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NASA Mars Press Briefing & "Significant Findings"
An anonymous reader writes "NASA will have a press briefing today at 2 p.m. EST to announce "significant findings". Salty liquid water maybe? Bacteria? This meeting will also be broadcast on NASA TV."
Hey, don't blame me for the bad joke... what are you supposed to say regarding a news conference about an unknown topic?
deserve's got nothing to do with it...
That's right. Because you know what will happen then don't you? The more aggressive environmentalists will say we can't send people there, and no way in hell can you colonize Mars, because we'll screw up the Martian bugs' habitat. And then even our robotic missions will have to go through some sort of expensive sterilization to make sure they don't squish anything. It would, in short, take all the fun out of the final frontier.
It should be illegal to say that freedom of speech should be limited.
The parent is correct, but should be revised to say "is thought to form only in bodies of standing water." I promise we'll hear lots of arguments about that very issue in the next couple of weeks.
I've had this sig for three days.
What the heck has happened to the caliber of readers on /. if "A lot of people are saying "salty water", but damn...microbes....it's just too much to hope for." is considered Insightful?
:)
Its a reasonable comment to make, and I agree with it, but come ON. How is that insightful? That should imply it saying something interesting that perhaps the moderator didn't think of. Who here didn't think that same thing? Lets see a show of hands.
Pickles are green.
Now moderate me insightful.
Oh yeah, Martians are green too, so no moderating me off-topic.
you're obviously being facetious... but if oil were discovered... that would be a monumental discovery scientifically, since oil is formed by decayed organic matter under high pressure...
It was 6 days and the Bible doesn't say that life only exists on Earth. I'd have to say that the majority of creation scientist believe that life on other planets is very probable. Bacteria can withstand a lot of extreme environments, including space travel. In fact, there are a lot of theories that bacteria thrown up into the atmosphere through collisions with meteorites on Earth could indeed disperse bacteria into space.
I think they will announce both that the bedrock originated in a watery environment and that there is water in liquid form right now in the soil under the Rovers' wheels (in the form of brine). That white 'frost' we have often been seeing in the tracks the Rovers make will turn out to be water that got squeezed out of the soil (and immediately froze).
======= ~\_/~\_O Burmese
Actually, I doubt it. One relatively famous "day-age" creationist I know of (who, incidentally, all the "real" creationists hate) speculated years ago that we would probably eventually find evidence of life on mars. Here's a link to a more recent statement his organization has made. Quote: "Will NASA ever find evidence of life on Mars? I expect so, if NASA searches with sufficient diligence. Just as meteors travel from Mars to Earth so also do they travel from Earth to Mars. Over the past four billion years at least several billion tons of Earth material, much of it life-carrying material, has landed on Mars."
Instead of putting in us the burden of disproving that we ignorant provincials, look at news.google. It's the top Sci/Tech story.
Every American space enthusiast I know is quite interested in Russian, ESA, Chinese, Indian, etc. space programs.
This seems like a lot of hype for just that kind of announcement. NASA looking for a PR boost I guess.
A lot of hype?! Are you kidding? Liquid water has never been seen naturally anywhere but on Earth. This IS a big deal! It's like the difference between deciding the Earth wasn't flat and actually sailing all the way around it. Yeah, "everyone knows" Mars probably had water, but no one has ever proven it, which is the important part.
It's rather sad that NASA's discoveries and such rarely make even the back page of the newspapers. There was a big hype right after the two rovers successfully landed, but note how about two weeks afterwards, people forgot that they even landed. The American public grows bored with things very fast unless it is something that has to do with a sex scandle involving a politician or someone famous. When NASA announces something like "We found more of these smooth shiny spheres in the soil!" people often shrug and have no interest at all. All the people want are quick thrills and "big" discoveries. They overlook the fact that most science and groundbreaking discoveries only happen due to small realizations and lots of little facts pieced together slowly. I bet when the discovery of this mineral that only forms in water is announced at the press conference, most Americans won't even know that there was a press conference. The small discovery of this water-forming mineral will lead to more accurate theories that will lead to bigger discoveries. Such things shouldn't be downplayed, as this small discovery raises the chances of past/present life on Mars by an enormous amount!
