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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!
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 ...
I hereby officially announce George Carlin to be our prophet.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Are any parts of Curiosity made from plastic?
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
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...
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.
TROLLD HARD
Slashdot is a joke..
No, it's not contamination. If you read the article, you can clearly see a picture of cheap beads that the hippie chicks that hang around Berkley wear.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
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?
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?
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.
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
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.
... is larger than we thought.
From NASA:
Could be April 1st up there
Of course it is. I can tell by the pixels.
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."
Registrant Name Xavier Jenks
Registrant Organization NASA
Registrant Address1 PO Box 791633
Registrant City Cape Carnival
Registrant State/Province FL
Registrant Postal Code 666666
Quite aside from the festive town, there's the postal code, but my favorite bit is Googling for "Xavier Jenks" The third result (the first two are Facebook) is: http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/06/28/big-foot-real-or-imagined
Which includes this little nugget:
Dr. Xavier Jenks, PhD
Research Team Leader
New Orleans Bigfoot Society (N.O.B.S.)
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
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.)
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
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.
You're right. I cautiously approached the article because so many others were treating it as true, and even though it seemed ... wildly unlikely ... I wanted some proof, not that it was scientifically unlikely to the point of impossibility, but that it matched the characteristics of a hoax. In a surprisingly short time I found three "hoax" factors: The article is not self-consistent, parts unrelated to the claim are demonstrably untrue, and an original exists from which the article was obviously cut-and-pasted.
The web page is a beautiful mock-up. It's too bad that the writers didn't spend a little more time on the wordsmithing. Just reading through the text, one gets an idea that something is wrong, even if one doesn't know jack about science.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
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.
I was flipping out. Now I feel dumb. My only solace is that Slashdot looks a lot dumber than me.
And now we know why Taco left.
The ice was found on Mercury.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.