The Cold Faithful : NASA's spacecraft Cassini, currently orbiting Saturn, has detected geysers of water containing carbon particles erupting from Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. This has planetary scientists all agog with expectation. Presence of water and carbon particles raises hopes of finding biological activity in that far off (and very cold) planet.
"Experts think reservoirs of liquid water beneath the moon's icy crust contain enough heat to cause nearly continuous eruptive activity. Liquid water, a source of heat and carbon-based chemical compounds are needed for life as we know it to exist.
"We realize that this is a radical conclusion — that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," said Carolyn Porco, who leads Cassini's imaging team as a scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms."
Damp Test Scores: The recent discovery that the SAT test scores of several students (mostly from the northeast USA) may have been off by as much as 100 points due to a marking error, has made many high schoolers anxious and thrown college admission committes into a state of confusion. The testing agency Pearson Educational Measurement in Austin where the mistake was discovered has an explanation:
"The affected test day, Oct. 8, coincided with the beginning of a week of heavy rain in the Northeast, where most of the tests came from. As much as 10 inches fell on New Jersey.
"When there's moisture in the paper, it actually grows," said Pearson spokesman David Hakensen. That causes the ovals students fill in "to move just slightly, enough so that it will be out of registration for the scanning head to read the answers."
Whatever the explanation, this has left the poor students hanging out to dry!
Such a surreal explanation for the test errors...the paper grew! Wow, I didn't even realize that was possible. I'm 30 now...I wonder if I can retroactively use that as an excuse as to why I didn't do better on my college entrance exams back in the day. "Really, I did terrific, it's just that my paper hydro-expanded! I swear!"
Oooh, this Saturn stuff is so cool. Titan, and now this Enceladus discovery, so interesting. The other planets must be jealous, Saturn gets all of the nifty moons. Anyway. Hi.
Posted by: matt | March 10, 2006 at 03:43 PM
Hi Matt:
After reading the Saturn story, I checked up on some planetary facts. Average distance from the Sun, about 900 million miles and average temp on cloud tops, around -170 degrees celsius (-274 degrees fahrenheit). And one of the moons is spouting liquid water? Amazing!
Do you remember if it was raining cats and dogs around the time you took your SAT? Or if there was a particularly dry spell, in which case your test paper might have shrunk? If it was either of the two, you may have a case. I don't believe this "water logged" story at all. I just heard on the evening news that some scores may be off by 200 - 400 points. Enough of a margin in some cases to make the difference between your first choice college and last resort. Ridiculous.
Posted by: Ruchira Paul | March 10, 2006 at 06:25 PM
"Most scores changed by fewer than 100 points on the 2,400-point test, and only 16 changed by 200 points or more, the College Board said."
ONLY 16 scores changed by 200 points or more! What a deflationary statement. 200 points on the SAT makes my 1400 either a perfect 1600 or a much more pedestrian 1200!
Posted by: Joe | March 11, 2006 at 06:12 PM