How about some “pretties” to decorate your Thursday?  NASA sure puts out a tank-load of them, and most of them end up as wallpaper on my laptop.  Here’s a few I thought you might like (wish I had inspiring music to go along with them):

NASA - Artist's conception

This is an artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft, planned to launch in August 2011.  It’ll go into polar orbit around Jupiter until at least 2018, and will probably return data beyond that.  Here’s the Juno website, if you’re interested in reading about it.

Of course, this is the Hubble 2009 Deep Survey image.  It has an amazing enlargement with all the tiny galaxies showing up very clearly.

NASA/ESA Hubble Heritage Team - The M13 Globular Cluster

Here’s another Hubble image with an amazing enlargement.  I love this crowded star field.  The M13 Globular Cluster, seen in the constellation of Hercules, is even visible with the unaided eye on very dark nights.  The bright red stars are cooler red giants, and the blue-white stars are the hottest in the field.

NASA/ESA ISS Expedition 22 Crew

The ISS Expedition 22 crew took this image of Endeavour as it approached.  That’s the Earth’s atmosphere behind the shuttle;  blue is the mesosphere,white is the stratosphere, and orange is the troposphere.

NASA/JPL/USGS 12/07/92 Galileo's Moon

This color-enhanced beauty was taken by the Galileo Spacecraft as it passed the moon 12/07/92.

And speaking of the moon, here’s an archival photograph of spectators waiting for the Apollo 11 launch:

NASA Historical image - Apollo 11

I could do this all day, but I guess I’ll leave off with that one.  Which is your favorite of this group?  Mine is that moon shot from Galileo.  Amazing…