NASA SECRET DISCOVERY ON MARS: Meteor offers possible clue All the boffinry world is alive with speculation as to just what the as yet unnannounced "one for the history books" discovered by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity might be. But a recently-published study may offer a clue. In the investigation, researchers from NASA's Johnson Space Center, the Carnegie Institution and the Lunar and …
I guarantee you'll be a lot closer to correct than a lot of the guesses I've already seen will be.
My guess: Something about the chemical distribution which suggests that there could be something more going on than just dirt sitting around at equilibrium, but which needs a lot more investigation with additional instruments on a subsequent mission before anyone starts throwing the L word around. There is NO way a collection of spectrometers is going to offer definitive proof of ongoing or former life.
"... a flattened Panda Pop bottle!"
Now there's one for the Reg SPB. JODi P, or Junk On DIstant Planets.
The objective being the first gratuitous discarding of human refuse on a new world. Apollo doesn't count, because they had a reason to go there. In this programme, the SPB need to achieve escape velocity with a payload of one piece of regular earth litter plus the kit to track the progress of the litter to its destination.
I'm sure it would be difficult, but rewarding in terms of the bleating that would be likely.
Fluids all follow pretty much the same physics. And fluids, scientifically speaking, include gases. A hostile atmosphere on a remote planet can, after enough time, grow features that look exactly like a river, etc. has run through. As can any number of natural phenomena.
Hell, it's like seeing that photograph of "desert sand struck by lightning" and saying that it can "only" be caused by the sand coming alive and trying to grow into a tree. From a scientific perspective, without any evidence, we can't say what those features are caused by.
and with martian gravity only 38% of earth's dry sand will flow like water very easily once agitated on a slope. And big rocks will too with a bit more of a slope.
And you cant easily tell the difference in the erosion they cause.
Finding water on Mars would be a lot more fun than finding physics or some 'new' geology but my bet is with the latter.
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...get over it.... and you religious types, yes you, you can finally throw your bibles away and stop fighting over the blue and the red hats - or whatever bullshit it is this week that causes you to kill and maim hundreds of innocent bystanders, in the name of *insert name of your god here*.
Don't blame religion for the worlds ills. Man will kill and maim his fellow man for resources, greed, power, influence and anything else thats suit his purposes. Religion is just a convenient vehicle for them to use. Most religions teach peace and understanding. The message just gets cast aside. If the money spent on "Defence" was spent on solving the worlds resource problems, and exploration, we'd have had bases on Mars ages ago.
Funnily enough, this reminds me of a "talk" I saw in 2003 or 2004, which was supposed to be about life on Mars. It was at around a table at a restaurant during quiet hours, with this engineering (as he described himself, although I doubt) guy speaking and some 6 or 7 people there to watch, and discuss afterwards. The title, which I don't remember, was intriguing. So I went.
Getting there, I found out it was arranged by some ministry. OK, that does not mean it will be bad. The guy started, and it soon became clear it was a creationist propaganda event, and all kinds of (the same old and discredited) attacks on the feasibility of evolution. The Mars thing? Well, the speaker's conclusion was that there could not be life, specially intelligent life, on Mars (or elsewhere) because such life would have to be "saved" (in the Christian way). And to be saved, there would have to be sacrifice of Christ over and over again. And apparently god "can't afford" (I remember those were his words) to do that. How about that, this guy knows god personally! Who'd have thought.
Of course this happened in America. The capital of Virginia, to be precise.
I, on the other hand, LOVE IT! It's much better than _CATS!_ and I want to take it again and again! Ok, only twice so far, and the 2nd time I suggested at the end that they may want to track who has completed it already.
That, and they need more stories with an attractive-buxom-redhead angle.
What it comes back? I done it just to get rid of it.
Also the options where a bit meh I work for a fairly large hosting provider so oddly we are investing a lot into IT with our large IT budget.
I suggested getting rid of the big adverts at the sides of articles that's regain focus clicking space.
(I guess im the only one bothered by this)
It's probably organic compounds since the soil analyzer is geared for detecting such things.
Still, the soil analysis equipment does have a camera with a resolution in micrometers so a mini fossil is a possibility (which would confirm another, disputed, finding in a Mars meteorite).
Whilst I'm fairly sure (but can't stop myself from hoping/speculating!) it won't be anything considered Earth-shattering from the point of view of your average lay person, I think it will be something that strengthens the case for current/past life on Mars.
Anything that strengthens the case for getting people out there is a massive bonus in my opinion. Just wish I didn't know about this announcement ahead of time - it's killing me!
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