I think I now want a ticket aboard Enterprise even more than I did before.

They're performing just one song, rumored to be either Gold, True or I'll Fly For You (surprising news to anyone who thought they had just two songs) if Spandau Ballet guitarist/saxophonist Steve Norman is to be believed. With only six passengers and two pilots allowed on that first Enterprise flight, the five Spandau Balleters will make up almost half the human weight. Although judging by the looks of Tony Hadley these days, maybe it'd be more like 50/50. [The List]

The WISE will be in orbit for the next nine months, snapping a photo every 11 seconds to map the entire universe in infrared. Eventually it'll cover the entire sky 1.5 times over.

It'll be looking for any objects that have a potential of hitting Earth as well as distant objects such as brown dwarfs and far-away galaxies shrouded in dust. Also, alien spacecraft. I mean, duh. [CNN, image via]

In October NASA said they would need $3 billion more per year to go forward with meaningful human space exploration, i.e. not just sending more robots up. For a while there were rumors going around that Washington was going to severely scale back the program's budget, but now according to Washington insider John Logsdon, "there will be more money."

He's also saying that Obama doesn't want to be that president who cuts a future oriented program. So he'll keep it alive, but he'll only give them a budget somewhere between their current spending and the $3 billion per year increase NASA is looking for. But all that means is that NASA will have to buddy up with international space programs a little more.

Let's face it, we weren't going to get to Mars on our own anyway. As long as NASA is still alive, and there's still a remote chance of me seeing a mission to Mars in my lifetime, I'm a happy camper. [New Scientist, image via Matthew Simantov]

That's how big this thing is: Its diameter is wider than two Earths. Nobody really knows what causes the hexagon, and why it has this precise geometric shape, something which is extremely rare—if not impossible—to find in atmospheric formations.

The Saturn hexagon left everyone speechless when Voyager sent the first images of the phenomenon, and still baffles scientists all over the world, like Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at CalTech:

The longevity of the hexagon makes this something special, given that weather on Earth lasts on the order of weeks. It's a mystery on par with the strange weather conditions that give rise to the long-lived Great Red Spot of Jupiter.

The always-amazing Cassini spacecraft just captured these images, which are the most detailed ever received portraying this strange cloud formation. [NASA]

Stuck in a soft patch of sand since April, its whole right side sounds damaged, thanks to the front-right wheel which hasn't worked since 2006, and now the back-right wheel that has seized up trying to get out of the sand.

Solar-powered, the Spirit Rover normally rests up each winter with its solar back angled towards any available sunlight, with enough power soaking in to keep its inside-bits from freezing. But if it can't move out of the sand pit it's stuck in, the Spirit Rover won't be able to soak up those vital rays of light.

NASA, if we all collected enough tinned soup and woolly jumpers to send to Mars, would that help? [New Scientist]

This is Chromoscope, showing our sky in the Far Infrared spectrum. The web application will allow you to smoothly go across the entire spectrum, from gamma rays to radio, going through X-ray, H-alpha, visible, and microwaves. [Chromoscope]

Click to zoom in.

Just try to count all of those. And then multiply that number by 100 billion, the estimate of all the stars in our own galaxy. Then imagine all the worlds surrounding all those stars. And then play this video:

The image was taken in the same region as the most amazing photo Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which was taken in 2004 and is the deepest visible-light image of the universe.

Here's where the area is located:

The photo was taken in August 2009—with a total exposure of 173,000 seconds—by the new Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed by astronauts during the most dangerous shuttle mission ever. The WFC3 captures light from near-infrared wavelength which allows to see further into the Universe, as the light traveling from the most distant galaxies gets stretched "out of the ultraviolet and visible regions of the spectrum into near-infrared wavelengths by the expansion of the universe."

I would tell you what is expanding now, NASA. You and I alone. In the chat room. Now. [NASA]

Trance "act" Above & Beyond DJed in the Mojave desert yesterday for Branson's SpaceShipTwo event, and are so desperate to see space, they've asked if they can join the ride. Hailing from the UK, Above & Beyond certainly sound space-nutty, sampling Buzz Aldrin in one of their tracks.

