Scientists speculate on top-secret Mars Rover discovery
November 28, 2012
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity used its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to snap a set of 55 high-resolution images on Oct. 31, 2012. Researchers stitched the pictures together to create this full-color self-portrait. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)
NASA’s Curiosity rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument has likely relayed some provocative findings, Space.com reports.
John Grotzinger, lead mission investigator for the Curiosity rover, set the rumors in motion during an interview with NPR last week, saying, “We’re getting data from SAM … this data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good.”
Most scientists contacted by SPACE.com believe that Curiosity’s SAM has detected organic chemical compounds.
Curiosity scientists are expected reveal details at this year’s American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, to be held from Dec. 3 to Dec. 7.
On the AGU agenda is a discussion of Curiosity’s search for organic molecules on Mars with its Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer — a key instrument to help explore the surface and subsurface of Mars, seeking traces of prebiotic or biological activity.
Comments (30)
by GatorALLin
more info here, but NASA is downplaying what they found, so don’t expect too much….
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57556453/mars-rover-curiosity-continues-drilling-amid-rumors/
by GatorALLin
….my gut says they won’t know if there is any past possible form of life on Mars until they drill that ice deep….and drill down under the surface for water…even then it will be the question of Did we just look in the wrong places? …or was Life never started on Mars? My gut says Life was never started, even though many conditions seem to suggest it was still very possible had there been liquid water and atmosphere conditions for a longer period of time. (Yes, I am a rare earth hypothesis fan)
by GatorALLin
more news on it.
http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/03/curiositys-middle-name-is-patience/?hpt=us_t2
by Dan Robinson
Suppose it was something organic. If rock from Mars could turn up on Earth with apparent indications of past life, why not the other way around?
by Giulio Prisco
Well, now we know:
http://sneerreview.blogspot.hu/2012/11/cthulhu-discovered-on-mars.html
by Dr. Wimberly
Organics do not equal biologics.
by Spikosauropod
A compound that was expected to be found at 0.0004% concentration was instead found at 0.000403% concentration.
by Dale Harder
Dang, you guys took all my good comments. I can’t top those. Looking forward to the revelations to come.
by dimi
They discover little green man!!!!
by PirateRo
Didn’t you guys see the Yahoo story on this thing? You have four possible choices:
1. A fossil
2. A tall, black monolith
3. Tang
4. Jimmy Hoffa
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-speculate-top-secret-mars-rover-discovery-195521569.html
by dave 1001 1001 1001
I think they dug up a string of old Burma Shave road signs..
by Bruce Wright
FWIW NASA seems to be trying to tamp down the rumors about a pending major announcement …. supposedly the “one for the history books” comment was meant to be about the mission as a whole, not about some new and surprising discovery.
I’m somewhat conflicted about whether I’d like to hear about (current) life on Mars – on the one hand, it would be fantastic news from a scientific point of view to have confirmation of the existence of a living exobiology; on the other hand it would greatly complicate (and possibly even kill for the forseeable future) the prospects of the eventual colonization or even terraforming of Mars.
We know already about “organic molecules” on Mars – but they are very simple and only in trace amounts (methane, ethane, etc) and are (so far) not particularly good evidence of extraterrestrial life.
by GAUSS
Regardless, evidence of life on another planet is massively important. Even if Martians were just microbes, that’s pretty cool!
by GatorALLin
Reply to GAUSS…. I have to agree with you that IF we could prove life was formed at ANY level on another planet beyond Earth that would be HUGE to conclude life must be the rule vs. the exception when conditions are favorable. If conditions are favorable and there is NO hint of life, then Earth would be a very rare exception. I am a firm believer thus far of this idea…(but hope to be wrong!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis
by Dwight
Perhaps a Prothean artifact!
by Dennis
Big coprolites would be good!
by Blade
I believe the discovery has something to do with pieces of metal or some other mineral. A vein of some sort, stretching for what maybe 100s of km.
by graham caldwell
Just wait till dec. 3rd .then the world will know.
by Tom Bellinson
Maybe they’ll figure out that many millennia ago, hominids similar to ourselves lived on Mars and it looked much like Earth does now. Then, the Sun cooled a bit and the planet turned into its present state, so the inhabitants managed some sort of transfer to Earth because it was becoming more inhabitable.
They lost all their technology in the transfer though. Venus — here we come!
by melajara
You have it wrong. At the beginning, men (and women) came from Venus to Earth AND Mars, then the damn fools on Venus polluted so much their planet that CO2 increased to dangerous levels. Eventually it spun out of control, Venus oceans evaporated, thick clouds increased even more the greenhouse effect and all life was extinct.
The colonies cut from the mother world floundered, almost all technology was lost and civilization had to restart afresh on Earth. On Mars, it was even worth as without proper technology the colony was unsustainable and everybody died in less a century after the last “arch” migrating from the dying Venus landed on Mars.
It happens that Curiosity just discovered an artefact from the Venusian human colony telling this sad story ;-)
by melajara
even worth -> even worse, bad lapsus calami
by Gary B
I like your imagination. Thanks.
by Bri
They don’t mean organic molecules. They mean” ORGANIC” molecules! Lol! If this were a poker game, they gave their hand away.
by John
Mars looks as if it a rough time ..
Lets hope Earth does not end up in a similar state.
by Bri
Eventually it will.
by Bobby
They found gold. Remember the shiny objects. Imagine a San Francisco style gold rush. Hmm. San Francisco??
by Mostly Foobar
A discovery of gold, or platinum or something else incredibly valuable would be an awesome shot in the arm for commercial space exploration.
Though the economics probably do not work out.
Someone once told me that a liter of bottled water costs $14,000 to lift into space. This makes me think that the first viable commercial space mining operation will prolly be mining water…
It’s difficult to imagine anything that could be discovered there that would create a gold-type rush.
Would be cool though.
by Cc1
“…prolly…”? PROBABLY NOT.
by melajara
There are organic molecules and organic molecules. Per se “organic molecules” is too vague a term to be of interest as there are organic molecules in space (e.g. formaldehyde) and presumably on asteroids. We need more specific and juicy data for real thrill.
by Bri
I think lol is played out. How about, ILH, insert laugh here.