Slashdot Mirror
NASA: Curiosity Has Found Plastic On Mars
dsinc writes "Last week Curiosity was able to use its SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) device to confirm the discovery. A robotic arm with a complex system of Spectral Analysis devices was able to vaporize and identify gasses from the sample, concluding that it is in fact plastic. How plastic formed or ended up on the Martian surface is quite an exciting mystery that sparks many questions. The type of plastic sampled as we know so far can only be formed using petrochemicals, meaning not only that there could possibly be a source of oil on the Red Planet, but that somehow it got turned into plastic. Even more interesting is that oil or petrochemicals used to create this type of plastic are only known to come from ancient fossilized organic materials, such as zooplankton and algae, which geochemical processes convert into oil pointing to the earthshaking evidence that there was once life on mars. 'Right now we have multiple working hypotheses, and each hypothesis makes certain predictions about things like what the spherules are made of and how they are distributed,' said Curiosity's principal investigator, Steve Squyres, of Cornell University. 'Our job as we explore Matijevic Hill in the months ahead will be to make the observations that will let us test all the hypotheses carefully, and find the one that best fits the observations.'" Update: Yes, it's a hoax
Why doesn't Slashdot have them? Might as well be reader the National Inquirer. It's not April 1.
The whole think was nudged into place by Stanley Kubrick.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
dropping litter again. Why can't they take the plastic bags they brought their lunch in home with them!
After all the hype we find out someone left their credit card on Mars!
You can tell this is fake is because they messed up there. See, they said "earthshaking" when a legit article would have said "marsshaking", because this, of course, is on mars.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
It appears Martians have yet to ban single-use grocery bags ...
Sporks!
I hereby officially announce George Carlin to be our prophet.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
.... and we thought the oceans had it bad.
Are any parts of Curiosity made from plastic?
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
How do they know the plastic didn't come from Curiosity itself? There's no mention in TFA that the sample was ever checked for contamination.
That's the joke.
Plastic?!?!?!?!?! What the fuck!?!?!??!?!
it isn't packing/debris from the mission itself? Evidence of ancient life on mars would be great (and finding a chunk of formed plastic would be mind-blowing!) but the proof has to be irrefutable.
Finally it makes sense what US is doing on Mars! Same thing they're doing everywhere else - getting their hands on the oil supplies under any pretense possible.
Bow before me, for I am root.
If you had read the article, you would have seen the photo, which is several strings of Mardi Gras beads on the Martian surface.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
in 3, 2, 1...
As the old saying goes, when you find hoof-prints, suspect horses, not zebras. In this case, I'm sure this is more likely some plastic that found its way from Earth. How much space junk do we have floating around our planet, again? Getting excited about oil from fossilized organisms on Mars seems a bit of a stretch here.
You mean the planet has been replaced with a cheap plastic knock-off??? The Elders have a lot to answer for...
I'm speechless, the implications of this are HUGE.
1 -- If there is oil on Mars I bet my ass we'll be there in 20 years.
2 -- If there is _plastic_ on mars we are going to be hard pressed to figure out how it got there, plastics from petrochemicals are not a naturally occurring process. How the hell did it get there?
3 -- Assuming we figure out how it got there, what implications could it have on our entire view of the universe and where we stand in it.
Exciting times we live in.
Check it out...
http://nasaupdatecenter.us/press.html
Something seems strange here.
TROLLD HARD
Slashdot is a joke..
Suddenly, the United States will discover terrorists on Mars as well, and state that those terrorists intend to strike us unless we strike them first...
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I'm amused how many people overlooked the fact that although all the links on the page go to jpl.nasa.gov, the site itself is fake. Didn't the Mardi Gras beads give it away?
Am I the only one who thinks that picture looks like a set of Mardi Gras beads? Maybe the Therns have a closet somewhere in New Orleans...
whois nasaupdatecenter.us
Billing Contact City: Cape Carnival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRquiS1pis
from the looks of it, it had a new orleans of it's own. Probably used to be full of babes with 3 titties like total recall LOL :)
... looks like they have Mardi Gras on Mars at some point.
but seriously, that is really a cool find. Maybe it will get some more funding going, after all, there could be oil on mars now...
Be seeing you...
Did they get the right Mars? Or did they land on some cheap knock-off planet from China?
Sent from my ENIAC
This article posted is almost copied verbatim from http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20120928a.html, with only a few words changed around. Plus, the css pages link offsite and are broken on that page. Who fell for this?
The martians loved to party!
Nice move NASA, nice move indeed, i can see those budget cuts may need a second opinion.
First episode of the new Doctor Who series wasn't THAT crazy after all.