The one that James Bond carries.
It would be regrettable if this annoucement only amounted to "We have evidence from the rock layers / erosion patterns / spherule concretions that water must have been involved in the creation of these features"
Actual real proof of liquid water is a big deal! It has never been scientifically proven to exist other than on Earth. If you read your source link you will discover that your 30% figure is just speculation: "There are 5 five distinct regions where we might sometimes find surface water... Together they comprise about 30% of the planet's surface. That's not to say that liquid water really does exist in those places, just that it could." Regardless of your opinion, this is a major discovery.
If you look at the fairly solid wall of soil at the right you will see a slightly dark streak on it. That streak leads directly to a puddle on the floor.
No, it looks more like some of the obviously darker surface material slid down the side of the trench to form your "puddle", otherwise known as a pile of dirt.
Well, I guess I have to poison my karma to post this. Sorry, but I have to point out that you are using circuitous logic.
Ex...
I beleive in an omnipotent God because he must have created the universe. Therefore God created the earth in 7 days because he is omnipotent.
Creationism is a farce, and is easily debunked by someone with sufficient knowledge of biology. Only quack scientists are advocates of it as a theory. However, this is a free country and you can believe whatever you want. Just realize you are deluding yourself.
This is just one facet of the greater problem of religious fundamentalism.
> This seems like a lot of hype..
Mod me as flamebait, but...
Do you know ANYTHING about planetary science? The discovery of liquid water (briny or otherwise) is a huge discovery, and changes a great deal of what we've assumed about conditions on Mars (and thus its evolution, potential for life, available resources, etc.).
No gods, no demons, and no masters. Secular Humanism!
To say that creationism is a huge bunch of baloney is NOT intolerant, it's the way it is. Creationism is NOT science, and if you are a creationist who still "believe" in science, then that means you have chosen to disregard certain parts of biology, geology, cosmology and paleontology, because it doesn't fit well with your beliefs. And if an ignorant moderator wish to mod me down, please go ahead; I'm not the one making an ass out of myself by cowardly modding people down becuase you feel insulted.
to bite for the troll who bit for another troll...
By your own admission, your own supposition that God put this false evidence in place serves to do nothing to further your ideas of divine intervention. It becomes a matter of merely "believing" that God put all this false, divinely created evidence in place, which is a matter of taking to heart a book which has changed dozens of times since a bunch of desert nomads wrote it.
The reason that there are no references to other worlds or ETs is that these desert nomads didn't have the vaguest concept that such things might exist.
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
You should know that I of course believe that God created the world in 7 days. Why not?
Why?
It does not seem that there is any more evidence for the existence of an omnipotent, omnicient Christian God than there is for Shiva.
I have heard some Christians claim that evidence is unnecessary, that pure faith, faith pure of grounding in evidence is necessary. I the fail to see how any Christian can criticize someone for entering, say, David Koresh's cult. There is as much evidence for Koresh being Christ as there is the content of the Bible being true (and, heck, the Bible is self-inconsistent in many places). The same argument a Christian uses to argue in favor of his beliefs being reasonable seems to also justify, say, Satanism.
May we never see th
Are you referring to this image ? That dark streak and "puddle" are a shadow from a contact prob on the arm.
Those who can do. Those who can't sue.
Now, if Mars had lakes, it would indicate that it was warmer, that its atmosphere was more dense, that it could have harbored life and that the water is trapped somewhere in large quantities.
Kind of you to mention that. Last time I checked, there was no fossil record of God either.
"pour massive resources into propaganda against those who have other beliefs?"
see: public school system
see: universities
see: mass media
see: Slashdot
Here I am, stuck at work on the late shift at 7:15pm (UK), trying to read what the big announcement is from NASA, and every other comment is banging on about religion ?!?! Guys, you are all so off-topic it's untrue! GET A ROOM! I want to read about Water on Mars and stuff like that!
So evolution is statistically impossible, but Noah managed to get two animals of every species on his wooden ark and survive the greatest flood the earth has ever seen. And no evidence of this flood has ever been found.
And that makes more sense to you than evolution?
Crazy, the lot of you.