The European Space Agency's Huygens probe separated last Christmas Eve from NASA's Cassini spacecraft on a one-way trip toward Saturn's giant moon Titan. Huygens will hit the outer edge of Titan's atmosphere about 5:13 a.m. and parachute down toward a landing on the moon's smog-shrouded surface more than two hours later.

Although it is only a vain hope to find life on Titan, Saturn's gargantuan moon, scientists believe some of life's earliest precursors may yet be found on the mysterious orb when Huygens operated by the European Space Agency descends to its surface early Friday morning.

The Huygens probe is expected to be awakened by an internal signal to be switched on at 11:42 p.m. EST (4:42 a.m. Jan. 14 GMT). NASA's Cassini satellite, from which Huygens separated in late December, will then orient itself toward Titan to prepare to pick up Huygens data.

By 4:05 a.m. EST (0905 GMT) Huygens is expected to arrive a Titan. It will not be until four hours later, at 8:59 a.m. EST (1359 GMT), that Cassini will orient its antenna toward Earth to send Huygens data.

An initial indication that Huygens entered Titan's atmosphere and deployed its primary parachute may be available from a signal picked up by the large Greenbank antenna in West Virginia at 5:30 a.m. EST (1030 GMT). But Lebreton said it will likely be not before 10:13 a.m. EST (1513 GMT) before scientists receive, via Cassini, the first of several data files indicating that Huygens had made the expected observations as it descends through Titan's atmosphere.

"We will be here waiting for the data, but the mission will be over," said Claudio Sollazzo, the European Space agency's Huygens operations manager. "That is probably one of the tensest moments for us." 

(Source: Xinhuanet)

Copyright of crienglish.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction of text for non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that both the source and author are acknowledged and a notifying email is sent to us.