On this day in space! Oct. 26, 2004: Cassini spacecraft takes 1st-ever closeup photos of Saturn moon Titan
On Oct. 26, 2004, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took the first close-up images of Saturn's largest moon Titan. Here's why it mattered.
On October 26, 2004, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured the first close-up images of Saturn's moon Titan. This historic event marked the beginning of a series of flybys by the spacecraft, which would later drop off a European probe named Huygens. The initial flyby took place on July 3, 2004, but it wasn't until October 26 that Cassini got within 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) of Titan's surface, allowing it to capture the highest resolution photos ever seen of the moon.
The images revealed a landscape that resembled early Earth, with a continent-sized region called Xanadu, featuring bright features that suggested a mountain range, a large basin, and smooth plains. Cassini made 127 close flybys of Titan during its 13-year mission at Saturn, ending in 2017. The Huygens lander, hitching a ride with Cassini, successfully landed on Titan's surface in January 2005 to provide firsthand data about the moon's terrain.
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