This mission must be breaking some sort of interplanetary speed record. Either that or as I get older time seems to pass more quickly. OK, before I depress myself any further I’ll leave you to check out the original article in the Buffalo News (the original story is a general AP report).

In just under seven months the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will arrive at the red planet carrying sophisticated scientific payload designed to ferret out even more of mars’ secrets. After flowing gracefully into a nice comfy orbit the MRO will fire up its science package and begin transmitting the results back to Earth for processing and analysis. Yum! Good stuff! Technology is crunchy!

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050812_mro_launch.html

Frankly I’m surprised at how quickly we will all get to gawk in awe over the results of this mission. (Providing, of course, that all goes well….) Seven months is a relatively short flight time so mark your calendars and prepare yourself for some interesting results next spring/summer.

The M104 “Sombrero” Galaxy contains more than half a trillion stars. Here it is as seen through the Hubble Space Telescope:

Click here for a larger view of M104

There are more great images at Space.com’s “Top 20″ Hubble images gallery. Check them out and vote for your favorite! I can only imagine what we’ll be able to feast our eyes on when the Next-Generation Hubble and the Terrestrial Planet Finder go online in the coming decades. Good stuff!