Explanation:
Today's descent to the
surface of Titan by the European Space
Agency's
Huygens probe was the most distant landing ever
by a spacecraft from Earth.
At 10:13
UT
(5:13am EST, 11:13 CET),
Huygens
entered the atmosphere of Saturn's
large
mystery moon at an altitude of 180 kilometers.
Radio astronomers reported detecting signals
from the probe indicating that
that Huygens began to deployed a series
of parachutes
to control its 2 hour descent through
Titan's dense atmosphere.
Huygens' anticipated
landing point is marked by a yellow dot in
this
near-infrared image from the
Cassini spacecraft ... but it is not known if a solid or liquid
surface awaited it.
The outermost of the
nested
octagons is about 1,120 kilometers across.
The outlines are labeled by altitude and indicate
areas of coverage by Huygens' imaging
instruments during the descent.
News:
Updates on the Huygens landing.
