The last week has brought some seriously cool astronomical news that has already been covered on every big science news site on the web, so if you haven’t already heard this, you must’ve been living under a rock.

I’m of course talking about the news about the definite proof of liquid lakes of hydrocarbons (like methane and ethane) on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and the discovery of water ice on Mars. Now neither of these are big surprises, as they have been suspected for some time, but finally having definite proof is a big step in the right direction.

Regarding the lakes on Titan, scientists have for years theorized that Titan could contain global oceans of ethane. The very successful Cassini mission has therefore flown by the big moon a bunch of times, trying to take pictures that could indicate weather this was true or not. It was quickly accepted that there were no global oceans, but a lot of smooth, dark features that looked a lot like lakes. Taking pictures in the infrared and using a method for filtering out the disturbing hydrocarbons in the moon’s thick atmosphere, it has now been possible to confirm that these are in fact liquid lakes as opposed to some other smooth material that would look the same on the pictures. In fact there is good evidence that these lakes are evaporating to the atmosphere, forming clouds of hydrocarbons and raining back down on the surface. A complete cycle like the one on Earth, only that the primary molecules are ethane and methane in stead of water. The press release from NASA also speaks of what can best be described as beaches at the brink of these lakes. Let’s hope possible vacating titans are enjoying these as much as we are enjoying ours. Or, this lake could be the footprint of a giant Titan walking hiding somewhere on the moon… I’m sure some conspiracy theorists would claim something like that when seeing this image.

As if this great news was not enough for astronomy interested earthlings to digest, it was later announced that the Phoenix mission has found proof of frozen water on the surface of Mars. Recent missions to Mars have suggested that water could exist in the soil of the Martian surface, but it is not until now that a probe has been able to pick it up and “taste” it. If you are anything like the authors of this blog, you’ll probably find this news awesome. The soil that has been proven to contain water ice is actually pretty common on Mars, making it possible for water to be widespread. This would make possible future maned missions and bases on the planet a lot easier, as carrying along water for several years of consumption is a logistical problem in such missions.

Furthermore on the possibility of life on the planet, be it present or past, has been increased significantly, and will without doubt become a big question to investigate in future missions. If ice is present now, it might have existed as liquid form earlier in the history of the planet, if the atmosphere was thicker and the temperature higher. The end of the article also mentions that European orbiters are finding geological features that suggests the presence of standing water in the earlier Martian history. In either way this is very interesting and it’s gonna be a cool next few years when we become even more certain of what has once been and what has happened to the planet.