Forty years ago, July 19,1969, I was a young boy who watched - along with millions of other earthlings - as Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and Neil Armstrong left prints in the dust of another world for the very first time. It doesn't get more historic than that!

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area you can celebrate that historic moment on Sunday, July 19, 2009 at Moonfest, held at NASA Ames Research Center, where you can enjoy all things lunar -- from MoonPies to model rocket launches.

"Moonfest 2009: From Apollo to LCROSS, and Beyond" is a free festival for the whole family.

While the event will focus on the Apollo 11 landing, it will also showcase NASA's other lunar accomplishments, such as Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission,
which launched successfully in June 2009. Moonfest will also feature scientific talks.

Moonfest 2009: From Apollo to LCROSS, and Beyond
Sunday, July 19, 2009
12:00 - 6:00 PM
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, California
FREE Admission

By now everyone knows about Google Earth, probably the best free software of the last decade.

Well just in time for the 40th anniversay of the Moon landings, Google Earth brings you THE MOON! Use Google Earth 5 to see:

* Tours of lunar landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronauts
* 3D models of rovers and landers
* 360-degree photo panoramas
* Rare TV footage of the Apollo missions

Learn more about Moon in Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/moon/


Hey, did I mention that Google Earth does a 3D version of Planet Mars as well? So if you always wanted to fly over the area where the Viking spacecraft landed in 1976... now you can!

It gets even better. You can use Google Earth as a planetarium right inside your computer! You can take a trip through the heavens, scan for planets, check out current events, and so on. Engage!

Ever hear of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope?

No? Well maybe you've heard of the Hubble Space Telescope? unlike Hubble, which takes pictures in visible light, Spitzer takes infrared light photos. Formerly called Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), Spitzer was launched in 2003 by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Spitzer obtains images and spectra by detecting infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Spitzer is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. It lets us to peer into regions of space which are hidden from optical telescopes.

So what about this giant new ring around Saturn? The diagram here show a slice of this ring (red band in inset photo). Spitzer detected infrared light from the dusty ring material while viewing the ring edge-on. Here's some impressive facts:

• It would take 1 billion Earths to fill this ring
• The ring has a diameter equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side to side
• 20 Saturns could fit into its vertical height

OK, this ring is BIG! Then why did it take so long to discover it?

1. The ice and dust particles in the ring are far apart
2. Saturn doesn't receive a lot of sunlight
3. The rings don't reflect much visible light

Aha! So Spitzer was the perfect tool to spot this ring by picking up on the heat (not the light).

Learn more here:

CNN: Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn

Exploratiorium: Jewel of the Solar System - Saturn