Today’s opener was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last year. It has been exploring Saturn and many of its 62 moons since its arrival at Saturn in 2004. Currently the spacecraft is in the middle of its “Grand Finale,” as NASA refers to its ultimate and final stage – plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere next month on September 15. It has treated us to previously unimaginable sights and still has six more weeks of transmissions.
More on this image – https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21046
Above are the first three drawings ever of Saturn and made by the observations of Galileo over 400 years ago. July 30,1610 was the first one (top) with slightly better results for the other two as he continually refined his telescopes.
We’ve come a long way – this pic taken from behind Saturn looks back at Earth (the dot center right). The beauty and importance of these and many other images, to me, cannot be understated.
More on this image – https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17171
This trio of craters, also shot from Cassini, reside on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons.
More on this image – https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20011
NASA’s image libraries are full of these wonderful and fascinating images and are all easily accessible online.This one above is from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and shows part of Mars’ south pole.
More on this image – https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia21639/erosion-of-the-edge-of-the-south-polar-layered-deposits
And last in this series is a picture of our own Grand Canyon taken from the International Space Station by a student controlled EarthKam camera!
More on this image – https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/space-stations-earthkam-sees-the-grand-canyon
As I said, NASA has endless libraries worth perusing. Also, my favorite non-NASA sight you might want to visit is Planetary Landscapes – daily posts of images from here on Earth and elsewhere!
One last note: Saturday, August 5, will be the fifth anniversary of the explorations begun by the Mars Rover. It continues to chug along the surface of the planet, sending back wonderful and astounding landscape images of Mars – Images – Mars Science Laboratory
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All this thought about outer space got me to break out my collection of pulp Sci-Fi magazines. The stories age great. The cover images make me dream of being aboard a spaceship exploring the wide universe. I think it’s my way of coping with the depressing news that we witness daily – especially the science related cutbacks, the dissolution of important government functions ranging from climate change to research of all kinds, etc.
The two “Thrilling Wonder Stories” are from 1951 and 1952.
The three remaining magazines, “Amazing Stories,” are from 1947 and 1948.
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So, from the faraway future to the faraway past – I had to toss in a few new images of the very old – 387 million years ago (give or take a few mil!) – Devonian invertebrate fossils from the neighborhood.
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Thanks for the visit.
artandfossils 
Thanks for the look at Saturn and more covers and MOOR cover! Love this post.
SW
Glad you liked it Susan. The move to the new studio helped me rediscover just how cool all that old sci-fi art is. They are fun to read except for the crumbling pages! How was the shore?
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I’ve been fascinated with the NASA photos for years. I have one of their calendars hanging just to my left. And the pulp fiction covers bring me back to my youth. And you can probably guess my favorite Syfy movie! Excellent set of photos, Art.