Steve Gildea Planetary Suite, Circa 1990

Images of the Earth and the moon above the Rings of Saturn taken by Cassini on April 13, 2017.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

How quickly do we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story "Nightfall," about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen. (x)

Io: The Volcanic Moon

Want to see a volcano erupt? Try visiting Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanic world in our solar system. Some eruptions are so intense they launch molten material dozens of miles above the surface!

Image Credit: NASA

Shout out to all of my awake friends!

Jupiter is perpetually covered with clouds composed of ammonia crystals and possibly ammonium hydrosulfide. The clouds are located in the tropopause and are arranged into bands of different latitudes, known as tropical regions. These are sub-divided into lighter-hued zones and darker belts. The interactions of these conflicting circulation patterns cause storms and turbulence. Wind speeds of 100 m/s (360 km/h) are common in zonal jets. The zones have been observed to vary in width, color and intensity from year to year, but they have remained sufficiently stable for scientists to give them identifying designations.

The cloud layer is only about 50 km (31 mi) deep, and consists of at least two decks of clouds: a thick lower deck and a thin clearer region. There may also be a thin layer of water clouds underlying the ammonia layer. Supporting the idea of water clouds are the flashes of lightning detected in the atmosphere of Jupiter. These electrical discharges can be up to a thousand times as powerful as lightning on Earth. The water clouds are assumed to generate thunderstorms in the same way as terrestrial thunderstorms, driven by the heat rising from the interior.

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I found a really cool Youtube channel called History of the Earth that covers topics in the incredibly distant past. I'm talking billions of years ago. And learning how the Earth itself formed and where water came from and about the very first single-celled organisms is just like... woah. WOAH.

It's wild that billions of years ago there were just some bacteria hanging out in the ocean and now we have all this. It's really humbling and puts into perspective how precious our planet is. How precious life is.

The Himalayan plateau, as seen from the ISS by europeanspaceagency

Dunkleosteus, motherfuckers.

Planet: Saturn

Saturn is losing its rings at an accelerated rate. Scientists estimate that the rings will be gone in 100 million years.

Crow, landing by me like one of those kinetic bombardment tungsten rods: I am ancient. I am all-seeing. I sat on the shoulders of gods, made friends with the wolf and picked clean the eyes of your brothers. I am the ever-shifting trickster and the croak at the back of Death's throat. I am darkness a-wing and night in the day.

Me: Baby! Your lunch is there, go mad.

Crow: ...

Me: ...

Crow: Ooh, raisins!