Mars becomes the buzz in cyberspace

SPACE websites are abuzz with speculation about what NASA's latest Mars probe may have found.

The excitement has been triggered by the respected journal Aviation Week claiming the space agency has alerted the White House to "major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the 'potential for life' ". NASA has said little about the claims, although it has used the social networking site Twitter to play down the reports.

The magazine did say it was not life that had been discovered but evidence relating to the planet's "habitability". It strongly hinted that an announcement, perhaps next month, would be far more dramatic than last week's news that Phoenix had confirmed there was water ice on the planet.