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What "Earth-Shaking" Discovery Has Curiosity Made on Mars?
Randym writes "NASA scientists have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument. The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. 'We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,' says John Grotzinger. He's the principal investigator for the rover mission. SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) is a suite of instruments onboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something Earth-shaking. 'This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,' he says."
I predict that the results are accurate, but not nearly as exciting as NASA is trying to get us to believe.
It may yet be a scientific triumph, but a public opinion flop. Or a thestudio_bob flop.
Speak for yourself.
Mars-shaking seems much more likely than Earth-shaking, really.
If so, let me be the first to say I welcome our new martian overlords. Just please don't be the wussy kind of martians that die easilyto earth's microbial organisms.
In a bit of shameless internet panhandling, I accept Litecoin Donations at Lbd2oH9QsthD1GfuUXPyka12YxvWJYnBVf
I bet it turns out that Mars is made of:
Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Skimmed Milk Powder, Milk Fat, Vegetable Fat, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Lactose, Demineralised Whey Powder, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Barley Malt Extract, Soya Lecithin (E322), Salt, Egg White, Hydrolysed Milk Protein, Natural Vanilla Flavour
which is totally what she said
If this turns out to be some organic matter that accidentally made the trip to mars with the rover itself, I'll be very disappointed.
Also, whoever tagged the article with the misspelled "curiousity"... great job.
Turtles all the way down.
Elections are over. So they probably have something, this time.
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Earth-shaking? Well then it is obvious.
They found evidence of an earth quake. On Mars !!
Are a million to one he said...
I don't think we want them to discover something on Mars that actually shakes the earth
OOOOH-LAHHH
We found something that looks like it could maybe be the remnants of something that would maybe only show up in an environment that had maybe been exposed to water!
It's a good thing Curiosity brought Surface to Air Missiles along on the trip to protect against an alien invasion of Mars.
That seems likely. A public fed on movies tends to not think real world discoveries are exciting enough.
Please don t be a be a "Donald Trump" announcement.
"We're offering 5 million dollars to the charity of your choice if you can prove Mars accepted any of the vanquished troops Rome offered."
They have found chocolate. At least that's what I've found on the surface of every single Mars I've eaten.
Wasn't the last "earth-shaking" announcement that of bacteria using arsenic instead of phosphorus in their molecular construction?
They'll want to be very sure about whatever it is before going public.
Way to go, Grotzinger. You've just totally undermined NASA's effort to keep their mouths shut until they've carefully checked the data.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Autobots, Assemble!
sudo make me a sandwich
Probably some mineral, that can only form on the bottom of an ocean.
Privacy begins with
I bet they've found Sandkings
And then watch how fast and quickly they boost NASA's budget.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Uh no... Mars bars >.
I do not like green cheese, SAM I am.
What else would it be?
I'll rather go for a fossil (of a ~bacteria)
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Excellent! Mod this up.
If this turns out to be some organic matter that accidentally made the trip to mars with the rover itself, I'll be very disappointed.
Brace yourself then. Whatever it is will probably be rovergenic. Heck, I reckon the most interesting thing on Mars right now is Curiosity itself!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
(or lichen)
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Mars rover finding
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Mayonnaise!?
Same thing, different configuration options.
rewriting history since 2109
I really hope this isn't going to be like the faster-than-lightspeed-discovery that was an intrument error!
So feel free to double check the instruments!
I'm hoping for Evil Curiosity which has a goatee and has been sent by a world mirroring our world in almost every way. Except they're all evil. Although somewhere on that planet will be a mirror version of me.. but.. er.. without a goatee?
I love science but what NASA finds exciting and what normal Americans find exciting don't always overlap. If we get one more "breaking news" press conference about trace deposits of minerals on an uninteresting looking rock that need more testing I'm going to scream. Real science is good but most of the time it's not even close to exciting.
Come on NASA, keep sending me video and panoramic photos of Mars and get back to work.
