Rover Finds Clue That Mars May Harbor Life

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/science/a-new-clue-in-the-search-for-life-on-mars.html

Some exciting news from the Mars Rover.

Quote :

A year after reporting that NASA’s Curiosity rover had found no evidence of methane gas on Mars, all but dashing hopes that organisms might be living there now, scientists reversed themselves on Tuesday.

Curiosity has now recorded a burst of methane that lasted at least two months.

For now, scientists have just two possible explanations for the methane. One is that it is the waste product of certain living microbes.

“It is one of the few hypotheses that we can propose that we must consider as we go forward,” said John P. Grotzinger, the mission’s project scientist.

The scientists also reported that for the first time, they had confirmed the presence of carbon-based organic molecules in a rock sample. The so-called organics are not direct signs of life, past or present, but they lend weight to the possibility that Mars had the ingredients required for life, and may even still have them.

...

The presence of methane is significant because the gas cannot exist for long. Calculations indicate that sunlight and chemical reactions in the Martian atmosphere would break up the molecules within a few hundred years, so any methane there now must have been created recently.

It could have been created by a geological process known as serpentinization, which requires both heat and liquid water. Or it could be a product of life in the form of microbes known as methanogens, which release methane as a waste product.

NASA's annual budget is around US$20 billion. Better find some little green men soon.

And make sure the men are wearing shirts and ties, and have received full anti-sexism training.

Erica Ambler wrote:

And make sure the men are wearing shirts and ties, and have received full anti-sexism training.

Indeed by far the most important aspect of this announcement.

But great news...unless it means we are going to be invaded and enslaved...then damn you all...damn you all to hell!

I grok a great wrongness. I will consult with my water brother, Santa.

Give Santa my regards and tell her not to be a stranger. Or 'Don't be a cunt', as she'd put it.

I need to go to Mars first and colonise it.

Excellent real estate options.

The Cydonia region of Mars is reserved. There's a face there, but just wait till NASA takes pics of 'the ass on Mars.'

Dog's going to sit on the face of Mars. The Bringer of War.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Dog's going to sit on the face of Mars. The Bringer of War.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.