What Huygens Saw On Titan - New Image Processing

January 14 2005 begins with the earth passing directly in between the Sun and Saturn an opposition so perfect that it occurs maybe twice per millennium meanwhile the Huygens probe quietly entering the Saturnian system is about to end its seven-year journey as Huygens approaches the inner planets cluster around the distant Sun Saturn appears almost as large as Orion a few moons are visible as white dots aligned with Saturn's rings while Titan its largest moon is already well resolved Huygens is destined for Titan a mysterious world larger than the planet Mercury and shrouded by a thick brownish orange atmosphere the details of its surface have never been seen Huygens speed increases to near 6 km/s and Titans disk quickly obscures our view of Saturn and it's more intimate moons as the probe enters Titan's atmosphere the heat shield reduces the speed some 15 fold within a few minutes the main parachute reduces the speed further 15 minutes later the smaller stabilizer chute allows a faster descent at first but slows as Huygens enters the lower denser parts of Titan's atmosphere Huygens is approaching a dark Valley between brighter hilly regions beyond the hills to the left to dark parallel lines appear which are later discovered to be part of a vast system of dunes which surrounds the moon at 21 kilometers altitude the probe moves through a thin haze layer as seen on the horizon the bright area near the center top is the glow of titans haze illuminated by the Sun a complicated system of drainage channels some hundreds of metres wide and kilometers long are seen cut into the hillside these are probably the result of runoff from methane rain stereographic imagery reveals hills to the left to be perhaps a few hundred meters tall while features in the valley are tens of meters in height for most of the descent the probe travels eastward above Titans surface however below seven kilometers altitude the motion reverses into a backward westward motion it reverses again at one kilometer altitude and we move slowly south eastward hang on as Huygens lands on Titan's surface near a water ice outcropping Ridge another westward looking view of the descent from 31 kilometres the area of Titan over which the probe has just flown this affords us a good view of the drainage channels and apparent shoreline more dark lowlands appear and a rough pitted hillside to the left spectra of the surface suggested the bright areas are water ice in the darker areas are a type of hydrocarbon mixture that has never been produced in the laboratory the small white dot in the lower center part of scene tracts our progress over Titans surface we see the reversal and direction at 7 kilometers altitude and we fly over the ridge near where we will land as we approach the surface our perspective brings the topography to life we see that although there are rivers in a short line the basin is dry below there are distinct signs of erosion which crafted the rugged ridge line Huygens sinks into one of these gullies we experience a relatively soft landing on Titan's surface the view from the surface reveals an amazingly earth-like picture of a dry riverbed with distant hills which are a few metres in height some seconds after impact the shadow of Huygens parachute drifts across the scene the heat from the surface science lamp and the probes skin vaporizes methane from Titan surface which is about 180 centigrade degrees below freezing near the probe the ground is littered with water ice rocks and smaller pebbles which could be made of water ice or hydrocarbons or some combination thereof although we now know more than ever about this mysterious world many questions remain unanswered where is the vast reservoir of liquid methane necessary to replenish the atmosphere where and how often does it bring on Titan how does the methane get recirculated into the atmosphere what materials make up the surface what processes create and shape the hills dunes and valleys you

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Length: 4min 41sec (281 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 14 2015