This is what I saw

The Messenger

Piece honoring the Mercury MESSENGER mission created for my 7,000th tweet. The text is taken from the title page of a translated version of Galileo’s “Sidereal Messenger.” Background image was taken by MESSENGER on October 18, 2014. Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

can’t deny some girls just want to fly

Pancho Barnes (1901–1975) was a pioneering aviatrix. This is the image she used for her pilot’s license. Photo from 1928 by George Hurrell (image courtesy of the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive).

before after

A collage of old and new perspectives of Jupiter, Saturn, comets, Pluto, Europa, Mars, the Sun, and deepest space.  When New Horizons reaches Pluto in 2015, we will have the after picture.  Likewise Europa when we launch a mission there.  And Hubble’s Ultra Deepfield image will likely be superseded by even more amazing photos from JWST.

Glow of the rocket on every TV

1958 photo of family watching TV. (I modified TV face to show them watching the 1961 Freedom 7 launch.)

In the room the women come and go

Photographic plate that led to the discovery of Comet 67P. Plate was taken/developed by Svetlana Gerasimenko, co-discoverer with Klim Churyumov of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Inset picture is Gerasimenko (1975). Image courtesy for both pictures: Klim Churyumov

spacecraft and rovers

Spacecraft and rovers from Earth to upper right: Hubble Space Telescope (image credit: NASA), lunar rover Yutu (image credit: China space), Mars rover Curiosity (image credit: NASA/JPL), Cassini (image credit: NASA/JPL), Rosetta (image credit: ESA, image by AOES Medialab), New Horizons (image credit: NASA), Voyager (image credit: NASA), and Pioneer (image credit: NASA).

Goodnight: a poem for Philae

A poem for the European Space Agency’s lander, Philae, that landed successfully on Comet 67P on November 12, 2014. Background image credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.

Let the old image

A haiku for the ESA spacecraft Rosetta and its lander Philae, which successfully landed on a comet today. Background drawing of a comet from “Comet Lore: Halley’s Comet in History and Astronomy” (1910).

In awe we watched the moon-bound go

Spectators on a Florida beach await the launch of Apollo 11.