Put a Ring on It

Awesome photo of Saturn's moon Enceladus: NASA

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: In just a couple of weeks, a spacecraft's amazing mission to Saturn will end. 

Cassini is going to go down for the count. 

CJ tells you a bit more about the mission and what's on its short horizon.

According to NASA's website, NASA will soon end the long-running (from 15 October 1997) Cassini mission, planning for the spacecraft to plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on 15 September this year (exactly 1 month before the mission's 20th anniversary). Apparently, the primary motivation for ending the mission at this time is the spacecraft running out of fuel.

In this awesome NASA/JPL/Caltech photo above, Cassini is heading for the gap between Saturn and its rings during one of 22 such dives of the mission's finale.

By all measures, Cassini has been a tremendous success.  

In a NASA press release, Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker explains the missions final moments. "The Cassini mission has been packed full of scientific firsts, and our unique planetary revelations will continue to the very end of the mission as Cassini becomes Saturn’s first planetary probe, sampling Saturn's atmosphere up until the last second," said Spilker, "We'll be sending data in near real time as we rush headlong into the atmosphere -- it's truly a first-of-its-kind event at Saturn."
Here's a short video with reflections about the monumental mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHaaIX-iSqM


ART INSTALLATION: This afternoon, Annabelle assembled a welcome back bulletin board in the entryway of the learning center she'll be attending twice a week this year. 

It's really meant to be a birthday bulletin board, but every month, we have used a different theme to make it a little more fun. This month, I was thinking football, but I didn't want to be one team specific (although shouldn't everyone be a Seahawks' fan? ha ha). My mind quickly went to Charlie Brown and Lucy and their never-ending football 'scrimmage.'

So, Annabelle adapted that, drawing and coloring the likeness of some of Charles M. Schultz's most famous Peanuts. We put the kids' birthdays on pennants the characters were holding.