Enlarge NASA Researchers say they have identified traces of ice in craters on Mercury, seen here in this Oct. 8, 2008, image from the Messenger spacecraft.
NASAResearchers say they have identified traces of ice in craters on Mercury, seen here in this Oct. 8, 2008, image from the Messenger spacecraft.
Mercury is not the first planet to come to mind if you were searching for ice in the solar system. After all, the surface temperature across most of the planet is hot enough to melt lead.
But at the poles on Mercury it's a different story. Almost no sun reaches the poles, and as a result, temperatures can drop to less than -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, three papers in the journal Science suggest there really is ice at the bottom of craters near the poles on Mercury.
The evidence comes from an instrument on NASA's Messenger spacecraft called Mercury Laser Altimeter. Messenger has been orbiting Mercury since March 2011.
Gregory Neumann and his colleagues at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built the instrument. He says it's basically a bright flashlight. "We can use it to measure reflectance ? places where the imagers can't see anything because it's dark," says Neumann.
When they shined their laser flashlight into the craters, they saw was something that looked very much like ice.
To tell the truth, Neumann and his colleagues weren't all that surprised. Radar observations from Earth had predicted ice would be at the poles on Mercury, and another instrument on Messenger also saw signals consistent with ice.
But that raises an interesting question. Where's the water for making the ice coming from?
"It could be coming from the interior, because every planet contains a little bit of water in the mantle," says Neumann.
But that's not likely, because Neuman says scientists can't think of any way that the water trapped in Mercury's mantle could make it to the surface.
A more likely explanation is that the water came from comets that crashed into the planet. "Mercury gets bombarded periodically by comets," says Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, another one of the scientists on the Messenger mission. Zuber says comets are sometimes referred to as dirty snowballs, since they're made of organic dirt and frozen water.
Not only does water get deposited on Mercury from the comets, says Zuber, "The organics get deposited on the surface as well."
Greg Neumann says the Mars Laser Altimeter was able to detect organics, too.
"They're kind of a carbonaceous, tarry substance that we call goo, to use a technical term," says Neumann.
So Mercury has ice and goo. Who knew?
Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/11/29/166162020/space-probe-finds-ice-in-mercurys-craters?ft=1&f=1007
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Caleb is our ?go to? board game player. If you?re ever in the mood to play a board game or a card game, you?ll find an eager player in Caleb. Mention playing a game and he?ll be right there. In fact, if you delay even a bit after mentioning playing a game, chances are good that he?s already got a game out, set up, cards dealt out and ready to play. 
Caleb liked Thunderstone right from the start. I?m pretty sure the fantastic artwork has a lot to do with it. Great graphics have a way of pulling players into the theme and spirit of a game. And the art in Thunderstone definitely does it?s job well. Add to that the fact that you get to recruit and level-up cool heroes, equip them with awesome weapons and send them off to battle a wide variety of monsters in the dungeon and you?ve got a young boy thoroughly wrapped up in the game. He doesn?t care that the box says ages 12+, he loves Thunderstone. This was an easy pick for Caleb.
Like his older brothers, I knew that Small World would be on Caleb?s list. With the random combinations of races and abilities every time you play, it?s no surprise they all love Small World. Of course, it goes without saying that they also like attacking each other. They also like trying to get everyone to gang up on someone other than themselves. They can plead their case pretty convincingly as they try to expand without hindrance. I can?t imagine a game of Small World ever being turned down by any of them. This board game will be easily accessible on the game shelf for a very long time.
Caleb loves to challenge Jaden playing Fastrack. Since Jaden has crowned himself the ?King of Fastrack?, Caleb feels the constant need to seek to de-thrown him. Occasionally he gets a win in. And when he does, you?ll hear the hootin? and hollerin? throughout the house. Aren?t brotherly challenges grand?
Though similar to Thunderstone, Dominion doesn?t have the dripping theme of heroes and monsters. But that doesn?t stop Caleb from loving Dominion as well. Dominion is the first of the deck-building games published and is still the king. Many games have come after trying to copy the success of Dominion. But the simplicity of the original is hard to beat. It?s also so addicting and hugely expandable that it?s hard to get tired of it. And Caleb?s a very formidable opponent in Dominion so don?t be thrown off by his age, he knows what he?s doing.
I was surprised to see Yinsh on Caleb?s Top 10 list. It?s not that he doesn?t enjoy it, but he hasn?t hit his stride with it yet. He does love looking ahead a few moves to plan out how he?s going to get 5 in a row. But he hasn?t quite understood the need to adjust his strategy as the game progresses and the other player sets up their own move. But I think with every play he?s beginning to watch out a little more. It?s great to see his thought process develop as he plays this great 2-player abstract strategy game.
It?s time to depart from some of the games on Jaden?s favorites list and get to one of the games Caleb uniquely loves. Ninja Versus Ninja is another 2-player board game that matches players in a head-to-head battle. The playing pieces are fantastic and it?s hard to find cooler dice in a kids board game. Players try to sneak into their opponent?s dojo and get safely back. The deeper they go into the dojo and make it out again, the more points they?ll get. Of course, players can also win by eliminating all their opposing ninja ? which is perhaps Caleb?s favorite way of winning.
Remember what I said about it being hard to find cooler dice in a kids board game. Well, Pirate Versus Pirate is right on par with Ninja Versus Ninja. The difference being a bone sticking through the dice (if you can call them dice) rather than a sword. The two games are similar but different enough to present their own challenges. Pirate Versus Pirate is a 3-player game and best played with exactly that. The board is also split into triangle spaces which makes moving around and landing on the other player pieces to eliminate them a bit tougher. It also has the unique 3-player dynamics of either targeting one player or two people battling while the 3rd sneaks away with the treasure almost uncontested. Makes for some good strategy with a bunch of luck in the dice rolls.
It?s easy to see why Caleb loves Knock Your Blocks Off ? he gets to destroy things. When given a game that has a main objective of destroying an opponent?s structure, you can be sure to count him in. The twist on the destruction portion of the game is that players roll a die to see how they get to attempt the destruction. But destroying isn?t the only part of the game. Players have to first build something as quickly as they can. If they?re the first to build their structure, they also get a point. And Caleb?s pretty quick.
7 Wonders is another game where the suggested age on the box is no match for Caleb. With all the different card types and symbols and the various paths to score victory points, there?s a lot to keep track of in the game. Perhaps that?s why he likes it so much ? it keeps his mind moving the whole time thinking through his strategy and deciding which cards to choose each turn. He?s also good at keeping an eye on his neighbors, their goods, and their military might so he knows when to strike and when to keep a card from passing on. No going easy on him.
The Big Fat Tomato Game is a relatively new entry into our board game collection, yet has won over Caleb enough to put it in his Top 10 list. It?s a very straight forward game about harvesting tomatoes while defending your patch from a garden variety of intruders like weeds, varmints, and even the tomato zombie. There?s a wide variety of cards in the game that either help you gather tomatoes, protect your stash of tomatoes, or attack the other players. And the tomatoes in the game are little fuzzy balls that you smash into your basket. This may be one of the draws of the game for Caleb, but I think he loves it mostly because he gets to cause havoc on the other players. 
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