science link of the day

something finally goes right for nasa.

see, i love astronomy, and i think we have learned so much from our forays into space exploration. but it's kind of funny if you think about it from the perspective of someone looking down (or up really) at our solar system: here's this tiny blue planet, maybe the only one with life for a good distance, that every so often chucks a big hunk of metal out into the vastness of space. i dunno, it always make me giggle to think about in that way. but i maybe i'm just weird. it's entirely possible.


(oh, there's a fairly neat animted graphic in this story)

Link