NASA: "They're Here"

[Brock Samson]

  MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-110


NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery
Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 11 a.m. PST On Dec. 2


MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. PST 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


http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2010/M10-110.html

Also:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20024158-501465.html

and:

http://www.universetoday.com/80817/cs/

[Old Moparz]

Kind of cute in an odd way.

[Brock Samson]

 Shouldn't it be "Coo Coo CheCooo"..   

[Old Moparz]

Gesundheit.

[Brock Samson]

OK:
  just to pass some gas,.. .errrp,  I mean time,..
      spoiler alert... 

Skyline trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0DjXh_EB7w
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/aliens-destroying-your-city-the-new-face-of-independent-filmmaking.php

[bull]

Cloverfield 2?

[Old Moparz]

My wife said the alien is just a dust mite.

[bull]

My wife said the alien is just a dust mite.

Your wife is part of the conspiracy.

[Old Moparz]

My wife said the alien is just a dust mite.

Your wife is part of the conspiracy.

A conspiracy to drive me insane, maybe.   

[Richard Cranium]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_8Al65tky0&feature=related

[b5blue]

Google "Apollo 18"  ("There's a reason we didn't go back")

[ACUDANUT]

 No they said they "might be there...not here" 

[tricky lugnuts]

So, the basic lesson from this big NASA announcement about "astrobiology" and "extraterrestrial life" is that they should have spent more of their time looking at life in unusual environments here on Earth to get a clue about what they might be able to find someday on other, distant planets? 

Maybe next NASA should venture down to the bottom of the ocean depths where all those neat heat vents and lava tubes are and do some digging around there to see what kind of bacteria they can find . . .

Nah, it's easier to just send stuff out into space - and find the stuff right under your nose after the fact. 

[b5blue]

"NASA"....there's not much "Atmosphere" on the bottom of the sea, none in fact. Even less "Space"!  Arsenic is toxic to all life forms except these particular bacteria who were originally just "tolerant" of it. The fact that they can now thrive on it, and how it proves the expanding envelope for life may lead in many directions, impressed me greatly. Just as Cassini's revelations about our universe with Magnetars and Black Holes abounding do.    

[Brock Samson]

 Tricky - they already are well aware of the "Life" that exists at the Thermal "Smokers" along the ocean floor - have been for over a decade - maybe two,.. You must know that, sarcasm perhaps?..
And they - NASA - were actually referring to "Here" as life Here - although in a very primitive state - life seems to exist in places, temperatures and enviorments never before expected, let alone examined before. I think they now have to concede that even in what to us is poisonous chemistry, may provide a habitat for primitive "Life" or maybe not so primitive - if given time to evolve, I think that is the upshot of the "News".
I had always thought that the fresh mountain streams and in particular the water that flowed through the green lichen on rocks in California's Sierra mountains was the cleanest best tasting water I ever drank,.. But as it turns out, those too are chock full of microbes and the "Water Bears"  AKA Tardigrades to the extent of as many as 25,000 a liter. It is Tardigrade pictured above.  
                                                                                                                                 

More than 1,000 species of tardigrades have been described. Tardigrades occur over the entire world, from the high Himalayas (above 6,000 metres (20,000 ft), to the deep sea (below 4,000 m) and from the polar regions to the equator. As it turns out they not only can live in the vacum of space but also can survive 120 years without air or water.  

Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2HHSzHpy3A

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/09/tardigrades_become_first_animals_to_survive_vacuum_of_space.php

also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade