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MindMover

(5,016 posts)
Tue Nov 20, 2012, 07:36 PM Nov 2012

Curiosity Rover’s Secret Historic Breakthrough? Speculation Centers on Organic Molecules

Much of the internet is buzzing over upcoming “big news” from NASA’s Curiosity rover, but the space agency’s scientists are keeping quiet about the details.

The report comes by way of the rover’s principal investigator, geologist John Grotzinger of Caltech, who said that Curiosity has uncovered exciting new results from a sample of Martian soil recently scooped up and placed in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

“This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” Grotzinger told NPR in an segment published Nov. 20. Curiosity’s SAM instrument contains a vast array of tools that can vaporize soil and rocks to analyze them and measure the abundances of certain light elements such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen – chemicals typically associated with life.

The mystery will be revealed shortly, though. Grotzinger told Wired through e-mail that NASA would hold a press conference about the results during the 2012 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco from Dec. 3 to 7. Because it’s so potentially earth-shaking, Grotzinger said the team remains cautious and is checking and double-checking their results. But while NASA is refusing to discuss the findings with anyone outside the team, especially reporters, other scientists are free to speculate.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/curiosity-historic-news-organics/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=wiredscienceclickthru

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Curiosity Rover’s Secret Historic Breakthrough? Speculation Centers on Organic Molecules (Original Post) MindMover Nov 2012 OP
The bible needed a rewrite anyway. tridim Nov 2012 #1
Thrilling, exciting news possible - might change history. northoftheborder Nov 2012 #2
Amino acids per se wouldn't be interesting BadgerKid Nov 2012 #3
I'm sort of partial to macromolecules as evidence of life... HereSince1628 Nov 2012 #4

HereSince1628

(36,063 posts)
4. I'm sort of partial to macromolecules as evidence of life...
Wed Nov 21, 2012, 07:41 PM
Nov 2012

I do appreciate that small molecules that emerge in biogeochemical cycling will probably be likely wherever life is found, but if I can't have something composed of metabolizing, self-reproducing membrane bound plasm as evidence of life, my biophilic sense prefers very large organic polymers

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