Hoax. The press release at http://nasaupdatecenter.us/press.html says that Curiosity is at Matijevic Hill, overlooking Endeavour Crater. Curiosity is inside of Gale Crater. Opportunity is at Matijevic Hill. Nasa posts its press releases at nasa.gov sites.
from www.nasa.gov:
Update Set About Curiosity Mars Rover
NASA will provide a Curiosity update at 9 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3, at the American Geophysical Union. Rumors of major new findings at this early stage are incorrect.
The news conference will discuss Curiosity's use of instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil. Audio and visuals from the briefing will be available via UStream.
Looks like http://nasaupdatecenter.us/
is a joke/troll site
"Face on Mars re-examined after new plastic discovery." .. With a bad Photoshop of chewy superimposed.
http://nasaupdatecenter.us/ is not a NASA website
That isn't a genuine press release. Here is the real release: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1398
Obviously the whole "people sent stuff to Mars" is a sham like the moon missions. The laser just cut down into the bottom of the stage.
Registered 6 days ago by Xavier Jenks.
Domain Name NASAUPDATECENTER.US
Domain ID D38204419-US
Sponsoring Registrar ENOM, INC.
Registrar URL (registration services) whois.enom.com
Domain Status clientTransferProhibited
Registrant ID A82B3BEE4769052E
Registrant Name Xavier Jenks
Registrant Organization NASA
Registrant Address1 PO Box 791633
Registrant City Cape Carnival
Registrant State/Province FL
Registrant Postal Code 666666
Registrant Country United States
Registrant Country Code US
Registrant Phone Number +1.5043193013
Registrant Email admin@nasaupdatecenter.us
http://www.facebook.com/xavier.jenks -- Head researcher at New Orleans Bigfoot Society.
Nasaupdatecenter.us? I can't find anything else on this. I call shenanigans. They did a good job on making the site look like NASA though.
HTH. HAND.
I'm gonna meta-mod u down for *obvious* lol
Sent from my ENIAC
... is larger than we thought.
From NASA:
It is discovered that a small part of the rover's front left wheel has come away. While NASA are not certain, they believe this to be a simpler explanation of the source of plastic found in November than past life on Mars.
What the hell is nasaupdatecenter.us and why is it not linked from anywhere within nasa.gov? What's with the too-simple URL? How is this not a huge fake? Come on, there's no trace of it even in the Internet Archive.
Is this an intentional joke?
Could be April 1st up there
Check the whois info: http://whois.net/whois/nasaupdatecenter.us Unless there's a new 'Cape Carnival' with postcode '666666'... I call it a (well-done) fake.
They're there in their room. You're on your own.
It is quite obvious that this original article was modified:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20120928.html
A very obvious hoax!
Some more search, using the administrative info on D1645EF6572ACAAF:
https://www.google.com/search?q=D1645EF6572ACAAF
Check by yourself, the website is almost certainly fake.
I might also point out that "Xavier Jenks" also runs a website about bigfoot.
But sure, he's totally the kind of reliable source we've come to expect on Slashdot.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Looks like slashdot got hoodwinked!
Nasaupdatecenter.us. Really?
The press release was lazily copied, with a few changes, from Nasa's September 28th press release. The front page of nasaupdatecenter.us says that the Mars face is being revisited based on this new plastic discovery. And the site itself was only registered last Friday (according to whois).
Hang on, now. Check how the text in TFA matches this article.
You've been had.
The clue (besides the rather obvious mardi-gras beads in the photo) was the eighth paragraph. Curiosity hasn't been on Mars for eight and a half years. Opportunity has.
It's time for someone to stand up and say "Bazinga".
How did this get past the editors?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
and we found plastic on Mars.
The Vatican is shaking....
New Economic Perspectives
K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, spoke thus:
When an elder member of the press corps suggested the psyops campaign in question consisted merely of deceiving "Editing Unit #5" into linking to http://nasaupdatecenter.us/press.html instead of http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20120928a.html, K'Breel had the young reporter's gelsacs slashed, after which the small, rounded particles were first catalyzed into plastic, and upon further heating, reduced to volcanic lapilli.
(An audio recording of Reporter #54550 screaming "Sorry, samzenpus, you put your foot in it today, I swear to CmdrTaco it wasn't me! No hard feelings! Don't devitrify me, 'bro!" as he was led away to the thermal polymerization chamber, has not been authenticated.)
hoax but no ads... now someone needs to go through the page and check for some drive by malware crap.
Now it's quite possible that some of the natural petroleum sources on our planet were in fact from dead fish, but this seems to give a significant boost to those who have asserted that Abiogenic petroleum is not only *possible* but perhaps even more common that biogenic petroleum.
