English Researchers Find Extra-Terrestrial Water 98
Lister of Smeg writes: "Some researchers found water on a meteorite that is about 570 million years older than the oldest terrestrial rocks. The implications are that water isn't as rare as we thought, conditions for life may have existed elsewhere in the solar system before Earth, and from the article ... 'There is this old idea that life on Earth may have been seeded from somewhere else.'"
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:5)
The WashU Laboratory of Space Sciences has a page on isotope age determination in meteors [wustl.edu], geologic formations and other ancient inorganic structures. Here's what they say on this very point:
Iodine-129 is now extinct in nature. Its short half-life, 15.6 million years, means that Iodine-129 has long since decayed away in a solar system that is 4.6 billion years old.
Furthermore, any radioisotope age determination is based on two things: a) a knowledge of the relative prevalence of the isotope; and b) the half-life. [If the original prevalence is not known, you can sometimes make estimates from decay products of multiple unrelated isotopes]
According to the 'standard' half-life, I-129 is not a useful isotope, but to make things worse, this sample was irradiated by the high-energy space environment for a very long time (I'm assuming millions or billions of years). Irradiation can cause accelerated decay, changing the effective half-life.
Bottom line: unknown original prevalence (somewhere in space, at some unknown time), unknown effective half-life, due to unknown but significant irradiation history, and an unsuitable isotope. Ugh. This is Scientology!
You'd get a better estimate by flipping coins for binary bits. Wait! Maybe they did! How else did they get that number at all?
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Brought to you by the guy who outed Katz as a Scientologist!
Re:I'd like to thank Slashdot... (Score:1)
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Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
What about mars? (Score:1)
Some little green men sent all of thier pets to a pathetic planted called Earth, including thier pathetic human pets.
I always thought that thinking that we were the only solar system capible of sustaing life was a little hard to belive, but even further saying that some water molecules on an asteroid could be the answer to life itself! Now that is a new one!
Re:A little vague... (Score:1)
I think it was the age of the salt that suggested water (salt-water) was liquid at particular time relative near the conjectured birth of the solar system. Which is to say: the early solar system had water someplace other than Earth and way out in the fringes and it may have been more common.
Comets have CO2 ice, Methane ice, and water ice (and probably lots of other shtuff). So you're right, but I'm not sure your point should detract from the finding.
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
--
grappler
Beware of "scientists" - they are scary (Score:2)
I demand the right to a solid platform upon which I can support my dignity. How can I feel good about myself if I am reminded that I share common ancestry with ape-brutes? I've been to the zoo, and I decline to write of the horrid, disgusting things I have seen the creatures do.
With our sense of self-worth at stake, supporters of science will talk of 'empirical evidence', 'facts', and 'logic'. Take a moment and reflect on the innocence lost the day our world left it's prominent spot at the center of the universe. And now they would have us force feed this, their evil-ution, to our kids.
Does a man who is doing his utmost to get into heaven benefit from filling his head with theories? Do we want our teachers questioning all that is good and decent, twisting things around with their fancy words? We must shift our focus back to something which is never used in an evil fashion: religion.
--
grappler
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:2)
Who knows, maybe the majority of the univers is I-129?
;)
Re:Water plentiful? (Score:1)
Hal Clement's Iceworld, 1951. Exploration of an extremely cold planet, so cold that an obscure chemical, H2O, is actually liquid. (If I recall correctly from reading it fifteen years ago.)
Re:Why I'm an anonymous coward (Score:1)
Silicon life? (Score:1)
I don't remember the actual details but it involved low-level electron properties of Carbon that enabled it's intense flexibility and polyerization, something that silicon just doesn't have.
Now, I'm not saying that Si-based life doesn't exist, but form the chemical analysis I've seen, I really think that the whole concept is VERY overrated. I mean EVERY time an aricle comes out like this, people say:
"These scientists are so narrow-minded (or something to this effect). What if carbon-based life is the minority?" Or "Whatr about Si based life".
I mean, once again, don't people think astrophysicists and Chemists THINK about these things? These concpets are NOT new! I'm just tired of people bringing the topics up, like the stupid scientists overlooked this! YES, there is the possibility of non-Carbon based life. and YES there are good reasons to think that carbon is a favored molecule for life forms, and water with it!
Oh well, it's 2AM and I'm probably just tired and ranting. It just seems that every time a science article comes out on
Sincerely,
Kevin Christie
kwchri@wm.edu
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Thanks for clearing the hogwash (Score:1)
Thank you!