Boasting to NME, one of the trancers, Jono Grant, said:

"We're big fans of all things space-related and so in terms of dream gigs, this is up there alongside our performance in Rio to one million people"

Branson, how about forgetting the whole 'space passenger fights' thing and turning SpaceShipTwo into an intergalactic anti-Noah's Ark? [Above & Beyond NME via TechRadar]

Actually, I'm gonna get one of these posters simply because it feeds my fantasy of being a superhero spacegirl who goes wherever she spots the batsignal. But either way, looks like it's available for $10 and a heck of a lot of fun.

Ed. note: Plus, if you buy it, it benefits a very worthy charity that promotes literacy. For more geeky gifts whose proceeds go to great causes, have a look at this gift guide. [Greenwood Space Travel Supply via Datavis]

As a bonus: Enjoy Sir Richard Branson with his blonde wig—come on, nobody can have such perfect hair, and be so dashing—and the legendary Burt Rutan and his even-more-legendary muttonchops. These guys, my friends, are making history right now. And I'm talking about taking humans to the stars, not hairstyle history. Sure, it's suborbital fight, but you have to start somewhere. These people are the ones really pushing the envelope forward.

Check the still pictures here.

Click on image to see it in full resolution

I can't wait for a whole fleet to be developed, and the SpacePort to be finished.

I just saw SpaceShipTwo. It's very large and shiny. It's really impressive mounted to the mothership, makes Eve look right.

What you are seeing here is the rehearsal for the presentation of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, the first space airliner in history. It will happen tonight, so stay tuned for images of this new spectacular aircraft, hopefully the beginning of a long series yet to come.

UPDATE:

• Watch the photos of SpaceShipTwo here.
• Watch the video here.

[Flickr and Twitter via Hyperbola]

Geez. These modules are full-scale, custom-everything, and can be based on specific Apollo missions. I really don't think I've wanted a toy this much since the first Lego Mindstorms set. [Space Toys via Geekologie]

That's right, an Air Force aerospace engineer has developed a plan—well, let's call it a method—for altering the path of potentially harmful space objects by tethering them, via hilariously long cord, to a multi-billion pound weight. Theoretically, the weight would alter the menacing rock's orbit enough to avoid an Earth impact and certain doom. Oh, but that alteration would take anywhere from 10 to 50 years, which could be problematic based on our current detection capabilities. And we don't actually have a way of sending anywhere near that much weight into space in the first place, much less an idea of how to tie it around an asteroid. Maybe a really, really big sailor's knot? [Wired]

After two years of studying light output from the star's death, one scientist is proposing that this star might have been the biggest ever known. About 200 times larger than a standard solar mass.

And when huge stars explode, it involves some really cool words. Check out this description:

But in the case of an extremely massive star, while its core is still made of oxygen, it releases photons that are so energetic, they create pairs of electrons and their anti-matter opposites, positrons. When the matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other.

Electrons and positrons? Matter and anti-matter? All fighting to annihilate each other and creating what may be the biggest nuclear explosion EVER? Man that sounds awesome.

I hope I get an FPS-style killcam view of the universe when I die, just so I can see stuff like this go down. [Space.com via Gearlog]

But then again, that will be full of spooky planets too, emitting the same blood-curdling sounds. This music was recorded by Voyager I and II as they crossed paths with Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. They weren't captured with a microphone: Audible sound can't travel through space, so Voyager was listening to the electromagnetic waves around the planets and moons. Waves produced by space phenomena, like the planet's magnetospheres interacting with the Sun's radiation.

They were released in the 90s as the "Voyager Recordings - Symphonies of the Planets," but they are not for sale anymore. You can look for them on the internet, however. [How Stuff Works]

A team of scientists from Purdue, Penn State, NASA, and the Air Force have collaborated on the ALICE (ALuminum-ICE) Project, which makes rocket propellant out of a frozen mixture of water and nanoscale aluminum powder. The ultimate goal is for the more environmentally-friendly fuel to be used on long-distance space missions, but for now it's excellent for videos of rockets taking off (starting at 4:00). [Purdue University via MAKE]

This is what happened, according to the experiment project manager Stefanie Countryman:

They basically learned really quickly not to fly. When they try to fly, because there's no gravity to stabilize them, they basically tumble.

