DRUDGE - Big NASA Announcement Set For Today...

[Vintage1]

// NASA is planning to make a huge announcement today, about possible life in our own solar system. Exact details of what we can expect to hear have not been released. We do know that evidence has been found that could point to life relatively close to the earth.... No other information at this time

[Romish_Papist]

It would not make a difference really. At least not to Catholicism. The Bible speaks of earth, not other planets so really, who cares?

[null and void]

I think they threw in the towel.

[vwunpimsmyride]

Based on what I know of Hebrew I think it might be a possiblity that the Garden of Eden was located on Mars and when mankind fell in a spiritual sense we also fell to Earth at the same time.

[Tokra]

I once had a connection to a source who ended up on a base where they saw a silent egg shaped craft hovering a few feet above the concrete gliding into a well guarded hanger

Me too - the connections were Steven Speilberg and Showcase Cinema!

I'm sorry - I have no faith in "they're hiding something" conspiracy theories. I've worked for the government. Government employees are big mouths - thousands of people would NEVER be able to keep something like that a secret. Somebody's going to tell their wife or their girlfriend or someone.

Besides, what possible reason would NASA have for keeping something like that a secret? They would have no reason to. On the contrary, they would have EVERY incentive to announce such a discovery in order to get more funding and more research. Keeping it secret flies in the face of simple logic.

[SunkenCiv]

It's been done.

The Viking Labeled Release Experiment and Life on Mars
by Gilbert V. Levin

Thus, organic compounds surviving this rugged digestion were detected in the soil. They were attributed to kerogen and coal refractory to the GCMS pyrolysis. Biological possibilities were discounted although viable microorganisms have been reported (23) within anthracite coal taken from deep underground. The purpose of the intensive digestion of the Antarctic #726 was not stated. One must wonder what variety of labile organic compounds were present prior to the digestion.

[Hunble]

During the 14 years that I worked at White Sands Missile Range, the largest turnout I ever saw at the Officer's club was for a speech about the Roswell UFO. Every scientist I knew tried to attend that one.

Many of us had access to very highly classified activities, but we were just as interested about the Roswell mystery as anyone else.

You are correct, secrets are almost impossible to keep in the government more than a few short years, because people will always talk.

[Quix]

We all form our hypotheses about reality from our own experiences.

I understand that yours have been different from mine.

I held a high security clearance in the Navy, too. And, some relatives and friends had even higher clearances.

Certainly many folks have spoken to others about work related things in secret locations. But the ridicule, disinformation strategy works very well.

And, as numerous cases have shown, the government CAN keep incredible things secret for decades. It depends on a lot of factors, imho.

[Muleteam1]

I agree that it is simply insane to think the government could keep an alien crash a secret since 1947. Makes for good economics in Roswell though.

As an aside, I once interviewed for a position at White Sands. The job involved wolves I seem to recall.

Muleteam1

[djf]

Well, it's after 2PM eastern. So what'd they say already?

[evets]

Streaks of water and geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus

[Tokra]

But again - what would their reason be for keeping this secret?

One person - who is convinced that aliens crashed in Roswell - told me the reason they kept it secret is because they are afraid the populace would panic if told the truth.

My response was - who would panic? Most people already think it's true!

Why on earth (pun) would NASA keep a discovery secret? Would would be the advantage? I can certainly see the advantage of trumpeting the news - I see none for hushing it up.

[oh8eleven]

Streaks of water and geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus
Wow, must be time to request another TRILLION taxpayer dollars to waste investigate.

[Termite_Commander]

NASA's Cassini Discovers Potential Liquid Water on Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about the mysterious moon.

"We realize that this is a radical conclusion -- that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," said Dr. Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms."

High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting large quantities of particles at high speed. Scientists examined several models to explain the process. They ruled out the idea that the particles are produced by or blown off the moon's surface by vapor created when warm water ice converts to a gas. Instead, scientists have found evidence for a much more exciting possibility -- the jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone.

Mission scientists report these and other Enceladus findings in this week's issue of Science.

"We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter's moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune's moon Triton. Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club, and one of the most exciting places in the solar system," said Dr. John Spencer, Cassini scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.

"Other moons in the solar system have liquid-water oceans covered by kilometers of icy crust," said Dr. Andrew Ingersoll, imaging team member and atmospheric scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "What's different here is that pockets of liquid water may be no more than tens of meters below the surface."

Other unexplained oddities now make sense. "As Cassini approached Saturn, we discovered that the Saturnian system is filled with oxygen atoms. At the time we had no idea where the oxygen was coming from," said Dr. Candy Hansen, Cassini scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "Now we know that Enceladus is spewing out water molecules, which break down into oxygen and hydrogen."

Scientists are also seeing variability at Enceladus. "Even when Cassini is not flying close to Enceladus, we can detect that the plume's activity has been changing through its varying effects on the soup of electrically-charged particles that flow past the moon," said Dr. Geraint H. Jones, Cassini scientist, magnetospheric imaging instrument, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

Scientists still have many questions. Why is Enceladus currently so active? Are other sites on Enceladus active? Might this activity have been continuous enough over the moon's history for life to have had a chance to take hold in the moon's interior?

"Our search for liquid water has taken a new turn. The type of evidence for liquid water on Enceladus is very different from what we've seen at Jupiter's moon Europa. On Europa the evidence from surface geological features points to an internal ocean. On Enceladus the evidence is direct observation of water vapor venting from sources close to the surface," said Dr. Peter Thomas, Cassini imaging scientist, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

In the spring of 2008, scientists will get another chance to look at Enceladus when Cassini flies within 350 kilometers (approximately 220 miles), but much work remains after Cassini's four-year prime mission is over.

"There's no question that, along with the moon Titan, Enceladus should be a very high priority for us. Saturn has given us two exciting worlds to explore," said Dr. Jonathan Lunine, Cassini interdisciplinary scientist, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the Caltech, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

Source

[djf]

Well, interesting, but certainly not mind boggling or Earth shaking!

I wonder if we're being primed for something, just seems odd to announce that you're gonna announce something.

[FReepaholic]

Fascinating photos.

[BenLurkin]

Looks like you called it.

[WKUHilltopper]

Pfffttt...that's it?

Wake me up if they find a Burger King or something.

[gaijin]

They've found some sign that Mars has underground deposits of water.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!!!

[RadioAstronomer]

One of the mascots of a satellite I flew.