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Did Chandrayaan Find Organic Matter On the Moon?
Matt_dk writes "Surendra Pal, associate director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite Centre says that Chandrayaan-1 picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface. 'The findings are being analyzed and scrutinized for validation by ISRO scientists and peer reviewers,' Pal said. At a press conference Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union fall conference, scientists from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also hinted at possible organics locked away in the lunar regolith. When asked directly about the Chandrayaan-1 claim of finding life on the Moon, NASA's chief lunar scientist, Mike Wargo, certainly did not dismiss the idea."
Cool, just in time for 2010
The summary seems to make a jump from talking about "organics" and "organic matter" to "the Chandrayaan-1 claim of finding life on the Moon". Is the ISRO actually claiming to have found life on the moon? And aren't there lots of sources of organic molecules that don't involve life?
Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
I wonder if there was life on Earth before it was struck by the object that "splashed" to become the moon? If so, could it mean that life has developed here twice?
Free Martian Whores!
So from reading the article, it sounds like they just found some carbon dust in the cloud they stirred up. Am I the only one not excited at all by finding carbon? Isn't it a common mineral?
Though organic matter is the basis of life, it does not guarantee that life would exist. It is just a type of matter composed of carbon-based molecules. Is there carbon out there? You bet. That means that organic matter will also exist out there in space.
Colin Powell was crucified for claiming the existence of WMDs in Iraq. It took a couple years, but we never found the smoking gun. Don't be too quick to jump on the first piece of evidence you find.
Assuming the theory of "panspermia" is a reasonably close to accurate description of how life arrived on earth (Amino acids and water carried inside asteroids brought life to Earth) and knowing that the Moon has acted as an Asteroid barrier for BILLIONS of years, is it all that surprising that we would ALSO find "organic signatures" on the moon?
Indeed, one would almost EXPECT to find them there.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
So THAT'S where I left those skin flakes!
I bet what they found was some of our astronaut's pee pee on the moon.
Or maybe a discarded moon pie wrapper.
Or maybe a bottle of scotch.
Green cheese....
With the Apollo missions and various probes sent to the moon since the 60's... Wouldn't you expect to find some organic material on the moon?
Some strange evidence that primates have actually been ON the moon. I wonder who or what they were?
It *is* cheese!
New proof that the cartoonists were right! Possible cheese discovered on moon! Story at 11!
I for one welcome our new lunar overlords.
It means hydrocarbons. So before any one asks to a chemist gasoline is organic.
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Um, golf balls, that is: http://www.pasturegolf.com/archive/shepard.htm
Being the joker that he was, I wouldn't be surprised if he took the time to take a dump and have a wank, as well.
"Hello Moon! Welcome to what humanity is going to do to you!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Wow... peer review, remember that?
-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
But it might just be a particle of preanimate matter caught in the matrix...
It depends on what do they mean with "organic"!
At the bare minimum it's "anything that contains carbon". Which is not that hard to find when you stroll close to a star.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
In other news, moons only indigenous life destroyed by rocket. Film at 11!
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Quick, get Chekov and Brisco County Jr. up there to take a look at it.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
They found the rabbit on the moon, that's all. And this makes the news? I cite, directly from wikipedia: "The Moon rabbit, also called the Jade Rabbit, is a rabbit that lives on the moon"
Organic chemistry just refers to any chemical containing carbon... I've no doubt there are organic chemicals on the moon. I seriously doubt they mean "could only have been created as a by-product of living creatures" when they say "organics".
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Not such a good example, since by definition gasoline was living organisms.
You DID take a shit on the moon!
And as usual, an Indian is the lucky one, who finds it!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Richard Hoagland says it will go like this:
-we discover microbes
-we discover artifacts
-we discover other intelligent life
Maybe all the retired military and intelligence guys, with their "I want to say this before I die" stories, weren't lying after all.
There is methane in Jupiter. Cows fart and burp methane. Therefore, there must be cows on Jupiter.
It is more likely to be a carbon based compound (like methane or even carbon dioxide). These organic reactions occur very commonly outside of life.
panspermia is a terrible theory. it doesn't fully address where the componets of life came from, it's just sticking your fingers in your ears shouting IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE.
One of the many problems I have with the theory is that no where have I seen evidence that these organic molecules are more likely to appear when exposed to the hard radiation of space. And only thing it has going for it, in my opinion, is that you can have much larger time scales for life to appear if you take the Earth out of the picture.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Well, even U.S. scientists are very careful about the potential for organic contamination. Hopefully the satellite isn't simply detecting something deposited onto the detectors or nearby areas on the spacecraft. Carbon and oxygen are all over the universe, so even if contamination isn't a problem, detection of organics on the moon is not a surprise. To give an idea about the abundance of carbon, very large stars may end up in a carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) burning phase once they're used up all their heavier elements. What is really of interest is what organic molecules have been found. Amines would be exciting; particularly if they are amino acids.
-Drache Kubisuro
Lunar meteorites are not that uncommon here (chunks of the moon blasted out of the moon after asteroid/meteorite impacts onto the moon which then fall on earth).
The reverse has no doubt happened too, over geological time, chunks of Earth rock have been blasted into space during particularly nasty collisions (think of the one that ended the dinosaurs), and while most of it would rain back down on Earth, a small percentage could eventually end up caught by the moon.
