{"id":61610,"date":"2024-07-26T08:39:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T08:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e55be28c-fa2f-491a-936e-02b713eb598e"},"modified":"2024-07-26T09:39:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T09:39:42","slug":"how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Huygens probe landed on Saturn&#8217;s largest moon Titan and captured video and images of its surface"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\">in 2005, ESA\u2019s probe gave us our first close look at Titan <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Ezzy Pearson\n      <\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Friday, 26 July 2024 at 08:39 AM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-missions\/cassini-mission\">Cassini-Huygens mission<\/a> will be long remembered for its amazing study of Saturn and its moons, including the Huygens lander&#8217;s incredible landing on moon Titan.<\/p><p>Long before NASA&#8217;s Dragonfly mission, in 2005, the Huygens lander touched down on Titan.<\/p><p>ESA\u2019s Huygens probe hitched a ride to the Saturn system on NASA\u2019s Cassini orbiter.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Huygens's descent to Titan's surface\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/svmGxFaGILY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>Primarily designed as an atmospheric probe, Huygens descended towards Titan by parachute on 14 January, taking 2 hours 27 minutes to reach the surface.<\/p><p>Throughout the journey, it measured how the composition, temperature, pressure and air density varied with altitude.<\/p><p>These measurements will prove invaluable to the upcoming Dragonfly mission as mission scientists try to ensure their own spacecraft safely makes it to the moon\u2019s surface.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Views of Titan\u2019s surface as seen by the Huygens lander during its descent onto the surface of the icy moon, 14 January 2005. Credit: ESA\/NASA\/JPL\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-huygens-images-of-titan\"><strong>Huygens images of Titan<\/strong><\/h2><p>Huygens took many images as it approached the surface of Titan, building a map of the terrain surrounding the probe\u2019s eventual landing site.<\/p><p>The images revealed a sandy landscape scattered with rounded pebbles in what is now thought to be a dry lake bed.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/07\/huygens-titan-1024x296.jpg?fit=800%2C231\" alt=\"Composite of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, captured by the Huygens lander. Credit: NASA\/JPL\/ESA\/University of Arizona\" class=\"wp-image-159259\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Composite of the surface of Saturn&#8217;s moon Titan, captured by the Huygens lander. Credit: NASA\/JPL\/ESA\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>The lander transmitted its findings to Cassini for 70 minutes, until the orbiter moved beyond the horizon, out of radio contact.<\/p><p>Cassini relayed the data home, only for the mission team to discover that a coding error meant half of Huygens data hadn\u2019t been recorded!\u00a0<\/p><p>Even so, the half that was saved revealed a fascinating world that planetary scientists have been itching to return to for the last two decades.<\/p><p><strong><em>This article appeared in the August 2024 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in 2005, ESA\u2019s probe gave us our first close look at Titan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":61611,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/07\/how-the-huygens-probe-landed-on-saturns-largest-moon-titan-and-captured-video-and-images-of-its-surface.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"in 2005, ESA\u2019s probe gave us our first close look at Titan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/61610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}