The Cassini probe is preparing to make it's first encounter of 2008 with a flyby around Titan, a moon of Saturn. On January 5th, the probe will map Titan with it's visual and infrared spectrometers, mapping the Huygens probe's landing site.

This flyby also features two separate stellar occultations to study the structure of Titan's atmosphere. The spectrometer will be watching the star Alpha Bootes, and the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph will be pointed toward Alpha Lyra.

On November 24, 1977, ESA launched Meteosat-1, Europe's first geostationary satellite, into orbit. Meteosat-1 and successive satellites heralded a new age of weather modeling and forecasting. The data provided by the weather satellites combined with quickly increasing computing power have given meteorologists unprecedented accuracy in weather forecasting.