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Scientist Says Potential Signs of Ancient Life in Mars Rover Photos
mpicpp notes that a scientist named Nora Noffke says she thinks that the Curiosity rover may have found fossils on Mars. "Time and time again, as we carefully scrutinize the amazing high-resolution imagery flowing to Earth from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, we see weird things etched in Martian rocks. Most of the time our brains are playing tricks on us. At other times, however, those familiar rocky features can be interpreted as processes that also occur on Earth. Now, in a paper published in the journal Astrobiology, a geobiologist has related structures photographed by Curiosity of Martian sedimentary rock with structures on Earth that are known to be created by microbial lifeforms."
That was just the subluxations, Doctor Bob.
It's not that NASA is covering up the proof of life they've found on Mars, it's just that they're trying to figure out who this Kilroy guy was before publishing the report.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Seven comments in, so far there's 4 jokes, 2 anti-us spam/trolls, and 1 crank. Quality discussion there.
I want my 5 minutes back
Believe in a flat Mars?
I guess the populace just likes eggin' them on...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
bad experiment. I was mostly wrong.. She's German though, I'm claiming a "Close enough" on that one. And the pictures are blurry and not helpful as well. 1.5 out of 3 ain't bad! She does have a real degree though... doh!
Is it me, or does NASA seem scared to get the answer to the question of is/was there life on Mars?
Viking’s results where ambiguous, so we decided – NO LIFE – no need to go back for over 20 years.
Now we keep getting a tantalizing clues, but can’t seem to summon the will to do a sample return mission. How many sample return missions could the ISS fund? How much more scientific benefit would come from it?
Of late it almost seems like they want to be just shy of proof so they can keep sending missions, getting us just a little closer each time. Call it the scientific method if you want but as Keynes once observed – “in the long run, we are all dead.” How-about we get our answers now?
How about a real microscope on one of these missions, not just a camera that can take photos of small objects -- far short of microbial dimensions – then insist on calling it a microscopic imager. Hell, why not a scanning electron microscope?
Most of the scientific instrumentation seems focused on geology. Granted Geology can be related to conditions for life and is important knowledge, but what we really want answered is “is there life on Mars”, not “is there hematite on Mars?” OK hematite on Mars is cool to know, but not as important I think as the Life question.
When we went to the moon there were far less important questions to be answered. How can the Life question on Mars be so much less a priority when it could up-end so much of scientific knowledge?
One final note to my rant – is it possible there is some drag on this quest so as to maintain the status quo and not upset a largely religious electorate that assumes we should only be concerned with our fate here on Earth as their God has decreed, or that life on Mars might raise too many uncomfortable questions.
Letter To Iran
Seems to me we're bending over backward so hard trying to to say we've found "life" that we may not realize when we really have found it... (Not to say that this instance is solid evidence, I haven't had access to the data.)
Sick of this shit
Those NASA fucks have been busy cutting the live feed every time an UFO docks at the ISS, and they are STILL fucking wondering IF there were ancient life on Mars? Stop fucking around and just out with it.
NASA footage of UFO docked at International Space Station and Soyuz
6/8/2014 NASA CUTS LIVE SPACE FEED! HD UFO APPEARS AT ISS
12/11/14 UFO MAKES 90 DEGREE TURN ON LIVE SPACE ISS STREAM! ALIEN COVERUP
UFO Sightings UFOs Visit ISS During Space Walk! OCT 7, 2014
I only had time to skim, but the need to be hear the top is overpowering because of the obvious relevance. What's the scale in these pictures? I know microbes make macro-sized imprints, but certainly the parallels being proposed require some sort of scale? E.g. if the martian structures are hundreds of miles across they are not the same scale, and so are less likely to be from the same cause. Not that I disbelieve, but skepticism in science leads to truer truths.
when Republicans don't believe in other planets? Of course their kind posts nonsense in order to ruin the discussion. They don't believe Mars exists in the first place. That is the way of their kind. They make everything about politics.
This list was compiled before 911, so it does not even include all the destruction and chaos that followed. May this be a good history lesson for you young hipsters brainwashed by your media.
links or it didn't happen. also the islamists just shot up a newspaper in france, so glass houses my friend.
