Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

This image brought applause from everyone at the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla

After a mere twelve hours of work, all six of the science teams on Huygens were able to report results this morning. You could easily tell the difference between the administrators and the scientists on this morning's press panel: the administrators looked bright, fresh, and well-rested, while the scientists looked decidedly weary.

Emily Lakdawalla

A frequently updated blog with the tumultuous events of Huygens' landing on Titan.

Emily Lakdawalla

Anticipation here at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) is rising to a fever pitch. The full complement of more than a hundred scientists are here from all over Europe and the U.S.; they are running around, greeting each other, getting ready for the long-awaited data.

Emily Lakdawalla

In two days, it'll all be over; for better or worse, Huygens will have hit the ground on Titan, and back on Earth we'll be waiting to see whether the data will be returned. Today, I arrived at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.

Amir Alexander

The Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer crams six sub-instruments into a tiny footprint within the Huygens probe.

Emily Lakdawalla

A week after Huygens' descent, the emerging picture of the surface of that smoggy world is of an arid, icy desert, where periodic storms of methane rain create transient rivers that wash sooty soil from icy highlands out to short-lived pools and lakes. The pools dry up -- perhaps sinking into a sandy soil of glass-like water ice -- and the Titanian desert waits for another methane storm.