NASA to Announce 'Significant Findings' of Water on Mars Tuesday

[Shrek]

From article at space.com:

NASA will hold a press conference Tuesday to announce "significant findings" about water on Mars based on evidence from its Opportunity Mars rover.

"It's going to be the most significant science results that we've had from the rovers, and it's bearing on their primary mission," NASA spokesperson Don Savage told SPACE.com. That mission is to find signs of water that might support life.

<snip>

Both Opportunity and Spirit have found sticky, clumping soil that scientists already said could contain water. Only small amounts of water, perhaps sucked from the atmosphere, would be needed to mix with salt in the soil and create a brine, which could exist in liquid form even in the frigid environment of Mars.

Opportunity also appears to sit amid a field of hematite, a mineral that typically -- but not always -- forms in the presence of water. The rover has also found countless BB-sized beads. The spherical objects might have formed in a water environment, the scientists have said before, but there could also be other explanations, including volcanism and meteor impacts.

[htuttle]

1. If there's water, there could have been life

And if there was life, there COULD BE OIL!!!

:evilgrin:

[Pale_Rider]

16. For a serious discussion of oil on Mars ...

... I humbly submit the following for your edification.

http://www.jmcgowan.com/oilmars.pdf

All that is needed now is some methane sniffers.

[DemBones DemBones]

25. Very edifying indeed. But we need mini-IR detectors & mini-mass specs,

& mini-GC, too, besides the "sniffers."

When that presentation was made in July 2000, those were supposed to be under development -- do you know if they've been developed since then? I don't read any of the laboratory instrumentation catalogs since I became disabled and retired early. I could see miniaturized instrumentation being useful for many applications on earth.

[MetaTrope]

40. And where there's oil, there are TERRORISTS!

Watch for NASA to be rolled into the Department of Homeland Security real soon now.

[Fenris]

2. Ya hear that, Long John Silvers? I want my free giant shrimp!

:P

[Ready4Change]

5. Frozen for freshness, too!

:)

[dave29]

15. Good thing they took out that insurance policy

although they did say NASA needed to announce this prior to Feb 29th. But the evidence was gathered before the 29th.... hmmm. Sounds like a job for the lawyers.

[BigBigBear]

3. Great stuff

indeed.

Let's not forget, though, the radiation on Mars is extremely intense - it's essentially a cold, sterilized desert. The presence of water is an absolute must for any hope of finding life, but even that puts us a long way from actually finding any.

[pmbryant]

4. Beware of science by press conference

But I am still interested to see what they think they've found.

--Peter

[displacedtexan]

6. So what happens to major religions now?

How will Fallwell explain this to his flock?

[LastDemocratInSC]

19. They'll just imagine the possibilities of Noachian floods

Why, my brothers, if there's a drop of brine on Mars, there could be two drops, and then might be four drops, and then even sixteen drops ... and then possibly even two to the something other drops ... enough for a flood of Magnificent Proportions. All of this is explained in my 4 tape series "How Mars Shows How Noah's Flood Could Have Been.

All of this is available for a Love Offering of $20 to:

Fair Leaning About Truth - Especially As Related To HIM

Or simply FLAT-EARTH ... and you all know who the HIM is ... no, that that HIM, me ME ME ... the one on television, silly!

[Zhade]

29. Nice post!

:P

[Fuzz]

32. Larry Norman, the christian rocker, once wrote in a song 30 years ago

or so "If there is life on other planets, then I'm sure that he must know, and has been once already and has died to save their souls."

This just reminded me of that.

[On the Road]

35. Larry Norman? Holy Shit, I Remember Him!

I heard him perform in 1972. Jesus freak in the best way. Surfer-type, with long platinum hair. Wrote some interesting songs, too.

I heard he was offered the lead in the LA production of Hair (for which he would have been perfect) but turned it down on religious grounds.

[Fuzz]

48. Yup, wrote some of the best christian songs actually

One of my favorite lyrics:

Gonoria on Valentines Day.
And you're still looking for the perfect lay.
Why don't you look to Jesus?
He has the answer.

I know about him because my father is a preacher and christian music was the only stuff I could listen to growing up. He didn't even approve of Larry Norman, but it was the best I could find at the time. I saw him in concert a few times and he was okay, but later in life he became REAL preachy. A real turn off for this agnostic/atheist.

Last I heard he was sick and was whining like crazy on his website. Funny that a supposed christian is afraid of death.

[regnaD kciN]

31. What difference does it make?

Speaking strictly as a Christian, it makes no difference to Christian teaching whether or not there is water on Mars...or whether there are little green men there, either! I wouldn't think it would make any difference to any other major religion, for that matter.

[Heyo]

43. It doesn't....

Doesn't conflict with religion that much or even at all.... at least not as I understand it.

I think it is so highly doubtful that we will find life elsewhere... the only we hope we have is our solar system, and after that, our only hope of further exploration for life will be once the era of warp drive arrives or some new and fantastic propulsion..
The other solar systems are just too far away..