I have not laughed like that at an email for ages!!!!!!
Pity me- I go through stages of actually liking the guy!!
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
Well, he could be omnipotent, omniscient, or both, but there is no way he could be all-loving.
However you said "both" and listed 3 characteristics. This is an error, albeit a small one. Now since god is perfect and you are created in his image, you can't make errors.
You will please note that we have reached a contradiction.
Therefore God is not perfect either.
QED
---CONFLICT!!---
Re:seeded (Score:1)
That's Mr Almighty to you I take you will not forget again. Otherwise we will force feed you the entire contents of L Ron Hubbard's last bowel movements!!!
Re:Water plentiful? (Score:3)
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:1)
Re:Minimax Theory (Score:1)
Re:Washhog (Score:1)
I'm not ridiculing your premises. I'm ridiculing your logic.... that lack of ability to conceive an idea means that ideas is wrong is poor logical form. That is a "logical" construct (and a false one), not a premise.
They weren't looking for I-129 in that (Score:1)
To his surprise, Whitby found a large amount of xenon-129 - an element that forms when the isotope iodine-129 decays. Iodine-129 is radioactive and is not found on Earth.
Next, the researchers wanted to know how old the halite was. Luckily, it's already known how long it takes iodine-129 to decay into xenon-129. Using this information, Whitby and colleagues calculated that the salt crystals - and the water - in the meteorite formed only two million years after the birth of the Solar System 4.57 billion years ago.
They found Xenon-129 in the meteorite, not Iodine-129; but since Iodine-129 decays into Xenon-129 they can figure it out from the Xenon-129 available.
Water in meteorites not news. (Score:1)
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... older than 4.6Byr (Score:3)
I-129 is formed in exploding supernovas [eb.com] (as are all elements heavier than iron) because the iron nucleus is exceptionally stable, and producing heavier elements consumes energy, rather than releasing it. *Trace amounts* may be produced in a 'living star' but not concentrations we could detect, even as Xe-129, billions of years later. The accretion disk of a black hole might have this capacity, too, but it does not affect my argument.
That means that the Iodine 129 was produced in a previous star -- and hence possibly a previous solar system (and almost certainly previous material bodies such as dust clouds and asteroids) I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that previous solar systems may have contained water.
The age of the metorite is unknown. Even if one accepts the theory advanced in the CNN article (it is plausible, but not much more than that) the meteor is almost certainly much older than 4.6 billion. This meteor probably did not accrete in our solar system. To accrete in our solar system there would have had to have been a supernova in our vicinity within few hundred million years before our solar system accreted
If the nova had been any older, its I-139 would already have decayed before the meteor formed and would not be present in detectable quantities. Such a recent, near nova is inconsistent with the astronomic data (no gas cloud remnants, or visible effect on nearby stars) and is inconsistent with any current model of star formation and planetary accretion -- the supernova would have played hell on the proto-sun and proto-planetary gas disk, and it takes more than a few hundred million years
The English theory is just a goofy hypothesis that would knock many far more established theories out of whack, and offers no basis whatsoever to revise those theories. It is embarrassing.
The meteor is most likely *far older* -- more like 7-10 billion years than 4.6 billion
ET (Score:1)
My theory is that these advanced creatures actually seeded our earth and the life on it. In fact, they have probably seeded countless planets. You ask what is the point of all of this, I'm not going to give you that answer, you will have to figure it out yourself. But the point is that life as we know it is only a small part of the big picture really out there. I think these advanced creatures have purposely shielded us from interaction with other planets and forms of life to maintain an environment that essentially protects us and at the same time keeps us ignorant of other worlds.
Anyhow it is just some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com [npsis.com]
Re:Researchers need to get funding (Score:1)
Huh? H2O not rare according to spectra (Score:2)
It's not rare at all.
Re:Relative (Score:2)
Er, yes it does. Count to ten, ten times.
I understand what you're trying to say, you just picked a bad example.
Later
Erik Z
Its only a matter of time. (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
--
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
Re:What does... (Score:1)
Re:Hogwash (Score:2)
Hm. You, personally, cannot conceive of the notion that the world was generated without god, therefore the world was not generated without god. By extension, I cannot believe that flowers can grow without fairies, therefore flowers require fairies. Great logic. At one time people couldn't conceive of the notion of a round earth, a heliocentric solar system or a bunch of other things.... and they, too, were wrong
"random scientific evolution". Uh, random doesn't have anything to do with it. Also, I assume that you're talking about "natural selection" when you say "evolution". You should really look these things up.
than I can attribute it to the boogey man. Only a higher being could have given us a rose, a bald eagle, a rainbow, etc.
