14 January 2010: Barcelona celebrates 5th anniversary of Titan landing
Published January 04, 2010
Artist’s impression of Huygens touchdown - Image credits: ESA/D.Ducros
On 14 January 2005, ESA’s Huygens interplanetary probe descended on Titan’s atmosphere and landed on its surface, gathering important scientific data and marking mankind’s first successful attempt to land a probe on another world in the outer Solar System. The probe had detached itself a few days earlier form NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of this historical achievement, a public session will discuss the main scientific and engineering achievements of Huygens, expectations for the Cassini mission, and objectives for future missions to Titan.
More details on the celebration are available here. Entrance is free on 14 January 2010 at 18:00 at CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, as part of a 3-day international meeting on the Cassini-Huygens mission. Access will be limited, on a first come first serve basis.
One of the main reasons for sending Huygens to Titan was that its nitrogen atmosphere, rich in methane, and its surface are believed to contain many chemicals of the kind that existed on the young Earth. Combined with the Cassini observations, Huygens offers an unprecedented view of Saturn’s mysterious moon.
The 3-day international meeting is organized by the City of Barcelona in collaboration with the Fabra Observatory, ESA, NASA, the Spanish Research Council CSIC, the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the La Caixa Foundation. More details on the full programme can be found here.
CosmoCaixa is close to the Fabra Observatory, from where Titan's atmosphere was observed for the first time in 1907 by Josep Comas i Solà, with a telescope still in activity today.
Astronomer Josep Comas i Solà (Barcelona 1868-1937), made many discoveries on the planets and other bodies of the Solar System, such as satellites, asteroids and comets. In 1925, almost simultaneously with P.Schain, he discovered the Schain-Comas Solá (C/1925 F) comet. On Saturn, he measured the period of rotation of the planet, and the differential period of rotation of its atmosphere, which turns faster at the equator than at the poles. One of his theories was the “limb darkening” of planet’s atmospheres, which allowed him in 1907 to suggest that “…I have observed that Titan’s disc becomes darker at its edge. We may reasonably suppose that this demonstrates the existence of a strongly absorbent atmosphere around Titan.” The existence of methane in Titan’s atmosphere was confirmed only in 1944 by measurements made by Gerard Kuiper.
Josep Comas i Solà was the first director of the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, and he also dedicated great efforts to scientific outreach to society. His most known contribution was a series of over 600 articles on astronomy, published by the La Vanguardia newspaper from1893 until his death in 1937.