I think Mars is sterile...


Heyo

[calimary]

45. None at all. It's just more cool stuff God made.

So says this Catholic.

[Zero Gravitas]

7. very interesting

and don't forget the rock outcropping at the NER-B ("Opportunity") site. They ahve taken readings from the outcrop but so far haven't mentioned what they found. Maybe those rocks turned out to be limestone or some other carbonate! Sure evidence of past water.

[GregW]

8. OMG - Next we'll find MARS SEA MONKEYS!!!!!!!!!!!

[arwalden]

9. And If There's Life... Demonstrable Life... Then What Becomes Of

the Christian fundamentalist's beliefs that we are the center of all life in the universe? What would Mars be... something that their god left in the back of his cosmic refrigerator? Earth 1.0? Beta Earth?

I suspect that this would wreck Christian fundamentalism as we currently know it. Their whole world view would come crashing down... or they would simply dismiss it out of hand.

-- Allen

[DrWeird]

10. Oh please.

Little facts like evolution doesn't stop them. Of course they'd just dismiss it out of hand.

[htuttle]

12. Satan put evidence of water on Mars to trick us!

You heard it here first...

[arwalden]

14. OMG... When I Was At UF, the fundies all over campus

would argue with me that 1) satan had created fossils to fool us... or 2) god had created them to test our faith in the presence of false evidence.

-- Allen

[DemBones DemBones]

27. You went to UF? We were there while my husband was

in grad school, our daughter was born in Gainesville, back in :hippie: days.

[arwalden]

39. Yep... I Lived In Gainesville From 1979-1987.

When were you there?

-- Allen

[ender]

13. they'll say :

it isnt "intelligent" - we're the only life form with a "soul" and a "plan" by god himself.

no really, i've had this discussion with priests....

[Zero Gravitas]

17. When the announced

possible of evidence of fossilized bacteria in that mars meteorite in the mid 90s, Falwell (or some similar such example of the American Taliban) said that there might be life out there somewhere, but according to the Bible the only intelligent life was on Mars (not sure which bit of the bible addresses extra terrestrial intelligence, but thats what he said.)

[JusticeForAll]

28. Wow the impact of this could be pretty far reaching

We are so blessed that Jesus came to our planet over the millions of other planets in the galaxies and He is the one true Savior.

[Drifter]

50. The right will explain ...

that Mars was Gods first experiment with ... Liberalism.

See what happen to Mars ?


Cheers
Drifter

[boobooday]

11. Send Bush to Mars ASAP

With a giant sponge mop!

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[TeeYiYi]

24. Here you go boobooday . . .

TYY

[Crachet2004]

18. NASA pisses me off.

We have known there is ICE on Mars forever. So why is water such a BFD? OF COURSE there is primitive life on MARS! Why wouldn't there be? It would be news to me if there WERE no life on Mars. Science has it backwards: We should assume life exists everywhere conditions are favorable, BECAUSE it exists here!

If you drill a hole two miles deep on THIS planet you find bacteria, so why would it be different on Mars? Because the Bible doesn't mention it is why. NASA isn't even looking for life, they are just wasting time.

Water on Mars! How wonderful and beautiful and what a breakthrough for our...I think they should name the water like they do the rocks! Call that water 'Slurpy' or something. Make the water be cute for PR purposes, because that's all we get from NASA-PR.

I think NASA needs disbanded, so we can start over again.

[demdave]

23. There are several types of ice. CO2 is ice. Even methane..sort of

So the existence of water was not a forgone conclusion.

[truthspeaker]

26. question is whether liquid water ran over the surface, and how much

You're right we already know there is frozen water at at least one of the poles, and the terrain of Mars suggests that liquid water flowed at one time, but we don't yet know how much water flowed, when, or for how long.

As usual the science is dumbed down for the corporate media.

[Crachet2004]

33. I could not agree more...

And pure science is extremely important...but when I was about eight years old, reading Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, etc...I guess I just sort of assumed something major would be added to the space effort by MY generation...like our fathers generation, who went to the moon-and they have let me down.

Everyone knows there are canals on Mars...but I can remember when the scientific community scoffed and ridiculed such a notion! And given canals, what the hell do they suppose carved them? Hot air from NASA gasbags is my guess! If water on Mars is the Big Announcement today, hey NASA, I got news for you: you are at least 100 years too late!

No, by now, I would have thought we would at least have a permanent Moonbase, with teloscopes on the darkside large enough to read liscense plate numbers on alien vehicles on the undiscovered planets of the Alpha system!

NASA pisses me off! They are just playing games and wasting time. They should all be canned and the money given to the Russians and the Chinese. Since Apollo, never has so much money, been wasted so blatantly, for so little return. NASA is part of the problem, IMO.