Now, this doesn't necessarily mean the traces of organic chemicals found on the moon are from the Earth, there are far more likely sources (such as comets) where organic chemicals are found.
But it opens up an interesting possiblity - because much of the Earth's surface is constantly subducted and renewed at plate boundaries, much of the fossil record of very early times is lost - and there has been speculation that the best place to find fossils of very early life on earth is on meteorite fragments on the surface of the moon.
I'm quite happy to go up there and do some collecting for anyone, if they'll pay my fare.
Jolyon
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
Gasoline used to be life.
A recent anonymous hacker hacked the hackings of hackery into the datas of the database datastores of the NASA research on the topic that is subject at hand.
Several NASA e-mails indicate that there was an argument at the coffee machine that did not go well and that one of the arguers, Bob Shandley, said something to the tune of 'booshit there ain't not organic matter on the moon!'.
While most would consider a discussion at the coffee machine unofficial and casual, many are fueled in their skepticism of NASA as a whole; they reason that if Bob could be so bold and deny the recent data, that there must be a serious level of corruption within NASA that may even bring into question the validity of the moon landing.
Mary Jenkins, a Washington Elementary fourth Grader is quoted saying "Well. If the guy says something isn't true but it is true. Well then he's lying. And my mom says liars hang out with liars, and so.. well... NASA is full of liars. We never landed on the moon."
Attempts to contact the Obama administration for comment on the topic have yielded no results. We assume the silence is likely due to cooperation between the administration and NASA to coverup the extreme level of non-science going on at NASA, regarding Bob Shandley's coverup.
Thousands rallied against corruption and conspiracy outside the Austin, TX NASA launchpad on Friday; a day of high expectations set for the launch of NASA's new the Eagle II rocket. People from all walks of life stood through the cold and dry afternoon in protest with signs like "IF BOB WON'T, I WON'T" and "WHAT IS BOB HIDING".
One protester standing a mere 400 feet from the Eagle II, who wishes to remain anonymous is quoted with the observation "That rocket doesn't even have a red tip. Chances are it's not even a real rocket, this is probably some 3d projection or something. Those damn NASA scientists are so full of lies and tricks we cannot trust them!"
After the recent uncovering of Bob's coffee-machine side argument, the world is clearly up in arms and now standing in disbelief of everything NASA.
Next at 5: Are America's youth getting dumber? New research indicates widespread failure in critical thinking, mathematics, and basic sciences among public school students. Check back for more in a half hour for more details.
From the article "An anonymous Chandrayaan-1 scientist said MIP's mass spectrometer detected chemical signatures of organic matter in the soil kicked up by the impact". From the information I could find it sounded like the mass spectrometer was directly on the impactor and was only to be used for atmospheric analysis as the MIP descended. If the mass spectrometer detected the debris kicked up by the impactor either it separated and passed through a cloud of debris or it survived the impact. I can't find the details on whether or not the MIP had two stages, the impactor and sensors or if another probe went through the debris cloud. I thought analysis of the debris kicked up by the impactor was only through photon spectroscopy, in which case I would have to wonder if earthshine played a part in this organic signature. However, it has been said that organic doesn't necessarily mean life and that it wouldn't be implausible to find it on the moon.
I said "eom," dammit!
It's that bag of dope I was hiding from my Mom in 1973!
Man, was I high!
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So even better than life on the moon, there's oil on the moon!
I suppose theres no chance of Sixth Sense II being released any time soon?
No surprise, as gasoline is made out of crushed dinosaurs. Or so I'm told.
Some people have guessed that there may be or may have been life on Mars due to a meteor striking Earth and putting Earth material into space. I would assume the Moon, being so much closer, would have caught a lot of organic material over the years from numerous meteor impacts.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Don't touch that slimy thing. You don't know where its been!
Have gnu, will travel.
There is a general bias towards finding life in space because there is a general bias in astronomy and NASA towards funding projects that have anything to do with life in space. Once you've seen this trend enough you can see the $ symbols in the eyes of the NASA scientists who work on lunar exploration.
Oh my god, they finally found Jimmy Hoffa.
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WMD's found on the moon, America invades.
...the human race declares war on an alien civilization by accidentally killing thousands of its microscopic citizens!
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
"Get naked, allow an hour, have plenty of tissues handy."
Sounds like my Saturday nights. Except by "an hour" I mean "a few minutes" and by Saturday I mean every day.
Could it not be residue from earlier moon missions? I sure hope so. Otherwise, we basically bombed the moon in 2009 only to find out in 2010 it's inhabited. Humans are the rednecks of the galaxy.
Since those are also organic and Saturn's moon Titan has lakes of the stuff and there probably was never any life there. (Although you never know. Life can be pretty surprising.)
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The logic jump from there being possible organic matter on the moon, to the near-assumption that this organic matter is life-based or life-supporting was apparently made by the writer of the original article http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_indian-scientists-detect-signs-of-life-on-moon_1322785
While a lay person such as the reporter may claim ignorance of the difference between "carbon-based matter" and "carbon-based matter that supports or has come from live organisms", I am truly surprised at just how many non-humorous posts we have here on /. about life in space/on the moon/new intelligences etc.