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NASA Not Sharing a "Historic" Find On Mars.... yet
C-Net ^ | Novembe 21 ,2012 | Eric Mack

Posted on 11/24/2012 5:03:29 PM PST by lbryce

Data that NASA's discovery wee a sample of Martian dirt could be earth-shattering, but the space agency is taking time to check its work.

NASA's not sharing a 'historic' find on Mars... yet

Data from a sample of Martian dirt could be earth-shattering, but the space agency is taking time to check its work.

SAM, a mobile sample analysis lab, is currently mounted on Curiosity and finding interesting stuff in Martian soil.

It seems NASA and the Curiosity rover have found something exciting and nerd-tastic on Mars, but the space agency's scientists are holding back for now, despite how painful it appears to be for them.

NPR science correspondent Joe Palca happened to be in the room recently when John Grotzinger, lead scientist for the Curiosity mission at NASA, started receiving data on his computer from the rover's on-board chemistry lab, also known as SAM (sample analysis at Mars). SAM and NASA scientists on Earth have been busy analyzing a sample of Martian soil of late, and apparently the dirt from the Red Planet has a secret to tell.

"This data is going to be one for the history books, it's looking really good," Grotzinger said in the story that aired yesterday.

And that's about all he said.

Grotzinger and NASA have remained mum on what exactly Curiosity may have found in the Martian soil, saying it could be several more weeks until they're able to verify the data. The scientists need to make sure whatever earth-shattering find they have isn't an error or perhaps some kind of stowaway molecule or whatever it may be that hitched one really long ride from Earth.

So I contacted another space smarty-pants type not associated with NASA to see if he might have a guess.

Lewis Dartnell is a leading astrobiologist at The Centre For Planetary Sciences at UCL/Birkbeck in London. He makes it clear that with so little to go on, no one outside of NASA can know what the agency thinks it has, but, he says, "the SAM instrument is designed to detect organic molecules on Mars, so the smart money is on an announcement along those lines."

That's right, the smart money is on what we all were already thinking -- LIFE ON MARS.

The seas may be rising and more superstorms may continue to threaten humanity's most important megalopolises, but there could soon be an emerging market for condominiums on Mars to take our minds off of such challenges.

What do you think NASA's found on the fourth rock from the sun? Let us know in the comments. Or just tell us you know what it is, but then don't really tell us until next month.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: elonmusk; jimmyhoffa; life; mars; martianlife; spacex
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To: lbryce

The King... MY GOD, THEY’VE FOUND ELVIS!!!!!


61 posted on 11/24/2012 8:12:07 PM PST by Gator113 (**WHO in the hell gave the damn order to NOT rescue our men in Benghazi?**)
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To: lbryce

Evidence from Bill Clinton.


62 posted on 11/24/2012 8:24:20 PM PST by FishinTX (Barak Obama HATES you.)
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To: LibWhacker
There's oil on Mars!!!

I agree, it's got to be hydrocarbons, oil. Mars is greasy. Now we can make fuel for return trips home.

63 posted on 11/24/2012 8:25:24 PM PST by roadcat
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To: LibWhacker
We're talking hydrocarbons, here, I think. I'd be willing to bet on it (but only a cup of coffee!:-)). Fats are hydrocarbons. Methane is a hydrocarbon. You know what people will think of when they hear that word?... There's oil on Mars!!!

Here's what I think is the background of what is at issue here. Previously in the 20th century before space probes and larger telescopes which could measure the chemical composition of the planets, methane and hydrocarbons were thought to only exist on Earth, as they were created by living organisms. In fact, one early test for livf on other planets was to detect methane. Methane = life, as simple as that.

However, that got blown out of the water as all of our large gas giants have significant proportions of methane, plus at least the moon Titan. Yet no one now proposes that there is life there based on only the presence of methane. And so now we have at best inconsistent explanations as to why there is methane on different planets.

There has been methane detected on Mars. So, where does all this methane in the solar system come from? On Earth, it is declared to be biological processes, on other planets, it isn't, on Mars, they are sitting on the fence.

The origin of methane and petroleum itself has different theorys, including the Abiogenic petroleum origin, proposed by Thomas Gold. While that theory is not in favor, it was the only theory I know of that takes into account that methane is being found all across the solar system.

