NASA: 'astrobiology discovery'

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NASA makes 'astrobiology discovery,' schedules press conference for Thursday to discuss alien life

Science, Alt
NASA makes 'astrobiology discovery,' schedules press conference for Thursday to discuss alien life
By Vlad Savov posted Nov 30th 2010 7:47AM
So NASA seems to have made some hot new astrobiology discovery, but just like the tech companies we're more used to dealing with, it's holding the saucy details under embargo until 2PM on Thursday. That's when it's got a press conference scheduled to discuss its findings, which we're only told "will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." It's unlikely, therefore, that little green (or brown, or red, or blue) men have been captured somewhere on the dark side of the moon, but there'll definitely be some impactful news coming within only a couple of days. NASA promises a live online stream of the event, which we'll naturally be glued to come Thursday.
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http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/30/nasa-makes-astrobiology-discovery-schedules-press-conference/

Don't know what to think of this but it could be interesting. Also I hate the hype but they should really just announce it now...why wait?? Do you think they found something on Mars that just couldn't stay quiet?
 
Congratulations, you've announced an announcement. I'll check back with this thread on Thursday.
 
I doubt it's anything on mars. The probe around Saturn's moons has been active so maybe it's something that they found there. Would be extremely cool if any sign of life existed in our own solar system outside of earth.
 
I saw this on reddit yesterday and I'm interested. It's certainly not going to be any "SETI WORKED AND WE HAVE DISCOVERED AN ALIEN CIVILIZATION" type crap, but I'm hoping we've found solid evidence of some basic form of life within our solar system. That would be HUGE.
 
Sure is Warped and Space threads around here.
 
It will be something along the lines of: measurable CO2/methane concentration on a moon of Saturn, that can either be explained through volcanic activity, which hasn't been observed, a chemical reaction but one that's not likely to happen at the low temperatures we're talking about, or a biological origin. Prepare to be disappoint.
 
PvtRyan said:
It will be something along the lines of: measurable CO2/methane concentration on a moon of Saturn, that can either be explained through volcanic activity, which hasn't been observed, a chemical reaction but one that's not likely to happen at the low temperatures we're talking about, or a biological origin. Prepare to be disappoint.
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I'm not sure it's going to be one of those types of annoucements. Why would they wait until Thursday and hold a press conference for that kind of announcement? It has to be bigger than that with some hard evidence.
 
AKIRA said:
I'm not sure it's going to be one of those types of annoucements. Why would they wait until Thursday and hold a press conference for that kind of announcement? It has to be bigger than that with some hard evidence.
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Because to the scientific community that would be a huge announcement. To us it's simply meh. This means there is data that currently can not be explained. And one of the few possible explainations is life.
 
AKIRA said:
I'm not sure it's going to be one of those types of annoucements. Why would they wait until Thursday and hold a press conference for that kind of announcement? It has to be bigger than that with some hard evidence.
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Because that's exactly what they've done before.
 
And only a few weeks ago, if I remember rightly.
 
I'm still excited, I'm hoping for good news like small organisms on other planets/moons in our solar system and not "OMG WE found ET! Everyone riot!"
NASA is expected to make an announcement Thursday (Dec. 2) about a new scientific finding that "will impact the search for extraterrestrial life," the space agency said in a statement.

NASA has scheduled a press conference for Thursday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Agency officials said the discovery is in the field of astrobiology, which is the study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

The press conference will be broadcast and webcast live on NASA TV. SPACE.com's NASA TV feed is available here.

Participating in the press conference will be:

* Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
* Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
* Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
* Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
* James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

The results will also be published in a paper in the journal Science at 2 p.m. Thursday, according to NASA officials.

The announcement comes closely on the heels of several other major milestones in the search for life and possible habitable environments beyond Earth.

In late September, for example, researchers announced the discovery of the first potentially habitable alien planet. And less than two weeks ago, astronomers discovered the 500th planet beyond our own solar system.
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http://www.space.com/news/nasa-astrobiology-discovery-announcement-101130.html

interesting....but we'll have to wait and see
 
What's with these goddamn announcing of announcements these days.
 