"One for the history books" means life. Remember how important it was that one of the two earlier rovers found surface water by getting a wheel stuck in the mud? Remember how big a story that was? That is not getting into the history books. The most likely alternate possibility is that the techies are overblowing the importance of this because it is a big thing in their world.
Given the description of the instrument, it is likely that they got a successful result from a Viking-style experiment which they are taking as evidence for life.
For the results to truly be Earth-shaking, they have to have found Marvin the Martian's Illudium Q-36 space modulator.
While taking another picture of itself, it noticed that something has slapped a "Barsoom" bumpersticker on the fender.
Oil on Mars, that or John Carter.
And an IPv10 network to match.
Sorry, what part of
Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass,
made you think Twinkis? :)
We've known for 40 years what comes from Mars and shakes the earth...
It's the "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator".
Marvin has been searching for YEARS for that darned thing; ever since Buggs was able to get it away from him. Let's hope that he's not looking at the news today.
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
Yeah. from a soil sample.
I hope they brought one of their microscopes up there ...
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Please be a Stargate. Please be a Stargate.
(sorry, but i still miss that show)
... that the D&M pyramid is actually a pyramid!
You must gather your party before venturing forth.
They found the control panel that activates the reactor to melt all the ice?
Sigs are for losers
... Waldo!
When 1person suffers from a delusion,it is called insanity.When many people suffer from a delusion,it is called religion
Apparently, it's real.
Should be evidence of life, something not so surprising. But could be even more shattering to find that we are actually martians that come here very long ago escaping from the climate change that we caused on Mars (even that we Marsformed Earth back then).
Maybe they'll finally discover who dealt those farts (methane) on mars. Just hope it's not "he who dealt it smelt it" like in 1974.
As preparation for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT you might want to listen to this before tuning in to CNN tomorrow
Those people are retards though and shouldnt be counted for anything.
... where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
There may have been liquid water in that very spot at some point in the last 50,000,000 years!
That's nothing, I could tell you what the Milky Way is made of.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
In choppers...
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Well, there are only two Earth-shaking possible discoveries: life on Mars, or intelligent life on Mars
Or evidence of either in the past.
Or Roman helmets, that would work, too.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Be fair, though. Some of the discoveries are ones that you have to be a hard core geology nut to care about. Or they can state for a fact that there was water on the surface at some point in the last thousand or so millennia. Or they discover something about the local soil composition, and the only thing of interest about it is that we now know what it is. Ultimately, it's still just some dirt.
That just shows the martians technical skills, they can manipulate objects on the Macro and Micro scales and make 2 seperate objects exact scale replicas of each other.
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
Perhaps they're very small faces?
Everyone assumed it was 5.3%
That's nothing, I could tell you what the Milky Way is made of.
Here's the list of ingredients.
I've got my money on them discovering that curiosity has actually landed on a future earth after getting caught in a temporal anomaly. Turns out SAM found part of the Statue of Liberty.
~theCzar
Hydrogen, time. http://xkcd.com/1123/
Curious to see what it will be.
Clearly the investigator saved $500 on his car insurance.
Life on mars would probably not shake anybody but scientific and nerd like us, and well maybe SF writer.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
That would probably set back a manned Mars landing by years since you would have to worry about infection and contamination.
No, the FROMATEs would protest a manned landing on the grounds that it would 'irreparably damage' the Martian ecosystem. Just more bullshit from the lunatic fringe.
I'm just wondering if they found Hoffa there...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
I vote for Frozen Fecal Matter!!! ------- Holy poop on a stick, Batman!!!! --------
Same thing, different configuration options.
Problem is, they're compile-time, not run-time.
Some of the discoveries are ones that you have to be a hard core geology nut to care about....ultimately, it's still just some dirt.
Unless it's coal.
No sig today...
too exciting to the rest of us unless we are geologists. Personally I would be very excited by organics or even just carbonates but the short-attention-span, scientifically-illiterate public might snooze. But remember, no matter what the results are, the mission has been a big success. Just because Mars may not be what we want it to be, doe not make the mission a failure.
