How much ice is there on Mercury? Enough to cover D.C. in two-and-a-half miles of the stuff, we learned today.

Scan of an issue of Weekly Reader from 1981, courtesy John Ulaszek. A slice of nostalgia for your Sunday afternoon: friend of DCist John Ulaszek sent Look Up this great copy of an old Weekly Reader magazine he dug up a couple weeks ago. The cover features the upcoming launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on Mission STS-2 — the second launch in the brand new space shuttle program and also the second launch…

Image of the crescent Moon and Pleiades star cluster by philliefan99. Once these pesky rainclouds clear out — they should by Wednesday — take a minute to enjoy a fantastic show at dusk. Venus and Mercury, the two planets closer to the Sun than Earth, are both visible about a half an hour after sunset right now. Sky and Telescope has a good visual, with Mercury trailing Venus to the lower right in the…

Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury (left) and Alana Beard of the Washington Mystics. If you get goosebumps watching Ovechkin vs. Crosby, LeBron vs. Kobe, or Tiger Woods vs. everyone else, give this matchup a try: Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury vs. Alana Beard of the Washington Mystics, both first round picks in the 2004 WNBA draft. Taurasi’s Mercury – the highest scoring team in the WNBA – held on in the final…