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[Insane Metal]

Man I'm sad. This thread and the Space-age thread are DEAD.

I think we need new threads

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Man I'm sad. This thread and the Space-age thread are DEAD.

I think we need new threads

Space Age Thread is updated usually whenever anything noteworthy comes out.

 

[Insane Metal]

Sometimes new stuff is posted and nobody comments on it. :/

 

[fallout]

Sometimes new stuff is posted and nobody comments on it. :/

I always read it. I just don't bother saying anything if I have nothing to contribute.

 

[Tom_Cody]

Man I'm sad. This thread and the Space-age thread are DEAD.

I think we need new threads

I'm one of the guilty I guess. I haven't paid attention for the last month at least.

I would love to see a recap of some of the coolest stuff that has come in since the landing if anyone could do that. Have there been any specific amazing pictures or discoveries?

 

[Insane Metal]

Another conf in 3:50 hours (10am PDT) http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

 

[jett]

http://www.nature.com/news/curiosity-set-to-weigh-in-on-mars-methane-puzzle-1.11721

NASA may announce possible evidence of microbial life in Mars soon, aw snap son.

 

[Gorgon]

http://www.nature.com/news/curiosity-set-to-weigh-in-on-mars-methane-puzzle-1.11721

NASA may announce possible evidence of microbial life in Mars soon, aw snap son.

I doubt it. But then again, we don't know how much NASA learned from the Arsenic Bacteria marketing stunt.

 

[Insane Metal]

http://www.nature.com/news/curiosity-set-to-weigh-in-on-mars-methane-puzzle-1.11721

NASA may announce possible evidence of microbial life in Mars soon, aw snap son.

Amazing article, thanks for posting! I selected a few parts of the text to post here for the lazy

In 2009, he reported finding seasonal plumes of methane following an analysis of observations made years earlier with telescopes in Hawaii1. In 2003, methane levels in one of the plumes reached 45 parts per billion, but three years later the methane had all but disappeared. Now, Mumma says he has results from 2009–10, gathered using even larger telescopes, that indicate no methane, although the upper limits of his error bars reach 6 parts per billion.

Zahnle’s main problem with the observations made by Mumma and others is not the existence of methane, but its extreme variability. Mars has an atmosphere that would quickly mix methane. A disappearing plume implies not only a sudden injection, but also a massive sink. The main method by which methane is destroyed — photochemical dissolution in the atmosphere — yields an average methane lifetime of about 300 years. A disappearing plume would require a lifetime on the order of months. Alternative mechanisms have been proposed to account for this, but they also face problems3. Curiosity is poised to break the stalemate.

Tuning in

The rover’s chief tool for spotting methane is its Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS). Several times now, during the Martian night, a valve on the rover has opened and let air into a 20-centimetre-long chamber with a mirror at each end. A mid-infrared laser passes through the gas, and if methane is present it will absorb the laser light at particular frequencies. If the instrument is performing as designed, a single 15-minute test should be sufficient to detect methane levels down to 0.3 parts per billion. By looking at the carbon isotopes that make up the methane, the TLS may also be able to distinguish between biological and non-biological sources.

^ That right there is extremely awesome.

Also,

At the Reno meeting, when Mumma stood up to ask Grotzinger about TLS results, the response was blunt. “Stand by.”

Now the wait may finally be over. NASA has announced that Grotzinger’s team will discuss atmospheric measurements at a briefing on 2 November. If the rover has detected methane at sufficiently high concentration, or exhibiting temporal variations of the kind that suggests microbial activity, then it will surely motivate a desire to identify and map the sources. “If it’s there, we really ought to figure it out,” says Philip Christensen, a Mars scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe.

THAT'S IT.

A good reason, finally, to watch the conference!

 

[FACE]

Shit might've gotten real? DAMN!

 

[Log4Girlz]

Man how huge would it be to find microbes on mars...damn.

 

[Partial Gamification]

[edit:] [ Oct 30 ]Teleconference up rebroadcast at link.

Another conf in 3:50 hours (10am PDT) http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

 

[Grym]

.

45 more minutes

 

[Clydefrog]

Man how huge would it be to find microbes on mars...damn.

hold me

 

[Partial Gamification]

what's playing now is recorded from tuesday. today's doesn't start for another 45 minutes.

Yeah, I went to link and it started, they were giving the URL for images and I didn't look at the page. You miss my edits? I missed your edit )

 

[BruiserBear]

Man how huge would it be to find microbes on mars...damn.

To me this topic is kind of already been there done that. Do we know life exists elsewhere in the universe at this point? I believe it's nearly a fact that it does.

So this announcement would just feel like confirmation of something we already kinda know, if it happens.

 

[Grym]

Yeah, I went to link and it started, they were giving the URL for images and I didn't look at the page. You miss my edits? I missed your edit )

LOL

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

To me this topic is kind of already been there done that. Do we know life exists elsewhere in the universe at this point? I believe it's nearly a fact that it does.

So this announcement would just feel like confirmation of something we already kinda know, if it happens.

This is how I feel, but it would still be great as it will get other people thinking.

 

[opticalmace]

I'm actually grading essays right now about robotic missions to Mars to find evidence of life.

Would be amazing if true!

 

[Grym]

the elevator muzak has begun

 

[Insane Metal]

It's on!

 

[Grym]

here are the visual slides for the conference:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/telecon/index.html

 

[Insane Metal]

"First let me tell you I WILL SAY WHETHER WE FOUND METHANE OR NOT ON MARS"

Oh lawd. Come on baby!

