Quote:
Originally Posted by razark
Is it really a matter of NASA over-hyping things, is it the media over-hyping things, or could it be that people don't understand why planetary scientists consider certain discoveries interesting?
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All of the above
I personally understand why NASA scientists would find even the smallest of discoveries to be of the utmost importance to their work... However, the layperson, the average joe, they hear "major discovery" and they think alien fossil or maybe even ancient ruins or something. The definition of exciting discovery to a geologist or xenibiologist and the definition of exciting discovery to a cab driver or an auto mechanic will vary greatly.
I think that for the most part, the majority of people Believe alien life exists out there. I think the majority of people are itching to find it, or proof that it either exists, or proof that it did exist at one time or another.
NASA makes these announcements, the media runs with it, we collectively scoot our asses to the edges of our seats in anticipation of this cool mystery discovery and it invariably turns out that dust devils occur with great frequency on Mars or that the Martian summer is actually 13 days longer than previously thought.