NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

[photon]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

The discovery of life on another planet, even at a microbial level, would be the greatest scientific discovery in the history of humanity. Imagine that was the announcement...

No kidding, it wouldn't be a general NASA press conference for insiders, it would be a presidential address.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by photon

I appreciate your point from a philosophical point of view; we can't say there is an earth like planet out there somewhere until we actually find one, but it would be surprising if there weren't given what we know so far. If we are the only one there would likely be additional things that are known that would account for the seeming defiance of things like the cosmological principle.
.

I am glad you appreciate it because skepticism is the corner block of the scientific method.

[T@T]

Even CNN doesn't have a clue what this announcement is going to be, they seem surprised that there's been no leak.

[Regulator75]

That's because CNN is a joke.

[SeeBass]

[QUOTE=FlameOn;2814792]They found a four million year old black monolith![/QUOTE]

Is that what you kids are calling it these days?

[FlamesAddiction]

I bet it is nothing major.

It will probably be another possible protein fossil in a rock, but they need more funding to find out for sure.

Every few years, NASA has to do this in order to stay relevant. With Obama cutting them back, they need to make some kind of discovery to justify themselves.

[FlameOn]

Maybe its this?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11888362

[Barnes]

^An interesting hypothesis on what dark matter is.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Hesla

I think NASA is conceding defeat to that lady that owns the sun. They are going to start paying her premiums for all the solar-powered instruments they use.

I also heard that THE Sun is requesting the Sun newspaper to change it's name after too many years of giving the Sun a bad name.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Maybe its this?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11888362

That is interesting, but I don't know if it relates to NASA.

[onetwo_threefour]

Originally Posted by photon

That depends, it's complex, but is there reason to think that the situation is different elsewhere?

We do have a larger data set, we know the size of the universe and we know the properties of other galaxies and how it compares to our own, and the properties of other regions of our own galaxy and how that compares to our own region.

I appreciate your point from a philosophical point of view; we can't say there is an earth like planet out there somewhere until we actually find one, but it would be surprising if there weren't given what we know so far. If we are the only one there would likely be additional things that are known that would account for the seeming defiance of things like the cosmological principle.

We lack the hard data of all the planets in the universe, but we can make a prediction based on other known things.

If I find a hoof print in my yard, it could be a horse, a zebra, or a unicorn, and I can reasonably guess what it probably is. There is no certainty, but I don't really need it if I'm willing to change my mind when new info comes to light.



The information going into the probably is far more than a couple of quick observations in the case of earth like planets.

I think the bigger problem with the penny example is natural vs. unnatural. With a penny you know somebody must have left it there and then another close by, but that doesn't give you much to work with.

OTOH if I walked out my door and found a dandelion, then walked twenty feet and found another, I would feel more justified in extrapolating. Yes conditions may vary for the viability of dandelions in different locales, but I can be relatively certain that these things developed in situ and given reasonably similar conditions could extrapolate that the conditions lend themselves to the development of dandelions. I recognize that there are weaknesses with my analogy too (seeds, for one) but I think the penny thing is a red herring unless you're a creationist. (By which I mean that a creationist might see the existence of two habitable worlds the same way I see the existence of two pennies a few feet apart, evidence that someone put them both there. As an interesting aside, what if the atmospheric makeup, size and other characteristics of Gliese were sufficiently similar to Earth, would that be evidence for Intelligent Design?)

[Mike F]

Prepare to be underwhelmed - everyone knows that the real big news on the lines of extraterrestrial life will be made by SNASA

[troutman]

This could be the news:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/...t20101201.html

A team of astronomers, including two NASA Sagan Fellows, has made the first characterizations of a super-Earth's atmosphere, by using a ground-based telescope. A super-Earth is a planet up to three times the size of Earth and weighing up to 10 times as much. The findings, reported in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature, are a significant milestone toward eventually being able to probe the atmospheres of Earth-like planets for signs of life.

The team determined the planet, GJ 1214b, is either blanketed with a thin layer of water steam or surrounded by a thick layer of high clouds. If the former, the planet itself would have an icy composition. If the latter, the planet would be rocky or similar to the composition of Neptune, though much smaller.

"This is the first super-Earth known to have an atmosphere," said Jacob Bean, a NASA Sagan Fellow and astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "But even with these new measurements, we can't say yet what that atmosphere is made of. This world is being very shy and veiling its true nature from us."

[T@T]

^^^Are they silly enough to refuse CNN a few tidbits but yet put it on there website?

[3 Justin 3]

I hope the news is about us achieving something that can reach light speed.

I want a Millennium Falcon.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

I hope the news is about us achieving something that can reach light speed.

I want a Millennium Falcon.

Solo in A New Hope brags that the Falcon made the Kessel Run in "less than twelve parsecs". As this is a unit of distance, not time, different explanations have been provided.

[Roast Beef]

Could be this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-planets.html

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

Could be this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-planets.html

Definitely that.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by T@T

^^^Are they silly enough to refuse CNN a few tidbits but yet put it on there website?

Are CNN silly enough to not check NASA's website before declaring they don't know anything?

[mikey_the_redneck]

Maybe it's this: they found oxygen on one of Saturn's moons....called Rhea.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...turn-moon-rhea