A lot happens when you’re not blogging.
Titan may harbour an ocean beneath its icy crust – either a mix of ammonia and water, or ammonium sulfate…
Titan harbours a hidden ocean
…of course this has been modelled for years, but now Cassini has provided real data in the form of slips in rotation rate due to the crust slipping around (very slightly) on a well lubricated layer, an internal ocean. If it’s ammonium sulfate this could power some very vigorous vulcanism on the surface, explosive eruptions due to trapped clathrates suddenly decomposing. Would make exploring some regions very exciting indeed.
Another interesting piece is Alan Bond and Dr. Mark Hempsell have decoded an old Sumerian astronomical text and have concluded it is referring to an impact in the Alps on 29 June 3123 BC (Julian calendar) – the source of the Phaeton myth and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah tradition… maybe…
Kofels Impact Decoded
…people are a bit shy of committing to this one, as a cursory glance at comments around the Web seem to indicate. Cuneiform is pretty tough to decipher, not least because we’re not always sure what the ancients were on about. Interesting implications for the Bible tales – if true, then Abraham either heard about the tale, or else lived a lot further back in time than currently imagined.
Finally, the Large Hadron Collider has attracted the attention of worry-warts who think it might make world-gobbling strangelets or mini-Black Holes. Penn and Teller say it so succinctly… “BULLSHIT!”