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Mars Rover Opportunity Makes 'Significant' Finding
Yahoo! News ^
| 3/1/04
| Gina Keating - Reuters
Posted on 03/01/2004 7:57:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge
Archimedes invaginatus, byrozoan, order Cryptostomida. Primitive "moss animals."
To: NormsRevenge
I'd bet the house it's a trilobite!
82
posted on
03/01/2004 11:43:02 PM PST
by
Indie
(The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.")
To: Socks C.
But my gut says that given enough grinding they will expose what absolutely "looks like" a fossil cast. . . .they may have already . . . And this, which looks like a coral base, or, fungi or other plant stalk cluster:
83
posted on
03/01/2004 11:43:25 PM PST
by
Don Joe
(We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
To: capitan_refugio
Trilobites were primative arthropods that existed on Earth in the Cambrian through the Devonian, with some rare species lasting until the end of the Paleozoic in the late Permian (roughly 500 million years ago to 180 million years ago). Or, even now. Don't forget the Horseshoe Crab.
84
posted on
03/01/2004 11:46:35 PM PST
by
Don Joe
(We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
To: Dallas59
Decay is a biological process, in and of itself. I suppose, once organic material has been subjected to thermogenesis (the natural conversion of organic material into oil, natural gas, tar, coal, etc), it is possible there might be some traces remaining. It is an intriguing question.
Although methane (the simplest of the hydrocarbon fases) is an relatively abundant gas in the solar system, most methane on Earth comes from biogenic sources. Some, small amount, probably comes from the degassing of the mantle (abiogenic methane). Biogenic methane on Mars would be quite a discovery.
On Earth, active tectonic processes are the mechanism behind thermogensis (deposition, preservation, burial, heating, biochemical conversion). I suspect Mars may be a nearly "dead" planet when it comes to tectonism; so thermogensis would be arrested.
To: capitan_refugio
It looks alot like an Elrathia kingi. You don't say...
Lots more (& bigger) here
(That first one looks like a dead ringer for the one in the Mars image.)
86
posted on
03/01/2004 11:55:33 PM PST
by
Don Joe
(We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
To: Don Joe
I thought the horseshoe crabs were more related to spiders, scorpions and the now-extinct eurypterids (thankfully extinct, because some species were like 15-foot upside-down swimming scorpions). Horseshoe crabs are in the order Xiphosurida, sort of all by themselves taxonomically. I seem to recall they had "blue blood" ... is that true?
To: Don Joe
You're good. I had not even started looking for pictures!
To: capitan_refugio
I thought the horseshoe crabs were more related to spiders, scorpions and the now-extinct eurypterids (thankfully extinct, because some species were like 15-foot upside-down swimming scorpions). Horseshoe crabs are in the order Xiphosurida, sort of all by themselves taxonomically. I seem to recall they had "blue blood" ... is that true? From the first link I grabbed via google query for "horseshoe crab" trilobite, "a Horseshoe crab is not a trilobite,but it is the closest living relative of the trilobite." (http://community-2.webtv.net/mrbbug2/doc2/)
(In the past, I've read in numerous places that they're related, so I just grabbed the first reference for this reply. As to the blood color, I've no idea. My mother never let me keep any of 'em I found at the beach when I was a kid. :)
89
posted on
03/02/2004 12:36:15 AM PST
by
Don Joe
(We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
To: capitan_refugio
You know, I hope we find this stuff all over the place. Even if we switch over to something else besides gasoline to fuel our personal transportation, We still need oil for plastics, medicine....
90
posted on
03/02/2004 1:48:46 AM PST
by
Dallas59
To: Dog
Looking forward to this press conference!
To: Molly Pitcher; Dog
I am too. That picture above looks like coral to me!
To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Thats really good!
To: The Coopster
Ping!
To: Marie
Yup. It also looks just like the one sitting right here on my desk. They told me mine was from Morocco, could it really be from... Nahhh!
To: Dallas59
If bacteria evolved and then died out on Mars, could that bacteria have decayed to produce oil or natural gas?AWL! We struck AWL!!
To: Don Joe
I think it would be more honest for NASA to say "yes this could be life, but we can't say definitively until we send another probe specifically designed to get the proof that we need."
97
posted on
03/02/2004 7:36:28 AM PST
by
Brett66
To: Brett66
I think it would be more honest for NASA to say "yes this could be life, but we can't say definitively until we send another probe specifically designed to get the proof that we need." If they say something like that we may get funding to launch a large number of spacecraft on the planet via the Phoenix and Mars Science Laboratory programs, if only to search as much of the planet as possible for past and current lifeforms. And these new landers may use Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) units so they can operate for over a year without worries about dust collecting on the solar panels.
To: razorbak
biochemicals,, pre-biotic evolution,, abiogenesis,, wheww!
oh boy.. lots riding on the stuff they think they're finding on Mars. Should be a momentous event.. depending on what they held back , they have a lot of excellent imagery up on the rover website.
We already see that there are things there that are suggestive of support for life being present in significant quantities at some time in the past, and the objects do not appear to all be uniform at first glance.
Thanks for the post, good stuff. ;-}
99
posted on
03/02/2004 8:23:16 AM PST
by
NormsRevenge
(Semper Fi Mac ... Support Our Troops! ... NO NO NO NO on Props 55-58)
To: Don Joe
Thanks for all the info and links.
100
posted on
03/02/2004 8:30:50 AM PST
by
NormsRevenge
(Semper Fi Mac ... Support Our Troops! ... NO NO NO NO on Props 55-58)
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