[roscoeroscoe]

37. pissed off by nasa?

how about the b*sh*t decision to cancell the mission to support and improve the hubbel space telescope?! absolultely the worst, most indefensible ever.
they can dramatically improve the hubbel's abilities, and by the way it's already the most powerful scientific instrument ever built. and if the mission doesn't go forward, the hubbel will fail and that'll be that.
i guess fundementals like the bush admin simply turn their back on the science.

[calimary]

46. And they've got that dreadful republi-CON bean counter, Sean O'Keefe

no wonder NASA's going the way of all flesh. I just hope in the next administration, we can do better by it.

What do the fundies have to be so damned threatened about? Doesn't all this just enhance the scope and wonder of God? SHEESH! I guess minds as small as theirs just can't grasp an expanding universe...

[Ediacara]

42. Everyone knows there's canals?

WTF!? This is news to me and everyone else. There is a substantial canyon system (Valles Marineris) that was formed (probably) by partial rifting in the region of the Tharsis Bulge.

But canals? A la scifi 1900? Have any photos?

[Zero Gravitas]

49. Canals????

There are no canals on Mars. The whole idea of "canals" cam from early observations of Mars where they saw dark bands on the surface through early telescopes. They speculated that these bands were canals and that therefore the planet was inhabited by intelligent beings. Once more powerful telescopes were developed it became clear that there were no canals on Mars, and it wasn't until we sent probes out to Mars that we saw what appeared to be water erosion features and people again speculated that these were caused by liquid water flowing over the surface of mars.

The whole point of these rovers is to end the speculation and find concrete scientific evidence that liquid water really did once exist on the martian surface. Looking at topographic features on Mars and asserting that they "obviously" were formed by water is NOT science.
Going and actually looking will not only tell us that there was water but possibly indicate how long the water was present, whether it was hot (i.e. geothermal) or cool, whether the water was salty or fresh etc. etc.

If you really think that a telescope on the so-called "dark side of the moon" could "read liscense plate numbers on alien vehicles on the undiscovered planets of the Alpha system" then you need to brush on more of the science and less of the fiction in SF (and I'm not knocking the genre I'm huge fan of the authors you mention and many more besides.)

[Ediacara]

41. but uh....

Conditions on Mars are NOT favorable to life as we know it. There is no liquid water anywhere on the surface, although there is possibly subsurface brine. Any liquid water on the surface would sublimate almost instantly, and everything else seems to be locked up at the poles. Additionally, as of yet, I don't believe there are any data that support pedogenetic (soil forming) processes, nor is there any evidence of bioturbation (churning of sediments by subsurface organisms); which are two hallmarks of life on Earth. Add to that the extreme radiation and cold temperatures....

But, if there is life on Mars, then we likely wouldn't be able to recognize it remotely (as in via remote control robot) because its mode of life is completely outside of the realm of Earth-bound organisms.

[Heyo]

44. There wont be life on Mars...

I think Mars is sterile...

Life is alot rarer than alot of "astrobiologists" want to believe..

I am not saying there will never be an life found outside Earth.... but there's no life on Mars, and I doubt there ever was..

But hey, its just my opinion.

Heyo

[kurtyboy]

20. No--that's just a ruse! Golden Tablets have been found!

In them, Gay marriage is EXPLICITLY forbidden, as is the Democratic party.

Ownership of calico cats, surprisingly, is not forbidden (sorry, John...)

Corporate wealth is encouraged, but in the main only when people with darker shaded skin are harmed.

Abortion is clearly defined as a mortal sin, and the decisions of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia in any case brought to them are exalted as, "conducted directly from the mouth of God, verily I beep it to you." R2D2 36 : 9

[Moderator]

21. Moderator Message - For Further Information...

... please see the since-locked thread below:

Major news from Mars rover to be announced Tuesday

[DemBones DemBones]

22. A big thanks goes to Volcano Jen for sensibly linking this

thread to the locked one, which has another link re: Mars, plus funny stuff.

[aquart]

30. Water on Mars? Like Velikovsky said?

And everyone else said, "No, no, no!"

[Jack from Charlotte]

34. They should call Coca Cola and get them to change their Dasani

source from SE London to the waters from sparkling, pristine Martian wells. (Note: Water may have reddish tint.)

[jpak]

36. the spherules AKA "blueberries" are the most intriguing find...

I'd love to section one of them thangs and do the whole suite of chemistry/physics (TEM, SEM, EDAX, mass spec, you name it) on it.

Martian stromatolite or martian inorganic concretion - don't care!

I bet they're a gold mine of (bio?)geochemical info.

Too freakin' cool!

[jpak]

38. Here's some pics of the "blueberries"...

[Beetwasher]

47. Lot's Of Rumors In the Scientific Community That

they might announce a possible biological discovery (with lot's of scientific caveats of course)...

Also, I'm suspect at the very least they will announce that there is CURRENTLY liquid brine-like water on Mars.