If only a higher being could have given us a rose, then what gave us a higher being? A higher-higher being? Hm. I sense a slippery slope of n(higher) beings. Point two: If only a higher being could have given us a rose, could only said higher being have also given us, say, Anthrax (the disease, not the band... although the band isn't a great example of divine perfection either) or Hitler or cancer? Or is the higher being only responsible for the things you define as good or beutiful?
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
--
The scientologists were right! (Score:1)
Battlefield Earth really wasn't kidding. Maybe that's the part of BE that didn't suck!
I want my prize, Jon Katz. :)
I think (Score:3)
Re:Hogwash (Score:5)
Yes, but that would then mean that the "higher being" also gave us Pauly Shore. This is direct evidence against the existence of a god that is both omnipotent, omniscient, and all-loving.
Re:I think (Score:2)
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
If you've ever read the bible...
Actually, in point of fact, I have... I, like most atheists, was indoctrinated into my parents' religion as a child and, like most atheists, I went through a looong period of "searching" for spiritual meaning before becoming an atheist.
One: Faith doesn't enlighten. I can have faith in dragons, ufo's or Yahweh. Doesn't mean any of them exist. Any proposition that can be considered "true" must be falsifiable either through a) experimentation, b) observation or c) logical inference from either a or b. Insert standard disclaimers on epistemiology and circular inference here.
Two: The fall from grace, if we are to accept the mythology (and I don't), was the result of humans gaining the knowledge of good and evil. If there was no evil prior to apple snack, then how could that knowledge have been exercised or even recognized? The ability to make said discrimination would have been meaningless.
Two B: I disconcurr that all of the things that are "evil" necessarily had to be perpetrated by "man". Firstly there is evil by permission. god is theoretically omnipotent and, thus, all occurrences in the world are at his permission. By allowing evil to ocurr when he is fully capable of stopping it is an evil by permission. Abetting for lack of a better word. Secondly, there are a bunch of things ocurring directly at god's behest or by his hand in the bible that appear to be patently evil. My personal fave, of course, is the one about the children who moke Elisha because he is bald... God summons she-bears to devour them. I don't remember the chapter and verse and I'm too lazy to look it up but I'm pretty sure it's in Kings... The next time you take a swipe at the bible, try a critical eye. Ask some questions of it. Demand internal consistency. You may see it for what it is, a cobbling of folk tales, morality stories and mangled history cobbled together from different and often contradictory sources.... and in bad translation at that.
Re:Recycled Water (Score:1)
Don't ask why I posted it. It just reflected my end of Friday mood.
Relative (Score:2)
Just because someone can count to 10, doesn't mean they can necessarily count to 100. Water is a very simple compount - two molecules of hydrogen, and one of oxygen. A single celled life form, on the other hand, has many many more elements combined together to make a larger whole.
When one thinks about life, and physical materials in general as a whole, it's hard to not see the parallels between it and programming. There are the base elements - atoms and say, assembly. These things build up to make something more complex - but still composed of the smaller elements - say, elements and any construction language.
Makes one wonder if the physical world was programmed by Someone.
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CAIMLAS
Re:Water, water, everywhere (Score:2)
Oh, don't tell me now there's some other place with the same name!
Re:The Truth (yes, really) About Steve Woston (Score:1)
Rock is "soppng wet" anyway (Score:1)
The big mystery in Noah's flood is that it went down again (if earth were perfectly round, you'd be sitting under about 2km of water right now - good luck with breathing), not where all the water came from.
Finding substantial amounts of water in meteoric rock tells us something quite simple, and quite different to the reported quackery: the meteorite wasn't in space long enough for the water to escape.
A little vague... (Score:2)
It's possible that by meteorite they're actually talking about asteroids, which are usually made out of rock. But still finding water in some object from outer space doesn't seem to be nearly as much of a novelty as the article would have you believe.
Wheter is everywhere except. . . (Score:1)
If I could catch one of those asteroids. . . there ougt to be enough water for me to take my 30 minute showers again . . .
When I get in a programming mode
Compile and run
It is so much fun
That's in the article (Score:2)
Ahem! "Next, the researchers wanted to know how old the halite was. Luckily, it's already known how long it takes iodine-129 to decay into xenon-129. Using this information, Whitby and colleagues calculated that the salt crystals - and the water - in the meteorite formed only two million years after the birth of the Solar System 4.57 billion years ago."