This is what happened, according to the butterfly:

So I was like, you know, taking this nap, and then I woke up and I was like, Huh? What? What? Fuck. I'm not a worm anymore. Oh, and I had these things on my back, you know? Wings. So I said: hey, let's try to fly for a little b*WHOAWHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA!!! What the fuck was that? The hell... I was like, going like crazy, man. So I got back down, or up, or whatever the fuck, I don't know, this is space, you know. And I was like OK, let's try ag*WHOAOHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCK!!! What fuckassery is this? I don't know man. Fuck that flying thing. I'm staying on the ground.

True story. [Bloombert]

The panorama represents the combined effort of two Spitzer survey teams, who used two of the telescope's onboard instruments, the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and the Multiband Imaging Photometer.

The large image was made from stitching together 800,000 individual pictures taken by Spitzer, for a total of 2.5 billion infrared pixels. It covers an area of the sky about as wide as a pointer finger and as long as the length of arms outstretched, which might sound small, but covers about half of the entire galaxy, says Robert Hurt, of the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech.

Just another friendly reminder that our entire lives are insignificant and that none of us will ever know one iota of the true mysteries of the universe that we live in. Happy Friday! [Space.com via The Daily What]

What's so special about the Space Barley?

The "space barley" used to make this beer is the fourth generation descendant of the Haruna Nijo malting barley that was developed by Sapporo Breweries and kept in space for five months during 2006 as part of our collaborative research with the Russian Academy of Sciences and Okayama University with the purpose of achieving self-sufficiency in food in the space environment. Since Sapporo Breweries was founded, we have continued to create excellent varieties for raw materials, and we are the only company in the world that operates breeding/research organizations for both barley and hops. This, the world's first sale of this "space beer," is the result of our extended nurturing/development of the required technologies.

Sounds good to me, Sr. Sapporo. The only bad thing is that there are only 250 boxes available, each with six 330ml bottles. I'd gladly pay the $113 to get one of these, but you have to first get into a lottery at the Space Barley page. Which is like hoping to win a ticket to get into the space shuttle's last flight. [Sapporo Beer via Pink Tentacle]

And, like we said, there's no reason Californians would reject the deal between Solaren and PG&E—the utility company isn't investing or putting up any money at all, it's just saying "sure, we'll buy energy from you if and when this thing ever works." Which, you know, duh. The 15-year contract starts in 2016, by which time hopefully we won't have already devolved into a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic desert state. [CPUC via CNET]

The new magnetic heat shield—developed by EADS Astrium, the German aerospace center, and the European Space Agency—is expected to complement or replace traditional ceramic heat shields entirely. The field will be generated by a super-conducting coil, deflecting atmosphere particles from the surface of the spaceship and, therefore, eliminating friction.

If everything goes as they expect, it will be tested with a Russian Volna launcher in the next decade, which will enter the atmosphere at Mach 21. [Flight Global]

Ok, so maybe the real suit isn't quite as slinky as the one on Jane Fonda there, but it's incredible anyway. Designed by David Akin and Shane Jacobs at the University of Maryland, the design is basically a baggy suit with an upper torso which "contracts using pneumatic artificial muscles to ensure a perfect fit."

I certainly hope those artificial muscles know when to stop squeezing, because crushed astronauts wouldn't exactly be able to use the "stereo LCD spectacles" and the in-helmet video screen that come with the suit. [New Scientist via io9]

Barbarella photo by Klipsch

For the first time in history, butterfly larvae—who were only six days old at launch time—have hatched in space. It happened on November 10, 2009, as part of the STS-129 "Butterflies in Space" experiment, on board the International Space Station. I can only imagine their confusion as they discovered there was no gravity. I don't have to imagine how itchy I feel by just looking at these images. [Flickr via Popular Science]

I mean, if I were God, I would go live there: A well illuminated apartment, with a nice kitchen in which to cook some new stars, and a sunny beach. But since I'm agnostic, I will tell you that this nebula is just a titanic group of particles, with sizes ranging from ten to a hundred times smaller than a Earth dust grain. It doesn't emit anything: NGC 7023 just reflects the light from HD 200775, a nearby magnitude +7 superstar.

