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Results from Huygens

Results from Huygens

One week after its successful landing on the surface of Titan scientists have given more details on the observations made by the probe.

21 January 2005

General Information
Liquid methane on surface of Titan as opposed to water on Earth
Rocks on Titan constitute dirty ice as opposed to silicate rocks found on Earth

Surface temperature confirmed at 94 K
Results based on information for all instruments.
22 000 km per hour to 1400 km per hour in 3 minutes on atmosphere entry
Probe underwent a soft landing
Descent through atmosphere bumpier than expected
Ground based Radio Observations
VLBI observations have returned the data that was lost on channel A, although it will take some months to analyse
Event Times

Confirmed mission event times in UTC 14 January 2005 in terms of hours:minutes:seconds

04:41:19 Probe wake up
09:05:56 Interface altitude
09:10:24 Main parachute
09:25:21 Secondary parachute
10:20:00 Radio telescope signal received at Green Bank
11:38:11 Landing
12:50:24 Cassini signal detection ended, giving 72 minutes data on surface.
15:55:xx Parkes radio telescope lost communications
DISR
Surface ridge around 100m tall
Channels are evidence of rain
Dark material are photochemical smog deposits
Ridges made of frozen hard water ice
Some evidence for fluid flow in the form of methane
Evidence for Earth like processes such as precipitation, but with different materials
Possibility of rainfall relatively recently

A mosaic of three frames provides unprecedented detail of the high ridge area including the flow down into a major river channel from different sources.

A dark plain area on Titan, seen during descent to the landing site, that indicates flow around bright islands. The areas below and above the bright islands may be at different elevations.

Two new features on the surface of Titan: a bright linear feature suggests an area where water ice may have been extruded onto the surface and short, stubby dark channels that may have been formed by springs of liquid methane rather than methane rain.

GCMS
Gases like argon are not present on Titan
Methane present because of the low temperature
Oxygen is tied up in frozen water preventing formation of carbon dioxide
Methane atmosphere is a very primitive atmosphere, comparably to the Earth in its very early history
Methane must condense on the surface due to the low temperatures
Must be a methane source on Titan to keep replenishing the atmosphere
In upper atmosphere nitrogen is dominant gas and in lower atmosphere methane is present in higher abundances (this change is similar to the change in water vapour in the Earth's atmosphere)
On surface nitrogen levels remained constant
Methane levels changes over time on the surface implying a release of methane. The origin is probably liquid methane located just below the surface.
SSP
Tests have been done in labs to recreate the impact measurements derived from the penetrometer
Test done using a sand of fine glass particles with a thin crust added and this has produced a comparable result
Accelerometer measurements suggest probe settled 10 to 15 cm into the surface
Heat from instruments has evaporated liquid methane in the soil and released on the surface as methane gas

Last Update: 1 September 2019
29-Mar-2024 01:19 UT

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