NASA, or more accurately TPTB behind NASA, had been lying since the day of NASA's creation. For them to even suggest there is any type of alien life today will eventually lead to the opening of many decade old cans of worms. From stealing alien technology to get to the moon to all the advance alien weapon technology.
If they could, they would lie for another century, but civilian tech is reaching the point of civilian space travel, so they are now struggling to come up with a story line that can introduce the population to alien existence without shooting themselves in the foot, as in exposing how much they have lied about all these years (which is pretty much everything).
For example the moon is not even grey when looked at from a close distance, yet all the moon photos are grey because it is easier to hide and airbrush all the moon structures, they also flipped many of the greyed images (taken from overhead cameras at an angle) upside down so the clear dome shaped shields on the moon would look inverted like a pit.
They already knew what was on the moon more than 50 years ago, but they were warned to fuck off that's why they haven't been back to. Otherwise they'd have planted flags all over the moon by now, TPTB would do anything to get oil, you think they'd miss out on the chance to mine helium 3 if they could?
You guys call yourself nerds but you don't even have the brain to see through the obvious bullshit, or the balls to ask real questions.
Weak stuff there, kiddo. Go back to Reddit and practice some more; you're not ready.
Have a TARDIS, grab Robert Hooke and bring him to the present. Talk to him for an hour about the NASA Mars mission. He'd explain definitively why there are no microscopes on Mars- because the organised Earth religions are MORE powerful today than in his time or even that of Galileo. They DO NOT want the sheeple told conclusively that live exists outside our Earth at this time. They are still consulting with psychologists as to whether such information could lead to the END of their power bases.
Look how the disgusting SHILLS, like that 'Bad Astronomy' clown, tell you sheeple that microscopes would be 'stupid', 'useless', 'impossible' - or when all that nonsense fails that the macro lenses on the geology cameras ARE microscopes (just how stupid does he think you are- sadly he knows all too well).
NASA had a close call with the last century Mars mission- no cameras but insanely well designed chemical experiments that proved beyond a doubt that Mars has life. Luckily, beta sheeple don't find chemical experiments convincing. But the elders of the Earth's main churches certainly DID understand the science (contrary to popular understanding, the rulers of Earth's main organised religions have ALWAYS maintained a state-of-the-art knowledge of current scientific discoveries). So Microscopes on Mars = sheeple learn that life exists outside of this planet. And THIS we cannot have.
Look how SHILLS try to sell you the lie that intelligent Humans EVER considered the Earth to be flat. Human thinkers KNEW the Earth to be curved from long before Human written language, from simple observations of the horizon. So why do shill filth like 'Bad Astronomy' perpetuate the lie to mislead you about the understanding of science by religious leaders? Because it is NEVER about what your MASTERS know- it is about what they want you, the sheeple, to think you know.
Let me give you a simple current example- you hear constant crap about 'man made global warming' based on insignificant temperature variations on a planet still on the tale end of the last ICE AGE. But why the shills seek to craft societal control methods based on this pseudo-science LIE. Yet the absolutely HORRIFIC and TERRIFYING fact that Human puberty has moved by maybe 5 years on average as a consequence of man made chemical substances entering our diet is never mentioned as any kind of significant issue. Which of these two STATISTICS do you think carries greater weight. One so tiny, it is lost in the expected NOISE of the system, or one so massive it represents maybe 30% of the relevant range (0-15).
You, the beta, only think about what you are TOLD to think about through constant and well rehearsed repetition.
There are NO MICROSCOPES ON MARS because no change in public perception clear serves the status quo, whereas any change has obviously uncertain consequences. Why would your masters want to take the risk? But being a beta, especially a TECHNOCRAT beta, you are so thick you don't even know you have masters, even as they dance all around you, impacting on every aspect of your life.
The power of the church in the USA? Go read about the Christian zionist reformatories that have been raping, torturing and sometimes killing young boys and girls, with the COMPLETE approval of Congress, since before the 1950s, and continuing to this day. Every form of abuse, in the name of 'Christ' and Israel (they are zionist churches), is heaped on kids from 11 to 20 (yes, 20- many schools operate in foreign third world lands where the age of majority is 21). When the victims seek redress, the most senior US politicians, including the President- and the US Supreme Court- state that parents have the 'right' to subject their children to any form of abuse in the name of 'religion'. Go Google 'New Horizon Youth Ministries' if you REALLY care to understand why their are NO MICROSCOPES ON MARS.
