August 5, 2008 | 8:52 pm

Montauk Monster now just bones

Posted by Adam Wills

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Montauk Monster-Obama fist-bump might be Photoshop fake.

Photo: superdoofus-stratodrive/montymash.com

Rachel Goldberg, whose camera was used to snap an image of the Montauk Monster, spoke with GeekHeeb and confirmed a Fox News report that the creature is now in the possession of Montauk resident Paul Davis.

Eric Olsen, a real estate agent and surfer, had originally removed the Montauk Monster from the beach last week, according to the East Hampton Star, which reported that he’d left the rotting carcass in the woods near a friend’s house to decompose. Goldberg says the body has since decomposed and that it’s basically a skeleton at this point.

Olsen had planned to sell the bones, but when he returned to the woods Sunday the mystery monster’s carcass was gone.

“He wants to make some money on it,” Goldberg said of Davis.

She echoes the statements made by her friend Jenna Hewitt, who took the photo, that it’s probably a raccoon.

But she’s still hedging her bets that it could be something else: “The Plum Island thing is not a total departure. I don’t know … maybe some unidentified deep-sea creature,” she said.

August 1, 2008 | 11:30 am

NASA confirms water on Mars

Posted by Adam Wills

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander’s solar panel and the lander’s robotic arm with a sample in the scoop.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

NASA scientists reported Thursday that they have found evidence of water on Mars.

Tests aboard the Phoenix Mars Lander identified water in a soil sample, which had been delivered via the lander’s robotic arm on Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

“Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars,” said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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