AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS VOTE... FROM SPACE!

Voting in government elections is an important role as a citizen of a democratic country. So American astronauts orbitting around our Earth have found a way to get it done.

Most Astronauts are posted to the Houston, Texas area of the United States, so the Texas legislature passed a law allowing Astronauts to vote from orbit. Each astronaut has a ballot prepared with the questions that he or she must vote on (which is different for each astronaut, depending on exactly where they live).

Then, the ballots are uploaded to a special, password-protected computer system a while before election day. This way, the busy astronauts have about 10 days to fit voting into their very busy schedules.

SATURN'S MOON HAS A LAKE, BUT NO LIFEGUARDS OR SAND CASTLES.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft caught a flash of sunlight reflecting off a lake on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. That white dot on the top of the hazy photo is the first clear evidence of a liquid lake on any object other than Earth.

The reflection is on the southern tip of a lake called "Lake Kraken Mare" which is almost as big as the US state of California! The lake is not filled with water, however. It's filled with liquid methane and ethane. Methane gas is burned on earth as a fuel, but Titan is so cold (about -180° Celsius!) that the methane is liquid. So, no swimming in lake Kraken Mare!

Titan can be seen from Earth with small telescopes or strong binoculars. It's hard to see because it is so close to the much bigger and brighter Saturn. The most recent pictures of Titan and Saturn were taken by the robotic Cassini Spacecraft, which arrived at Saturn in 2004.

• Learn more about Titan
• Learn more about the Cassini Spacecraft

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT MAKES RARE SPACE DISCOVERY

Lucas Bolyard, a high school student from Clarksburg, West Virginia, discovered a type of dead star called a "Rotating Radio Transient". While sitting at home one weekend with nothing to do, Lucas decided to search through some signals from the Green Bank Telescope. As part of a group of students that were recruited by professional astronomers, Lucas didn't expect to discover one of only 30 pulsars of this type ever! Watch the video to hear Lucas talk about his experience.