The beauty of Martian Landscaping

In a previous post, I mentioned the use of Utah's Plateaus and Canyons to illustrate the Landscape of Mars (Barsoom) in Disney's John Carter.

As some of you may know Mars has just been the closest to Earth it will be for quite some time. If you are like me, you did not possess a telescope powerful enough to get a  glimpse of the martian terrain. Luckily, The University of Arizona  Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, has and will continue to capture high resolution images of Mars that we can view on their website . I highly recommend sharing these wonderful photos with the budding astronomer in your family! 

Serpent Dust Devil of Mars, courtesy of HiRISE, University of Arizona

Strange New Worlds, anyone?

Fodder for the space exploration enthusiast! How many new planets have we discovered in the pages of our favourite books, or in films? Remember the habitable moon Pandora, in the movie Avatar, the desert planet Arrakis in the Dune series, or the planet Alpha, in Asimov's Foundation series?! Well, writers, scientists are still discovering new planets, and, habitable or not,  gas giant or frozen moon, they might be worth a look at for your next story idea!

Check out super-earth GJ1214b, discovered by the Hubble in 2009:

http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/hubble-reveals-new-type-planet






http://www.space.com/14634-alien-planet-steamy-waterworld-gj1214b.html