Fly me to the moon...but don't let me forget my parka.

(I have no idea what that post title has to do with what I'm talking about, except for the fact that it is going on the second day in a row without coffee...I must be delirious)

In the midst of news of tumbling markets, failed billion dollar corporate bailouts, and Washington politics as usual, the news of possible snow on Mars barely registered on my news radar. But there it was, a faint blip this morning:

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time, scientists reported Monday.

With summer waning, less sunlight is reaching the spacecraft's solar panels on Mars.

Soil experiments revealed the presence of two minerals known to be formed in liquid water. Scientists identified the minerals as calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and sheet silicate.

But exactly how that happened remains a mystery.

"It's really kind of all up in the air," said William Boynton, a mission scientist at the University of Arizona at Tucson.

A laser aboard the Phoenix recently detected snow falling from clouds more than two miles above its home in the northern arctic plains. The snow disappeared before reaching the ground.

Read the rest of the report at CNN.com...

Also in science news today, the Gray wolf is making the threatened species list once again in the Great Lakes region, which warrants suspension of nuisance predator licenses that had been granted to farmers through state wildlife management. The species now inhabits a slim percentage of its historical range in the United States. This makes me sad...

This just in! The new James Bond movie has a stupid, ambiguous title! Who do we blame? The movie's star: "Daniel Craig chose the name of the forthcoming James Bond movie Quantum of Solace - because he didn't want a grisly title with "death" in it. The British actor rejected several potential names during a brainstorming session with producers - before insisting they go with the title of a short story by Bond creator Ian Fleming. And he is adamant it was the right move - even though some movie critics have panned the name. Craig tells Britain's GQ magazine, "I was involved in making the decision. Names were coming out, some ludicrous stuff was going back and forth - I can't remember exactly, but you know the sort of thing: 'The Blood On Your Face'. "I knew I didn't want 'death', 'die', 'bleed' or any of those things in the title." But the actor admits that in the great tradition of Bond movies, the film's title is often meaningless. He adds, "As soon as it came out, people were saying, 'Ooh, it sounds like Harry Potter'. No, it's Quantum of Solace. I was saying, 'It's a Bond title!' "The name of a Bond film is not about anything. Live And Let Die? Octopussy? What does it mean? It means very little."

(By the way, one interpretation I saw for the title was "The smallest amount of comfort that can exist independently"...and several parody songs playing on the film's title are flying around the 'tubes these days.)

And also, here's to a blessed Rosh Hashana for my kosher friends!