Darmstadt, Germany ? A European space probe Friday sent back the first detailed pictures of the frozen surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, showing stunning black-and-white images of what appeared to be hilly terrain riddled with channels or riverbeds carved by a liquid.

One picture, taken about 10 miles above the surface as the Huygens spacecraft descended by parachute to a safe landing after a seven-year voyage from Earth, showed snaking, dark lines cut into the light-colored surface.

This is one of the first images beamed to Earth from a space probe sent to Saturn's moon Titan. The European Space Agency image was posted Friday on the agency's Web site. Scientists say the probe's images show what appears to be hilly terrain riddled with channels or riverbeds carved by a liquid.

“Clearly there is liquid matter flowing on the surface of Titan,” said scientist Marty Tomasko of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, which made the probe’s camera.

“It almost looks like a river delta,” he said. “It could be liquid methane, or hydrocarbons that settled out of the haze” that envelops Titan.

Titan is the first moon other than the Earth’s to be explored. Scientists think its atmosphere is similar to that of the young Earth, and studying it could provide clues to how life arose here.

“I think all of us continue to be amazed as we watch our solar system unveil,” NASA science administrator Alphonso Diaz said.