The Cassini-Huygens mission reached Saturn on 1 July 2004 after seven years of travel. In January 2005 the European Huygens probe parachuted through the thick orange atmosphere of Titan and landed on a surface strewn with rounded pebbles, near dry channels carved by liquid methane. Cassini stayed in orbit for 13 years, discovered geysers of water erupting from Enceladus, lakes of methane on Titan and new rings, and ended its mission in September 2017 by diving into Saturn.
Before and after
- 5 June 2004Death of Ronald Reagan
- 21 June 2004Discovery of S/2004 S 4
- 21 June 2004Discovery of S/2004 S 3
- 1 July 2004Death of Marlon Brando
- 1 July 2004Cassini enters orbit around Saturn and Huygens lands on Titan
- 29 July 2004Founding of Meta Platforms
- 3 August 2004Launch of MESSENGER
- 5 August 2004Construction of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
- 9 August 2004Release of OpenStreetMap
More in Exploration & discovery
- from 4 October 1957 to 1 July 1975Space race
- 23 January 1960Piccard and Walsh reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep
- 25 May 1961Kennedy commits the United States to a Moon landing
- 14 December 1972Apollo 17: the last humans leave the Moon
- 14 July 2015New Horizons flies by Pluto
- 19 April 2021Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on another planet
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.