Ten years ago, Huygens, the European Space Agency's (ESA) atmospheric probe, landed successfully on Saturn's frozen moon, Titan.

Now, ESA is celebrating the 10th anniversary of this historic event by recreating Huygens' descent to the Saturnian moon's surface in an eye-opening video.

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The probe was the first ever spacecraft to land on a world in the outer solar system. The probe took about two hours and 27 minutes to get to the surface of Titan where it revealed an unparalleled view of the moon.

It survived on the hydrocarbon-rich surface for only one hour and 12 minutes before it ran out of power, but still sent vital data to the orbiting Cassini spacecraft. Scientists have been continuously analyzing that data since then.

Data from Huygens shows Titan's atmosphere is thickest than any other moon in the solar system. The data reveals that Titan's atmosphere consists of 95% of nitrogen. The probe also revealed the moon's lower atmosphere has a photochemical smog, which is thicker than the smog that forms in polluted cities on earth.

The video displays a wide-angle view of Saturn and Titan from the Cassini orbiter, which is still observing the ringed planet 10 years later. It also shows the Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, or DISR, as it plunged through the moon's atmosphere to its surface of water ice and hydrocarbon rivers.

The Huygens probe is about the size of a bus tire. It was a piggyback payload that separated from Cassini on Christmas Day, 2004. Huygens made its descent three weeks later on Jan. 14, 2005.

Carolyn Porco, planetary scientist and head of the Cassini mission's imaging team, said Huygens'entry into Saturnian orbit was a memorable moment, as were the first flybys of the ringed planet's moons.

"The landing of the Huygens probe on Titan was a time I will never forget," Porco added.

TagsHuygens probe, TItan, Saturn moon, saturn moon titan, cassini spacecraft, ESA, NASA, space exploration