Sunset on Mars

(Jet Propulsion Laboratory) NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this view of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater.

This was the first sunset observed in color by Curiosity. The image comes from the left-eye camera of the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam)...

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• Sunset in Mars' Gale Crater

Pope says baptism is for everyone, even Martians

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday declared that everyone has the right to be baptised, even aliens should they come knocking on the church's door.

Christians cannot "close the door" to all those who seek baptism even if they are "green men, with a long nose and big ears, like children draw," the pope said at his daily mass, according to Vatican Radio.

"If tomorrow, for example, an expedition of Martians arrives and some of them come to us... and if one of them says: 'Me, I want to be baptised!', what would happen?" Francis said in another display of his lively sense of humour.

The Argentine pontiff known for his down-to-earth style has often used colourful and humourous expressions to make his points on the direction of the Roman Catholic Church.

On baptism Francis has stressed that it should not be refused, especially to children whose parents may be breaking Church rules such as living together as an unmarried couple.

As for his humour, the first Latin American pope showed it from the beginning right after being chosen leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics in March last year. 

"It seems that my brother cardinals have gone to the other end of the world to get one! But here we are," he told the crowd gathered in Saint Peter's Square.

He later joked with the cardinals over dinner: "God forgive you for what you've done!"

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• Pope says baptism is for everyone, even Martians

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• Pope at Mass: The Holy Spirit makes the unthinkable possible

Mars - Bright Strange Light Captured by NASA

A NASA camera on Mars has captured what appears to be artificial light emanating outward from the planet's surface. Photo: NASA.gov Photos

By Carol Christian, Houston Chronicle

A NASA camera on Mars has captured what appears to be artificial light emanating outward from the planet's surface.

The photo, beamed millions of miles from Mars to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was taken last week, apparently by one of two NASA rovers on the red planet.

Although the space agency hasn't issued any official statement yet about the phenomenon, bloggers and NASA enthusiasts have started chiming in.. (continued)

Read More at SFGate.com

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• NASA photo captures strange bright light coming out of Mars

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• Is the Vatican Hiding Aliens?

Mars colonists sought for exhibition

Dutch company Mars One is making plans to choose a crew for the first manned mission to Mars to become the first colonists of the Red Planet.

By GABRIELLE LEVY, UPI.com

Would you like to go live on Mars?

A Dutch company called Mars One has announced plans to create the first human settlement on the Red Planet in just 10 years.

Mars One plans to pick travelers to submit to a full-time training program that will conclude with a one-way ticket to Mars, where a prepared colony will be waiting.

Prospective colonists must be at least 18 years old, and the Mars One team says qualities such as resiliency, adaptability, creativity, resourcefulness and curiosity will be given high priority. All necessary skills for Mars survival will be taught to the colonists over the next decade as they prepare full-time to blast into space--and history.

Mars One founders Bas Landsorp and Arno Wielders, entrepreneurs with ties to technology and space industries, said they plan to send probes and rovers as early as 2016 to prepare the planet for human habitation.

And--no surprise here--they plan to fund the mission through the wonders of Reality television.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Space X founder Elon Musk is also eyeing plans to populate Mars, offering aspiring Martians berth for the low low price of half a million dollars.



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•  Mars colonists sought for exhibition

SpaceX's Elon Musk: Your ticket to Mars? Half a million dollars

November 26, 2012 | By Deborah Netburn

 

 Elon Musk in the mission control room of Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, in April of this year. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

(Los Angeles Times) SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk is laying out his plans for a colony on Mars, and they are specific.

Musk has already mapped out an approximate number of people he imagines living in the Mars colony (80,000), as well as how much a ticket to Mars might cost--$500,000.

But first, he said, SpaceX has to design what he calls a "rapid and reusable" rocket that can land vertically. "That is the pivotal step to achieving a colony on Mars," he told an audience at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London last week.

If SpaceX or another company can't come up with a rocket that can be reused and refueled (like we reuse airplanes), then he said colonizing Mars would be prohibitively expensive.

Musk described creating a rocket that could shuttle between Mars and the Earth as "possible, but quite difficult."

But that hasn't stopped him from mapping out a vision of how a colony on Mars might grow. The first step, of course, is getting a manned mission to Mars, which Musk said he thinks SpaceX can do in 10 to 15 years.

Next, he envisions sending 10 people to the Red Planet, along with supplies to build transparent domes, Space.com reports. If the domes are pressurized with the CO2 in Mars' atmosphere, the colonists could grow Earth crops in the soil on Mars.

As the colony became more self-sufficient, space on the rocket could be filled with people rather than supplies.

