土星之夜
Saturn at Night
發表日期：2024-11-02
土星在地球的夜空中非常明亮。從望遠鏡中欣賞這顆外層氣體巨行星及其美麗的星環，常常使它成為星空聚會上的明星。但是，從地球附近的望遠鏡是無法看到土星環和夜景的。從太陽系內部望出去，它們只能看到土星的白天。事實上，這張土星纖細的新月在陽光照耀下，夜影投射在其寬闊而複雜的星環系統上的影像是由卡西尼號太空船捕捉到的。卡西尼號是一個來自地球的機器人太空飛行器，在 2017 年 9 月 15 日受命潛入這顆氣體巨行星的大氣層之前，它曾在土星軌道上生活了 13 年。這張壯麗的馬賽克照片是由卡西尼號廣角相機在最後一次俯衝前兩天拍攝的畫面組成的。土星之夜將不會再出現，直到另一艘來自地球的宇宙飛船打來電話。
原文：Saturn is bright in Earth's night skies. Telescopic views of the outer gas giant planet and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties. But this stunning view of Saturn's rings and night side just isn't possible from telescopes in the vicinity of planet Earth. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can only bring Saturn's day side into view. In fact, this image of Saturn's slender sunlit crescent with night's shadow cast across its broad and complex ring system was captured by the Cassini spacecraft. A robot spacecraft from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit home for 13 years before it was directed to dive into the atmosphere of the gas giant on September 15, 2017. This magnificent mosaic is composed of frames recorded by Cassini's wide-angle camera only two days before its grand final plunge. Saturn's night will not be seen again until another spaceship from Earth calls.
※ 本文由萌芽機器人自動轉貼自每日一天文圖（Astronomy Picture of the Day，APOD），原文為英文，正體中文是透過 DeepL 翻譯及 OpenCC 進行自動處理，內容僅供參考，若有任何錯誤之處還請見諒！
關於每日一天文圖：每日一天文圖網站是美國國家航空暨太空總署與密西根理工大學提供的服務，網站每天提供一張影像或圖片，並由天文學家撰寫扼要說明其特別之處。