EDIT

Oh. Not good. :|

 

[CF_Fighter]

No methane found so far

 

[Grym]

 

[Sec0nd]

So does this mean no life?

 

[Insane Metal]

So does this mean no life?

Not exactly.

Mars is a fucking mistery. It's all "what if", "probably", etc. --'

So far, Methane has been found there in two occasions. But in later measurements, no trace of it was found. They are really intrigued.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I do recall methane being found in Uranus.

 

[FACE]

Awww

 

[Grym]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20121102.html

<snip>

With these initial sniffs of Martian atmosphere, SAM also made the most sensitive measurements ever to search for methane gas on Mars. Preliminary results reveal little to no methane. Methane is of interest as a simple precursor chemical for life. On Earth, it can be produced by either biological or non-biological processes.

Methane has been difficult to detect from Earth or the current generation of Mars orbiters because the gas exists on Mars only in traces, if at all. The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in SAM provides the first search conducted within the Martian atmosphere for this molecule. The initial SAM measurements place an upper limit of just a few parts methane per billion parts of Martian atmosphere, by volume, with enough uncertainty that the amount could be zero.

"Methane is clearly not an abundant gas at the Gale Crater site, if it is there at all. At this point in the mission we're just excited to be searching for it," said SAM TLS lead Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "While we determine upper limits on low values, atmospheric variability in the Martian atmosphere could yet hold surprises for us."

<snip>

 

[jett]

welp.

 

[Partial Gamification]

NASA used the analogy that Gale Crater would be near New Zealand, were it to be mapped to Earth. Does this mean that a summer is approaching?

It is from a "shitty" article but: "Methanogenesis in solid manure also increased with increasing temperatures." The temperature variations in this year-long observation were well-above Martian averages.

 

[Insane Metal]

NASA used the analogy that Gale Crater would be near New Zealand, were it to be mapped to Earth. Does this mean that a summer is approaching?

It is from a "shitty" article but: "Methanogenesis in solid manure also increased with increasing temperatures." The temperature variations in this year-long observation were well-above Martian averages.

If I'm not mistaken they said it was winter there just a few weeks ago. Anyway, Methane has a halflife of about 300 years, so I'd say it's very difficult to find it after these first measurements.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

I do recall methane being found in Uranus.

this post is grossly underappreciated. :}

 

[Lucky Forward]

Mars rover snaps spooky portraits

It looks as if someone is taking portraits of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars from a few feet away — but wait a minute: Who's the photographer?

The answer is that Curiosity itself is responsible for the pictures, with strong assists from image-processing gurus. These views show the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered mobile laboratory at a geological site of interest known as Glenelg, as of Sol 84 (Oct. 31). They were assembled from imagery captured by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, looking backward from the end of the rover's 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) robotic arm.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Mars rover snaps spooky portraits

Will never unsee face and hat.

 

[Insane Metal]

LoL, do you have the image? It's funny

 

[Neverender]

Nobody's mentioned this? Any ideas?

http://www.universetoday.com/98576/has-curiosity-made-an-earth-shaking-discovery/

 

[XMonkey]

I'm keeping my expectations tempered, but it is definitely interesting.

 

[Nocebo]

Nobody's mentioned this? Any ideas?

http://www.universetoday.com/98576/has-curiosity-made-an-earth-shaking-discovery/

Several weeks until they're ready to talk about it? Damn it!

 

[dreamcastmaster]

Nobody's mentioned this? Any ideas?

http://www.universetoday.com/98576/has-curiosity-made-an-earth-shaking-discovery/

From the headline I'll say no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

 

[Zzoram]

Hopefully it's life but I doubt it.

Finding life on Mars would be a dream come true.

 

[Router]

My money is on more rocks or a broken sensor.

 

[Insane Metal]

Nobody's mentioned this? Any ideas?

http://www.universetoday.com/98576/has-curiosity-made-an-earth-shaking-discovery/

Yeah there was another thread for this, because this thread is almost dead unfortunately.

I'm excited about it, too bad it will take many weeks until we know what it is.

 

[Leeroy3101]

I read on space.com that it's another thing about methane. They're carefully going over the data just to make sure it's not a sample from Earth.

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

My guess is Methane.

Edit: beaten by seconds...wow.

 

[BeardyChan]

I'm thinking its methane as well. Which in itself is interesting, but I'm wondering how much were talking about here. Either way it's gonna be interesting to see what they announce.

It'd be strange to imagine that maybe a real long time ago mars was a flourishing planet. I'm starting to believe we are seeing the future of our planet accelerated some millions of years. Could it be possible that life in this universe is finite based on a certain finite set of criterium for life? Like its so rare due to the conditions required to create life? As well the conditions only last for a certain time due to variables like atmosphere degradation either due to natural events or accelerated climate change. How long does the earth stay in the goldielock zone before we too are similar in climate to that of mars before it died?

 

[Insane Metal]

Methane wouldn't be anything "earth-shaking", they already said that even if they found it, it could have been released by organic sources or not. So my guess is that it's something more.

 

[BarrenMind]

Several weeks until they're ready to talk about it? Damn it!

They're waiting until 12/21/12. 6:66 pm.

 

[Insane Metal]

Though the prospect of new Curiosity findings have set the internet abuzz, nobody from NASA has yet said publicly what they are: Grotzinger has refused to elaborate, pointing New Scientist, and other journalists, to a presentation scheduled for the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, which begins on 3 December.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22532-curiosity-result-could-confirm-mars-life-says-levin.html