Nerds don't run the USA- religious zealots do. And the organised religions that employ these zealots are fully conversant with the need to use psychology to control the populace.
Microbial mat surfaces are sometimes tricky to recognize on Earth versus ordinary non-biological sedimentary structures, but that outcrop surface on Mars is a pretty poor place to try to make the distinction. It's not a freshly-broken and exposed bedding surface. It's been strongly differentially weathered and sculpted by wind erosion. Worse, it's draped with modern-day dust. Even if this was a surface with microbial mat structures on it, the first thing you'd need is a broom to clean it off to get a better look.
Noffke is indeed a world expert in recognizing modern and ancient microbial mats. That's not an exaggeration. She's literally written the textbook on it, for Earth. But it's quite a stretch for any of these Mars examples. The other pictures in the published paper aren't any better. A lot of them look like "modern" weathering (for whatever counts as "modern" weathering on the surface of Mars), rather than features formed at the time of the sediment deposition and subsequently exposed.
Doing some chemical analysis, as mentioned in that popular article, wouldn't be much help either. Many Earthly structures like this have not a scrap of organic material left from the mat. It's just the shape that reveals the former presence of the mat on the sediment surface.
Most of the identified structures are cm to tens of cm and metre scale. The area in the picture in the web article is maybe couple of metres across. There are scale bars on the pictures in the paper. The microbes are tiny, but (on Earth) they form microbial mat communities that look like a thin carpet of algae and bacteria that covers the sediment surface. This changes the way the sediment surface behaves, and (on Earth) leaves characteristic features that can be recognized as sedimentary structures preserved in the rocks at a macroscopic scale. Putting it another way, you can tell there was once a mat there and affected the sediment surface even if the mat itself doesn't ultimately preserve.
That being said, I don't buy these supposed examples from Mars at all.
I keep waiting for the report that evidence of past life was found on the tire treads of one of the rovers.
"Look: proof life used to exist on Mars! Quick, send a command to rotate the tire some before the press notices we ran over the last one on the planet..."
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
Americans can't even do their own learning now?
There is a glass house alright, most of the "bad guys" were once "good guys" trained by Americans anyway, atleast most of the "big names" were.
American logic: Iraq didn't happen. The WMD lie didn't happen. Because someone didn't post a link.
Please, never step outside the US border, your little bubble won't survive a day outside that reality distortion field, talk that way in the real world and you'll be ridiculed immediately, not all Americans are responsible for their government, but the reason nobody respects Americans today is because of their ignorant attitude.
We can't believe how little Americans know about what their country is doing with their tax money. Do you even know where they ended up? (hint: not in Americans hands)
Ready for what? Tell you how bad you are doing in a way that pleases you? Of all the shit that has been happening that is the one thing you focus on?
You call yourself a geek? You are not even ready for reality.
1. The scientist in question is arguably the foremost in her (admittedly obscure) field, the study of microbial mats and their effects on sediments on Earth. She literally wrote the book on the subject and has a very extensive publication record on it. She is a well-known and respected researcher for this work, although admittedly it's obscure stuff at the interface between sedimentology and paleontology.
2. The pictures themselves are quite clear and are from the mastcam on the Curiosity rover. They aren't distant blurry pictures with huge blocky pixels and horrible processing, although they could be better. The structures interpreted from them, not so convincing, IMHO, but that has little to do with image resolution issues.
3. She's an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia.
I think you scored a 0.5/3. Don't trust your prejudices.
That being said, I think the interpretations in the paper aren't correct.
bottoms to the Republican tops. Balls deep inside you and shooting their trickle-down jizz in your rectum.
No wonder there is no outer space exploration going on - it's all happening in your anus.
thanks for the laugh.
For example the moon is not even grey when looked at from a close distance
do you think it's possible that things look a little different from the surface of the moon than from 238k miles away?
but civilian tech is reaching the point of civilian space travel
thanks to NASA, yes.
Otherwise they'd have planted flags all over the moon by now
the moon is an airless, waterless rock. we haven't been back because it's incredibly, incredibly expensive and there's no financial or political reason to do so.
but they were warned to fuck off that's why they haven't been back to
i'm confused. we used alien tech to get to the moon, but those same aliens won't even let us land there? why'd they give us the tech in the first place? all the tech that was used in the moon mission is well understood and surpassed by current tech.
also, what exactly are those aliens doing on the moon? mining moon dust? these aliens can travel between solar systems but they can't find any better world to inhabit than the moon?
