Tip of my hat to volumptuous, who wrote the Sift Talk post that made me sift this story.

And because the word really ought to get out there - *promote.

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Thursday, January 15th, 2009 3:15pm PST - promote requested by original submitter EDD.

Will they use their lasers on us?

"Man, this is the best birthday present I could have ever got."

Wow. I'm sorry. That made me very sad. I mean, a new car, a handjob from three trannies, a half drunk bottle of beer um.. just about anything....

Or the thought that there might have once been microbes that belched gas.

This is awesome indeed. Since reading the Mars Trilogy of books, I've not been able to shake the wondrous idea of terraforming Mars... it would be wonderful indeed.

I heard a plan for terraforming Mars described as simply as 'crash a couple of ice asteroids and set up a big solar mirror'. Easy!

There's no question that NASA's next job is getting a probe to that methane, and no funding request should be turned down to do it. Potentially era-defining discovery. I do think the video's a little optimistic.

If it really does turn out to have an organic, microbial source, then this is the most incredible discovery in the field of astronomy to date.

Having said that, let's not jump the gun. I don't want to come across as pissing on anybody's parade, but remember that this could turn out to be entirely geological in origin.

Whatever...

A more likely scenario is hydrothermal process involving chemical interaction between rock and water in aquifers below the Martian permafrost.

>> ^gwiz665:
Will they use their lasers on us?

Yes.

>> ^gwiz665:
Will they use their lasers on us?


One can only hope.

well, for fucks sake, kill it !

*British

Adding video to channels (British) - requested by Trancecoach.

what the hell is mee-thane?

Oh man, I would love this to turn out to be microbial life.

Who has read Ben Bova's Mars based books in the Grand Tour series?

I find this incredibly exciting. 2/9 is a higher than previously used value for the [probability of life in a star system] slot in the Drake equation.

This is stock Nasa footage voiced over by a crank -- abiotic methane is extremely common. It is found in the atmosphere of virtually every cold body that has an atmosphere: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Titan, etc. Earth has less methane because of its excess oxygen.

Methane? As in the greenhouse gas several times more potent than Carbon Dioxide?

The martians are just as bad as us.

Mars is not terraformable. Its gravity is too weak to hold water (literally) at earth-like temperatures. In theory we could send a shitload of methane and CO2 over there to warm it up, but that would escape into space rather quickly.

Titan has a similar situation (with half the escape velocity and a bit less than half the surface temperature of mars) but its atmosphere is probably constantly being replenished from frozen and liquid hydrocarbons in its mantle and cryovolcanism induced by tidal interactions with Saturn.

Downvoted for the sensationalist headline and speculative content. The authors of the study themselves say "Right now, we don't have enough information to tell if biology or geology -- or both -- is producing the methane on Mars,"

Read it on NASA's page itself: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/15jan_marsmethane.htm

Most of the media suck at reporting science.

Aw gee I feel like such a rube.

What a horrible title indeed.

EDDreamer, Nasa wishes you a happy birthday.

>> ^jwray:
Mars is not terraformable. Its gravity is too weak to hold water (literally) at earth-like temperatures. In theory we could send a shitload of methane and CO2 over there to warm it up, but that would escape into space rather quickly.
Titan has a similar situation (with half the escape velocity and a bit less than half the surface temperature of mars) but its atmosphere is probably constantly being replenished from frozen and liquid hydrocarbons in its mantle and cryovolcanism induced by tidal interactions with Saturn.


More to the point, because Mars doesn't have an active magma region to interact with the upper crust, Mars doesn't create much of a magnetic field. This would mean that even a Mars with a terraformed surface and a breathable atmosphere would still be subjected to potentially lethal solar radiation.

I knew i shouldn't have farted in the direction of mars

Noone's thought that maybe the gas is coming from Uranus?


Woooo!!

Does anyone remember a few months back, some classified sample results, a hushed meeting at the White House?

I've been wondering if NASA found living microorganisms, in the ice under their probe, and were forced to keep it quiet, because of the social ramifications.

don't worry im sure you can reinterpret a verse ore page in the bible to make it say life exists on other planets and its all gods plan, religions have manged to do this thousand of times before

whilst im not voting this up, when they find an actual non earth microbe under the lens, ill go dance in the street.

Mars farts = Mars heiny holes eh?

I got news for you Westy.. This hound sitting next to me is putting off enough methane right now to cloud up both Earth and Mars put together!

oh cool; I was just posting a similar clip from NASAexplorer

http://www.videosift.com/video/NASA-The-Mystery-of-Martian-Methane-1-15-09

it goes into the 'biology vs. geology' details a bit more

Now maybe we can get on with things. Which church shall we renovate into a school first?

There are many game changing technological advances that are much closer on the horizon than settling mars (stem cells, genetics, nanotech, etc).

I can't wait for mars colonies... 3-breasted martian women, here I come!

ah swampgirl but my emissions are omni directional.

All the hype can only mean one thing: NASA needs more money.

As soon as they get it, the hype will die.

Downvote for the title. I dunno what you're aiming for with this man, vote chasing is my initial reaction.

"BREAKING OBAMA IS A TERRORIST MUSLIM EXTREMIST AFTERALL!!!!!!!! ..............................................................(no it's not 100% confirmed yet)"

BREAKING METHANE ON MARS - reasonable, 100% confirmable.
BREAKING LIFE ON MARS - unreasonable, 0% confirmable, 100% speculation, my title is as good as yours.

Vote chasing of the highest order. I bet as soon as the next "media sensationalism" video comes out you'll be right up there on the comments list slating them for rediculous ratings chasing crap.

[redacted]

>> ^notarobot:
>>^gwiz665:
Will they use their lasers on us?

Yes.

Also Yes.

>> ^jwray:
Most of the media suck at reporting science.


And most of the people reading it are just as clueless. Such as, for instance, yourself. Your statement regarding abiotic methane betrays a GROSSLY scientifically ignorant idea of the thing. You are obviously unaware of the long term thermodynamic instability of CH4 in the Martian atmosphere as produced by the non-ozone layer shielded high ultraviolet radiation flux on that planet. Further, you are clearly clueless as to the nature of the impossibility of extremely volatile organic compounds in a lithospherically differentiated small rocky planet. In conclusion, stop throwing stones inside your vitreous domicile.

Sensationalism (propaganda even). methane is not likely to equal life and they know that.
it's not just unlikely that would be the cause of methane but take into account the improbabilities of lifeforms evolving on two rocks right next to each other, independently...

yes okay it's nice to hope but we are being fed this tripe for a reason, they're just attempting to get more funding for the space program through sensationalizing scientific findings, or something thereabouts.

somewhat related food for thought :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox