I just finished watching Danny Boyle's sci-fi opus Sunshine last night, and it was pretty incredible as a purely visual, visceral experience. Even though the film loses a bit of face with a credibility-stretching horror twist near the end, it was one of my better sci-fi experiences in recent memory. (Heavy emphasis on the fi: The loopy science only gets loopier, but they certainly make it look believable. And who doesn't want to believe we could fire a nuke the size of Manhattan into the core of the sun to reignite it?)
One of the most memorable scenes is a close flyby of Mercury — the supposed iron core content helps amplify a distress signal. In an example of life imitating art, NASA's Messenger satellite — if all goes well — will have flown within 124 miles of Mercury's surface around noon EST today. It's our first visit in 33 years, and it's freaking cool. But, sadly, I'm pretty sure we're not launching a nuke into the sun.
Continue reading 'Messenger satellite flies by Mercury today — sweet pictures TK' >
