TITAN'S HIDDEN OCEAN: A strange shift in the position of mountains and lakes on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan can best be explained, researchers say, by positing a layer of liquid water (blue) some 100 kilometers below the surface.NASA-JPL

Astronomers’ mental image of Titan, the solar system’s second-largest moon, used to be that of a vast swimming pool. But maybe they should have imagined a water bed instead.

Last year, researchers reported that radar mapping of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft had found a peculiar shift in landmarks on the moon’s surface of up to 19 miles (30 kilometers) between October 2004 and May 2007.

Now investigators say the best explanation is a moon-wide underground ocean that disconnects Titan’s icy crust from its rocky interior.

“We think the structure is about 100 kilometers of ice sitting atop a global layer of water … maybe hundreds of kilometers thick,” says Cassini scientist Ralph Lorenz of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

If confirmed, Titan would be the fourth moon in the solar system thought to contain such an internal water ocean, joining Jupiter’s satellites Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Researchers believe that heat from radioactivity in a moon’s core or gravitational squeezing may melt a layer of frozen water.
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SMOGGY MOON: In this natural color view, taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2007, Titan's surface is shrouded by a thick, orange haze

NASA's Cassini orbiter captured this view of Titan's Ontario Lacus from about 680 miles (1,100 kilometers) away in December 2007. A bright shoreline surrounds the hydrocarbon lake.

Researchers report in Nature today that they identified a dark liquid lake, surrounded by a lighter shoreline and a “beach,” on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. The foot-shaped lake is the first verified extraterrestrial body of liquid, and is likely filled with hydrocarbons, simple compounds also common on Earth.

“This is the first definitive evidence for both liquid and liquid hydrocarbons on Titan,” says lead study author Robert Brown, a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in Tucson.
Instruments on NASA’s orbiting Cassini spacecraft, which has studied Saturn and its satellites including Titan, its biggest moon, since June 2004, revealed the presence of the organic (carbon-containing compound) liquid ethane in a Lake Ontario–size body in Titan’s southern hemisphere. Similar-looking patches abound in the northern hemisphere, indicating that Titan’s surface is likely dotted with such hydrocarbon seas.

The researchers confirmed the presence of liquid ethane with Cassini’s Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), which picked up the hydrocarbon’s telltale light spectrum signature. The ethane forms when sunlight breaks down methane in Titan’s upper atmosphere. It is theorized that this ethane then forms clouds and rains onto the ground, cutting streams via erosion and pooling them into lakes.

Titan has long fascinated astronomers with its hazy, orange-colored atmosphere that extends over 600 miles (965 kilometers) from the moon’s surface. Titan is the only moon with such a thick gas cover. The atmosphere contains mostly nitrogen and traces of methane and other hydrocarbons including propane, the fuel of choice for barbecues here on Earth. With a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers), Titan is bigger than Mercury and only about 25 percent smaller than Mars, making it the second-biggest moon in the solar system behind Jupiter’s Ganymede.

Liquid ethane or methane has been suspected to exist on the Titanian surface. This finding supports the idea that Titan has a “hydrological cycle” as does Earth, but instead of water (forming clouds, raining out and evaporating into clouds again), there are two substances—methane and ethane—at play, says study co-author Christophe Sotin, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

In addition to ending the debate over liquid on Titan, the discovery may help determine the course of future missions. NASA and the European Space Agency have been discussing a return to Titan; this finding bolsters the case for sending a “splashdown lander,” or a floating probe, into a lake on Titan to sample its contents, says Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

The liquid pool, named Ontario Lacus after the North American Great Lake of similar size, absorbs nearly all light, which means it would look dark to the human eye, says LPL’s Brown. The data also reveals that the lake’s surface is smooth, without any ripples or waves, which Brown says is surprising. He and his team had expected to see some wave action caused by presumed winds there.
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Laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

“Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars,” said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday’s sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.

“Mars is giving us some surprises,” said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. “We’re excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we’ve done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we’re finding ways to work with it and we’re gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil.”

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix has been studying soil with a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe and cameras. Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.

