Liquid Dreams: UPDATE - Water Indeed Found On Mars

One of the keys to future manned space exploration is the possibility that we would not have to lug along tons of water and other necessary commodities because they add weight and limit where and how spacecraft can be designed.

Now, we learn that there might be liquid materials flowing on one of Saturn's moons, Titan, including hydrocarbons:

NASA said large dark areas on Titan's surface had been spotted during numerous close flybys of the moon. However until now it had not been possible to determine whether they were liquid or solids.

But scientists were able to conclude the areas were liquid after studying data from a Cassini instrument able to distinguish chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared light.

The visual and mapping instrument spotted a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan's south polar region during a flyby in December, NASA said. The lake is roughly 7,800 square miles, slightly bigger North America's Lake Ontario.

"Detection of liquid ethane confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan," said Larry Soderblom, a scientist with the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.

"The fact we could detect the ethane spectral signatures of the lake even when it was so dimly illuminated, and at a slanted viewing path through Titan's atmosphere, raises expectations for exciting future lake discoveries by our instrument."

That's a pretty explosive discover in and of itself.

However, there are ruminations that even bigger news might be had later today. It is possible that NASA might announce that they had discovered water on Mars.

UPDATE:
NASA has indeed confirmed that water was found on Mars. Pretty impressive stuff, and they also announced extending the mission.