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Geothermal Activity on Mars?

An anonymous reader writes "This article on the New Scientist site reports that Mars Odyssey has detected warm spots (20-40 degrees warmer irrespective of sunlight, day or night) in the Hellas basin."

5 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Question. by sekzscripting · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where do they get the names for the 'geography' of Mars? Sounds like something out of a "gangsta's dictionary".

  2. Not surprising... by twilightzero · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd be willing to bet that's where the martians have mass hot tubs and huge wild parties. If you listen closely, you can hear the cheap 70's porn music wafting up through the thin mars atmosphere...

    This post was brought to you by an extreme lack of sleep ;)

    --

    "Christ what a design! I could eat a handful of iron filings and PUKE a better emergency pump than that!"
  3. ...or perhaps.... by madmarcel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or....
    It could be methane emmissions from all those cows/rednecks that them pesky martians keep abducting ;^)

  4. I'm sorry, but I'm in a punny mood by Rhinobird · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mars Odyssey has detected warm spots in the Hellas basin.

    *ahem*

    Wow, it's Hellas hot around here.

    Thank you for your patience in this matter

    --
    If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
  5. That's not an argument not to go to mars... by nounderscores · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's an argument to not come back.

    Imagine if we sent everyone we didn't like, just like in the colonial days of sail.

    Send them out into the worlds of ten thousand stars. They'll breed fast. Several children a decade. After all, we were accidentially introduced into america a long time ago, and we turned out ok. We weren't native but there wasn't anything on THIS side of the pond that like to eat us quick enough so now we're everywhere.

    We can spread. From planet to planet. Solar sails. Nuclear rockets. Whatever. We'll find a way to a new planet to call home. Once we do, we'll make it our business to ensure it's game over for everything else that metabolises. Not instantly, of course. There'll still be a planet there. Some natural parks. and little red microbes. But we'll terraform the place until it looks the way we like it to look.

    Hold on... I'm still building here. And I'm almost to the good stuff. (wait for it...)

    My point is this: Lets say there is life on mars. WE'LL KICK ITS /ASS(ES)|CARAPASE|SPINNERETTES|MANTLE|RING GANGLION|FLAGELLA|TAPROOT|HYPHAE|HOLDFAST|POSTERIO -VENTRAL REGIONS|Other appropriate target!/Hmmm... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I am confident that my kind are battlehardened enough to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilisations, and fondue them. With appropriate technlogy they'd be able to live on not much more than dirt, water and sunlight.

    WE ARE THE BAD THINGS THAT HAPPEN UNEXPECTEDLY. We leak. Again, no conspiracy needed, just the good old second law of thermodynamics coupled with that one law discovered by Murphy making a real world demonstration that it applies to everyone in the universe, not just homo sapiens.

    As I said in the subject of my post: The inevitable spread of one lifeform over the corpses of another is not a reason to not to go to mars. It is a reason to go and never come back. The Brothers W made Agent Smith say that humanity spreads like a virus. I say that's not a bad idea. Imagine where we'll be in a few thousand years. For real. A human empire spanning most of the known universe with breakaway colonies running social experiments in government and morality? I'm packed. Bring it on!

    And yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil,
    For I am the evilest sonofabitch in the valley.
    -- Anonymous, 1967