Here comes the sun

Hands down, this is the photo of the day, showing the shuttle Atlantis silhouetted against the sun. It was taken from Florida, using a sun filter, on Tuesday. Very, very cool.

Zeroes and fives

Yesterday passed without the significance of the date even dawning on me. It has been 39 years since a man-made spacecraft landed on the moon and a human first set foot on another celestial body.

Maybe my memory would have been better if I had actually been alive on July 20, 1969 and could remember the day firsthand. But still, it's one of the most important dates in human history.

Lester Holt made a very good point that I've mentioned to people before. What's the deal with our fascination with anniversaries that end in zeroes and fives? Why is the 39th anniversary of Apollo 11 less noteworthy 40th? As Lester predicts, there wasn't much talk about it yesterday, but we'll hear tons about it next year.

Enjoying the view

Whether you're a NASA buff or not, you've got to check out these pictures from the last shuttle mission. I'm not 100 percent sure if they're legit. But either way -- they're amazing!

The Martian Holy Grail

Scientists have theorized that there may have been water on Mars millions of years ago--maybe billions of years ago.

Now NASA thinks it's found evidence of water on Mars right now. How cool is that? Could there be life in that water?

'To seek out new life...'

This is pretty exciting stuff. Scientists may have discovered evidence of water geysers on one of Saturn’s icy moons.

This greatly enhanced and colorized image from the Cassini spacecraft shows a faint plume of ice crystals and water vapor rising hundreds of miles from the surface of Enceladus.

Evidence of water in a liquid form puts Enceladus on the short list f places within the solar system most likely to have extraterrestrial life.

If Enceladus does harbor life, it probably consists of microbes or other primitive organisms capable of living in extreme conditions, scientists say. But hey, we’ve all got to start somewhere, right?