Not everything that we Rant about falls into the "eradicating bullshit" category — some Rants are of the "use of science...to further the progress of humankind" variety. This is one of the latter.

This Friday, January 14th, the Huygens probe — part of the Cassini mission to the Saturn system — is scheduled to enter the thick atmosphere of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. If all goes well, the probe will descend for just over two hours, and will touch down on the surface of Titan. The probe is set up to send back pictures and data all through the descent, and for 3-30 minutes after landing. Of course, we don't know what the probe will encounter — whether it will survive entry, whether it will touch down on solid land or liquid ocean, or what Titan will look like — and that's part of the excitement.

Cassini launched in October of 1997, then spent a few years swinging around the inner solar system in order to gain a gravity boost for the trip out to Saturn. Since arriving at Saturn, the spacecraft has sent back numerous pictures and videos of the planet and her moons. To us, though, the descent onto Titan is the most exciting part of the mission. The following details about Titan are from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory web site:

Titan is of great interest to scientists because it is the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds and a mysterious, thick, planet-like atmosphere. Scientists have tried for decades to penetrate that thick haze with a variety of telescopes, but got only vague hints at the shape of the surface below.

That changed in 2004 when the Cassini spacecraft's powerful instruments were aimed at the mysterious moon from close range. Cassini's radar instruments are revealing a complex geological surface with very few craters - a sign the surface may be relatively young.

Even with the improved view, Titan remains mysterious. It is still unclear how much of the surface is liquid and how much is solid. There may be lakes, ridges and channels.

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Combined with the big picture information that that the orbiter Cassini will collect during Titan flybys, data from the Huygens Probe will provide scientists with critical information that may shed light on ancient questions, such as how the planets formed and the evolution of our solar system.

Because of the extremely cold temperatures typical of celestial bodies that are that far away from the sun, the structure of Titan's chemical atmosphere is in a state of deep freeze.

It is this chemical composition that interests scientists a great deal because Titan's atmosphere might consist of compounds similar to those present in the primordial days of the Earth's atmosphere. Titan's thick cloudy atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, like Earth's, but may contain much higher percentages of "smog-like" chemicals such as methane and ethane. The smog may be so thick that it actually rains "gasoline-like" liquids. The organic nature of some of the chemicals found in Titan's atmosphere might indicate that this fascinating moon could harbor some form of life.

Sure, it's possible that some form of life could be present on Titan — not likely, but possible. Even in the likely event that life isn't found on Titan, we'll still be thrilled to see whatever Huygens sees. Being able to see Mars over the past year has been fantastic, but getting the chance to see something that will likely be so totally alien in its appearance is very exciting. We are hoping for the best this Friday.

To learn more about the mission, visit the NASA Cassini-Huygens web site, as well as the NASA JPL Cassini-Huygens web site.