Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn Part II

(Continued from Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn Part I)The second part of the Cassini-Huygens Mission, the Huygens probe, separated from the Cassini spacecraft and descended into the Titan atmosphere on January 14th, 2005. The Huygens probe was the European Space Agency’s contribution to the mission and it was the first probe sent to probe the atmosphere and surface of another planet’s moon. As it descended through the orangish atmosphere, it collected reams of data that it relayed back to Earth. The data showed the atmosphere consisted of liquid methane and was not nearly as calm as astronomers had hoped. The Cassini Spacecraft, during a flyby on July 21, 2006, discovered the first methane/ethane lakes on the surface of Titan. These lakes ranged in size from 1/2 mile to nearly 60 miles across.

Astronomers had planned for the probe to survive for at least a few minutes on the surface before they launched the mission, privately, they had hoped for at least 30 minutes. The probe survived 72 minutes on the surface. During this time, astronomers were able to discover that the drainage channels, surface erosion, and shorelines, were formed not by the action of water, but by the action of the gravelly ice and liquid methane.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is still ongoing. In fact, during the first week of December, the Cassini will make another flyby of Titan. Because of the sheer volume of data collected, scientists have still not interpreted all of the data received. The mission has been a resounding success and the findings of the mission so far have enabled us to understand a lot more about Titan, Saturn, our Solar System, and other systems that have yet to be discovered.