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 ...
most likely it’s something more like a cigarette butt than simple chemistry
The Rover found Jimmy Hoffa’s body.
They found that U.S. flag that Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee said Neil Armstrong had planted on Mars?
Obama’s College Transcripts or Biden’s brain.
Hard to read this any other way, except that the rover’s instruments have indicated irrefutable evidence for past or present life on Mars.
Even if it’s only microbial, it’s the gateway to a new paradigm.
Obama’s birth certificate?
They found A E I O U and sometimes Y
Why even say anything until you're ready to say something? Drama queens.
The news from Mars is “earthshaking?!” (Maybe they found Immanuel Velikovsky up there?)
They didn’t find a damn thing up there that will change anything of any real/practical/everyday importance here.
I would not be a bit surprised.
A chemical analyst that could possibly indicate that there was life on Mars at some time in history? Or not.
Must be budget time over at NASA. Startling new discovery that will probably amount to nothing. We get these discoveries every year around budget time.
They found a beeber like device
I’ll bet they found a rock. NASA finds more rocks than Charlie Brown finds in his Halloween bag.
Martian Latrine ?
You don’t think the existence of life on another planet is a significant discovery? I think if it’s true it will be one of the most important discoveries in history. Some will greet it with excitement and some with dread.
Fascinating.
If there is life on Mars, it came from Earth anyway.
violent eruptions at the beginning of the Genesis judgment sent jets of water into orbit, creating the comets, and there is no reason not to believe that some of that water would have hit other planets, or moons.
They found John Boehner’s spine?
Obama is related to the President of Mars
If them Martians are wiping with rocks than we might as well surrender right now. I don’t want to be fighting any Nancy Pelosi green Martian thingy that can wipe with a rock.
Ol’ Waylon....pretty simple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwwGjOj1clc
What if it turns out to be different from the life on Earth? What if it uses completely different base pairs for its DNA? What if it uses something other than DNA? These are all questions which will need to be answered.
The found the missing votes that put Romney over the top for the election?
Are you saying that jets of water from earth created the comets in the solar system? Perhaps you're referring to your personal religious belief, and not scientific fact. Is that it?
I hope they found evidence of past or present life,
God is a creator and creative enough to have filled up the entire universe with life if he so desired, creating is what he does,
We have marine species in the deepest parts of the ocean that humans have never encountered, what does that have to do with us, and whats the difference if we move out into space and Jupiter’s moon Europa has sea life in its 60 mile deep oceans, or a warmer and wetter mars in the distant past had microbial life, it would be exciting,
I would think there is not enough water on Earth to account for even a small fraction of the comets in the Oort cloud. Maybe someone in the know can answer that.
I agree with your thought on that, and suspect that someone will be along shortly to give us the scientific facts on it.
that’s an understatement HA
There is a computation spreadsheet on it available to those that enjoy scepticism, but anyway, Earth is the only possible source of the water, since Earth is coplanar to the orbits of all of them. (Kepler worked that out hundreds of years ago)
What oort cloud?
It’s very existence is a raving mad theory.
Wait a minute. Isn’t The Earth coplanar with almost all of the bodies in the solar system?
I saw them in all of the Lord of the Ring movies. Ugly suckers. You can’t tell me they don’t exist. Frodo had a sword that glowed blue when they came around.
>> “They found John Boehner’s spine?” <<
.
Could be, they said it looked like a worm...
Cool!
The Oort Cloud that comes out of Uranus!
>> “Wait a minute. Isn’t The Earth coplanar with almost all of the bodies in the solar system?” <<
.
No, but the sun is.
The planetary orbits are all perturbed. There is a theory that at one time Mars crossed Earth’s orbit in a near miss trajectory. (has support in folk lore)
Gee I never thought of that. I hope the Mar’s rover washes its hands before coming back to Earth. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Not mine, maybe yours?
They found a monolith with perfect 1-4-9 dimensions.
Snickers
I have seen some Christians here on FR who apparently think the rest of the visible universe is devoid of life and was created for no other purpose than to provide pretty twinkling night lights for the Garden of Eden.
Wow. wouldn’t want to be around when Mars did a crunchy with the Earth. wonder what the kinetic energy release would be for something like that.
Google “Theia planet” sometime. All the calculations have already been done.
Thanks.
It’s the next page of the Mayan calendar.
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