Mars had a Little Accident

Since the 1970's Viking missions to Mars, scientists have been wondering why the northern and southern hemispheres are so drastically different. Now studies find that an asteroid could have struck the poor hapless planet and literally blown the crust off of half the planet..... which is pretty damn cool. What makes it cooler is the fact that it hit Mars and not us. I don't think we would be in the position to appreciate such niftyness on the account that we would be dead. And by dead I mean really dead. Unless you're a mutant of some kind. And if that's the case then I am severely jealous.

According to Nimmo's analysis, shock waves from the impact would travel through the planet and disrupt the crust on the other side, causing changes in the magnetic field recorded there. The predicted changes are consistent with observations of magnetic anomalies in the southern hemisphere, he said.

And here's the full article, which I know all of you will read with delight: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625140659.htm
And for some reason it won't link properly. Probably because I'm extremely computer illiterate. But I'm sure that you can copy and paste it and everything will be alright and the sky won't come crashing down and the world will stay intact due to its non-exploding.

Martian Ice

Scientists have found ice on Mars! This is very exciting to everyone here and by everyone I mean me because I'm that awesome. There was some uncertainty about whether the ice was actually salt, but it melted when expossed to the Martian atmosphere and salt doesn't do that sort of thing and if it did we would have to call some chemists and get the whole thing sorted out and that's going to take forever on the count that it's hard to find a local chemist who can fix salt of its identity problem.

"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

And here's the full article which is a must read!! http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080619221234.htm