The Curiosity Rover — that people-mover sized robot roving around Mars right now — has reportedly just “found something”, according to the boffins at NASA, and while the administration won’t confirm what it is just yet, they think it’s going to be “one for the history books”. OH GOD WHAT IS IT?!
NPR reports that one of the Curiosity’s on-board instruments has found something “really interesting”. That instrument is specifically the chemical lab that analyses the composition of the Martian surface. Specifically:
The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,” John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That’s where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. “The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down,” says Grotzinger.
SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.
Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” he says.
Whatever could it be? Confirmation that there was — or still is — water on the surface of Mars? Indications that a civilisation used to live there? Remnants of a cheeseburger? Proof that Kim Kardashian isn’t actually from here?
Curiosity has already found evidence of a riverbed and some mystery metal particles its relatively short stint on Mars.
NASA and the scientists from the Jet Propulsion Lab are doing their sums really carefully on this one, so they can’t tell us what it is until they’re absolutely sure. When we do find out what it is, though, I hope it’s amazing.
What do you think it is? [NPR]
man, these NASA guys are teases.
TELL ME WHAT YOU FOUND DAMMIT
...it had better be something good.
I hope it's poop. That would be amazing.
"We analysed the soil sample and determined that it was actually fossilized poop. There was life on Mars millions of years ago, and it pooped."
Imagine the headlines!
"New Poo Clue Belongs To... Who?"
Hello, is this News Ltd? Hire Effluvium Boy.
Headline of the year.
I'd be impressed if they can analyse the poop and then declare the pooper to be male/female, what it had as a meal and how long ago the poop was dropped.
A previously unknown element.
Eezo?
Anyone who has studied chemistry understands how profoundly unlikely that is. We're more likely to find a life form on Mars than an unknown element.
Oh yeah then how so you explain flubber?
Unobtainium
I would put good money on it being a living life form of some time - bacteria or some other such thing - this whole double, triple checking thing, and the comments about it being a major historical event really makes me think it is this.
Though I suppose it could just as likely be any number of other things, and they just want to be really really sure before announcing it. (such as evidence of life, actual water, stored Oxygen or any number other such things). But Actual Living Life excites me the most.
That or the USSR did manage to land on Mars. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_One )
I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to hear somebody at NASA say "We found life". I hope it is something that awesome, but I don't want to get my hopes up.
Hrmm Maybe they found a Big Blue Box?
David Bowie must be very excited right now!
The issue with NASA scientist is what they find really interesting, most people think it's nothing but science mubo jumbo...
I hope they find nothing.
Why? Read http://www.nickbostrom.com/extraterrestrial.pdf
that was a awesome read. thank you
That was an excellent read, and quite convincing.
However, if they do find life on Mars, all might not be lost. Mars life (or vice versa) could be derived from meteorites originating from Earth ejecta. That would allow for life on multiple planets within the solar system without the gloom and doom that Nick Bostrom contends will follow.
The Earth must have been pounded hard to produce some ejecta like that.
Agreed, it was an interesting read (obvious spelling/grammar mistakes aside), but I too am not convinced that the outlook need be so bleak if we do find life on Mars. The Great Filter argument, for example, is a little problematic as he presents it... Granted, the development of intelligent life in and of itself may be highly improbable, but that doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility for the arbitrary development of simplistic forms of life in other parts of the universe... ie. life forms that never reach that improbably Great Filter before disappearing forever... (This would hence allay his concerns over finding ANY kind of life on Mars, however simplistic)
Also (and here I'm admittedly indulging my love of classical sci-fi), why rule out the 'advanced secret society' hypothesis? He discards it as being less plausible than the alternatives he presents, but heck, we're talking about extra-terrestrial intelligences here that are sufficiently technologically advanced to be able to traverse the known universe. Is it that far of a stretch to assume that they would have developed socially/politically as well? ie. to the point that they’ve established very strict rules regarding contact with an intelligence that they deem to be insufficiently advanced?
(and to Matthew's comment... You mean like the one scientists postulate may have created our moon? or the ones that may have wiped out the dinosaurs? =)
Last edited November 22, 2012 10:54 am
tl;dr or more accurately tl;gur (gave up reading)
There is so much babbling in it, i just want the actual reason, not the reasoning behind the reason.
Dude, it was ten pages long, and not even a dense ten pages at that... If you can't even make it through that short a piece, perhaps you shouldn't be pondering these kinds of questions in the first place.
Last edited November 22, 2012 10:30 pm
Interesting opinion. But ultimately I don't agree. The great filter (that can be breached eventually - it is not a destroyer but a barrier) if there was such a thing, would be a combination of time, distance and technology.
