The final chapter in a remarkable mission of exploration and discovery, Cassini's Grand Finale is in many ways like a brand new mission. Twenty-two times, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will dive into the unexplored space between Saturn and its rings. What we learn from these ultra-close passes over the planet could be some of the most exciting revelations ever returned by the long-lived spacecraft.
After a plan for Europa, NASA wants to explore the Saturn's largest moon Titan to know it better. Tital has the thickest and poisonous atmosphere compared to other moons and planets.
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and has developed quite a reputation because of its impressive ring system, but it also has 62 moons. The largest moon, Titan, is the only one that actually has its very own atmosphere. NASA now has plans to take a closer look at what is going on down on Titan, but not by using a spacecraft. Instead it will use a submarine.
If life can exist in these types of conditions here on Earth, the possibility that it also exists elsewhere in our solar system increases dramatically. For instance, what could lie beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa or perhaps Saturn's moon Enceladus?
In a new study published this week by researchers from Cornell University, the team of researchers has modeled a new methane-based life form that can metabolize and reproduce, similar to the oxygen-based life forms here on Earth. And more than that, the researchers say that these life forms could flourish in the harsh, cold environment of Saturn's moon, Titan. Titan's surface is filled with seas of liquid methane that researchers believe could harbor these methane-based cells.
Beneath the glaring surface and choppy waves, many secrets are hidden here in the oceans of Earth. The vast depths hide species unknown to men, lost treasures at the seafloor and perhaps even a cryptid or two. And while terrestrial studies of planets may have been interesting in the 20th century, space agencies are looking to aquatic surveys which may one day reveal the origins of life even farther out in space.
While researchers have long known of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and its sandy surface, new research presented this week in two separate studies published in the journal Nature reveals that the 300 foot sand dunes on the moon’s surface may have originated from very different circumstances than those on Earth. Titan, which is much like the Earth, is one of the most intriguing moons our solar system has come to offer. But while it is the only other celestial body that has standing reservoirs of liquid on its surface and fields of dunes like those of the Sahara desert, astronomers are now finding that the events leading to Titan’s surface are far unlike what happened here on Earth.
While the U.S. and the E.U may lead the pack in many sectors of technological advancements, and the concept of smart cities, it’s China’s supercomputers that continue to reign supreme. Commemorating the opening day of the SC14 Supercomputing Show in New Orleans, Monday Nov. 17, a team of researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and German tech company Prometeus issued the 2014 list of the top 500 most powerful computing systems in the world. And though the race was close this year, China’s massive Tianhe-2 supercomputer topped the list at No.1, for the fourth time in a row.