Curiosity has discovered something on Mars

[Shiny212]

[Frah]

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.

[StalumInd]

My guess is that they may have found remnants of methane, which points towards that there might have been life once there

[Azrile]

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.

[IceStationZebra]

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.

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.

[goobernoob]

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..

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.

[Arrowstormen]

I'll wait for the results rather than speculate, the reason they triple check everything is because quite often first impressions can be false.

Also [IMG]http://www.thebattscave.com/misc/baw/xkcd-mars_rover.jpg[/IM]

Awww, Curiosity so sad :<

[Howard Moon]

My guess is that they may have found remnants of methane, which points towards that there might have been life once there

It's not methane. See:

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."

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

Furthermore imagine the religious implications.

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.

[Kryos]

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.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

[QUOTE=Frozenbeef;19182384]

please <3

That's fucking terrifying.

[Raenas]

Prothean ruins!

I like this idea.

[Deleted]

They found a Gideon's bible!

[Mnevis]

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

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.

Awww, Curiosity so sad :<

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.

[vizzle]

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.

Does it fucking matter? Someone told his family. Family wasn't impressed. Whether he wears a lab coat or a notepad, people weren't impressed.

Edit: I actually see where my mistake is now. Read it wrongly last time, he was talking about another incident. My bad.

[IceStationZebra]

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!

[Deleted]

Looks like a dinosaur footprint!

This is not meant to be a leading statement.

[Deleted]

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.

[someotherguy]

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.

[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.

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 ----------

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.

A new element would be extraordinary.

[Gheld]

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 extraordinary.

A new element would be absurd. A new isotope possibly, but not an all together new element, because that would be absolutely impossible.