Mars discovery 'one for history books'

[Saint Nick]

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has apparently made a discovery "for the history books," but we'll have to wait a few weeks to find out what the new Red Planet find may be, media reports suggest.


The discovery was made by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, NPR reported Tuesday. SAM is the rover's onboard chemistry lab, and it's capable of identifying organic compounds — the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it.

Very exciting...what could it possibly be? I'm all for speculation at this point ^_^

Hopefully not some sort of crazy alien race living under the surface...

It must be pretty big, right?

 

[Jaskalas]

Perhaps proof of previous carbon based life forms that are now, in all likelihood, extinct.

Could be some remains evidenced in rocks once you scratch the surface.

 

[Fern]

What a tease.

Fern

 

[Saint Nick]

I always thought it would be amazing if they found things like dinosaurs or ancient ruins somewhere on Mars. That would be mind blowing!!!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

surprise!

 

[JEDIYoda]

could be a working stargate or a working warp drive.......

 

[wirednuts]

must be big if its worth talking about and serious enough to make sure the findings are scientifically sound?

if this is smoke i will be upset...

must be something to do with life, or some chemical analysis that confirms earth and mars are siblings...

 

[finglobes]

Obama's passport

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

must be big if its worth talking about and serious enough to make sure the findings are scientifically sound?

if this is smoke i will be upset...

must be something to do with life, or some chemical analysis that confirms earth and mars are siblings...

Perhaps, but remember "life" was discovered to have existed by analysis of meteors. Thats probably why it's taking time, but early hints often come back to haunt.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Obama's passport

College transcript ?

 

[Doppel]

Just calling it now: Won't be that interesting except to uber space geeks. No proof of previous life or anything else quite so interesting.

 

[stormkroe]

Some friends and I are betting on this already. I say earth microbe fossils/remains. The moon-earth collision ejected huge amounts of debris into space, there's a good chance some of it landed on Mars.

 

[SandEagle]

we have to wait until the photoshop has been perfected to fool even the keenest eye

 

[postmortemIA]

we have to wait until the photoshop has been perfected to fool even the keenest eye

yep, they are editing pixel-by-pixel, weeks of work.

my guess is water, or some organic compound.

 

[Farang]

What was the last time this happened? I seem to remember earlier this year some 'big announcement' fizzled. I can't even remember what it was.

 

[Newbian]

I am going with planet of the apes theory but on Mars.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

this is all garbage to make people think they arent wasting money. theres is only one definitive proof that life exists other places than earth--a freaken alien in a jar. realistically there probably is life in other parts of the universe, but it isnt nearly so common that you have a chance of finding it on every eighth planet

 

[Farang]

this is all garbage to make people think they arent wasting money. theres is only one definitive proof that life exists other places than earth--a freaken alien in a jar. realistically there probably is life in other parts of the universe, but it isnt nearly so common that you have a chance of finding it on every eighth planet

You don't have anything to base this on. Given the extreme conditions life has been found to exist on Earth (basically everywhere save for molten lava), it's just as likely life is very common. What may be uncommon is intelligent life that may require friendlier conditions than what small microbes can tolerate.

 

[Doppel]

this is all garbage to make people think they arent wasting money. theres is only one definitive proof that life exists other places than earth--a freaken alien in a jar. realistically there probably is life in other parts of the universe, but it isnt nearly so common that you have a chance of finding it on every eighth planet

Probably true.

Also, there's no way anything from earth is on mars other than a rover. It's too far away and the rover is covering far too little ground.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

College transcript ?

Mitts tax returns or his plan to balance the budget

 

[sportage]

Heres what I think. Mars was once full of human life. Our origins possibly. Then things went terribly wrong. High tech wars, fighting, brother against brother. Then just before the big mars melt down, the move was made to earth. At some point the mars rover will come across the remains of the statue of liberty sticking out from the red dust, and little rover will cry out DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL.
Mars is too much like the earth, that is before total climate change devastation and who knows what form ungodly high tech wars turned the planet into red dust.
Somewhere far beneath that dust, the truth is waiting.
And our destiny here on earth?
Hey Steven Spielberg, this one is right up your alley.

 

[Smoblikat]

I always thought it would be amazing if they found things like dinosaurs or ancient ruins somewhere on Mars. That would be mind blowing!!!

They wouldn't let something like THAT get out.

 

[Balt]

Just calling it now: Won't be that interesting except to uber space geeks. No proof of previous life or anything else quite so interesting.

Was thinking the same thing. Something along the lines of: "We found some element/compound that is common on Earth but we didn't previously know was also on Mars. It doesn't actually mean Mars was inhabitable, though."

 

[TheVrolok]

Do want to know

 

[Throckmorton]

They constantly say things like this, then it turns out to be nothing.