This infrared photograph was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope. “The region pictured here is immense, with a horizontal span of 890 light-years and a vertical span of 640 light-years. Earth is located 26,000 light-years away, out in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms. Though most of the objects seen in this image are located at the galactic center, the features above and below the galactic plane tend to lie closer to Earth.” – Click to enlarge, or click here for a super high resolution version (29MB).

This is easily my favorite announcement from today’s Nintendo press conference at E3 2009. Not because it’s the best looking thing at E3, but because it’s the only thing from Nintendo that really got my attention.

Sure, it looks like Super Mario Galaxy 1. I’ve seen a lot of talk on the internet about how it’s just a recycled game. Well, I don’t think that’s true. There were 3 “Super Mario Bros.” games, there were 2 “Super Mario World” games. Why can’t there be 2 “Super Mario Galaxy” games? It’s exciting if you think about it. This is the first true, full sequel to a Mario game, on the same system, since the Nintendo NES with Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3. We all know Super Mario World 2 on the Super Nintendo wasn’t a true sequel.

What I’m really excited about? I’m sure you can guess it…Yoshi! Our favorite mountable little green dinosaur thing is back! I don’t know about you guys, but Yoshi has always secretly been my favorite thing in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is set for release sometime in 2010. By “sometime”, I mean anytime from January 1st, 2010 through December 31st, 2010. The wait is on!