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Post by WildKnight on Dec 2, 2010 10:27:42 GMT -5
So the news people are irresponsibly speculating (big shock) that NASA's big announcement later today will be that they found evidence of life on other planets (or on Titan).
Or possibly evidence of the elements that life requires (oxygen, water, etc)
Or possibly planets exactly like Earth all over
Or possibly microbial evidence of life in space...
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Post by Dullahan on Dec 2, 2010 11:22:13 GMT -5
Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath.
Definately possible.
Maybe, odds are they exist....somewhere. It's a big universe.
Certainly possilbe. Microbes are hardy creatures, and some don't even need oxygen to live.
Or maybe we've been contacted by intelligent life!.....nah.
Who was it that said that the surest sign there was intelligent life in the universe was that they haven't tried to contact us yet?
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Post by WildKnight on Dec 2, 2010 11:25:42 GMT -5
It's not so much the announcement that I'm interested in (though I am mildly interested I suppose). It's the media coverage that cracks me up. I get that you've gotta fill 24 hours with "news", but when the announcement is a couple of hours away, I just don't see the point in hauling out experts to say what they might be announcing. Save the experts for after the "big reveal" so that they can tell the viewer what this all means (since the media tends to operate on the assumption that people are too stupid to figure things out for themselves)
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Post by Dullahan on Dec 2, 2010 11:30:02 GMT -5
Yeah, that's true. When's the announcement anyway?
Hey, it's a slow news day. Gotta fill up time somehow. No healthcare bill, no riots, no low speed chases, you have to cover something.
But I agree....enough with the speculation. Your never right anyway, so stop pretending you have some insight we don't. Just wait for the announcement, then explain it. Is that so hard?
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Post by Dullahan on Dec 2, 2010 11:32:25 GMT -5
I'm actually really interested in this announcement. I'm a science geek, and I love NASA and all they do. I'd be interested in joining, but I doubt they hire biologists.
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Post by WildKnight on Dec 2, 2010 11:34:38 GMT -5
I'm not sure what time the announcement is. I got bored and started playing XBox
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Post by raynorn on Dec 2, 2010 12:05:01 GMT -5
I'm actually really interested in this announcement. I'm a science geek, and I love NASA and all they do. I'd be interested in joining, but I doubt they hire biologists. Depending on the announcement they might need Biologists Seriously though if they are looking for life they should have at least one biologist on staff to help them know what to look for. There are microbes that exist in areas that would instantly kill humans. I think it is possible to miss life if you don't know what you are looking for.
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Post by WildKnight on Dec 2, 2010 12:22:38 GMT -5
Not only does NASA already employ biologists, some of the panelists for todays big announcement are biologists.
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Post by takewithfood on Dec 2, 2010 12:36:34 GMT -5
My guess is that the announcement will not be anything particularly new, and that the subtext will be "Hey, guys, remember us? NASA? No, not that one, we're the space ship guys. Anyway, uhm, just a friendly reminder that space is really cool. Yep, that's it. *cough*pleasegiveusmoneyagain*cough*" Considering the size of the universe, I would be very, very surprised to find that life only arose on Earth, ever. However, I'd also be pretty surprised if we found civilized life anywhere else. Consider the age of the universe vs. the age of human civilization on Earth. Our solar system is about 4.57 billion years old; being incredibly generous, let's say human civilization is about 10,000 years old. That means that the entire duration of human civilization to date - from the very first grunted word, the first heavy rock used as a tool, the first line drawn in the sand to represent a concept - represents 0.000002% of our planet's history. And how much longer are we going to last here, realistically? Another 10,000 years? Okay, so 0.000004%. 20,000 years more? 0.000008%. What are the chances of first finding a planet with life, that happens to have a civilization in full bloom, at that exact moment in time? Also consider the distance of planets being studied. The further away you look into space, the further back in time you're effectively looking. Most of the planets out there are impossible distances from us. If aliens on a planet 10,000 light years away were to look at Earth, they'd see it as it was 10,000 years ago - before our civilization even began. They won't be able to see me for another 10,000 years - and the whole species could be dead by then (or more happily, maybe we'd be living on Mars or the moons of Jupiter or who knows what). I think the closest we might realistically get is a faint signal similar to what we've been beaming out for a while. But that signal might be very old, and might have originated from what is now a dead civilization. Kinda creepy, really. Maybe we'll find a ton of signals; maybe we'll get to listen in on conversations between other civilizations. It's a crazy world out there. ~TWF EDIT: Also, we can't even "see" any of these potentially habitable exoplanets directly. They're found by observing the gravitational effect they have on whatever they orbit (sorta like watching someone using an invisible hula hoop). That makes it reeeeally hard to know anything about what's going on on the exoplanet itself. We barely know what the surface of Venus looks like, and it's the closest planet to Earth. If biology is involved, I wonder if it has to do with finding some basic building blocks of life on near-by planets, such as Mars. I know they've looked before, but they never found any, which was surprising.
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Post by WildKnight on Dec 2, 2010 12:39:14 GMT -5
NASA, begging for money and trying to justify its extremely dubious budget? NEVER!
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Post by raynorn on Dec 2, 2010 12:42:16 GMT -5
If we gave NASA what we give the military we would have Settlers farming on Mars by now j/k
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Post by takewithfood on Dec 2, 2010 12:46:10 GMT -5
There have been a few funny stories where the astronomy community has developed some new technology - a new telescope, a new way of detecting certain kinds of radiation, or a way to compensate for the atmosphere in some way or another - only to have the military quietly and politely let them know that they developed that same technology 10 years ago (and they only bother to admit that when they know they already have something better). ^__^
And some of what NASA develops gets used by the military anyway. Ah well.
~TWF
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Post by Dullahan on Dec 2, 2010 12:46:37 GMT -5
Hey, space exploration's not cheap. It also has no immediate pay off. Plenty of side benefits, but nothing immediate, sadly.
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Post by takewithfood on Dec 2, 2010 12:51:46 GMT -5
Sometimes it feels like trying to invent a device that figures out what dogs are saying when they bark. After decades of work and millions of dollars invested, you assemble the last key component, turn it on, and aim it at your dog.
"Hey! Hey! Hey hey hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey! Hey!"
I guess it's nice to know, but it's hard not to ask yourself: exactly which problem did I just solve?
~TWF
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Post by WildKnight on Dec 2, 2010 12:53:23 GMT -5
I understand the scientifically curious and the desire to fund all this research, but when we're facing the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, I feel awfully stupid when I find out that the NASA budget for this year alone was almost 20 Billion dollars, whereas the National Science Foundation, which produced significantly more in terms of practical value, spent about a quarter of that.
Sorry NASA fans, but if it comes down to finding out if there's water on a planet 50 billion light years away, or defending my country, feeding the homeless, or finding practical ways to make alternative energy sources viable... NASA can blow me.
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