We are starting to make a lot of discoveries in our own backyard, so to speak.We have just received new radar images from the Cassini spacecraft that indicates that Titan, one of Saturn's moons has lakes and seas on it. Before you start getting out your bathing suit, let me explain to you that these lakes do not contain water, they contain liquid hydrocarbons. According to scientists there are even hydrocarbon seas on this moon. I wonder what it would be like to sail over an ocean of hydrocarbon? Could there be life that can exist on hydrocarbons? That would really be a surprise to all concerned. There probably isn't, but the thought of such bizarre life forms really has to make you wonder. .Just because we think that it is almost impossible for life to exist in such a hostile environment may not mean that it doesn't. When we discovered life existing at tremendous pressures and in scalding water, we were extremely surprised but there it was, flourishing. I think that it just goes to show you how hard it is to stop life from developing. Maybe we have to change our mind set from thinking that a place is too hostile for life to develop, to thinking that life is so hardy that it probably has developed there.

This Artist's Concept Shows The Planet Catalogued As 2003UB313 At The Lonely Outer Fringes Of Our Solar System.
Photo Source:NASA

So how many of these lakes are on Titan anyway? I can tell you this, that about 60% of the moon's north polar region has been mapped and of that, 14% is comprised of these lakes. Using that rationale, it would seem to indicate that probably 14% of the moon is covered with liquid hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons that they are talking about are methane and ethane. One thing that I heard that I really thought was incredible was when scientists stated that it rains on Titan, but the rain is also composed of methane and ethane. One strange thing about the lakes is that you can see that they are at different stages of fullness. This is a little strange when you think about it, since it is not easy to observe this on earth. Lakes larger than the Great Lakes on earth have been observed on Titan. Another strange thing about the liquid on Titan is, over 70% of it is in large bodies that are seas.

Mars recently provided a surprise to scientists when they observed a large amount of water. What made this unusual is that previously water was only observed at the poles of the planet but, this observation took place at the equator. It turns out that there are similarities between the deposits containing the water at the equator and the deposits containing the water at the poles. The area at the equator containing the deposits is known as Medusae Fossae. Scientists believe that one of two possibilities will be true, that either the deposits will turn out to be dry, or that there is a lot of ice at the Martian equator. One scientist said that this is all very strange, it's almost like finding ice at Earth's equator. Geologists have been puzzled by these deposits for many years. Radar observations have indicated that these deposits are not only as thick as 1 1/4 miles in some spots, they are also very porous, which means they themselves may be pure ice with only a thin layer over them. Another thing that surprised scientists was the fact that the deposits at the equator don't look like the deposits at the poles, even though they seem to have the same properties. Some scientists thought that the deposits were created by volcanoes, but the problem with that theory is that there are no volcanoes nearby. When material comes out of a volcano on earth, it is very porous and we call it pumice, but it soon collapses in on itself due to Earth's gravity, but gravity on Mars is not as strong however, so it may be that this material stays porous.

Mars
Photo Source: NASA/JPL

The Cassini spacecraft recorded sounds from the planet Saturn. The frequencies were far above the capability for humans to hear them, so they have been reduced by a factor of 44. There is something very eerie about the sounds and that is the fact that for us old enough to remember the movie Forbidden Planet, which was the forerunner of Star Trek, we just might remember the soundtrack from there. The soundtrack for the movie sounds very similar to the sounds that were recorded from the planet Saturn. They are so closely related that it almost seems an impossible coincidence. I am going to allow you to judge that for yourself, since you will find the sounds of the planet Saturn below this paragraph and you can play it yourself and see what you think. Chances are you may be too young to know what the soundtrack from the movie sounded like, so I have provided a link to YouTube that features part of the soundtrack to that movie. Get ready to have your mind blown. First of all here is the link to the movie soundtrack

Graphic And Audio Source: NASA
Click On The Drawing Above To Hear The Sounds Of Saturn

If we look outside of our solar system to see what has been discovered lately, we will notice that a planet has been discovered by NASA that has four suns. New NASA research has shown that planets do form in some systems that have as many as four suns, I have a hunch that this data will be revised to show that planet formation can take place no matter how many suns there are as long as there are no forces that would disrupt this process. Scientists from NASA estimate that the planet is about 10 million years old and is about 150 light years away from Earth. Believe it or not, this is considered fairly close. .One scientist stated that when we think of planets, we should think of vacuums because planets scoop up dust and dirt as they travel around a star. Wow, I never thought of Earth in this manner, it makes you feel that you are a passenger on a traveling garbage truck.

Planet Formation
Graphic Formation: NASA

Another planet has been discovered orbiting the star 55 Cancri. It just so happens that this particular star is almost a twin to our own sun. This is not the first planet that has been discovered orbiting that star, it is not even the second. This is the fifth planet that is orbiting that sun, that we have discovered so far, making this solar system very similar to our own. There is a difference however, between this planet and our planet. The basic difference is that this planet is 45 times bigger than our own Earth, making it huge. The planet was discovered by measuring the wobble of the star as the planet orbits it. What made it difficult for astronomers was the fact they had to separate the wobble caused by this planet from the wobble caused by the other four planets. You have to admit they did an admirable job. It is unknown yet whether these planets have moons orbiting them or not. We seem to get better and better at detecting extrasolar planets and yet, we may not have detected all of the planets in our own solar system.. There is a belief among some scientists that there is at least one more planet way out there in our own solar system that we have not yet detected. This belief has existed for quite a while and this so-called planet was even named at one time, it was called Planet X.