NASA to announce discovery in ocean on Saturn’s moon

Today Nasa will announce a discovery on Saturn's Moon Enceladus of Hydrothermal vents on the Ocean floor; which is the place where life is believed to have began on Earth. The discovery of this hydrothermal activity has scientists excited at the potential for life on this Saturn moon. The announcement will be held today at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA’s headquarters in Washington at 2pm.

Today, NASA will announce a new finding which the space agency says will ‘inform the broader search for life beyond Earth’. A report from a former NASA employee suggests that the finding relates to hydrothermal vents in an icy ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. If true, it could be highly significant – as many scientists believe life on Earth began in similar warm vents on the ocean floor.

I mentioned before that I believe that there is life on some of the Moons of the solar system; namely Enceladus. Now it seems that NASA is finally going to announce what it knows and has probably has known for years. However, why the secrecy? It's not like we could just travel to any of these places on a whim. How would the discovery of life elsewhere hurt National Security? What is the advantage to keeping the answer to life elsewhere secret? Is it NASA funding? IDK....but what I do know/think is that this announcement is a result from the growth of private Space. What says ATS?

www.yahoo.com...

Maybe the secrecy is from the worry that private space travelers/scientists/machines will steal their thunder? Or taint "THEIR" discoveries first.

-Alee

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
Maybe the secrecy is from the worry that private space travelers/scientists/machines will steal their thunder? Or taint "THEIR" discoveries first.

-Alee

I think the worry from NASA is /was that any discovery of life would hurt their funding.

a reply to: lostbook

Why do you think it would hurt their funding?

If anything, I'd think that discovering life off Earth would actually increase the funding....directly proportional to the type of life......bacteria a increase......intelligent tool using life, a very substantial increase in funding.

About time.

I don't think that they discovered anything but the vents. This is a push to get funding to explore for life at those vents. Just my thoughts.

So if that moon magically moved to earth orbit it would have a chance to develop life in five billion years......can't wait.

a reply to: csimon

Not likely Buzz Lightyear has a better space program than Nasa at the moment

My prediction:

NASA will spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to send a submarine on a rocket to go explore the ocean of Enceladus, and find nothing.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: lostbook

Why do you think it would hurt their funding?

If anything, I'd think that discovering life off Earth would actually increase the funding....directly proportional to the type of life......bacteria a increase......intelligent tool using life, a very substantial increase in funding.

I come to this conclusion because NASA "searches" for life and it gets funding for this purpose...However, once life is found NASA's search is over and so is its funding. With the advent of private Space, NASA can focus on other things, thus, the release of info such as this. Maybe I'm seeing it wrong but that's how I see it.

a reply to: lostbook

Ah.

Well, here's the thing: Why would the search be over? If they did find life.....that means it can happen outside of our planet. Which of course most of us are pretty sure it can anyways.

But if they found it, I don't think it would make them go "Well, that's a wrap boys, our job here is done.", I'd think it would cause everyone to go "HOLY CRAP! We need to find what else there is out there!"

Just my opinion of course.

a reply to: peskyhumans

Buzzkill

a reply to: lostbook

Nasa is too late.

No more funding until WW3 is over.

Early bird gets the worm.

a reply to: lostbook

I mentioned before that I believe that there is life on some of the Moons of the solar system; namely Enceladus. Now it seems that NASA is finally going to announce what it knows and has probably has known for years. However, why the secrecy? It's not like we could just travel to any of these places on a whim. How would the discovery of life elsewhere hurt National Security? What is the advantage to keeping the answer to life elsewhere secret? Is it NASA funding? IDK....but what I do know/think is that this announcement is a result from the growth of private Space. What says ATS?

Sounds to me like you are confusing our own beliefs with knowledge...

originally posted by: peskyhumans
My prediction:

NASA will spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to send a submarine on a rocket to go explore the ocean of Enceladus, and find nothing.

Not finding life would suck. But I'm pretty sure it would still be interesting.

And: submarine on another planet........too cool.

originally posted by: peskyhumans
My prediction:

NASA will spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to send a submarine on a rocket to go explore the ocean of Enceladus, and find nothing.

Meanwhile untold millions will starve and species will vanish here on earth that those billions could have kept in the struggle to evolve here on earth.

a reply to: peskyhumans

Or. . . they would find an advanced civilization of underwater dwelling mer-people, but report to us that they found no evidence of life on the mission.

originally posted by: moebius
a reply to: lostbook

I mentioned before that I believe that there is life on some of the Moons of the solar system; namely Enceladus. Now it seems that NASA is finally going to announce what it knows and has probably has known for years. However, why the secrecy? It's not like we could just travel to any of these places on a whim. How would the discovery of life elsewhere hurt National Security? What is the advantage to keeping the answer to life elsewhere secret? Is it NASA funding? IDK....but what I do know/think is that this announcement is a result from the growth of private Space. What says ATS?

Sounds to me like you are confusing our own beliefs with knowledge...

It's more than a belief. An Ouija Board told me about life on Moons of the Solar System.

originally posted by: TinfoilTP

originally posted by: peskyhumans
My prediction:

NASA will spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to send a submarine on a rocket to go explore the ocean of Enceladus, and find nothing.

Meanwhile untold millions will starve and species will vanish here on earth that those billions could have kept in the struggle to evolve here on earth.

NASA still represents a better investment in humanity's long term survival.

Makes me wonder when the Sun swells to red giant proportions if that will spur more complex life there...

Prolly not but fun to think about.