The Pope’s chief astronomer says that life on Mars cannot be ruled out

Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.

Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.

The search for forms of extraterrestrial life, he says, does not contradict belief in God.

The official Vatican newspaper headlines his article ‘Aliens Are My Brother’.

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(Full Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7399661.stm)

The Pope’s chief astronomer says that life on Mars cannot be ruled out

Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.

Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.

The search for forms of extraterrestrial life, he says, does not contradict belief in God.

The official Vatican newspaper headlines his article ‘Aliens Are My Brother’.

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(Full Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7399661.stm)

Shatner Claims To Know About Life On Mars…Really

Another actor dislosing info! Great!

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Shat believes in ET, claims to know about life on Mars
The seventh question in the chat (at time mark 5:27) was “Do you believe in Extra-terrestrial life?” Shatner replied in the affirmative saying “of course, it is beyond a certainty that there is life out there.” Shat then went on to say (in complete seriousness) that he had insider info on Martians:

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(Full Article + Video: http://trekmovie.com)

ESA presents Mars in 3D

Mars is about to come into 3D focus as never before, thanks to the data from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). A new high-resolution Digital Terrain Model data set that has just been released onto the Internet, will allow researchers to obtain new information about the Red Planet in 3D.

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(Full Article: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM8Q2PR4CF_0.html)

Mars Spirit Rover: UFO and Large Mirror Symmetrical Objects

After talking with a Mars Specialist, I added this note to warn people that this might be faked or image tempering. The fact that the post was removed from the original site tells us long about this as well.

I’ll leave this here for reference, but keep in might that this might be false information.

This is an interesting image sent in by a reader who has identified their selves by the name Zoo. Here is the image resized larger.

After seeing the image and the Rover tracks, and looking further into tracking down the data I was able to find this new raw image posted as of 10/03/07 from the Mars Spirit Rover Rear Hazcam of Sol 1332, which seemed to show more details.

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov

There are regular, somewhat evenly placed objects lined up on the top of the hill, and in front what looks like large symmetrical shaped formations. Closer images are needed to determine more of what they actually are.

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(Source + Images: http://www.ufoarea.com)

Martian Southern Cap is Mostly Water Ice

Written by Fraser Cain

I’ll warn you right now, it’s raining Mars news today. Take cover. First up, we’ve got this interesting story. Planetary scientists at MIT have estimated that Mars’ southern pole contains the largest quantity of frozen water in the inner solar system (apart from the Earth, of course). Many people believed that frozen carbon dioxide was the predominant substance in the south pole’s cap, but nope, it’s water.

The research was led by Maria Zuber, MIT professor of geophysics, and the lead investigator for gravity for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The project is funded by the NASA Mars Program.

Scientists have long suspected that the Martian southern pole was mostly ice and dust, covered by a thin coating of carbon dioxide, but they didn’t have a firm estimate. Zuber and her colleagues used topographical and gravitational data by three Mars spacecraft to find the volume and mass of the ice cap.

Once they had the volume and mass, they were able to calculate the density. The density of water ice is 1,000 kg per cubic metre, while the density of solid carbon dioxide (aka dry ice) is 1,600 kg per cubic metre. Their estimates calculated that the Martian southern pole is about 1,220 kg per cubic metre. That indicates that it’s mostly water, with about 15% silicate dust mixed in.

This makes the southern polar region of Mars the largest body of water in the inner solar system, outside of the Earth. Just in case that’s not clear, we’re talking about Mercury, Venus and Mars.

One thing that’s still puzzling astronomers is the fact that the polar cap doesn’t reflect as much as you would expect from a coating of ice. It’s believed that the silicate dust mixed in dulls down the cap’s reflectivity.

Zuber and her team are planning to estimate the northern polar cap.

(Source: http://www.universetoday.com)

Cave entrances found on Mars

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet. Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from about 328 to 820 feet puzzled researchers who found them in images taken by NASA’s Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. Using Mars Odyssey’s infrared camera to check the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles, scientists concluded that they could be windows into underground spaces.Evidence that the holes may be openings to cavernous spaces comes from the temperature differences detected from infrared images taken in the afternoon vs. the pre-dawn morning. From day to night, temperatures of the holes change only about one-third as much as the change in temperature of surrounding ground surface.

“They are cooler than the surrounding surface in the day and warmer at night,” said Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Team and of Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz. “Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground.”A report of this discovery by Cushing and his co-authors was published online recently by the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings into spacious caverns, they are entries to the subsurface of Mars,” said co-author Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff. “Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future.”

(Source: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=106748)
(Other Important Link: www.MarsAnomalyResearch.com)