Curious NASA Pre-Announcement

CrtxReavr was one of a small avalanche of readers to let us know about a press conference NASA scheduled for Thursday at 2pm to discuss an "astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." I've heard rumors ranging from "proof of life on Titan" to "first contact," depending on how optimistic/crazy you are.

ya?

[nege]

I am totally jaded. When I see something like this I read it as "NASA calls press conference to remind government and people they are still here and need money, because what they do is really, really cool". Of course, I agree too, but I would be surprised if there was really any kind of life found. Prove me wrong NASA! I, for one, would welcome our new alien-insect overlords!

My guess

[thesandtiger]

Spectroscopy showing a celestial body (or bodies) is in a state of chemical disequilibrium considered to be suggestive of life.

Re:Amazing news

[LoudMusic]

That is a film I don't want to see at 11.

Maybe Titan...Maybe Earth's Shadow Biosphere.

[tetrahedrassface]

Some word out on the web, including NASA funded astrobiology teams (there are fourteen), seem to indicate the possibility of them finding something strange here on Mother Earth, probably something in or around Mono Lake according to some people and its arsenic based life forms [astrobio.net]. Since the major announcement last June by NASA concerning 'Titan and the Case of the Missing Hydrogen' [redorbit.com]. In fact one of the ladies on the panel this Thursday is in fact the researcher who is studying possible arsenic based life forms in Mono Lake. I'd say that she found something. One thing for certain, with the embargo we won't know for sure until Thursday. :)

Truly Exciting

[BitZtream]

I realize I just read a completely sensationalist summary on slashdot, but I must say reading 'proof of life on titan' to 'first contact' sent that feeling through my body of true excitement and anticipation in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. You know, that spine tingling feeling (not in a bad way).

I'm sure it will be a complete let down now, but finding life somewhere outside of our planet would really be one of those Earth shaking events I think, even if its just fossils from things long dead.

Its nothing dangerous or NASA wouldn't be telling us about it, and its certainly not first contact as the governments wouldn't let them tell us about it, but ... OMFG I don't think I want to wait till Thursday

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[nabsltd]

Not unlike like the whole Apple/Beatles thing. What was so disappointing about that?

If you didn't already have better copies of the Beatles music before it was available in the iTunes store, and wanted a few obscure tracks that weren't available on any of the "hits" collections, then maybe that was an exciting announcement.

But, based on the sales figures, it looks like converting your own CDs to MP3 for your music player isn't as easy as I thought it was, as millions of people in the US wanted Beatles music but had been waiting 20+ years for somebody to convert the files for them.

Re:Ranging from proof of life to first contact?

[Nocuous]

Ooh! Ooh! If it's a GCU I hope it's Gray Area (aka Meatfucker).

WikiLeaks?

[Scratch McGoo]

I have a sneaking suspicion that this newly scheduled announcement is in some way related to the latest WikiLeaks release. Is NASA trying to get ahead of some potential situation with this announcement?

A few clues....

[TomRC]

If you look at the list of participants, it may provide a clue:

Participants are:
- Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
- Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
- James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

If you follow up the connection of James Elser to NASA, it turns out to be a project called "Follow the Elements"

http://astrobiology.asu.edu/Astrobiology/Home/Home.html [asu.edu]

So I'm guessing that they've found certain exo-planets in the Goldilocks zone that have the right balance of precursor elements/molecules for life.

Re:Maybe Titan...Maybe Earth's Shadow Biosphere.

[MozeeToby]

I think we have a winner here. The article you linked mentions that she expects to see results over the next several months and was written slightly more than a year ago. That gives enough time to get results, tweak the experiment, analyze the results, even completely re-run the experiment if you think the results are ground breaking enough. The time span seems right, the other speakers are in related fields, it has direct influence on astrobiology. Specifically, it makes Titan a very interesting place to start looking for microbial, extra-terrestrial life.