Ice on Mars (officially)

NASA has officially found ice on Mars.

"It is with great pride and a lot of joy that I announce today that we have found proof that this hard bright material is really water ice and not some other substance," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.

We still haven't found official life anywhere else in the universe, but we do know that on Earth everywhere that we have found water-ice we have found life. Whether it be at the bottom of the ocean feeding off of sulfur, pulled from 100,000 to 8 million year old ice cores from Antarctica or bacteria living in the sky and potentially having significant affect on rain cycles.

The goal of the Phoenix Lander was to find a spot where they might find organic molecules and to do that they aimed for what seemed to be large amounts of water ice just below the surface of the dirt. Well, before they even began to dig for ice they found it and quite possibly are standing on top of a sea of frozen water.

I just like what was said...

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I think the guy from the future would understand — sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do. I can hear my future self in my head right now. He says to make a nice cup of coffee and put on some music while I do it, and take some breaks to play with the kids. Enjoy the chores as well as the easy and fun moments, I hear him saying. Some day, you’ll miss even the chores. Some day, you’ll miss almost everything about your life the way it is right now.

Home sweet home...

I always thought I was from another place far, far away... Now we know.

Scientists believe that our little region of space objects didn't come from the Milky Way. We were actually pulled from a small galaxy that we are crashing with over millions (billions) of years. The little orange dot below notes approximately where we are located. The red dots note the left overs of the galaxy we are/were a part of. The evolution of space. Just as smooth, structured and chaotic as our own planet. A microcosm with a microcosm. Its all makes such complicated, smooth sense.

The Striker Diary: From Egg to Chick

First you get -




Then, after a while, you get -

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943

I do have a certain nostalgia for the a United States that I don't know. I was born in 1979. I live in a very different world than some American's have. I do long for that simpler life. Would I exchange it for the increased risk and absolute knowledge of a pending death so long ago? I don't know...but I do wish I could have a chance in a land of opportunity like that in my days. Maybe I do and I just need to see it...the colors there look so much prettier. The people healthier. They live. Again, nostalgia often ignores the harsh realities, fantasy absolutely does.

The Water of Our Life

The Next Planet

I can hear the ocean when it is quite from my window if I lean out. Right now the rain is coming down loudly. It makes the trees stand strong. Scientists have found the first Earth sized planet. They think it is within the habitable zone of the particular star. The star it circles is a long lived red dwarf (which means plenty of time for evolution as these live for a long time). Scientists think they have detected other planets circling this same star. This star is one of the 100 closest stars in the universe to us.

We will probably fight a war against another race of life forms on another planet so that human beings can expand. I think we will be the invaders.

When it snows forever and never...

Walking in the cold...

Interactive and pretty (all of this via a good blend)

Why should a scientist study the desert landscape of Antarctica? Because there is the possibility that a large portion of this planet will have that type of an environment in the future. Snowball Earth is another happy theory in the news today. They speak about how some people think the past Earth one time froze up so much that even the oceans were solid.

Our Solar system is very interesting to look at. You wonder if Venus has always been as clouded as it is. You figure it has always been to warm for life, as we know it of course, but maybe there can be continual high level compounds that can come into life where it is so hot. Mars is the figment of many a dream, as it is so very similar relative to our other neighbors. It even has water. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune are all giant balls of gas, with Jupiter being so very close to igniting on its own. There are a few moons that are of great interest as well. Methane oceans. Frozen lakes of liquid. An alien landscape.

We would be able to survive on certain level. And we would eventually leave this planet. It would take a while.