As we speak within the historical past of astronomy, the Huygens probe survives its descent to the mysterious floor of Saturn’s moon, returning photos to Earth.
Huygens despatched again this stereographic projection view of Titan’s floor options from a top of three miles (5 km) because it descended towards the floor. Credit score: ESA/NASA/JPL/College of Arizona
When the Huygens probe dropped into Titan’s environment on Jan. 14, 2005, nobody knew what to anticipate. For landings on Mars or the Moon, mission scientists plotted out touchdown websites with meticulous care. Telescopes and orbiters scanned the bottom, imaging harmful terrain and protected zones, and flight engineers pored over their maps and deliberate accordingly. However Titan was a thriller.
After Cassini launched Huygens Dec. 24, 2004, the probe underwent a sleepy, three-week fall via house earlier than encountering Titan’s environment. Huygens entered the environment enclosed in a warmth defend to guard it from the pressure of entry. After it handed via a hazard zone, it ejected the again cowl and deployed its massive parachute. As soon as stabilized, Huygens blew off its entrance warmth defend, prepared to start out its science mission.
Huygens instantly began analyzing and recording, snapping its first picture because it drifted 89 miles (143 kilometers) above Titan’s floor. It sampled the environment because it handed via, measuring electrical indicators and cataloging its journey intimately. After quarter-hour, Huygens ejected its important parachute and continued descending beneath a smaller chute. Mission engineers had deliberate this switch-over to permit Huygens to discover the higher environment first, then descend extra shortly so it might nonetheless have battery life by the point it reached the bottom, if it survived.
As luck would have it, Huygens didn’t land on sharp rocks or exhausting ice, which could have crumpled the craft. Neither did its parachute hinder its view — a priority held by a number of members of the mission staff. It didn’t splash down in any of Titan’s quite a few lakes or seas. As a substitute, it thumped gently down onto a mattress of one thing with the consistency of damp sand or packed snow, the bottom round it strewn with rocks and pebbles that wouldn’t look misplaced on an earthly lakeside seashore.
Safely aground, Huygens continued its mission. It assiduously recorded picture after picture of its ultimate resting place for 72 minutes after landing. In all, it despatched again some 100 photos of the identical slice of terrain earlier than Cassini and its hyperlink to Earth disappeared over Titan’s horizon. A short while later, its batteries ran out, and the probe quietly shut down.
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