News Archive

News Archive

Titan possesses a dense atmosphere with a surface pressure of 1.5 bar and with N2 as its main constituent. Methane is the second most important component, but it is photodissociated on a timescale of 107 years. Because methane is still observed in Titan's atmosphere a replenishment process must be taking place through either surface, or subsurface, hydrocarbons.
Published: 9 June 2005
A destinctive bright feature is observed on the surface of Titan. It is apparent both at visual and infrared wavelengths in observations made by Cassini during flybys of Saturn's largest moon.
Published: 27 May 2005
Titan-5 is Cassini's fifth close flyby, and sixth targeted flyby of Titan. The flyby occurs on Saturday 16 April at 19:12 UT. The closest approach will be at an altitude of 1025 km above the surface at a speed of 6.1 kms-1. Titan has a diameter of 5150 km, so the spacecraft passes within 1.4 Titan radii. The Titan-5 flyby is also the first near-polar pass - the orbiter reaches a latitude of 74 deg at closest approach.
Published: 14 April 2005

On 31 March 2005 at 20:05 UT, Cassini performs its fifth targeted encounter with Saturn's largest moon. At closest approach the spacecraft's altitude above Titan's surface will be just over 2400 kilometres.
Published: 30 March 2005
Around the time of the descent of the Huygens probe in Titan's atmosphere on 15 January 2005, ground based observations of Saturn's largest moon were made with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile during the nights from 14-16 January.
Published: 1 March 2005
The third close flyby of Titan occurred on Tuesday, 15 February 2005 at 6:58 UTC. At closest approach, Cassini passed within 1.6 Titan radii, at an altitude of 1577 km above the surface and at a speed of 6.1 kilometres per second.
Published: 16 February 2005
Today, after its seven-year journey through the Solar System on board the Cassini spacecraft, ESA's Huygens probe has successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and safely landed on its surface.
Published: 14 January 2005
Monday 13 December, Cassini-Huygens successfully performed the second targeted flyby of Saturn's moon Titan. The encounter brought the spacecraft to within 1200 kilometres from the moon's surface.
Published: 14 December 2004
On 26 October, Cassini-Huygens will make its first close encounter with Titan. The flyby will take the spacecraft to an altitude of only 1200 kilometres from the surface of Saturn's largest moon, allowing for the first in-situ observations of Titan's atmosphere.
Published: 25 October 2004
With eyes sharper than any that have peered at Saturn before, the Cassini spacecraft has uncovered two moons, which may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet.
Published: 17 August 2004
The Cassini-Huygens Scientists presented their latest results to a press briefing organised at COSPAR on Friday 23 July. These results were a preview of the papers that will be presented at the special Cassini-Huygens session on Saturday 24 July. The panel was composed of the following speakers:
Published: 23 July 2004
The first set of raw images taken by the Cassini spacecraft were sent back to Earth showing detailed views of the Saturnian rings.
Published: 1 July 2004
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft followed a perfect orbit injection sequence and was confirmed to be in orbit around Saturn this morning, 1 July, at 04:11 UT.
Published: 30 June 2004
ESA PR 33-2004. The ESA/NASA Cassini-Huygens mission, launched in October 1997, is currently heading for Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The ESA Huygens probe will be the first ever to land on the surface of a moon in the outer Solar System, and the NASA Cassini orbiter will continue to explore Saturn and its rings.
Published: 23 June 2004
Huygens 12th Probe Checkout
Published: 30 September 2003
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a mysterious place. Its thick atmosphere is rich in organic compounds. Some of them would be signs of life if they were on our planet. How do they form on Titan? Will they help us to discover how life began on Earth?
Published: 1 April 2003
This week, astrobiologists are discussing what ESA's Huygens spaceprobe might discover when it parachutes to the surface of Saturn's mysterious moon, Titan, in 2005. Titan possesses a rich atmosphere of organic molecules, which Huygens will analyse. Recently some scientists have begun to think that, by redefining life, in broader terms, what we may find on Titan may be life. If this is the case, it certainly will not be life as we know it...
Published: 19 September 2002
After an adventurous 7-year long tour among the planets, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will arrive at Saturn in July 2004. Once there, Cassini will parachute the Huygens probe to Saturn's biggest satellite, Titan. Titan is thought to have an atmosphere similar to the primitive Earth. However, both the probe and the Cassini-Huygens team are not in idle state until 2004. They have plenty of things to keep them busy.
Published: 28 August 2002
The 9th Huygens Probe Checkout was executed on 14 April 2002.
Published: 18 April 2002
After five days of extensive tests, engineers and scientists on both sides of the Atlantic are confident that ESA's Huygens Probe will be able to fulfil its exciting mission to explore Saturn's giant satellite, Titan. The tests, which took place 16 - 21 November, were required to check out the all-important communications link between Huygens and NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Published: 26 November 2001
29-Mar-2024 00:51 UT