http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- If a suggestion to be made to NASA comes to fruition, vast lakes thought to be filled with liquid hydrocarbons near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, may one day be explored by boat. http://www.physorg.com/news180680793.html Space & Earth Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:10:01 EST news180680793 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system -aside from our home planet, Earth -with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. According to planetary astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog. http://www.physorg.com/news180350535.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:23:11 EST news180350535 Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane lakes over the northern and southern polar regions of the planet's largest moon, Titan. On Earth, similar "astronomical forcing" of climate drives ice-age cycles. http://www.physorg.com/news178724806.html Space & Earth Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:49:18 EST news178724806 Haze in the early Earth atmosphere could have played a crucial role in the origin of life. By forming a protective shield, the haze would have safeguarded organic substances from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news174587577.html Space & Earth Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:00:01 EST news174587577 A team of international scientists led by Mirjam Langhans, from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will present first results of a global analysis of spatial patterns, occurrence and origin of river channels on Titan at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany, on Wednesday 16 September. http://www.physorg.com/news172306246.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:50:08 EST news172306246 Saturn's haze-enshrouded moon Titan turns out to have much in common with Earth in the way that weather and geology shape its terrain, according to two pieces of research to be presented at the XXVII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wind, rain, volcanoes, tectonics and other Earth-like processes all sculpt features on Titan's complex and varied surface in an environment more than 100 C colder on average than Antarctica. http://www.physorg.com/news168791012.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:10:02 EST news168791012 The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle -the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of the core. The research was conducted by scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues from Russia and Sweden, and is published in the July 26, advanced on-line issue of Nature Geoscience. http://www.physorg.com/news167835116.html Space & Earth Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:10:01 EST news167835116 Scientists have confirmed that at least one body in our solar system, other than Earth, has a surface liquid lake. Using an instrument on NASA's Cassini orbiter, they discovered that a lake-like feature in the south polar region of Saturn's moon, Titan, is truly wet. The lake is about 235 kilometers, or 150 miles, long. http://www.physorg.com/news136642119.html Space & Earth Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:08:39 EST news136642119