Mars stuff coming out soon.

It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news
comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed
experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith
on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once
existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the
"potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results.
Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further,
more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that
this announcement will be huge.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08...-life-on-mars/

--
Hike High Mountains!
Fish for Wild Trout!

Mark F. wrote:
It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface.

The original story is by Craig Covault of Avleak. He's a reputable
journalist. Of course he could have misinterpreted something more
mundane for something, as he puts it, "huge."

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://comets.skyhound.com

To reply take out your eye

"Greg Crinklaw" wrote in message
...
Mark F. wrote:
It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface.

The original story is by Craig Covault of Avleak. He's a reputable
journalist. Of course he could have misinterpreted something more mundane
for something, as he puts it, "huge."

It'll be interesting to see what happens.


Nothing..no life, nuttin. ..that's "provocative".

Roddy Duda wrote:
"Greg Crinklaw" wrote in message
...
Mark F. wrote:
It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface.
The original story is by Craig Covault of Avleak. He's a reputable
journalist. Of course he could have misinterpreted something more mundane
for something, as he puts it, "huge."

It'll be interesting to see what happens.


Nothing..no life, nuttin. ..that's "provocative".

You'd know.

Mark F. wrote:
It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news
comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed
experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith
on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once
existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the
"potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results.
Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further,
more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that
this announcement will be huge.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08...-life-on-mars/

Why would they brief the President, or did they discover oil? ;-)

Shawn

On Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:02:47 -0600, Shawn wrote:

Why would they brief the President, or did they discover oil? ;-)

They found his neurons.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Aug 2, 3:10 pm, "Mark F." wrote:
It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news
comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed
experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith
on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once
existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the
"potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results.
Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further,
more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that
this announcement will be huge.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08...-is-briefed-ph...

At perhaps less than 1 ppb of h2o, what's all the fuss about?

If it was much greater than 1 ppb, wouldn't they have boasted about
it?

~ Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth

Sam Wormley wrote:
Mark F. wrote:
It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news
comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed
experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith
on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once
existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the
"potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results.
Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further,
more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that
this announcement will be huge.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08...-life-on-mars/



A lesson learned from the movie, "Contact" ?

More like a lesson learned from ALH84001. There was some embarrassment
for NASA internally at the time, although it isn't clear why the
President would care. If you lined up the joke possibilities of this
story end to end they would reach all the way to Mars. ;-)

http://www.marsnews.com/focus/life/

Also, I read today that someone on the science team denied the White
House rumor. My guess is that since TEGA measures isotopes of the usual
life suspects (Carbon, Nitrogen, etc.) that the news is what they had
hoped for all along: the Martian soil contains the building blocks of
life. Not the sort of stuff to get the public excited, but it is an
important result, and one that justifiably would allow them to claim
mission success in terms of science goals. It also has implications for
the human exploration of Mars.

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://comets.skyhound.com

To reply take out your eye

On the web page article, they say that, no, the discovery is not one
of actual "past or present" life on Mars.

So it is hard to imagine what lesser discovery could be so momentous
that a delay is required before it can be made public. Of course, the
discovery of any chemical compound that seems unavoidably associated
with life might be in the right range.

John Savard

On Aug 3, 9:14 pm, BradGuth wrote:
On Aug 2, 3:10 pm, "Mark F." wrote:

It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix
scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than
the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news
comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed
experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith
on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once
existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the
"potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results.
Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further,
more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that
this announcement will be huge.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08...-is-briefed-ph...

At perhaps less than 1 ppb of h2o, what's all the fuss about?

If it was much greater than 1 ppb, wouldn't they have boasted about
it?

~ Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth


Hi Brad
Actually they did. They have detected greater than 1% in the latest
sample.
It may have had more if it were not for the loss from sublimation.
This was
from a sample that had been out for a day or so.
Dwight