SP-1278 Titan – From Discovery to Encounter
ESA’s Huygens probe was a passenger on NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn. The probe’s mission was to explore the physical properties and atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, by descending through the atmosphere and landing on its surface. The probe was named for Christiaan Huygens, who discovered the moon in 1655.
Launched in October 1997, the mission arrived at Saturn in 2004. In anticipation of this, ESA organised a conference ‘Titan, from Discovery to Encounter’ in April 2004, for historians and scientists. This conference proceedings is a collection of papers on all aspects of the life and works of Christiaan Huygens, and on the study of Saturn and Titan from Earth and from space.
In parallel with the conference, four museums in the region where Christiaan Huygens lived and made his observations held related exhibitions under the umbrella title ‘Christiaan Huygens, Facets of a genius’. BR-211 contains four essays, each relating to one of the exhibitions.
