I'm so excited- well not really

[mapuc]

No it will NOT be, that they have found some skeletons or some remains from some long gone civilization

They will say they have found 110 % proof of water and bacteria.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa...ng-mars-monday

[STEED]

Matt Damon?

One of the comments below the article.

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by STEED

One of the comments below the article.

I like to read the comments too- some of them do give me a good laugh

Markus

[Rockstar]

Monster Zero

[Oberon]

"Ok, which one of you idiots forgot to shut the door last night?"

[Jimbuna]

[Eichhörnchen]

"I'm so sorry: I was sure the ad said you'd like to meet a clay man..."

[Betonov]

One of the greatest lines in cinema and Steve won't allow me to say it ~ Mark Watney

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by mapuc

No it will NOT be, that they have found some skeletons or some remains from some long gone civilization

They will say they have found 110 % proof of water and bacteria.

The problem is every time NASA announces an announcement it gets the internet buzzing with talk of exotic possibilities like alien ruins or fossils, and then it ends up being a bit of a damp squib when they announce a new form of wind erosion or dark streaks on slopes. It all starts becoming quite anti-climatic. Which is sad because everyone gets jaded and I don't think it does much for NASA´s reputation when they hype a upcoming announcement. They should just state what they found.

Personally, I'm hoping the Curiosity rover stumbled upon the Valley of the Lost Dryer Socks. I'm down to my last intact pair.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

The problem is every time NASA announces an announcement it gets the internet buzzing with talk of exotic possibilities like alien ruins or fossils, and then it ends up being a bit of a damp squib when they announce a new form of wind erosion or dark streaks on slopes. It all starts becoming quite anti-climatic. Which is sad because everyone gets jaded and I don't think it does much for NASA´s reputation when they hype a upcoming announcement. They should just state what they found.

Personally, I'm hoping the Curiosity rover stumbled upon the Valley of the Lost Dryer Socks. I'm down to my last intact pair.

You're absolutely right, they cry Wolf every single time they found some new kind of dirt, or discovered some new way that rocks are made, or for some unknown reason the methane levels on Mars increased by a fraction of a percent.

And you're right everybody gets jaded about it.... I for one I'm completely sick of hearing about these new Mars findings, its always something mundane and boring. And they do themselves no good by completely over selling it for a week leading up to the announcement

[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?

[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.

[Biggles]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...n-today-s-mars

New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

As a dedicated spacenut, this has been a very interesting couple of days. Moon eclipse (though I missed it due to a thick cloudlayer all over Stockholm! ) and now this! All in all, very nice to be alive!

[Jimbuna]

Threads merged.