spacetoday.net: Huygens lands on Titan

Posted: Fri, Jan 14, 2005, 1:54 PM ET (1854 GMT)
Huygens landing on Titan (ESA illus.)

ESA's Huygens spacecraft has successfully landed on the surface of Titan, project officials said Friday. The probe, which detached from the Cassini spacecraft December 25, entered Titan's upper atmosphere 5:13 am EST (1013 GMT), landing on the surface at about 7:34 am EST (1234 GMT), based on a planned timeline for the mission. Engineers believe the spacecraft successfully descended through the atmosphere and landed on a solid surface because the probe's carrier wave, the spacecraft's only direct transmission to Earth during the encounter, was detected by radio telescopes on Earth during the planned descent and well after landing. Scientific data collected by Huygens was transmitted to the Cassini orbiter as is flew by Titan; it will relay the data to Earth later today. Some initial results may be released later Friday, although a more comprehensive release of data is not expected until Saturday.