“Just remember to keep it clean..”

Victoria Crater on Mars[Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.] I pointed to Earth’s old scars recently but Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) HiRISE camera has taken this stunning colour enhanced image of the Victoria Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars – the crater’s a mere 730m across. If you look to the left of the crater in the larger image [2Mb jpeg] you can see the tracks of Mars rover Opportunity. Earlier wondrous MRO images and video here. Meanwhile, the Cassini team in the US and in Europe are analysing the latest images from Saturn at equinox, 15 years ’til the next one. And, via the Professor, apparently the Australian Cosmos Magazine, using a Nasa radio telescope at Tidbinbilla, are to send an extensive text message to Gliese 581b, a planet in a system 20.3 light years away. Although they could have picked a better candidate at that address. ANYhoo.. they want your messages – you have until 5pm Monday 24 August 2009 Sydney time (07:00 GMT Monday 24 August 2009) to think of something appropriate. As the guys at popsci.com warn..

Just remember to keep it clean, there might be alien children reading this.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.