Cassini Update

Radio telescopes on Earth have confirmed that the European Space Agency's Huygens probe has landed on the surface of Titan. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has turned towards Earth and will relay data received from the probe over the next few hours to the Deep Space Network. ESA scientists expect to get the first look at that data about 8:30 a.m. PST.

As always, for more information, I refer you to NASA's Cassini webpage or the ESA's Cassini webpage. In addition, Wikipedia has a great page about the moon Titan which explains exactly why this mission is so exciting...

Let's see what's there...

Tomorrow in History, 1919

Since I won't be able to update tomorrow morning, I wanted to make this post today about the 86th anniversary of:

THE GREAT BOSTON MOLASSES FLOOD

"Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a fifty-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed on Boston’s waterfront, disgorging its contents in a fifteen-foot-high wave of molasses that traveled at thirty-five miles per hour. When the tide receded, a section of the city’s North End had been transformed into a war zone. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of twenty-one people and scores of animals, injured more than a hundred, and caused widespread destruction."

The above is quoted from author Stephen Puleo, who has published a wonderful book about the flood called "Dark Tide:The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919." It tells the story of what happened and also places the event in historical context. Both gnomi and I read the book and highly recommend it. For more information on the book, you can visit his website at http://www.stephenpuleo.com/

(Disclaimer: I have never met Mr. Puleo. We just like his book.)

For more information on the flood, including some links, see http://www.boston-online.com/bizarro/disasters.html.