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DARMSTADT, Germany, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The European Space
Agency's Huygens probe apparently entered the atmosphere of Saturn's
giant moon Titan early Friday, mission controllers said.
Huygens, which had been attached to NASA's Cassini
spacecraft since its launch in 1997, separated from Cassini on
Christmas Day and had been headed toward a Titan rendezvous.
Though controllers had not yet received data from Huygens --
which is being relayed by Cassini -- they said ground-based
radiotelescopes picked up transmissions from the probe at the time
it was known to be descending to Titan's surface.
Huygens, named for 17 century Dutch astronomer Christian
Huygens, was designed to parachute through Titan's dense atmosphere
to analyze its composition. The probe also is supposed to land
softly on the moon's surface, the makeup of which has remained a
mystery.
Huygens also carries a microphone that is supposed to gather
sounds from the atmosphere -- perhaps including the first thunder
recorded from another world -- and sounds from its landing.
Communications between Huygens and Cassini will last only
for a few hours, after which the spacecraft will pass behind Titan
and no longer will be able to receive signals from Huygens.