Now, as to how ACCURATE that is, I will never know. I'm not a geologist.
Hey Rob, Thanks for that tarball!
Scott
Re:ET (Score:1)
Or maybe some time after. . . :)
When I get in a programming mode
Compile and run
It is so much fun
Re:Water, water, everywhere (Score:2)
Way cool! (Score:2)
What totally blows everyone's mind is that this water stayed in the rock for billions of years. Even when exposed to the scorching sun, and the
awesome blazing heat of entry into the Earth's
atmosphere---but it's true!
There is no frickin' way that water could have gotten into the rock from the surrounding air while it sat in storage for two years waiting for these dudes to crack it open. Rocks are, like, totally water-proof, man. Don't listen to these bullshitting lame-asses who say otherwise.
And--doh--even if Earth water did get in, it wouldn't have the right iodine in its molecules! These dudes with like microscopes and shit can tell the new stuff from the old!
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:1)
Are all of slashdot's members Scientologists? There seems to be an awful tendency towards this conjecture.
Re:Relative (Score:3)
-------
CAIMLAS
A bigger deal than you might think... (Score:1)
Have you ever handled liquid nitrogen? It freezes object extremely quickly to very low temperatures, but is not water. When an astrophysicist refers to a comet or celestial body as being frozen, he doesn't mean that it contains ice, it simply means they are solid state of (insert composition here).
The formation of water has been thought to be a fairly rare event, one that distinguishes the earth (life-bearing) from virtually every other object in our solar system (non life-bearing).
This has been attributed to many different causes, ranging from the size of our planet to the distance from the sun. Why?
It is believed that the order of formation of the planets was determined by the mass of the particles that make up the planet. Thus Mercury is made of denser stuff than venus, than Earth, than Jupiter, etc. So in order to have the proper ratio of Hydrogen to Oxygen (slightly less than 2-1 for earth), you must be approximately Earth-distanced from the Sun.
The size (mass) of the planet is important because it affects the speed of the reaction. This is important because for a body of water the size of the earth, a simple catalyst wouldn't suffice. (As a side, one of the coolest experiments I've ever seen in Chemistry was where a professor took 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen, a little bit of platinum for a catalyst, put it all in a balloon and went on with his lecture. At the end of the class he popped the balloon and water fell out. Kinda cool.)
Anyways, I hope all this crap helps.
--
"A mind is a horrible thing to waste. But a mime...
It feels wonderful wasting those fsckers."
Re:What does... (Score:1)
Recycled Water (Score:2)
By extrapolation, the same is probably true of water. Water you've drank has passed through the ages as well.
With this in mind, and under the assumption that extraterrestrial life existed billions of years ago, I think we should FUND A MISSION TO RECOVER THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL FISH PEE!
It's Friday. I've said my peice. Don't tell me you aren't stressed out at work too...
Re:Water plentiful? (Score:1)
As we know it, we live in a symbioses, the earth's climate and all things within is a closed system, why not life evolved in different cirecumstances where water is gas, and other materials are liquids? Can't there be a life form based under different balanced chemical circumstances? Balance is what its all about!
And who the hell are you? (Score:1)
"Scientific Analysis" (Score:1)
I hope I have atleast used your time wisely.
Need karma, I crave sustenance. Moderate Well =)
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:1)
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Water, water, everywhere (Score:2)
*approximately
--
You'll love Natalie right up until.. (Score:1)
Actually... (Score:2)
Slashdot Researchers Find Lost Post In Queue! (Score:3)
slashdot researchers, working from a hidden base, have discovered this lost post in the slashdot story submission queue. this discovery overturns slashdotter theories that the staff was simply unaware of natalie portman's 19th birthday.
natalie portman is slashdot's girl. it's her birthday. once again, slashdot "doesn't get it." we cannot rest until our deepest needs, wants and addictions are addressed.
for nearly a year, the natalie portman obsessive sub-culture of slashdot (a quickly growing segment of the slashdot, indeed the entire open-source, community) have suffered ridicule, persecution, and denial of civil liberties on our favorite tech-savvy message board. today we rested in honor of our beloved's day of birth. tomorrow we bring natalie's message of purity and open-source goodness to the slashdot masses.
thank you.
-osm
Finding water isn't whats new (Score:3)
Yuppies beware... (Score:1)
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:3)
BTW, Here's [cnn.com] the link to CNN's article on the same topic.
