NASA To Announce Major Mars Discovery On Monday

[stromboli]

Water.

[josephpalazzo]

My guess: H₂O, lots of it.

http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/09/28/mars-mystery-nasa-set-to-reveal-major-science-finding.html

I won.

[stromboli]

http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/09/28/mars-mystery-nasa-set-to-reveal-major-science-finding.html

I won.

Good for you.  :bravo_2:

[TomFoolery]

My guess: H2O, lots of it.

http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/09/28/mars-mystery-nasa-set-to-reveal-major-science-finding.html

I won.

That's not exactly true. :)

The new images don’t actually show flowing water, which doesn’t last long on the Martian surface. It evaporates quickly, and the thin atmosphere wicks it up and away.

But it is nonetheless extremely exciting. :)

[josephpalazzo]

Party pooper... ;-)

[stromboli]

Moment of glory shot to hell.....

[TomFoolery]

Party pooper... ;-)

[trdsf]

Contemporary liquid water was better than I'd expected; I'd thought they were going to confirm the buried frozen ocean hypothesized in the northern hemisphere.

The implications for the existence of Martian life -- past and present -- are profound.  The existence of these flows certainly suggests there's permafrost beneath the surface, and permafrost is a perfectly acceptable habitat.  Probably the most likely, since underground it's protected from UV and cosmic rays and other electromagnetic interlopers and high speed particles.

All the more reason to go and find out.  Just one bacterium that operates on a genetic code that isn't DNA broadens our horizons beyond measure.

[stromboli]

Contemporary liquid water was better than I'd expected; I'd thought they were going to confirm the buried frozen ocean hypothesized in the northern hemisphere.

The implications for the existence of Martian life -- past and present -- are profound.  The existence of these flows certainly suggests there's permafrost beneath the surface, and permafrost is a perfectly acceptable habitat.  Probably the most likely, since underground it's protected from UV and cosmic rays and other electromagnetic interlopers and high speed particles.

All the more reason to go and find out.  Just one bacterium that operates on a genetic code that isn't DNA broadens our horizons beyond measure.

Article I read and was looking for said that the elements of life- water being one- were probably there at some point. The chemical ingredients, an activation source like lightning or vulcanism or whatever. But the estimated window of opportunity was small- on the order of hundreds of thousands of years rather than millions.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

New photos reveal hostility ..

[kilodelta]

I heard they we're going to announce that they found God on Mars... actually, it was the God Mars... but, the scientist conspiracy made them change it to water at the last moment before the press release.

[josephpalazzo]

[stromboli]

This guy.

[Baruch]

Also Jerry Lewis in Visit To A Small Planet and Robin Williams as Mork.  You and I can be dated like tree rings ;-)

[trdsf]

Article I read and was looking for said that the elements of life- water being one- were probably there at some point. The chemical ingredients, an activation source like lightning or vulcanism or whatever. But the estimated window of opportunity was small- on the order of hundreds of thousands of years rather than millions.

S'what I get for skimming it on my lunch break rather than reading it completely at my leisure; even so, the presence of water means that there has been a continuing opportunity for something to arise in the last few billion years.  The collapse of a warm, wet ecosystem there significantly reduces the chances, of course, but it doesn't obliterate them.

I still think when we get where the water is (the polar caps and/or the northern frozen ocean, if it's actually there), there's a good chance we'll find something eking out a bare living.  Nothing complicated... but it doesn't need to be.