European Space Probe Calls Home from Titan

WOOT! Can't wait to see the pictures!!

PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The European-built space probe Huygens entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, on Friday, sending back indications it was alive and well and leaving scientists eager for its first research data.

The Saturn orbiter Cassini, which acted as the relay station for Huygens, sent signals back showing that it had finished its acquisitions from Huygens and had turned toward Earth to begin transmission of a likely three hours of data.

Huygens began its two-hour descent to Titan's surface in the early morning after a seven-year journey piggybacked on the Cassini space probe and a final one-way trip of about three weeks on its own.

The probe soon began transmitting a signal to scientists monitoring its progress at the European Space Agency's Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

That carrier signal did not return data, but indicated the probe had switched on its transmitter, deployed its parachute and was descending to the surface in good health.

The transmission of the signal, which scientists compared to a dial tone, continued strong for the next two hours, giving the team hope that Huygens' six instruments and camera were taking in the sights and sounds of Titan.

"Because of this, we can look in the sky and when we see Saturn we can say 'We've been there, we've left our mark,"' said Carolyn Porco, leader of the Cassini imaging science team, in a live ESA broadcast on NASA TV. "I'm looking forward to another decade of exploration and this is only the beginning."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7331430&pageNumber=0

Images should start being released around 3pm est

How very cool!!! Come on 3pm! Chip if you find the pics please post them (or the link) so we don't all have to google about. The universe is getting smaller and smaller one solar system at a time.

I definitely will Isis. I love this stuff!!! Titan should be like nothing we've ever seen before. I can't wait to see... it's hard to type with my fingers crossed, hehe.

I just remember how excited I was when these images were released from Hubble

This is great stuff. I've been at the Astronomy Pic of the Day this morning. It has a good link to a number of NASA resources on the European Space Probe's journey! This link - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html - might be nice for some of you astronomy junkies out there.

This is SOOOOOOO freakin cool! Before you know it, we're going to have probes buzzing around more places in our solar system than you can imagine!

*waits eagerly for pictures*

What surprises me, is that the intense magnetic interferance from both Saturn and Jupiter aren't interferring with it. Something actually gone right for a change.

This is neat. But will it probe Europeans? That would make a hott flick.

NASA has been on a good ride for a bit now, especially with the 2 rovers on Mars. They were only supposed to last for 90 sols, but just had thier 1 year anniversary and they keep on truckin'!

Yeah Juro, this is definately exciting to watch and hear about. Something definately to look forward to!

I have followed (on-and-off) the projects between the European Space Agency and NASA. Thankfully, there's an area of cross-the-pond relations that's actually been good. Gotta focus on those good things once and a while!

Viva la Saturn... and junk!

They've released one image so far but it hasn't shown up on the web yet. It's from 16km up and shows what appear to be river channels and possibly an ocean. It's black and white and grainy but still very dramatic. Hope there's more!

here's a small one of it...

There's 2 or 3 pics out now, but the servers are being overloaded.
NASA's main Cassini-Huygens site

Here's another from the surface...

ohh my...thank you Chip...I remember seeing the first hubble images of Saturn and being floored so to see this now is just absolutely amazing.

Welcome That first image is really quite amazing. I can't wait to hear what comes out of the analasys of all the data. I was hoping for some full color panorama shots but it looks like Huygens was only equiped to send back low resolution black and whites. It's still incredibly cool!

This picture is amazing! It looks so much like a shorline with sand bars! Definitely the most interesting extraterrestrial terrain I've seen so far. Wish there was higher resolution.

I have to wonder what brand of crack they were smoking when they decided to spend 7 years going somewhere to get 90 minutes of data out of it... why couldn't they make the probe so it would last a little longer?

Eggy.. I need to quote you on that, for that is an instant classic!

You dirty, dirty mind.

Jupiter actually isn't anywhere near Saturn right now. See?

I bet Titan's thrilled to finally get some dwell (or traffic)

There's a flash movie up of the descent on the ESA site now that's very cool. Too bad the probe was spinning and tilting like a top on the way down. Definitely worth checking out

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEM5YW71Y3E_1.html#subhead1

Batteries. Since the EU is alergic to nuclear power in space, they are forced to rely on batteries that have been on the charger for 7 years. Solar power is not possible so far out so you can't recharge like the mars rovers can. The fact it worked at all is a major acheivement. The Cassini spacecraft which is American and does have 3 nuclear power sources (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) has a service life expectancy of another 4 years (likely decades but other problems will likely kill it before then).