The first analyses of data sent by the Huygens probe from Saturn's largest moon Titan are flooding in. They paint a picture of a 'Peter Pan' world — potentially like Earth, but with its development frozen at an early stage. Ever since the two Voyager spacecraft passed the Solar System's sixth planet in 1980 and 1981, Saturn — with its beautiful rings and retinue of more than 30 satellites cocooned in a complex, pulsating magnetosphere — has insistently called on us to return. The joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) Cassini-Huygens mission, launched from Cape Canaveral on 15 October 1997, was the answer to that call. In this issue, an overview is given of the descent of the Huygens probe through the atmosphere of the largest saturnian moon, Titan, and its subsequent landing on the satellites surface. The first results from the six instruments on board are also presented. These data, even at such an early stage of analysis, are highly enlightening — and are generating exciting questions.
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