00:10almost 20 years after launch the Cassini spacecraft continues to send back stunning images from
00:18Saturn and as Cassini's end approaches on September the 15th this joint ESA and NASA
00:25mission can recall some spectacular successes one of its highlights remains the first ever landing
00:32on an alien moon when in 2005 Cassini's European probe Huygens made contact with the surface of
00:42Titan Saturn's largest moon Titan is the only moon with a thick atmosphere and Huygens took
00:50several hours to descend by parachute onto an unknown world inside a control room at the European
00:59Space Operations Center in Darmstadt Germany mission scientists and the world's press awaited
01:05confirmation that Huygens had landed the signal was received by the Greenbank telescope in the USA
01:13from a European spacecraft 1.2 billion kilometers away it used the same power as a cell phone
01:20and was described as more challenging than looking for a needle in a haystack with an extraordinary
01:28effort that I still frankly can't believe the radio astronomers of the world the world gathered
01:38together to look at the little telephone signal telephone level signal coming from the other side
01:49of the solar system and after an anxious wait in the control room the scientific data and images began
01:57to arrive meanwhile the audience was able to hear Huygens radar echoes gradually rise in pitch as it
02:05approached touch down what is absolutely remarkable is that in that entire three hours and 36 or 37 minutes
02:23of data we cannot find a single missing data frame that the link and the quality of the data was
02:31absolutely
02:32superb so we are the first visitors of Titan and scientific data that we are collecting now shall unveil the
02:43secrets of this new world after releasing the first image of this new alien world color images showed
02:51incredible views of Titan from four altitudes ranging from 150 kilometers to 15 kilometers to and
03:01less than half a kilometer above the moon surface studying Titan has revealed a moon with many possible
03:09parallels to earth but it took a change in season before scientists discovered that Titan rained but it
03:16did not rain water the temperature at the surface of Titan is about minus 180 degrees so it's very cold
03:25the
03:26the landscapes of Titan look a lot like those we have on earth we have rivers lakes seas almost oceans
03:33of
03:33methane it rains it rains methane or a mix of ethane and methane so there are lots of meteorological
03:40phenomena or geophysical phenomena on Titan that makes you think of what happens on earth but the
03:47ingredients are quite different the Cassini spacecraft made its 127th close flyby of Titan in April this
03:59year another opportunity to study its hydrocarbon lakes and marmalade colored skies there are over 60 other
04:07moons around Saturn each with their own surprises but when Huygens landed on Titan's surface it made history
04:15the European probe science instruments determine the structure of the atmosphere made the first direct
04:21measurements of winds on the moon and found hints of a subsurface ocean beneath its frozen surface there
04:29are more mysteries to unravel but thanks to Huygens together with the discovery of organic molecules in
04:36the upper atmosphere by Cassini Titan has been revealed as one of the most interesting objects in our solar system
04:44radar machine
04:47you
Comments