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Posted on 11/20/2012 7:03:34 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem.
They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.
It's a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results. At the same time, they're cautious because no one likes to make a big announcement and then have to say "never mind."
The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. "We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.
SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.
Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.
Grotzinger can see the pained look on my face as I wait, hoping he'll tell me what the heck he's found, but he's not providing any more information.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Bah - humbug! You sound like a future Grumpy Old Man.
You wrote:
“You sound like a gibbering fool.
No offense, take care.”
You say I should take no offense at that? Really I don’t take much since I know the source.
Future? I might already be at the grumpy old man stage.
Water from Saturn and Jupiter are not in solar/Earth orbit.
>> “ I might already be at the grumpy old man stage.” <<
.
Good! Join the club :o)
These fools are chompin at the bit for something that they’re not going to find: life that isn’t Earth-originated.
Astronomers recently discovered the most water vapor ever detected, about 12 billion light years away surrounding a quasar, in the amount of about 140 *trillion* times all the water in our oceans.
In this environment it continues to produce this mass amount of water vapor according to astronomers. Astronomers found water is pervasive throughout the universe, going back to the early stages of the universe. In fact, there is water vapor and water in the form of frozen ice all over our Milky Way Galaxy.
Gas clouds observed in Orion region alone are said to generate enough water molecules in a single day to fill the Earth's oceans sixty times over. It's believed much of the water in the solar system was originally produced in a giant water-vapor clouds like the one observed in Orion.
>> “Astronomers recently discovered the most water vapor ever detected, about 12 billion light years away” <<
Do you envision that arriving here soon?
“It’s believed...” - Mostly by propagandists for ignorance.
So what's your point? That any comet that orbits the sun came from Earth? Nut hatchery.
The comets are principally in an orbit around Earth. Some of them are also coplanar with the sun.
Study Johannes Kepler’s theorem if you wish to understand, rather than making a fool of yourself further.
Naw, the rover didn't bring a microscope.
Nasa to engineers... “ Just ignore the old building foundations off to the left, just keep digging.”
Don't think so, pal. Every comet I've ever heard of, orbits the sun.
Some of them are also coplanar with the sun.
Which means WHAT, exactly? That all comets which orbit our sun, originated from Earth?
Answer the question and stop being so weirdly cryptic.
I'm asking you a straight question. If you know what you say you know, then explain your position. If your final defense is to tell me to study the works of Johann Kepler, then you've conceded the argument. That's a coward's cop out.
Astronomers recently discovered the most water vapor ever detected, about 12 billion light years away surrounding a quasar, in the amount of about 140 *trillion* times all the water in our oceans.
In this environment it continues to produce this mass amount of water vapor according to astronomers. Astronomers found water is pervasive throughout the universe, going back to the early stages of the universe. In fact, there is water vapor and water in the form of frozen ice all over our Milky Way Galaxy.
Gas clouds observed in Orion region alone are said to generate enough water molecules in a single day to fill the Earth's oceans sixty times over. It's believed much of the water in the solar system was originally produced in a giant water-vapor clouds like the one observed in Orion.
Do you envision that arriving here soon?
And that has what to do with your comment at the top of this post?
Incorrect again.
Hey Einstein, the Earth orbits of the comets are mapped. You can buy tables that tell you where they are at almost any time so that you can find them as they approach.
Having a bad day?
You do realize that nothing in your post is relevent to this discussion?
(fire engines are red, so they’re rushin too)
The comets do not orbit the sun, they are in orbit about the Earth, and their positions are describable relative to the Earth. The Earth lies in the plane of their orbit.
I'm no astronomer, but that doesn't pass the smell test. Comets have orbits with very long periodicity, and swing so far out into the solar system, that they can take nearly a hundred years to cycle.
It's utterly counter-intuitive to think that a planet as small as earth has enough gravitational force to entrap such an object. But the sun? Absolutely.
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