...Curiosity killed the cat
Wouldn't it be interesting if a new life form were discovered and when Curiosity beamed all the info it had collected back to earth only then do we find out that the way this newly discovered life form proliferates was through transmission, of any form or vehicle, of it's "data". So, by transmitting that data back here, Curiosity has introduced that new life form to Earth. Then, of course, the new colony can be defeated/undone wholly by someone unawares swallowing the entire colony. ModDown ModDown -K
God is good all the time! -K
American or European?
I'd like to hear more about what supposedly "really" happened? I mean, I can possibly understand why people would think the moon landing was a hoax (it's almost too fantastical to believe), but you're saying there's people out there that believed it happened but just not the way we were told? What was different, what were we not told about (or lied to about) and how does that change things?
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
A skull! ....of a dinosaur.... ...in a space suit!
-Styopa
martians had forgotten a book there which is totally liff
"Handbook for the Recently Dead"
They do/did make chocolate-filled twinkies.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
I believe they have found a being named "Valentine Michael Smith".
Where's the kaboom?! There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!!!!!
Sanity.html - Error 404 not found
Who knows.
-1 Redundant mod...bummer.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Is it actual life? I doubt it. For scientists the discovery of some chemical might be earth shattering, but it can be interesting but less than earth shattering for others. I do think a chemical that is a precursor to life or even indicates the presence of such (maybe a limestone or an algal deposit such as stromatolite) would be very interesting.
All that SAM has analyzed so far is a mini dust/sand dune so I don't see how complex organic compounds could possibly be preserved. UV, perchloates, solar wind, etc. should have broken any of these down, but I think that carbonates will be preserved. But carbonates would not be an earth-shattering discovery. If fact I think that it has already been detected or theorized to be in Martian dust so this is a bit of a mystery. And it has been seen by the Spirit rover and from orbit, albeit in small amounts.
The problem with evidence of life is that it's usually something along the lines of "POSSIBLE evidence of life, *maybe* (or possibly not)" And that's the kind of thing that will produce sensationalist "Life Found on Mars!" headlines in the press, but which will likely be followed by the inevitable "Turns out what they found probably wasn't jackshit" disappointment--which will only turn the public even more skeptical of the usefulness of these sorts of missions in the future.
Now Roman helmets, on the other hand...
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
They blew it up! Why else would the ancients have referred to Mars as the planet of war? It all makes so much sense.
Oh? please tell me about a liberal idea that is just picking science?
Welcome to the 21st century , where facts are liberal, and any different opinion is just as valid as an opinion based on actual facts.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
They found some ancient artifacts that prove the early Chinese found Mars first and that Mars is an integral part of Chinese territory (as it the Moon since the Chinese saw it first).
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Yes, AC, that is what we call a joke. It's not meant to be taken exactly literally.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
So that's where I dropped my car keys. I know it was a good night, but when my mate said we'd been to Mars and back, I thought he was joking!
Coal would be excellent. They we would have a local source of energy...plus proof of life millions of years ago.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What I'd like: announcement of microbial life in Martian soil, probably some sort of methanogen.
What we'll probably get: Methane is being generated in the soil...probably...with no idea of the actual origin.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Yes, most likely the kind of bacteria that metabolize phosphorus.
Like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/Marvinthemartain.jpg ?
Do explain. Pleeeeeeeeeeez!
You know what scares me? The fact that I already knew what it was before clicking on the link.
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Finally found the bones of John Carter.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
Now Congress will be reluctant to approve funding of further missions to Mars because all the fashion mags are telling voters that Mars is fattening and unsuitable for the lactose-intolerant, diabetics, and people with egg and soy allergies. Fantastic. You've just set the space program back 50 years.
"Hey everybody! We're all getting laid!"
-Rodney Dangerfield
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
y'all don't have any imagination. Life...meh. Water...meh. Maybe interesting to scientists, but not eough to rock the public world.
I figure they found processed metals. Stuff that cannot form naturally. Were they to dig down a little more, evidence of some structure will begin to appear. Perhaps that Face turns out to really be a face, covered over by millennium of sand and rock debris.
