Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Team Reportedly Will Reveal Major Discovery In December

It's been speculated that life could evolve that isn't carbon based. What if, instead of finding organic compounds, they have discovered inorganic microbes? Now, that would be something I would be interested in hearing.

They found a mouse turd, I have relatives living there.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


No offense meant, but anytime 'big news' is put on an agenda or time frame, it isn't THAT much news. Big news happens NOW, as in 'this just in' or 'breaking news'. But, can't wait to hear the news!

The rover has found what appears to be life but it could very well just be organic compounds. Still...the rover is capable of determining if it has found DNA and this is what they are carefully checking and rechecking.

This is consistent with the previous findings by other landers which did not have such a complex system to determine what those samples actually were.

The various reactions by Religious Leader should be interesting if they have indeed found LIFE.

Split Infinity

Originally posted by Lysis
I'm calling it now...

I doubt it..... If there were aliens on mars, well, it's close enough that it would be impossible to hide, what with all the amateur astronomers out there. Maybe there was life on mars millions-billions of years ago. But there aren't now. Unless we are talking about microbes or something..... Then....Maybe...Maybe............


I think it will be more likely to be an announcement involving water or something being found....

Remember hype like this about an invention and it was a .... Segway?

Remember hype like this about Mars and it was a .... Blueberry? or "water once flowed on Mars"? or water was once piss warm on Mars?

Remember hype like this and it was "I am offering 5 million dollars for Obama to release his transcripts"?

...a nd so on.so many examples.

So hoping it will be life or fossils .. but my bet is interesting soil or xenon in the atmosphere ... or something ....so hope I am wrong

What if they have found evidence of a eliptical orbit planet that periodically enters our solar system

Just imgaine the history changing revelation that would be!

Originally posted by magma
What if they have found evidence of a eliptical orbit planet that periodically enters our solar system

Just imgaine the history changing revelation that would be!

Elliptical orbit.... you mean like all Planets in our solar system...

yeah... and I'm sure they find evidence for your Planet by feeding dirt into the Mars rover....

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Okay. So if this is "one for the history books" then it must be more than just an announcement about water or something we already know about. I personally think they are going to announce what the shiny materials in the sample actually is. It looks crystalline to me. My imagination says its some form of organic compound but who knows. Maybe they are false hyping themselves...

Originally posted by N3k9Ni
It's been speculated that life could evolve that isn't carbon based. What if, instead of finding organic compounds, they have discovered inorganic microbes? Now, that would be something I would be interested in hearing.

Now THAT would go down in history.

I am also speculating towards "organic compounds"...but...there might be more...let's speculate...

It has something to do with the soil/geological make-up.

It could ALSO be something like the discovery that the soil-make up is similar to Earth's.....indicating that Mars and Earth are both originating from the same chunk of rock, similar to the theory that the Moon is actually a piece of Earth?

Better specualtion:

According to the article, the SAM instrument is also used to "sniff" the atmosphere to find Methane. This (AFAIK) up to today is inconclusive.

They could announce they have proof now that methane exists in Mars atmosphere (which would be a VERY strong indicator for possible life)....but then the article says "apparently found in a soil sample"...so its not really that clear where exactly the discovery was made

Here’s my guess on what they found:

They probably found microbes on Mars which are similar to the airborne varieties found on earth.

reply to post by PhoenixOD

They found evidence of ancient civilzation (just getting in early incase it is true)

Originally posted by SplitInfinity
The rover has found what appears to be life but it could very well just be organic compounds. Still...the rover is capable of determining if it has found DNA and this is what they are carefully checking and rechecking.

This is consistent with the previous findings by other landers which did not have such a complex system to determine what those samples actually were.

The various reactions by Religious Leader should be interesting if they have indeed found LIFE.

Split Infinity

Why should that be interesting? Perhaps you know something I do not??
The announcement of life would not surprise me or most Christians or those of other religions that I know.
Do you go into every thread looking to bash those of faith? It really gets kind of old after a while. Why are you such a hater?

It's going to be something scientifically exciting that the rest of you will find immensely boring and disappointing. Then there will be 4 or more pages, even a thread or two, about how lame the information was and how it's actually a lie and NASA is hiding something.

Never mind that everything they learn over there with the rovers is worth it's weight in gold.

I just find it hilarious that so many get so excited about these press conferences about exciting scientific finds only to then minutes later shout out how you never believed them anyways, how it's all a big deception.

Don't these people get tired of their hypocrisy? Don't they realize how silly they look? Don't they realize that they only set themselves up for disappointment, because they really don't care about science and just want their own beliefs validated?