The Iris Nebula was first discovered in 1794 by Sir William Herschel, this is the first closeup, taken by the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Scientists are now studying its composition—which is formed by an unknown hydrocarbon-based compound—using Hubble's infrared camera. [Hubble]

A funky fancy table and a lunar rock. Just that. Sure, the lunar rock sounds worthy, but when they tell you it's from a Moon meteor that crashed against our planet, it somehow gets me from wet to dry instantly. I guess a rock brought by the astronauts would add a zero or two to the $90,500 figure, but it just doesn't have the same flair as the "real" thing. [Fast Company]

A reporter asked about the lack of turkey dinner in the official NASA menu, but mission commander Charles Hobaugh replied "shockingly, yes, I think it will be" as they flashed some bags with the goodies inside. Hobaugh didn't care a lot:

Thanksgiving to me has not always been about the food you eat, but the company you keep, and I'm keeping some outstanding company here. I can't wait to get home and share a late Thanksgiving meal with my family but, in the meantime, I've got a great group of friends and I'm really thankful for that.

A NASA spokesman was surprised and didn't have any explanation except that some of the ISS crew may have sneaked turkey—smoked and irradiated—candied yam, freeze-dried cornbread stuffing, and green beans packages into the station.

Meanwhile, this Gizmodo editor is surprised that he didn't vomit while writing this article, after eating between five and three hundred pounds of turkey today. [AP]

Click here to see all the gifts in a single page.

From the Earth to the Moon - The Signature Edition: This is one of my favorite TV series of all time. It's well scripted, acted, filmed, and directed, to the point in which you will get glassy eyes at some of the most dramatic and epic moments. My favorite is still the episode in which Apollo 12 arrives at the Moon, perhaps the most anticlimactic moment in the history of space travel. Even if you watched this on TV, each of the 12 episodes are a must to fully understand the titanic scope, knowledge, and courage that took humans into their trip from the Earth to the Moon. $15 [Amazon]

Lego Saturn V: This one is a given: Saturn V + command module + lunar module + lunar rover + Lego = Insane win. I wish it was as big as the gigantic Millennium Falcon, but it's good enough as it is. Everyone will like the set, and it's a perfect way to celebrate the 40 Anniversary of humankind's first trip to the Moon. $139 [Amazon]

Moonfire: At $1500, this is one very expensive book. But it is a limited edition of 1969 units. The last 12 of them—numbered from 1958 to 1968—have a moon rock inside, but those go for a creditbreaking $90,500. And the moon rock is not from the Apollo mission, but from a certified meteor. Alternatively, you can always buy the beautiful—and a lot cheaper at $31—Full Moon. $1500 [Taschen]

Trip to the Kennedy Space Center to watch a shuttle launch: Going to the Kennedy Space Center is always fun. Going to see a launch and feel the ground tremble below your feet while the sky fires up in Halloween orange and chimney red? Simply amazing. Going to watch one of the last shuttle launches next year? An absolute must. If you give this trip to any space aficionado out there, he or she will love you forever. $38 adult/$28 child for the admission ticket, add $21 adult/$15 child for guided tour, plus cost of flight and hotel. [Kennedy Space Center]

NASA Flight Jacket: The other day I got a real USAF fighter pilot jacket at a second hand shop. I wish I had that for a perfectly dorky Tom Cruise impression at the Dubai Air Show. This NASA Flight Jacket is the next best thing. Kind of. And it comes with all the patches. You only have to provide the Right Stuff. $79.99 [The Space Shop]

American Optics Pilot Eyeglasses: OK, so you got the jacket. Now you need the sunglasses. Forget about Ray-Bans. These American Optics' Original Pilot Sunglasses are the real thing, used by astronauts since the beginning of the human space program. You can choose different colors, lenses, and temples at their web site. Unfortunately, they no longer make the yellow bayonet model used by Michael Collins during the Apollo 11. Those are my favorites (pictured here). $70. [American Optics]

IMPOSSIBLE Ride in the Space Shuttle: Even if you had all the money in the world, NASA would never let you ride the shuttle. A Soyuz spacecraft, sure, but no space shuttle. Nosir, no big bang for you on top of this Reagan era wonder. You will have to enjoy this video and get over it, because sadly it wouldn't happen even if you were Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and JesusChrist all rolled into one. No price tag. But you can go on Virgin Galactic for a cool $200k. [NASA]

