David Bowie once asked the musical question -- is there life on Mars?

Step outside and see for yourself.

According to NASA, its robotic rover Curiosity has been gathering temperatures in the red planet's Gale Crater -- 200 million km away.

As of Dec. 21, the daily high temperatures ranged from -25 to -31C -- the latter being the coldest daily high recorded since the rover landed in Aug. 2012.

It's colder in Winnipeg and -- with the windchill -- colder here in Ottawa.

When Ottawans awoke Thursday morning to dead car batteries, steaming manhole covers, reluctant-to-pee pets and crunchy snow -- it was -29C. The daily high reached in the city happened around 2 p.m. when it hit -23C. That's more than 19 degrees colder than normal for a daily high this time of year.

Here's fun -- Ottawa was actually three degrees colder than the south pole. Likely not a preferred destination for those looking to travel "south."

Why bother, when you can travel north to Edmonton where it was only -1C Thursday -- with a risk of freezing rain. Even Iqaluit was warmer than Ottawa -- a mere -7C, -8C in Whitehorse.

The appropriately-named "Flames" come from Calgary where it was a balmy 7C, thanks to their Chinook winds.

"Ottawa may well be the coldest urbanized place in Canada," said Environment Canada spokesman David Phillips.

Aren't we lucky. Yay us.

doug.hempstead@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @DougHempstead