Evidence of the great journey of Cassini

Huygens was an 8-year "companion" to the Cassini spacecraft before the two parted ways to fulfill their own mission.

The recent Cassini spacecraft officially closed its 20-year journey of exploring the universe by crashing into Saturn's atmosphere and burning. However, living evidence of its great journey remains on the moon of Saturn, Saturn's largest moon, according to Science Alert.

Huygens expedition ship landed on Titan Titan on January 14, 2015.(Photo: Science Alert).

On September 15, 1997, NASA's Cassini probe spacecraft and the Huygens expedition ship of the European Aeronautics Agency (ESA) left the Earth together to study Saturn and satellites. nature of this planet.

Both ships are paired together in a space shuttle mission called Cassini-Huygens , co - operated by NASA and ESA. After 8 years from the day it was released from Earth, the ship reached orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. However, on Christmas Eve that year, the Huygens explorer ship separated from the mother ship, officially "parting" the Cassini spacecraft after a journey of more than 1,500 km.

The Huygens, whose mission was to discover Titan moon, separated from Cassini and landed on the surface of the largest moon on Saturn on January 14, 2005. Meanwhile, the Cassini spacecraft continues its journey with orbit around Saturn to study the planet.

Despite performing two different tasks, the Huygens explorer ship has always "contacted" the Cassini spacecraft all the time. Huggen's signal is not strong enough to send information to Earth on its own. It needs to interact with Cassini to be able to do this.

Huygens expedition ship separated from mother ship on December 25, 2004.(Photo: ESA).

With Cassini plunging into Saturn's atmosphere and ending his journey, the explorer Huygens could not continue to operate and send information about the Earth. However, with a special design capable of counteracting the corrosion of the atmosphere on Titan, the Huygens explorer ship will survive on this moon for millions of years , as a living proof for the great journey. of Cassini-Huygens.

"It will be there for a long time, maybe millions of years," said Erich Karkoschka, a scientist at Ariozone University, a member of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft project.

At the end of its mission, the Cassini spacecraft sent extremely valuable data on its 13-year journey around Saturn. Meanwhile, the Huygens probe helps scientists for the first time decipher many mysteries on Titan's moon. The Cassini-Huygens train is now one of the most successful spacecraft missions in history.