And now lakes on Titan...

The Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of liquid in the nothern lakes on Saturn's largest moon Titan though this would be probably liquid methane rather than water. Cassini captured reflection of sunlight from the southern edge of the 150,000 square mile Kraken Mare (NASA).

Reflection of Sunlight off Titan Lake: Picture courtesy NASA

There is a rather interesting suggestion, by Dr Stofan from University College London and her team from Proxemy Research, of taking a TiME "boat" to Kraken Mare or Ligeia Mare on Titan." The Titan Mare Explorer (TiME), as it is called, may even possibly be "diving in" less than 14 years from now, if only it could hitch a rideto Saturn.

Titan's atmosphere may have some similarities with those of Planet Earth, except that it is methane that replaces water on Titan.

There is no chance of three men in a boat (and to say nothing of the dog) as yet...

Water on the Moon and Mars

The Indian Chandrayaan-1 ("Moon vehicle") has on board a NASA mineralogy mapper which found small amounts of water closer to the poles, in higher lattitudes. The blue colour in the reflected near-infrared radiation picture represents water, the green the surface brightness and the red is pyroxene (rock-forming silicates containing iron).

Although it is not a lot of water, it is really exciting news which changes our views of moon fundamentally. Close on the heels of finding ice buried on Mars (exposed by impacts of meteorites), there are interesting implications for travel to Moon, Mars and beyond.

Back again....

It has been a rather long hiatus., but I am back again....

Now this is an interesting way to present stats..

Back after a hiatus.
Just seen the 2006 TED talk delivered by Hans Rosling - stats with humour and visual impact. Wow!