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The White House is Briefed: Phoenix About to Announce "Potential For Life" on Mars

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The White House is Briefed: Phoenix About to Announce "Potential For Life" on Mars

Written by Ian O'Neill
August 2nd, 2008

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…

So why is there all this secrecy? According to scientists in communication with Aviation Week & Space Technology, the next big discovery will need to be mulled over for a while before it is announced to the world. In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory science team for the MECA wet-chemistry instrument that made these undisclosed findings were kept out of the July 31st news conference (confirming water) so additional analysis could be carried out, avoiding any questions that may have revealed their preliminary results. They have also made the decision to discuss the results with the Bush Administration's Presidential Science Advisor's office before a press conference between mid-August and early September.

Although good news, Thursday's announcement of the discovery of water on Mars comes as no surprise to mission scientists and some are amused by the media's reaction to the TEGA results. "They have discovered water on Mars for the third or fourth time," one senior Mars scientist joked. These new MECA results are, according to the Phoenix team, a little more complex than the water "discovery." Scientists are keen to point out however, that this secretive news will in no way indicate the existence of life (past or present) on Mars; Phoenix simply is not equipped make this discovery. What it can do is test the Mars soil for compounds suitable to support life. The MECA instrument does have microscopes capable of resolving bacterial-scale life forms however, but this is not the focus of the forthcoming announcement, sources say.


This new MECA discovery, combined with TEGA data will probably expose something more compelling, completing another piece of the puzzle in the search for the correct conditions for life as we know it to survive on Mars. Critical to this search is to understand how the recently confirmed water and Mars regolith behave together under the Phoenix lander in the cold Martian arctic.


The MECA instrument had already made the landmark discovery that Mars "soil" was much like the soil more familiar on Earth. This finding prompted scientists to indicate that the minerals and pH levels in the regolith could support some terrestrial plants, indicating this would be useful for future Mars settlers.


What with the discovery of water, and the discovery that Mars soil is very much like the stuff we find on Earth, it is hard to guess as to what the MECA's second soil test has discovered. What ever it is, it sounds pretty significant, especially as NASA and the University of Arizona are taking extraordinary steps to avoid any more details being leaked to the outside world. I just hope were not getting excited over something benign…
So what will this compelling discovery be? Leave your guess below…


Source: Aviation Week


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Me: Screaming and jumping like a little girl. :wild:

I don't care if it's just a bacteria, it's still a living creature.

I wonder if a new religion will come arise from this news and discovery.
 
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thanks for posting, this is the first time i've come across this. however i can't help but be skeptical on how the media is treating this as some sort of Hollywood conspiracy.

if you look at the nitty-gritty,

http://space.newscientist.com/artic....html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news10_head_dn14442

it's just finding miniscule ice particles so far - i think that's their "a little bit more complex" explanation above lol well i say "just", but this is bloody exciting enough in itself.

but at least our Mike has a special place there:

Digging for life

The finding was accompanied by an announcement that NASA had decided to extend the 90-day mission by five weeks, until the end of September. This decision will add $2 million to the $420 price tag of the Phoenix lander, says Michael Meyer, NASA's chief scientist for the Mars exploration programme.
If its equipment holds out, Phoenix will dig two new trenches in its immediate surroundings. "Cupboard" will be located in a trough between two mounds, where wind-blown material collects. "Neverland" will be dug next to a rock, which may help to warm the surrounding soil.

The TEGA team will continue to analyse its Wicked Witch sample, heating it to a variety of temperatures to release gases and test for the presence of organic compounds.

"We're looking beyond finding water to finding habitats for life," says Meyer. To answer this question, NASA scientists will need to find evidence that their ice sometimes turns into liquid water.

​
f_smiley.gif
 
Wow this is very intresting and very exicting :D i love Astronmey
 
UpToMe said:
I'm guessing they found a Starbucks there
Click to expand...

Darn it! I was going to post that joke. :lol:

Well they have found water. That's a good start. But my question is what if they've truly found life on Mars? What if its more than just a bacteria? Then what? How will it impact people and I am mostly interested on how will it impact on a lot of religions.

I'm calm. I'm cool. I'm cool. Don't want to be too excited...yet.
 
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if there was life in mars we'd already know it by now lol. mars is very close to earth. think about all those other billions of galaxies and solar systems and planets out there. there must be life somewhere else too. but the question is are they intelligent beings like us ? entities with intelligence are extremely rare in the universe according to stephen hawking and other cosmologists/astronomists. check out this website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/html/home.html
 
Or they could probably having the same debate/question like the rest of us on "Are there any living creatures outside our planet?".

Well unless they are more advanced than us and well aware of Earth of course.

Anyways...

Martian soil may not have life after all

Richard Macey
August 6, 2008

WEEKS after being billed as fit for growing asparagus, it now seems the red soil of Mars may not be quite so friendly after all.
After days of growing speculation about an important discovery, NASA finally revealed a secret yesterday.


Its Phoenix lander, which touched down in May, has found not the chemistry of life, but perchlorate - a toxic, highly corrosive compound used in household cleaners, explosives and rocket fuel that can destroy organic matter.


NASA's announcement halted rumours triggered when the journal Aviation Week reported that the White House had been alerted about a find concerning the "potential for life" on Mars.


One Australian scientist speculated that the discovery may have involved chemistry found in waste excreted by life.


In June Phoenix scientists announced that initial tests by one instrument revealed Martian dirt was "the type of soil you'd probably have in your backyard" and "you may be able to grow asparagus" in it.


But the mission's chief scientist, Peter Smith, yesterday said a second instrument "has revealed un-Earthlike aspects of the soil chemistry".


"This is surprising," Dr Smith said. His team was checking to ensure the perchlorate was not contamination accidentally carried to Mars by Phoenix.


Jon Clarke, a Mars Society Australia geologist, conceded his punt that Phoenix may have detected some byproduct of life was wrong.


But although perchlorate was "a very toxic compound, like bleach", its discovery did not rule out Martian life.


"It just depends how much is there," he said.


Chile's Atacama Desert was one of the few places on Earth where it formed naturally, Dr Clarke said. "It is an intensely dry place. It even looks like Mars." But with water from melting snow "people have been growing crops in the Atacama Desert. They have grown beans and sweet corn, all sorts of stuff. I have been there and eaten it."


Dr Clarke said perchlorate's discovery could solve a 32-year-old Martian mystery.


In 1976 NASA's two Viking landers reported evidence of life. When the landers added water and nutrients to soil samples they gave off tell-tale gasses typically excreted by well-fed microbes.


But when no trace of carbon was detected, scientists presumed the nutrients had merely reacted with some unknown, lifeless chemistry. That chemistry may be perchlorate.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/...-life-after-all/2008/08/04/1217701947632.html
 
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