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White House Briefed On "Potential For Life" On Mars

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the spin-the-wheel dept.

Veeoh writes "FTA: It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix scientists about the discovery of something more 'provocative' than the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith on Thursday."

5 of 610 comments (clear)

  1. Why don't you link to the original article? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/WH08018.xml&headline=White%20House%20Briefed%20On%20Potential%20For%20Mars%20Life&channel=space

  2. Not much life on Mars. by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Viking lander checked for microscopic life on Mars back in 1971. It wasn't a very sensitive test; the lander shot out some "sticky strings" and wound them back in. The lander had a unit which tested whether anything collected assimilated any of a few simple compounds. It didn't.

    This established that Mars isn't teeming with microorganisms, like Earth. That doesn't eliminate all possibility of life, or something like it, but it did establish that there's no pervasive ecosystem there.

    1. Re:Not much life on Mars. by laura20 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, if you did the same test in the Sahara, it would come back positive; a gram of Sahara soil contains maybe a billion bacteria. Bacteria *are* our ecosystem, in a lot of ways. In the water, in Antarctic ice, miles beneath the surface of the earth, they are in their millions.

  3. Re:2008 just called... by Sporkus · · Score: 4, Informative

    The link you provided says the Senate passed the Telecom Immunity Bill. Not just Bush.

    What's more, Obama voted the same way that Bush did. And had he voted, McCain would have almost certainly voted the same way, too.

    Reminds me of a South Park episode...

  4. Re:woo by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 3, Informative

    Jiffy. The word is jiffy.