ESA - Cassini-Huygens - Huygens’s second landing anniversary

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Huygens’s second landing anniversary – the surprises continue

12 January 2007

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An artist's impression of Huygens on Titan.

Credits: ESA

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Images recorded by the Huygens DISR between 17 and 8 km were assembled to produce this panoramic mosaic. The probe groundtrack is indicated as points; north is up. Narrow dark linear markings, interpreted as channels, cut through the brighter terrain. The complex channel network implies precipitation (likely as methane ‘rain’) and possibly springs. The circle indicates the outline of the low-altitude panorama view from 1.2 km below (3rd image in article).

Credits: ESA/NASA/Univ. of Arizona

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This image of Titan’s surface was taken on 14 January 2005 by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens mission, after touch-down. When printed on letter sized paper, the image shows the size of Titan’s pebbles in their true size.

Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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This image is an artist's impression of the descent and landing sequence followed by ESA's Huygens probe that landed on Titan. The event was the culmination of a 22-year process of planning, organising and cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Credits: ESA - D. Ducros

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The existence of oceans or lakes of liquid methane on Saturn's moon Titan was predicted more than 20 years ago. But with a dense haze preventing a closer look it has not been possible to confirm their presence. Until the Cassini flyby of 22 July 2006, that is.

Radar imaging data from the Cassini flyby of Titan provide convincing evidence for large bodies of liquid. This image gives a taste of what Cassini saw. Intensity in this colorized image is proportional to how much radar brightness is returned, or more specifically, the logarithm of the radar backscatter cross-section. The colors are not a representation of what the human eye would see.

The lakes, darker than the surrounding terrain, are emphasized here by tinting regions of low backscatter in blue. Radar-brighter regions are shown in tan. The strip of radar imagery is foreshortened to simulate an oblique view of the highest latitude region, seen from a point to its west.

Credits: NASA/JPL/USGS

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