Recent Excerpts from Dennis L. Mammana's MammanaGrams

Astronomy Update

What an incredible week in the study of our solar system.  Just this morning, we saw the successful landing and recovery of the Stardust mission, whose payload of cometary and interstellar dust will tell us much about the origins of our planetary family.

And now, in one of the most exciting planetary missions ever undertaken, the New Horizons mission is scheduled to launch on its journey to the edge of our solar system....

After launch aboard an Atlas V, New Horizons will become the fastest spacecraft ever built by humans.  It will scream across the solar system at more than 31,000 miles per hour (8.68 miles per second)-fast enough to fly from San Diego to New York in only five minutes. Yet even at that speed, it will take nine years to reach its target-Pluto and its moon Charon.  The seven science instruments on the piano-sized probe will shed light on the bodies' surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres, and uncover even more mysteries that we cannot even imagine today.

To learn more about this remarkable mission, visit: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/

One of the questions planetary scientists hope to explore is the nature of Pluto-and the many Kuiper-belt objects (KBO)-as planets or something entirely different.  

We have only just begun to explore!

Vote for best space images of 2005. If you have a few minutes and want to see some of the most amazing photographs ever taken--and vote on which are your favorite--visit: http://www.space.com/bestimg/index.php?cat=best2005

Excerpted with permission from "MammanaGrams" by Dennis L. Mammana at www.skyscapes.com. Visit www.skyscapes.com to see examples of Dennis's spectacular photography and to sign up to receive his MammanaGrams. The entire archive of MammanaGrams is available at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/MammanaGrams.