Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Title:
Descent Through Clouds to Surface
Original Caption Released with Image:
This short animation is made up from a sequence of images taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) instrument on board ESA's Huygens probe, during its successful descent to Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

It shows what a passenger riding on Huygens would have seen. The sequence starts from an altitude of 152 kilometers (about 95 miles) and initially only shows a hazy view looking into thick cloud. As the probe descends, ground features can be discerned and Huygens emerges from the clouds at around 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) altitude. The ground features seem to rotate as Huygens spins slowly under its parachute.

The DISR consists of a downward-looking High Resolution Imager (HRI), a Medium Resolution Imager (MRI), which looks out at an angle, and a Side Looking Imager (SLI). For this animation, most images used were captured by the HRI and MRI. Once on the ground, the final landing scene was captured by the SLI.

The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on the probe.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Descent Imager/Spectral team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer visit http://www.lpl.arizo na.edu/~kholso/.
note:
Descent Through Clouds to Surface [ http //photojournal.jpl.n asa.gov/animation/PI A07234 ]
Click on graphic to obtain download options
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/ESA/Univers ity of Arizona
Produced By:
European Space Agency (ESA)
Mission:
Cassini-Huygens
Spacecraft:
Huygens Probe
Target Name:
Titan
Is a satellite of:
Saturn
Instrument:
Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer
Product Size:
233 samples x 400 lines
Primary Data Set:
Cassini
facet_what:
Saturn
facet_what:
Cassini
facet_what:
Titan
facet_what:
Imager
facet_what:
Cassini Orbiter
facet_what:
Huygens Probe
facet_what:
Cassini-Huygens
facet_what:
Descent Imager
facet_what:
Spectral Radiometer
facet_what:
Medium Resolution Imager
facet_what:
MRI
facet_what:
High Resolution Imager
facet_what:
HRI
facet_where:
Arizona
facet_where:
Saturn
facet_where:
California
facet_where:
Washington
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
Image #:
PIA07234
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA07234
orignial url:
http://photojournal…

Descent Through Clouds to Surface
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