The Hyperion dispute and chaos in space
When reading around for my piece yesterday on the wavefunctions of quantum mechanics, I stumbled across an old and fascinating debate about Saturn’s moon Hyperion. The question of how the smooth, cla…
Saturn
8 posts
A new map of Titan
It’s been a long time since I’ve obsessed over Titan, primarily because after the Cassini mission ended, the pace of updates about Titan died down, and because other moons of the Solar System (Europa,…
Why Titan is awesome #11
Titaaaaan! Here we go again. 😄 As has been reported, NASA has been interested in sending a robotic submarine to Saturn's moon Titan to explore the hydrocarbon lakes near its north pole. Various…
Why Titan is awesome #10
Titaaaaan! How much I've missed writing these posts since Cassini passed away. Unsurprisingly, it's after the probe's demise that we've really begun to realise how much of Cassini'…
The significance of Cassini's end
because I wrote this on The Wire on September 15. I lied. Truth is, I don't care about Saturn. In fact, I'm fascinated with Cassini because of Saturn. We all are. Without Cassini, Saturn woul…
Titan's lakes might be fizzing with nitrogen bubbles
The results are relevant for future lander-probes to Titan – and to understand the surface chemistry of the only other body in the Solar System known to have liquids on its surface.…
Titan's chemical orgies
New studies of Saturn’s moon Titan should make it more familiar – but the more we learn about it, the more outlandish Titan gets.…
What life on Earth tells us about life 'elsewhere'
In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked a question not many could forget for a long time: "Where is everybody?" He was referring to the notion that, given the age and size of the universe,…