Curiosity has discovered something on Mars

[Dazzy]

It would give us insight on how life is formed, maybe on how life first appeared. It may even give insight into how to create life artificially.
It would give us insight into ways of evolution in such drastically different worlds as Earth and Mars.
It may possibly give us insight into different forms of life than the ones we know. Hell, life in Martian conditions probably is another form of life.
It would give us proof, that life is not an Earth-unique phenomena.
It would give us proof that we are not alone in the universe, even if our only neighbors are bacteria on a nearby planet.

But for an ignorant guy living in a basement it wouldn't mean anything, of course.

It would give no insight into ways of evolution, even if it was a fossilized life form, 1 sample shows nothing about evolution.
Of course it would give us insight into different forms of life, there are still millions of undiscovered life forms on our planet, and each one does that.
It's ignorant to believe life is earth-unique in the first place. You honestly believe with trillions and trillions of other planets in the universe there's no life anywhere else?
See above.

---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 02:19 PM ----------

Funding could be re-routed back to NASA; efforts redoubled in the search for other planets to inhabit, or even other alien races to encounter. The public eye would be turned back to the stars, not to mention A LOT of religions would probably flip some tables over the discovery.

We could even see privatised ventures into space. On an individual level, sure, maybe you won't see big changes... but in the big picture? It'd be pretty ground-breaking.

Let's hope not. Space exploration is the absolute last thing (the US) anyways needs to be spending one cent on. Unless there's a solution to balancing a budget and fixing the economy up there on mars.

[Howard Moon]

At the bottom of the article, the guy talks about the same instrument mistakenly reading methane, which was just brought in from earth. I doubt it has anything to do with methane, otherwise the guy wouldn't have mentioned that anecdote.

"[...] When SAM analyzed an air sample, it looked like there was methane in it, and at least here on Earth, some methane comes from living organisms. But Grotzinger says they held up announcing the finding because they wanted to be sure they were measuring Martian air, and not air brought along from the rover's launchpad at Cape Canaveral. [...] when they made the measurement again, the signs of methane disappeared."

I personally think it will be something related to water.

[goobernoob]

Oh good, they finally found the monolith.

[Tya]

give one example of what would change.
oh hey i heard they found two bacilli on mars...life won't ever be the same.

It would mean life on Earth is not unique. Something we always suspected, but could never validate.

Furthermore imagine the religious implications.

[Deleted]

It would give no insight into ways of evolution, even if it was a fossilized life form, 1 sample shows nothing about evolution.
Of course it would give us insight into different forms of life, there are still millions of undiscovered life forms on our planet, and each one does that.
It's ignorant to believe life is earth-unique in the first place. You honestly believe with trillions and trillions of other planets in the universe there's no life anywhere else?
See above.

---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 02:19 PM ----------



Let's hope not. Space exploration is the absolute last thing (the US) anyways needs to be spending one cent on. Unless there's a solution to balancing a budget and fixing the economy up there on mars.

No matter how high the chances are that we're not alone. We just don't know for sure. We can only guess.

[nyc81991]

I'm hoping and guessing it has to do with Water / oceans on mars or life itself. If they are saying its one for the history books it has to be huge.

Either way I'm excited to see what they found.

[Moarfail]

Definitely going to be the fresh remains of a cat.

[Calzaeth]

Curiosity found a complete human skeleton, holding a bronze axe. You heard it here first!

Joking aside, I'm excited as hell^^

[Ridesdel]

they found remains of technology proving that there is other intelligent life in the universe, causing the world to unite and pour funding in to space travel and exploration, heralding us into a new age, where man explores what is now the Final Frontier, where no man has gone before, only to have the remains of NASA, in 50 years tell us that they have confirmed it was just an error in the readings.

[vizzle]

If you guys read the NPR report, you'll see that the scientist said he told his family, and their reaction was pretty bored. So, don't expect anything really 'earth-shattering' to us non-scientist folk.

