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NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial Life

CaptainDonovin

CaptainDonovin

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Space.com, CBS.com & several others are talking about this press release from NASA today about an announcement this Thursday. I have seen some think it has to do with Rhea or Titan but I don't think we're going to get a big bombshell like there's something down there & it's alive because I would think that would have leaked out. That said, I hope they do announce there is something alive out there and here it is.

I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks.

Links:
http://www.space.com/news/nasa-astrobiology-discovery-announcement-101130.html

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/a...what-the-space-agency-has-discovered/19739210
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

NASA pulls bullshit like this all of the time and usually pretty much nothing important. They say they have a "big announcement" coming up in the next few days, geeks everywhere think it's going to deal with extra-terrestrial life but then it ends up being they found some random element or substance in a debris cloud around an asteroid they wouldn't have expected to see there, or that there's more rings around Saturn than we think.

Or there's going to be a "big launch" of a space probe in the next year that'll explore something completely random.

Whatever it's going to be it won't be about the discovery of extra-earth life.
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

^They just found more rings around Saturn earlier this year IIRC, so it's not that :p
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Is this just going to be the discovery of life in arsenic found in some Californian lake?
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

^ No, I don't think NASA finds Bristol Palin that interesting.
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

NASA discovers pants on the surface of Mars! PANTS!
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Trekker4747 said:
NASA pulls bullshit like this all of the time and usually pretty much nothing important. They say they have a "big announcement" coming up in the next few days, geeks everywhere think it's going to deal with extra-terrestrial life but then it ends up being they found some random element or substance in a debris cloud around an asteroid they wouldn't have expected to see there, or that there's more rings around Saturn than we think.

Or there's going to be a "big launch" of a space probe in the next year that'll explore something completely random.

Whatever it's going to be it won't be about the discovery of extra-earth life.
Click to expand...

I think you said "NASA" in your first sentence when you meant "internet bloggers" instead, Trekker.

The fact that the general public is ignorant about the workings of a publication embargo doesn't mean it's NASA's fault. When you have a paper accepted at a high-profile journal (such as Science, in this case), the journal or your organization sends out a press release in the hopes of getting press coverage. However, the press is not allowed to give away any details until the embargo ends with publication of the journal article (in the case of Science, they publish on Fridays and the embargo ends on Thursday afternoon).

NASA's press release was very subdued and in no way suggested that that they discovered life, found evidence for life on other planets, or anything of the kind. They did not say it was a "big announcement" or hype it in any way. All they said was: "an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." Various bloggers were the only people hyping this discovery, throwing around wild speculation regarding Titan or Mars.

I have no doubt it will be extremely cool, scientifically, but I agree with those who guess it will be an Earth-based discovery (given the background of the scientists involved). The astrobiological relevance will stem from increasing our knowledge of the breadth of conditions tolerated by life, which has implications for how widespread life could be in extreme environments on other bodies.
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Trekker4747 said:
NASA pulls bullshit like this all of the time and usually pretty much nothing important. They say they have a "big announcement" coming up in the next few days, geeks everywhere think it's going to deal with extra-terrestrial life but then it ends up being they found some random element or substance in a debris cloud around an asteroid they wouldn't have expected to see there, or that there's more rings around Saturn than we think.

Or there's going to be a "big launch" of a space probe in the next year that'll explore something completely random.

Whatever it's going to be it won't be about the discovery of extra-earth life.
Click to expand...
You know, you call it "bullshit", I call it "excellent scientific research". Just because some people have the understanding of science of a dull 12-years old who is only interested in space monsters and explosions, it doesn't mean NASA and other science institutes aren't doing an extraordinary job in expanding human knowledge about the universe. I have nothing against you, Trekker, I'm fucking tired of this attitude.
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

NASA discovers cyborg remains on the surface of the moon!
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

iguana_tonante said:
Trekker4747 said:
NASA pulls bullshit like this all of the time and usually pretty much nothing important. They say they have a "big announcement" coming up in the next few days, geeks everywhere think it's going to deal with extra-terrestrial life but then it ends up being they found some random element or substance in a debris cloud around an asteroid they wouldn't have expected to see there, or that there's more rings around Saturn than we think.

Or there's going to be a "big launch" of a space probe in the next year that'll explore something completely random.

Whatever it's going to be it won't be about the discovery of extra-earth life.
Click to expand...
You know, you call it "bullshit", I call it "excellent scientific research". Just because some people have the understanding of science of a dull 12-years old who is only interested in space monsters and explosions, it doesn't mean NASA and other science institutes aren't doing an extraordinary job in expanding human knowledge about the universe. I have nothing against you, Trekker, I'm fucking tired of this attitude.
Click to expand...

No, I think most scientific discoveries are great, but when they come out and say stuff like "We've a big anoucement coming out in a few days!" it builds a lot of hype and hyperbole in the interim. It builds a "false interest" because people take this news and run to the end with it and then NASA says, "Oh, yeah. We just found a mist of methane around an asteroid."

By itself a nice discovery but hardly warrants the pre-anoucement that builds the flase hype.
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Trekker4747 said:
No, I think most scientific discoveries are great, but when they come out and say stuff like "We've a big anoucement coming out in a few days!" it builds a lot of hype and hyperbole in the interim. It builds a "false interest" because people take this news and run to the end with it and then NASA says, "Oh, yeah. We just found a mist of methane around an asteroid."

