Voyage to the Mystery Moon

00:00:05 Saturn

00:02:21 The Voyager deep space probes flew past Saturn and sent back tantalizing glimpses of this distant world

00:04:11 perhaps resembling the atmosphere of the early Earth.

00:06:11 Their odds of success seem about as likely as throwing a basketball

00:08:17 The engineers need to make sure that Huygens is tough enough for the job.

00:10:28 We set up a facility in the lab that would enable us to simulate what would happen when Huygens hit the surface of Titan.

00:13:07 but this still will not be enough.

00:15:39 to transmit its data, the scientific data that it collects on Titan

00:17:23 When Huygens is descending to Titan

00:19:33 and arrives at Jupiter, the giant of the solar system.

00:21:42 Until now, all that scientists had seen of Phoebe is this picture

00:23:57 because that means passing right through the rings.

00:26:11 You know, it's like you have a car, a brand new car that you put in the garage, and every once in a while, you turn it on.

00:29:18 Since Voyager, scientists have known the rings are composed of rock-hard ice.

00:31:39 that perhaps Saturn's rings are still being formed.

00:34:39 We really need a place where organic evolution is happening on a planetary scale

00:37:00 -meant that there was a delay time of several hours.

00:39:13 Receiving a radio signal from Huygens is the first indication that all is going according to plan.

00:41:48 We saw a lot of inside of the milk bottle pictures in the beginning, you know? It's just all washed out.

00:43:58 When the probe, hot from the friction of entry, contacts the icy surface

00:46:23 a whole new picture of Titan.

00:48:28 down to as low as minus-100 degrees centigrade.

00:50:28 And the spacecraft will continue to fly by Saturn's many moons.

50:00:00 miles per hour before reaching its final destination