A European-designed space probe broke away from its NASA mother ship on Friday on a plunge toward the mysterious Saturn moon Titan, starting a journey researchers hope will end with answers about one of the most puzzling bodies in the solar system. Ground controllers received a signal at about 7:24 p.m. Pacific time (10:24 p.m. EST/0324 GMT) indicating that Huygens had separated from NASA's Saturn probe Cassini, as small explosives sheared away locking bolts and a set of springs gently pushed the probe off on a collision course with Titan. "The only thing we have to do now is assess how it left," said Earl Maize, deputy program manager for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here, referring to the probe's trajectory and how it spins as it heads to Titan. Huygens will now "sleep" for the next three weeks, coasting in a suspended state toward Titan and waking just four hours before its arrival on Jan. 14. The European Space Agency-managed Huygens aims to shed light on the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere, a place where the surface may not be solid and the truth, scientists say, is almost certainly stranger than fiction.
