The Top 10 Huygens Discoveries At Titan

On 14 January 2005, at 13:34 CET (12:34 UTC), ESA’s Huygens probe entered the history books by descending to the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

This was humanity’s first successful attempt to land a probe on another world in the outer Solar System.

Huygens hitched a ride to the Saturn system during an epic, seven-year voyage attached to NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The final chapter of the interplanetary trek was a 21-day solo cruise toward the haze-shrouded moon.

Plunging into Titan’s atmosphere, the probe survived the hazardous 2 hour 27 minute descent to touch down safely on Titan’s frozen surface.

Huygens continued to transmit back to Earth for another 72 minutes before contact was lost with Cassini as it dipped below the horizon. The stream of data provided a unique treasure trove of in situ measurements from the planet-sized satellite which scientists are still mining today. In the following articles we present 10 important results from the pioneering mission.

Date: 13 January 2013 Copyright: Animation: ESA-C. Carreau/Schröder, Karkoschka et al. (2012). Image from Titan’s surface: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

1. Profiling the atmosphere of Titan
2. Superrotating winds
3. Methane mystery
4. The origin of Titan’s nitrogen atmosphere
5. Radioactive decay and cryovolcanism
6. Hazy Titan
7. Titan’s tiny aerosols
8. Dry river beds and lakes
9. Schumann-like resonances: hints of subsurface ocean
10. Elusive dunes

Astrobiology