ESA Huygens Probe's bounce-landing reveals Titan's surface - YouTube

The Huygens probe, brought to Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, bounced, slid, and wobbled to rest in the 10 seconds after it touched down on Titan.

The first 10 seconds of Huygens' touchdown on Titan in January 2005 are relived in this animation.

The motion was reconstructed by combining accelerometer data from the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument and the Surface Science Package with photometry data from the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer.

After descending through the thick atmosphere, the probe landed on the moon's surface, creating a hole around 12 cm deep.

It then bounced out onto a flat surface and slid 30-40 cm to its final resting place, before wobbling back and forth at least five times.

Vibrations in the probe's instruments were recorded for nearly 10 seconds after impact.

Credits: ESA--C. Carreau)