On this day in space: Jan. 14, 2005: Huygens probe lands on Saturn's moon Titan

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On January 14, 2005, a spacecraft landed on one of Saturn's moons!

On January 14, 2005, a spacecraft landed on one of Saturn's moons!

An artist's impression of the descent and landing sequence of ESA's Huygens probe onto the surface of Titan. The Jan. 14, 2005 landing was the culmination of a 22-year process of planning, organizing and cooperation between ESA and NASA. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/ESA)

This was the first time a spacecraft had ever landed on a moon in the outer solar system. Huygens took some amazing photos and collected plenty of data, which revealed that Titan has lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane, replenished by rain from hydrocarbon clouds.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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