NASA set to announce new Mars discovery

[UM-Bot 6,260]

It appears as though the space agency's Curiosity rover has discovered something interesting on Mars.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/318600/nasa-set-to-announce-new-mars-discovery

[pallidin 9,212]

Huh. Well, I hope it's interesting for all.

Go, NASA!!

[XenoFish 69,387]

I don't care unless its a lifeform or a fossilized one. 

[Merc14 21,442]

4 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

I don't care unless its a lifeform or a fossilized one. 

I think we'd all like to see that but I wouldn't expect that to be the news as Curiosity isn't really designed to find life.  It is more of a climatologist/geologist on wheels.  Still, if it has found something that resembles fossilized microbes or some such, it would be huge news.

[XenoFish 69,387]

14 minutes ago, Merc14 said:

Still, if it has found something that resembles fossilized microbes or some such, it would be huge news.

Call it a childish desire or wish, but I would like to see that. 

[Skulduggery 736]

Every time they make these announcements, everyone wants it to be life. This time, I'm calling it. It will be an announcement to state they found traces of life....not that I actually believe that will happen, of course, but because I've got a little extra money right now to throw around on crazy internet pools. 

[Merc14 21,442]

16 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Call it a childish desire or wish, but I would like to see that. 

Not at all xeno and certainly didn't mean it that way.  That was the first thing that came to my mind as well!  It would be an awesome discovery.

[XenoFish 69,387]

3 minutes ago, Skulduggery said:

Every time they make these announcements, everyone wants it to be life. This time, I'm calling it. It will be an announcement to state they found traces of life....not that I actually believe that will happen, of course, but because I've got a little extra money right now to throw around on crazy internet pools. 

I figure at most this is just another Mars methane situation. I don't have my hopes up in the least.

[bison 1,879]

17 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Call it a childish desire or wish, but I would like to see that. 

So would many scientists, and people in general, and so would I. It would be an amazing scientific discovery. I suspect the announcement could be about how they got the sample drill to work again, after part of its mechanism failed.  Looked up the scientists who will be at the press briefing, to see if this would suggest in any way what's  brewing.

Dr. Vasavada is a geologist. Dr. Eigenbrode is a biogeochemist involved with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments. Dr. Webster is a chemist, with a special interest in isotope biomarkers. As two of the three have a definite interest in biology, it's just possible that some sign of life, past or present, has turned up.

That would be an unexpected discovery for this particular mission, but unexpected science discoveries have a way of being among the best.    

[XenoFish 69,387]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the announcement?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/06/04/mars-rover-drill/#.WxbykkgvzIU

[Noteverythingisaconspiracy 12,409]

1 hour ago, Merc14 said:

Still, if it has found something that resembles fossilized microbes or some such, it would be huge news.

I have seen a few conspiracy believers saying that they would be disappointed if we "only" find microbial life. Of course to most of us it would be a monumental discovery.

[Nnicolette 1,427]

34 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

I wonder if this has anything to do with the announcement?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/06/04/mars-rover-drill/#.WxbykkgvzIU

You know they always play up some boring announcement this way so people tune in but judging from this added article it seems like maybe this time they finally did find an important fossil.

Also whoever is disappointed about "only microbial life" is more than welcome to procure some samples more meaningful to them and share with us the results. 

To be honest though I don't really think finding microbial life proves that it flourished there it's probably rained down on the planet at various times. 

What I am more curious about is how curiosity is taking all these "self potraits" in which the entire rover is present in the frame. How?

Edited June 5, 2018 by Nnicolette

[ExoPaul 145]

NASA have finally found Melania Trump?

[bison 1,879]

'New science results' is about all NASA will say, ahead of the press briefing. That doesn't sound like something from the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, because they were only able to deliver a sample to it yesterday, and analysis will take some time.

They hadn't been able to use the drill to deliver a sample to the analyzer until then, for quite a long time.  If something conspicuous was found on the ground,  it could be studied photographically with the magnifying  (Hand Lens) camera.  

Edited June 5, 2018 by bison
improved paragraph structure

[TomBarnes 13]

I am certainly no scientist and have no data whatsoever to explain my gut feelings about this BUT the entire Martian surface has always reminded me of a flash frozen dry lake bed that was frozen when there was just a bit of water left on the surface. Again, I have no data to support my intuition but I do not think we are gong to find life ON the surface. I am very sure that we MIGHT find a lot of signs of the remnants of life UNDER the surface. It would be like finding hibernating frogs in the mud when it finally rains after a many year drought in the American West. I think there is a lot of life of all types (possibly) under the surface.

[switchopens 93]

Oh, here we go again!

I like to keep on top of this news from time to time, but the media hype is really overkill considering diehards will already have the news from their NASA feeds.

