Saturn probe sets sights on Titan

[United Press International]

BOULDER, Colo., May 7 (UPI) -- NASA scientists said the
Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has caught sight of Saturn's largest
moon, Titan.
The probe, which is expected to enter into orbit around
Saturn on July 1 and begin a four-year mission of exploration, has
taken its first images of Titan, which is thought to support oily
lakes and seas.
Over the next two months, the cameras on Cassini will take
more detailed pictures of a surface that is shrouded by one of the
thickest atmospheres in the solar system.
Next January, Cassini will release its Huygens probe, which
will plunge down into Titan's atmosphere in an attempt to land on
the moon, which is nearly the size of Mercury at 3,200 miles across.
Cassini used its narrow angle camera's spectral filters
specifically designed to penetrate the moon's thick atmosphere.
Although the viewing conditions were not at their best, mission
scientists said the pictures rival anything they have seen before --
including images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint project between NASA,
the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.