The mission is examining the sky as well as the ground. A Canadian instrument is using a laser beam to study dust and clouds overhead.

“It’s a 30-watt light bulb giving us a laser show on Mars,” said Victoria Hipkin of the Canadian Space Agency.

“The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can see,” said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, lead scientist for Phoenix’s Surface Stereo Imager camera. “They help us plan measurements we’re making within reach of the robotic arm and interpret those measurements on a wider scale.”

THE MISSION
The University of Arizona is honored to be the first public university to lead a mission to Mars. The Phoenix Mars Mission, scheduled to land May 25, 2008, is the first in NASA’s “Scout Program.” Scouts are designed to be highly innovative and relatively low-cost complements to major missions being planned as part of the agency’s Mars Exploration Program.

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Unlike ancient times, when eclipses were viewed as bad omens in many cultures, fewer people should be expecting doom this time around. Still, myths persist, especially in remote regions, so it’s likely there will be some banging on pots and other creative tactics employed to drive the “evil spirits” away.

Billions of people along the path, including most of Europe and Asia, have a chance to see an interesting but much less foreboding partial eclipse. The northern half of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces will be graced with a partial eclipse at sunrise.

Myth and mystery

Solar eclipses occur when the moon moves in front of the sun. This can happen only at the time of a new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun. When the three objects align perfectly an eclipse occurs.

Before there was a scientific explanation for eclipses, myth and mystery was pervasive.

Many cultures thought a demon or dragon was devouring the sun.

In ancient China, “any unusual phenomenon involving celestial bodies was noted for potential omens, either good or bad, that might befall the current Emperor,” according to Sten Odenwald of the department of physics at Catholic University. An eclipse occurred in 2134 B.C., but was not predicted by Hsi and Ho, who were believed to have been two astrologers who served the Emperor Chung K’ang.

“By some accounts, the two astrologers were negligent in their duties and did not foretell the event for the Emperor,” Odenwald writes in a historical article published by NASA. “They were summarily beheaded for their negligence of duty.”

The ancient Chinese banged pots and drums to shoo the frightful sun-eating character away, according to the Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco. In India, people would immerse themselves in water to help the sun fight the dragon.

Even nowadays many myths persist. In Egypt, as one example, children are often kept indoors with windows covered or shades drawn during an eclipse.

Prior to a total solar eclipse in 2006, one Indian paper advised pregnant women not to go outside during the eclipse to avoid having a blind baby or one with a cleft lip. Food cooked before the eclipse was to be thrown out afterward because it would be impure and those who are holding a knife or ax during the eclipse would cut themselves, the Hindustan Times added.

In Togo, authorities prior to the 2006 solar eclipse called on villagers to stay home. “Please, do not go out and keep your children indoors on solar eclipse day,” Togo’s minister for health said in a message broadcast on state television.

Risk of eye injury

Eclipses can indeed be dangerous.

Despite myths and rumors, a total solar eclipse is safe to watch during the darkness of totality, when no rays of the sun are passing to your eyes. The corona, or atmosphere of the sun, is often partly visible when the moon blocks out the main disk of the sun. Viewing the corona during totality also is safe.

However, looking directly at the sun, even during a partial eclipse, will damage your eyes unless you wear proper eye protection. It is extremely dangerous to eyesight to look directly at an eclipse at any stage expect during totality.

Glasses designed specifically for eclipse viewing are recommended, or a handful of indirect viewing methods can be used:

With masking tape, cover all but a 1/2-inch square of a small mirror. Project the sun onto a shaded wall. Or with a pencil, poke a small hole in a piece of paper. Let sunlight fall trough the hole onto a second sheet of white paper about a foot below.

links

image: Nasa Webpage

eclipse today

One of my readers asked faor the map of ancient india. Here are maps and links.

