polar ice caps

It's an auspicious first, but not necessarily a positive one: Rising ocean temperatures and melting sea ice have, over the last few years, made the fabled northern sea route between Western Europe and Russia/Asia a reality, and a German vessel is going to be the first ship to make an attempted passage this summer.

Less than two weeks before scientists from around the world gather in Copenhagen to issue recommendations for a new global climate-change treaty, the results from the two-year International Polar Year survey have arrived. They are not pleasant.

Setting a spacecraft down on Mars isn't exactly easy—just ask Beagle 2. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, en route and due for a May 25 rendezvous with the surface, recently received a course adjustment from mission planners as they try to ensure that the craft doesn't drop down in a danger zone.

NASA today announced the discovery of what appear to be signs of water recently flowing on the surface of Mars. In new photos of large Martian gullies taken by the Mars Global Surveyor not long before it expired, scientists noticed several instances of light-colored streaks that had not appeared in past photos of the same regions taken as recently as 2001. The light coloring is especially exciting considering that meteor impacts and Mars rovers tend to leave dark trails in the soil.

Big events call for big equipment—so on August 27, when Mars will be closer to Earth than ever before in recorded history, a new 14-inch telescope will be the big ticket for examining the Red Planet. Meade's LX200GPS gathers 96 percent more light and has 29 percent greater resolution than a 10-incher. Peering through the new scope, you'll be able to make out Mars's polar ice caps, according to Charles Liu of New York's Hayden Planet-arium.