Microbial forms of life, no shaking of the earth there.
"made" structure from processed materials that predates humans by a few millions years....earth shaking in deed.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
What "Earth-shaking" discovery has curiosity made on Mars?
No.
please tell me about a liberal idea that is just picking science?
The idea that genetically modified organisms present an unknown danger to people is one example. The left regularly propagates this scientifically ignorant viewpoint, exchanging their anti-corporate biases for facts.
No, not that kind,... ... this kind. http://books.google.ca/books/about/?id=WyypzVblUa0C
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
I saw a "documentary" about this, something about Transformers and the dark side of the moon...
Roughly a quarter helium as well and traces of other elements (particularly lithium) which I guess you could dump in the catchall, "seasonings and spices". It gets more interesting when you consider isotope spread as well.
At long last, conclusive evidence that the dinosaurs evolved into an advanced civilization and made it off of earth before the asteroid collision. They had an advanced civilization on Mars for almost 500,000 years before finally perfecting the technology to transform into pure energy. We will see if the government continues to suppress this now that NASA has found evidence!!
Maybe the scientists replayed the Will.i.am and realised it wasn't actually that good.
Bob.
They found ziggy and the spiders from mars.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I think this is likely if you carefully parse the following quote from TFA!
"The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.
See? Prohibited from saying what the data is, Grotzinger couldn't help himself and gave the public a morsel of a hint while quietly snickering to himself.
it's OJ's other glove.
where you put money in and you get something RIGHT NOW. Other than that, will they find organics? If so, any of significant quantity and where? What parts of the surface contain higher concentrations of organics? For me what would be exciting is finding fossilized lifeforms like a trilobite of sorts.
Problem is nowadays movies with CGI have lots more action and adventure and it is difficult for NASA to compete with this. Speaking of movies what if Curiosity were to find a British flag?
mfwright@batnet.com
What does "only a fetus" even mean? All cells are alive. It's the Christian Right that wants to give special meaning to a blastocyst based on their stone age delusion. Might just as well criminalize exfoliation.
He did break down and tell his family. "I remember at the dinner table with great excitement explaining to my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Bethany, what it was we were doing," says Zare. And then he experienced something many parents can relate to when talking to their kids.
"Bethany looked at me and said, 'pass the ketchup.' So, not everybody was as excited as I was," he says.
He told his family what he can't yet tell the world, and his daughter's reaction was, "pass the ketchup." So the discovery must be pretty bland.
Something about a giant black monolith full of stars.
I love my sig.
On Mars, arsenic can travel faster than light!
Maybe they've figured out that our Moon is the missing part of Mars?
There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
NASA has a history of overhyping results. My guess is an oxycarbon.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Based on past experience, I think it will probably be indeed very interesting, but not "earth-shaking" for most people.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess alkaloids. This is just from the level of excitement in the SAM guy's voice, relative to the complexity of the organics. If he really discovered long strands of DNA, he'd be jumping up and down and wetting his pants. I didn't hear that.
No oxygen to burn it with. The biggest reason coal is so useful on Earth is because it reacts with the ever-abundant oxygen in the air to make warmth (which can be used for power with some more materials)
Time is not an ingredient.
The truly universal ingredient list would be: "Protons, Neutrons, Electrons"
I thought the universal ingredient list was quarks and electrons?
Discovering free oxygen would be a very big deal, but extremely unlikely. The only reason there is free oxygen on Earth is because early life started some sort of photosynthesis and starting giving off oxygen as a waste product that had the side effect of poisoning all their bacterial competitors. That event is known as the "Oxygen Catastrophe".
That's a great short story too.
...but do you remember when they played up the discovery of bacteria that used arsenic instead of phosphorus in some of its proteins? Actually, the way they prepared the public, people thought it was alien life of some sort. Then it turned out to be this bacteria using arsenic..... which wouldn't be too shabby, until it turned out that the results were wrong. :(
So, I'm not working up my hopes too high.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Prohibited from saying what the data is, Grotzinger couldn't help himself and gave the public a morsel of a hint while quietly snickering to himself.
