卡西尼号航向土星

2020 April 19

Cassini Approaches Saturn
Video Credit & Copyright: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA, S. Van Vuuren et al.;
Music: Adagio for Strings (NY Philharmonic)

Explanation: What would it look like to approach Saturn in a spaceship? One doesn’t have to just imagine — the Cassini spacecraft did just this in 2004, recording thousands of images along the way, and hundreds of thousands more since entering orbit. Some of Cassini’s early images have been digitally tweaked, cropped, and compiled into the featured inspiring video which is part of a larger developing IMAX movie project named In Saturn’s Rings. In the concluding sequence, Saturn looms increasingly large on approach as cloudy Titan swoops below. With Saturn whirling around in the background, Cassini is next depicted flying over Mimas, with large Herschel Crater clearly visible. Saturn’s majestic rings then take over the show as Cassini crosses Saturn’s thin ring plane. Dark shadows of the ring appear on Saturn itself. Finally, the enigmatic ice-geyser moon Enceladus appears in the distance and then is approached just as the video clip ends. After more than a decade of exploration and discovery, the Cassini spacecraft ran low on fuel in 2017 was directed to enter Saturn’s atmosphere, where it surely melted.

Tomorrow’s picture: space chicken

卡西尼号航向土星
影片提供与版权: Cassini Imaging Team , ISS , JPL , ESA , NASA , S. Van Vuuren et al.;
配乐: Adagio for Strings ( NY Philharmonic )

说明: 如搭乘太空船靠近土星时，会见到那些景观？你不用再靠想像了，因为卡西尼号太空船在2004年沿途就拍下数千张照片，并在入轨以后，又拍了数十万幅影像。部分卡西尼号早期的照片，经过数位处理、裁切和剪辑成这部深具启发性的主题影片，而它是进行中更大型、名为《在土星环之内》的IMAX电影计画的一部分。在影片结尾时，土星随着接近而变得越来越大，而云雾笼罩的土卫六则从下方掠过。当土星在背景旋转时，卡西尼号飞越土卫一，而其上的赫歇尔撞击坑清晰可见。接下来，随着卡西尼号通过土星纤薄的行星环面，土星壮丽的环系成为主角，并在土星表面投下黝黑的暗影。最后，会喷发冰喷泉的谜样土卫二出现在远方，并在影片结束时来到眼前。在探索与发射土星系统10多年之后，卡西尼号太空船的燃料在2017年耗尽，受命进入土星大气并且熔化销毁在里头。

明日的图片: space chicken