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Ice Detected Underneath Mars' North Pole

TheSync writes "A Reuters/Yahoo story says University of Arizona and Russian scientists have detected water ice uniformly distributed in the soil of Mars' north polar regions. The amount of hydrogen detected indicates ice of 80% to 90% of soil volume. Data was used from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey." It's worth noting that their study only detected large amounts of hydrogen; so much hydrogen that ice is figured to be the only form it could be in, although I kind of like the idea of Mars' pole covering a huge pocket of hydrogen gas.

10 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. Cool. by reaper20 · · Score: 4, Funny

    All we need to do now is send Schwarzenegger up there to turn on that ice melting machine.

  2. Ummm. by cybermace5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh...kay. Call me strange, I've never really considered a "big pocket of trapped hydrogen gas on Mars" much of a turn-on, but to each his own.

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  3. hmmmm. . . by thexaspect · · Score: 4, Funny

    so when does the mad rush to build your own hydrogen farm on mars start? selling tickets on my spaceship! but seriously, now we have the possibility of being able to send a manned mission there, and then they can gather their own fuel for the way back! well, once we figure out that whole hydrogen fuel cell engine. . . or something. . .

  4. Re:Does it constitute life? Tough call by macragge · · Score: 5, Funny

    If its anything like the movies then NASA will send Pauly Shore and Sean Astin to go dig a hole on mars. After digging for several months they will find a little green man (played by Brendan Fraser.)

    Astin and Shore will dress it up in a space suit, in order to trick NASA officials into beliving that its the forign exchange cosmonaught.

  5. So they have water... by brilinux · · Score: 5, Funny

    But honestly, who cares? To have life, you
    need earth, fire, and sky, too. They
    obviously don't have earth, as we are on Earth,
    and that is Mars. They can't have fire, as their
    minimal sky doesn't have enough oxygen.

    So they don't have the four elements necessary
    for life. I'm just going to stay here and figure
    out the first two digits of pi on my abacus.

  6. This just in by Sammich · · Score: 5, Funny

    Astronauts have again found ice on mars which scientists speculate could be evidence of life, just as they have on previous missions.

    Dj

  7. Hydrogen is light by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I has to be pure hydrogen.

    We all know that it is a very light gas and would rise to the north pole... duh!

  8. Testing that theory... by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I find it somewhat unlikely that a huge pocket of hydrogen might be underneath the surface, but there's a simple way to check. Just crash a probe into the planet. If Mars ruptures and starts lurching around the solar system like an untied balloon, the theory might have some merit.

    This avenue of research should be explored as soon as possible. This is in keeping with my conviction that our scientific dollars should be spent in the most entertaining ways possible.

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    You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  9. Where there's ice, there's... by ansak · · Score: 5, Funny

    HOCKEY!

    And Canada will be happy to represent Earth in the Solar Cup Hockey championships.

    I wonder if Don Cherry will whine as much about the Martian way to play as he tends to do about Europe?

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    Still hoping for Gentle Treatment...
  10. Good...good by NightWulf · · Score: 5, Funny

    They found the ice I planted...soon they'll find the lost civilization, then the obilesk on europa, and then unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence. Creating a new super race of robots that will wage war on them and enclose them in a reality emulating matrix to power their metal bodies. Yes...it's all coming together nicely...muhah hah hah