NASA just scored a double whammy: water is now confirmed for the first time ever on Mars and a liquid hydrocarbon lake, which is the only other place in the solar system that has liquid on its surface.

First Mars: For the past few days, the Phoenix Mars Lander has been having problems getting icy soil unstuck from its bucket scooper. And just four hours ago, NASA announced, on twitter, that the ice is chemically confirmed to be water. The robotic arm delivered the soil sample to an oven which then heated the soil and the water vapor observed. We’ve had evidence for water on Mars for a while now but this is the first confirmation by chemical "tasting".

The sample came from a frozen layer 2 inches deep under the Martian surface soil. The sticky soil was difficult to move into the oven and so the sample was exposed to the Martian air to get some of the water to evaporate and make it easier to handle. The oven is known as Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA.

For more Pheonix updates, follow @MarsPhoenix on twitter and keep an eye on the Lander’s home page on NASA’s website.

The other news is of [review=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7204/abs/nature07100.html]Cassini finding a liquid lake on Saturn’s moon Titan[/review]. Before Cassini, scientists thought Titan would have global oceans of methane, ethane and other hydrocarbons. Now after more than 40 close flybys of Titan by Cassini, we have not seen any such oceans. Instead, hundreds of dark, lake-like features were seen but we weren’t sure if they were made of dark material or really lakes.

The results came from a mapping instrument of lake Ontario Lacus, in Titan’s south polar region, during a close Cassini flyby in December 2007. The lake is roughly 20,000 square kilometers (7,800 square miles) in area, slightly larger than North America’s Lake Ontario, and now is known to be made of liquid ethane. The ethane is in a liquid solution with methane, other hydrocarbons and nitrogen. At Titan’s surface temperatures, approximately 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, these substances can exist as both liquid and gas. Titan shows overwhelming evidence of evaporation, rain, and fluid-carved channels draining into what, in this case, is a liquid hydrocarbon lake.

Full details about the Cassini’s mission to Saturn at the NASA Cassini-Huygens’s home page.

Is that cool or what?

Image credits: TOP: This partial view of a full-circle panorama shows NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander and the polygonal patterning of the ground at the landing area. The image is in approximately true color. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University Arizona/Texas A&M University. BOTTOM: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.