Last week, NASA's Phoenix Spacecraft found evidence of water on Mars when it found ice. Now, new findings also show that Martian soil is actually good enough to grow asparagus in. Makes you wonder if mankind really could terraform Mars and migrate there. Get a nice summer retreat.

According to the project's lead chemist, Martian soil is remarkably similar to Earth soil. In fact, he says that:

There is nothing about the soil that would preclude life. In fact it seems very friendly. The soil you have there is the type of soil you have in your backyard. You may be able to grow asparagus very well.

The soil analysis found that it has all the nutrients required to support life. This supports the theory that Mars once had thriving water systems, or that it at least interacted with water. In case you were wondering, they didn't find any of the "ice" material they found earlier, since the samples were taken from the surface, whereas the ice was found in a trench.

Phoenix is now on a mission to search for water and organic components, to see if there were any primitive life forms that once (or still) existed on Mars. Unfortunately, the probe is not equipped with the instruments necessary to detect micro-organisms. Bummer. Finding Martian bacteria would have been awesome.

I'm not particularly fond of asparagus, unless it's wrapped in bacon and smothered in Japanese sauce, but this discovery makes me wonder about that theory where the human race came from Mars. I'm not a believer of that theory, but it's still fascinating to think about it, seeing as how Mars and Earth really are very similar.