According to scientists, very large ice deposits have been found on Mars, below the surface and far away from the polar ice caps.

The Sharad (SHAllow RADar) can look up to 1 km below the surface to find water, by sending pulse waves and analyzing the time delay when they return and their strength.

The Sharad radar experiment, on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft made the discovery in Mars’ mid-northern latitudes.

The ice is found in distinctive geological structures on Mars’ surface that are hundreds of metres thick.

The radar data suggest that some of these features consist mostly of ice.

Read more here

In a small town from southwest France, the mayor is threatening the locals with severe punishments if they die, because the cemetery is overcrowded already and there is no place where they can be buried. Yes, you read it right, people are not allowed to die.

The actual quote of the mayor of Sarpounrex, Gerard Lalanne, is:

All persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish. Offenders will be severely punished.

Apparently, there are 260 people living in this village, and the request to extend the cemetery was denied by the town council that the village belongs to. Hence, the message from the 70 year old mayor.

The astronauts that are currently on the International Space Station (ISS) are getting a special treat, an MP3 player loaded with songs picked by a 14 year old Norwegian girl in a competition done by ESA (European Space Agency). The MP3 player will be carried to the ISS by a freighter launched this weekend.

The playlist that won the competition:

-  Here Comes The Sun - Beatles
- Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra
- Rocket Man - Elton John
- Up Where We Belong - Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
- Imagine - John Lennon
- Flashdance - What A Feeling - Irene Cara
- Walk of Life - Dire Straits
- Fly - Celine Dion
- Rockin’ All Over The World - Status Quo
- I Believe I Can Fly - R Kelly

Above is a photo released by NASA, of the Earth and Moon as seen from Mars.

This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.

Link at NASA

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch has a very interesting post on the DNA results he got from the Google backed start-up, 23andMe. For $1000 you can get yourself tested and find out where did your ancestors come from and what diseases you have a higher risk of getting. Another thing that you can find out is whether you have the gene that gives resistance to HIV.

Pretty cool overall, though the question remains for the future, if people will start using DNA tests to decide if they get together with someone or not, or if companies will take these tests. The nasty part would be if medical insurance rates would be decided based on someone’s genetic traits and predisposition to certain diseases.

Read More at TechCrunch