Huygens Titan probe detected

The Green Bank telescope in West Virginia has directly detected the Huygens probe's carrier signal. It won't be able to downlink any data directly, but this is an early indication that the probe was functioning as it descended on its main parachute.

Huygens was alive on the surface of Titan

The Huygens carrier signal continued playing for more than an hour after the scheduled landing time, which means that the probe was alive even after Cassini was no longer capable of receiving data from it.

Actually, I suppose that could mean one of two things. Either the probe survived hitting the surface, or the main parachute failed to separate and the probe was still hanging in the atmosphere all that time.

The probe actually has three parachutes. The first one is a little pilot chute designed to pull off the rear aeroshell; the second is the big main chute; and the third is another small chute designed to speed up the final stages of the descent so that the whole thing can happen while Cassini is in position to listen.

I suppose we'll know in a couple of hours.