Awesomeness Round-Up – 1/4/12

• By Maggie Masetti
• January 4, 2012
• 2 Comments

There are gorgeous new images out from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Here, Saturn’s third-largest moon, Dione, can be seen through the haze of the planet’s largest moon, Titan, in this view of the two posing before the planet and its rings. There are more on the Cassini website.

Credit: NASA

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Sometime contributor to our blog, Dr. Amber Straughn, talked about the James Webb Space Telescope for Adler Planetarium’s Day and Night podcast. It’s Episode 128, from December 6, 2011.

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In mid-December, Comet Lovejoy grazed the sun (and survived!). Here’s are two videos made from SOHO data.

Credit: NASA/SDO

Credit: NASA/SDO

Here’s an absolutely gorgeous photo of the comet taken by astronaut Dan Burbank from the International Space Station.

Credit: Dan Burbank (ISS Expedition 30, NASA)

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In case you can’t get enough round-ups, check out NASA Goddard’s Astrophysics Year in Review! Most (if not all) of these stories were featured in our 2011 round-ups… but it’s a nice summary of all of the awesome stuff that happened last year! It was a good year for astrophysics.