Yes you guessed it...

...it's about time for another blog again. I'll let you vote on it again this time. I hope to have the next entry up as soon as possible, and maybe a longer one this time.

Thanks for reading!

NASA...

...you pretty much rock (and the University of Arizona, and SETI, and probably a thousand others who have helped this project). The little pit pictured above shows the sublimation of water ice (yes water!) over the course of four Martian days, or Sols. The little trench, dubbed "Dodo-Goldilocks" (don't ask me why, I'm just as confused as you probably are), was dug by the Phoenix Mars lander on Sol 20 of the mission near the north pole of Mars. They weren't sure if the white stuff it scraped out was water ice or salt. Three days later they noticed a few chunks of it in the lower left portion of the trench disappeared after about 4 Sols. This is due to the fact that in sufficiently cold temperatures water ice turns directly into a gas and skips the liquid phase. By sufficiently cold I mean really freaking cold. The low of Sol 23 was -32 degree Celsius, or -110.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Try making a snowman out of dirt and ice in that kind of weather. Needless to say this discovery is incredibly exciting for science. They intend to test the ice and dirt and whatever else they pick up for many chemicals, the most exciting of which may be organic. We have found microbes in the poles of our own planet, which only serves to demonstrate the tenacity of life in the most extreme conditions. If we can prove that life evolved in not one, but two planets in a single solar system, who knows how many planets out there harbor life. According to Wikipedia, by this month of 2008 there are 303 confirmed exoplanets that have been discovered. It makes you think, doesn't it?

More coming soon...

...and possibly tonight, about the Phoenix Mars Mission. It's turning out to be very exciting, and I can't wait for more information from NASA.