Adios, Cassini

[Cody]

Go Cassini! Ring-diving (using its large antenna as a shield) - should make for some very pretty pictures.

[Cody]

Cassini is back in contact and sending images - twenty-one more dives to go.

[Cody]

An early raw image here.

[Cody]

Cassini, having dived through the 'big empty' once, turns for a second go:

[Cody]

Cassini is now on final approach.

[Cody]

Some lovely images of Saturn's rings in this IMAX trailer.

[Disembodied]

Emerging out of the Cassini mission, there's Dragonfly - a proposal from John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to send a quadcopter probe to Titan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk1zVxwq7O4

[spud42]

going to go watch that now but my initial thought is ,"Does Titan have an atmosphere?" cant fly a quad without one....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8-pxkaipcg

[Disembodied]

my initial thought is ,"Does Titan have an atmosphere?"

Yes! A big thick atmosphere, mostly nitrogen, a little methane, traces of other gases. Surface pressure is actually a bit higher than Earth's.

You can hear the sound of Titan's winds, as the Huygens probe parachuted to its surface:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36ffV-CI3Mo

[Cody]

Low gravity too - similar to the Moon's, I think.

[Disembodied]

Low gravity too - similar to the Moon's, I think.

Yes – it should be possible for humans wearing wings to fly there, using muscle power alone.

[Cody]

I can see it now - flapping along merrily, through showers of methane rain, hoping it doesn't get too windy!

[Cody]

APOD is beautiful today!