DON'T BUY Astronaut ice cream: This thing is disgusting. I want to like it every time I try it, but it has the most horrible taste. Maybe they should clean those astronauts more throughly before making ice cream with them. Die space ice cream, die! Give me Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie any day. $4 [The Space Shop]

Don't forget to recommend your own favorite space gifts in the comments-include pics and pricing if possible.
All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

The Rock just wants to make sure we remember that NASA's responsible for the rubber soles on our shoes, and the (apparently humorous) inclusion of freeze-dried fruit in cereal. But c'mon, NASA. We need fewer celebrity endorsements, more trips to Mars if we want to keep kids convinced the organization has reason to exist. [Techland]

Clark Planetarium Director Seth Jarvis said the stony meteorite was probably traveling 80,000 miles an hour when it hit our atmosphere. He said it happened 100 miles up in the air; so despite the brightness, Utah was never in any danger. "These collisions can do damage, but they are extremely rare; and literally once in a century do you observe something that's actually doing damage," he said. Witness Andy Bailey said, "Oh, it lit up the whole sky, like almost brighter than the day. It was bright." Don White was in Wyoming and told KSL Newsradio for a moment he suspected a nuclear strike. "With something that brilliant and that fast, it was like, whoa, did we just get hit or something? It would have been some bigger noise I guess if a nuclear device had gone off," he said.

[KSL via Boing Boing]

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Lego: It's not really a secret that Lego building blocks are widely loved. They're perfect for any age, but a particularly fun gift for an engineering or physics nerd who lacks some brightly-colored fun. Whether you go for a Millennium Falcon, a Mindstorms NXT robot set, or a smaller kit, just be sure your beloved recipient has time for construction. If you've got a younger nerd-in-the-making, check out programs like Dean Kamen's FIRST, which encourages learning and development of science, math, and technology through hands-on activities (many of which are Lego-based). Prices vary widely [Lego; Image Source]

BuckyBalls: 216 pellet-shaped rare earth magnets may scream "physics lesson," but in reality they're a jar full of fun. Your science nut can construct all sorts of 3D shapes for hours of mindless—or extremely brain-intensive—entertainment. And should he ever manage to get bored with the balls, he can just use them for one heck of a refrigerator magnet collection. $30 Link; Busted Tees]

DON'T BUY A Star: I don't know how you could imagine that getting someone a sheet of paper proclaiming that you've named a star after her is a clever idea. It's a scam to begin with and even the most thoughtless gift certificate would be a better idea (and won't leave you stuttering that you thought she "likes space and umm..stuff").

Photo by jared

I've never seen a stocking that didn't like being filled with a bit of awkward science-themed, cotton-based humor and somehow science nerds in particular have a soft spot for geeky shirts. You can head to ThinkGeek, Threadless, and Snorg Tees if you're looking for some of the shirts we've mentioned in the past—my personal favorite is still the ingredient shirt. $19 [Snorg Tees]

Chemistry Experiment Kit:This one's more geared to the younger lab rats, but no science nerd should miss out on a proper chemistry set. This C3000 set is a nice splurge, and even guides you through building a DIY fire extinguisher for when experiments go wrong, but you can certainly go for a smaller kit or even put one together on your own. $230 [Scientifics]

Casio EX-FC100: Science types want to document the entire world in pictures and video. Thanks to technological advancements, falling prices and MythBusters, highspeed slow-mo photography has carved out a nerdy niche in recent years. Casio's EX-FC100 may not be an EX-F1, but it's nice and small and has most of that slow mo covered, plus some nice nature-watcher tricks in still shooting, too. Despite the fact that still picture quality isn't as high as a similarly sized Canon, the FC100's set of unique talents make it a worthwhile toy for active observers of the physical world. $226 [Review; Amazon]

Giant Plush Microbes: If you're in need of a stocking stuffer for a biology nerd, these plush microbes are a sure thing. They're cute (just look at syphilis!) and add a bit of silliness to many all-too-serious subjects. $12 [Think Geek]

Processing Time on a Supercomputer: If you've got a mad, crazy, number-crunching, super science nerd on your hands—along with your own pretty thick wallet—then you can go through a company like Exa and get them some quiet time with a supercomputer. Your nerd will be able to run her insane calculations using high-performance computing and save quite a bit of time, so be sure to have some hot chocolate for two ready for a calm evening after. Prices vary, but they're gonna clean out your pockets [Exa]

Photo by Argonne National Laboratory

Don't forget to recommend your own favorite gift ideas for science nerds in comments—include pic and pricing if possible.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

If you are having problems, you can tune to NASA TV

Click on the small playback button—and sit through the 30 second ad—to watch it in the page.

