As always I am looking to the stars for answers….(how’s that for philosophical?)……..and while reading stuff I came across two more articles about space stuff…..

Before I start…….Mars has moons with names…..Jupiter has moons with names…..Saturn the same……then why is the Earth’s moon named…..MOON?

First there is Mars….always a source of great speculation and wonder…….and in the last decade information about the planet is coming at an alarming pace…….

Imagine all the water in the Arctic Ocean. Now, imagine all that and more on Mars. If you visited the Red Planet roughly 4.3 billion years ago, that’s what you likely would have found, say NASA scientists. Their new study arrived at that “solid estimate … by determining how much water was lost to space,” says lead author Geronimo Villanueva. The Guardian reports the scientists used three powerful infrared telescopes to analyze two forms of water in Mars’ atmosphere: H2O and HDO, in which deuterium (aka “heavy” hydrogen) has taken the place of one hydrogen atom. As National Geographic explains, Mars’ gravity is weaker than our own; that allowed hydrogen to escape from the atmosphere and into space over time, boosting the amount of deuterium in its water. Scientists compared the ratio of HDO to H2O in Martian water today with that in water from a 4.5 billion-year-old Mars meteorite to arrive at their conclusions, a press release states.

They ultimately calculated that Mars was once home to 20 million cubic kilometers of ocean. It could have covered every inch of the planet in water 450 feet deep, but the scientists think a different scenario is more likely: that the ocean covered roughly a fifth of the planet, was located in the northern hemisphere, and was as much as a mile deep. While National Geographic observes the findings back up “reams of earlier evidence that water once existed on the surface” of Mars, another study author points out the assessment of the degree of water lost indicates something new. “The planet was very likely wet for a longer period of time than was previously thought, suggesting it might have been habitable for longer,” a scientist says. (Mysterious plumes on Mars are stumping scientists.)

Speaking of water in space….the common belief is that before we can find life we need to locate water…….but is there a chance there is water in our system?

Thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, we already knew that one of Saturn’s moons has a big ocean. Now things have gotten more interesting on Enceladus. It turns out that the ocean is not only warm, it seems to have the same kind of hydrothermal activity going on as oceans on Earth, reports NASA. Bottom line: “This may be the place to go look for life in the outer solar system,” says a Cornell scientist not involved with the new study in Nature. That would be microbial life, under conditions similar to those in a network of hot springs under the Atlantic Ocean known as the “Lost City,” reports AP. Some scientists think that ancient hydrothermal field yielded the first life on our planet.

Some extra-terrestrial sleuthing resulted in the Enceladus discovery: Knowing that a geyser shooting up from the moon’s south pole sends up dust particles that settle on Saturn’s outer ring, researchers analyzed the outer ring. They discovered that the dust particles were mostly silica, explains Popular Mechanics, and the makeup of that silica yielded details about the ocean in which they were formed. “We think that the temperature at least in some part of the ocean must be higher than 190 degrees Fahrenheit,” team member Sean Hsu tells NPR. “If you could swim a little bit further from the really hot part then it could be comfy.” The only way to “nail the habitability question” is to send up a new spacecraft to Enceladus with more modern instruments, says the Cornell researcher. He’s already working on the proposal. (Read about how Pluto might rejoin the planet club.)

And the discoveries just keep coming and coming….eventually we should have first hand knowledge…….those days are closer than we imagine…..I do believe.