What Has NASA's Curiosity Found on Mars? We'll Find Out Thursday

Well, we're not seeing any kind of mass mobilization of military and police forces around the world to handle civilian unrest. I would expect that, if there was going to be an announcement that might shake the people's faith in their creation myths. So nothing that major.

However, since science slowly builds on previous discoveries, I would bet that the announcement has something to do with Mars watery past.

Probably more evidence has been found concerning mineral deposition that only occurs in the presence of water. Maybe they were able to more accurately determine the chemical composition of Mars water, and found it to be more conducive to life than they previously thought.

Maybe they have observed some stratigraphic evidence that further supports their theories of giant Mars oceans, perhaps even placing the location of the Curiosity rover in context of one of those proposed massive bodies of water.

It would be pretty cool if they were able to provide a more precise temporal context for when those bodies of water may have existed. Perhaps something that the non-scientific community could appreciate. For instance, if they could propose that even as recently as 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs were roaming the Earth, there was still surface water on Mars, people might stop and pay attention. I know that a statement like that is unlikely though.

It will be an interesting announcement, but not likely to be Earth shattering.

-dex

a reply to: xenon129

They always hype this stuff up and it turns out to be something basic that is already known.

Where's the hype ? , it's happening tomorrow , you know about it today and it was announced on the 4th.
It isn't already known because they are publishing a paper about it tomorrow , as for basic ... beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It will probably be a special kind of dust but you never know

a reply to: Sakrateri

I literally almost died laughing at this.

Thank you, sir.

a reply to: gortex
I am going to guess that they will announce that they have found microfossils in the soil. That Mars used to be covered with seas and that if we aren’t careful, the Earth will suffer the same fate as Mars, all dried up and dead.

Honstly I really dont get NASA when it comes to mars .
fact Viking was in 1976 and had 23 test on board to look for signs of life .
fact 22 found signs the on test that did not was broken .
now pyramids and faces aside mars has seasons just like earth winter spring summer fall .
During the spring and summer the ice caps melt ( msotly c02 BUT also some water ice .
During this melt you can see a circle of green that looks alot like alge .
Now maybe its not but I do think that would be a much better thing to study then another rock .

a reply to: gortex

I think these press conferences are always exciting, even though I don't expect anything really earth-shaking to be revealed.

As another poster above pointed out, it's probably going to be something that substantiates current theories about Mars' watery past and ancient habitability. I'd speculate they identified yet another component or ingredient in Martian geology that makes past life on the red planet more likely, but no direct indication of past life.

And that's as far as they can go, let's not forget that the mission objectives in fact end there. It's not Curiosity's mission to detect past life (even if she should have already stumbled upon something more intriguing). That'll be a job for the 2020 rover, I'm almost certain that it won't happen any earlier, rather later... much later.

There's a certain "method" to Mars exploration, whether we like it or not. It's slow, and sometimes it seems almost "scripted". But I still look forward to their announcement (and secretly hope that it's more than what I stated above).

Attention:

There are no aliens...


They are MARTIANS !!!

a reply to: midnightstar

As Curiosity is in a dried up lake bed it makes sense to look at and drill into rocks , if there was life on Mars it will have left evidence in sedimentary rocks.

NASA sent the Phoenix lander to the northern polar area in the mid 2000's but conditions are hard up there and it only lasted a year so I can see why it makes financial and scientific sense to send rovers to the equator.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: watchitburn

The likelihood is it will be something scientifically interesting that holds little excitement for us but the law of probabilities says one of these announcements , sooner or later , will make us excited ... perhaps this is it.

At least it's not long to wait.

an announcement that would get ATSers excited would be tried to be kept quiet until a official release date to fact check and what not but there would be so much chatter all over it would be already known unofficially, that's if its something to excite us.


To be really honest, I think its martians but this honest thought is composed using , my head is spinning

originally posted by: NightFlight
Attention:

There are no aliens...


They are MARTIANS !!!

dead set I did not read this until after I posted.

There you go people

Its confirmed




Martians.


Now, who is willing to get married and help the martians get a green card?

The explorer and adventurer in me hopes they announce something amazingly spectacular that will blow our heads off.
Having seen these types of announcement before, I know it'll be interesting just not what we all want.

We want something that will open the door to a new age of exploration and discovery.

a reply to: InhaleExhale

Now, who is willing to get married and help the martians get a green card?

I would think that Martians probably have a strong perchlorate constituent to their body chemistry. So once the human male and the Martian consummate their union, the man would wind up in a "fate worse than death" scenario after his penis dissolves.


Count me out...

-dex

a reply to: Sakrateri

The amount of scrolling I had to do to star this post was.......well worth it!

NASA: "We made it all up, and we've been filming in a desert here on Earth. Photoshopped everything."

a reply to: gortex

My job is to explore the “organic biogeochemistry” of other bodies in our solar system, such as Mars or ice-covered ocean worlds — like Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa. To put it more simply, I look at organic molecules in rocks, ice and sediments and try to figure out where they came from and what happened to them over time. I want to know their story. Are they from life? Were they formed by geological processes in rocks? Are they from meteorites or comets?

As a scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory mission, I explore the rocks in Gale Crater through the imagers and instruments of the Curiosity rover. The rocks tell the story of a 3.6 billion year old lake. I specifically work with the Science Analysis of Mars (SAM) instrument on the rover to look for organic molecules on Mars. We did find some organic molecules, but we are not yet sure how they formed. Furthering our understanding of martian organics is the next step in understanding if life has ever existed on Mars.

NASA.gov, NASA People - Jennifer Eigenbrode Asks If We Are Alone in the Universe.

They coyly posted her job as "research scientist" on space.com!

So I wondered "what kind of research'? That is quoted from her profile on NASA's own site explaining the "research" she does. Having the Director of Goddard sitting there is usually a big deal.

TEOT's guess; Gale crater held microbial life and left trace elements that were finally verified.

The slow trickle is kind of a give away. Mars needs water to have life! Announcement: Mars had water! (Well, if you listened to guy from the Viking mission you know that signs of biological life were present some 40 years ago). But they can't have that out in the open because: OMG ALIENS!!!!!

Can't wait to get in in the morning because the news will be over and I won't have to wait!

Some kinda soil that contains some form of possible liquid which may be possibly some form of water...
Nuthin to see here....

With a little over an hour till the start of the press conference here is the NASA TV livestream for anyone interested.


a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

NASA headline:
Rover Finds Earth Rocks on Mars!

They have found organic molecules in the sub-surface. Curiosity drills 5cm down.

They are still not sure on the methane.