Where does the information for putting science into science fiction come from?

Libraries, bookstores, magazine racks, and the Internet are all full of sources of information useful to the writer of science fiction.  They contain information about what we know (there is no liquid water on Mars), and speculations about what we might one day know (there were oceans teaming with life on ancient Mars).

But but careful - just because something is written down in a book, magazine, or web page doesn't mean that the information is reliable.  There are editors out there willing to publish the drivel of any nut that writes to them. And anyone can create a web page.  So students shouldn't just do research - they should verify what they learn.