Space probe lands on Titan

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><font size="2" face="Arial"><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/world-science">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/world-science</a></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="4">Space probe lands on Titan</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">Scientists announced success this morning in their mission to land a probe on Titan, a moon of Saturn that is of particular interest because its chemistry may resemble the chemistry of life.<o:p> </o:p> </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">Bigger than the planets Mercury and Pluto, Titan is one of the few moons in our solar system with its own atmosphere. The moon is cloaked in a thick, smog-like haze that scientists believe may be very similar to Earth's before life began more than 3.8 billion years ago.<o:p> </o:p> </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">Further study of this moon promises to reveal much about planetary formation and, perhaps, about the early days of Earth as well, scientists believe.<o:p> </o:p> </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">The European-built probe, called Huygens, made its descent as the last phase in a seven-year journey strapped to the Cassini Orbiter, a spacecraft built as a collaboration among 17 nations. The Cassini spacecraft is the first to explore the Saturn system of rings and moons from orbit. Cassini began orbiting Saturn on June 30.<o:p> </o:p> </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">Huygens was released from Cassini on Dec. 25 and later through Titan's atmosphere, collecting data as the parachutes slowed it from super sonic speeds. The probe carries six instruments designed to study the content and movements of Titan's atmosphere and collect data and images on the surface.<o:p> </o:p> </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.0in"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">The probe began transmitting data to Cassini four minutes into its descent and continued to transmit data after landing at least as long as Cassini was above Titan's horizon. The first confirmation that Huygens was alive came this morning when the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, USA, picked up a faint but unmistakable radio signal from the probe.</font></b></p> </body>