A fossil? A monolith? Jimmy Hoffa? Mars rover finds ... something

A fossil? A monolith? Jimmy Hoffa? Mars rover finds ... something

www.foxnews.com

NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars is busily grinding out science data — and has likely relayed some provocative findings — but mum's the word from scientists on the mission.

Read more: www.foxnews.com...

(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh boy, here we go again! As many have suspected, things have taken a strange turn on the "news" from Mars. This could be the big one but something tells me that much like the rest of groundbreaking news, it is not meant for us and as such, we will never know.

This was one story I was following with bated breath but now I have serious doubt if any news at all will make it to the mainstream side of things, much less that of life or past life on the red planet.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Really? Fox news?
Have you lost your mind?

All we can do is let NASA break the news about something a nerdy scientists that is all up into it with a starbucks frapp-a-cino.
Sorry,I don't frequent starbucks,nor do I like coffee so I don't know the spelling of such beverages,best I can do is beer.

The only folk mentioning anything like a monolith are the internet guesserologists:

As expected, readers in the blogosphere have already chimed in with what they believe Curiosity has found; their guesses so far have included a fossil, a black monolith, Tang and Jimmy Hoffa. 

The article goes on with the downplay:

"This is going to be a disappointment," said Chris McKay, a NASA space scientist at Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "The press description of the
SAM results as 'earthshaking' is, in my view, an unfortunate exaggeration. We have not (yet) found anything in SAM that was not already known from previous missions: Phoenix and Viking."

Then revives with a tidbit of hope for something, maybe, possibly, somewhat interesting:

But James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and a member of Curiosity's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) science team, had a different take.
"What John Grotzinger was saying as our very capable project scientist on MSL is exactly the case," Garvin said. "The analytical payload on MSL —in particular, SAM as a suite —has been making unprecedented measurements of solid material samples with incredible implications about Mars, but which require, as in all science, demonstration of reproducibility and adequacy of calibration/validation."

www.foxnews.com...

Well the article says they probably found some organics but that's pretty vague. Finding certain organics could suggest life exist now while finding others could be meaningless.

This reminds of children playing in elementary, pointing and sticking their tongues out and saying, "I have a secret but I'm not going to tell you, nyah nyah." All tease and talk, no action

reply to post by Helious



Poor Jimmy, Not even on Mars..

I'm going to wait and see what all this talk is all about.
Better be worth the Billions of Tax dollars.

P.S. I'm up to this point a disappointed NASA supporter.

They found underwear with skid marks on it.

Typical NASA.

They found nothing but thats a lot to many scientists who claim it all came from nothing!!!

So its nothing!!

I think thats NASA speak for "Woo Hoo!!! SAM is working exactly as it was designed to!!! Way Hay!!!- what? have we actually found anything new? Errr, wellll......."

My response is "well, we get that its amazing that you landed another rover on Mars, and when you switched it on, all the dashboard lit up n'all, but, well, thats what you guys get paid to do, and it wasnt exactly cheap, so let us know when you find any signs of life, otherwise, we aint interested....."

I mean "We have not (yet) found anything in SAM that was not already known from previous missions: Phoenix and Viking." You cant get more disappointing than that in my book.

Where's Mars' Methane? Curiosity Draws a Blank Curiosity comes up empty-handed in its first attempt to find the gas,

I think after testing again..they will tell us they found Methane I think this is it.

Will see!

reply to post by SLAYER69


wondering why you're disappointed Slayer

:-)

Real question

Chris McKay is not on the Curiosity science team, and is very probably not in a position to know of the latest discovery on Mars, information of which is being held very closely, for the moment, by those who *do* know. He says nothing new has been found. Hmmm.
James Garvin *is* on the Curiosity team and says they
*have* found something important. I don't think it should be too hard to decide which of these contradictory accounts is more likely to be correct.
They've apparently found organic compounds on Mars. This may not sound like 'one for the history books' but it could be.
If complex enough, the best explanation for these materials could be life on Mars. If they contain mostly the light carbon isotope, carbon 12, this also points to living things, which use the lighter instead of the heavier carbon.
Organic material in general, and so quickly found, tends to support the positive life findings of the Viking probes, some 36 years ago. These were dismissed when organic matter could not be found in the soil. It is believed that organic matter should be found if life is present. The Viking test procedures probably destroyed the organics in the soil, it has now been realized. We might have found life on Mars a generation ago, and are only now about to realize it.

A correction to the preceding post. I find, on further investigation, that Chris McKay *is* a co-investigator on the Curiosity team. I stand humbly corrected. The reason for contradictory-seeming remarks about what Curiosity has found seems to be based on ambiguity in the meaning of the data. Different individuals interpret it differently at this point. It will be interesting to hear on Monday morning what has actually been found.

reply to post by Spiramirabilis


Why am I disappointed?

Several reasons really.

The big one for me is that they make space exploration seem about as exciting as watching paint dry. Why would that be important? Because you'll often hear about how engineers, pilots, scientist and mathematicians talk about TV shows like Star Trek or movies like Star Wars inspired them to get into their professions.

Watching NASA?
You hear Crickets.

With the US now competing [horribly I might add] with more countries we are lagging way behind. We had the initiative back during Apollo and we've let it slowly drain away since the 70s.

Let's start with that one.

It's all a big game.
NASA: Looky looky we found something.
MIB: it's a rock
NASA: But it's evidence for life!
MIB: It's a rock and if you say otherwise,we know where your family lives.
NASA: It's just a rock,nothing more.

reply to post by SLAYER69


So, what you're saying is - they need more splosions

a really great car chase - maybe more nudity? :-)

more nudity...

I love NASA - if after all this the only thing they have to tell me is: Hey, guess what?! Mars is pretty much covered with dirt! - it will all be worth it

We're on freaking Mars

:-)