Thursday, September 14, 2017

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

And delicate, dynamic, dreamlike rings

And a hexagon jet stream with six perfect lobes

And the Huygens probe
Parachuted down through Titan’s robe

And a moon with tiger-stripes
Makes a ring with its water ice

And shepherds herding gaps

And aurora like a lace cap


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 stars


Goodnight...
Earthlings, seen from afar




*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.