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Earlier today, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft ended its 20-year long mission by plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere and incinerating itself. The probe, which arrived at Saturn in 2004, has been one of the most prolific and consistent sources of mind-blowing imagery NASA has ever produced—sending back photograph after photograph of the ringed planet and its moons.
The very thought of humans sending a spacecraft 746 million miles (minimum) away to take pictures of a foreign planet is too incredible to grasp, but the photos Cassini sent back were more incredible still. Over the years, we’ve featured several of Cassini’s highlights on DPReview, but now that the spacecraft has shuffled off this mortal coil in a literal blaze of fire and glory, it’s only right we give it a proper photographic goodbye.
And so we present to you 21 of our favorite photos from the Cassini mission—incredible photographs, mosaics, and radar images of moons, rings, methane lakes, and more. There are even a couple of portraits of Earth thrown in there as well.
Farewell Cassini. The photo community is grateful for your 20 years of service.
All photographs courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
