Comments on: Rosetta snaps Mars

By: Bill G.

Bill G. — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 01:08:22 +0000

Since the Milky Way galaxy is 150,000 light years across, it would take quite a while (that’s the understatement of the century) for a space ship from here to get far enough away from it to take a picture – like maybe a few billion years traveling at the speed of light (which is, of course, impossible).

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 01:02:30 +0000

After spending several hours categorizing galaxies on GalaxyZoo.com, I began to wonder if any photos have ever been taken of the Milky Way from the outside of it. I have only found one actual snapshot of our galaxy: it is an edge-on by COBE (http://today.slac.stanford.edu/a/2006/11-22.htm). I have scanned past hundreds of “artist’s renditions” who all understand that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, while individually interpreting their own fantasies of how our spiral galaxy appears from the viewpoint of, say, an Andromedan. Are you aware of any photos from space of the Milky Way in all its glory? Thanks.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:28:36 +0000

I was lead propulsion test engineer on Rosetta and it was a tough baby I can tell you – but seeing this picture gives me goosebumps – I can’t wait for the pics from the Mars fly by, the asteroid flybys and the cometray landing – makes all the blood sweat and tears worthwhile.
Thanks for publishing the picture on the website – made my day.

By: eddy

eddy — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:59:50 +0000

Keep those references to cool pictures comming.

Today I did two things:
- I altered an existing screen saver so it now has a reference to the download folder of my cool astro pictures (There was an easier way, but this is more flexible in the long run)
- I downloaded the widget “DeskSaver” again (had not come around to doing this after I move to my new computer)

Now, all these cool pictures are running as a slideshow on my desktop area.

As I said, just keep them comming.

By: Steve’s No Direction Home Page » Blog Archive » Rosetta Snaps Mars

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:04:26 +0000

[...] Here’s a gorgeous picture of Mars against the background of the Milky Way, taken by Rosetta on its way to rendezvous with a comet in 2014. I just love these little robots we have running around the solar system and telling so much so much faster than people will do. How many of these wonderful travels are we going to give up in order to try to put people on the moon? [...]

By: spacewriter

spacewriter — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:39:38 +0000

so, what part of comets are a big mystery? origins?

just curious… being that I did much of my research in a former life about comet plasma tails…

By: gopher65

gopher65 — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:55:39 +0000

What is that bright fuzzy dot to the left of Mars?

By: Wolverine

Wolverine — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:55:10 +0000

Gary, the Dawn mission (if all goes as planned) is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in February 2015.

By: tjm220

tjm220 — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:54:03 +0000

The DAWN mission involves Ceres.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:38:44 +0000

Addendum: I realize this particular probe isn’t involved but was wondering if there are any FUTURE probes planed involving Ceres?

GAry 7

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:36:56 +0000

Are there any plans to do a soft landing on the asteroid Ceres? Would be fascinating to analyze the structure of it.

Gary 7