Some ignorant people here. The discovery of life on Mars would change a lot. A new DNA sequence to decode and compare would bring a lot to genetics. That is just one example if you can not think of more then you do not know much about the subject and hence should trust in people who know more.
A fresh interest in space would bring more funding to space exploration worldwide not just in America. China, Russia and EU would all increase funding. If you think funding into space exploration is useless and a waste of money then go do a little research into all the technology's we use as a direct result of space exploration.
Oh someone mentioned water on mars. It would not be groundbreaking since we already know there is water on mars tied up in ice at the poles.
My guess is that they may have found remnants of methane, which points towards that there might have been life once there
The problem is if it is only bacteria... bleh.. then it is easy to say it got there from an earthstrike meteorite. You would almost have to have a small ecosystem for it to be exciting like the Gulf of Mexico lava tubes.
That's a pretty ignorant statement. The big change might be the final nail in the coffin of the Anti-Science types and get us back to dealing with reality instead of a make-believe "fit for some political agenda" talking point made by some low IQ pundit on TV.
Science in itself, in all forms, has a large return on investment for those who can look down the road. Things like Tax cuts for big oil, the Bush tax cuts and the bloated DoD budget for example have a negative return. If a balanced budget and paying down the debt are important to you then you should be screaming to pull money from negative yield programs and invest it into science.
ownership of property off of this planet will be decided the same way it is on this planet, economic and ultimately military power.
right now there is a treaty saying you cant claim property on the moon i believe, but that will go away once enough of the opinions controlling the world's military and economic powerhouses change their minds.
Proud member of the zero infraction club (lets see how long this can last =)
It's not methane. See:
While the scientific implications of that would be huge, the religious implications would be none whatsoever. People will continue to believe what they want to believe.
Science hasn't cured them from religion before, it will not cure them now.
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"This is not a dress. This is a sacred robe of the ancient psychedelic monks."
I guess it's just an unusual and unexpected type of rock they found leading to new knowledge about the past of Mars. Nothing more.
Atoms are liars, they make up everything!
[QUOTE=Frozenbeef;19182384]
please <3
That's fucking terrifying.
A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
They found a Gideon's bible!
Can't find a footprint with a chromatograph though. The information implies that the discovery is something chemical, as they're talking about the SAM equipment finding it. Something like formaldehyde or urea could be a possibility. Something really nuts would be a more complex molecule like glucosamine.
That comic was about Spirit, a previous rover. It was powered by solar panels, and maintained communications way longer than its mission planned. Curiosity runs on plutonium, it's definitely going to run out of power more or less when expected.
Last edited by vizzle; 2012-11-22 at 03:56 PM.
Why am I back here, I don't even play these games anymore
The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.
Here's my WAG
It could supporting data for this paper
http://ijass.org/PublishedPaper/year...ct.asp?idx=132
of a new analysis from the Viking Lander's (1976) life experiment data.
Also they could have an explanation for the Methane detected in 2003 and 2006
http://images.spaceref.com/news/2009..._accepted2.pdf
Cool stuff!
Looks like a dinosaur footprint!
This is not meant to be a leading statement.
two possibilities come to mind
1 - Proof of life, either living, or dead.
2 - a Completely new mineral which displays some interesting qualities.
Either of which could justify a mission with return capabilities. possibly even a manned one.
I'm hoping for any kind of life or past life, even single-cell
but earth-shattering-discovery for scientists is very different than for the rest of population, to them some new element to put on a periodic table would do the trick.
Try to think of the bigger picture. If they find evidence of life historic or current, space will need to be explored more. Which would better power sources, which would help earth. Theres all sorts of things that this could drive. Yeah I am being optimistic!
---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 04:55 PM ----------
A new element would be extraordinary.
Well first of all you have to look at the specific instrument whose data they are interested in.
SAM I believe is a fancy mass spectrometer. And then the article said something about concerns of having brought back air from California.
So my guess is they found certain trace chemicals in a rock or soil sample that might be found in earths atmosphere, but is like "wtf this shouldn't be on mars". It could be anything really.
I'm going to go with the most out there idea. They took a soil sample and the spectrometer was like "WTF HEPTANE" THERE'S OIL ON MAAARS!!!
A new element would be absurd. A new isotope possibly, but not an all together new element, because that would be absolutely impossible.