Space & Astronomy

New video celebrates 10 years on Titan

By T.K. Randall
January 15, 2015 ·  6 comments

Artist's impression of Huygens parachuting down towards Titan's surface. Image Credit: NASA It doesn't seem like it, but ten years have now passed since the Huygens probe detached from the Cassini spacecraft and headed down through the thick atmosphere of Saturn's enigmatic moon Titan on a journey that no space probe had ever attempted before.

The results of the mission were groundbreaking, offering a never-before-seen view of Titan and providing scientists with valuable data from which many discoveries have since been made.For most people however it was the breathtaking series of images that Huygens took as it descended towards the surface that remains the most memorable part of the mission.

"The images taken by the falling probe and released to the public that night were everything our images from orbit were not: unfiltered, exquisitely detailed views of the moon's surface and unambiguous in their account," wrote Cassini scientist Carolyn Porco.

Now in celebration of the tenth anniversary of this achievement, a new video, which can be viewed below, has been released to reveal the probe's harrowing descent like never before.


Source: Yahoo! News | Comments (6)

Tags: Saturn, Titan, Huygens