A great quote you might have missed

If you didn't have a chance to read the great article in the NYT on Carolyn Porco, who heads the Casssini space probe studying saturn, I thought I'd highlight one quote from the article, which ties in nicely to what we talked about today:

To my mind, most people go through live recoiling from its best parts," Porco told The New York Times. "They miss the enrichment that just a basic knowledge of the physical world can bring to the most ordinary experiences. It's like there's a pulsating, hidden world, governed by ancient laws and principles, underlying everything around us -- from the movements of electrical charges to the motions of planets -- and most people are completely unaware of it. To me that's a shame." A shame, indeed.

Also, you might be interested in knowing a bit more about this amazing photo I linked to. Here's a description from BadAstronomy.com. Saturn-shine is a amazing concept...


That, duh, is Saturn, taken by the ever-amazing Cassini spacecraft. It’s actually 75 different exposures stitched together, and was taken on August 12, just a little over a day after Saturnian equinox, when the Sun shines straight along the rings. The illumination from the Sun is about the same everywhere, but on the left the rings are illuminated by Saturn-shine glowing down on them, making them a bit brighter.