So basically, the methane on Marss is either being created by living organisms, or it is being outgassed from the rocks of mars itself, in a way that science has currently not supported.

64 posted on 11/24/2012 8:28:10 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: lbryce

life on Mars? A new food source. I hope they don’t taste like chicken, I’m all chickened out.


65 posted on 11/24/2012 8:30:15 PM PST by MaxMax
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To: roadcat
I agree, it's got to be hydrocarbons, oil. Mars is greasy. Now we can make fuel for return trips home.

This is already being worked on.

Methane Blast

66 posted on 11/24/2012 8:33:23 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: lbryce
Show me the money !!Image and video hosting by TinyPic
67 posted on 11/24/2012 9:22:44 PM PST by MtnMan101
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To: aft_lizard

That would make the needle jump too. Water would be very interesting but not really astounding.


68 posted on 11/24/2012 9:40:31 PM PST by TigersEye (Who is John Galt?)
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To: lbryce

How do we know that any biologic samples are not the result of contamination from the probes that we sent to Mars over the last decades? After all, scientists believe the much more implausible theory that life came to Earth aboard chunks of Martian soil blasted from the surface of Mars by a meteor impact, survived flight through open space and fiery entrance through the Earth’s atmosphere...


69 posted on 11/24/2012 10:30:06 PM PST by Keli Kilohana (Editor, ZARR CHASM CHRONICAL [sic], Sore, WV)
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To: cripplecreek
I’m guessing that its water in the soil.

No, they already announced it. They were digging and found an old tennis shoe.

70 posted on 11/24/2012 11:10:02 PM PST by gunsequalfreedom (Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)
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To: Hegemony Cricket

And if the Brits send electrical stuff up there, will they have to call the voltage datum “mars?”


71 posted on 11/24/2012 11:27:23 PM PST by Erasmus (Zwischen des Teufels und des tiefen, blauen Meers)
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To: lbryce

Classic trailer from INVADERS FROM MARS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ury5b-qtI1Y


72 posted on 11/25/2012 1:21:37 AM PST by doug from upland (Obama and the leftists - destroying our country one day at a time)
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To: lbryce

Tribbles.

73 posted on 11/25/2012 1:22:52 AM PST by FroggyTheGremlim (2012 elections: American Coup d'etat!)
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To: cripplecreek
I’m guessing that its water in the soil.

I am guessing it doesn’t matter what they claim they find, it will be whatever is need for more funding.

You are free to go to mars and check their findings yourself to see if they are making stuff up.<Just kidding>

74 posted on 11/25/2012 2:12:20 AM PST by itsahoot (Any enemy, that is allowed to have a King's X line, is undefeatable. (USS Taluga AO-62))
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To: lbryce

“Statue of Elvis found on Mars!”

I seen it on the History Channel.

Previews of new episode:

Dead Bigfoot in WW II bomber found on Mars.


75 posted on 11/25/2012 3:53:42 AM PST by Uncle Lonny
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To: lbryce
"...but there could soon be an emerging market for condominiums on Mars to take our minds off of such challenges. "

"Soon"? Perhaps in a geologic time frame. But 'soon' in our frame of reference? Um...no.

76 posted on 11/25/2012 6:11:41 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts ('Need' now means wanting someone else's money. 'Greed' means wanting to keep your own...)
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To: Keli Kilohana
What??? Here's PROOF POSITIVE life comes from outer space:

I mean, c'mon, like, that's GOTTA be from, like, Venus or Andromeda or some s*** like that. Eyeballs don't grow on trees!

77 posted on 11/25/2012 9:20:49 AM PST by LibWhacker
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To: cripplecreek

Jimmy Hoffa...


78 posted on 11/25/2012 9:50:36 AM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a GREAT life!)
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To: zot

yep, more funding to outreach to muslims to education about the great islamic space heros of the 7th century and that we need more windmills to counteract glowbull warming.


79 posted on 11/25/2012 3:43:10 PM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: lbryce

If they’ve found water and/or fossils then that could support the hydroplate theory...

Center for Scientific Creation - In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood
http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/IntheBeginningTOC.html


80 posted on 11/27/2012 7:40:20 PM PST by BrandtMichaels
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