Topic: =/\= space topics for today 7-24-10

[stoneyface]

i have a couple of good ones today, not really earth shattering but still cool. (you will see the pun in that last statement soon)

first off i have an article on how scientists are rethinking the way that they search for extra-solar planets. they had the great idea of thinking of the earth as an extra-solar and observed it from the moon as they would looking out in the milky way. they were rewarded with some good data to support their search model. article here: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/07/earth-as-an-extrasolar-planet.html

next up an interesting observation article from those studying saturn. it seems that saturns move Prometheus is spawning little "moonlets" from the rings much like large planets are formed in accretion disks. the details are hard to summarize here so read the article to get the full skinny here: http://news.discovery.com/space/saturn-moon-prometheus-moonlets.html
also cool pictures here: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002594/

so, i am leaving today for maryland for a week. see you all aug 2nd!

[marstone]

Cool, interesting read.