NASA to Check for Unlikely Winter Survival of Mars Lander

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, its backshell and its heatshield are visible within this enhanced-color image of the Phoenix landing site taken on Jan. 6, 2010 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

With early spring at the Phoenix landing site comes progressive sublimation of carbon-dioxide frost that has blanketed the lander and surrounding terrain throughout the winter. During the long polar-winter night, atmospheric carbon dioxide freezes onto the surface, building up a layer of frost roughly 30 centimeters (about one foot) thick. In the spring this frost returns to atmosphere gas (sublimates) over the course of several months. This image, part of a seasonal frost monitoring sequence, shows some areas of bare ground are beginning to be exposed. However, extensive frost patches remain in the topographic lows, such as the troughs of the local polygonally patterned surface.

NASA

UN climate body to review Himalayan glacier forecast

NEW DELHI (AFP) – The head of the UN's top body on climate change said Monday the panel would investigate claims its doomsday prediction for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers might be mistaken.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that glaciers in the Himalayas were receding faster than in any other part of the world and could "disappear altogether by 2035 if not sooner".

YAHOO NEWS

Frustrated Passenger Gets Arrested for Tweeting Airport Bomb Threat

Meet Paul Chambers. Like thousands of frustrated passengers, this British finance supervisor thought he wouldn't be able to travel because of the snow. So frustrated, in fact, that he tweeted an obviously exaggerated threat that got him into jail.

"Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high."

Not long after that—on January 13—the police knocked on his door carrying a copy of the tweet. He tried to explain that he was only venting his frustration on Twitter, but they didn't even know what Twitter was. The officers arrested, interrogated, and jailed him under the Terrorism Act, only to release him under bail until a February 11 hearing.

GIZMODO