NASA Briefing on New Mars Finding This Afternoon 231
ipsender writes with a NASA announcement:
"NASA will host a news briefing on Thursday, Aug. 4, at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) about a significant new Mars science finding. The briefing will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The new finding is based on observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006."
You can catch the briefing online at the NASA TV site.
An alien spacecraft (Score:3, Insightful)
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...mysteriously pinned to the bottom of a dust-filled crater.
Send Captain Scarlet
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Nope, this time it's Slave One.
No, No ... (Score:2)
It's just an announcement from K'Breel, Speaker for the Council of Elders.
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*golf clap*
In AD 2101, war was beginning... (Score:3)
...okay, so we won't see a Zig.
On a more serious note though, I actually hope to Heaven they present something insanely fascinating to the general public - enough to kick the government in the ass and get Mars human exploration seriously going.
Sadly, I suspect it'll be something only of use to some niche of geologists.
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You need to ask yourself: How are we finding out about the briefing? Is it from someone who watches every minutia from NASA? then don't hold your breath. If it's from someplace more accessible to the general public, then MAYBE i'ts a big deal the general public...whether or not the general public understands it's impact immediately is a different question.
Lisa Pratt is involved, so my hopes are high the found evidence of life.
http://geology.indiana.edu/pratt/ [indiana.edu]
http://www.indiana.edu/~deeplife/homepg.html [indiana.edu]
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They have already shown that they can not cost-electively build, maintain, and resupply a relatively near-orbit space station nor build and evolve a fleet of taxis to and from space.
They never got the money or the free hand that they needed to try. NASA has had plans to replace the shuttle for at least 20 years. However, every budget was loaded down with caveats and conditions (eg. must use ATK solids, must use suppliers from every state, current contracts for shuttle parts must be maintained).
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They're assuming that because you're whining about spending "billions" on it, when the total money spent on the entire space program (from which we actually do get productive returns that improve the general quality of life on earth) is less than one percent the amount spent on military action. If it's the money you're upset about, you should be re-directing your complaints. If it's the "people having hope for the future being better than the shit-hole of a present that we live in" that you're angry about
My guess - (Score:5, Interesting)
Methane. It's going to be something about methane. Look at all the geologists on the briefing panel;
The briefing panelists are:
-- Philip Christensen, geophysicist, Arizona State University, Tempe
-- Colin Dundas, research geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz.
-- Alfred McEwen, planetary geologist, University of Arizona, Tucson
-- Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist, NASA Headquarters
-- Lisa Pratt, biogeochemist, Indiana University, Bloomington
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Re:My guess - (Score:5, Funny)
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um, no. finding methane confirms the presence of methane, we hope it IS indicative of life
FTFY.
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They have certainly found methane on Mars, and so far can't conclusively explain where it's coming from, or its periodic nature;
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/marsmethane.html [nasa.gov]
Here's the good bit;
"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas," said Dr. Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center [...]
Take a look a
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> I want my money back.
Yeah, well so does NASA :/
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I believe it could also be explained by other active geological processes. Maybe not as exciting as organisms, but still, considering the view right now is that Mars is a geologically dead planet, so it would be at least moderately interesting to find out that there are geological processes still ongoing. It also could provide yet another possible place for life to exist.
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No. It is indicative of he who smelt it dealt it.
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Well, he who denied it, supplied it.
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Interesting. Isn't the presence of methane indicative of life?
It will be after we ET find life in the presence of methane.
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I noticed that too. My guess: they've found a currently active or very recently active volcano
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Humm... looking at the biographies of the scientists involved, I'm going to guess something about water, ice, and life.
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A positive water source seems like a good guess to me... Now if we only had a space craft to get there.
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The thing is... if it's not cat sized and cuddly, the public will likely not care anyway: "Ooh... there's a bug on that planet! So what?"
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Methane, Large sources of easily available water, or Oil. One of those three are the most likely.
Considering the focus on geology, it's also possible they've found a surface deposit of some rare earths minerals (such as those which are currently exported only by China), though you're right, methane is probably the most likely, and while geologists studying Mars might find it interesting, it's not nearly as significant to the rest of the human race.
Re:My guess - (Score:4)
I'm hoping oil then, that should get us to Mars in a hurry!
