On this page you can get a really awesome earth mars comparison poster for free for teachers! http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/earthMarsForm.html

Here is a link to the NASA picture of the Helix Nebula that I had talked about in class on Wednesday.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030510.html

... and talking about ancient civilizations, a cool pic for the solstice
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Here's a cool pic of the Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300 (Credit: Hubble Heritage Team, ESA, NASA) @ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Explanation from NASA: Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the largest Hubble images ever made of a complete galaxy. NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. In fact, on close inspection the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of spiral structure about 3,000 light-years across. Unlike other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is not presently known to have a massive central black hole.

Here is the link for "Planet Size Comparison"
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/messenger/psc/PlanetSize.html
Have fun!

This is another cool site for scale - you'll want to use the horizontal scroll bar to see all nine planets
http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/solarsystem/index.html

Powers of Ten original documentary made by husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames, music by Gas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvTe1-a6Pdo

Very humbling visual impression of the universe from exponentially larger to smaller, from the perspective of a park in Chicago. Ambient music is breathtaking...

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot... this precious earth. We must save ourselves. "Life will find a way"--Jurassic Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j6YQIBRc20

Stunning graphics, original reading by Carl Sagan in his ominous voice, still reverberating all these years later.