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NASA: Curiosity Has Found Plastic On Mars

Posted by samzenpus on from the mars-needs-organic-polymers dept.

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

6 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious question by Bogtha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Are any parts of Curiosity made from plastic?

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    1. Re:Obvious question by wiedzmin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's what took them so long to confirm the discovery - they were checking to make sure it wasn't a contamination from the rover.

      --
      Bow before me, for I am root.
  2. Re:Check the URL by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Goddammit. We've been had!

    Nice work, whomever.

    And if you don't believe me, go to the home page.

    Sigh.

    Whois:

    Whois query for nasaupdatecenter.us...

    Results returned from whois.nic.us:

    Domain Name: NASAUPDATECENTER.US
    Sponsoring Registrar: ENOM, INC.

    Registrant Name: Xavier Jenks,
    Registrant Organization: NASA,
    Registrant Address1:PO Box 791633
    Registrant City: Cape Carnival
    Registrant State/Province: FL
    Registrant Postal Code: 666666

    Cape Carnival?

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  3. not the why, the end-reult of a broken system by Press2ToContinue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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    Sent from my ENIAC
  4. Re:Editors... by hypnotik · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yeah, I have to say. This is absurd. I've been here since '98, '99. This is the worst I've seen it. Come on, some basic checking would be a start.

    Maybe it's time to auction off my userid.. Though I don't know why anyone would want it. There's just no prestige anymore.

    --
    (I was only an egg, but then I cracked)
  5. Re:Editors... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I sadly concur. /. has become a joke (of its former glory.)

    Let some of us who are karma capped double check the stories OR allow us to post a SUMMARY of all the comments.