The Cassini spacecraft caught the European Space Agency’s Huygens Probe en route to Titan after its release on December 24.

The image shows the probe as a large white dot some 12 hours after release from the Cassini orbiter. Huygens is on course to encounter Titan, a moon of Saturn, on January 14.

Huygens will remain dormant until an onboard timer wakes it up just before reaching Titan's upper atmosphere. Then the probe will begin to plummet through the moon’s murky atmosphere, tasting its chemical makeup and composition as it descends to touch down on its surface.

Data gathered by the probe's six instruments during the two-and-a-half hour descent will be transmitted from the probe to the Cassini orbiter.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

-- Leonard David

Image Credit: NASA/JPL