They're announcing an announcement to get hype up, doy.

I hope they've found the Xen borderworld or something.
 
NASA was the originator of this tactic and they are by far the best at executing it. They will hype A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G they think of with ambiguous titles and little exlanation so they can get some attention. I guess that's what it takes for science to make the news these days.
 
ríomhaire said:
Otherwise how will anyone know when to attend the announcement/press conference?
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So send that info to the press so they will know to attend. Don't make a news article about it untill you have the actual info from the press conference
 
Pretty soon they'll be announcing there will be an announcement about an upcoming announcement.
 
They're probably desperate for attention since they're desperate for funding. I feel kinda bad for NASA. A NASA guy gave a talk here, and at the end someone asked what one instrument the dude would like to have. The answer was essentially "We don't have any money for new equipment."
 
it will be that europe has some amount of oxigen nearby to the earth or something like that but maybe not enough to harbor life

serious scientists will like it but normal people will go "wuuu?"
 
From what I've heard, it's now about a discovery on Earth, probably how they found a life form that we didn't think was possible which greatly increases the chance of finding life elsewhere.
 
Didnt we already grow "life" out of spacedust? What else is there to find? We know bacteria can live under amazing conditions. If its anything close to "look we found this under a rock and it only makes it more likely that there's more of that out there" I'll... I will... probably just be really disappointed.
 
Dodo said:
Didnt we already grow "life" out of spacedust? What else is there to find? We know bacteria can live under amazing conditions. If its anything close to "look we found this under a rock and it only makes it more likely that there's more of that out there" I'll... I will... probably just be really disappointed.
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Pretty sure they didn't.
 
Dodo said:
Didnt we already grow "life" out of spacedust? What else is there to find? We know bacteria can live under amazing conditions. If its anything close to "look we found this under a rock and it only makes it more likely that there's more of that out there" I'll... I will... probably just be really disappointed.
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We've grown organic compounds and amino acids out of the chemicals we know existed in the "primordial soup," demonstrating our understanding of how life began on Earth.
 
MuToiD_MaN said:
We've grown organic compounds and amino acids out of the chemicals we know existed in the "primordial soup," demonstrating our understanding of how life began on Earth.
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That could be what I was thinking of... I remember seeing (years ago) a fragment of a documentary where they mentioned space dust and had some microscopic green sponge like ball drifting in some stuff on screen. I thought they grew stuff out of space dust ever since ;(
 
Guys. I talked to my NASA personality and I said it was just the announcement that lifeform contaminations on the probe had managed to survive and multiply successfully.

That's all it is.
 
Raziaar said:
Guys. I talked to my NASA personality and I said it was just the announcement that lifeform contaminations on the probe had managed to survive and multiply successfully.

That's all it is.
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I haven't heard that was an experiment they were doing. That's pretty cool, how were the lifeforms contained?

If life can travel freely through space without dying that has some huge implications.
 
No Limit said:
I haven't heard that was an experiment they were doing. That's pretty cool, how were the lifeforms contained?

If life can travel freely through space without dying that has some huge implications.
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I don't think he was being serious.
 
That wouldn't be all that new news, would it, assuming he wasn't joking?

I mean I recall them testing and proving that water bears(Tardigrades) can survive the cold vacuum of space without having to travel inside any vessel, heck they even managed to lay eggs etc on the vessel and survive re-entry.
 
So when's this announcement going to happen?
 
That's pretty ****ing awesome. This is actually a big deal, since it is proof of the theory that life can exist with other basic building blocks than those used by virtually all life on this planet. I think it's exciting news.
 
I used to visit Mono Lake every summer. I don't think "poisonous" is the correct term for the lake. Just really goddamn salty.
 
Wow, that's actually pretty amazing. I was expecting something a lot less interesting from NASA.
 
I for one welcome our new arsenic overlords
 
I'm not impressed. Call me when you find the stargate NASA.
 
WHERE'S YOUR MESSIAH NOW?

kinda throws a wrench into the religious idea that we are the focal point of the universe
 
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