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

Solar Probe!

This niftyness is extremely nifty. By the year 2015, NASA hopes to send a probe to the sun. And yes, it will be heat resistant. Seriously, what's the point of sending a probe only to have it burn up..... although maybe if you packed some sulfur and diamonds in it you could make a Kirk cannon and blast our space alien neighbors, which would probably look really cool from a telescope. Until our space alien neighbors got angry and fired lazers at us. But the real reason for sending a solar probe is to solve two major mysteries: 1) Why is the corona a hundred times hotter than the actual sun? This just defies all common sense, so my mind has been blown. 2) How is the solar wind so gusty? It's not gusty around the sun, so why should it be gusty everywhere else? Once again, the laws of common sense have been torn to shreds.... along with my mind.

"We are going to visit a living, breathing star for the first time," says program scientist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA Headquarters. "This is an unexplored region of the solar system and the possibilities for discovery are off the charts."

I am so excited!! Here's the full article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080611142452.htm