Cool Space News

The Huygens probe will enter the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, tomorrow, and will land on the surface about two hours later. The probe detached from the Cassini spacecraft on December 24. The Cassini-Huygens mission homepage is here.

Meanwhile, the Deep Impact spacecraft (mission homepage is here) was launched from Cape Canaveral yesterday, propelled by a Delta II rocket built right next door in Decatur, Alabama. The craft will travel to the comet Tempel I.

Deep Impact is comprised of two parts, a "fly-by" spacecraft and a smaller "impactor." The impactor will be released into the comet's path for a planned collision on July 4. The crater produced by the impactor is expected to be up to the size of a football stadium and two to 14 stories deep. Ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater, revealing the material beneath.

The fly-by spacecraft will observe the effects of the collision. NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, and other telescopes on Earth, will also observe the collision.