Mars

I don't try to hide my lack of formal education, and I'm certainly not what many people would describe as book smart. But I'll be damned if I'm not totally blown away by science and NASA and space exploration lately. Its almost enough to make me want to do something drastic, like pick up a book and read about science and stuff. 

The world is super-excited for the Curosity, which landed safely on Mars. Rightfully so. The landing is absolutely incredible, and with a rover the size of an automobile and much better equipped than any other Mars rover so far, we're on the brink of learning some really cool shit about the Red Planet. 

But this is far from the first time humans have sent equipment to other planets. Russia sent a probe to Venus in 1982, and it got some cool photos.

We've even seen the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, back in 2005 with the Huygens Probe. 

I know I won't be around long enough to see humans get to other planets, or even see the surface of planets outside of our solar system (unless those crazy Russians really figure out a way to implant a human inside a computer to live on forever, which sounds awesome...), but I'm still fascinated by what we're seeing so far. The photos could be earth if you don't know any better. Just a random collection of rocks and dirt, but the interesting part is that on these planets, that's all there is. No grass, no trees, no water. No insects or bacteria. Just nothingness. And that nothingness is what makes Earth so interesting.