Theme for Today: Titan (TASE Day)

Today is TASE (Talk About Something Else) Day.
This week (actually, for the next four weeks) I am reading lots on Saturn's moon of Titan.

Yes, that is sunlight glinting off methane lakes you see on Titan. It has lakes, rivers, fog and rain.

This is because in my other life I'm studying astrobiology this semester. Titan is one of the candidates for possible microbial life in our Solar System, and my team and I are designing mission parameters for a science mission. (It's too early to say whether we want to choose Europa, Enceladus or Titan as our target. That may be determined on how we choose to sample our science.)

Astrobiologists study life on all planets, including Earth. Extremeophiles are a large part of our study, as it's likely that life surviving in other locations in the Solar System will be extremeophiles of some kind or another.

Check out what I've been reading lately: Do a keyword search for "Astrobiology" on Harvard's Abstract Service, or have a look at the habitability potential of icy moons.


Question: What topics have you been reading lately? Has it fascinated you as much as astrobiology has fascinated me?

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Her Grace is a polymath.