I see what you did there.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
You know what scares me? The fact that I already knew what it was before clicking on the link.
It could be that you're psychic, but in order to be sure, we'll need to repeat the experiment. Can you guess what's on the other side of this link?
goatse.cx
Protein shake?
NASA just saved a bunch of money on their rover insurance by switching to GEICO.
Am I the only one who remembers last time NASA did this? Back in 2010 they made a lot of marketing fluff about a discovery of a new life form etc. etc. http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/11/30/1846255/curious-nasa-pre-announcement Many assumed it would have to be about NASA finding indications of life in some other planets (even if it was only indirect evidence of some chemical sort it would be huge). Well, it turned out the news was that they had found a microbe (on earth) that had apparently had some uptake of arsenic when deprived of phosphorous. This was interpreted as the organism using arsenic instead of phosphorous in its DNA (though this had not at all been verified) and that this had huge implications for the search of life in space. If that wasn't disappointment enough, the discovery later came under fire and later research found no evidence of any arsenic uptake, so it was all just a bunch of crap to begin with. In other words, just because NASA makes huge announcements and calls enormous press conferences days in advance, don't hold your breath. It could be nothing more than... well, nothing.
It's all made of string.
it all gets decompiled into the same crap.
Leptons, Quarks, and Gauge Bosons?
He effected a bored affect.
Something like that would be more of a Mars-shaking discovery. Speaking of that, who says they're not meaning it literally? They found something on Mars that shakes the planet Earth. Like it causes earthquakes or something, lol.
Hrm. I wonder if there is some other chemical reaction that could be utilized to release the energy without oxygen... or how expensive it might be to convert the C02 into oxygen for burning... or more importantly would some kind of solar Co2=>Oxygen setup (read: big tank biomass) then combining coal and 02 be more efficient then current solar panels?
Its not science until they open this information for peer review. The secrecy and beuracracy around NASA doesnt allow any real science to happen.
If they finally open up and admit they've found chlorophyl on the "red planet" for the 3rd time I will be amazed.
Go back and think for a minute. The information will be open for review but the JPL folks have to make sure that the information is 'real' and not spurious. Free dissemination of scientific data doesn't mean that the National Enquirer gets real time view of the SAM downlink. Sometimes 'science' takes a while. Happens in fits and starts. Ideas and data are presented, then proved wrong.
Shields down. Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes even earth shattering ideas are just mundane.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If in fact you do make contact with Martians please let me know right away. I've got a lot of other things on my plate but I suspect that that would go to the top of the list even if they're just microbes. -prez O
I'm "curious"...can I at least ask if you talked to Obama about this?
I'd go for another few compounds that would make it easy for us to live there.
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
Maybe they found the other end of Archimedes' lever.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
Negative. It's turtles all the way down.
Nazis on Mars...I mean, they made it to the Moon!
I got this earth shattering news, it will change your life, your children's life and your children's children's life. But first i must make sure i am correct, stay tuned!
Well, there's always the Sabatier process, which requires hydrogen (found in the coal) and some heat, combined with some chaperoning from Auntie Ruthenium under lots of pressure, to produce oxygen and methane, which can in turn be burned to produce carbon dioxide and water, the former being vented to atmosphere and the latter being retained for drinking, watering plants, etc.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
You are suggesting that one could expend some energy to split C02 into carbon and oxygen, then burn coal (carbon) in oxygen to release some energy and create C02.
Do you see the problem here? Even if your methods were 100 percent efficient, you would produce exactly zero net energy. Not to mention the fact that you wouldn't need the coal you started with.
"I didn't know the Scientist wanted to get paid a quarter every time someone reads about a result."
That would be awesome. I could finally afford some actual vegetables to stir into the ramen noodles.
until Netcraft confirms it!
until Marco Rubio finds proof of it in the bible.
Is anyone testing for whether that "find" came from earth in first place?
Cranky educator.