That's funny, I gave up on Ars after they started going downhill. And they used to be good. I loved that article debunking the nonsense that is homeopathy, for example, but real journalism is hard to find these days, it's all clickbaity nonsense any more.
If you're wondering what I'm doing on Slashdot, I just come here for the jokes.
Haha, there's nothing you can do about it. Sucks being you, JACKASS!
I mean, it only makes sense to send a mars rover to scout out Eden Prime. Hopefully, the first person to land there will be able to understand the vision.
Offtopic I know, but after today we're going to double down.
It's weird in your timeline, isn't it?
Well if you want jokes Ars has that too. Its name is Peter Bright.
Yes, we are nerds, but we're not all paranoid schizophrenic nutjobs. Seriously, get medicated. Your life will improve dramatically.
(I say this as my father has started talking like you, and my half-uncles on his side of the family also talked just like you.)
Shill fail.
Many of the moon photos NASA released, were took at a close distance are still grey. As opposed to their color. It's been well known NASA tinted the Mars photos as well.
What kind of idiot would suggest there are no financial and political reason to claim land on the moon. How much do you think helium 3 costs? Why do they build station on Antarctica? You can't be that fucking stupid can you?
Next you're going to tell me NASA never air brushed their photos.
You are either a fool or a paid shill. Probably one of those millions of disinfo psyop agent earning their paycheck by dumbing the public down.
Actually there is a lot the world can do, we're watching your empire crumble in real time, waiting for the perfect moment to pick up the pieces, in fact it is already happening.
Stay arrogant Americans, it is very important for you to maintain your decline.
From a link on microbial lifeforms found on Earth http://www.astrobio.net/news-e... "What’s more, MISS have remained unchanged over the last 3 billion years" MISS: microbially-induced sedimentary structure.
Says a lot really, it's considered a fact you will get cancer (a mutation of the a cell) if you live long enough.
"A certain irreducible background incidence of cancer is to be expected regardless of circumstances: mutations can never be absolutely avoided, because they are an inescapable consequence of fundamental limitations on the accuracy of DNA replication" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bo...
3 billion years and little if any mutations in a microbe life or it's off spring.
“But it also raised the question: why are they so identical?” she adds. “And what does that mean about the organisms that created them?”
I believe many are afraid to admit the fact other life may have lived beyond Earth. It will bring up more questions then answers. Such as, did this life have a God, where and how did they originate and progress. What happened to them? Are we actually them? How does life on Mars relate to all the UFO sightings over the decades on Earth? Are we as human's truly Gods creatures or just another advanced races experiment ? I know myself if you want to believe you will see what you want to see in those mars rover pictures. If you don't you'll probably see just rock formations. I personally believe some have legitimate features and shapes that poise the question how they could have been formed naturally. But as I said, if you begin to address the life on Mars you will have to question our own.
and of course christian churchs never had a problem raping alter boys and covering up such incidents to protect clergy? Face it, Islam is just like Christianity.
Might need to adjust your tin foil hat there. I can read your brain!
/. has Bennett Haselton... but this is not the joke your looking for.
It's Nora Knoffke. She makes things up. End of story.
you could at least provide links to a bunch of whacko conspiracy sites? how thoughtless of you.
do you wonder why your comment was downvoted to a point where no one will ever see it? i guess ALL of the slashdot readers are also idiots or shills huh? when you walk around life thinking everyone else is an idiot or stupid, that's an indication it's time to turn your inspection inward.
Next you're going to tell me NASA never air brushed their photos.
i'm going to tell you that there are no domes or shields or man-made structures on the moon. if there were, one of the tens of thousands of amateur astronomers around the world would have seen them. but anyway, i do realize that one of the issues with paranoid delusion is that you are going to explain away any evidence presented to you, so just ignore what i said.
i'm also going to suggest you have the medication levels checked.
Who cares? From an Americans perspective "Fuck off, we'll do as we want and there isn't anything you can do about it."
I doubt that the Germans would be as rude about your technical knowledge on the basis of your original address as you are of theirs.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"