[bison 1,879]

So much of the terrain of Mars, imaged by the Curiosity rover, consists of exposed cross-sections of many, many mineral layers. We have learned that these layers were deposited by water over long periods of time. These seem to be ideal conditions for the finding of fossils of any past life that may have been there, exposed to view.  

[Merc14 21,442]

3 hours ago, bison said:

So would many scientists, and people in general, and so would I. It would be an amazing scientific discovery. I suspect the announcement could be about how they got the sample drill to work again, after part of its mechanism failed.  Looked up the scientists who will be at the press briefing, to see if this would suggest in any way what's  brewing.

Dr. Vasavada is a geologist. Dr. Eigenbrode is a biogeochemist involved with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments. Dr. Webster is a chemist, with a special interest in isotope biomarkers. As two of the three have a definite interest in biology, it's just possible that some sign of life, past or present, has turned up.

That would be an unexpected discovery for this particular mission, but unexpected science discoveries have a way of being among the best.    

Always a possibility but a large part of the mission was to determine if Mars was ever capable of supporting life (it was).  I believe that was their primary interest but since they have determined it was maybe they are looking for signs of it.

2 hours ago, NicoletteS said:

You know they always play up some boring announcement this way so people tune in but judging from this added article it seems like maybe this time they finally did find an important fossil.

Also whoever is disappointed about "only microbial life" is more than welcome to procure some samples more meaningful to them and share with us the results. 

To be honest though I don't really think finding microbial life proves that it flourished there it's probably rained down on the planet at various times. 

What I am more curious about is how curiosity is taking all these "self potraits" in which the entire rover is present in the frame. How?

Can I ask how you think it is doing it?

Edited June 5, 2018 by Merc14

[Grandpa Greenman 10,105]

I wish they would just say what they found instead of all the drama. 

[Merc14 21,442]

34 minutes ago, Grandpa Greenman said:

I wish they would just say what they found instead of all the drama. 

The results are embargoed by the journal Science until that time which I am guessing is the place the results will first be published by the researchers.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Merc14

[Seti42 323]

I doubt they found evidence of life. It's probably something that would be boring as hell to the layperson, but interesting to a geophysicist, geologist, or chemist. But don't that that stop people from claiming that they found bigfoot or some such on Mars! I need more comedy in my life.

[Seti42 323]

5 hours ago, NicoletteS said:

 

What I am more curious about is how curiosity is taking all these "self potraits" in which the entire rover is present in the frame. How?

I wondered that too. NASA has explained it though, check it out, it's actually quite cool.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1171

https://mars.nasa.gov/news/1404/mars-rover-self-portrait-shoot-uses-arm-choreography/

[Nnicolette 1,427]

3 hours ago, Merc14 said:

Always a possibility but a large part of the mission was to determine if Mars was ever capable of supporting life (it was).  I believe that was their primary interest but since they have determined it was maybe they are looking for signs of it.

Can I ask how you think it is doing it?

Well if I knew I wouldn't be asking. I see that the explanation involves taking multiple pictures with its robotic arm an piecing them together to create a picture with no arm showing. But why?

[Nnicolette 1,427]

4 hours ago, TomBarnes said:

I am certainly no scientist and have no data whatsoever to explain my gut feelings about this BUT the entire Martian surface has always reminded me of a flash frozen dry lake bed that was frozen when there was just a bit of water left on the surface. Again, I have no data to support my intuition but I do not think we are gong to find life ON the surface. I am very sure that we MIGHT find a lot of signs of the remnants of life UNDER the surface. It would be like finding hibernating frogs in the mud when it finally rains after a many year drought in the American West. I think there is a lot of life of all types (possibly) under the surface.

I think the same. Its just obviously the most hospitable and likely place. I don't think that's just intuition it is an intelligent observation. Of course life would recede to where the water is and the protection from radiation and harsh temperatures and thinning atmosphere.

[Raptor Witness 812]

I spent the better part of a year, combing over photographs taken by the early rovers. I collected countless objects, and separated them into similar objects. As an avid fossil collector on earth, this was easy, even if the objects were foreign to me.

I found curious pairs, and sets of objects, some of differing sizes, but the repetition was there. These were not pieces of a mineral, there were bilateral parts of something that I suspect, had lived.

I also found evidence of objects, which appeared aligned to the solar axis, which were also bilateral.

At the same time, I was working at a facility that catered to retired air force officers. One day, I decided to post copies of some of the curious bilateral objects that I had found in the elevators.  What happened next is interesting, but my life on earth was never the same. 

The truth of what makes life possible is beyond liquid water.  Water is just a conduit for an organization of chemistry that runs counter to entropy. How is unknown, since there is no equivalent equilibrium in nature. Life is like a river that runs uphill.

Science and humanism end, where that organization begins ... and if the Tree of Life is approached by any means, other than the Son of God, death by fire, ensues.