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back to article Martian south pole: water, not dry ice

The southern Martian ice cap is mostly made of water, according to those clever boffins* at MIT. Ice on Mars. Credit: NASA/MOLA Science Team Ice on Mars. Credit: NASA/MOLA Science Team The polar caps on the red planet were thought to be composed largely of a thin layer of frozen CO2, resting over a dust and ice mixture. But …

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  1. Dam

    best bootnote

    ever

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  2. Ian Bremner

    IT angle

    **INSERT OBLIGATORY WHINE ABOUT LACK OF IT ANGLE HERE**

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IT angle

    Semi-autonomous space probes seems pretty IT to me!

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  4. Kane

    Paris Hilton Angle

    So where is it? Hmm? I'm waiting.....

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scientific gossip

    Stop all the scientific gossip on this website!

    It belongs on Perez Hilton.com.

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  6. Jan Buys

    Great... we won't be thirsty there

    Now can we finally colonize the bloody thing?

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  7. Luther Blissett

    Was this really an "experiment"?

    Seems more like a hopeful calculation and a dodgy inference. After all, the number could be explained as a mixture of solid CO2 and stuff less dense than water. Less harmful, I suppose, than the Lysenko "experiment" and other social policy tarfus closer to home.

    Tomorrow, folks, I am going to experimentally verify that 2+2=4 by thinking it. Yup, got my coat on already.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Where did you buy your dictionary then?

    " [ ... ] the polar caps were thought to be more likely to contain CO2 than water, because the atmosphere of Mars is so arid. (On reflection, that sentence rather suggests the presence of frozen water [ ... ] "

    Huh? Arid means no water. It doesn't suggest that there's frozen water to me - the Sahara is arid too, does that mean you expect to find ice-cubes in the middle of it?

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: Where did you buy your dictionary then?

    If the water is all trapped as ice, it's not very likely to be in the air, thus making the air arid.

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  10. David

    The Antarctica is the most arid continent

    The Antarctica is the most arid continent on earth.

    Yet it contains most of earth's water.

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  11. Stephen Gray

    @ Luther Blissett

    Nice to see you found other things to do after football Luther, however I must pull you up on "am going to experimentally verify that 2+2=4" We all know that 2+2=5 for extremely large values of 2

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  12. Ian Hunter

    @ David

    Gorillas are primarily a bread eating species.

    Yet they posses no baking skills.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Generic Title

    Ice excellent! but im not going till they find the gin.

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  14. eddiewrenn

    How many bathtubs is that?

    Or how many times could you drown Wales? We need some real numbers damn it"

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  15. Bill Fresher

    @ The Antarctica is the most arid continent

    "The Antarctica is the most arid continent on earth.

    Yet it contains most of earth's water."

    I think you'll find the oceans contain most of the Earth's water.

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