Curiosity has discovered something on Mars

[Decagon]

They just want media attention.

Do you blame them? They haven't been getting the funding they deserve and media attention will help a bit with that.

[eschatological]

LoL, more like the ricocheting meteor theory more than anything else. That'd be quite the billiards shot, so it'd be quite the thing anyways.

Or, it could be proof of seed germination from some other universe - a meteor races through our solar system, pieces of it break off, imbed in various planets - if the atmosphere is suitable, life can be formed.

If they find life on Mars, and its a chemical precursor or analogue to early life on Earth, things will be very interesting indeed. A true sci-fi geek's dream.

[Puck]

I bet you it's a Reaper.

[Nitrax]

Considering they spoke to a scientist it can be a special finding in his special field like someone said a rare form of clay or something equally "boring" for the mainstream. Maybe the "earthshaking" news is that they found that Mars was more geologically active than they thought.

[Giants41]

Aliens. THEY FOUND ALIENS.

[Decagon]

"Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter."

Wouldn't finding a new type of clay mean a completely different form of life? Of course then again, you'd all be right, it wouldn't be Earth Shattering, just Universe Shattering.

[Shukuku]

They have found a fully working dance studio. The Orc's forgot to bring it when they went to azeroth.

If only this was it.

[Dhurn]

I would be so happy if they found stuffing mines

[Deleted]

It has found Elodia!

[Sayl]

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.

In that section of the article, Grotzinger is describing how he and his team thought they'd found methane previously (in August after landing), but that turned out not to be the case. The quote you've included refers to that, and not the new findings. It's relevant in terms of whatever the discovery is because they thought they'd discovered something new previously but their initial suspicion was incorrect, and that's why they're intent on doing more analysis before presenting it at the AGU conference. (In other words, it could still be about methane.)

[Sykol]

This is the Blizzard MoP launch party tweet all over again. It's gonna end up being a champagne party and you're all gonna be sorely disappointed.

[Sayl]

This is the Blizzard MoP launch party tweet all over again. It's gonna end up being a champagne party and you're all gonna be sorely disappointed.

That's probably a pretty apt comparison.

We've seen the transition from rampant speculation to disappointment before. And that's why this is good advice.

[Deleted]

Undiscovered element perhaps? Sounds like it's bigger than just finding trace of water. Remnants of something organic?

[Velorian]

Prothean ruins!

Cue the Mass Effect theme song!

[derpkitteh]

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.

well, if we don't find a way off here, humanity won't even be around to worry about any problems. gotta think in the long term, asteroids, our own sun, running out of resources... earth isn't gonna be around forever. wars and political problems are foolish anyway.

anyway, no clue what it might be, but i can't wait to hear!

[bufferunderrun]

something that make a scientist excited is for sure something that normal peoples don't even understand, like they have found a particle of some sort of element or a gas.

[Remilia]

Anything new is better than nothing in my opinion. Discovering something is always nice and just expanding our knowledge potentially can create possibilities.

[Deleted]

Betting it's gonna be "Radiations from Venus reflected in the back mirror of my truck". Any explanation, no matter how ridiculous, just to contradict any potential evidence of aliens.

[GennGreymane]

just chuck testa

in all seriousness lets hope they find water and or some form of life

[Tojara]

Well they mentioned something about doing tests to make sure it's done with Martian air and not air that was brought with it from Florida.

Perhaps there could be signs of low amounts of oxygen currently present or signs that there was air there in the past. That would be pretty big news IMO.