NASA scientists say they're closer than ever to finding life beyond Earth

originally posted by: Rob48
a reply to: zilebeliveunknown

Not sure what you find fishy about that. Nothing is withheld, it's just circulated to the people who need the data (and who did all the hard work that allowed it to be collected!) first.

Yep, it's just a common courtesy to do that. Otherwise anyone could just beat the people who worked on it to a potential Nobel Prize before the principal investigators had time to pour through their data. That would hardly be fair to the people who worked on it, sometimes for decades.

a reply to: Rob48
I didn't say fishy, only that it is unnecessary and counterproductive to withhold any information important to science.
Space agencies are using tax money for their funding, and astronomer's community were upset for them for not releasing info right away.
We're not talking about block buster films or new car models here, red carpet or coctails, we don't need science to behave like that.

originally posted by: comfortablynumb
Well, this is interesting on two fronts!

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 will help scientists with the task of finding life out there but if this doesn't do it...it seems we're getting better and better so if not the James Webb, maybe the next Space Telescope or the next one after that, and so on. The scientists do feel however that we are getting close!

But as the space telescopes launched by NASA get bigger and bigger, the odds of finding life will get better and better. Seager and Gallagher spoke about new technologies in development that may make the task of finding smaller, Earth-sized planets easier to find.

The second thing I noticed was this:

There was a question-and-answer session at the end of the panel. One question, posed by a person on social media, stood out: "If scientists do find life on another planet, will the U.S. government let people know?"

Stofan fielded that one. "Of course we would!" she said without hesitation. "That would be so amazingly exciting. We would try to get it out to the public as fast as we can. We want everyone to share in the excitement of discovery."

This comment or response says so much if you ask me. It doesn't mean governments don't know, maybe some people do but this just shows the excitement of a scientist who would love to find life out there and would not hesitate to share the knowledge.

Source

Mods: I searched based on the headline and URL and couldn't find a duplicate post. If there is, just delete, thanks.

When aliens already here...sounds funny.

originally posted by: darkorange

originally posted by: comfortablynumb
Well, this is interesting on two fronts!

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 will help scientists with the task of finding life out there but if this doesn't do it...it seems we're getting better and better so if not the James Webb, maybe the next Space Telescope or the next one after that, and so on. The scientists do feel however that we are getting close!

But as the space telescopes launched by NASA get bigger and bigger, the odds of finding life will get better and better. Seager and Gallagher spoke about new technologies in development that may make the task of finding smaller, Earth-sized planets easier to find.

The second thing I noticed was this:

There was a question-and-answer session at the end of the panel. One question, posed by a person on social media, stood out: "If scientists do find life on another planet, will the U.S. government let people know?"

Stofan fielded that one. "Of course we would!" she said without hesitation. "That would be so amazingly exciting. We would try to get it out to the public as fast as we can. We want everyone to share in the excitement of discovery."

This comment or response says so much if you ask me. It doesn't mean governments don't know, maybe some people do but this just shows the excitement of a scientist who would love to find life out there and would not hesitate to share the knowledge.

Source

Mods: I searched based on the headline and URL and couldn't find a duplicate post. If there is, just delete, thanks.

When aliens already here...sounds funny.

If you can prove that you are up for a Nobel Prize.

But let's say you're correct and the aliens are here, don't you think it would be prudent to learn as much about their home world's as possible?

a reply to: MysterX

It seems strange but every time a budget figure for NASA is mentioned you attack them and you always bring up the homeless etc, why not attack other Americans that gorge on HUGE portions of food, or other government agencies or how about Americans with a small arsenal of guns at home and buy yet another they all could donate to your cause.

Can you explain to others WHY you always attack NASA at every opportunity are you a failed applicant?

a reply to: Xcathdra

you don't reply to me a word. You just quoted the OP source. I have read it already, thanks.

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden echoed Hand's sentiment.

"It's highly improbable in the limitless vastness of the universe that we humans stand alone," he said. "

Yes, I agree with that! He said something reasonable. It is a time to be said, and much more. It is a time to move beyond Galileo.

Regardless of all bickering on budget, personnel, or past goals of NASA.

It is not NASA we discuss here. it is the STARS with PLANETS that are already seen thru telescopes, SOME of them operated by NASA, others not.

If NASA says it, good. If CNN says it good. If the pope says it, good.

The news of NASA press conference was so important that CNN made it breaking news and posted it on its twitter. 15, mln people got it instantaneously.

I follow for some time NASA press conferences when a discovery is expected. Frankly, they were all boring. Even the one that announced discoveries on Mars bordering discovery of past life. They were never interesting and never headlines on CNN, too. As far as I know.

To have a billion planets in our galaxy and thousands in our cosmic neighborhood is not a redundant discovery of bacterial life forms dead long ago in some rocks. Let grasp the importance of the moment.

Yes perhaps it is PR management to make it breaking news. But how otherwise it would reach maximum people? How otherwise scientists (not directly involved in that), religious and common people will finally understand we are moving beyond pre-Galileo's earth-centered Universe and we are discovering real things in OUR LIFETIME?

Call it now the great deception so we have an end times dispute. Good we don't live 5 centuries ago.

NASA & Library of Congress prepare for discovery of ET & alien baptism
Dr Michael Salla www.examiner.com...

From September 18-19, 2014, NASA and the Library of Congress are hosting a symposium on how society can prepare for the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Leading astrobiologists from around the world will convene at the Library of Congress in Washington DC., to discuss the latest scientific theories and developments in the search for extraterrestrial life. Presenters will discuss the implications from recent scientific breakthroughs in discovering the existence of exoplanets, new theories of the conditions under which extraterrestrial life can flourish, and how to communicate with them. In addition to broad discussion of the societal implications of discovering alien life and how to prepare for these, two of the presenters will discuss the theological implications. More specifically, Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit from the Vatican Observatory, will discuss “Would you Baptise an Extraterrestrial?” Consolmagno’s topic suggests that the Vatican approves viewing preparation for the discovery of intelligent alien life as an opportunity for gaining new recruits to the Christian faith.

NASA words of billion planets with possible life cannot but prepare the reasonable readers for the inevitable public contact.

The first contact may not be as terrible as many want it to be, taking scenes from Independence Day and from the Apocalypse. It doesn't have to be like that. There are other movies that present the things in a much better light.

Here is one Russian TV show that got the prize of best show of the year (2012). A drunken man is "abducted" by four Grey green men. As you can see he jokes all the time with them...poor Grey!

CNN breaking news
101 geysers spotted on Saturn's moon
NASA scientists say liquid water may exist on the surface of one of Saturn's icy moons.edition.cnn.com...

originally posted by: 2012newstart
CNN breaking news
101 geysers spotted on Saturn's moon
NASA scientists say liquid water may exist on the surface of one of Saturn's icy moons.edition.cnn.com...

That's not exactly breaking news. The geysers on Enceladus have been known for 10 years and originally photographed in 2005:

I checked the science story too. It was a long process of discovery taking years.

Still,it was a breaking news on CNN anyway, sent by twitter cnnbrk and posted on CNN inernational frontpage the picture of the geysers.

Perhaps other scientific discoveries ALREADY DONE will be made headline news t the precise moment.

I wonder where are the supporters of those stories, are they indeed only 8 or 28 flags? I know there are more, because some social pages with similar content grow to more than 1 million followers. If they are silent now, at the time of the big discovery those more than a million people will make their voice heard. It is absurd I have to defend that position here.