And those numbers Musk tossed out are not random. He arrived at 80,000 colonists by estimating that by the time a Mars colony is a reality there will be 8 billion people on Earth. Musk said he thinks 1 in 100,000 people will be ready and willing to take the journey to Mars. As for the $500,000 ticket--he said that while it's a lot of money, it is a sum of money that someone who has worked hard and saved carefully might be able to afford.

And as to whether the American taxpayer should contribute to a colony on Mars, Musk says yes. A colony on another planet is life insurance for life collectively, he said during his talk. He added that it would be a fun adventure to watch, even if you aren't planning on going yourself.

If you'd like to see the talk for yourself, check out the video below.



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• SpaceX's Elon Musk: Your ticket to Mars? Half a million dollars

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• Mars - Bright Strange Light Captured by NASA
• Is the Vatican Hiding Aliens?

Spidery black objects on Mars surface raise speculation

Scientists are trying to identify the strange black spidery objects in these images. (Michael Benson/NASA/JPL/University

By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News | The Sideshow 

Someone alert Ziggy Stardust, there appear to be spiders on Mars.

Strange black objects seen from 200 miles above the surface of Mars are generating interest and speculation that the unidentified objects could be anything from geysers to sunbathing colonies of microorganisms.

NPR presents several photos of the objects, including one taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 27, 2010, that appears to show "little black flecks dotting the ridges, mostly on the sunny side, like sunbathing spiders sitting in rows."

The objects were first spotted in 1998. Interestingly, they appear when the surface of Mars begins to warm, showing up in the same location most of the time. And then when the Martian winter approaches, they disappear with the same precise regularity. The images have been brought into greater detail by Michael Benson in his book "Planetfall: New Solar System Visions."

Most scientists, including teams from the U.S. Geological Survey, Hungary and the European Space Agency, have their own theories, but the leading explanation is that the objects are geysers of CO2 exploding from underneath the planet's surface.

"If you were there, you'd be standing on a slab of carbon dioxide ice," Phil Christensen of Arizona State University told NPR. "All around you, roaring jets of carbon dioxide gas are throwing sand and dust a couple hundred feet into the air. The ground below would be rumbling. You'd feel it in your space boots."

And while the geyser theory is the most popular explanation, it has yet to be verified.

In the meantime, there are some interesting alternative theories, including one from a group of Hungarian scientists, who have speculated that the objects are actually colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms that emerge each year to sunbathe in the warm weather.

What the objects may look like up close. (Artist rendering by Ron Miller/JPL/Arizona State University)

• Spidery black objects on Mars surface raise speculation

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• Mars - Bright Strange Light Captured by NASA

Strange Mystery Spheres on Mars Baffle Scientists

(Space.com) A strange picture of odd, spherical rock formations on Mars from NASA's Opportunity rover has scientists scratching their heads over what exactly they're looking at.

The new Mars photo by Opportunity shows a close-up of a rock outcrop called Kirkwood covered in blister-like bumps that mission scientists can't yet explain. At first blush, the formations appear similar to so-called Martian "blueberries" — iron-rich spherical formations first seen by Opportunity in 2004 — but they actually differ in several key ways, scientist said.

"This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission," said rover mission principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in a statement. "Kirkwood is chock full of a dense accumulation of these small spherical objects. Of course, we immediately thought of the blueberries, but this is something different. We never have seen such a dense accumulation of spherules in a rock outcrop on Mars."

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• Strange Mystery Spheres on Mars Baffle Scientists 

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• Mars - Bright Strange Light Captured by NASA

Company Vows Mars Colony by 2023, Funded by Reality Show

Company intends to finance plan for human colony by "creating the biggest media event ever"

Mars One/YouTube

A Dutch firm claims there will be life on Mars – and a new TV show to boot.

By DANIEL MACHT 

(WNBC) Watch out, Kardashians! A Dutch company says it will produce the biggest reality show on the planet, centered on a group of humans who colonize Mars.

In the wake of SpaceX’s first successful commercial mission to the International Space Station last month, Mars One has vowed a much grander feat, according to reports.

The firm claims that it will put four people on the red planet every two years beginning in April 2023. By 2033, Mars One boasts there will be 20 colonists on Mars.

Mars One is founded by Bas Lansdorp, a researcher from the Netherlands with a master's in science from Delft University of Technology, according to PC Magazine.

Landsorp says in a promotional video that "creating the biggest media event ever" will finance the out-of-this-world venture.

According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the "media event" will be similar to a reality show, and "Big Brother" co-creator Paul Romer is on board.

If Mars One’s mission sounds too fantastic, consider that the company also has the backing of Nobel prize-winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft.