The history of India is shrouded in antiquity. The country has been thought of as a nation of philosophers with a well-developed and even idyllic society. Excavations of sites belonging to the Harappan era show that the people lived in brick houses in towns with excellent drainage. One of the oldest scriptures in the world is the four volume Vedas that many regard as the repository of national thoughts that anticipated some of the modern scientific discoveries. Despite formidable barriers in the form of the mighty Himalayas and oceans, India also received a succession of foreigners, many of them carrying swords and guns. But nearly all of them stayed on. Out of these waves of immigration has emerged the composite culture of India and made it a land of unity in diversity. India became a land of assimilation and learning, a land of change and continuity. According to the one school of thoughts, the Aryans were among the first to arrive in India, which was inhabited by the Dravidians. Others who came here included Greeks, Persians, Mughals and even British, Portuguese and French. Over the years there have been many major ruling dynasties like the Shakas, the Kushans, the Maurayas and Guptas. Nearly every major religion in the world is represented in India. It is also the land of Lord Buddha, Lord Mahavira and Guru Nanak Dev, the founders of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.
Links:http://www.mapsofindia.com/history/ancient-india.htm
http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/mpindan21.jpg

http://www.mapsofindia.com/history/ancient-india.htm

http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/map06ind.htm

Much is posted on net about Arctic Ice this year.Here is another one.

Arctic sea ice is unlikely to shrink below a 2007 record low this year in a reprieve from the worst predictions of climate change even though new evidence confirms a long-term thaw is under way, experts said.

The 2007 record raised worries of a melt that could leave the North Pole ice-free this year, threaten indigenous hunters and thaw ice vital for creatures such as polar bears. It would also help open the Arctic to shipping and oil and gas firms.

“Most likely there will not be a new record minimum ice year in the Arctic this September,” said Ola M. Johannessen of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in west Norway.

Arctic sea ice area reaches an annual summer low in September but is about 1 million square kms (386,100 sq mile) bigger than at the same time in late July 2007 at about 6 million sq kms, an area almost as big as Australia.

It is still far smaller than the average of recent decades.

“It’s looking rather unlikely that we will beat the record sea ice minimum of 2007,” said Mark Serreze, a senior research fellow at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), adding there could still be surprises.

“The North Pole is likely safe for at least this year,” he said. The NSIDC had suggested in May that it was “quite possible” that the pole could be ice-free this year.

“The basic reason that while last summer saw an ideal atmospheric pattern for melting sea ice — essentially a “perfect storm” — the pattern so far this summer has been characterized by somewhat cooler conditions,” he said.

The 2007 low area of 4.13 million sq kms shattered a 2005 record and was among factors adding pressure on governments to slow a build-up of greenhouse gases from factories, power plants and cars. Governments have agreed to negotiate a new climate treaty by the end of 2009 to succeed the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol.

GASES RISE, ICE SHRINKS

Johannessen gave Reuters a hitherto unpublished study showing there was a 90 percent match between rising greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from use of fossil fuels, in recent decades and observations of a retreat of the ice.

“Ninety percent … of the decreasing sea-ice extent is empirically ‘accounted for’ by the increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he wrote in the study, to be published next month in a journal by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

If the match continues to hold true, the annual average ice extent would be several million km smaller by 2050 than predicted by the U.N. Climate Panel, which draws on the work of 2,500 scientists, it said.

Serreze said that he stood by a prediction that the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030, decades before predictions by the Panel.

The Arctic has been warming about twice as fast as the rest of the globe in recent decades. Ice and snow reflect heat and any thaw uncovers darker ground or sea water that soak up the sun’s warmth and further accelerate the melt.

Sheldon Drobot of the ColoradArctic ice bigger than 2007, but thawing long-termo Center for Astrodymanics Research (CCAR), who predicted in April that there was a roughly 60 percent chance of a record 2008 Arctic melt, said he had cut chances to 40 percent and would probably revise them down again.Arctic ice bigger than 2007, but thawing long-term

“Spring and summer temperatures in the Siberian coastal area are several degrees Celsius cooler in 2008 as compared to 2007,” he said. “I am highly skeptical that we’ll see an ice-free North Pole this year.”

