thanks to Damaris for sharing…

At the Natural History Museum in New York City this morning, gazillionaire Richard Branson and aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan have just unveiled the design for SpaceShipTwo, the follow-up to Rutan’s X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne, which, you may remember, was the first privately built, manned, and reusable vehicle to reach outer space. That’s a photo of the new spacecraft up there, slung between the twin fuselages of the White Knight 2 launch vehicle that will carry it aloft; click to embiggen and have a good, close look at the future. The White Knight 2 is said to have the same wingspan as a B-29 bomber, while SpaceShipTwo is large enough for passengers to get up and walk around during their suborbital tourist flights. The dual vehicle will fly for Branson’s Virgin Galactic and there are reportedly already 100 wanna-be astronauts on the waiting list.

It’s unlikely the fares for this thing will ever drop low enough for anyone other than venture capitalists and trust-fund babies to take a ride, but it’s still pretty exciting. Even as we’re reading that government-funded manned space missions may never happen, the private sector is forging ahead with its eyes on the stars. We may get there yet. If nothing else, this vehicle could open up the possibility of fast sub-orbital passenger flights around the world. Imagine flying from Los Angeles to Sydney in only a couple of hours (or less) instead of the better part of two days…

Further details here.

Thirty years ago today, the Voyager 2 space probe was launched on a groundbreaking mission to explore the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, followed a couple of weeks later by its twin, Voyager 1. (I never have heard why number two went first…) Like those amazingly durable Mars rovers that appear to have survived even a planetary-scale dust storm, the Voyagers have far outlived their designed lifespan of five years and continue to send back useful data from beyond the orbit of Pluto as they coast toward interstellar space. Lots of interesting information can be had in this article, including the facts that Voyager 1 is currently the most distant human-made object, with a one-way radio message taking 14 hours to reach it, and both craft are getting by on a mere 300 watts of electricity — equal to the output of just a couple of standard three-way lightbulbs — which is provided by tiny nuclear powerplants because they’re too far away for solar power.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built and operates the Voyagers, has a website devoted to the ongoing mission, and from there you can download a retrospective about those famous “golden records” afixed to the sides of the two spacecraft — you know, the “message in a bottle” that invites the alien to Earth so he can become Jeff Bridges and have sex with Karen Allen in Starman…

It’s another of those cursedly busy, damnably hot days here at the New Proofreaders’ Cave, deep within the bowels of one the glorious metropolitan skyscrapers in fabulous downtown Salt Lake City. (My Corporate Overlords recently decided that my proofreading team needed to move to a different part of the building, hence the “new” descriptor. The NPC isn’t bad, but I’ve lost my window view, which is a major bummer, and we also have roomies now, which is proving to be somewhat, ahem, difficult. They like to play Guitar Hero. While I’m trying to proofread. This, as my friend Jack would say, is sub-optimal. But what’re you going to do, short of having an over-the-top temper tantrum that ends with a desk phone being thrown through a television set, followed by a visit from an HR representative?)

Anyhow, since I’m probably not going to find the time to anything substantial here today, how’s about a cool photo? Behold:

That’s the space shuttle Atlantis moored to the International Space Station during its recent mission there. What’s interesting about this photo — beyond the fact that it’s a nice expansive view of the entire structure — is that it was taken from the ground as the ISS passed 190 nautical miles overhead. As usual, you can click the image for a larger view, or you can go here for details on how this was done.

Hope the AC’s working, wherever you are…

Scalzi points the way this morning to what he calls “the coolest picture you’ll see today”, and I’ve got to agree: it’s amazing. It’s a shot that was taken back in 2003 by the Mars Global Surveyor space probe, in orbit around the Red Planet. Click here, then click the photo for maximum bigness. You’ll see the half-phase Earth and moon at the top of the photo; scroll all the way to the bottom and you’ll see Jupiter and three of its moons. That’s the third and fifth planets of our system seen in the same frame, photographed from the fourth planet. And the photo has a high-enough resolution that both planets are easily identifiable, even by a non-astronomer type. With a little digital massaging, you can even tell which hemisphere of our world was turned toward the camera. Beautiful…

If you’re interested in the technical details, go here. But whatever you do, have a look at the photo…