August 12, 2015 9:30 pm

TWEETS…FROM…SPACE

Back when @Astro_Mike Massimino sent the first tweet from space on May 12, 2009, who could have conceived that one day every Dawn, Spirit and Philae would have their own Twitter accounts?

But now, it seems you can’t throw a rock in the solar system without hitting a tweeting spacecraft. And I think that’s a good thing.

After all, how else would I have found out that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was reaching its perihelion early tomorrow morning if not for @ESA_Rosetta’s tweet early today:

New Horizon’s tweets kept us all informed as it approached Pluto. Here’s my favorite, from July 14:

Now, my rational brain knows that there’s a real live human being, or team of humans, actually doing the tweeting, but how can one not at least smile after reading a tweet like this:

or this more recent one:

In fact, with no disrespect intended towards the humans involved in the process, I enjoy suspending disbelief and anthropomorphizing just a bit.

Here are my 10 favorite tweeting spacecraft, in no particular order. (Sorry, Hubble, but maybe someday we’ll do a list for space telescopes!)

Spirit and Oppy: @MarsRovers

NASA’s Dawn Mission: @NASA_Dawn

MESSENGER: @MESSENGER2011

ESA Rosetta Mission: @ESA_Rosetta

Philae Lander: @Philae2014

NASA Voyager (Both 1 and 2): @NASAVoyager

NASA’s MAVEN Mission: @MAVEN2Mars

Curiosity Rover: @MarsCuriosity

NASA New Horizons: @NASANewHorizons

ISRO’s Mars Orbiter: @MarsOrbiter

Here’s a quote from Mars Orbiter’s profile: “Explorer. Loves science, photography, and long cruises.”

What’s not to like?

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons

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