Fascinating stuff.
For starters, the story mixes two things up: it speaks of the new rover, Curiosity, exploring a site on the western rim of Endurance Crater that was discovered by the Opportunity rover. It even quotes Steve Squyres as saying, "We wouldn't have gotten to Matijevic Hill, eight-and-a-half years after Curiosity's landing, without Jake Matijevic." He would never have said that: Squyers is principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) -- Spirit and Opportunity -- not Curiosity, and Curiosity has only been on Mars since the 5th of August this year.
The accompanying picture to the article makes the find looks suspiciously like Mardi Gras beads. I know of the drunken revellers have bad aim, but I don't think anyone could have managed a toss of that magnitude!
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
But but but.... where are the boobs that were flashed to get the beads?! She must have been smashed to end up on mars.
hah crap like this isn't the reason why, it's the logical conclusion of /.'s no-data-ownership model. it's the emperical evidence that the ship has no rudder.
Sent from my ENIAC
Is that article written by the same Xavier Jenks who wrote this press release about Big Foot?
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/06/28/big-foot-real-or-imagined
Also, this press release is nowhere to be found on the NASA site.
Also the NASAUPDATECENTER.US domain was registered a week ago and does not seem to have any connection to NASA.
I am going to call it a hoax.
If you throw them beads the women on Mars will flash all three of their breasts at you.
I totally go every year. It's a party.
Someone at Mardi Gras got so high they lost their beads on Mars! I have got to go to Mardi Gras!
Since there have been several previous spacecraft sent to Mars, I would think the first place to look would be the bill of materials used in these other craft. Just a thought.
NOBODY ELSE IS REPORTING IT!
Plastics don't form in nature. Certainly not in beads. For plastics to be found so readily and easily on Mars would be GIGANTIC news far bigger in fact then "discovering life" in the form of actually living cells. Since the FAKE article claims they are plastic beads as found on cheap necklaces, even if that is an artist interpretation of this FAKE news, it would lead NOT to speculation of life on Mars but on speculation of INTELLIGENT life on Mars capable of plastic production. That would NOT be announced through a press release on a web page but during a "we interrupt this broadcast" moment with an announcement the President would soon make a statement.
And Samzenpus who should know by know Slashdot is NEVER the first with any news, even about slashdot itself, ran the story without even bothering to check other news sources for this earth shattering news.
Extra ordinary claims in science need extra ordinary evidence. And extra ordinary news needs more then one source.
The only answer for Samzenpus is to add a new moderation option so we can BAN people who took this news serious without first bothering to check some real news sites to see if any of them had picked it up. I only saw this story after just visiting several news sites and was immediately suspicious that such a huge thing would not have been on any real news site already.
Even more suspicious, the story was posted so quickly the usual inane editor comment is missing.
Nice work Samzenpus. But we all know you are a lousy editor, the real shame is on all the readers who react with anything else then scorn at this obvious fake and are taking this as a real story.
hsthompson69 for instance below. For shame!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Wow, unmitigated, unconfirmed, completely fabricated BULLSHIT on the front page of Slashdot?? Maybe things really are done here.
A quick Google search with any of a number of sections of the fake 'plastics' article turn up the real NASA article talking about iron-rich pellets, but the picture of fucking MARDI GRAS BEADS in the upper right might have been a clue.
Samzenpus, you should be ashamed.
The preceding comment is my own, and in no way construes an opinon of the Emperor of Mankind.
This is obviously fake, but what of the "earth shattering" news from many days ago?
Uh... also that photo is obviously this one: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4806
First off, as everyone has already pointed out, of course this is fake. There has been no Martian plastic found by Curiosity or any other Mars exploration mission. The definitive proof this article is full of it? The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is at Matijevic Hill right now, several hundred miles away from Curiosity who is at a land formation known as Glenelg at the moment. A rock near the Curiosity landing sight was named after Jake Matijevic as well, but a rock is distinctly different from a hill.
Besides the location error, this "story" seems to be pretty well researched. Curiosity spent a day a month ago looking at an unknown object it found on the ground that turned out to be a bit of plastic from the rover itself, not from Mars. The story could be spawned from that as well as all the "earthshaking discovery" hoopla surrounding MSL and the SAM instrument.
The article's really garbled. It uses "Curiousity" to mean "Opportunity" several times.
Bruce Perens.
There are times when I have to endure the company of appallingly stupid people, but they all involve either getting paid or public transportation. Slashdot is neither of these, and I am fucking done. When I find myself missing the expert guidance of CmdrTaco, it is well past time to move on.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Someone else was there exploring first, in secret, and plastic fell off their robot!
