Space. Wow.
Good writing, eh? I've been helping NASA with their homepage this week, so it all rolls off rather easy. So where was I? Space. That's it. There's a lot if it. So much in fact, that a trip to Mars is the cosmic equivalent of a walk to the local corner shop, where some would say there's even less chance of finding life (see the entry Cosmic Zoom below).
But not even the mind-boggling scale of the cosmos can render NASAs achievement of landing the Phoenix probe of Mars unimpressive. So much could have gone wrong, but didn't - after all, this is rocket science. As I type, Phoenix is diligently carrying out the tasks assigned to it by NASA's boffins, digging beneath the Martian topsoil to gather samples and analyse them. So far it has found amonia crystals, methane, carbon, hydrogen, a scratch card and two lucky dips.
Above: The horizon of another world - how cool is that?
Of course, the real fuss has been about the possibility of finding evidence that organic life once existed on the red planet, which if confirmed would be the most important news we've ever had. Hard evidence that life existed on another world would mean there really is a grand scheme to the universe and would prove that life on earth isn't just a sick joke or biological accident. One to watch then.
Space. Wow.
Above: California Lovin: scientists celebrate at mission control HQ in Pasedena . Below: NASA'a next destination for an unmanned probe.
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