Huygens Landing Site Revisited

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January 13, 2006
CreditNASA/ESA/ASI
PIA NumberPIA06079
Language
  • english

This is an animated artist interpretation of the area surrounding the Huygens landing site, based on images and data returned Jan. 14, 2005.

On January 14, 2005, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens probe reached the upper layer of Titan's atmosphere and landed on the surface after a parachute descent 2 hours and 28 minutes later.

As part of the joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission to Saturn and its moons, the Huygens probe was sent from the Cassini spacecraft to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Titan's organic chemistry may be like that of the primitive Earth around 4000 million years ago, and it may hold clues about how life began on our planet.