Sparky

has supposedly found something "earth shattering" to be revealed in the coming weeks.

Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now : NPR

aliens are real i called it

Guybrush

My bet is that it's found some exciting organic (carbon-containing) compounds in the sand up there.

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Something Completely Different

VEGANGELICA

I am curious about the results!

I'm assuming they will find polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which were found in the 1996 meteorite from Mars: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html.

I think the main question was whether those compounds had formed due to inorganic processes or due to microorganisms that lived billions of years ago on Mars. Perhaps the current findings point more definitely to a biological origin!

If there *were* once microorganisms on Mars, this would be both wonderful to discover and sad, I feel, because the current sterile Mars foreshadows Earth's sterile future when our planet will spend its last 2 billion years (if I recall correctly) devoid of any living beings because it will be too hot here (due to the sun's increasing brightness as it ages). Mars is like a massive tombstone showing our own future.

On the positive side, life has a long future here on Earth, and it isn't over 'til it's over!

I really like this part of the NPR article, because it relates science to music, which both involve sharing the discovery of the unknown:

"'How many composers would actually compose music if they were told no one else could listen to their compositions? How many painters would make a painting if they were told no one else could see them?' says Zare. It's the same for scientists. 'The great joy of science is to be able to share it. And so you want to say, 'Isn't this interesting? Isn't that cool?' "

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The Batlord

Wait, wait, wait! Can we be sure that this isn't just more "evidence" planted by Satan to confuse and lead astray the weak and gullible? Heed not these lies!

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Guybrush

Here it is :

"While the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, instrument detected signs of an oxygen-chlorine compound -- perchlorate -- and trace amounts of chlorinated methane compounds, which contain carbon, researchers say more tests are needed to make sure the carbon originated with the sample and was not brought to Mars aboard Curiosity."

Source >> Spaceflight Now | Mars Science Lab | Mars rover soil test results not definitive on organics yet

As expected, more or less.

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Something Completely Different

Janszoon

Also, it found a nightclub filled with martians.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

The Batlord

Playing this:

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