Huygens was an atmospheric entry robotic space probe that landed successfully on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched by NASA, it was part of the Cassini–Huygens mission and became the first spacecraft to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made. The probe was named after the 17th-century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655.
A full-size replica of the probe, 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) across
Cutaway image of Huygens
A worker in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) stands behind the bottom side of the experiment platform for Huygens.
Application of multi-layer insulation shimmers under bright lighting during final assembly. The gold colour of the MLI is due to light reflecting from the aluminium coating on the back of sheets of amber coloured Kapton.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is nearly the size of Jupiter, Saturn has less than one-third of Jupiter's mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km) with an orbital period of 29.45 years.
Saturn and its prominent rings, as captured by the Cassini orbiter
A global storm girdles the planet in 2011. The storm passes around the planet, such that the storm's head (bright area) passes its tail.
Auroral lights at Saturn's north pole
Artist conception of Saturn, its rings and major icy moons—from Mimas to Rhea