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well, it will help us once we get there. OTOH, if it is oil, then there was life on Mars.
And that's good, but I alway woder what it would be like if Mars hadn't 'shut down'.
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Oil isn't going to help anyone on Mars. The atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide, with only trace amounts of oxygen, so you can't burn it there. The only reason oil is so useful here is because of our abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere.
Of course, you could build giant oil-tanker spaceships to transport it back to earth, but I imagine the costs of that would be far, far greater than simply 1) continuing to exploit the oil we have here and 2) developing space-based solar power or some other exotic power sour
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Pipeline!
Uuhhm... Very flexible pipeline, with a bunch of joints like bendy straws... and when it passes close to the Sun, we'll only pump at night... look, if you really want this, you're gonna have to give me a grant...
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Methane, Large sources of easily available water, or Oil. One of those three are the most likely.
Considering the focus on geology, it's also possible they've found a surface deposit of some rare earths minerals (such as those which are currently exported only by China), though you're right, methane is probably the most likely, and while geologists studying Mars might find it interesting, it's not nearly as significant to the rest of the human race.
Focus on geology? What else would you expect study of a planet to be focused on? That's what geology is.
Oil? Obviously you must be joking.
Oh, and rare earths aren't; rare earth ores are somewhat more so, but that is more a function of economics than anything else (an ore is an economically recoverable mineral resource; there are ample rare earth mineral resources around Earth, just not generally economic to recover - but that depends entirely on the price). No amount of rare earths on Mars are going to mean
Unobtanium (Score:2)
Methane, Large sources of easily available water, or Oil. One of those three are the most likely.
Considering the focus on geology, it's also possible they've found a surface deposit of some rare earths minerals (such as those which are currently exported only by China), though you're right, methane is probably the most likely, and while geologists studying Mars might find it interesting, it's not nearly as significant to the rest of the human race.
Focus on geology? What else would you expect study of a planet to be focused on? That's what geology is.
Oil? Obviously you must be joking.
Oh, and rare earths aren't; rare earth ores are somewhat more so, but that is more a function of economics than anything else (an ore is an economically recoverable mineral resource; there are ample rare earth mineral resources around Earth, just not generally economic to recover - but that depends entirely on the price). No amount of rare earths on Mars are going to mean anything to anybody in economic terms until long after people are living there, if ever.
That would move people off their asses off to the nearest start, certainly to Mars as well.
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If Oil is only possible as an organic byproduct, then you have just discovered proof positive of life on Titan. Congratulations - you should call a press conference right away!
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Titan doesn't have petroleum, it has simple liquid hydrocarbons. Big fucking difference.
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Look at all the geologists on the briefing panel
Hmm, let's see ...
Geologists -> Rocks
Rock -> Mountains
Mountains -> Beer
Beer -> Bad Commercials
So, it looks like Coors has officially sponsored the Mars expedition and will be using official NASA footage from the rovers for their next stupid commercial?
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You could have just
Geologists -> Beer
As a geologist I second that.
Actually I prefer Beer -> Geologist, but it isn't quitting time yet.
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You could just claim you got your GMT offset wrong.
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So you are saying cows are involved in this?
Re:My guess - (Score:4, Informative)
Lisa Pratt studies sulfur and specifically biological sulfur with respect to the surface of Mars. Check out her lab's web page:
http://geology.indiana.edu/pratt/ [indiana.edu]
Here's a list of her research interests from that site:
Geomicrobiology of sulfate-reducing microorganisms
Biotic and abiotic fractionation of sulfur isotopes in modern and ancient oceans and lakes
Influence of wildfire on carbon isotopic excursions during the Cretaceous
Fate of complex organic molecules on the surface of Mars
As far as I can tell from that list, Dr. Pratt is the only hard scientist. The others are more involved in managing the program (Meyer) or designing the instruments (Christensen, Dundas, McEwen). Interestingly, there are no post-docs or graduate students listed, and they would have been the lead investigators doing the actual work -- perhaps this is a reaction to the Felisa Wolfe-Simon snafu? I'm not familiar with the field, though, so much of this is speculation from 2 minutes' work with Google. Take it for what it's worth.