“Wind patterns that tend to push ice to the north have been mostly lacking this year,” said James Maslanik, also at CCAR.
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Birds have been moving north in Europe over the past 25 years because of climate change in the vanguard of likely huge shifts in the ranges of plants and animals, scientists said on Wednesday.

A study of 42 rare bird species in Britain showed that southern European bird species such as the Dartford warbler, Cirl bunting, little egret or Cetti’s warbler had become more common in Britain from 1980-2004.

And species usually found in northern Europe, such as the fieldfare, redwing or Slavonian grebe, had become less frequent in Britain.

“The species are almost certainly responding to the changing climate,” said Brian Huntley of Durham University in England of a report he wrote with researchers at Cambridge University and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

The study tried to filter out other factors that would affect counts of rare birds, including growing public interest that could mean more sightings. Shifts in farming, pollution, expansion of cities and conservation efforts have all affected wildlife.

Birds and butterflies are among the first to adapt to climate change because they can fly long distances to seek a cooler habitat. Other creatures and plants can take far longer if their traditional range gets too warm.

“It depends on the mobility of the species. Birds and butterflies are two of the groups where there is the best evidence that species are already showing responses to the changing climate,” Huntley told Reuters of the study in Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

GREENHOUSE GASES

The shifts in the birds’ ranges since 1980 were also consistent with scientists’ expectations because of global warming, blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel on human use of fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, he said.

The panel predicted last year that warming will bring desertification, floods, melt glaciers, raise world sea levels, bring big shifts in the ranges of species and extinctions.

“This gives us greater confidence in the climate models we use for other groups of species — butterflies, plants, reptiles and amphibians,” Huntley said.

“We rarely have the opportunity to test these kinds of models. We can only wait around for 50 years and wait to see if we were correct. It’s better to have historic data” as a benchmark, he said.
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also published in Environment on Earth

A sample floorplan of a Safavid caravanserai.Interior of the Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh in Qazvin.

A caravanserai (Persian: كاروانسرا kārvānsarā, Turkish kervansaray) was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day’s journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa, and South-Eastern Europe.

Most typically it was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. The courtyard was almost always open to the sky, and the inside walls of the enclosure were outfitted with a number of identical stalls, bays, niches, or chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, animals, and merchandise. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual ablutions. Sometimes they even had elaborate baths. They also kept fodder for animals and had shops for travellers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, there could be shops where merchants could dispose of some of their goods.

Caravanserai of Shah Abbas, now a hotel, in Isfahan. View is from courtyard (sahn).Caravanserai Sangi in Zanjan.

The word is also rendered as caravansarai or caravansary. The Persian word kārvānsarā is a compound word combining ”kārvānsarā (caravan) with sara (palace, building with enclosed courts), to which the Persian suffix -yi is added. Here “caravan” means a group of traders, pilgrims, or other travelers, engaged in long distance travel.

The caravanserai was also known as a khan (Persian خان) or han (Turkish)
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South Korea plans to raise its investment in alternative energy development by 60 percent this year to $193 million, the government said, as the resource-hungry nation seeks to diversify its energy sources.

It plans to spend 194.4 billion won ($193 million) on alternative energy technologies, including solar and wind power as well as biofuels, the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy said in a statement.

“The decision is to increase the domestic supply of renewable energies because they have strong growth potential,” it said in a statement.

originally published by:Environment on Earth

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A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city[. Though generally located in rural areas, the term urban village may be applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villagescan occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, as against being scattered broadly over the landscape (‘dispersed settlement’).

Villages have been the usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture, and even for some non-agricultural societies. Towns and cities were few, and were home to only a small proportion of the population. The Industrial Revolution caused many villages to grow into towns and cities; this trend of urbanisation has continued, though not always in connection with industrialisation. Villages have thus been eclipsed in importance, as units of human society and settlement
Traditional villages

Although many patterns of village life have existed, the typical village was small, consisting of perhaps 5 to 30 families. Homes were situated together for sociability and defense, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed.

