Videos: Cassini and the wonders of Saturn + An overview of the Voyager mission

A video of highlights of the many discoveries and marvelous images made by the Cassini mission to the Saturn system:

Checkout the Cassini: The Grand Finale: Cassini’s ‘Inside-Out’ Rings Movie:

This movie sequence of images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft offers a unique perspective on Saturn’s ring system. Cassini captured the images from within the gap between the planet and its rings, looking outward as the spacecraft made one of its final dives through the gap as part of the mission’s Grand Finale. Using its wide-angle camera, Cassini took the 21 images in the sequence over a span of about four minutes during its dive through the gap on Aug. 20, 2017. The images have an original size of 512 x 512 pixels; the smaller image size allowed for more images to be taken over the short span of time. [Full caption]
A talk by Alan Cummings, Senior Research Scientist at Caltech and Voyager team member since 1973, about the two Voyager spacecraft and their travels out into interstellar space:

From the caption:

In 1977, NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft embarked on an incredible journey to the outer planets and beyond. After delivering stunning images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the probes sailed on to study the boundary of our heliosphere, the bubble that encompasses our sun, planets and solar wind. Voyager 1 crossed that frontier in August 2012, becoming the first human-made object in interstellar space, while Voyager 2 is expected to enter the space between the stars in the coming years. This live public talk at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, revisits highlights of the last 40 years and discuss what may lie ahead for the intrepid Voyagers.

Kickstarter: Commemorative pin for Apollo 11 to hold lunar meteorite “moon dust”

Check out the Kickstarter for The World’s First Enamel Pin Made With Authentic MOON DUST by B. Smith & Co

Our vision for “Projects of Earth” is to develop an affordable high quality commemorative enamel pin and handcrafted meteorite pen set featuring authentic moon dust, celebrating the upcoming 50th anniversary of mankind’s greatest technological achievement: putting a man on the moon.

This soft enamel pin will be made using only the highest quality components available. No cheap zinc alloys, imitation platings, or butterfly clutches… Our production samples are just in and they are absolutely beautiful!

Style: Soft enamel lapel pin 

Size: 1.5″ x 1.25″ (38 mm x 35 mm) 

Material: Die struck solid brass, Nickel plating in Gold or Silver 

Enamel: 8 pantone colors, hand painted 

Back side: Die struck texture with deluxe brass clutch 

Weight: approximately 0.5 oz. 

Optional upgrade: Moon Dust, including display box and etched stainless steel certificate of authenticity card

B.Smith & CO. previously developed The METEORITE Pen.

The Moon dust comes via a meteorite identified as originating on the Moon:

Both the pin and the pen have optional MOON DUST upgrades, making them among the most unique and special items you will ever own. 

Our moon dust comes from the legendary Lunar Meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 5000. NWA 5000 was discovered in Southern Morocco in 2007 and with a near perfect 24.8 out of 25 rating it is, to date, the largest and finest lunar highlands specimen in existence. We’ve acquired our supply directly from NWA 5000’s original owner and it is of course guaranteed 100% authentic. Lunar meteorite is considered to be one of the rarest materials in the entire world, far more rare than gold, platinum, or diamond.

This ultra-fine “moon dust” was produced as the main mass of the meteorite was sliced using a special sterilized diamond blade saw, preventing the introduction of any terrestrial contaminants. It is in fact so pure that this exact dust is used by Washington University in St. Louis as their laboratory calibration sample.