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European Probe Lands on Saturn's Moon

2005-1-15 0:51:56 CRIENGLISH.com

A European space probe has landed safely on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, buoying hopes for the mission.

A European space probe has landed safely on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, buoying hopes the mission would produce data that could shed light on the origins of life on Earth.

Officials were jubilant as early signals showed the probe powering up for entry, then beginning the two-and-half-hour parachute descent during which it was to gather information that could shed light on how life arose on Earth.

Mission controllers were confident the Huygens probe made a soft landing because it was still transmitting steadily long after it should have landed.

The heart of the mission was the parachute descent, during which the probe was to take pictures and sample the atmosphere, believed to resemble that of the Earth when it was young.

Early data showed that one of Huygens' experiments, designed to measure the Titanic winds, had begun to work.

Huygens was spun off from Cassini on Dec. 24 to begin its free-fall toward Titan, the first moon other than the Earth's to be explored by spacecraft.

Named after Titan's discoverer, the 17th century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, the probe carries instruments to explore what Titan's atmosphere is made of and find out whether it has the cold seas of liquid methane and ethane that have been theorized by scientists.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a significant atmosphere. Rich in nitrogen and containing about 6 percent methane, its atmosphere is believed to be 1 1/2 times thicker than Earth's.

The Cassini-Huygens mission, a project of NASA, ESA and the Italian space agency, was launched Oct. 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to study Saturn, its rings and many moons.

(Photo Source: Yahoo.com)

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