There is a third option: Intelligent life on Earth.
i just put in
Clearly, it's eezo.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Trouble is that their evidence for that falls within the statistical margin of error.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
We'd have a hard time finding someone who don't around here ..
Sorry, but when science figures out that an assumption is wrong. It is a victory, not a flop. Even if the assumption would have been cool to be true.
I thought for sure that with the "earth shaking" comment, they would announce that they detected an earthquake, demonstrating that mars is still geologically active.
...or the original scrolls of Homer's Iliad wrapped in Hockenberrys underpants.
I suspect that any means of producing Oxygen for the purpose of a fuel oxidizer would be a net negative gain. However, perhaps they could find fluorspar (fluorite) in sufficient concentrations to make it an interesting candiate for an alternate to oxygen.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Actually coal, or any carbon source, wouldn't be a usable energy source, since there's very little free oxygen on Mars.
Discovering free oxygen would be a very big deal, but extremely unlikely. The only reason there is free oxygen on Earth is because early life started some sort of photosynthesis and starting giving off oxygen as a waste product that had the side effect of poisoning all their bacterial competitors. That event is known as the "Oxygen Catastrophe".
Hi, my name is iron oxide, I'm all over mars (in fact I give the planet its characteristic red color) and make a great accelerator for thermite and other high-energy thermal reactions.
Free oxygen is everywhere. You just gotta get it from me, first.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Please tell him that the Machus Red Fox Restaurant wants him to finally pay his bill!
Not all cells are alive. They do die. Exfoliation is (in theory) supposed to remove the dead cells and leave the living.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Are you refering to the movie Apollo 18.
Discovering free oxygen would be a very big deal
How about the perchlorates that we already know exist on Mars? Some of those only need to be heated up a little to create free oxygen.
They're still trying to figure out how to explain the fact that Martians really enjoyed hardcore porn.
I saw that one, it had Thor in it.
Well, there are only two Earth-shaking possible discoveries: life on Mars, or intelligent life on Mars
So, either they've found Rick Santorum, or Newt Gingrich.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
I don't even need to click on that link to write the following reply:
MY EYES! THE GOOGLES DO NOTHING!
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Did I just write "GOOGLES"? :rolleyes:
Damn you Slashdot and your no editing policy! We should at least have a window of 30 seconds to edit a post for typos and other lame errors.
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Maybe they detected carbon, nitrogen and sulphur with an unusual light isotopic signatures. Terrestrial life preferentially accumulates lighter isotopes. Isotopic biomarkers in ancient terrestrial rocks have been used to support the exitance of terrestrial life, 3.8 billion years ago, when Earth and Mars were very similar.
It would be a historic result, quite robust evidence supporting life on an early Mars.
Zuilen, M. van 2008. Stable Isotope Ratios as a Biomarker on Mars. Space Science Reviews 135(1-4), 221–232.
Actually, discovering that the whole planet has a layer of GOLD just under the surface might motivate people to invest in the space program....
Or Kli Morg, or Kli Dreen - or even Sug Farn. A great bunch of guys. And excellent chess players.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Actually coal, or any carbon source, wouldn't be a usable energy source, since there's very little free oxygen on Mars.
Discovering free oxygen would be a very big deal, but extremely unlikely. The only reason there is free oxygen on Earth is because early life started some sort of photosynthesis and starting giving off oxygen as a waste product that had the side effect of poisoning all their bacterial competitors. That event is known as the "Oxygen Catastrophe".
Hi, my name is iron oxide, I'm all over mars (in fact I give the planet its characteristic red color) and make a great accelerator for thermite and other high-energy thermal reactions.
Free oxygen is everywhere. You just gotta get it from me, first.
Doesn't sound free if you have to deal with Iron first.
Be seeing you...
Several weeks ago, and that the water was flowing and about waist deep.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
It's "Handbook for the Recently Deceased". However, I think the parent was referring to The Meaning of LIFF
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I was thinking of A figurehead from an 18th century sailing ship. Or maybe they found some 5 airplanes.