By itself a nice discovery but hardly warrants the pre-anoucement that builds the flase hype.
Click to expand...
What you fail to realize, it is a big announcement. As people have said, it vastly improves the possibility of finding life in the universe. If it's not big news for space sciences, I don't know what it is.

I for one weep at the commercialization of science communications, but the one building "false interest" is not NASA, but crappy bloggers and sensationalist newschannels.
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

IMHO it deminishes th public interest to carry it out like this. Why make an annoucement that you're going to announce something in a few days unless the thing you're going to annouce is something HUGE that will capture the public interest? (The common man.)

Because all this is, is the "boy who called wolf." If NASA keeps calling "breaking scientific discovery" everytime they find something that, to most people, is mundane.

People like you, me and other posters here who find stuff like this interesting and fascinating may eat it up but Joe Blow out there isn't going to care about the discovery of some mineral or gas where we don't expect it. To them that's nothing.

So, for the majority of the public, stuff like this is just waste of time and NASA making a mountain out of a molehill (again by annoucing a big annoucement coming in a few days.) They just just come out and say it. Why the delay?
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Trekker4747 said:
IMHO it deminishes th public interest to carry it out like this. Why make an annoucement that you're going to announce something in a few days unless the thing you're going to annouce is something HUGE that will capture the public interest? (The common man.)

Because all this is, is the "boy who called wolf." If NASA keeps calling "breaking scientific discovery" everytime they find something that, to most people, is mundane.

People like you, me and other posters here who find stuff like this interesting and fascinating may eat it up but Joe Blow out there isn't going to care about the discovery of some mineral or gas where we don't expect it. To them that's nothing.

So, for the majority of the public, stuff like this is just waste of time and NASA making a mountain out of a molehill (again by annoucing a big annoucement coming in a few days.) They just just come out and say it. Why the delay?
Click to expand...

Why announce it? Are you serious? :wtf:

How do you expect people to know that they should tune into a press conference if there's no advance warning that the press conference will occur? How do you expect the press to even attend and ask questions if no one has told them to be there? Your question makes about as much sense as wondering why television networks advertise the airing of their shows rather than showing them at random, unpredictable, and unannounced times.

NASA has to describe what the press conference will cover so that people can decide whether they want to watch and so that the newsmedia can decide who to send (depending on the expertise required). So they use the most innocuous, neutral sounding phrasing possible, simply to convey the general content.

Your point about "boy who cried wolf" would be valid if NASA did actually claim that this was a "breaking scientific discovery." I'm forced to think that you actually haven't read the press release (understandable, as the relevant part is two whole sentences long), because you seem to be going on and on about NASA hyping discoveries and making mountains out of molehills. Just for our edification, could you copy the exact phrase from the news release that hypes the press conference?
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Sigh. :facepalm:

All I'm saying is that many people find what NASA does and says to be very routine and mundane. When was the last time anyone, other than people interested in the space program, got excited about a space-shuttle launch? NASA's... "over hyping" of mundane and routine things has made much of the space program fairly routine and mundane.

The press release says: "...to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life."

Unless this is BIG news that'll shatter the way people think about the universe and make Joe Blow Sixpack say "wow" then it's making a mountain out of mole-hill with this much grand-standing over a press conference. Something that can be arranged, planed and broadcast all inside of an afternoon. But, no, this requires a several day notice. Is it deserving of that? Well, that remains to be seen.

But they've done it in the past and the information they give out is fairly routine. Cool to you and me who're interested in such things but not so much to Joe Sixpack who's only going to be wowed by something pretty darn incredible.

I think this kind of stuff, frankly, is what makes people so bored with the space program and unwilling to support it. It's not doing anything interesting or saying anything that's great to the average person but they're making an issue of it anyway when, really, a far simpler press-release would probably be better called for instead of making a days-long plan-ahead, contacting media outlets and the such. It builds up a lot of expectation from Joe Average.

That's all I'm saying. It's hard enough to get people to be interested in the space program as it is, making a huge press-release out of every small discovery probably is going to help matters.

(Granting that this may not be a "small discovery" but they've done this in the past. Said they had a "big announcement" in a few days, the time comes, and the "big announcement" is fairly "small" in the grand scheme of things, esp. to the average person.)
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Your opinion is beyond worthless. NASA shouldn't say things are, for example, "important" unless they picked up something from the plot of a science fiction blockbuster, because Joe Six Pack "doesn't get it and doesn't care"? Because the average moron doesn't have any kind of scientific appreciation or understanding? They should hold off on the press conferences until the make contact with ET?

Keep on catering to that lowest common denominator, Trekker, and then complain about who they vote for. :rolleyes:
 
Re: NASA to Unveil Discovery That Affects Search for Extraterrestrial

Lonemagpie said:
The NASA one will probably be this:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20101201/tuk-star-rethink-boosts-alien-life-hope-6323e80.html

Basically, there are three times as many stars in the galaxy as was first thought, so that triples the likelihood of (or at least the number of places to look for) alien life.
Click to expand...


Interesting in that they were so ceratin of exactly what's in the Universe (matter wise). I guess all those Darl Matter and Dark Energy ratios need to be redone. ;)
 
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