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POPSElectricity Found on Saturn Moon continues: Morente's team studied data returned from the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which broke away from NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005 to become the first probe to go below Titan's clouds. (Read "Voyage to Saturn" in National Geographic magazine.) As soon as the probe entered the moon's atmosphere, a strong wind tilted the device about 30 degrees. This accidental motion enabled Huygens to detect the Earthlike electrical resonances that it otherwise would have missed, which Morente and colleagues describe their study, published in a recent issue of the journal Icarus. Jeffrey Bada, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, believes the process that allowed lightning to spark life on Earth is universal and could happen in many environments—including on Titan.
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POPSIce Volcanoes of Titan May Habor Life For almost thirty years, scientists have known that complex carbon compounds called tholins exist on comets and in the atmospheres of the outer planets. Theoretically, tholins might interact with water in a process called hydrolysis to produce complex molecules similar to those found on the early Earth. Could tholins formed in Titan's atmosphere react with liquid water temporarily exposed by meteor impacts or ice volcanoes to produce potentially prebiotic complex organic molecules — before the water freezes? Laboratory research by Catherine Neish, a graduate student working on her doctorate in planetary science at the University of Arizona, suggests, not without controversy, however, that, over a period of days, compounds similar to tholins can be react with water at near-freezing temperatures.
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POPSLiquid flowing on surface of Titan Liquid ethane. They say their observations suggest the lake is evaporating due to the existence of a beach where the lake merges with the bright shoreline. I'm sure there are some some big king tides on Titan. There's the big drawcard Saturn but all of those other moons would make drafting a tide chart a nightmare.
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POPSArthur C. Clarke's Alien Monolith I do not claim the veracity of this story... I always repeat my Mantra: "I am a Collector of Curiosities..." Well, this struck me as few things could as definitively Curious. If anyone has seen hard evidence (like NASA site photos) then let me know right now I will say it is interesting..
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POPSFirst ring found around a moon They haven't actually seen the ring, but when you consider the thickness of the rings around the gas planets it's not hard to understand why. They know that the electrons in the electrical field around Saturn are being blocked by something before they reach Rhea. They are hoping that this will give them more insight into the way planets are formed, but it seems there are wheels within wheels. While the rings around the gas planets, particularly Saturn are fairly well known. Now they have a ring around a moon. I don't know if people have considered the fact that the Sun has it's own ring. Known as the Asteroid Belt. Some questions may be - Was it a planet ? Will it become one ? Or will it always be a ring ?
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