MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Huygens research probe at Saturn's satellite of Titan will not discover any living creatures, thinks Oleg Korablev, deputy director of the Russian Institute of Space Research.
"Methane and water are not exotic for space. For instance, water also comes to Earth from space with comets. However, when temperatures fall below 180 degrees Celsius (as at Titan's surface - Interfax-AVN), it is nonsense even to speak of any life there," he said in an interview with the Rossiyskaia Gazeta newspaper published Tuesday.
Nevertheless, he added, the landing of the spacecraft on a planet far away in the Solar System is an astounding achievement of the European Space Agency.
"I would also like to remark that the data from the descending probe was transferred in real time, which is quite difficult to achieve," he said.
According to him, no scientific discoveries have been made since Huygens landed.
"We will have to wait for the results till the data is decoded. It may take some months," he said.
According to him, Europeans revealed their capabilities of mobilizing formidable resources.
"Huygens proper costs about $1 billion,' he said.