Titan back in the spotlight

saturn really has some amazing moons. who can forget the release of esa's huygens images of the surface of titan back in 2005? the image above was made by an amateur image processor who had access to the huygens data, and it makes titan look strangely familiar. today, esa announced that the amount of liquid hydrocarbons on titan's surface surpass the total amount on earth by a factor of hundreds. there, hydrocarbons rain from the sky and collect in lakes and pools.

are we off to titan now, bush?

seriously, this is really cool. especially from the perspective of astrobiology and our interest in how complex chemistry forms in environments very different from that on earth.

Life

an article from the NYTimes about the search for life in the universe, and scientists' challenge to understand life forms essentially different from what are found on earth.

Three Articles from the NY Times

i actually have real work to do these days, but i simply have to link to these three articles that i read in the ny times today.

flirting with invisibility is an article about some recent experiments to render objects invisible. for anybody with a love for science fiction and superhero stories this one will be of particular charm.

she calls it phenomena is a look into the works of felice frankel, who photographs scientific phenomena. some very interesting pictures, with the obvious follow-up question: is this art?

goldilocks planet is an insight into the discovery of the extrasolar planet gliese 581c, which just a few months ago was getting everybody very excited about the possibility it might be a planet suited for life (as we know it). it turns out, the planet is probably much too hot for life to emerge on it. but, ironically, another planet in the system - gliese 581d - might be a more favorable site for life to emerge.

No Water on Two Exoplanets

good news from spitzer space telescope: for the first time, astronomers have been able to analyze chemical signatures in the atmospheres of planets outside of our solar system. the image above demonstrates the basic idea behind how the planetary spectra were obtained: the spectrum of the star (obtained when the planet was passing behind the star) was subtracted from the combined spectrum of the planet and star (obtained when the planet was transiting the star). the most surprising result of the analysis? neither of the two exoplanets that were observed - both gas giants and with such inspiring names as HD 189733b and HD 209458b - showed evidence of water in their atmospheres, though most theories of planetary formation predict the contrary. one of the planets was found to have a very dusty atmosphere full of silicates, suggesting that water may simply be hidden from view (in fact, there are plenty of other reasons why water, even if present, would not show up in the planets' spectra). either way, these observations represent a critical step ahead in our search for life outside of the solar system. here is the nytimes article, and here is the spitzer press release. (image credit: spitzer)