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中文翻譯:
十年前，即2005年1月14日，由土星探測器卡西尼（Cassini）傳送的歐洲太空總署（ESA）休伊根（Huygens）探測器成功降落在土星最大的衛星泰坦（Titan）上。這些面板展示了休伊根在泰坦濃厚大氣中慢慢降落時，透過降落成像/光譜儀拍攝的魚眼圖像，拍攝高度從6公里（左上角）到0.2公里（右下角）不等，顯示出這個驚人類似地球的地表，擁有黑暗的河道、洪泛平原和明亮的山脊。但在接近-290華氏度（-180攝氏度）的極低溫下，流動於泰坦表面的液體是甲烷和乙烷，這些是碳氫化合物，而非水。休伊根在距離地球最遠的著陸後，傳送數據超過一小時。休伊根的數據與卡西尼十年的探索顯示，泰坦是個迷人的世界，擁有複雜的有機化學、動態地貌、湖泊、海洋，以及可能的地下淡水海洋。
#Huygens #Titan #Cassini #SpaceExploration #Saturn #Astrobiology #OrganicChemistry #ExtraterrestrialWorld #ExploreTheUniverse #GasGiant #SpaceScience #MissionSuccess
原文:
Delivered by Saturn-bound Cassini, ESA’s Huygens probe touched down on the ringed planet’s largest moon Titan, ten years ago on January 14, 2005. These panels show fisheye images made during its slow descent by parachute through Titan’s dense atmosphere. Taken by the probe’s descent imager/spectral radiometer instrument they range in altitude from 6 kilometers (upper left) to 0.2 kilometers (lower right) above the moon’s surprisingly Earth-like surface of dark channels, floodplains, and bright ridges. But at temperatures near -290 degrees F (-180 degrees C), the liquids flowing across Titan’s surface are methane and ethane, hydrocarbons rather than water. After making the most distant landing for a spacecraft from Earth, Huygens transmitted data for more than an hour. The Huygens data and a decade of exploration by Cassini have shown Titan to be a tantalizing world hosting a complex chemistry of organic compounds, dynamic landforms, lakes, seas, and a possible subsurface ocean of liquid water.
來源:NASA每日圖片
