Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: After a seven year interplanetary voyage on board the the Cassini spacecraft, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe parachuted to a historic landing on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14. Above are two of the first raw images Huygens recorded of the mystery moon's surface - a view from an altitude of 16 kilometres (left), and surface level. The altitude image resolves features as small as about 40 metres. In the dramatic surface level vista, the light toned rock-like object below and left of centre is only about 15 centimetres across and lies 85 centimetres from the probe. Remarkably, the views of Titan's surface suggest a similarity to eroded surfaces on Earth and Mars.