Mars Shit

There’s enough material here for Vaughan Oliver to do like ukumillion more ’80s era 4ad albums. See more lovely Mars pics here.

Phoenix lander, as seen by HiRISE

Gonna nerd out for a sec here, but this is one hell of a shot: It's a close-up from yesterday of the Phoenix lander descending through the Martian atmosphere, as seen by a satellite that just happened to be orbiting Mars at the time (the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in fact). That is rad.

Just about as rad as this: a photo from one of the Mars rovers looking back at its discarded heat shield, next to one of the spots it bounced at whilst landing. And the SCIENCE they do isn't half bad, either.