Touchdown on Titan

20 January 2005

On 14 January 2005, the Huygens probe completed an epic 4000-million-km journey. It spun through the thick atmosphere of Titan - Saturn's largest moon - and finally came to rest on the last unseen surface in our Solar System.

Antenna tells Titan's secrets...

Image: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Phil Rosenberg was at mission control as the probe plunged through Titan's atmosphere towards the surface.
'From the data coming in we could tell that the probe's journey was rough. Then suddenly it became calm at about 20 km above the surface. This was the moment that Huygens emerged from the clouds.'
Phil Rosenberg, space scientist, Open University

Phil Rosenberg, space scientist, Open University

Image: Open University

After a week of analysing results, scientists are able to explain the patterns on Titan's surface. Light areas are ice, exposed by rain that's washed away deposited smog particles. The dark channels are rivers running into what appears to be a shallow lake.
Where Earth has sand, Titan has frozen water. And where we have flowing water there's liquid methane. It can't have rained long ago at Huygens's landing site - there's evidence for liquid methane close below the surface.

Image: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

The first thing to touch Titan was an instrument called the penetrometer. It pierced the surface, measured its consistency and sent the information back to Earth.
'We immediately knew Huygens hadn't smashed! The results from the penetrometer showed it had hit something quite squishy. There seemed to be a hard surface covering a substance like soft sand.'
Phil Rosenberg

Image: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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