NASA's Mars Rover Detects 'Building Blocks of Life' in Rock (msn.com) 19
"Scientists working with NASA's Perseverance rover state emphatically that they are not claiming to have discovered life on Mars," writes the New York Times.
"But many would regard a rock that the rover just finished studying as 'Most Likely to Contain Fossilized Microbial Martians'..." The rover has drilled and stashed a piece of the rock, which scientists hope can be brought back to Earth in the coming years for closer analysis and more definitive answers. "What we are saying is that we have a potential biosignature on Mars," said Kathryn Stack Morgan, the mission's deputy project scientist. She describes a biosignature as a structure, composition or texture in a rock that could have a biological origin.
The rock, which scientists named Cheyava Falls, possesses features that are reminiscent of what microbes might have left behind when this area was warm and wet several billion years ago, part of an ancient river delta. The scientists clarified that they did not spot anything that they thought might be actual fossilized organisms... Within the rock, Perseverance's instruments detected organic compounds, which would provide the building blocks for life as we know it. The rover also found veins of calcium sulfate — mineral deposits that appear to have been deposited by flowing water. Liquid water is another key ingredient for life. Perseverance also spotted small off-white splotches, about 1 millimeter in size, that have black rings around them, like miniature leopard spots. The black rings contain iron phosphate.
The chemical reactions that created the leopard spots could also have provided energy for microbes to live on.
"One of the key parts of Perseverance's mission is to drill samples of interesting rocks for a future mission to bring samples back to Earth for scientists to study with state-of-the-art instruments in their laboratories," the article points out. And while exactly how those rocks would be return has yet to be determined, deputy project scientist Morgan tells the Times, "I think this sample comes to the top of the list."
"But many would regard a rock that the rover just finished studying as 'Most Likely to Contain Fossilized Microbial Martians'..." The rover has drilled and stashed a piece of the rock, which scientists hope can be brought back to Earth in the coming years for closer analysis and more definitive answers. "What we are saying is that we have a potential biosignature on Mars," said Kathryn Stack Morgan, the mission's deputy project scientist. She describes a biosignature as a structure, composition or texture in a rock that could have a biological origin.
The rock, which scientists named Cheyava Falls, possesses features that are reminiscent of what microbes might have left behind when this area was warm and wet several billion years ago, part of an ancient river delta. The scientists clarified that they did not spot anything that they thought might be actual fossilized organisms... Within the rock, Perseverance's instruments detected organic compounds, which would provide the building blocks for life as we know it. The rover also found veins of calcium sulfate — mineral deposits that appear to have been deposited by flowing water. Liquid water is another key ingredient for life. Perseverance also spotted small off-white splotches, about 1 millimeter in size, that have black rings around them, like miniature leopard spots. The black rings contain iron phosphate.
The chemical reactions that created the leopard spots could also have provided energy for microbes to live on.
"One of the key parts of Perseverance's mission is to drill samples of interesting rocks for a future mission to bring samples back to Earth for scientists to study with state-of-the-art instruments in their laboratories," the article points out. And while exactly how those rocks would be return has yet to be determined, deputy project scientist Morgan tells the Times, "I think this sample comes to the top of the list."
Headline to details progresssion (Score:5, Funny)
They found life on Mars! -> They found signs of life on Mars. -> They found minerals could have been produced by life -> They found chemicals that life could have used for sustenance.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Mod parent Funny, and not a bad FP (and good FPs are still wanted), but there should be a way to react to stories themselves with a clickbait mod. Or maybe there is. Something about something called a firehose?
Currently reading What If? 2 which will probably get into related topics. However I'm mostly disappointed he didn't name the book What 2 If? . Twisting and turning, it could have been abbreviated as W2F?
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Oh, it's off topic you want, is it? Fsck the censors pretending to be moderators.
Yeah, my theory is that meta is never "off topic", but there is no "over topic" or "beside topic" moderation.
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And also disappointed this high potential story never yielded more Funny.
Shutup (Score:1)
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It's better than an endless stream of lame "AI is gOIng to cHAngE EvRYThINg!!111" articles paid for by whoever the fuck.
Voice of ignorance (was Re: Shutup) (Score:3)
Yeah, so you suck.
Guess what? Normal people are curious. It takes you more effort to attempt to neg about interesting knowledge, than it does to not be a troll.
Slashdot is news for nerds. Obviously you're not one.
It's already known (Score:2)
Viking in 1976, using Gilbert Levin's detector, already showed proof of life. Why NASA avoids this conclusion like the plaque is a mystery.
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No, it showed an ambiguous signal, which was encouraging. The reactions they found could have been produced by some kind of biology, but there are other processes which could have produced them. They didn't find reactions which were unequivocally 'yes, this is life', which they were hoping for, but they didn't find reactions that were unequivocally 'no' either.
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This begs the question (Score:4, Insightful)
HAHHAHAH; already answered (was Re: This begs the (Score:2)
Do a simple search on the Internet.
https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disci... [nasa.gov]
Stop modding up people who jump to conclusions and breathlessly (as if NO ONE had considered this before) post about stuff that's actually been a thing for decades.
Of course they are aware of the possibility of contamination.
That's why they have contamination protocols.
Do you really not bother to do prior-art research when reading scientific news and articles? Because that is the antithesis of the scientific method.
If you want to see furth
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Let's say we find unequivocal signs of life. Even better, we find current life. It is inevitable that we will contaminate Mars with our own organisms. What is our ethical responsibility? How much money do we devote/sacrifice to the preservation of an independent, unique tree of life? I'd like to think we could leave it alone on time scales that allow natural evolution, but with us nearby? Nah. It would be great to find and learn to grow as many examples as possible before they are overwhelmed, but we need a good economic reason for that to happen. Apparently I mourn the Death of Mars before we even prove it has ever been alive.
If we found definitive proof of life on Mars, I'd expect to see a mad rush of human launched vehicles contaminating it out of existence before we have much more of a debate about than, "I wonder if it ultimately came from Earth or if it was independent life?" It's what we do with everything. We get over-excited and act like fools. It's just who we are as a species.
Which organic chemicals? (Score:1)
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It doesn't matter, because it is all hype. They found something new. That's all we really need to know.
exciting step (Score:1)