Science/Environment Life on Mars about to be announced?

[Malifice]

SPECULATION that NASA’s Curiosity Rover has found life on Mars has been thrown into overdrive with the space agency announcing an urgent press conference.

In a press release, NASA said it would be holding a conference to detail “a major science finding from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars”.

“It seems more likely that they have found water on Mars, which is the next best thing as it would indicate the possibility that life has clung onto this planet or existed there in the past.”

http://www.news.com.au/technology/s...inding-from-mars/story-fnjwlcze-1227545913251

Wow.

Please let it be life. Please let it be life.

 

[Lethality]

It's probably some frozen water with bacteria in it

 

[Tigerforlife78]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/s...inding-from-mars/story-fnjwlcze-1227545913251

Wow.

Please let it be life. Please let it be life.

I cant stop thinking about it Mal, damn them for teasing us and just announce it all ready

 

[Malifice]

It's probably some frozen water with bacteria in it

That would be massive if true. Literally the biggest discovery in science ever.

The other blokes who found the missing link last week sure picked the wrong year.

 

[Lethality]

I like space.

 

[Sydney Bloods]

i can't see it being life, as there's no politicians involved. You'd think a confirmation of life would have some politicians there to bask in reflected glory and somehow claim its somehow a win for them.

I'm betting liuqid hydro carbons (not necessarily H20)

basically a few moons ago, Evidence was found which indicated some kind "water" on the surface of mars as evidenced by this image:

have look at the little "finger" like depressions you can see in the image.
In the Martian summer these "fingers" expand from right to left.
Indicating that they are expanding down (or flowing if you will) the rock formation, at first these were considered to be formed by dust storms or moving rock. But these only occur in the summer months they completely disappear in the winter.

Additionally in 2014 one of the rovers crossed through a region of mud like sand (caused by methane saturation) which many speculated was deposited from a liquid source.

it has long been suspected that natural aquifers may exist on mars that occasionally breach the surface.

I can't think what it could be other then some flowing liquid.

 

[Exe Gesis]

subscribing.....to read back what the press conference revealed....Tuesday 4am AEST.

 

[Sydney Bloods]

ooh almost forgot about this: evidence of a primitive water cycle.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/weather-data-curiosity-rover-suggests-briny-water-possible-mars

 

[GWBogan]

Probably illuminati.

 

[Malifice]

i can't see it being life, as there's no politicians involved. You'd think a confirmation of life would have some politicians there to bask in reflected glory and somehow claim its somehow a win for them.

I'm betting liuqid hydro carbons (not necessarily H20)

basically a few moons ago, Evidence was found which indicated some kind "water" on the surface of mars as evidenced by this image:

have look at the little "finger" like depressions you can see in the image.
In the Martian summer these "fingers" expand from right to left.
Indicating that they are expanding down (or flowing if you will) the rock formation, at first these were considered to be formed by dust storms or moving rock. But these only occur in the summer months they completely disappear in the winter.

Additionally in 2014 one of the rovers crossed through a region of mud like sand (caused by methane saturation) which many speculated was deposited from a liquid source.

it has long been suspected that natural aquifers may exist on mars that occasionally breach the surface.

I can't think what it could be other then some flowing liquid.

Dont kill my buzz man.



Water alone cant be that big a deal can it? H2O is already known to exist on other planets aint it?

Im praying for water with a teeny little life bacteria in it.

 

[The_Reaper]

It will be liquid water.

If it were life they wouldn't have kept it quiet this long

 

[Sydney Bloods]

Dont kill my buzz man.

Water alone cant be that big a deal can it? H2O is already known to exist on other planets aint it?

Im praying for water with a teeny little life bacteria in it.

if its liquid H20 its massive deal, but i think that's even aiming too high.
from what i've understood, this is pretty much briny "water"
basically salts become saturated with a hydrocarbon. being mars i'd suspect its a light hydrocarbon something like hexane or butane (i think both could be a liquid on mars from memory)

by mixing with the salts it lowers lowers the freezing temp allowing it to stay in liquid form.
however mars is still too cold to support all known types of life (except maybe those microscopic bear things, those *ers are invincible)
you wouldn't find living bacteria they couldn't survive at temps that low. single celled organisms suck at living in cold temps this is why freezers work so well to stop mould growing on food.

but your looking at it all wrong as cool as life would be to find, as cool as Water would be to find. just finding a liquid hydrocarbon on mars? this gives a much greater incite into biological processes going on in mars.

people consider mars a "dead" planet, but this shows the mechanisms on the planet are so much more layered then we give credit for.
take for example the best case scenario which is a primitive water cycle. this could go a long way to explain what happens to the methane blooms that occur in the spring.

the problem is people look at mars like they look at the moon a dead rock, but its so much more then that.