When thinking of advanced aliens. I like to think of the ant scenario. An ant doesn't know what a human is. It has no concept of higher creatures except that they could pose a threat. It's interactions with other creatures (very basically) can be summarised as: can we eat this, no, can it kill us? Probably, then run. You get the picture. To take this a step further, I like to think of the kid with a magnifying glass frying ants scenario. Does the ant know that there is a human holding the magnifying glass? Most certainly it doesn't. It senses detect the searing heat and it simply runs for it's life because it knows, too much heat = death. Once it no longer detects the searing heat, then it's business as usual. In reference to us using our technology to communicate with the aliens, let's use our imagination. Maybe there is an ant out there who one day wondered, why the hell are some ants suddenly bursting into flames for no rhyme or reason. Thus he approaches the queen for permission to attempt and see if there is something out there. How do they do this? The queen releases pheromones (that's how ants communicate), she makes a special pheromone, that the ants read as: "we live here, is there anybody out there?" Would we pick up this pheromone? No, we don't prescribe to that archaic form of communication and just really couldn't be bothered. We are simply beyond that level of evolution.
If there are aliens out there that can traverse the universe. We will be like ant's to them and the earth could reflect the universe to us. For one, they will be sufficiently advanced that they will have no need to invade planets for resources so it's unlikely that they would ever need to invade us for that (ant's provide zero threat to our energy interests - thus we leave them alone) . If you can fly around the universe, you've pretty much mastered energy (the primary reason for war) and I posit that you will have figured out how to have an unlimited energy supply. Thus, their prime interest in us, would be tourism. If they did ever come past here, it would be no different to safari, simply out of curiosity. A quick look and then gone. They would be invisible to us, because they are simply unfathomable to us, like we are to the ants. Let's also remember, we're in a quiet part of the universe, the furtherest object that we can see 13.3 billion light-years away. That's 13.3 billion years of travelling at light speed to get there. Who's to say that there are not other parts of the universe where there have been intergalactic wars between two less advanced species (no light travel) that evolved on stars very close to each other that could eventually be reached through conventional means (thrust), stars that are billions of light years away. Remember, we can't even see distant planets, we detect them and thus confer the existence, so we wouldn't even be able to see an intergalactic war even if it did happen in a "visible" galaxy (I use visible lightly.) as the light would simply not reach us.
I could go on. But you get the idea.
Last edited November 22, 2012 12:07 pm
wow, you just blew my mind with all that. I feel like an ant. I might have nightmares.You should write some sci-fi or something
Hehehe, thanks. Sadly, my attention span is only good for about half and hour.
Nice one osirisfox, the ant analogy is an apt one. Can we rack that up as another vote for the plausibility of the 'advanced secret society' hypothesis then? =)
Last edited November 22, 2012 10:27 pm
Thanks Spyder. And I agree, yours is a totally valid hypothesis! Vote has been cast accordingly. Though, can I ask that you change it to Secret Advanced Society (SAS) rather... Acronyms fail otherwise, Hehehe.
Last edited November 23, 2012 1:35 pm
Haha well, I meant that more in the intellectual sense of the phrase, but thank you =)
edit: yep, I like SAS as an acronym
Last edited November 23, 2012 2:59 pm
Damn, got to be quick on the edits.... lol, and only make 1! Think you just responded to an edited edit. but the message stayed the same. ha ha. later bro.
The theory assumes the existance of a Great Filter in the first place of course. But why? The universe is not that old, and someone had to come first. To hell with his negativity.
I agree... we might just be the progenitors of all life in the universe.
It probably just found evidence that Chuck Norris has already been there
That's why there's no life there.
They must have found fossil bone or even shocking human bones!
Nah, they're my dads falsies.
Gold
I hope the NASA PR boffins can get every last headline out of whatever it is so they can continue to justify their existence and argue a case for additional resources!
Maybe it's oil, that'd be the one thing they'd really get funding for
What scientists often consider amazing generally isn't always amazing to the general public. So it will be interesting to see what it is actually..
agreed.
probably announce that they found some more dirt and rocks
I really wonder if something like this is newsworthy? Wouldn't it of been better to wait for the final results...
Most likely it was a Twinkie.
They finally found jimmy hauffa!!!
I think it will be fish bones from the river bed.
I'm banking on it being some complex organics. Not life per se, but evidence there was life.
Decepticons. And it turns out the whole mission is an elaborate viral marketing campaign for Transformers 4 - just like the Occupy movement was set up to promote The Dark Knight Rises.
they found Diamonds
hahaha we were talking about that at work today. I said it's prolly a coke can and a maccers wrapper. that sh%t is everywhere.
Its the 1st Mars Geocache.... Damn.... Make sure you replace it with something as meaningful for the next Rover or Martian....Hmmmmm
HOW DO I UPVOTE MOAR
Yeah yeah yeah.... I'm expecting never to hear another thing about this, ever.
life....
and the reason they are saying they are 'double and triple checking'... is because they're busy deciding who's the one to go in the history books as the one who gave the 'life on mars' speech haha..
oh and the one who ruined religion hahahaha
It was a cigar butt.
chance of finding anything on the surface that support the existence of life is not possible, so it could only be minerals that would be favorable to future man mission. What chance is there that it could be a piece of fossilised plant?
OK Charles Garry Darwin