Obviously fake article is obviously fake.
So that's where http://www.plastic.com/ went!
but consider the lulz if it turns out that this is in fact true.
I really doubt it will be, but just imagine that meta-troll: trolled into posting a hoax article, on a site owned by a crank, who actually got some good information and nobody believed it.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
I was flipping out. Now I feel dumb. My only solace is that Slashdot looks a lot dumber than me.
You just got TRICKED
From that press release: "and its Curiosity rover are less than four months into a two-year prime mission to investigate".
What exactly is a "two-year prime mission"? Is that like "2 years !"? 2! years == 2 factorial years == 2 * 1 years == 2 years. So essentially it is a fancy redundant way of saying it is a two year mission.
Or maybe they mean that it is a "prime" mission in the sense of a "prime" cut of beef? It really is a super-duper A1 top mission. Not one of those crappy lesser missions we are always hearing about.
Please, no. I can't believe we're that low... [picture the last face of Switch in Matrix]
Do we really have to start source and fact checking ./ postings? Rubbish. Stuff like this hitting the front page are the beginnings of the end of ./ credibility. Those of you posting stuff to this site should consider that as well, unless this was some kind of malicious act with that very kind of reputation destruction in mind, in which case good job mission accomplished.
And now we know why Taco left.
samzenpus should quit. Slashdot needs EDITORS and not idiots.
The ice was found on Mercury.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
Looks like Xavier Jenks is violating NASA's copyrights.
I felt so stupid, I just assumed it was an illustration of a plastics molecule, and I didn't even think to give the photo a second thought :)
To bad the US can't fake it's way out of the DNA that proves it uses a weaponized form of Syphilis on it's own intelligence personnel (really the exact same DNA is found only in ppl who had SAP access really?)
God you would think after loosing all targeting capability in that whole Timely Inc fiasco over a decade ago and just now found out about - you think they would have learned their lesson and let ppl live free right? oh well it only gets worse from here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk
Table-ized A.I.
Oi, Slashdot peeps - aren't you even the slightest bit embarrassed at how low this lack of editorial oversight has become? Why don't you at least push out a press release stating that you are aware of concerns and are going to try to make things better? The continued silence despite all the complaints is deafening.
I don't understand why those running Slashdot have such a lack of respect for its readership.
Dude...
Wow, Ive never seen a hoax story on slashdot before. Time to find a new homepage.
The recycling mark was a dead giveaway.
THIS! ... ?.
So THIS is the 'BIG' announcement.
Well.
The Days of NASA are drawing to an end. Good for that.
http://www.whois.us/
Enter "nasaupdatecenter.us" without the quotes.
"Registrant Postal Code 666666"
That's fake, or am I missing something?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.us#Restrictions_on_use_of_.us_domains
"Registrants are required to provide complete contact information without omissions."
Is the site in violation? Because this is so not funny. There is nothing apparent on the nasaupdatecenter.us site to indicate it is a parody or satire.
That report was adapted from:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20120928a.html
"PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Opportunity, well into its ninth year on Mars, will work for the next several weeks or months at a site with some of the mission's most intriguing geological features.
The site, called "Matijevic Hill," overlooks 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) Endeavour Crater. Opportunity has begun investigating the site's concentration of small spherical objects reminiscent of, but different from, the iron-rich spheres nicknamed "blueberries" at the rover's landing site nearly 22 driving miles ago (35 kilometers)."
"Update: Yes, it's a hoax" it seems 10 out of 10 commentors here did not believe it either, hmmm. I kid you not, I read almost every comment and zero people bought it. Who let this story slip by? It's not some little side story, it's plastic on Mars. You'd think they'd look around for the best article to link to and read up on the amazing discovery, etc. That or notice that the mouseover images on the nav bars are missing. WTF?!
...and Slashdot has lost another user. Seriously I would delete my account if I could. Bye!
It may be a glass of frosty piss, but it's a delicious and tantalizing glass of frosty piss. Hats off to the hucksters.
This signature intentionally left blank.
A news site, or a gag site.
Why so angry? It's a good joke, you should laugh. It's probably made by a /. reader.
Might I suggest China's favorite source for accurate news. http://www.theonion.com/
now we're talking.
With all the failed mars landers that have crashed it wouldn't surprise me if they found a piece of plastic. So fake or not, not impossible.
Jack of all trades,master of none
If it was true, this would have been really funny. Imagine a million years from now, the only sign that life existed here might be the rubbish we left behind.
