Jan 14 2005
From The Space Library
ESA announced that its Huygens probe, which had undertaken a seven-year journey through the solar system, aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft, had successfully landed on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. ESA intended Huygens to provide the first direct and detailed sampling of Titan's atmospheric chemistry, the first photographs of its surface, and a detailed weather report of the moon. ESA had selected Titan as the probe's destination because Titan's nitrogen atmosphere is rich in methane, and scientists believe its surface may contain chemicals similar to those that existed on the young Earth, before life evolved. Before the landing of Huygens, scientists had been unable to see Titan's surface, because the methane in the atmosphere reacts with sunlight, creating a permanent blanket of smog. ESA had designed the Huygens probe specifically to breach that shroud. (ESA, “Europe Reaches New Frontier~ Huygens Lands on Titan,” ESA news release PR 03-2005, 14 January 2005, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_3_2005_p_EN.html (accessed 14 August 2009); NASA JPL, “NASA Salutes Successful Huygens Probe,” news release 2005-017, 14 January 2005, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20050114-3/ (accessed 14 August 2009); Guy Gugliotta, “Probe Lands on Moon of Saturn: A First Glimpse of Smog-Covered Titan,” Washington Post, 15 January 2005.)
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