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Second space Christmas for ESA: Huygens to begin its final journey to Titan

7 December 2004

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The Huygens probe separating from the Cassini spacecraft

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This artist's concept of the Cassini-Huygens orbiter shows the Huygens probe separating to enter Titan's atmosphere. After separation, the probe drifts for about three weeks until reaching its destination, Titan. Equipped with a variety of scientific sensors, the Huygens probe will spend 2-2.5 hours descending through Titan's dense, murky atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon-based molecules, beaming its findings to the distant Cassini orbiter overhead. The probe could continue to relay information for up to 30 minutes after it lands on Titan's frigid surface, after which the orbiter passes beneath the horizon as seen from the probe.

Credits: NASA/JPL/Caltech

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This is a computer-rendered image of Cassini-Huygens during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) manoeuvre, just after the main engine has begun firing. The spacecraft is moving out of the plane of the page and to the right (firing to reduce its spacecraft velocity with respect to Saturn) and has just crossed the ring plane.

The SOI manoeuvre, which is approximately 90 minutes long, will allow Cassini-Huygens to be captured by Saturn's gravity into a five-month orbit. Cassini-Huygens's close proximity to the planet after the manoeuvre offers a unique opportunity to observe Saturn and its rings at extremely high resolution.

Credits: NASA/JPL/Caltech (Illustration by David Seal)

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This image is one of the closest ever taken of Saturn's hazy moon Titan. It was captured by the Cassini-Huygens Imaging Science Subsystem on 26 October 2004, as the spacecraft flew by Titan. At its closest, Cassini-Huygens was 1200 kilometres above the moon, 300 times closer than during its first fly-by on 3 July 2004.

Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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The Huygens probe discarding its heat shield to reveal the instruments

At Saturn and Titan