NASA / SpaceX

At left, the Ares 1-X rocket stands on its Kennedy Space Center launch pad in advance of its test flight last October. At right, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket stands ready in advance of its test flight in June. The Ares 1-X is 327 feet long from top to bottom, while the Falcon 9's length is only 177 feet.

Rocketeers ranging from SpaceX's millionaire founder to the maverick engineers behind the DIRECT heavy-lift design effort are sounding the charge over Friday's consideration of a space spending bill by the full House of Representatives. Their bottom line: Support the Senate version of the bill instead.

Rhea, taken by the Cassini spacecraft in March, 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

It appears that another Google Earth imagery update is underway -- thanks to GEB readers 'Eero' and 'cristi' for being the first to let us know about it.

As is often the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn't in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what's new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they're not identical, that means that you've found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!

[UPDATED -- 29-July, 5:09pm EST]

• Finland: Southern areas -- thanks 'Eero' and 'cristi'

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!

(University of Arizona) Astronomers have imaged a very young brown dwarf, or failed star, in a tight orbit around a young nearby sun-like star. The discovery is expected to shed light on the early stages of solar system formation.

I know I haven’t been posting much astronomy the past few days — Comic Con, w00tstock, and "Bad Universe" have kept me hopping — so to make up for it a little bit, here’s a lovely image sent back a billion kilometers from Cassini:

Gusty winds that blow in reverse of prevailing weather on Saturn's largest moon Titan appear to shape some of the moon's odd equatorial sand dunes, a new study finds.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have conducted a fuel tank check of one of NASA's GRAIL mission spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2011.

(American Physical Society) Over a century of physics research published in the journals of the American Physical Society is now available for free to US public libraries.

A piece of  Chinese space junk expected to zoom by the International Space Station Thursday will pass harmlessly, NASA officials said after scrambling to determine whether astronauts would have to take shelter.

Bad Astronomy: I never get tired of the stunning pictures being sent to Earth from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This one is particularly cool: It’s a little weird, isn’t it? What you’re seeing is sunset over some mountains on the Moon, with only the peaks popping up into the sunlight. It might help to pull back a bit: [Click to embiggen.] That’s a little better. You can see the long shadows of the two mountains on the hills farther back, giving the image a bit of context and relief. But you’re still missing the coolest part. Ready? Here’s the entire shot: Whoa! Getting the picture now? Those three mountains are actually the central peaks of the crater Bhabha, a 64 kilometer (40 mile) wide impact scar on the far side of the Moon. With really big impacts, the shock waves bounce around inside the crater bowl, making the rock flow like a fluid. The rock flows outward, then sloshes back inward, splashing up to form peaks. Usually there’s only one, but Bhaba has three.

Discovery News - Space News: NASA is gearing up to launch a pretty big telescope that will search for the universe's furthest galaxies, study the formation of stars, and look for the chemistry of life in other star systems. This is, of course, the James ...

The ebola virus is one of the nastiest pathogens known to man. It corrodes blood vessels and stops clotting, leaving most of its human victims bleeding to death through their pores. And guinea pigs — along with opossums, wallabies and insect-eating bats — have it in their genes.

A genomic hunt for virus genes traced sequences to Ebola and the closely related Marburg virus in no fewer than six vertebrate species. Echoes of the less-gruesome borna virus family appeared in 13 species, including humans. The genes appear to have been mixed in about 40 million years ago, and have stuck around ever since.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have imaged a very young brown dwarf, or failed star, in a tight orbit around a young nearby sun-like star. The discovery is expected to shed light on the early stages of solar system formation.

Gusty winds that blow in reverse of prevailing weather on Saturn's largest moon Titan appear to shape some of the moon's odd equatorial sand dunes, a new study finds.