On January 14, 2005, scientists from NASA and European Space Agency (ESA), anxiously awaited the descent of the Huygens probe into the atmosphere of the solar system’s second largest moon, Titan. Huygens had been waiting in the wings for more than six years aboard the Cassini spacecraft, which had been sending home new and astonishing images of Saturn. The probe detached from its ride Christmas Day 2004, turned its battery power off as it glided towards Titan, not to be heard from until the day of its descent.

Powering back up in the early hours of January 14, Huygens reached the top of Titan’s atmosphere around 9:05 UT (Universal Time), deployed its parachute within minutes, and began its rapid descent. The first signal that Huygens was well and transmitting came from the nearby Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

Peering through Titan’s orange haze, an Earth-like world revealed itself. Rivers, lakes, and seas were seen through the thick atmosphere, but what flowed was not water. Extreme cold made the gasses ethane and methane into liquids. Seasonal rains fall, though due to differences in gravity, “raindrops” are bigger and their speeds slower than what we experience on Earth.

After about 72 minutes on Titan, data stopped transmitting. When Huygens triumphantly set down on the intriguing, pebbled landscape, it became the farthest probe yet to land in our Solar System.