Life on Mars?

June 19, 2008 -- Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.

"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called "Dodo-Goldilocks" when Phoenix's Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24.

See full story at NASA

Vatican Says Belief in Aliens OK

According to a report, the Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

In an interview published in May by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures:

How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.

The interview was headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother." Funes added:

Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom, he said.

Years ago, Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a theologian member of the Vatican Curia (governing body), and an insider close to the Pope, had also gone on Italian national television five times, to proclaim that extraterrestrial contact is a real phenomenon.