Titan’s Surface the “Consistency of Soft, Damp Sand”

Artist concept of the Huygens probe landing on the surface of Titan. Credit: ESA


Even though the Huygens probe landed on Titan back in 2005 and transmitted data for only about 90 minutes after touchdown, scientists are still able to eke information out about Titan from the mission, squeezing all they can from the data. The latest information comes from reconstructing the way the probe landed, and an international group of scientists say the probe “bounced, slid and wobbled” after touching down on Saturn’s moon, which provides insight into the nature of the Titan’s surface.

“A spike in the acceleration data suggests that during the first wobble, the probe likely encountered a pebble protruding by around 2 cm from the surface of Titan, and may have even pushed it into the ground, suggesting that the surface had a consistency of soft, damp sand,” describes Dr. Stefan Schröder of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, lead author of a paper recently published in Planetary and Space Science.

Schröder and his team were able to reconstruct the landing by analyzing data from different instruments that were active during the impact, and in particular they looked for changes in the acceleration experienced by the probe.
The instrument data were compared with results from computer simulations and a drop test using a model of Huygens designed to replicate the landing.


Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/97933/titans-surface-the-consistency-of-soft-damp-sand/