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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

14 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. Editors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why doesn't Slashdot have them? Might as well be reader the National Inquirer. It's not April 1.

    1. Re:Editors... by Bradmont · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're right, the linked website seems really fake... it's built to look like the nasa website, but is on a third-party domain. What's more, all the navigation icons actually take you to nasa's website. Has anyone ever actually heard of nasaupdatecenter.us before today?

    2. Re:Editors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The domain was registered on Nov 23. Very suspicious.

    3. Re:Editors... by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Seems fake," huh? You mean the renderings of the Mars "face" on the front page didn't throw you off?

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    4. Re:Editors... by SoCalChris · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've been around slashdot for probably at least a decade, and seen some pretty stupid crap here. But seriously, this takes the cake. No one else is reporting anything like this. The picture in the "article" is clearly a bad photoshop of mardi gras beads, and the front page of the linked site has a picture of Chewbacca superimposed on a Martian hill.

      I can maybe see samzenpus thinking that he had a real scoop on a big story, but he should have at least ran it by some of the other people there. Someone there must have at least a semi-functioning brain. Or maybe he could have looked into the domain registration, and seen that the domain was registered a few days ago to the leader of the New Orleans Bigfoot Society.

      Crap like this is a lot of why decent discussion on nerdy things is dying on this site.

    5. Re:Editors... by Trep · · Score: 5, Informative

      If this is some kind of joke that I'm missing, then I apologize. But if you are serious...then try googling first. The Russians did this a long time ago. AFAIK, NASA never attempted a lander though. Venera 13, in 1982, lasted about 2 hours before giving up the ghost.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera

  2. MARS IS A FAKE! by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    The whole think was nudged into place by Stanley Kubrick.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  3. George Carlin, the prophet by ThePhilips · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hereby officially announce George Carlin to be our prophet.

    --
    All hope abandon ye who enter here.
  4. Check the URL by KermMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  5. Hoax! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?

  6. Hoax by zienth · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  7. Slashdot has been trolled by johnny+cashed · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  8. FAKE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  9. Late-Breaking News: PSYOPS! by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    Laughter and derision swept across our fair red world today as the Council of Elders confirmed the success of an intelligence coup against the green diagonally-tilted controlling intelligences (and their accompanying green spherule-shaped periodic functions) who continue to operate from undisclosed locations on the sinister blue planet.

    K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, spoke thus:

    Today marks another victory in our ongoing psyops campaign against the blueworlders. Renjoice, podmates, at the consternation of our enemies! On the homefront, our forces continue to track and monitor the intruder's activity. Laser-resistance is not the only means we have to defeat the intruder. Late-breaking news indicate great results achieved through our psychological operations division.

    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.)