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Titan is similar to the very early Earth and can provide clues to how life may have arisen on Earth. In 2005, the European Space Agency 's Huygens lander acquired some atmospheric and surface measurements on Titan, detecting tholins , [ 32 ] which are a mix of various types of hydrocarbons ( organic compounds ) in the atmosphere and on the surface.
Huygens (/ ˈ h ɔɪ ɡ ən z / HOY-gənz) 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. [3]
Huygens was an atmospheric probe that touched down on Titan on January 14, 2005, [114] discovering that many of its surface features seem to have been formed by fluids at some point in the past. [115] Titan is the most distant body from Earth to have a space probe land on its surface. [116]
Together, the three spacecraft will fly behind Earth as it orbits the sun, about 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) from our planet. The agency expects the mission to last four years, with ...
This is a list of space probes that have left Earth orbit (or were launched with that intention but failed), organized by their planned destination. It includes planetary probes, solar probes, and probes to asteroids and comets, but excludes lunar missions, which are listed separately at List of lunar probes and List of Apollo missions.
The first successful flyby Venus probe was the American Mariner 2 spacecraft, which flew past Venus in 1962, coming within 35,000 km. A modified Ranger Moon probe, it established that Venus has practically no intrinsic magnetic field and measured the temperature of the planet's atmosphere to be approximately 500 °C (773 K; 932 °F). [19]
The probe is expected to pass within an "unprecedented" 3.86 million miles of the solar surface on Dec. 24, according to NASA. NASA's Parker Solar Probe to pass Venus on record-breaking approach ...
Stratospheric zonal winds on Titan were observed on the order of 100-200 m s −1, [5] faster than the highest zonal winds on Earth at ~60-70 m s −1. Questions on the effect of obliquity in super-rotation on Titan is often compared to Venus, as they share similar centrifugal accelerations to achieve dynamic balance.