"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
- "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", Dylan Thomas
A seven year voyage through our solar system brought Cassini into orbit around Saturn, one of the most remarkable and easily identified planets of classical Earth science and literature.
After after two decades in space and countless dives past the planet, it's many belts and moons, Cassini's swan song on September 15 2017 will be to turn its communications dish Earthbound like a last salute as it plunges headlong into the planet, relaying every last sensor reading to us, to the very last, and then, no more...
- The New York Times YT channel
For 13 years Cassini has dived and swooped around Saturn, its rings, and its many strange moons, a fearless and intrepid explorer mapping unknown wonders, bringing back an absolute cornucopia of wealth; from the Huygens probe that marked our first landing on a frigid alien moon whose rivers of methane carve out the landscape, to the wyrd hexagonal mesmerism of Saturn's polar clouds, and even a nod the memory of that venerable champion of human enlightenment Carl Sagan with a Saturn dark side glimpse of a pale blue dot.
"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Goodbye, Cassini, thanks for all you've done, we salute you;
Do not go gentle into that good night.
So much wonderful imagery, video, and mission data can be found at the JPL pages: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
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