India

"The soul of India lives in its villages", declared M. K. Gandhi  at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2001 Indian census, 74% of Indians live in 638,365 different villages.The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population less than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Most villages have their own temple, mosque or church depending on the local religious following.

Southeast Asia

Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia

The term kampung in the English language has been defined specifically as "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country"  In other words, a kampung is defined today as a village in Brunei, Indonesia or Malaysia. In Malaysia, a kampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (see Courts of Malaysia for more details). A Malay village typically contains a "masjid" (mosque) or "surau" (Muslim chapel), stilt houses and paddy fields. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as

"joint bearing of burdens" (gotong royong), as well as being family-oriented (especially the concept of respecting one's family [particularly the parents and elders]), courtesy and believing in God (”Tuhan”) as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque, as all Muslims in the Malay or Indonesian village want to be prayed for, and to receive Allah’s blessings in the afterlife.

Vietnam

Village, or “làng”, is a basis of Vietnam society. Vietnam’s village is the typical symbol of Asian agricultural production. Vietnam’s village typically contains: a village gate, “lũy tre” (bamboo hedges), “đình làng” (communal house) where “thành hoàng” (tutelary god) is worshiped, “đồng lúa” (rice field), “chùa” (temple) and houses of all families in the village. All the people in Vietnam’s villages usually have a blood relationship. They are farmers who grow rice and have the same traditional handicraft. Vietnam’s villages have an important role in society (Vietnamese saying: “Custom rules the law” -”Phép vua thua lệ làng” [literally: the king's law yields to village customs]). Everyone in Vietnam wants to be buried in their village when they die.

Central and Eastern Europe

Slavic countries

Selo (Cyrillic: село; Polish: wieś) is a Slavic word meaning “village” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. For example there are numerous sela called Novo Selo in Bulgaria, Croatia, and others in Serbia, and Republic of Macedonia. In Slovenia, the word selo is archaic; the common Slovene word for village is vas.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria the different types of Sela vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. In Bulgaria it is becoming popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is called the “selski tourism” (Bulgarian:селски туризъм meaning village tourism) .

Russia

In Russia, the bulk of the rural population are concentrated in villages. In Russian, two terms are mainly used to refer to these rural localities: selo (село) or derevnya (деревня). Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city (gorod) would have a cathedral, a selo would have a church, while a derevnya would have neither.

The lowest administrative unit of the Russian Empire, volost, or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, selsoviet, would usually be headquartered in a selo and embrace a few neighboring villages.

Between 1926 and 1989, Russia’s rural population shrank from 76 million people to 39 million, due to urbanization, collectivization, dekulakisation and the World War II losses, but has nearly stabilized since.Mass starvation in Russia and other parts of the Soviet Union lead to the death of at least 14.5 million of peasants in the period 1930–1937 (including 5-7 million in the Holodomor).

Most Russian villages have populations of less than 200 people, and it is the smaller villages which take the brunt of depopulation: e.g., in 1959, about one half of Russia’s rural population lived in villages of fewer than 500 people, while now less than one third does. In the 1960s–1970s, the depopulation of the smaller villages was driven by the central planners’ drive to get the farm workers out of smaller, “prospect-less” hamlets and into the collective or state farm’s main village, with more amenities.

Most Russian rural residents are involved in agricultural work, and it is very common for villagers to produce their own food. As prosperous urbanites purchase village houses for their second homes, Russian villages sometimes are transformed into dacha settlements, used mostly for seasonal residence.

The historically Cossack regions of Southern Russia and parts of Ukraine, with their fertile soil and absence of serfdom, had a rather different pattern of settlement from central and northern Russia. As opposed to the peasants of central Russia living in a village around the lord’s manor, a Cossack family would often live on a farm of their own, called khutor. The word stanitsa (Russian: стани́ца; Ukrainian: станиця, stanytsia) would be used to refer to an administrative unit including a central village as well as a number of such khutors. Such a stanitsa village, often with a few thousand residents, would usually be larger than a selo in central Russia.

The term aul/aal is used to refer mostly Muslim-populated villages in Caucasus and Idel-Ural, without regard to the number of residents.
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