Water On Mars and other Heavenly Delights |

In 1938 Orson Welles scared the crap out of America when he broadcast H.G.Wells “War Of The Worlds”, sparking a mass panic of fearful proportions amongst the more superstitious and imaginative part of the American population.

People were driving around in their rickety old trucks with their shotguns and pitchforks just looking for a damn commie martian from the red planet to skewer in order to protect freedom and liberty for all (except the martians of course).

Soundtrack to the article ? ~ Kit Cotter performs “Omniverse”

Although a bit smaller than earth, Mars has often been described as a twin to our beautiful blue planet and has inspired the imagination of science fiction writers and artists for more than a century.Many had hoped that there were civilizations living on our neighboring planet but when the Mariner 4 probe was finally sent to the red planet in 1964, these hopes of fantasy were dashed forever.
Instead of finding civilizations living in peace and harmony amongst tree lined lakes and rivers of tranquility, a desolate, wind swept planet containing the largest volcano in the solar system greeted us.
Although life was not found it was believed that life did once exist upon the fourth planet from the sun and so the search for water was instigated.

Now water has been found on Mars by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander.

Finding water is a crucial first step toward learning whether the ground on Mars is hospitable, because all life as we know it requires water. Now scientists can study the chemistry of Martian dirt in more detail.
Mars Ice Water

When the probe took photos of a ditch it had dug four days before, scientists noticed that about eight small crumbs of a bright material had disappeared. They concluded those crumbs had been water ice buried under a thin layer of dirt that vaporized when Phoenix exposed them to the air.
Phoenix’s robotic arm first revealed the crumbs about 5 cm deep in the trench called “Dodo-Goldilocks” on June 15.
By June 19, they had vanished.
If the crumbs had been salt, they wouldn’t have disappeared, scientists said, and if the ice had been made of carbon dioxide, they wouldn’t have vaporized.

The $420 million mission landed on the arctic plains of Mars on May 25th 2008, embarking on a quest of at least four months to search for signs that the environment was once habitable to life.
Finding ice on Mars isn’t completely shocking, since observations from past satellites sent to orbit the planet, such as the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, have indicated that ice is likely to lie beneath the planet’s surface.

Although the 2001 Mars Odyssey satellite could measure the average water ice content in roughly the top meter of ground over areas of several hundred kilometers, these data didn’t reveal how that ice was spread out.
The form of the water isn’t known, beyond the fact that there is too much there to be explained solely by water bound in minerals.

Mission scientists plan to eventually put samples of ice into Phoenix’s oven instrument, the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), which is designed to bake Martian dirt and analyze the vapors it emits to detect its composition. They also plan to use the onboard Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument, a wet chemistry lab that measures levels of acidity, minerals, and conductivity in dirt samples.
Ancient Wall
So now that water has been found on Mars, does this explain the huge canyons that snake across the surface of the planet?
Did they once contain vast amounts water? If so what happened to it all?
I asked a friend of mine who told me of some people who subscribe to the belief about a rogue planet called Nibiru.

This planet travels into our solar system every 3600 years or so and creates havoc and mayhem and was the cause for Mars being the desolate planet it is now.
Apparently the atmosphere of Mars was ripped away by the gravitational pull of Nibiru as it passed by on its last visit.
It was discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians who gave it the name Nibiru and was apparently also known by the Mayans.

Sounds plausible if the planet exists and my sources inside NASA tell me “no comment”.
Does this mean “yes it is true but we’re not going to tell you, you loser” does it mean “we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t, say anything” or is it simply a case of “don’t waste our time with conspiracy theories we are men of science not science fiction you nut”.

I must pause here for a moment and remind all our readers that it is too easy to let ones imagination run away with itself, cackling madly over the hills and valleys of ones mind as happened in 1938.
The existence of Nibiru is hearsay as I haven’t seen any of the pictures but I am not beneath sensationalizing my articles to make them more interesting.

The fact remains however that some of what was once thought science fiction is now viewed in the realms of reality, indicating that anything is possible just like the water that has been found on Mars.
Maybe someday my children’s children’s, great grandchildren will be able to hitch a ride to Mars and catch some awesome waves on the fourth planet from the sun and maybe I should leave you all alone for now to contemplate the reality of a multidimensional navel.

So from the planet of my imagination, this is Clip Tycles signing off for now and catching the next bus for Mars.