 

[bkozican]

Exciting times ahead.

 

[Malifice]

Exciting times ahead.

Im pretty sure that they know Ceres has water on it. Ice at least.

 

[Cleavy]

good reminder for that Mars reality show in the works.
http://www.mars-one.com/

 

[Thrawn]

It will be liquid water.

If it were life they wouldn't have kept it quiet this long

Perhaps it was a very recent discovery? I'm hoping so.

 

[Malifice]

I thought water was already a no brainer:

Thats ice at the martian poles.

I'm hoping it has something to do with the massive methane spike they discovered last year:

Trace amounts of methane in the atmosphere of Mars were discovered in 2003 and verified in 2004.[111][112][113][114][115][116] As methane is an unstable gas, its presence indicates that there must be an active source on the planet in order to keep such levels in the atmosphere. It is estimated that Mars must produce 270 ton/year of methane,[117][118] but asteroid impacts account for only 0.8% of the total methane production. Although geologic sources of methane such as serpentinization are possible, the lack of current volcanism, hydrothermal activity or hotspots[119] are not favorable for geologic methane. It has been suggested that the methane was produced by chemical reactions in meteorites, driven by the intense heat during entry through the atmosphere. Although research published in December 2009 ruled out this possibility,[120] research published in 2012 suggest that a source may be organic compounds on meteorites that are converted to methane by ultraviolet radiation

The Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August 2012, is able to make measurements that distinguish between different isotopologues of methane, and in 2014, Curiosity detected a "tenfold spike" in the level of methane in the Martian atmosphere compared to the usual background readings.[130][131][132] However, even if the mission is to determine that microscopic Martian life is the seasonal source of the methane, the life forms probably reside far below the surface, outside the rover's reach.[133] The first measurements with the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in the Curiosity rover indicated that there is less than 5 ppb of methane at the landing site at the point of the measurement.[134][135][136][137] On July 19, 2013, NASA scientists published the results of a new analysis of the atmosphere of Mars, reporting a lack of methane around the landing site of the Curiosity rover.[138][139][140] On September 19, 2013, NASA again reported no detection of atmospheric methane with a measured value of 0.18±0.67 ppbv corresponding to an upper limit of only 1.3 ppbv (95% confidence limit) and, as a result, concluded that the probability of current methanogenic microbial activity on Mars is reduced.[141][142][143] On 16 December 2014, NASA reported that Curiosity had detected a tenfold increase ('spike') in methane in the atmosphere around it in late 2013 and early 2014. Four measurements taken over two months in this period averaged 7 ppb, suggesting that methane is released at intervals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars

Those methane spikes apparently can only be caused by either some as yet unknown geothermal activity (and the planet seems to lack the kinds of geothermal activity to support such high levels of methane spikes) or from biological life.

Has the rover been poking around one of the martian geysers? They reckon those bad boys are what probably contains the best chance of evidence of life, and is the source of the methane.

 

[The_Reaper]

Perhaps it was a very recent discovery? I'm hoping so.

It is a recent discovery but they announced a few days ago that they were going to announce something.

If it were life on Mars there is no way it could be kept quiet that long - and Obama or some other politician would want to be the person announcing it

 

[Thrawn]

It is a recent discovery but they announced a few days ago that they were going to announce something.

If it were life on Mars there is no way it could be kept quiet that long - and Obama or some other politician would want to be the person announcing it

Why wouldn't they be able to? If anything an announcement this important would need to be rehearsed, politicians don't really gain anything from announcing it.

 

[The King!]

But will they get a team next time the afl expands

 

[ep2018]

It will be liquid water.

If it were life they wouldn't have kept it quiet this long

If it were life it would be kept a secret.

 

[Lethality]

But will they get a team next time the afl expands

Massive home ground advantage.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

The cynic in me says it'll be something slightly-more-detailed than the bacteria/microscopic stuff we already know in a bid to kick along Obama's "Mars in 20 years" announcement.

That being said, legit hoping its a serious "life" find.

 

[Kynge of Begrem]

looking forward to hearing more about this.

 

[skilts]

I hope they are able to transport an outside broadcast van to the planet on the next visit. An interview with, or film of this 'life' would be fascinating.