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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."
They found Waldo? Or did they find Carmen Sandiego?
They've photographed the Martian who destroyed Beagle II, and other prior landers.
Campaign finance reform is national security.
One of the chief scientists saved a bundle on his car insurance.
They've found the Beagle :=)
I swear, the closer you get to Kennedy Space Center, the less chance they will offer it.
Of course. If Kennedy Space Center isn't sold out by the Thursday before the week, Nasa TV is blacked out for all the surrounding areas.
Go Support your local space exploration!
http://use.perl.org
The Bugblatter Beast of Traal destroyed both of our Mars Rovers because we did not equip them with towels to wrap around their video cameras.
Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
Pressing news: later today, pressing news will be announced.
Yes, they found remnants of bacterial life and water but...
... not on Mars. The probes navigational systems malfunctioned and they spend the last few weeks driving around Nevada instead.
Hate me!
NASA TV
German newsmag "Der Spiegel" has the story: They found a certain kind of iron sulfate compound, which forms only in bodys of standing water. Discoveries were made using the MIMOS-II Moessbauer spectrometer and the APXS x-ray spectrometer. Images are available in the article.
They found oil underneath the surface of Mars!! Haliburtan probe to be launched at 4pm Friday.
-- jimmycarter
Just out of interest, does the media in the USA cover space news from other countries? For instance, was the launching of the European "Rosetta" probe today covered?
It is a fascinating project. Take a look at the "Animated guide to the Rosetta mission" about half way down the page on this BBC news item).
It isn't life. Look at the list of scientists - not a biologist among them. Also, rotini-pasta-shaped rocks nonwithstanding, the rovers simply aren't equipped to detect life. This announcement is just about modern-day (i.e. not just historical) water. Don't get your hopes up.
That being said, it means there is a possibility there was past life, and perhaps some future probe (or manned landings) will discover microscopic fossils.
Yeah. Check out the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. One of the interesting things was the bacteria and molds that the scientists hid within some of the probes to "seed" Mars. And in defiance of some of their collegues that wanted a pristine Mars.
[ insert your own witty .sig here ]
"Guys. Really. Mars is REALLY boring." Says Scientist studying Mars.
... more ...ROUND THINGS! I mean geesh - you want us to just sit here and guess and dream about them more? Ask me last week, and I would have been able to give you 5 theories, but... I just don't want to play the game anymore. They're round things... really boring... round things. Just because they're red and uniform doesn't make them magic people! Hey - maybe they're altoids, great! Let's dream about that for a while!"
"It's not funny anymore guys! I was into the whole robot thing for a while. That was cool. But it's been like, weeks now, and the that time delay thing is REALLY getting to me." Says Mark McGraffy, associate technician on the Spirit & Opportunity Mars data-gathering projects.
"Look... see! There it is
Mr. McGraff then ran off screaming. More news as it happens.
Ryan Fenton
Linux IT Consulting and Domino Development in Michigan
You can view NASA TV online, as well, it seems... (The page also has satellite coordinates, and alternate sources for NASA TV)
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.
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", as we already know that water can today exist in liquid form on 30% of the planet's surface, and that water has been active on the Martian surface in the recent geological past (source). But given NASA's reluctance regarding all things water-related, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it's going to be.
The really interesting stuff is the things they have avoided talking about, like the "mud-like texture". But most interesting in terms of water evidence is the trench dug by Opportunity. 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. Given this visual evidence, and the structure of the soil, it is pretty obvious that this stuff is wet.
The simple reality is that Mars is a wet planet. The oceans didn't just vanish, they went underground into the porous subsurface world of Mars. That's where the real action is, not on the UV-sterilized surface. All we see of Mars' underground water world on the surface is the occasional puddle or pond, the black streaks and Malin's famous gullies. If you want to see Martian life, find wet underground regions with geothermal activity.
A Big Black Monolith, 1x4x9.
Gator/Claria is Spyware.
What we meant to say was that Nasa needs significant funding. Funding, not finding. Sorry for any confusion, but since you all are here we are going to pass around these offering plates and feel free to give what ever you can spare.
Who said science can't learn from religion?
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
You are correct...I don't believe the microscopic imager has the magnification muscle to view something as small as bacteria, and the Mossbauer spectrometer is very specific in what it can analyze (iron-bearing minerals). These rovers are, as designed, primarily geological instruments.
For details about what the rovers are carrying, instrument-wise, see this page.
mplayer mms://wmbcast.nasa-global.speedera.net/\
wmbcast.nasa-global/wmbcast_nasa-global_jan\
212004_1021_53608
(Watch out for the \ that mark line continuations!)
Frame rate is low, but the audio's nicely in sync and is certainly decent enough for watching press releases.
Beware, though, that as I post, NASA TV is broadcasting some ghastly children's programme. You have been warned...
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.
NASA does not put it on their page (I emailed them asking them to), but if you are on an Internet2 enabled + multicast enabled network (college/university) it is available via MPEG1 multicast feed.
You can view it with Quicktime, Real 9 (real 10 crashes with SDP), VideoLan and CISCO IP/TV.
To view it on Videolan start the player with
--extraint SAP
and look at the playlist....it can take up to 10 min before you'll see the NASA listing.
If anybody wants the sdp file I'll try and find a way of posting it. I tried to...but the slashdot forum filters killed my post!
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
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!
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.
Actually no. What they found was traces of SCO code on Martian soil. They are now wondering about the license fees.
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.