The European Space Agency has confirmed that it has started receiving data from Huygens. They expect to see the first image starting around 21:45 Israel time
20:30 The European Space Agency has confirmed that it has started receiving data from Huygens. They expect to see the first image starting around 21:45 Israel time. The data was transferred from the European spacecraft to the Cassini spacecraft and then transmitted to Earth. Scientists are interested in Titan because of its chemistry which is apparently quite similar to that of the early Earth before life arose
Update 19:00 - Joy at the European Space Agency:
The "Huygens" spacecraft landed on the moon "Titan"
The European spacecraft "Huygens" successfully landed on the surface of Titan, a moon of the planet Saturn. The parachute, which is supposed to slow down the spacecraft's landing on the moon, opened as it was supposed to when it entered the atmosphere of the planet, which allowed it to land safely.
Not only signals from the road but also signals from the landing were picked up by radio telescopes.
The Huygens spacecraft transmitted to scientists at NASA and the European Space Agency ASA a signal indicating that it had landed on Titan. Radio telescopes all over the world confirmed that the spacecraft survived the penetration into the atmosphere, opened its three parachutes in time and landed on the icy surface of the large Saturnian moon.
Although the spacecraft was designed to survive only a few minutes after landing on Titan, it transmitted data to Cassini, which orbits Saturn for over two hours after landing.
Cassini continued to receive the data until it passed beyond Tetan's horizon and out of the small spacecraft's transmission range. Cassini has now turned its large antenna towards the Earth and is transmitting the data to the scientists who are waiting for them in Darmstadt, Germany, including Prof. Akiva Bar Nun from Tel Aviv University.. They hope that the data survived the transfer. Bob Mitchell, manager of the Cassini-Huygens program on behalf of NASA says. "We know that the spacecraft completed the penetration into the atmosphere, the descent into it, reached the surface and continued to transmit for at least an hour and a half." said. "What we don't know is how the instruments worked, how Cassini, which mediated between us, worked and whether the information arrived without loss."
The scientific information also started to flow to the earth, we will know details later this evening.
Huygens landed on the surface of Saturn around 14:45 Israel time and the scientists are waiting for the valuable information from the cloud covered moon.
For news at the BBC
Saturn in astrology
For news on CNN
