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| | | | | | | Cassini-Huygens factsheet
Landing on Titan, Saturn's mysterious moon
Name Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch scientist who discovered Saturn's rings and, in 1655, its largest moon, Titan. Italian Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712) discovered the Saturnian satellites Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. In 1675 he discovered what is known today as the 'Cassini Division', the narrow gap separating Saturn's rings.
Description Huygens is the first probe to land on a world in the outer Solar System - on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Data from Huygens will offer clues about how life began on Earth. Huygens landed on Titan on 14 January 2005, after hitching a ride on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Launch 15 October 1997 (Titan-IVB/Centaur at Cape Canaveral, United States).
Status Cassini is still in operation - Huygens successfully operated during its descent and landing on Titan on 14 January 2005.
Journey The 5.6-tonne Cassini-Huygens spacecraft made four gravity-assist swing-by manoeuvres. These manoeuvres were: Venus (April 1998), Venus (June 1999), Earth (August 1999), and Jupiter (December 2000). In December 2004, towards the end of Cassini's third orbit around Saturn, the Huygens probe was ejected on a 22-day cruise to Titan.
Notes Cassini-Huygens is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built.
Gravity-assists from two swing-bys of Venus and one of Earth provide the equivalent of 68 040 kilograms of rocket fuel.
It was dormant during the long journey to Saturn, so ESA scientists 'woke up' Huygens every six months to check that all was well.
The Huygens probe can withstand temperatures of up to 18 000°C in front of the heat shield. The heat generated as Huygens travels through Titan's thick gas atmosphere was immense.
Titan is one of the most mysterious objects in our Solar System. It is the second largest moon and the only one with a thick, methane-rich, nitrogen atmosphere. Experts think that its atmosphere resembles that of a very young Earth.
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| | At Saturn and Titan More about... More on Cassini-Huygens spacecraftMore on Cassini instrumentsRelated articles Life on Titan?Christiaan Huygens: Discoverer of TitanJean-Dominique Cassini: Astrology to astronomyRelated links NASA JPL Cassini-Huygens siteItalian Space Agency (ASI)
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