Now THIS is cool!

That’s Daphnis, one of the many moons of Saturn, going about its celestial business in the Keeler Gap. This Phil Plait article recounts how the Cassini space probe got this amazing shot and others, and how Daphnis tugs the ring material around it in and out and up and down, like liquid.

This is even more fascinating to me because Curse of the Iris features a showdown in the Keeler Gap, with Daphnis playing a pivotal role.

I’m proud of Curse of the Iris and I loved writing that scene. But the universe turns out to have written a story that’s even more amazing and beautiful than any author could imagine.

And who’d want it any other way?

And here it is — the ninth and final stop on our tour of locations visited in The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris.

It all comes down to this — a showdown amid the tumbling chaos of Saturn’s rings, with pirates hunting the Shadow Comet and no allies to be had. The Hashoones will need every trick they’ve learned to survive. And even if they do, nothing will ever be the same.

I can’t figure out the origin of this shot, which I found via a Google search. Great image!

Thanks everybody for joining me for the Curse of the Iris tour! And please look for the book — it’s out TODAY!

Almost there! Here’s Io, the eighth stop on our tour of places we’ll visit in The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris.

After their attempt to land on Europa, Mavry and his children divert to volcanic Io, where Mavry grew up. There, the Hashoones confront a figure from their past, one who casts doubt on key events in family history. Mavry may regret going home….

This shot, like many on our tour, comes courtesy of NASA.

Tomorrow: The tour ends with one last locale … and Curse of the Iris will be available in bookstores!

So the seventh stop on our tour of places we’ll visit in The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris is Europa.

The Hashoones’ treasure hunt leads them to this icy moon of Jupiter. But Europa’s surface can be hard to reach — it’s an uninhabited protectorate, and someone is waiting to intercept the treasure hunters.

This piece of NASA conceptual art shows Jupiter from Europa’s surface. Great shot!

Tomorrow: Another moon of Jupiter we’ve never seen! (If you know your Jovian satellites, you can probably guess which one.) And look for Curse of the Iris in bookstores Tuesday!

Stop No. 6 on our tour of places we’ll visit in The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris is the moon Ganymede, capital of the Jovian Union.

In Hunt for the Hydra the Hashoones got no closer than an orbital space station. This time, Tycho, Yana and Carlo descend to the surface for an interview with the snooty industrialist Honorius Saxton-Koenig, Lord Sicyon — where Yana proves to be a devious treasure hunter indeed.

Thanks to NASA for the gorgeous shot of Ganymede.

Tomorrow: A never-before-visited moon of Jupiter! And look for Curse of the Iris in bookstores Tuesday!

The fifth stop on our tour of places we’ll visit in The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris is also a familiar one — Callisto, the moon of Jupiter that the Hashoones call home.

We’ll see more of Callisto than we did in Hunt for the Hydra, though. The Hashoones’ treasure hunt takes them through the underlevels of Port Town, home to Callisto’s desperate souls and those who prey on them — and pray for them. And at Darklands we’ll meet new members of the Hashoone clan, including some who lost out on the competition for the captain’s chair.

This amazing photo of Callisto comes courtesy of NASA. Beautiful place, isn’t it? 

Tomorrow: More moons of Jupiter! And look for Curse of the Iris in bookstores Dec. 16!

Here’s the fourth stop on our tour of places we’ll visit in The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris — the minor planet Ceres, familiar to readers of Hunt for the Hydra.

This time around we’ll visit some new locations, starting with the Bank of Ceres and its very rude tellers. They’ll find that provoking Huff Hashoone isn’t a good idea, but provoking his daughter Diocletia is even less wise. And while we’re on Ceres, Tycho will have an encounter that changes the competition for the captain’s chair, and his life.

This is an artist’s rendering of Ceres that I found online — the Hubble Space Telescope’s best photo of Ceres is pretty blurry.

Tomorrow: Welcome back to the moons of Jupiter! And look for Curse of the Iris in bookstores Dec. 16!

Less than a week till The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris hits bookstores! Which means it’s time for Day 3 of our tour of the places we’ll visit in the book.

The Hashoones’ treasure hunt leads them to the lonely comet P/2093 K1, and a number of unsettling surprises. I can’t show you a picture of P/2093 K1, since it’s not a real place — and even if it was, that designation indicates it won’t be discovered for nearly eight decades.

But if P/2093 K1 did exist, it would probably look a lot like the comet 67P/Churuimov-Gerasimenko (AKA 1969 R1), visited by the Rosetta mission this fall.

That’s a snap of the comet from the European Space Agency.

Drop by tomorrow for a location that will be familiar to readers of Hunt for the Hydra. And look for Curse of the Iris in bookstores on Dec. 16!

The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris hits bookstores a week from today! Let’s continue our tour of the places we’ll visit.

Second stop: Enceladus. It’s a busy port in 2895, one that Diocletia Hashoone decides is no longer a safe place for the Shadow Comet to linger.

That’s a photo of Enceladus from the wizards at NASA.

Our Curse of the Iris tour continues tomorrow with a place that will be somewhat familiar if you kept up with space exploration this fall. And look for the book on Dec. 16!

The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris hits bookstores in eight days! To count down, here’s a tour of the new places we’ll visit.

First up: Titan, where the Hashoones discover a clue to the location of the long-lost Iris treasure — and find there are new enemies hunting them.

That’s a NASA image of Cassini on approach to Titan. The moon will be a lot less lonely by 2895….

Drop by tomorrow for the next stop on our Curse of the Iris tour. And look for the book on Dec. 16!