[nyc81991]

they found remains of technology proving that there is other intelligent life in the universe, causing the world to unite and pour funding in to space travel and exploration, heralding us into a new age, where man explores what is now the Final Frontier, where no man has gone before, only to have the remains of NASA, in 50 years tell us that they have confirmed it was just an error in the readings.

Hey, At least is would get the world to unite and focus on space exploration lol.

But even if they only find remains of normal life it will be huge.

---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 09:48 AM ----------

If you guys read the NPR report, you'll see that the scientist said he told his family, and their reaction was pretty bored. So, don't expect anything really 'earth-shattering' to us non-scientist folk.

eh, it just sounds like a teen age girl who wouldn't care much if he told her they found out that mars had Oceans like Earth.

[bekilrwale]

eh, it just sounds like a teen age girl who wouldn't care much if he told her they found out that mars had Oceans like Earth.

That's what it seemed like to me.

Anywho, I don't want to get my hopes up that is has something to do with life, but oh how I wish they found evidence of life on Mars.

[Deleted]

i think humanity has bigger problems than alien lifeforms and space travels...and i couldn't care less about the religious guys anyways...
whatever...may just be personal opinion.

Yea...except that alien lifeforms and space travels might bring huge discoveries to humanity.

Good old "i got my own problems on earth don't disturb me with the space" guy.

[Gravity16]

just so im clear, nobody owns space correct?

how does that work btw :S - the moon was first landed on by americans (supposedly..) - they put the american flag up (supposedly..) was that any kind of declaration of the land? if they found some kind of mega mineral, would it be a race in space to colonize mars?

im hoping for somethign exciting, buttttt I somewhat feel that even if they release some "Earth shaking" information, it will NOT be all the information they have, doubt they let the big secrets of what they have found out..

[Deleted]

Yep - evidence of life outside our own biosphere no matter how tiny, is evidence that we are not unique. If life can develop on two adjacent planets, then it is not only not unique - but possibly common.

There is (or was) a pretty well supported theory that life stems from Mars ourselves.
Mars used to have an atmosphere, but didn't have enough gravity to sustain it.
Piece of Mars rock landed on earth and contaminated earth with life (note that this was really some prehistoric lifeform, possibly not even fully enclosed in a cell yet).

However, this I read about years ago, don't know if it's still supported or not. I think the evidence that they had is that they found the oldest traces of life ever on a piece of rock in antarctica (I think), which was supposedly from Mars.

In any case, I don't doubt in the slightest that there's life out there somewhere. Ever heard of Drake's formula? It really doesn't matter at all how small the possibilities are in there...with the amount of planets in this universe the chance would still be extremely huge to have life somewhere. There really is a mindboggling amount of planets in the known universe...absolutely crazily mindboggling. Would be weird if not at least one more of those would sustain life.

[Kisho]

If you guys read the NPR report, you'll see that the scientist said he told his family, and their reaction was pretty bored. So, don't expect anything really 'earth-shattering' to us non-scientist folk.

Nope. John Grotzinger is the guy in charge of investigating Mars at the moment. He did not tell his family. The person who did was Richard Zare, who was commenting on how he could empathise with Grotzinger's position.

It wasn't scientific caution that kept Zare from announcing his results. It was a rule many scientific journals enforce that says scientists are not allowed to talk about their research until the day it's officially published. Zare had to follow the rules if he wanted his paper to come out.

He did break down and tell his family. "I remember at the dinner table with great excitement explaining to my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Bethany, what it was we were doing," says Zare. And then he experienced something many parents can relate to when talking to their kids.

[Deleted]

Well, the sensible side of me thinks it might be big and exciting but still reasonable.

Then there's the sci-fi-loving side of me that can't help hoping that right now there's a bunch of NASA guys staring at pictures of an alien amulet or a fossilized small animal while trying to figure out just what to make of it.

[klaps_05]

according to the current plan NASA will be on Mars by 2040ish, having to finish the asteroid landing mission first in 2025. i hope the finding at least turns those tables around as I find going to Mars much more appealing than landing on an asteroid.

[Tilie]

I have unrealistic hopes....

[Deleted]

i hope its something interesting! like a footprint or something.