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Tag Archives: life on mars
Earth-like Planets Abundant in the Cosmos
Geoff Marcy, a professor of astronomy at Berkeley, talks to The PBS News Hour about earth-like planets. __________ “Earth-like,” as used by Marcy, means a rocky planet orbiting in the Goldilocks zone (neither too close nor too far from its … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, extraterrestrial life, life on mars, NASA, science, space, titan
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Fresh Water! Mars Rover Curiosity Finds 3.5 Billion-Year Old Lake Sediment in Gale Crater That Could Have Supported Life
There was some big news yesterday that you might have missed. It appeared in the science section of the The New York Times (December 9, 2013): [L]ife [on Mars], at least in the ancient past, is at least plausible. John P. … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy, evolution, Gale Crater, life, life on mars, Mars, SETI, space, young earth creationism
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Curiosity at Rocknest
A pretty stunning Mars photo from Rocknest was released by NASA a couple of weeks back. Here it is in the event you missed it. __________ Of course, there’s also something distinctly gloomy about the photo, for it shows a … Continue reading
Mars Rover Curiosity: Watch for News of Glenelg
__________ Glenelg may yield big Mars news. Notice by the color shadings in the photograph above how Glenelg rests as an intersection point for three quite distinct geological areas. Also notice that the word “Glenelg” is a palindrome (it reads the same … Continue reading
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Tagged America, flight, life on mars, Mars, NASA, space exploration
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Mars, the Book
A miracle. This is not the American Southwest, but part of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater on Mars. The (apparently sedimentary) rocks exposed here are more than three billion years old. Curiosity is about six miles from them. Behold the Book of Mars. We’ll … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, astronomy, life, life on mars, Mars, NASA, science, space, wonder
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Are We Alone? Mars News You May Have Missed That Seems Pretty Important
This appeared at New Scientist back in 2006, but it seems pretty important to thinking about what Curiosity is up to now: [A] paper by Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of the University of Mexico and others demonstrates that the GCMS instrument [organic … Continue reading
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Tagged are we alone?, astrobiology, extremophiles, life, life on mars, Mars
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Curiosity and Consequences: What It Will Feel Like If Life On Mars Is Discovered
It will feel like the man leaving Plato’s cave in the below video. As with one coming out of Plato’s cave, a greater vista on the truth will have been apprehended, and we will pity those who came before us and reasoned about their existence not … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, astrobiology, Gale Crater, God, life on mars, Mars, Mount Sharp, NASA, philosophy
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Mars Curiosity: Let the Frickin Zapping Begin!
Curiosity zapped its first rock today, and here’s the image NASA provided: ___________ Here’s part of what NASA said about this: ChemCam recorded spectra from the laser-induced spark at each of the 30 pulses. The goal of this initial use … Continue reading
Gilbert Levin’s Claim: If Curiosity Discovers Organics in the Martian Soil, Mars Has Life
Gilbert Levin is a man on a mission. For the Viking missions to Mars in 1976, he was the person who designed one of the experiments that searched for life. The results came back positive. So positive, in fact, that … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, biology, curiosity, Gilbert Levin, life on mars, Mars, NASA
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NASA Has a Gun: The Mars Moment to Listen for News about on Sunday, August 18th
This is from the NASA website in a press release: On Saturday night, Aug. 18, ChemCam is expected to “zap” its first rock in the name of planetary science. It will be the first time such a powerful laser has … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, lasers, life on mars, Mars, NASA, science
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Curiosity is John Wesley Powell on Mars
Last night, my wife Rachel and I took our two daughters, Lia and Aria, to the Will Geer Theatricum in Los Angeles to see a hippie rendition of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. But though the Will Geer production was colorful and I … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy, curiosity, grand canyon, john wesley powell, life on mars, Mars, science, space
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Life Found on Mars? Neuropharmacologist and Biologist Joseph Miller is “99 Percent Sure There’s Life” on Mars
The Discovery News website this week is reporting some pretty mind-blowing stuff on whether there is bacterial life on Mars, accompanied by an exciting quote from neuropharmacologist and biologist Joseph Miller (who is at the University of Southern California’s Keck School … Continue reading
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Tagged aliens, biology, life on mars, Mars, Medusa, NASA, science, space, UFOs, we are not alone
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NASA’s Felisa Wolfe-Simon Appears Poised to Announce Arsenic Based Life in Mono Lake
Today (Thursday), at 11:00 AM Pacific time, a team of NASA scientists appears poised to announce a discovery of arsenic based life at Mono Lake in California. The implications of this discovery are enormous. It means that NASA might begin an intensive … Continue reading
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Tagged arsenic, astrobiology, biology, felisa wolfe-simon, Genesis, life, life on mars, mono lake, NASA, science
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Life on Mars? A new paper says maybe
In 1976, did the scientists responsible for interpreting Viking data underestimate some important evidence that actually points to life on Mars? A new scientific paper says maybe. The New York Times earlier this week: For the veteran Mars researcher Gilbert V. Levin, … Continue reading
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Tagged are we alone?, astronomy, biochemistry, biology, life, life on mars, Mars, science, solar system
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Why I’m an Agnostic (and Not an Atheist or Theist)
I would liken my agnosticism about God and the afterlife to someone who is agnostic about life on Mars. At this point in the 21st century, we have enticing Martian clues about methane on the planet, but nothing definitive (it could be … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, doubt, epistemology, God, Hamlet, life on mars, Mel Gibson, Shakespeare
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Something (Organic) is Burning—on Mars?
A song for the underground organic life that scientists say MIGHT be on Mars:
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Tagged astronomy, extraterrestrial life, kenny rogers, life, life on mars, love, Mars, music, science
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Scientific American TODAY Asks: “Is Something Organic Brewing on the Red Planet?”
Money quote: Michael Mumma, a senior planetary scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and his colleagues report in the online edition of Science that they used ground-based telescopes to spot a significant belch of methane … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, atheist, biology, history, life, life on mars, Mars, Politics, science, science fiction
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