Sunday, January 16, 2005
Soft landing on Titan by the Huygens space probe
An unmanned space probe has landed on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, and has sent back pictures, sound and data for about half an hour before succumbing to the temperature of minus 180 degrees Centigrade.
Titan is covered in cloud and so no one has known whether the surface is solid or liquid until now. During the descent it took pictures from various altitudes which showed lakes and river valleys and a lighter area next to the lake which might indicate a beach washed by waves. The liquid would be of methane or ethane due to the low temperature. No hills or mountains were visible from the landing site but the pictures during the descent may indicate some.
The landing site appears to be soft like compacted snow and is covered with small round objects assumed to be super-cooled ice. They have rounded surfaces so there must be a wind which seemed to be confirmed by the recorded sounds.
The ground and sky looked amber and a distant horizon was visible, all illuminated in the reflected light from Saturn.
