Jun 20 2008It's Official: There's Ice On Mars After All

THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT FIRST POST FOR MANKIND.

photoshop! and didn't the simpsons do this already...

420!

4:21, the moment has passed :-)

WooHoo!!!!

The way it works is this: For at least twenty years, water (ice) on Mars was 'predicted.' Then, it was seen that Mars has polar ice caps, not too different from our own (except we have an atmosphere). There's been pictures of said ice on the Martian surface for years. This just proves UP CLOSE that the pictures didn't lie, and that NASA spent more billions to confirm what has been known for a while.

Up next, NASA will spend billions to send a rover to the Sun to make sure it's actually as hot as scientific data has proven for a very long time.

FRIST.

great now when I have a margarita party up there I won't have to bring my own.

Cue the Benny Hill theme as the rover slips on the ice it discovered.

http://www.slapyo.com/wp-content/klingonhitit.jpg

wow great news then ..soon we will discover Martian bacteria or something. i cant wait we been waiting for a long time for this moment to prove that there are other planet just like our in the universe that has lifeforms. Then i can laugh at my fat headed religious friends.

guate6: Finding the ice was just the first step. And the billions spent on confirming the ice is money well spent, especially when you consider that it could have gone to fund pointless endeavors like the Iraq War.

The probe sent to Mars is capable of examining the ice and determining whether or not it can or could have sustained life. Don't downplay these scientific discoveries, right now what NASA is doing is the most important thing that humans can and should be doing - space exploration. Earth won't be around forever...

#9: So....you can't believe in life on other planets if you're religious? That's a stretch.

I believe in God, but I also believe we are one of billions of planets; millions of which have life of some form; and from thousands to maybe millions of those have intelligent life. We just can't be alone - the universe is too damned big.

Alex--June 20th post
So you want to laugh at your religious (fat-headed) friends. Got news for you..God created everything. ......yes, that means the entire universe, so why laugh? I must be boring or something as I do not see the humor, but if you do, great. God wants us to be joyous and happy........

I think what he meant was that he knows some religious people who interpret the bible to mean God created man and nothing else (not even dinosaurs)... so we must be alone in the universe.

If we find scientific evidence that proves life did exist (or DOES exist!) on Mars, it'll be another thorn in the side of those who believed in the overly literal interpretation (just like those annoying fossils.)

He's not implying that religious people can't believe in extraterrestrial life, or that evidence of said life would disprove God. You people are WAY too over-sensitive.

they didn't say ice per se, they said Water Ice!! I vote for strawberry. We'll see if those damn martians have any f***ing sense, if not I say we blow that planet to f***ing HELL.

#10: agreed, and agreed.

Best first post ever, #1.

Did it actually analyze as water ice? It could be ammonium carbonate that will evaporate into a gas similar to dry ice (carbon dioxide) on Earth.

Does the rover have an ice shaver or crusher? I prefer shaved.

I think all these reports of water ice findings are nothing but lies to keep the space program budget alive. I mean, maybe, perhaps its possible to make a discovery like this. However, the lander has been there for like not even a month, they dig with a robotic arm, like a few inches below the surface (polar icecap or not) and they find ice. HARD TO BELIEVE!!! Just look at the pictures.

@9- Wow, that's the dumbest statement I've heard all day. Religion, unless you talk of scientologist friends who are fat-headed, has nothing to do with ET life, you douchebag. It's people like you that make this planet a crappy place to live because you shut people out and judge them when you know nothing of them. Good job, asshole... : P

Great, the next thing you know there will be space environmentalists - hippies! - telling us what we can't send to mars.

My encyclopedia brittanica from 1968 says mars has ice caps, where did they go?

Historically Christianity has held that the earth is the center of Creation, and I think what the original poster is looking for is some validation that human beings are not God's special pets. If he's looking to undermine religious thought however, he's going to be disappointed. Religious authorities have backpedaled on everything from the flat earth, to the sun revolving around the earth, to slavery, to the idea that native americans do not have souls, etc. Religion is an adaptive system, and although it may publicly say otherwise, the trick is to simply incorporate new data and pretend past discrepancies never existed. This will be the case with alien life as well. Some people just have a strong need to believe in something greater than themselves, some mystery, and no amount of data will dissuade them. Most Christians don't even know Christianity isn't even authentic, 80% of which was borrowed from Mithraism. History says Mithra was born of virgin on December 25th, with 3 wise men in attendence. On his death, he was resurrected and ascended to heaven. His followers practiced communion with bread and wine, and baptism. All of this pre-Christian, but try explaining that to a Christian. :D Sometimes the truth and what we wish to believe are not the same.

Yes, if it is ice that we see in the photo, then there is a possibility that there is some form of life in it although it is too early to predict which form of life can be found in such an environment

looks like crushed stone to me....

Could such exotic life emerge in the frigid arctic plains of Mars? It's possible. But Mars is abiotic and always has been, notwithstanding that 70% of scientists polled take a contrary view. Ditto for other bodies in this sun system other than Earth -- abiotic. But the Universe is teeming with life and with intelligent life. Extraterrestrial spacecraft are real, (e.g., see the Mexican Air Force FLIR footage of March 5, 2004 on You Tube). Does life require water to emerge? It depends on what kinds of life forms you're talking about. Liquid water is required for higher life forms to evolve. But it is possible for life to emerge without liquid water even in extraordinarily hostile environments. On our planet, life emerged on the ocean seafloors -- cushioned and protected by the seas from lethal UV radiation at a time (3.9 Ga) when Earth had no ozone layer. High salinity does not by itself rule out the emergence of life forms. Earth's shallow seas of 3.9 Ga were extremely salty. Estimates of Earth's early ocean's salinity range between 1.2 to 2 times present-day salinity. So how and where did life emerge on Earth? Why not on Mars or other bodies in this sun system? Hopefully the Phoenix Mars Lander and future landers and spacecraft will help us answer those questions. What we need is more and better science, not reliance on rote answers. I believe we'll find, though, that life requires more than liquid water to emerge.

looks like a pipe to me...

I pooped and did not have any toilet paper so I used some paper from my New Testament. Is it a sin to wipe myself with paper from the bible?

I am so there
Save me a seat on the bus

WooT!