4 ms·

Because looking for life on mars sells. "Why are we not spending that money on more social housing?" : Because this is the greatest mystery of our time... (nod

by sgt101 4mo ago

Because looking for life on mars sells. "Why are we not spending that money on more social housing?" : Because this is the greatest mystery of our time... (nods all round) "Why are we doing science?": I don't know and I don't care, cut my taxes! (Cheering and mocking comments about nerds.)

nkrisc 4mo ago
If life were found on Mars then the greatest mystery of our time would be whether life originated at least twice independently, or if we share a common origin. Both of which have significant implications, to put it mildly.
tsunamifury 4mo ago
This is where we are at on HN. Conspiracies that NASA already found alien life and is suppressing it to continue funding. Or you know the far more likely case: No one has ever found any evidence of life anywhere and exaggerating tiny findings adjacent to it keep funding flowing. No it couldn’t be that.
- sgt101 4mo ago
  Well, Viking carried an experiment that tried to detect life. Now, the consensus is that it failed, and that the experiment was incapable of creating a useful result given the chemistry of the soil. Some people argue about that, but I am in no way qualified to take part in the debate, so I would back the consensus here. What is odd is that there hasn't been a single other mission that's carried any experiment that has the objective of creating that result. If the objective is to find life, why isn't anyone actually looking? Tell me if what I've said above is in any way factually incorrect.
  - nephihaha 4mo ago
    The Viking results were at worst, inconclusive and at best positive. And yet in both cases we have been led to believe they were negative. They are far from the only pointers to life on Mars either, since we've seen pictures of what look like fossilised stromatolites and algal mats, seasonal methane emissions, and discolorations in seasonal flows & ice. Even the rusty coloured surface of Mars may be due, in part, to organic oxidisation processes. We aren't talking about Richard Hoagland style cities here (although that Face on Mars is a lot less easy to explain away that some people claim).
    - seanhunter 4mo ago
      The “face on mars” is an image compression artefact that disappeared as soon as they had high resolution imaging of the area. Seeing it as a face is highly dependent on sympathetic lighting and the right time of day, like lots of similar features on earth eg the “Old Man” of Hoy which I have seen first-hand and you really have to want to see it as a man’s face to do so https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_(Mars) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_(Mars)
      - nephihaha 4mo ago
        I've heard this before and the pareidolia argument. The fact remains that in certain other pictures you still can see the face. There are some other unusual formations near it as well. The only example that comes close is the Badlands Indian in North America. I've always found it an extremely weird formation. I suppose it has been explained by frost shattering and ancient floods. If an ancient race were to leave sculpture behind, millions of years would obliterate most of it. Some people have said that probes should be sent to Cydonia. I hope they send some kind of flying probes round there, since the geology alone makes it of interest, and landers/orbiters may not get it. As for the Old Man of Hoy, that is something different. Old Man (or Bodach in Gaelic speaking areas) was used for a lot of natural pillars and stacks, standing stones and phallic formations. Occasionally for mountains. Old Man/Bodach is/was a euphemism for the Devil who was said to have created many of these things, and that goes way back before the Old Man of Hoy. In Gaelic, it takes on a phallic quality: "Bod" means "penis" and "bodach" means "old man". Orkney was never Gaelic speaking as such, but in Gaelic the euphemism is more obvious. This usage carried over there and the Old Man of Hoy probably gets that name because it is tall and thin. Maybe the Picts had such notions too.

by sgt101 4mo ago

nkrisc 4mo ago

If life were found on Mars then the greatest mystery of our time would be whether life originated at least twice independently, or if we share a common origin. Both of which have significant implications, to put it mildly.

tsunamifury 4mo ago

This is where we are at on HN. Conspiracies that NASA already found alien life and is suppressing it to continue funding. Or you know the far more likely case: No one has ever found any evidence of life anywhere and exaggerating tiny findings adjacent to it keep funding flowing. No it couldn’t be that.

sgt101 4mo ago
Well, Viking carried an experiment that tried to detect life. Now, the consensus is that it failed, and that the experiment was incapable of creating a useful result given the chemistry of the soil. Some people argue about that, but I am in no way qualified to take part in the debate, so I would back the consensus here. What is odd is that there hasn't been a single other mission that's carried any experiment that has the objective of creating that result. If the objective is to find life, why isn't anyone actually looking? Tell me if what I've said above is in any way factually incorrect.
- nephihaha 4mo ago
  The Viking results were at worst, inconclusive and at best positive. And yet in both cases we have been led to believe they were negative. They are far from the only pointers to life on Mars either, since we've seen pictures of what look like fossilised stromatolites and algal mats, seasonal methane emissions, and discolorations in seasonal flows & ice. Even the rusty coloured surface of Mars may be due, in part, to organic oxidisation processes. We aren't talking about Richard Hoagland style cities here (although that Face on Mars is a lot less easy to explain away that some people claim).
  - seanhunter 4mo ago
    The “face on mars” is an image compression artefact that disappeared as soon as they had high resolution imaging of the area. Seeing it as a face is highly dependent on sympathetic lighting and the right time of day, like lots of similar features on earth eg the “Old Man” of Hoy which I have seen first-hand and you really have to want to see it as a man’s face to do so https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_(Mars) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydonia_(Mars)
    - nephihaha 4mo ago
      I've heard this before and the pareidolia argument. The fact remains that in certain other pictures you still can see the face. There are some other unusual formations near it as well. The only example that comes close is the Badlands Indian in North America. I've always found it an extremely weird formation. I suppose it has been explained by frost shattering and ancient floods. If an ancient race were to leave sculpture behind, millions of years would obliterate most of it. Some people have said that probes should be sent to Cydonia. I hope they send some kind of flying probes round there, since the geology alone makes it of interest, and landers/orbiters may not get it. As for the Old Man of Hoy, that is something different. Old Man (or Bodach in Gaelic speaking areas) was used for a lot of natural pillars and stacks, standing stones and phallic formations. Occasionally for mountains. Old Man/Bodach is/was a euphemism for the Devil who was said to have created many of these things, and that goes way back before the Old Man of Hoy. In Gaelic, it takes on a phallic quality: "Bod" means "penis" and "bodach" means "old man". Orkney was never Gaelic speaking as such, but in Gaelic the euphemism is more obvious. This usage carried over there and the Old Man of Hoy probably gets that name because it is tall and thin. Maybe the Picts had such notions too.