This is what an artist thinks Huygens will look like in Titan's atmosphere. The Huygens probe is hanging from its parachute. You can see the planet Saturn in the sky in the background.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy ESA.
Huygens Probe to Titan
A robot spaceship landed on the biggest moon of the planet
Saturn in January 2005. The spaceship was named Huygens. Huygens landed on
the moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
Huygens had been riding on the side of another spaceship for seven
years.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft carried Huygens
to Saturn from Earth. Cassini "let
go" of Huygens on December 24, 2004.
Huygens studied the atmosphere
of Titan. Parachutes on Huygens lowered
it through Titan's atmosphere. Then Huygens landed on Titan. The surface of Titan is very, very cold. The temperature there is
about -178º C (-288º F)!
The spaceship was named after Christiaan
Huygens. Christiaan Huygens was a Dutch astronomer. He discovered Titan in
1655.
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