Will We Find Life on Titan?

With recent attention focusing on its sister moon Enceladus, Titan—Saturn’s largest moon, and the second-largest moon in the solar system—has been neglected as a possible source of extraterrestrial life. While its -179°C/-290°F surface temperature and methane-rich atmosphere would seem to preclude what Star Trek‘s Dr. McCoy might refer to as “life as we know it,” the possibility of methane-based life on the surface of Titan is both very real and entirely consistent with what we know of the planet’s atmosphere. So when can we send a probe there, and what’s the best way to explore the surface?

As Huygens fell to the surface of Titan, it recorded video of the planet’s surface and broadcasted it to us. This is the unprocessed footage:

And here’s a processed image from Huygens itself, following its landing. It is the only photograph ever taken from the surface of Titan:

The joint NASA/ESA proposal or a Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM) would use an air balloon to survey the geography (very feasible, given Titan’s thick atmosphere), and a lake-lander called the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) to examine the chemical composition of one of Titan’s many methane lakes. But the TiME lake-lander would have limited mobility, prompting Universe Today’s Michael Habib to ask yesterday: why don’t we take advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere, and the low viscosity of liquid methane, by just depositing a sailboat on the planet’s surface and letting it explore?

Europa has taken precedence over Titan and Enceladus as targets of exobiological study, and even the Europa mission has a far-off 2030 deadline, but given recent interest in Enceladus as a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life it’s not completely implausible that we’ll send a probe to Titan within the next ten years—and what we find there may be worth the effort.

Source: MU

Is Saturn Pregnant?

Ice—about a half mile of it—has begun to gather on the edge of one of Saturn’s rings. And if astronomers are right about the way Saturn’s 62 existing moons have formed, we may be looking at a 63rd. This would tie Jupiter’s record for the largest number of moons in our solar system.

Sir Brian Cox, a physicist at the University of Manchester and host of the BBC’sWonders of the Solar System, explains Saturn’s ring system here:

You’ll note Cox’s remark to the effect that when ice clusters form around Saturn, they often collide with other clusters and break apart. But if this particular cluster doesn’t, and if it breaks free from the ring and achieves an independent orbit, Peggy—named (tentatively, at least) after its discoverer’s mother-in-law—is likely to orbit the planet for billions of years. We’ll have a better look in late 2016, as NASA’s Cassini probe will be in the neighborhood by that point.

Source: MU

How To Watch This Week's Total Lunar Eclipse

Late Monday night/early Tuesday morning will be an incredible time for skygazing. Not only is Mars bigger and brighter than it's been in more than six years, you'll also be able to witness the first total lunar eclipse of 2014. Here's how to watch.

What

The last total lunar eclipse to be visible from this much of North America took place back in December 2010, but Monday night's will kick off a series of four such events in a "tetrad" of total lunar eclipses. According to NASA, the total eclipse of early morning April 15th will be followed by another on October 8th, and again on April 4th and September 28th of next year.

"The most unique thing about the 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of them are visible for all or parts of the USA," said NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak.

...And What's a "Blood Moon"?

It's possible you've heard tomorrow's eclipse referred to as a "blood moon," which, sure, sounds cool, but the term actually has religious origins (insofar as they are evidently relevant to biblical prophesy), not an astronomical one. As the good folks at EarthSky put it: "We can't really tell you why more and more people are using the term Blood Moon to describe the four full moons of a lunar tetrad. We don't know why, exactly."

When

You're going to want to either stay up late the night of Monday April 14th, or set your alarms for very early Tuesday, April 15th.

The lunar eclipse kicks off April 15th at 4:37 Universal Time (that's 12:37 AM Eastern, 9:37 PM Pacific), when the Moon enters the western edge of Earth's shadow, but the best views will come shortly after 7:00 UT (3:00 AM Eastern, midnight Pacific), at the start of totality. This deepest, darkest period of the eclipse will last until almost 4:30 AM Eastern (1:30 AM Pacific) and should make for a stunning view with Mars accompanying it through the night sky.

Where

The eclipse should be visible across all of North America, so just make sure you're looking up at the right time! Watching from somewhere else in the world? The map below (excerpted from this guide from NASA) can help you figure out whether to expect a glimpse of the eclipse at sunrise, sunset, or not at all:

Watch Online

Competing with poor visibility? You can always watch online. Slooh is always a safe bet for events like this. Their coverage begins Tuesday morning at 2:00 a.m. Eastern. NASA will be hosting coverage, too, both on NASA TV as well as their "Up All Night" chat, both starting Tuesday at 1 a.m. ET.

Source: io9

Russia to build permanent Moon base

Russia has big plans for its space program in the coming years and the Moon is its next target.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin recently spoke in detail about the country's plans to build a permanent base of operations on the lunar surface within the next two decades as part of what some see as an extension of the space race.

"The moon is not an intermediate point in the race, it is a separate, even a self-contained goal," he said. "It would hardly be rational to make some ten or twenty flights to the moon, and then wind it all up and fly to the Mars or some asteroids."

The next step will be a series of robotic missions including the Luna-25 rover in 2016 followed by the Luna-26 orbiter. A second rover is also planned after that to explore the Moon's south pole region.

Russia's most ambitious plans however center around the development of a new rocket that will be capable of carrying a manned spacecraft to the Moon. If this succeeds then the construction of a permanent base could go ahead by 2030.

"This process has the beginning, but has no end," said Rogozin. "We are going to come to the Moon forever."