I'm so excited- well not really

[GoldenRivet]

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?

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.

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

All of the above

I second that.

The scientists are nerds (in a good way) and a wayward amino acid holds for them a lot more significance than to us, the hammer and spanner type of working people. And they get hyped between themselves and then the media picks it up and overblows it.

But, it seems the news is that they observed running water on Mars.
That actually is kind of a big deal. It doesn't prove Mars is alive, but it's not a complete frozen wasteland.

[razark]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

However, the layperson, the average joe, they hear "major discovery" and they think alien fossil or maybe even ancient ruins or something... 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...

That sounds a lot more to me like people not understanding the sort of things NASA is likely to announce, and not thinking it through.

I expect that any "We found life" announcement is not going to come from a NASA press release. That sort of news would likely be well known from leaks throughout NASA and academia well before NASA makes an official announcement.

(Of course, NASA has managed to keep the entire moon landing conspiracy covered up for almost 50 years, so they might pull it off.)

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by razark

(Of course, NASA has managed to keep the entire moon landing conspiracy covered up for almost 50 years, so they might pull it off.)

RUNNING WATER MY DRY GANDU! THAT'S PURE WORMSIGN!