Hurricane Isaac and the hurricane of satellite photos in Facebook, Twitter

I’m noticing a boom in crazy-good satellite photos of Hurricane Isaac. They are full color, super-detailed, route and rain predictions, and (my favorite) cloud formations. I’m not sure why this is happening. Perhaps, it is the upgrade to our GOES weather satellites, or that the government has taken to social media like kids to water. …

‘Tropical’ lakes of methane are found on Saturn’s moon of Titan

Infrared imaging by JPL’s Cassini spacecraft has shown the existence of large methane lakes near the equator of Saturn’s moon Titan. One of them is about the size of Utah’s Great Salt Lake at its lowest recorded level and is at least three feet deep. The spacecraft also discovered smaller, shallower “ponds” nearby similar to …