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Explanation: Will the Huygens probe land or splash down? In the next few days, the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn will release a probe that will descend toward Saturn's largest moon in mid-January. That moon, Titan, has a surface normally hidden from view by thick methane cloud decks. What the car-sized flying-saucer-shaped probe will find is unknown. Once reaching the surface, Huygens may survive for as long as 150 minutes and take as many as 1,100 images. These images will be beamed up to the passing Cassini mothership for subsequent transmission to a waiting Earth. The Huygens probe is depicted above entering Titan's atmosphere and deploying its parachute. Uncovering the most mysterious moon in the Solar System may reveal a surface so strange that images of it may not be immediately understood.
Discussion consensus: Australian strange streak
is plausibly just a
flying insect.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Titan - Saturn - Huygens probe
Publications with words: Titan - Saturn - Huygens probe
See also:
- APOD: 2025 February 23 Á Saturn in Infrared from Cassini
- APOD: 2025 January 19 Á Titan Touchdown: Huygens Descent Movie
- APOD: 2024 December 8 Á Aurora around Saturns North Pole
- Saturn at Night
- APOD: 2024 August 27 Á Moon Eclipses Saturn
- APOD: 2024 June 23 Á The Colors of Saturn from Cassini
- A Season of Saturn