Scientists analyzing soil sample tests sent back by the Phoenix Mars Lander has found that the Martian soil to be much more alkaline than previously expected, “flabergasting” scientists. This means that Martian soil, containing traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and other elements, could support life in it’s past, present and future forms (similar to the soil in your backyard).

The location of the Phoenix touch down is believed to hold large amounts of water-ice below the surface, however scientists haven’t been able to detect organic carbon, which is an essential ingredient for life.

You can also follow the Mars Phoenix on Twitter for up to the minute news as it happens, or at least a few minutes delay as the signal reaches Earth.

Read more Via BBC News

Fotoausflug is a German site who collects and creates lovely photo panoramas of German cities and sights. Thankfully, they had the patience to collect over 1400 individual photos to create an interactive JAVA panorama of the surface of Mars over a 5 month period of time during the Marsian winter. The photos have been slightly enhanced, boosting contrast and the sky has been extrapolated to fill the illusion of a Marsian atmosphere (which is why there is no Sun).

See more: Interactive McMurdo Panorama

Who needs planet Earth when we’ve got Mars?? That’s what I’m saying. The Mars Society, a group of scientists who share a goal of colonizing Mars, believes that humans can colonize the red planet in little more than 1000 years, in stark competition with other scientist’s who say it would be 20,000-100,000 years. According to the society, Mars could be colonized in 3 steps, the first of which is occurring now, exploration. Though many human landings would need to take place, the following steps would involve sketchy actions, such as giant mirrors directing the sun to the planet in an attempt to warm it, freeing gasses and eventually creating a global warming type effect. One of the options would be to build several chemical plants on the surface, pumping out 1,000 tons of fluoromethane an hour, which would raise the temperature on the red planet by 50°F over 30 years. See the complete PopSci walkthrough for a complete walkthrough of scenarios for terraforming planet Mars.

Read more: Mars habitable in 1000 years

In a new paper published on Sunday and delivered at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society a scientist is stating his theory that two NASA space probes (Vikings) may have found alien microbes on Mars 30 years ago but inadvertently killed them. The theory presented is that Voyager was looking for life forms specific to Earth-life, where salt water is the internal liquid of living cells, rather than hydrogen peroxide, a liquid which could more realistically survive the cold and dry climate of Mars. As the Viking probes performed their experiments on the Mars surface any hydrogen peroxide-based life would have been killed by experiments consisting of water poured onto the planet surface and another which heated the soil to see if something would occur, essentially baking and Martian microbes.

Read more: Scientist: NASA found life on Mars — then killed it