Discovery News: Space Diary

A World A'Twitter

Curious what’s happening on Mars? No need to comb the net looking for news. NASA’s newest robot probe will phone you with its updates.

Phoenix, which is busily analyzing ice and soil samples from Mars’ northern polar cap, is using the social networking site Twitter to text-message the science-minded about its progress. Apparently, more than 27,000 folks are following Phoenix’s words, which can flash across your cell phone, pop up in your Instant Messaging program or passively wait to be read on its Twitter homepage.

Hungry for a direct outreach to the public, NASA has given more than a dozen machines a virtual life. Among Phoenix’s colleagues on Twitter are LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) which hasn’t even left the ground yet, the Hubble Space Telescope, the new gamma ray observatory GLAST and the space shuttles Atlantis , Discovery and Endeavour. Even space shuttle missions are incarnating.

It’s not just the ‘droids who are coming into their ‘lectronic lives. Apparently blogs are Twitter-fodder too so I took the plunge and signed up Free Space. At least I think I did. I’m waiting for my cell phone to ring to let me know if I’ve posted or not.

Sheep in space

The announcement this week that scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have found organic molecules in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system reminded me of an interview I had a while back about how researchers might determine if life exists on other planets.

I asked if extraterrestrial scientists were looking at Earth, for example, would they know it was populated. Apparently, one of the give-aways would be the same chemical found in the atmosphere of planet HD 189733b -- methane. We can thank the sheep and cows for providing telltale signs of life on Earth.

It’s doubtful any alien livestock are busy processing dinner on HD 189733b, however. The planet is too close to its mother star to support life as we know it.