TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Has NASA discovered extraterrestrial life?

24 pointsby n-namedover 14 years ago

5 comments

woosterover 14 years ago
No.<p>NASA has started using these press conferences for what would be considered minor discoveries by most astronomy departments worldwide. They're doing this because they're afraid of losing funding and relevance, and think that by hyping their discoveries they can postpone the inevitable attrition of their funding and projects.<p>Look back at their recent press conferences. It's like the boy who cried 'wolf'. When you embargo the announcement of <i>extremely</i> <i>minor</i> scientific advancements and make a big deal out of them, you contribute to the abrogation of scientific discoveries which actually matter. NASA is becoming toxic to scientific advancement and federal funding of scientific programs.
评论 #1955803 未加载
diiqover 14 years ago
I suspect it NASA's press conference will be related to this:<p><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20101126.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini...</a><p>Oxygen and CO2 on Rhea; suggesting an easy route to complex chemistry near gas giants (which are so much easier to find outside our solar system).
dguaragliaover 14 years ago
No. Most probably they'll announce that some kind of geological formation in mars would be compatible and/or similar to some known life-bearing formations on Earth. Something along the lines of "the Mars Polar Cap hosts X amount of carbon" or "nitrogen concentration on soil sample could be compatible with vegetable life".<p>Don't get me wrong, I still think that, on their own, these discoveries are amazing and the fact that we <i>do</i> have a bunch of robots roaming Mars is quite encouraging. But perfectly good science is not as exciting as the news media would like it to be.
RiderOfGiraffesover 14 years ago
Official announcement: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1963296" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1963296</a>
cloudwalkingover 14 years ago
Photosynthesis using arsenic? Anybody know the biology behind this?
评论 #1953749 未加载