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|  | | | | | | Landing on Titan – the new movies
4 May 2006
| | | | | | This movie, built with data collected during ESA Huygens' mission at Titan on 14 January 2005, shows the operation of the DISR camera during its descent up to touch- down. The almost 4-hour long operation of DISR is shown in less than five minutes - 40 times the actual speed up to landing and 100 times the actual speed thereafter (for a complete description click here).
The first part of the movie shows how Titan looked to DISR as it acquired more and more images during the probe's descent. Each DISR image has a small field of view, and dozens of images were made into mosaics of the whole scene.
The scientists analysed Huygens' speed, direction of motion, rotation and swinging during descent. The DISR movie includes sidebar graphics that show:
- (Lower left corner) Huygens' trajectory views from the south, a scale bar for comparison to the height of Mount Everest, colored arrows that point to the sun and to the Cassini orbiter.
- (Top left corner) A close-up view of the Huygens probe highlighting large and unexpected parachute movements, and a scale bar for comparison to human height.
- (Lower right corner) A compass that shows the changing direction of view as Huygens rotates, along with the relative positions of the sun and Cassini.
- (Upper right corner) A clock that shows Universal Time for Jan. 14, 2005 (Universal Time is two hours earlier with respect to Central European Summer Time). Above the clock, events are listed in Mission Time, which starts with the deployment of the first of the three parachutes.
Sounds from a left speaker trace Huygens' motion, with tones changing with rotational speed and the tilt of the parachute. There also are clicks that clock the rotational counter, as well as sounds for the probe's heat shield hitting Titan's atmosphere, parachute deployments, heat shield release, jettison of the DISR cover and touch-down.
Sounds from a right speaker go with DISR activity. There's a continuous tone that represents the strength of Huygens' signal to Cassini. Then there are 13 different chimes - one for each of DISR's 13 different science parts - that keep time with flashing-white-dot exposure counters.
During its descent, DISR took 3500 exposures.
Video by Erich Karkoschka, University of Arizona, USA.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | |  |  | |
| | | | | These images of Titan were taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens probe, on 14 January 2005. The views from the probe, in the four Cardinal Directions (N,S,E,W), were taken at 5 different altitudes above the surface.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | | | | |
| | | | | These images are Mercator projections of Huygens’s view of Titan, taken at 4 different altitudes (a Mercator projection is kind of map which keeps the cardinal directions intact – they cross at right angles – but distort surface areas). The images was taken during descent by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board the probe, on 14 January 2005.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | | | | |
| | | | | These stereographic (fish-eye) images of Titan’s surface were taken during descent by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens probe, on 14 January 2005. This view shows the surface from 6 different altitudes. It also shows the haze layer at 20-21 kilometres altitude.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | | | | |
| | | | Note to editors:
| This image is a Mercator projection of an Huygens’s view of Titan, taken at 10 kilometres altitude (a Mercator projection is kind of map which keeps the cardinal directions intact – they cross at right angles – but distort surface areas). The image was taken during descent by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board the probe, on 14 January 2005.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | | | | |
| | | | | This distorted fish-eye projection shows a view of Titan’s surface from 5 kilometres above the surface. It is built with images taken during descent by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens mission, on 14 January 2005.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | | | | |
| | | | For more information:
| This composite view of Titan’s surface is built with images taken on 14 January 2005 by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens mission, after touch-down. The composite is compared with a similarly scaled picture taken on the Moon’s surface. Objects near the centre of the picture are roughly the size of a man’s foot, while objects at the horizon are a fraction of a man’s height.
Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona | | | | |
| | | | | 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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| | At Saturn and Titan More about... More on Cassini-Huygens spacecraftRelated articles Movie of Titan's surface in the infraredA simulated view from HuygensHuygens 3D animation of Titan's surfaceNew findings from Titan and MarsCassini-Huygens team receives space awardLife on Titan?Christiaan Huygens: Discoverer of TitanJean-Dominique Cassini: Astrology to astronomyRelated links DISR web siteCassini-Huygens at JPLCassini-Huygens at NASAItalian Space Agency (ASI)
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