Goodnight, Cassini

In the gravity well of the great yellow king

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5911/?category=images

There were many moons with mysterious things

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5122/?category=images

And delicate, dynamic, dreamlike rings

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5681/?category=images

And a hexagon jet stream with six perfect lobes

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5941/?category=images

And the Huygens probe

Parachuted down through Titan’s robe

And a moon with tiger-stripes

Makes a ring with its water ice

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/6074/?category=images

And shepherds herding gaps

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5895/?category=images

And aurora like a lace cap

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5143/?category=images

Cassini is now* gone

But her science will live on

So –

Goodnight gravity well of the great yellow king

Goodnight moons with mysterious things

Goodnight delicate, dynamic, dreamlike rings

Goodnight hexagon jet stream with six perfect lobes

Goodnight Huygens probe

That parachuted down through Titan’s robe

Goodnight moon with tiger-stripes

That makes a ring with its water ice

Goodnight shepherds herding gaps

Goodnight aurora like a lace cap

Goodnight Planets

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5918/?category=images

Goodnight stars

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/4496/

Goodnight...

Earthlings, seen from afar

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7656/?category=images

*Cassini LOS September 15, 2017 11:55:46 UTC 😭

All images are by the Cassini teams at NASA.

See more images from the Cassini-Huygens mission, here and here,

and in the beautiful *free* ebook, here.

Goodnight Moon is a children's book by Margaret Wise Brown. This was obviously based on that book. 

Anthropomorphizing things I already loved a lot makes me sad.