This will be the last shuttle launch in 2009. Then we will only have five more launches:

• STS-130 Endeavour: ISS assembly flight 20A: Node 3 and Cupola. February 4, 2010
• STS-131 Discovery: ISS assembly flight Utility and Logistics Flight 4: Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo. March 18, 2010
• STS-132 Atlantis: ISS assembly flight 19A: Mini-Research Module 1. Final planned flight of Atlantis. May 14, 2010
• STS-134 Endeavour: ISS assembly flight ULF6, ELC 4, ROEU, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Final planned flight of Endeavour. July 29, 2010
• STS-133 Discovery: ISS assembly flight ULF5, MPLM Leonardo, (to be left pemanently attached), ELC 3. Final flight of Discovery. Final Shuttle flight of the program. September 16, 2010.

All good (and bad) things have to end one day. It will be sad to see the last flight of the old space beasts from the Reagan Era. [NASA]

This is the first part of the ad. The second half for their Satellite T Series ULV laptops will come out next year. [Toshiba UK via Engadget]

Facts about the shoot:

• The shots were taken at a staggering 98,268 feet above the earth using Toshiba's own cameras
• To reach the altitude required and to conform with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the weight of the rig had to be carefully managed to a weight of no more than four pounds
• Tied to the rig was a specially created full-sized model chair made of biodegradable balsa wood – the chair was made by a company called Artem and cost about £2,500
• Launch coordinates of the rig were - 119 degrees, 14 minutes by 40 degrees, 48 minute (12 miles North-East of the town of Gerlach, Nevada)
• The quality of the footage from the Toshiba IK-HR1S cameras was: 1920x1080 pixel count; 1080i @ 50hz; 100 Mbps
• The temperature dropped to minus 90 degrees when the chair reached 52,037 feet
• The chair took 83 minutes to reach an altitude of 98,268 feet where it broke and took just 24 minutes to fall back down to earth with the rig.

At least, that's the plan. Really they're not expecting much from their efforts. Even though NASA has spent half a year planning how to get the rover out of the loose sand it's stuck in, every step will be dependent on what happens during the previous one. Right now NASA only has six forward rotations of Spirit's wheels planned. They anticipate extreme slippage, and will have to reevaluate the next steps once that first miniscule motion is completed.

If work continues at that pace, it's easy to see why escape efforts are planned to last until 2010. Even if Spirit can't get out of the sand trap that swallowed it, there's still plenty of good the rover can do while stationary. Just know that, whatever happens, we're all pulling for you little buddy. [Network World via Slashdot]

It's an announcement that's been expected for some time.

Are we talking about enough water for astronauts to actually live off? That's what NASA is analyzing now, attempting to scale the results of the small section studied by LCROSS. But "it's water like any other water," NASA said, though it'd need purification to drink. I guess that whole moon bombing didn't turn out so boring after all. [CNN]

Click on the image to see the high resolution

So simple, that little blue thing. So lost in the blackness of the Void of Nothingness.

This unique perspective of Earth was taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on board Rosetta, from 393,327 miles (633,000 kilometers) on 12 November 2009 at 13:28 CET. The image—which form by three exposures under orange, green, and blue filters—shows the South Pole at a resolution of 12 kilometer per pixel.

Rosetta is coming back home for the last time, to take the impulse necessary to reach the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When it reaches it in 2014, Rosetta will first study the comment flying alongside, then it will attempt to set its mechanic feet on it. For that it will use the Philae lander that it carries along its decade-long trip around the Solar System.

Philae will drill holes into the comet to study its nucleus in search for life's building blocks, and it will land on firing two harpoons to avoid bouncing off its surface. That's will be when Captain Ahab—the mission controller back in Earth—laughs like a maniac, and Starbuck shakes his head in despair. [ESA]