Video: “Boldly Gone” – short film with Sean Biggerstaff, Dimitri Leonidas, & Gil Gerard

Check out the short film Boldly Gone now available online for free:

Boldly Gone is the tale of two estranged brothers who come together to launch their father’s ashes into space. It stars Sean Biggerstaff (The Harry Potter Series), Dimitri Leonidas (The Monuments Men) and Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century).

A Glasgow native, Mark graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in 2005. Based in London since 2007, he continues to direct projects spanning short drama, music video, and documentary.

xFilm is an independent film and television production company based in East London. Its first five shorts have all screened internationally at Oscar-recognised or BAFTA-qualifying film festivals and its first co-produced feature, Radiator, has been showing in Picturehouse cinemas nationwide to great acclaim  (x.co/6lc1t).

See also

 

Video: TMRO 9.11 – What is the International Space Station really worth?

The latest episode of TMRO.tv is now available:

This week we ask, “What is the International Space Station really worth?” Was it worth it to build the most expensive structure ever known? Are we getting good science off of it? What do you think? Leave your comments below.

Space news topics:

  • Atlas V launches Cygnus OA-6
  • Space Memorabilia Auction (Titusville)
  • A Pond of Frozen Nitrogen on Pluto
  • Russia launches Spy Sat on Soyuz
  • Everyday Astronaut
  • Dawn Sees Ceres’ Salty Spots

Support TMRO.tv:

TMRO Live is a crowd funded show. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/tmro for information, goals and reward levels. Don’t forget to check out our SpacePod campaign as well over at http://www.patreon.com/spacepod

Video: Tim Peake shows the aurora

UK/ESA astronaut Tim Peake posted this impressive extended view of an aurora as seen from the International Space Station:

See also the recent Video: ‘On the shoulders of giants’ – Tim Peake’s Principia mission on the ISS.

Saturn: “Dark Moons, Dark Rings”

Great image from the Cassini probe of two moons above Saturn’s rings:

Dark Moons, Dark Rings

When taking images in directions opposite from the sun, most objects appear dark. Surprisingly, however, some of Saturn’s rings get brighter.

TwoMoonsAboveTheRings-PIA18360_hires

Parts of Saturn’s main rings appear dark in backlit views, particularly the dense B ring (as can been seen in PIA14934). However, some rings are comparatively tenuous and made up of dust particles that tend to scatter light in roughly the original direction it was traveling. This is called “forward scattering.” Because of forward scattering, rings like the F ring, which encircles the outer edge of the main rings, appear to glow brightly at this large viewing angle.

Two moons hover above the rings from this perspective — Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across), at left, and Janus (111 miles or 179 kilometers across), at right.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 0.5 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 21, 2015.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 136 degrees. Janus’ brightness was enhanced by a factor of two to improve its visibility in this image.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at ciclops.org.