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Translation: It's only important if you're getting the test tubes dirty. The rest of it isn't 'real' science. After all, having a Master's in oceanography and specializing in research on extremophiles [wikipedia.org] (Meyer) is meaningless. Dr Christensen's 11 page CV [asu.edu] (PDF link) showing 30 odd years of work involving Martian ge
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You're missing the point entirely and making baseless accusations.
The point was to try and divine the nature of the announcement. The list of speakers includes the head of the entire observation project, people who were leading the instrument design, and the head of a lab that does nothing but science. Chances are the announcement is going to involve the theme of the hard science lab.
(My lab does both instrument design and basic science. My dissertation had two major sections, the first labelled "Technol
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I don't think MRO has anything on it to detect methane. Maybe they could do it with CRISM (IR spectrometer), but there is nobody from CRISM on the panel.
Someone who is on the panel is Lisa Pratt who is "specializing on the fate of complex organic molecules on the surface of Mars.," and also Alfred McEwen, the principal investigator of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). This says to me that they found something interesting on the surface, maybe something looking like tar or oil, or may
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Then it must be about Global Warming caused by Man. Those two SUV's they've been running all over the place has destabilized the planet, and runaway greenhouse methane has caused devistating thermal effects.
Laugh all you want, but that would actually be considered a *good* thing if you're looking to terraform Mars.
Jobtanium (Score:4, Funny)
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This just in, Congress has reconvened and decided to turn over the entire country's tax payments to some place in California, it might have Infinite in the address. Some are claiming that Congress is under the sway of a weird new kind of distortion field while others are claiming that Congress itself is a distortion field.
In totally unrelated news, a company in Redmond, Washington has just announced they intend to manufacture a Jobtanium mine here on earth. A large, sweaty monkey has been seen chanting "I'm
And after the mission is approved (Score:2)
It will turn out that the ship has to be built from an alloy of Unobtanium and Muchtooexpensiveium.
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Comment removed (Score:3)
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They've been tracking a small shadow across the planet. It seems to only show up when the sun is behind the satellite.
Panel (Score:2)
The panel giving the briefing includes:
Geophysicist, geologist, planetary geologist and a biogeochemist.
Well at least we know they didn't find traces of alien civilization, unnatural structures, etc.
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Clearly a Giant Diamond
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Red Weed (Score:2)
Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife!
Real Time (Score:4, Informative)
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I would assume everyone on slashdot knows that GMT has been replaced by UTC.
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I would assume everyone on slashdot knows that GMT has been replaced by UTC.
They're nearly the same thing. There's two things that everyone should know about GMT and UTC:
So, UTC is better for system administration, because the standard is more exact. If you are giving a time for a press conference, and the margin of error is more than a second anyway, GMT is perfectly fine. Many people would say GMT is preferable in such situations, because the "G" is recognizable as
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The we should do away with GMT. having two references to the same thing confuses the issue.
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It's been UTC for 50 years now (since 1961). GMT is an anachronism.
What Could it Be? (Score:2)
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Why? why would that happen? why would it need to be a secret?
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> If you think the government is competent enough to pull off any kind of serious ...
> conspiracy, you've obviously never worked with any government organization
Yea, that is my problem with conspiracy theories. The military can't stop the New York TImes from printing classified material on a regular basis. War secrets from a war that is still hot, that almost certainly get soldiers KIAed. Neither can the State Dept. keep it's secret cables secret from the nefarious NYT. The White House and the Congr
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If you think the government is competent enough to pull off any kind of serious conspiracy, you've obviously never worked with any government organization ...
Yes and no. Let me explain...
The F-117 Stealth Fighter program was only hinted at here and there as early as 1985-86. Project Senior Trend was only officially admitted to in 1987-88, with very few details and a gawdawful fuzzy image. The original research project, Have Blue, never surfaced until after Desert Storm. The first time the public saw the things in any real detail was in 1990. The program itself OTOH began in the early 1970's, and the first aircraft flew in 1981.
We're talking at least 12 years bef
"Xenu was here" (Score:2)
And Scientologists will rejoice!
Science by press release (Score:2)
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"a few years back dented their credibility."
why? The meteorite had all three things that indicate life.
Or do you mean the media over hyping, misrepresenting, and lies about what happened?