When will these people, who claim to be awake, actually wake up? When will they realize that these discoveries, even though they aren't necessarily immediately life changing to the average person, immensely important to dozens of scientific fields and make our lives that much better in the long run, and our technology and future goals that much easier?

I hope it's sometime soon, because the buffoonery on these boards is getting stale.

Would be awesome if it was some ruins like in the Mass Effect games.

Mars was explored via various robotic expeditions for nearly a century before the first manned research stations were placed in the 2080s. The first permanent settlement on Mars was Lowell City, founded in 2103 by the European Space Agency, and based in Eos Chasma. Within a decade, both the US and China had founded permanent settlements as well. However, satellites near Promethei Planum began reporting strange phenomena that gave the region a 'Bermuda Triangle' reputation, mostly unexplained magnetic field shifts.

In 2148, a prospecting team led by Mateus Silva began exploring near the Deseado Crater, and found the source of these disturbances when they unearthed a subterranean Prothean ruin. The ruins contained a malfunctioning mass effect core and several starships, as well as refined element zero. After a global effort, the information remaining in the ruins' computers was translated, identifying the structure as a former observation and biosciences station, set up to receive and process data from Earth as the Protheans studied Cro-Magnon humans.

The motives and conclusions of the Prothean observers remained unknown, but the ruins' data cache, though fragmented, accelerated human sciences by roughly two hundred years. It paved the way for the development of FTL drives and, later, mass effect field technology.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


You ask in your post, what else could this discovery be, other than evidence of life. I would agree that from the wording of the report you link to, it does seem as if the discovery must be something so profound that they want some more time to make certain of thier findings, else there would be no reason for delaying its revalation to the masses.

However, I would recommend caution, and that anyone expecting nothing less than proof of life on Mars, past or present, ought to widen thier horizons just a little bit. There are many discoveries that could be made on Mars, that might prompt such interest as has been hinted at. They may have discovered rich deposits of valuable minerals, like hydrocarbons and so on, or have identified a sample of those odd shiny fragments they found earlier in the year as being a part of a massive crystal formation of some very interesting type.

Do not misunderstand me, from the language used in the article to describe the gravitas with which the impending announcement is being treated, I would have thought the announcement must be something to do with the life on Mars subject also. However, we must be prepared to accept ANY valuable data that is bought to our attention, and be disciplined enough as people to take as much joy, and interest, in an announcement about mineral deposits, as we would about the discovery of simple life, or evidence of complex life in the past, on Mars.

Oh come on. They're going to report they found a rock or something. If they found life it would be all over the news...or would it? Whatever, this is just going to be another let down. People, they found a rock.

Originally posted by TrueBrit
reply to post by PhoenixOD

 

You ask in your post, what else could this discovery be, other than evidence of life. I would agree that from the wording of the report you link to, it does seem as if the discovery must be something so profound that they want some more time to make certain of thier findings, else there would be no reason for delaying its revalation to the masses.

However, I would recommend caution, and that anyone expecting nothing less than proof of life on Mars, past or present, ought to widen thier horizons just a little bit. There are many discoveries that could be made on Mars, that might prompt such interest as has been hinted at. They may have discovered rich deposits of valuable minerals, like hydrocarbons and so on, or have identified a sample of those odd shiny fragments they found earlier in the year as being a part of a massive crystal formation of some very interesting type.

Do not misunderstand me, from the language used in the article to describe the gravitas with which the impending announcement is being treated, I would have thought the announcement must be something to do with the life on Mars subject also. However, we must be prepared to accept ANY valuable data that is bought to our attention, and be disciplined enough as people to take as much joy, and interest, in an announcement about mineral deposits, as we would about the discovery of simple life, or evidence of complex life in the past, on Mars.

The problem with being excited about mineral deposits or some such thing, is that it really doesn't shake any foundations. We already know theres rocks on Mars, and doubtless very many interesting rocks, if your a geologist. But the likelyhood that any kind of geology will bring some useful knowledge that will positively affect our lives is very slim.

Even if it meant we were going to go to Mars to mine it, we wouldn't see that untill we would be very old, and doubtless only a few corporations would profit from it, no one else.

As far as scientific discoveries go that will help us in our daily lives, NASA has discovered more in the actual process of going into space, as opposed to what they have found IN space.

Finding life on Mars is therefore one of the only truely exciting things for a laymen because it would confirm that we aren't alone. This, in my opinion, has more value then any other discovery we can make on Mars because it would shake a lot of ignorance out of the world's population.

Perhaps they found large amounts of Barium and Krypton (the residual from the splitting of U-235) or even more spectacular, americium-241, or plutonium-239.