Mars

That's a photo of a sunrise on Mars. No, sillies, I did not take it. But it's here because this could one day be your great great granddaughter's view from her apartment.

I'm giddy with geekinees at the news today (which no actual respected US journal has covered...but it's all over papers in the UK. And I'm just going to go with it.) Signs of methane on Mars isn't exactly news, but super duper certain evidence of it kind of is. Since most of the methane on our Earth is produced by living things, it's likely that living things are producing it there...

"NASA scientists calculate that a colony of Martian microbes covering 2,316 sq miles of the planet's permafrost could account for the volumes of methane detected. Alternatively, the gas could be released by a community of ancient bugs living in aquifers nearly five miles beneath the surface, under the permafrost."

Dude.

As many of you know, the gargantuan and eternal project that I'm (still) working on for my boss in DC is a book about creating a (more robust) atmosphere and teraforming Mars. And though we would never see it in our lifetime, they really think it can be done. So long as there is proof that the red planet could harbor life. (Are you all goosbumpy?)

Okay enough.

Two perspectives on the low of -20 in Chicago today:

1. I am now freakishly thrilled about the high of 26 on Saturday.
2. The most summery days on Mars get up to about 30 degrees, and I'd still like to go...for like a week...max.