This better be good, NASA (Score:4, Funny)
You made the front page of slashdot with a tease release - now you'd better produce. Nothing less than alien life or alternatively a new way to jailbreak iOS will do.
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That whole cyanide in the DNA thing made the front page of /. too. Don't get your hopes up.
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just for the record, it was arsenic-based DNA, not cyanide.
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Of course, yes, how would cyanide-based DNA even work? Thanks for correcting me.
Evidence found of honest politicians on Mars... (Score:2)
Something previously thought impossible, since nothing like it exists on Earth.
I refuse to watch it. (Score:2)
I already know what they are going to say. Sgt Scrub get off our property bla bla bla. Sgt Scrub your trailer will not fit in the space shuttle bla bla bla. Those guys are always so rude to me.
whooptie shit (Score:2)
they find a flake of ice that contains a bubble of methane
5$ any takers?
Best possible announcement? (Score:2)
Discount multi-species alien space brothel.
Nothing, nothing, could be better for NASA, budgetarily speaking.
Scientists will want to take advantage to examine a variety of intelligent species in once place.
Moralizing blowhard conservatives will want to mount an expedition to close the place down.
A large portion of the Internet geek community will lay out serious money for the chance to get them some alien tail.
It's: (Score:3)
8/10/11 We would like to address the reports from the scientific community at large that our findings are "nonsense"...
8/15/11 Ok, maybe we jumped the gun there a bit. We'll admit that perhaps we need more evidence than a single blurry image of a small squiggly looking thing to prove....
9/1/11 Finding in August? What? We don't know what you're talking about. Now, about our amazing finding in the Arizona desert...
Wow, 183 comments here... (Score:2)
And not one of you has mentioned "Doom"?
You all remember that takes place on Mars?
Maybe I'm too old to be here anymore. Get off my lawn!
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And not one of you has mentioned "Doom"?
You all remember that takes place on Mars?
Maybe I'm too old to be here anymore. Get off my lawn!
No it doesn't. Deimos and/or Phobos, I don't really remember which. Moon(s) of Mars, not on Mars itself.
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Technically they take place on Deimos and Phobos -- alternate universe versions with a lot more gravity for some reason.
Doom 3 shifted the location to Mars itself, but I liked the shout-outs to the moons better myself, logic be damned. :)
possible flowing water (Score:3)
I bet they will say there is evidence of possible flowing water during the warmest months.
Er, I mean, that's what they did say.
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Because how hard is it to add 6 hours to EDT to come up with GMT?
Thanks for proving his point! :) Everyone knows their GMT offset, so why not give those times? (I suppose it should really be UTC since it's space stuff...)
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Everyone knows their GMT offset, so why not give those times?
Sorry, but I think if you did a poll of the general public to find out how many know their GMT offset, it'd be pathetically low. Even among Slashdotters I wouldn't have much hope, since that other poster thought that EST was GMT-6 (it's GMT-5).
Everyone should know their GMT offset, as it would help greatly when dealing with time zones, which is something pretty common now with anyone who's a professional and has to travel, or talk to colleagues i
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It's not. However, not everyone memorizes time zone differences.
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Adding 6 hours to EDT won't give you GMT (or UTC), it'll give you CEST (Central European Summer Time).
EDT is UTC-4, not UTC-6.
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Even crazier idea: you're an Anonymous Coward. Why don't you register so you can set the date/time format [slashdot.org] to whatever you want?
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And for the second time in two days I feel really stupid for posting. Obviously the AC was complaining about the time given in the summary, which of course isn't customized to reflect the time zone I've set.
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Crazy idea: slashdot is a worlwide-reaching site. Why don't you post date/hours in terms of GMT?
The announcement about the briefing came from JPL, which is on PDT and the briefing is being held in Washington, DC, which is on EDT. So TFA gives both those times. The summary quotes the times given in TFA. I just wish NASA would starting using decimal-based time instead.
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Nice.
it's here, btw:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1756851/ [imdb.com]
find the trailer. Looks creepy awesome.
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And they found the second one just two blocks from it.
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They'll probably announce that they've spotted the first Starbucks on Mars.
Close! They *think* they found some highly briny water deposits and theorize it tastes something like Starbucks coffee.
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I wonder if martians would be mostly light meat or dark meat.
They'd be red meat, of course.