On January 14, 2005, the Huygens probe, following a seven year journey from earth, landed on the surface of Titan, gathered some data on its surroundings, and then promptly shut off thirty minutes later never to turn again. Everything had gone according to plan. Huygens became the farthest landed human object in the solar system, and despite its short life on the surface of Titan, returned to us a wealth of data on this incredibly interesting Saturnine moon.
The Huygens probe hitched a ride to Titan aboard the Cassini spacecraft, which was just passing through Titan’s neighborhood as part of its larger mission to explore all of Saturn’s moons and various assorted space objects. After activating and separating from Cassini, Huygens was essentially flung at that Titanian surface. As it plunged down it began snapping photographs and taking atmospheric readings. As it neared the surface, the probe deployed a parachute and coasted to the ground where it landed near an ocean in what seemed to be a sandy region of the faraway moon. It continued to take photos of the surface and report data back to Earth via the still nearby Cassini craft.
The information relayed back to us was staggering. We already knew quite a bit about Titan through telescopic observation and reckoning, but nothing replaces the type of data gathered from up-close interaction and sample gathering. Through measuring the drift of the probe as it glided to the surface we learned that Titan has gentle surface winds, and using the on board mass spectrometer we confirmed that these gentle winds are comprised mostly of methane gas. Methane is abundant on Titan, comprising much of the atmosphere, and in its liquid form, likely makes up most of the visible seas. We also learned that, like Earth, the liquids on Titan go through a cycle of rainfall and evaporation, however the Titanian version is much more dramatic, with periods of intense rainfall followed by “decades or centuries of drought.”
While it was only active for the few hours between leaving the Cassini craft and touching down on the surface of Titan, the Huygens probe has gone down in history with many human firsts. It was the first time we recorded the sounds of an alien surface - there was reportedly nothing surprising in these recordings. It also became the furthest successful landing from Earth completed thus far. Huygens also gave us images from a world so unrecognizable to our own, where the haze that obscure your view is methane, and where there is wind, and rain, and oceans that share names with their counterparts on Earth, but are so vastly different in their makeup and behavior. There are no waves on Titan’s oceans because they are so heavy and thick. Perhaps one day we’ll be lucky enough to tread of on the surface of Titan and take samples of her methane oceans, but for now, we’ll have to remain astonished that we were able to spend even just thirty minutes there.