"My first impression was that this is an extraordinary project by people with vision, imagination," Hooft says in the Mars One’s video. "But my first reaction was I think like anyone who would be confronted by such an idea: this will never work."

Still, he said he was convinced it could happen because the company has a plan for solving a tough challenge: how to get the colonists back to Earth. In Mars One’s case, they won't. Colonists will stay on the red planet for the rest of their lives.

Mars One claims that it has scored letters of interest for all the suppliers it will need to pull off its mission.

PC Magazine’s Andario Strange notes that while there's no assurance that the mission will become reality, at the very least the idea will inspire others to enter the brave new world of commercial space endeavors.

• Company Vows Mars Colony by 2023, Funded by Reality Show

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• Mars - Bright Strange Light Captured by NASA

Church of Mars

• Wow… just… wow…. That’s ugly.

Life on Mars

By PAUL SUTHERLAND
Sun Spaceman

Published: Today

ALIEN microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the Red Planet, Nasa scientists believe.

The gas, belched in vast quantities in our world by cows, was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes.

Discovery ... gas around Mars

Nasa are today expected to confirm its presence during a briefing at their Washington HQ.

And the find is seen as exciting new evidence that Martian microbes are still alive today.

Some scientists reckon methane is also produced by volcanic processes. But there are NO known active volcanoes on Mars.

Furthermore, Nasa has found the gas in the same regions as clouds of water vapour, the vital �drink� needed to support life.

Mission ... probe on the surface of Mars

Experts speculate that the methane is being emitted as a waste product by organisms called methanogens living in water beneath underground ice.

And they would have to be alive today because the methane would otherwise have been lost from the Martian atmosphere.

What a scoop ... Phoenix lander dug up chunks of ice last year

John Murray — a member of the Mars Express European space probe team — believes the mini-Martians may be in a form of suspended animation and could even be REVIVED.

He has found overwhelming evidence of a vast frozen ocean beneath the dust near the Martian equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.

Today’s briefing will feature a star panel of Mars experts headed by Michael Meyer, chief scientist for Nasa’s Mars programme.

UK Mars expert Professor Colin Pillinger believes the methane can only point to the presence of life on the planet.

Space neighbours ... Earth and Venus rise over Mars in mock-up

His ill-fated Beagle 2 probe was carrying a laboratory that would have looked directly for such signs of life when it crashed on Christmas Day 2003.

Prof Pillinger, below, told The Sun last night: �Methane is a product of biology. For methane to be in Mars’ atmosphere, there has to be a replenishable source.

�The most obvious source of methane is organisms. So if you find methane in an atmosphere, you can suspect there is life.

�It’s not proof, but it makes it worth a much closer look.�

Nasa’s findings confirm studies by Europe’s Mars Express probe, which has been orbiting the planet for five years and also reported signs of methane in 2004.

Britain’s top space expert Nick Pope last night hailed the new evidence of life as �the most important discovery of all time�.

He said: �What could be more profound than to know it’s not just us out there?

Expert ... Colin Pillinger

"We’ve really only scratched the surface — it’s an absolute certainty that there is life out there and we are not alone.

�If there is life on Mars then the logical conclusion is that there must be life elsewhere too.

�If it’s happened here on Earth, then why shouldn’t it happen anywhere? The implication is this is a universal law.

�Mars is very similar to Earth. It’s about the same size, it’s a rocky inner planet.

�Most scientists believe it probably has liquid water which is almost universally agreed as the pre-requisite for life. I am certain there is other life in the Universe and, most likely, intelligent life.�

The Red Planet has gripped the public imagination for more than a century as a possible home for aliens.

But life could not survive on its surface because, unlike the Earth, Mars has no magnetic shield to protect it against deadly sun radiation.

The planet resembles our own in many ways. It is made of rock, it has an atmosphere and weather systems.

Although much smaller with a diameter of around 4,222 miles, Mars’ day is just 40 minutes longer than ours and its tilted axis gives it seasons.

Water has been found in the form of buried ice and scientists believe that two billion years ago, Mars was covered with liquid oceans.

Proof that water is still on Mars came in 2007 when Mars Express used ground-piercing radar to study the region around the planet’s South Pole.

Nasa’s latest lander Phoenix dug up chunks of Martian ice last year. It swiftly evaporated into the thin atmosphere.

Nasa have controversially hit the headlines before for claiming evidence for Martians.

In 1996, they said they had discovered fossilised organisms in a meteorite from the planet.

But other scientists were sceptical.

Today’s conference will be broadcast live online by NASA TV (www.nasa.gov/ntv ) at 7pm.

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