Titan Touchdown: Huygens Descent Movie

What would it look like to land on Titan, Saturn’s moon? The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe set down on the Solar System’s cloudiest moon in 2005, and a time-lapse video of its descent images was created.

Huygens probe separated from the robotic Cassini spacecraft soon after it achieved orbit around Saturn in late 2004 and began approaching Titan. For two hours after arriving, Huygens probe plummeted toward Titan’s surface, recording at first only the shrouded moon’s opaque atmosphere.

The computerized truck-tire sized probe soon deployed a parachute to slow its descent, pierced the thick clouds, and began transmitting images of a strange surface far below never before seen in visible light. Landing in a dried sea and surviving for 90 minutes, Huygens probe returned unique astrophotography images of a strange plain of dark sandy soil strewn with smooth, bright, fist-sized rocks of ice.

This event stands out among celestial astronomical wonders for revealing new details about the cosmic terrain and cosmic dust of distant moons.