NASA Announcement regarding Extraterrestial Life

[Pinza]

Another "major" NASA News confefence:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010...robiology.html


MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-167


NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.

Participants are:
- Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
- Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
- James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

Media representatives may attend the conference or ask questions by phone or from participating NASA locations. To obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov or call 202-358-0918 by noon Dec. 2.

Let's hope it is more interesting than the last "major" announcement......

[Costa]

Pretty sure whatever they're gonna say, has been covered by the Discovery channel. lol.

[JamesK]

^^^^
Or V!

[Biggles]

..And I for one,will welcome our insect Overlords.

[ScaryBob]

Or the chimps from Mars. Just ask yourself, could 6 billion of them typing at typewriters make worse decisions than a small group of US politicians?

[99gecko]

Let's hope it is more interesting than the last "major" announcement......

Yes and no.
They have a discovered a species of terrestrial bacteria that, when placed in a high arsenic (As), negligible potassium (P) environment, will substitute the cell's natural requirement for P with As.

Although not terrifyingly significant to the average person, as a biochemist, I am thoroughly impressed. Essentially, the organism can metabolize an element normally considered toxic to life, and actually incorporate while building it's DNA backbone, amongst other cellular structures.

But like I said, for the average person, it is pretty insignificant. It just means some NASA-type dudes/dudettes will have more objects to look at while performing their terrifyingly boring duties at SETI.

"See anything yet?". "Nope." ... diligently moves radiotelescope....
"See anything yet?". "Nope." ... diligently moves radiotelescope....
"See anything yet?". "Nope." ... diligently moves radiotelescope....

.... just like the Verizon commercial.

[docted]

I've felt for a long time that we "earthers" are wrong to presume that oxygen and water are essential for "life". Who is to say that living things cannot live on methane and acid; eg., species at the depths of the oceans have been identified as living in a methane (from the earth's core) environment. Those on distant planets may have a totally different environment and different requirements for life.

[Jake]

Looks like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur will have some company coming for supper.

PS: Methane is just carbon and hydrogen. Acid is primarily sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen etc.

[gzink]

I don't know anything I guess. I thought it was good enough that organisms were living at the deep ocean vents with no oxygen etc. A "hostile" environment like that should shake up your ideas about living organisms...no?

[JamesK]

^^^^
While those vents are a hostile environment, there is oxygen down there. It's sunlight that's not available around those vents. The life forms down their get their energy from chemicals in the water, instead of sunlight. There are other examples of such in deep mines etc. and bacteria that can live in sulphuric acid, high or low temperatures etc. All this goes to show that life may exist in places that had previously been considered unsuitable for life. With this latest discovery, we have the first example of life that doesn't require phosphorous.

[Jake]

I am just waiting for the silicon based lifeform annoucement. And I am not talking about the porn industry.