Science and Exploration

Video: Approaching Titan a Billion Times Close

By Marc Boucher
January 15, 2015
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Video: Approaching Titan a Billion Times Close
Approaching Titan a Billion Times Close
NASA JPL

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has released the following video on the 10th anniversary of the the Huygens probe landing on Saturn’s moon Titan. Follow along as we zoom into Titan to see what this moon looks like. Huygens landed on Titan on January 14, 2005.
From JPL: This new, narrated movie was created with data collected by Cassini’s imaging cameras and the Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR). The first minute shows a zoom into images of Titan from Cassini’s cameras, while the remainder of the movie depicts the view from Huygens during the last few hours of its historic descent and landing.

It was October 15, 1997, when NASA’s Cassini orbiter embarked on an epic, seven-year voyage to the Saturnian system. Hitching a ride was ESA’s Huygens probe, destined for Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The final chapter of the interplanetary trek for Huygens began on 25 December 2004 when it deployed from the orbiter for a 21-day solo cruise toward the haze-shrouded moon. Plunging into Titan’s atmosphere, on January 14 2005, the probe survived the hazardous 2 hour 27 minute descent to touch down safely on Titan’s frozen surface. Today, the Cassini spacecraft remains in orbit at Saturn. Its mission will end in 2017, 20 years after its journey began. More information and images from the mission at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Approaching Titan a Billion Times Close

More great videos about Titan:

Soaring Over Titan: Extraterrestrial Land of Lakes

Titan Canyon Country

News From Saturn

Documentary: Cosmic Vision – See how Huygens landed on Titan

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