171: Mars again!

New Scientist Breaking News - 'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars:

In their paper, the researchers trace a possible history for the underground ice. It begins with huge masses of ice floating in water on Mars. The ice was later covered with volcanic ash, preventing it from sublimating away into the thin atmosphere. Then, the ice broke up and drifted before the remaining liquid water froze. All of the ice not protected by ash sublimated away, leaving the pack ice plates behind.

"If the reported hypothesis is true, then this would be a prime candidate landing site to search for possible extant life on Mars," says Brian Hynek, a research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, US.

We only care about where water is because naturalistic and evolutionary science tell us that life is most likely to occur near water. These are weak predictions. Life can probably exist in the absence of water, and water exists in the absence of life, but they seem to go together. Evolution will help us find life on Mars, if it's there.