To get their number, they added the current best guess of the Solar system's age to a reasonable guess about the crystal's life before that. The important point is that the crystal is very old -- it crystallized from liquid a few hundred million years after the supernova that formed the solar system.
Here's how they figured that out. First of all, it's generally assumed that the solar system was formed from the debris of a supernova. Supernovae are incredibly energetic explosions of huge stars -- by comparison, the core of the sun is an ice cube. The violence and energy creates pretty much every possible atom: iron, zirconium, uranium, and even weirdies like iodine-129.
Second, from laboratory experiments, we know that iodine-129 is radioactive, and that it decays at a certain rate. After a few hundred million years, it will almost all decay into xenon-129. On cosmic time scales, that's fast.
Third, xenon is a "noble gas", in the same family as helium, neon, argon, etc. Noble gases are very chemically stable: except for a few exotic compounds, they don't form molecules with other atoms. Therefore they are very flighty, and diffuse right out of liquids. (Helium is so diffusive that it can be separated from other gases by diffusing it through solid metal!) So if you find xenon atoms inside a crystal, they had to be put there *after* the crystal became solid.
Well, they found xenon-129 inside their meteorite salt crystal. Putting the above theorems together, they deduced that there was *liquid water* present shortly (shortly in a cosmic sense) after the supernova that formed the solar system (the think the crystal formed in water solution).
Further evidence of the great age of the salt crystal is its purple color. It probably started off as a colorless, translucent crystal, just like everyday table salt. But over time, radiation knocks atoms out of the crystal lattice, leaving "defects" that have color. It's also seen here on Earth, in salt crystals that have been buried without recrystallizing for enormous periods of time.
I'm not sure I buy their hypothesis that the crystal was deposited by water. It is possible to melt salt by itself at reasonable temperatures. Of course, IANAG (I am not a geologist). And even if it wasn't water, the crystal is still fabulously old.
Assuming it was deposited by liquid water, it's a wonderful discovery. It means that life could possibly exist between the stars, without need for a stable system of planets, since all known life requires liquid water. And supernovae are fairly common through the universe, so there's a lot of possible life out there. I'm sure the science fiction writers are already thinking up how to work this into a story...
Actually water is great for rockets too... (Score:2)
It talks about ways to move around the solar system using either solar energy to make steam rockets(!), or nuclear powered steam rockets!
Rather than use solar panels, they suggest big mirrors (much lighter and more efficient.)
Turns out its a) really easy to collect water b) steam rockets are really efficient in the sense that it minimises the amount of mirrors/nuclear material. c) they get you to your destination pretty fast
Those big hydrogen-oxygen jobs are good for leaving the earth but once you are in orbit, steam rockets are much better than ion drives or H-OX- assuming large quantities of water are available.
Basically this is space opening technology- travelling to mars would be pretty simple for example.
For those interested... (Score:2)
Re:Lanthanum Quits Periodic Table Of Elements (Score:1)
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
OK, I'll bite. Maybe there is no other explaination other than a supreme being. What makes you think she is anything like the one described in your Bible? Even if you prove the existance of God you hardly prove the existance of YOUR God.
Re:I think (Score:2)
True. But liquid water floating in space before any planets formed, and depositing salt crystals, is rather more interesting than molecular gas clouds. Sure they have water -- a few dozen molecules per cubic centimeter. The article was about *liquid* water, and bucketfuls of it, in space And that is pretty amazing.
Mars (Score:1)
It means: In Other words, I'm not the only Martian here.
I guess that explains the Iodine as well? (Score:1)
Hit the ground running (Score:1)
That is indeed a very lame argument, so how about this one:
There are many showstopper arguments for God in chemistry and biology. Almost as many as in geology (e.g. Gentry's "tiny mysteries", turbidites), astronomy (quantum redshifts, titanic stellar structures), physics (too-neat constants, Sansbury's "subtrons"), history (Solomon, Jesus), archaeology (Nimrod, Hittites), paleontology (vertebrates in Cambrian, polystrates)...
Drop that prejudice, we've got you covered! (-:
The more you have, the worse it gets (Score:1)
Actually, the better we understand the fossil record, the worse it looks for evolution. Recently, fish (and lampreys as well) were discovered in the Cambrian. Other (previously-) "index" fossils have had their range extended by up to an order of magnitude. Lucy is looking less and less human as time goes on. And still no missing links (worse, the link-candidates are steadily and thoroughly being disqualified faster than they turn up).