Actually coal, or any carbon source, wouldn't be a usable energy source, since there's very little free oxygen on Mars.
Discovering free oxygen would be a very big deal, but extremely unlikely. The only reason there is free oxygen on Earth is because early life started some sort of photosynthesis and starting giving off oxygen as a waste product that had the side effect of poisoning all their bacterial competitors. That event is known as the "Oxygen Catastrophe".
Hi, my name is iron oxide, I'm all over mars (in fact I give the planet its characteristic red color) and make a great accelerator for thermite and other high-energy thermal reactions.
Free oxygen is everywhere. You just gotta get it from me, first.
He did not mean free as in beer. He meant free as in "not covalently bonded to other elements at the bottom of a huge thermodynamically stable well".
Because between that and premiering hip hop tunes from space and Muslim outreach there isn't a whole lot of anything that NASA promotes anymore. Maybe there's some science and engineering but it's not their prime focus
WOW!
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
same here. I wonder how many others on this site did as well.
Curiosity rover confirms: Mars soil tastes like dirt!
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Proof that at some point in time, something farted on Mars.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Is Donald Trump running NASA now?
Proverbs 21:19
The oxygen in iron oxide isn't free. It's quite tightly bound. To get it to react, you need to mix it with something that binds the oxygen even more tightly: for example, aluminium (to make thermite).
There's no aluminium on Mars (at least, aluminium that isn't already bound into minerals).
You wouldn't leak it ahead of checking it though, maybe not even after checking it. You'll know they've found life when they say nothing for a while.
Nullius in verba
Hydrogen, natural and artificial flavors.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
E-a-t-y-o-u-r-o-v-a-l-t-i-n-e.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
They are hesitant to release the photo of a Martian mooning the camera since it was a single image but they hope a second photo will confirm that Martians in fact have asses.
the weapons of mass destruction.
AccountKiller
I bet it'll be a rock that is surprisingly earth-like and wouldn't be the least intresting if it had been found in, say, Iowa.
bickerdyke
Voyager season 3 episode 23
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Origin
A good-enough Voyager episode that i actually enjoyed.
That would be awesome. Then we could bring it back to search for intelligent life on THIS planet!
It's likely an exofart - methane detected by the SAM sensor. The idea is that life that is somewhat like ours would produce methane, while an absence of methane would mean that there isn't life like ours.
Bruce Perens.
Well a bigger problem than oxygen, is getting the 18th century orphans with cockney accents there to mine it.
"It was just an instrument malfunction, but stay tuned for further crazy and Earth-shattering announcements after these brief messages!" or "Mom I'm going to Stanford!" "Really?" "Yes! I mailed the application yesterday."
So if Marco Rubio can't say how old the Earth is, what will he do if life originating more than 10,000 years ago on Mars is found? Will his head literally explode, will he resign and simply go away, or will he just make a poor attempt to not answer any further questions? I'm betting on that last choice.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
One can burn carbon with iron oxide. That's known as smelting. It's how we make iron.
Of course this whole discussion is moot because they're not going to announce finds of "coal on mars".
GIVE US THE CUTTLEFISH!
Hostess has only been in Irving since 2004. It was headquartered in Missouri, but there's been a Hostess Bakery in Seattle since the 1930s.
#DeleteChrome
No, the summary said "Earth-shaking" news. We only pull Marvin out for "Earth-shattering" news...
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
Nope, gold isn't nearly valuable enough to justify the return costs.
Probably the most valuable things to be found on Mars, assuming there's no trace of past or present life, would be gemstone-quality minerals not for their metal content, but of structures that are rare on Earth (painite, blue garnet, red beryl, etc - 5-6 figures per gram) or nonexistant on Earth (6-7 figures per gram). Gold prices are only 2 figures per gram. Of course just the fact that something is from Mars would make it immensely valuable on its own, even just a chunk of iron oxide. The only metals that could justify their acquisition and return costs on their own are if there was a natural nuclear reactor on Mars producing and concentrating some of the "manmade", rarer nuclear isotopes. Which isn't as crazy as it sounds.