... it's that NASA doesn't appear to be working very hard to get this site taken down. Perhaps a little extra attention doesn't hurt? Even when it is a lame hoax that would be caught be anyone with the slightest skills as an editor. (Hint: that's probably the actual reason why NASA doesn't care to take them down)
on Dick Cheney!!!
Your plastic planet that's fun to land on!
I bet you suckers bought the story about NASA discovering ice on Mercury too?
Posting under top comment for exposure;
My site's proxy has this domain marked as malicious. Don't visit the link.
Editors; You're succeeding in your efforst to push me over to news.ycombinator.com. I hope your new corporate overlords are happy with their stillborn purchase.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Please remove this from the frontpage. Its just stupid to have me read this before telling me its an obvious hoax. I am surprised however that the site isn't down yet.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
IS this site referenced even from NASA's JPL? I don't think so. It's got a friggin' hostgator.com DNS. NASA doesn't use hostgator, do they? You've all been duped
US was gearing up to invade.
Would have been quite a boost for manned spaceflight however.
And suddenly NASA's budget increased by a factor of ten.
Not fooled but dissapointed. Over the past year(s) your digital rag has gotten worse by degrees. We started getting political opinions and now your trying to be the Onion, which should probably sue you! Goodbye, it used to be a good read!
The ice was found on Mercury.
Wait, I'm confused now. What does Queen have to do with freakin NASA?
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Isn't there supposed to be a "earth-shaking" announcement coming soon from this NASA with regards to something they found?
And here researchers have been focusing on 3d-printing from moon rock. I guess Mars was better suited for it afterall!
Further materials analysis showed it to be a piece of the wrapper of a Mars chocolate bar, therefore proving that intelligent life exists on the red planet.
I sincerely hope that who ever was behind this hoax gets fired immediately for having damaged the reputation of JPL and wasted the time of all the readers of this TRIPE. The author is a jerk. JPL should act imediately. I am absolutely certain that the author(s) job description did not mention 'perfect for an aspiring comedian'.
...are even worse than usual regarding stories/headlines/summaries; surely there are some Slashdot regulars that can be taken on, to give some better quality control on the stories.
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. ... What did we expect?
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
If it takes a person more than 1 second to conclude that the image is bogus, it's probably time for another visit to the eye doctor.
Seriously, though, I think it is far better use of resources to focus on locating the girl lost on Mars and running around flashing the Martians.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is the most commonly used word that's not in the dictionary?
(Seriously who posted this article??)
Why do I have to read an entire article just to find at the bottom... "update: Yes, it's a hoax". Can you please put that at the top next time?
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/29/3707122/nasa-mars-rover-curiosity-press-conference-no-organics
It vaporized off the surface of the Sun and solar winds carried it to Mercury where it condensed.
More puzzling still is not just what appears to be letters on the sample, but the fact that they indicate "cool ranch", a flavor of Doritos that has been depricated for over a year now. The creation museum has a crack team of acolytes studying this amazing discovery now.
-Charlie
I thought we were going to get "Drill baby drill" chants again...
They sent a probe to Uranus and found a brownish looking substance which looked suspiciously like fecal matter leading scientists to believe there may be organic life forms living there...
This statement " Even more interesting is that oil or petrochemicals used to create this type of plastic are only known to come from ancient fossilized organic materials, such as zooplankton and algae, which geochemical processes convert into oil pointing to the earthshaking evidence that there was once life on mars." is a bit behind the times. Research in recent times shows that petrochemicals can be generated from crystalline hydrocarbon compounds found in a variety of commonly found subterranean igneous formations. There are in fact people who explore for oil based on this theory of abiotic petroleum generation in place of the old theories that crude oil was only created from organic sources.
The moderator are really funny they rate this one informative and not funny. I feel like I switch in a parallel universe just by reading these comments...
I enjoyed that item about plastic on Mars. The Editors did their job with the line " Update: Yes, it's a hoax." I wonder did the Nasa hypotheses include our space junk somehow crash landing on Mars. It won't be long before we'll have to go space filling instead of land filling with our junk anyhow if we keep the turning earth's resources into junk,
I repeat, Troll Alert
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have both fixed security flaws that enabled a new hacking group to recently breach their servers. The hackers, calling themselves "The Unknowns," told SecurityNewsDaily the space agencies' quick action validates their ethical exploits. "We don't want revolutions, we don't want chaos, we just want to protect the people out there. Websites are not secured, people are not secured, computers are not secured, nothing is...We're here to help and we're asking nothing in exchange." http://www.technewsdaily.com/7754-nasa-confirms-hack-unknowns.html
Stentoran - He who is heard