Re:Slashdot Researchers Find Lost Post In Queue! (Score:2)
Re:Finding water isn't whats new (Score:2)
Re:Slashdot Researchers Find Lost Post In Queue! (Score:2)
This is osm's one chance in a year and you tag him with a -1. Lamer.
Just remember you bedwetting, saddleshoe wearing, lunch money challenged, pimply faced little mommas boy, We M2 several times a day. I will find you, I will M2 the only value you hold as a human being, your karma down to zippointshit, for fucking with osm on the one day he holds dear. This day means more to our little disfuctional buddy than Christmas, and you go and ruin it. Shithead. I'll bet you are still a virgin, live a home, have some lameass little desktop support job, no girlfriend, play with legos, still wear blue tube socks, don't own a car, never been drunk and the closest thing to sex yo ever had was watching yoru older sister get undressed in front of your dad!
Whew, I have got to lay off the beers. In any event, I will M2 nonstop till I find you and when I do I will Trollslap your ass right down to -2.
What a Cockgobbler!
Water must not be so rare (Score:3)
What does matter is the relationship of water and life. Several properties of water are fundamental to the development of life as we know. There is some chance that other forms of life exist elsewhere based on something else. However, we dont know about other molecule as flexible as water.
Re:I think (Score:1)
So what? (Score:1)
What does... (Score:2)
"English Researchers Find Extra-Terrestrial Water"
And of course, there's the obligatory:
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these?
Anyone got a top ten list happening yet?
Re:Beware of "scientists" - they are scary (Score:1)
Still reeling from the absence of the Ten Commandments in public schools, I reached for my news-paper on Monday and saw that they are teaching evolooshun without having the entire fossil record from the first genetic material to the present.
I'm still reeling from the fact that churches can teach the bible and have still not found a four-legged insect ( Leviticus 11:23. ) or any archealogical evidence of giants ( Gen.6:4 ) proved that the earth is immobile (1 Chr.16:30) or admitted that the bible tells them pi == 3.0 (1 Kg.7:23)
sheesh. It's a good thing you don't have to live up to the standards you set for other people!
I've been to the zoo, and I decline to write of the horrid, disgusting things I have seen the creatures do.
That's nice. I've been to war and have seen the horrid, disgusting things people do.
Re:I'd like to thank Slashdot... (Score:1)
----
Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
Re:Water plentiful? (Score:1)
Researchers need to get funding (Score:2)
--
Question #428054 - Upon life. (Score:1)
"If more do turn up, it suggests water isn't as rare in the Solar System as previously thought. And if water did actually exist elsewhere before it did on Earth, it could have played a key role in the evolution of life on this planet."
Who said that?
"In the evolution of life" as WE mean IT. There are some necessities, I think, to guarantee "life" in a planet surface's environment. In my humble opinion these scientists are still making the old mistake that brings me back to the time when man believed the Earth was flat. They're still earth-centric in considering this discovery.
See you.
Carbon-based the only way? (Score:1)
Just one crazy humanoid's opinion.
-MathJMendl
Re:Fun with geologic numbers.... (Score:2)
Erm... are you sure you didn't mean to go to this thread [slashdot.org] instead?
Statement #428055 - No news at all. (Score:2)
Read THIS, it's dated AUGUST 1999!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/d
Re:Water plentiful? (Score:2)
Re:Actually water is great for rockets too... (Score:1)
on the otherhand, if we could easily get it while we're up there, then things would be different...
Re:A little vague... (Score:1)
Matt
Did you ever think... (Score:2)
GOT RAINED ON A FEW MILLION TIMES?!?!?!?!
Re:THE SUBMISSION ROB DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE (Score:2)
Problems here? (Score:1)
Re:Beware of "scientists" - they are scary (Score:1)
what can I say? Trolling can be fun.
--
grappler
Re:Hogwash (Score:1)
Are you saying the Shores are your idea of a divine being?
!!
Infinite regress (Score:1)
It's an interesting idea, but even if it were true, we'd still be asking the same question -- how did life evolve in the first place? Knowing WHERE life originated would be great, but that still wouldn't tell us HOW life began.
Water plentiful? (Score:5)
Re:The Truth (yes, really) About Steve Woston (Score:1)
For pissing off Steve and constantly telling him his ideas (like julius games) were fucking stupid and would never work.
and
he couldn't manage a freakin' 7-11, never mind a software company
Looks like he started learning when he fired you.