Scientists have produced an audio soundbite that captures what the Cassini orbiter heard from Huygens as the probe descended on Titan on Jan. 14.
The sounds may not be music to everyone's ears, but they're beautiful, interesting and important to investigators who are reconstructing the probe's exact position and orientation throughout its parachute dive to Titan's surface.
"The minute-long sound file covers about four hours of real time, from when the Huygens probe deployed its main parachute, down to ground impact two-and-a-half hours later, and then for about another hour on the surface," said Ralph D. Lorenz of the University of Arizona.
Lorenz, who is an assistant research scientist at UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and a co-investigator on Huygens' Surface Science Package, made the sound file from data formatted by Miguel Perez of the European Space Research Technology Centre, Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
To hear the audio file, go to the European Space Agency website, or Lorenz' home page at , or the UA News Services science
