Astrosphere for June 13, 2007

Welcome back to the astrosphere, so glad you could make it.

I’ve been a busy little writer, contributing to Wired Science Blog, and now Earth & Sky‘s blog. I’m about to learn the limits of human writing endurance. But I’m having fun. My latest article for them is about a challenge from astrophotographer Mike Salway. Can you build a better Jupiter?

Today’s astrophoto from the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum is from member “reckless”. It’s a great photograph of M51, aka, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Nicely done. Follow the link for other images of the galaxy, and technical details.

Ian Musgrave at the Astroblog calls your attention to a surprise comet that smashed into the Sun. Easy come, easy go.

This isn’t space news, but it’s still pretty cool. A Chinese farmer built a solar-powered hot water heater out of beer bottles.