Martian volcano could harbour hot underground pondlife

American astrogeologists believe that there may be pockets of liquid water trapped in sediment layers beneath the slopes of Olympus Mons - the titanic 15-mile-high Martian volcano, three times as high as Mount Everest. Such underground ponds or puddles might be home, they speculate, to strange alien lifeforms. Contour mapping …

[Anonymous Coward]

When I read...

about the _hot_ pondlife, I thought you meant, y'know, like, __HOT__ pondlife. Not hot pond life.

Never mind, I've cooled down now.

It's the one with the thermal lining.

[E]

"...implications are what go at the end of a paper"

But implications are what go at the front of a news rag item. Curious, that.

[Christoph]

So the Ancient Greeks were right?

Does this mean our alien masters really do live on Mount Olympus?

[Richard Tobin]

Sun-dodging slime creatures?

Ah, you mean students.

[B Weeks]

Someone had to say it...

"Martian volcano could harbour hot underground pondlife"

What? Like Paris?

ba-bom Tssh!

I'll get my coat.....

[Frank]

I for one..

I for one welcome our................... oh forget it.

[Anonymous Coward]

We need someone on the ground

Looking for Dr Manhattan!

[Chris]

color coding

On the topographic map, there are certain regions coded as below 0 in elevation. How do they determine where sea level is when Mars has no seas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would this be the pondlife that....

Built the giant window defroster thing found beneath Olympus Mons in Total Recall and now the "much-anticipated" remake of Total Recall?

The stars are almost literally aligning and the Reg is there to report on this epochal confluence of events. All that is needed now is Richard Branson to announce that famous Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid has elected to become the first passenger on Virgin Galactic's new passenger service to Mars....

[smeddy]

'Hey, there's unusual emissions of gas.'

Same in my house, sadly no signs of intelligent life tho

[Nick Ryan]

Re: Sun-dodging slime creatures?

Nope, probably just IT staff.

[Moss Icely Spaceport]

What?

Where's the ka-boom?

There's supposed to be an earth shattering ka-boom!

[Steen Hive]

@Chris

On the topographic map, there are certain regions coded as below 0 in elevation. How do they determine where sea level is when Mars has no seas?

"Sea level" on Mars is a value defined by SI as equal to " a distance of 2.7276x10^7 Ba from the planet's centre of mass"

[Murray Pearson]

Another use for Olympus Mons.....

....since Mars's atmosphere is tenuous at its thickest, and since Olympus Mons rises 76,000 feet above the surrounding plains, its caldera must be damn near in outer space.

So put a Gauss gun in there and use it to launch iron-rich ore into orbit, to build interstellar spacecraft or orbiting power stations, or what have you..... the savings in bulk material delivery to space would cover the exploration and development costs many time over in the long run.

Plus, it would satisfy mankind's deep-seated desire to rape and plunder nature for a looooooooooooooooong time to come.

Paris because, well, it's Paris.

[Geoff Spick]

thar thar

You mean there's water in them tharsis hills?

[Alistair]

American astrogeologists

They would be Areologists

Nah, the red planet is dead. No molten core so no magnetic field resulting in an irradiated surface. Cold interior so no areothermal energy. Weak sunlight. No liquid water, only ice deposits. D.E.A.D.

Now, the icy moons of gas giants, they are a much better candidate for primitive hot slime creatures. Mmm hot juicy slime.

[Anonymous Coward]

All factual of course

could, believe, may be, speculate, implications, reckon, their models say.