Curious NASA Pre-Announcement

CrtxReavr was one of a small avalanche of readers to let us know about a press conference NASA scheduled for Thursday at 2pm to discuss an "astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." I've heard rumors ranging from "proof of life on Titan" to "first contact," depending on how optimistic/crazy you are.

Comments

Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[elrous0]

Methinks you might want to expand your range at the bottom a bit. I suspect it will be something along the lines of "We've discovered evidence that some precursor to life may have been present on this extraterrestrial body--or may not, depending heavily on your interpretation of some very ambiguous data."

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[geegel]

You just had to ruin it, didn't you?

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[oodaloop]

Way to blow your shot at FR1ST CN0TACT post. Nice going.

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[Thelasko]

It probably has to do with the recent discovery of oxygen on Saturn's moon Rhea.

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[F34nor]

I am hoping for a GCU so I can get my god damn drug glands.

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[elrous0]

"NASA finds extraterrestrials...Little Grey Men With Probes," Says Slashdot Poster RsG!

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[UID30]

Meh. CommanderTaco made first contact with Uranus years ago. BAZINGA!

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[pz]

It probably has to do with the recent discovery of oxygen on saturn's moon Rhea.

Doubtful, for two reasons: (a) that has already been announced, and (b) the oxygen there has a plausible nonbiological origin (energetic particles in Saturn's magnetic field interacting with water ice on the surface).

The smart money says this press announcement will be disappointing to most people. Not unlike like the whole Apple/Beatles thing.

Extra doubtful that it's about Rhea because Carolyn Porco, the head of the Cassini project, isn't on the list of participants.

Doing a few minutes' worth of work in Google comes to the following information about the listed participants in the press conference:

Mary Voytek -- director, NASA Astrobiology program
Felisa Wolfe-Simon -- evolutionary biology including metallic enzymes, specifically the potential role of arsenic in DNA
Pamela Conrad -- biogeochemistry and organic chemical signatures of extremophiles
Steven Benner -- geobiology of RNA, including detection of DNA and RNA
James Elser -- the influence of nitrogen and phosphorus in biological processes including ecosystems, speciation and RNA

Since the announcement of the press conference says that the finding will impact the "search for evidence of extraterrestrial life," chances are they've found some potential signature of a metabolic process. Notwithstanding what I said above about Carolyn Porco, Cassini flew within 100 km of Rhea earlier this year (March) to "determine what is coming off Rhea" according to NASA's site on the flyby. The timing (March to December) fits well with the amount of time it takes to do data analysis, write a paper, and have it accepted for publication for something that gets fast-tracked. Science is published on Fridays. Nature is published on Thursdays. It would seem like the paper is going to appear in Nature no matter what the exact announcement is.
 

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[Chris Burke]

Since the announcement of the press conference says that the finding will impact the "search for evidence of extraterrestrial life," chances are they've found some potential signature of a metabolic process.

Hmmm... taking what you said about the lack of the Cassini project lead to heart, and noting a lack of anyone attached to any particular observatory project in that list... Is it possible that the announcement won't actually be about a particular astronomical observation at all?

Could it be that these scientists have discovered a plausible biological reaction which could take place in different extraterrestrial environments that simply gives them something new to look for in the future? That would count as an astrobiological finding, and would certainly impact the search for evidence of life.

But would be liable to be even more disappointing to many people. :)

Mmmmm. Seafood.

[oldspewey]

If there is life swimming in a big ocean under the ice of Europa, the question becomes: how does it taste?

Re:Mmmmm. Seafood.

[spun]

It tastes Europaean.

Re:Mmmmm. Seafood.

[Abstrackt]

These days, even chicken doesn't taste like chicken.

they found that the astrobiology budget was cut

[Anonymous Coward]

they found that the astrobiology budget was cut

Titan seems plausible

[bl8n8r]

"NASA believes it has found vital clues that alien life does indeed exist on Titan, "
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978743812

Did they find the ancient gene?

[Joe The Dragon]

Did they find the ancient gene?

Amazing news

[Quato]

One of the NASA guys got laid!

Frungy Frungy Frungy

[Caerdwyn]

They found Fwiffo on Pluto.

Just idle speculation

[Snowblindeye]

It's funny how quick idle speculation turns into news. Apparently it all started with this blog post.

He's now updated his post with a tweet from someone at Nasa that the press conference is not about proof of life:

I'm sad to quell some of the @kottke-induced excitement about possible extraterrestrial life. I've seen the Science paper. It's not that

Please please please

[Lilith's Heart-shape]

Please let it be a black monolith on the moon. We're only nine years late.

Maybe Titan...Maybe Earth's Shadow Biosphere.

[tetrahedrassface]

Some word out on the web, including NASA funded astrobiology teams (there are fourteen), seem to indicate the possibility of them finding something strange here on Mother Earth, probably something in or around Mono Lake according to some people and its arsenic based life forms. Since the major announcement last June by NASA concerning 'Titan and the Case of the Missing Hydrogen'. In fact one of the ladies on the panel this Thursday is in fact the researcher who is studying possible arsenic based life forms in Mono Lake. I'd say that she found something. One thing for certain, with the embargo we won't know for sure until Thursday. :)

A few clues....

[TomRC]

If you look at the list of participants, it may provide a clue:

Participants are:
- Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
- Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
- James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

If you follow up the connection of James Elser to NASA, it turns out to be a project called "Follow the Elements"

http://astrobiology.asu.edu/Astrobiology/Home/Home.html

So I'm guessing that they've found certain exo-planets in the Goldilocks zone that have the right balance of precursor elements/molecules for life.

Dr Felisa Wolfe-Simon's work.

[anzha]

One of the individuals in the scheduled press announcement has a website and based on her work my bet is that they may have found some indications that there is life on earth that uses arsenic instead of phosphorus.