Martian Water Confirmed and Total Solar Eclipse

It's confirmed, ice water on Mars!! After a couple of failed attempts the Phoenix Lander's scoop finally got some of that ice water soil into one of it's ovens to analyse and confirm there is ice water on Mars. The soil came from a trench around 2 inches deep called Snow White, image above and below, top one being a cool 3D image.



Some more great news, NASA has increased the funds for Phoenix extending it's mission to September 30, 5 weeks past the original 90 days.


Having said all that you may want to look at investing in some of that now wet Martian real estate, I mean now we have confirmed water, the property levels are bound to jump. Those of you that are my regular readers know I have purchased Lunar Real Estate and being the forward thinker and wise investor that I am, have purchased some Prime View Martian Property, that's right not just any view, Prime View. For just $22.49 you can get in on the ground floor with the purchase of an acre of Prime View Martian real estate. After your purchase you will receive your Martian Deed, a Martian map with your location, so you know where to go and a copy of the Martian constitution and Bill Of Rights, and on top of all that you will have a great conversation starter at all the dinner parties you attend, example;

Informed Bob: So, uninformed friend I have purchased an acre of Prime View Martian real estate.

Uninformed Friend: ...............I thought you had lunar property?

Informed Bob: Yes that is true, I have purchased an acre on the Lunar Southern Hemisphere in the Crater Campanus, lot# 15/1247, 26-30 degrees south, 30-26 degrees west. and being the forward thinker and wise investor that I am have decided that after the confirmed ice water discovery on Mars it would be in my best interest to purchase Prime View Martian real estate before the prices become too prohivitive to purchase.

Uninformed Friend: ..................What?...................................you nuts?

see.



This morning there was a Total Solar Eclipse, it started around 6 am EST, the path of totality started in North East parts of Canada and ended up in China and Mongolia. if you missed it you can catch up over at NASA or watch the You Tube video below. A Total Eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are perfectly aligned so the Moon which is in between, blocks the Sun from the Earth.

Some interesting facts:

The Moon's shadow for the August 1 2008 eclipse was 6,235 miles long and 147 miles wide.

During the eclipse the Moons shadow covered .4% of the Earth's surface.

The entire Eclipse lasted 2 hours 3 minutes, totality lasted 2 minutes 27 seconds.

Below is a You Tube video of the eclipse posted by the Associated Press.

Campanus Crater

UPDATE: The chances of asteroid 2007 WD 5 hitting Mars are now 1 in 10,000. Observations from 4 different observatories have indicated the asteroid will come no closer then 4,000 kms. to Mars.

The above image is the location of my acreage on the Moon, I mentioned the purchase here and there was a review of it here and I thought I would talk further of it here. I am the proud owner of an acre of land in the Campanus Crater, named after Johannes Campanus an Italian mathematician, 1220-1296. The exact location is, Lot #15/1247 26-30 degrees S.; 30-26 degrees W.

Just to prove I'm not crazy, or crazy depending on how you look at things, I took a pic of my Lunar deed, all legal and such. Just think of the conversation possibilities at all the dinner parties I frequent, "So Bob", "Yes Jim" "Do you happen to own any real estate?"" Why yes Jim, I do, I have a house in South Saskatoon, Wildwood, and an acreage in Campanus Crater" "Campanus crater, is that in the south part of town as well?" "Well no Jim, it is in the south part of the Moon." See, you'll be the talk of the town, when ever people look at the Moon they'll be thinking of you, get your Lunar Property today, maybe we can be neighbours.

Now that the Quadrantids meteor shower is over it's time to look forward to the next one, which isn't till April 22nd, the Lyrids. I'll keep you up to date on the wheres and whens on all upcoming showers throughout 2008.

The next big event is the total Lunar Eclipse for most of the Western Hemisphere on February 20/21. The above pic is an image I took of our last Total Lunar Eclipse August 28, 2007. If you miss it you'll have to wait till 2010 for the next one, that's a long way away, here's hoping the weather works for you.

The chances of asteroid 2007 WD5 impacting Mars have been lowered to 1 in 40 from 1 in 28. Observations made at the Calar Alto Observatory have scientists predicting the asteroid missing Mars by 18,641 miles.

AngelBaby who has a super blog about angels and such has awarded me with a great blog award, I am honoured to be a recipient of this award and would like to pass it on to a some of my fav blogs that I read. 1: swubird, a cool blog about science, WMD's, social issues and basically all kinds of cool stuff. 2: The Uneasy Supplicant, awesome prose and images. 3: Will, great blog about healthy living for people and planet Earth. 4: Hope Radio, inspirational site for the support of the military who fight for our freedom. 5: Peripheral Vision, a great site for photography and abstract paintings. 6: Sue's Daily Photography, just awesome images of my fav sunsets and palm trees. 7: Mr. Grudge, a place to go talk about writing and has very cool stories. 8: Life On The Blade, an all around inspirational blog. I want to leave you now with , that's right another GIF animation, thinking of renaming my blog, Blackholes and Astrogifs.

Lunar Real Estate

Still can't think think of what to get for that someone special for Christmas? How bout real estate? How bout Lunar real estate? For a mere $36 you can purchase one acre of prime view Lunar property. Dennis Hope of the Lunar Embassy back in 1980 made a claim for the entire Lunar surface at his local Government claim registries office, and it was accepted and registered! But Dennis, or the "Head Cheese" as he likes to be called, didn't stop there, he also sent a letter of intent to claim and sell extraterrestrial property to The UN, USSR and the US governments. To this date no one has contested his claims so Dennis Hope was able to take it to the next step, to copyright his work with the US copyright registry office.

NASA has said "property rights on the Moon are governed by the United Nations" "The Moon comes under the same jurisdiction as international waters" I say who is NASA to say anything, just sour grapes that they didn't think of claiming the Moon first. The Outer Space Treaty , that's right the Outer Space Treaty, forbids countries from claiming celestial bodies but nothing in the treaty says an individual or corporation can't.

To date over 4 million people have bought property on the Moon, including celebs like George Lucas, Barbara Walters, a few ex-Presidents, some NASA employees and me. That's right me, mock me now but when my Great Great Grand kids are negotiating with NASA to buy their property because they want to build a Helium-3 Processing Plant, I'll be having the last laugh, well I won't, I'll be dead but my Great Great Grand kids will be alive and laughing all the way to the bank. So what do you get for your 36 bucks, you get your Lunar Deed, your Lunar map of where your property is , The Lunar Constitution and a short story "You Own The What" which includes the Declaration of Ownership filed with the US, USSR and United Nations. They have an excellent FAQs area, questions such as "Can I get to the Moon Now?" to a vitally important question "Do you believe in the prime directive?" (alien bases far side).



NASA just announced hours ago that they have again delayed the launch of STS 122 Atlantis due to another faulty fuel sensor. These fuel sensors protect the Shuttle's main engines by shutting them down in the event of unexpectedly low fuel. The launch has been rescheduled for January 2nd.

Tatiana over at Totally-Useless has honoured me with her Totally Useful and deserving blogger award, I accept the award and will post it proudly on my blog. Tatiana has a great blog about her personal philosophies and things that may seem useless on the surface, usually aren't. I would like to pass this award on to 3 blogs I visit and enjoy regularly.

JD at The Uneasy Supplicant , awesome writings and images.

Will at Healthy Living for People and Planet Earth , great advice for a healthier life.

Rick at Deep Sky Blog another awesome astronomy site to visit for your astronomy/astrophotography updates.