アメリカ自然史博物館のインスタグラム(amnh) - 9月16日 08時41分

After two extraordinary decades, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft completed its odyssey through space in dramatic fashion today. NASA’s operators deliberately crashed the vessel into Saturn’s atmosphere, rather than let it run out of fuel, to avoid contaminating Saturn’s moons with microbes from Earth. Photos received from Cassini over the course of its mission show Saturn’s largest moon Titan to be strikingly Earth-like in appearance, though its frigid surface temperatures and liquid hydrocarbons differentiate it from our planet. And while the scientific community still debates the likelihood of life on Titan, NASA deemed a Cassini crash to be the safest conclusion to the mission. In preparation for its final plunge, the vessel made risky dives into the rings of Saturn, providing spectacular views and continuing to transmit data as it accelerated closer to Saturn’s atmosphere before disintegrating. Launched on October 15, 1997, Cassini finally reached Saturn’s orbit by September 15, 2004. In the ensuing years, among many other observations, the spacecraft helped scientists discover liquid methane on Titan and the ocean beneath the frozen icy crust of another of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus. Though the mission is ending, the data and images collected by the Cassini spacecraft will have a tremendous impact for years to come. Image: NASA #amnh #cassini #nasa #saturn #outerspace #spacecraft #ringsofsaturn #spacetravel #spaceexploration

[BIHAKUEN]UVシールド(UVShield)

>> 飲む日焼け止め！「UVシールド」を購入する