GIVE US THE CUTTLEFISH!
If they found The Winslow, it would forever change our political and religious landscape. Ask Professors Foglio.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man, look at those cavemen go
it's the freakiest show
take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy
Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?
Zardoz?
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution" - Emma Goldman
This isn't the same as an obscure scientist with two jobs misconstruing the findings of the makeup of an extremophile on Earth. If you read the damn article, you would find that he bit his lip and said they would report in several weeks. If you found possible definitive proof of life on Mars, wouldn't you want to be sure before you announced it?
Arsenic being used in the place of phosphorous in DNA is of interest to biologists.
Life on Mars, however limited it may be, is of interest to all mankind.
In several weeks' time he may apologize. Major networks won't even acknowledge it. The average viewer won't remember it. Only /. will whine about it. He'll keep his job. Life will go on.
Alternatively he will announce something of some interest, but not really terribly exciting. Major networks might mention it, but it's doubtful. The average viewer won't remember it. Only /. will whine about it. He'll keep his job. Life will go on.
Or the big thing. Additional tests will have confirmed the finding. It'll be significant like the discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life. Major networks will go nuts. The average viewer will remember it. The wider public will respond to it. Interest in the sciences will increase. Religious fanatics will go berserk. Major religions will simply adjust. Everyone on /. will claim they knew all along.
There is a third option: Intelligent life on Earth.
Now you're just being silly.
And then Hillary said, "Good plan. You bring the rocket. I'll bring Santorum."
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
However SAM vapourized it in studying it, so now it no longer exists. Until we can find some more to vapourize.
Eventually, some of the rare earth metals used in electronics manufacturing may be depleted to the point where this would make sense to avoid a technological event horizon of sorts. At that point, there would be advantages to also bringing back large quantities of gold, copper, lithium, and possibly aluminum in the same shipment (since the overhead for transporting stuff from Mars is huge, and the cost of leaving empty space in the cargo hold is equally huge).
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Is it a black hole?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Strong evidence of marsquakes has already been observed. Doesn't come from soil samples though.
This space intentionally left blank
Or lapis. For some reason I love finding lapis in Minecraft even though its only purpose is making blue blocks as accent decorations.
According to this French site (as related on http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ Michael Cabane, scientific co-investigator on SAM says that there is no spectacular findings from the SAM instrument: http://www.cieletespace.fr/node/9823 I think that the announcement, if any, will concern hydrated minerals at Glenelg, possibly newly hydrated minerals such as salts. A Big Deal for planetary geologists, but not a bio-signature.
Actually, they find out the colour is from the Gold! Now we have a reason to privatize Mars Missions
Something stepped on the rover, and they're just trying to clean up the video and figure out what it was!
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.
Sure would come in handy as they could just shove future probes and cut mission costs to a mere fraction.
Modded to a 0, but I'd like to see anyone discount what I just stated...
Thank you for proving that "lefties" like to pick and choose their science too.
...they found either life or they found out that life could live on Mars. That is why they are being so hush hush and making sure it is what they think it is.
Given the affected spelling, I'm going with European.
Given the affected spelling, I'm going with European.
That was a reference to Monty Python's African or European Sparrows in The Quest For The Holy Grail... Or as the locals say: "Woooosh!"
I'm well aware of that, son.
Actually, given the prior volcanic history, I wouldn't be totally surprised to find some sort of hydrocarbon deposit under the surface. I wouldn't necessarily say coal, but perhaps some form of natural gas.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Short for "FRiends Of Man And The Earth'. Ecowhackos.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Copper? *Lithium*? **Aluminum**? Were these entries jokes?
GIVE US THE CUTTLEFISH!
And in the process, you would get anhydrous magnesium chloride, which could be used to produce magnesium metal. Great for making lightweight vehicles, such as space craft, rovers etc. Of course, you would also end up with a bunch of chlorine. Not sure what a colony would need that for.
Don't blame NASA or JPL or even Grotz on this one: It is our own fault for building up the hype.