Coming Soon: From Earth to the Solar System

Some of our regular blog readers might be familiar with a project called “From Earth to the Universe,” or FETTU for short. FETTU was originally cast as a project for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, but also has grown beyond that single designation. In a nutshell, FETTU puts astronomical images in public spaces like parks, metro stations, and art centers – basically any place you might not expect to run into them.

FETTU in downtown Oslo, Norway (Credit: H. Dahle)

We had so much fun with FETTU and got such great responses from around the world, we decided to do it again. We’ve teamed up with folks from NASA’s Astrobiology Institute to create “From Earth to the Solar System,” or FETTSS. (We promise our next slew of projects will have more tongue-friendly acronyms.)

FETTU at ELON University in the U.S. (Credit: D. Evans)

As the name suggests, FETTSS will focus on objects in our Solar System including Earth, the eight planets (or nine if you are a die-hard Pluto fan), the bevy of moons, asteroids, comets, and more. As with FETTU, people around the world will be able to create their own version of FETTSS. We will also produce a traveling exhibit that will visit sites around the US in partnership with the ‘Voyage: A Journey Through the Solar System’ project. First stop will be Corpus Christi, TX, in May, followed by Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and many others. A full schedule will be posted soon, along with the launch of the official FETTSS website at http://fettss.arc.nasa.gov/.

We hope that everyone who enjoyed FETTU – both in person and online – will join us in the next generation of this project.

Follow FETTSS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/fettss
and Facebook: http://tiny.cc/5lrzp

-Megan Watzke & Kim Arcand, CXC EPO