Hello, Titan

A European probe has touched down on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan:

Huygens was spun off from Cassini on Dec. 24 to begin its free-fall toward Titan, the first moon other than the Earth's to be explored by spacecraft.

Named after Titan's discoverer, the 17th century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, the probe carries instruments to explore what Titan's atmosphere is made of and find out whether it has the cold seas of liquid methane and ethane that have been theorized by scientists.

Timers inside the 705-pound probe awakened it just before it entered Titan's atmosphere. Huygens is shaped like a wok and covered with a shield to survive the intense heat of entry.

On the way down, it was to shed its heat shield and use a special camera and instruments to collect information on wind speeds and the makeup of Titan's atmosphere. The data will be transmitted back to Cassini, which will relay them to NASA's Deep Space Network in California and on to ESA controllers in Darmstadt, Germany.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a significant atmosphere. Rich in nitrogen and containing about 6 percent methane, its atmosphere is believed to be 1 1/2 times thicker than Earth's.

I always find stories like this fascinating. We're likely to learn information about this moon previously unknown to science, since peering through its thick veil of atmosphere with telescopes is impossible.

No word yet on the validity of reports that the probe's initial video recordings reveal footage of Jimmy Hoffa.