NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year 22
NASA: After a year's worth of scientific scrutiny, the 'Sapphire Canyon' rock sample remains the mission's best candidate for containing signs of ancient microbial life processes. A sample collected by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover from an ancient dry riverbed in Jezero Crater could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life. Taken from a rock named "Cheyava Falls" last year, the sample, called "Sapphire Canyon," contains potential biosignatures, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
A potential biosignature is a substance or structure that might have a biological origin but requires more data or further study before a conclusion can be reached about the absence or presence of life. "This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars," said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. "NASA's commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars' rocky soil."
A potential biosignature is a substance or structure that might have a biological origin but requires more data or further study before a conclusion can be reached about the absence or presence of life. "This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars," said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. "NASA's commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars' rocky soil."
Good move. (Score:4, Insightful)
Flattery may get you more appropriations.
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The key is to manipulate people into action which benefits you - not your location. If someone had a means of communicating from Mars, that could work...
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At this rate it won't be long before we're all expected to prefix his name with "Dear Leader"
Re: "Launched by Kim Don Unfit" (Score:2)
"NASA" will be renamed to "TBUEF!": "Trump's Bold Universe Exploration Force!"
Or maybe TUBBIE: Trump's Universal Big Beautiful Ingenious Explorers.
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More appropriations aren't the goal. Look at the source of the quote; Sean Duffy. A completely unqualified idiot appointed by Trump to be a yes-man, he's assisted in firing NASA staff and cutting the NASA budget.
The only goal here is to stroke Trump's ego.
A little more honesty please (Score:3)
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Yeah, that's why everyone gives Nixon credit for putting a man on the moon.
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Yeah, that's why everyone gives Nixon credit for putting a man on the moon.
It appears people are missing that I pointed out that Trump played a small role. That is distinct from playing no role at all.
Nixon had a small role to play with Apollo, so he gets some credit for that. That was my point on large NASA missions being unlikely to happen under a single White House administration. This mission started under the Obama administration, and I would expect the work on this goes back to Nixon since as soon as there were men on the moon there were plans to go further with Mars as t
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At least Nixon had the class not to force his minions to take all of the credit for the Apollo missions in their press releases.
That's what Trump did here: Same as usual he took all of the credit for other peoples' work.
You wonder why he gets under peoples' skin? It's because essentially everything he does is some kind of asshole move like this.
Mars is a dead planet, we established that (Score:1, Troll)
I would think after all this time that it should be well established that Mars is a dead planet. If there are signs of life then it will be that of life in the past than in the present. Maybe there is some "extremophile" something living on Mars but it would have to be rare to have avoided discovery to this point.
I realize that there will be those that believe putting people on Mars could bring back to Earth some kind of microbial life that we could not contain by nature of being so alien to our natural i
Weak (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm all for grabbing any desperate straws that helps secure funds for future missions, but the presence of vivianite and iron sulfide, both of which can be produced chemically, sounds like a really weak indicator to me.
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ssshhh, gotta kiss up to Dear Tinted One with lies and flattery to keep probes funded. He won't know the diff. Don discovered Life on Mars, gottit?!
And don't say "Alien Life", else ICE will shut NASA down from DOGE's "move fast & shut down" keyword match algorithm, the same one that didn't like "transgenic mice research".
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TFA:
"there are ways to produce them without biological reactions, including sustained high temperatures, acidic conditions, and binding by organic compounds. However, the rocks at Bright Angel do not show evidence that they experienced high temperatures or acidic conditions, and it is unknown whether the organic compounds present would’ve been capable of catalyzing the
It's an old meme, but still valid sir (Score:2)
Amazing (Score:1)